The New York Philharmonic

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Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 Concludes with a Love Letter to Amsterdam

This month the New York Philharmonic was supposed to have embarked on its 2020 European tour and performed in Amsterdam as the first American orchestra in the history of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw’s 100-year-old Mahler Festival. Music Director Jaap van Zweden and his wife, Aaltje, would have proudly taken the Orchestra of Amsterdam Avenue around their hometown, sharing the picturesque canals and stroopwafels.

As it happens, the New York Philharmonic’s friendship with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra dates back a century and involves a party train. In honor of this enduring friendship, we present this Love Letter to Amsterdam (above) and this video postcard from the van Zwedens. Enjoy! Geniet!

How To Make Strudel: With Philharmonic Violinist Anna Rabinova


Happy birthday to violinist Anna Rabinova!

In celebration of this 26-year Philharmonic veteran’s birthday and Virtual Tour: Europe 2020, we present to you her grandmother’s strudel recipe. 15 years ago, Anna made this strudel for her colleagues when the Orchestra performed in Berlin while she was living there on sabbatical.

Watch Anna and her daughter make the strudel in this how-to video (guaranteed to make you smile), and then try your hand at it! Recipe here.

Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 Continues with Archival Exhibit on Google Arts & Culture

Today in Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 (May 11–21) — our digital visit to the cultural capitals where the Orchestra would have performed this month if not for the pandemic — we present this online exhibit from the New York Philharmonic Archives, presented in partnership with Google Arts & Culture and narrated by Philharmonic musicians.

Travel across Europe and back in time, from the 1930 booze cruise across the Atlantic to the poem Bernstein penned on the occasion of the Christmas 1989 performance of Beethoven’s Ninth on both sides of the crumbling Berlin Wall.

Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 Continues with Learning @ Home Activity Guide

 

Today in Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 (May 11–21) — our digital visit to the cultural capitals where the Orchestra would have performed this month if not for the pandemic — we present to our younger followers (in grades 6–12) A Musical Tour of the Netherlands, an activity guide to Amsterdam’s new-music scene in two parts: Lesson 1 and Lesson 2.

In addition to the activity guide, you’ll need:

  • Headphones / speakers
  • Something to write with
  • Instrument / staff paper / music notation software
  • Drawing / art-making tools

Happy learning!

Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 Continues with Musician Slideshow and Broadcast with Daniil Trifonov

Welcome back, willkommen zurück, wëllkomm zréck, welkom terug to Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 (May 11–21), a ten-day digital visit to London, Cologne, Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Dresden — where the Orchestra would have performed this month if not for the pandemic.

Today we share two gems:

  • A slideshow of photos and memories from the musicians themselves, from the Berlin Wall in 1984 to family reunions across the continent (above). You might enjoy viewing it alongside last week’s slideshow of official shots by Philharmonic photographer Chris Lee.
  • The first-ever broadcast of the New York Premiere of Daniil Trifonov’s Quintetto concertante, performed by the composer / pianist and the New York Philharmonic String Quartet at 92nd Street Y in December 2019. The Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for the 2019–20 season, Daniil Trifonov would have performed with the Orchestra on tour this month. The broadcast is co-presented with 92nd Street Y.

Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 Continues with Home Video of 1930 Tour with Toscanini

 

Today in Virtual Tour: Europe 2020, we rewind to the 1930 European tour — which established the Philharmonic as a major international orchestra — conducted by then Music Director Arturo Toscanini. Thanks to the New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives, you can watch a home video of the tour, shot by then Principal Trumpet Harry Glantz. Click here, then press the play button in the upper-right corner of the page.

The 16mm black-and-white films show Toscanini, his family, the musicians, and their families aboard ships and trains. The historic tour brought America’s first orchestra to Paris, Zurich, Milan, Turin, Rome, Florence, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Brussels, and London.

Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 Continues with Yo-Yo Ma Broadcast

 

Tonight in Virtual Tour: Europe 2020, we present the first of three video broadcasts featuring tour soloists.

At 7:30 PM EDT (and on-demand after), tune in on Facebook or YouTube to watch Yo-Yo Ma (who joined us on tour in 2017) as soloist in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, led by then Music Director Kurt Masur, from a 1995 Live From Lincoln Center episode. Co-presented with Lincoln Center at Home, the concert will be preceded by a recently recorded interview between Ma and Alec Baldwin. Follow along with the program notes here.

Mark your calendar for the next two Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 video broadcasts: 

  • Monday, May 18, 1:00 PM EDT: Artist-in-Residence Daniil Trifonov (who would have appeared with us in Europe this month) with the New York Philharmonic String Quartet in the New York Premiere of his Quintetto concertante, co-presented with 92nd Street Y
  • Thursday, May 21, 7:30 PM EDT: Joshua Bell as soloist in short works for violin by Saint-Saëns, Kreisler, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Ponce from a 2007 Live From Lincoln Center broadcast conducted by then Music Director Lorin Maazel. The concert will be preceded by a recently recorded interview between Bell and Alec Baldwin.

Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 Continues with the Battle of the Brass


Today on Virtual Tour: Europe 2020 (May 11–21), we revisit a classic Philharmonic rivalry that played out on tours past.

It all started innocently enough in 2011 in Berlin, where Principal Trombone Joseph Alessi and then Principal Trumpet Philip Smith were looking for a place to practice. But things escalated quickly.

Before too long, a battle of the brass had ensued — one that would span years and cross borders.

Watch the Battle of the Brass.

(Videos by Chris Lee)