"Museum and laboratory"

The New York Philharmonic has announced its 2009-10 season, incoming music director Alan Gilbert's inaugural season, at a press conference that is available in its entirety (94 minutes!) via this webcast. There's much of interest: Magnus Lindberg as newly-minted composer-in-residence; artist-in-residence Thomas Hampson; a new music ensemble; the New York premier of Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre; a three-week mini-festival of Stravinsky curated and conducted by Valery Gergiev; Alec Baldwin as "announcer-in-residence". Great stuff, all.

Two bits I liked, one line from Gilbert and one from Lindberg - Gilbert puts forth the idea of an orchestra as both museum and laboratory - curating the great art of the past while supporting the curious chemistry that creates great art of the present. And to tie in to that, Lindberg talks about the necessity for a "dialogue between our time and the past". It reminds me of a discussion about programming during a League of American Orchestras workshop I attended years ago about how pieces in a concert program should be in an "active dialogue". I like the sense of the importance of connection and interdependence.

It reminded me of the questions I received after the numerous presentations I've been doing this week as part of a music director search week here in Reno - inevitably, after I discuss my interest in contemporary American composers, an audience member will raise a hand to ask, fearfully, if that means that I want to play "all avant garde music all the time". First of all, I try to explain, American concert music tends to be much more musically conservative than what's coming out of Europe, but second of all, my interest (as with most who like the "new stuff") is in presenting contemporary works with established masterpieces so that the new and the old can shed light on each other, to be presented "in dialogue". That's one of the more enjoyable parts of programming, and a direction to look for as the New York Phil and Gilbert begin their relationship.