The first concert of a new music director's tenure with an orchestra feels a little bit like Election Day: it doesn't happen very often -- it seems that only popes and TV news anchors are chosen less frequently -- and when it does, emotions are running high. Plus, lots of people with strong opinions show up, but you won't really know the winner until all the votes are counted. These thoughts crossed my mind after attending my client Alan Gilbert's season-opening night concert with the New York Philharmonic on Wednesday.
The big day began early in the morning with an open rehearsal by Alan and the Phil. I sat at the back of the orchestra section of the hall with James Inverne, the editor of London-based Gramophone magazine. James had written a cover story on Alan for their July issue, and he seemed thoroughly engaged with what he was hearing. Unfortunately he had a flight to catch and couldn't stay for the gala performance that evening.
The pundits -- an estimated 150 music critics and cultural reporters -- arrived early in the evening and were entertained at a roof-top cocktail reception at the Empire Hotel, across from Lincoln Center. Around 7 p.m. they began to make their way to Avery Fisher Hall, where the concert would begin at 7:30 p.m. and be broadcast live -- with a 30 minute delay -- on public television with commentary by Alec Baldwin, the new voice of the Philharmonic.
Alan walked out right on time and the audience responded with a loud and warm ovation. Sedge Clark, the editor of Musical America and a long-time colleague, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "There's your guy!" And seeing "my guy" greeted this way on this historic night teared me up more than a little.
Star soprano Renee Fleming was her usual ultra-glamorous self in the first half of the program, eliciting gasps of pleasure from some in the audience when she emerged in her regal blue gown. When the final bars of Berlioz's trippy Symphonie fantastique slammed to their conclusion at the end of the concert, it was immediately clear that Alan Gilbert would capture the popular vote: he and the orchestra earned an immediate and total standing ovation.
Far be it for me, a publicist, to assess the critical response to the concert -- though it was gratifying to read Tony Tommasini's enthusiastic review in the all-important New York Times -- but I'll briefly mention my own reaction to the music making. What impressed me most was both the freshness of Alan's interpretation of the Fantastique -- I know this piece from countless recordings -- and the way the orchestra played on the knife's edge between unbridled intensity and breathtaking precision. I noted these same qualities in the performance of Mahler's Third Symphony the next night: intricate passages were rendered with the same clarity as the most thunderous climaxes. When the broad, hymn-like theme of the finale of the Mahler surged in the full strings, I felt as though the music had been transfigured into a kind of bright, shimmering light.
Back to opening night ... I (along with a huge throng of music industry leaders) greeted Alan backstage, where I also spent some time chatting with Renee Fleming. I worked very closely with her when I was at Universal Classics and promoted her recordings, and we've always had an easy rapport. She told me that what really inspired her about Alan was that he was one of the few great conductors she had ever worked with who didn't lead with his ego. Quite a compliment, but also something I've heard from other star soloists who had worked with Alan.
The post-concert gala was held in a huge tent in Damrosch Park. I was told there were more than 850 people there, and that the event raised 2.5 million dollars for the orchestra. To my surprise, Alec Baldwin seemed to remember me -- we met in January when the Philharmonic held a press conference announcing Alan's first season. Thinking back to the kinds of personalities I associated with classical music when I was a youth -- mostly high-society Europeans with fancy British accents -- I told Alec how great it was to have a "regular" guy with a hit TV show sharing his passion for classical music with the American public. He thanked me and shook my hand, at which point I noticed again just how huge and bear-like his hands are. What a cool guy! New York magazine has a great one-pager with Alec talking about his big "Mahler moment."
Following the Mahler 3 concert on Thursday, a group of Alan's friends and family joined him in his newly-refurbished Philharmonic office for some champagne. Being there with my best friend and business partner, Glenn Petry, and his beautiful wife Alissa, as well as my own partner, Brian, along with some other colleagues, it felt a bit like the classical music version of HBO's Entourage. Afterwards, I joined Alan and some of his family for Sushi at Blue Ribbon restaurant, across from the Time Warner Center. He was tired, but very proud of how the orchestra had played. I told him that Phil Smith's quiet trumpet solos were pretty much the most ethereal and beautiful things I have ever heard (they are, in this symphony, glimpses of heaven, and that's exactly how they sounded).
It was well after midnight when Alan and I put people in cabs. We decided to stroll uptown together towards our respective apartments. We were alarmed at first when we saw that West 65th Street had been closed off with barricades. Terrorism? Fire? Accident? Not at all, but something eminently stranger: the huge, bronze Henry Moore statue that sits in a pool next to the Metropolitan Opera House was being returned there as part of the ongoing renovations of Lincoln Center. As we arrived on the scene, there was a huge flatbed truck from which the statue was being lifted by an even more huge crane (a workman told us it was the second largest crane ever used in Manhattan). It was a bizarre, exhilarating sight (iPhone photo below), a fantastic event that seemed scripted as part of the festivities welcoming Alan back to the Big Apple to lead his hometown orchestra.
