Alan Gilbert is the music director of the New York Philharmonic but he is also the principal guest conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, one of the best orchestras in Germany. Gilbert has his detractors in New York but he has brought a breath of fresh air to the orchestra’s programming. He has very wide interests and works hard to present contemporary music in interesting ways. In New York in the next few weeks he will continue his Nielsen cycle in concert and on recordings and conduct performances of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Emma Thompson and Bryan Terfel. Next season he’ll conduct Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake starring famed French actress Marion Cotillard. For more on the New York Philharmonic’s next season go to www.nyphil.com.
More on Gilbert and the NDR Symphony Orchestra can be found at www.ndr.de/orchester_chor/sinfonieorchester. In our video Gilbert conducts this fine German orchestra in the opening of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. The excellent trumpet soloist is Jeroen Berwaerts.
Paul E. Robinson
