Barbican International Associate Residency

Barbican Hall, London
Barbican, Silk Street, London EC2
United Kingdom
020 7638 8891
http://www.barbican.org.uk/eticketing

New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert conductor
Joyce DiDonato mezzo soprano

Joyce DiDonato, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic perform sensuous, colourful scores by Strauss, Ravel and Esa-Peka Salonen.

The New York Philharmonic has a sound like few other orchestras. To open its Barbican residency, Alan Gilbert conducts a ravishing programme: from the sonic chiaroscuro of Esa-Pekka Salonen to the silken richness of Ravel and Strauss, by way of another exquisite showcase for Joyce DiDonato.

With a tradition that stretches back through Bernstein, Barbirolli and Mahler, the New York sound has been shaped over 170 years. Music director Alan Gilbert understands that tradition innately, and tonight’s programme plays directly to his orchestra’s strengths. The iridescent hues of Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales form a discreet contrast to Strauss’s sensuous Rosenkavalier suite; both demand brilliant virtuosity and effortless style. Joyce DiDonato’s performance of Ravel’s Shéhérazade is a gorgeous coda to her Artist Spotlight season, and Gilbert opens with a UK premiere: a shimmering 21st century nocturne for orchestra by a living master of tone-colour.



Esa-Pekka Salonen : Nyx
Maurice Ravel : Shéhérazade
Maurice Ravel : Valses nobles et sentimentales
Richard Strauss : Rosenkavalier Suite