(Posted this afternoon on the TONY Blog)

"Evolution,
not revolution" was the theme of the morning when the New York
Philharmonic gathered the local press corps, artists, assorted guests
and dignitaries on the stage at Avery Fisher Hall for a press
conference announcing details of its 2009–10 season. Speculation had
run high ever since the Phil named Alan Gilbert its music director
designate in July 2007 that his inaugural season would see a marked
upturn in innovative programming and contemporary music. The question
was always just how far the orchestra's commitment to such initiatives
would go.

The answer? Considerably further than most observers might dare have
imagined. The Phil announced some time ago that Finnish composer Magnus
Lindberg had been appointed composer-in-residence, and that the
orchestra would be establishing a new-music ensemble. Further details
tumbled forth today like candies from a burst piñata: multiple new
works from Lindberg, as well as the U.S. premiere of his amazing
Clarinet Concerto; commissioned pieces by Christopher Rouse, Nico
Muhly, Matthias Pintscher, Marc-André Dalbavie and others. And the
long-overdue New York premiere of György Ligeti's landmark opera, Le Grand Macabre.

Garbed
in a natty-casual mix of sport coat, tie and black jeans, Gilbert —
the son of two Philharmonic violinists, and the first native-born New
Yorker ever appointed music director here — outlined his vision of the
Philharmonic as being "both museum and laboratory." For some observers,
that first quality is sure to be as important as the second; Gilbert,
like any number of young conductors (including Esa-Pekka Salonen once
upon a time, and Gustavo Dudamel right now), has drawn criticism from
observers unwilling to accept that anyone under 50 might have something
worth saying in Beethoven and Mahler. Gilbert said that he sees the
orchestra's natural terrain as being "the great works of music,
beautifully performed" and "the most creative and inventive of the new
works being composed."

Gilbert
went on to divulge more details on certain concerts that best
represented his ideals and goals. In addition to the new Lindberg piece
on the opening-night concert — long an affair solely concerned with
wardrobes and warhorses — Gilbert will conduct Messiaen's Poèmes pour Mi, sung by megawatt soprano Renée Fleming, and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.
That last work will also play a large part in the Phil's "Day of
Music," a day-long free open house with a dress rehearsal and a
complete performance of the Symphonie, on September 12.

Gilbert's second program will feature Mahler's Symphony No. 3, a
work he fondly recalled hearing Zubin Mehta conduct here when Gilbert
was 8 years old, and again when Leonard Bernstein made his towering
final recording here. A pairing of Brahms's Violin Concerto and
Schoenberg's Pelleas and Melisande will quietly introduce
Gilbert's stealth agenda: "Schoenberg is beautiful." On the fourth
program, Gilbert plans to elide the vaporous ending of Ives's The Unanswered Question
without pause into the fragile unaccompanied-keyboard preamble to
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, with Emanuel Ax at the keyboard and
another new Lindberg piece on the concert's first half.

Following those programs, the Philharmonic heads up to Caramoor in
Katonah, NY, to help inaugurate the first fall festival at that
longtime bastion of summer fare. Then it's off to Asia for a tour that
includes the orchestra's first-ever visit to Hanoi, as well as stops in
Tokyo and Abu Dhabi.

The
selection of Magnus Lindberg, a prominent Finnish composer, for a
residency with the Phil, Gilbert explained, was based on "his encyclopedic
knowledge of old and new music." Lindberg quipped that the position was
contrary to expectations of what a composer typically does. "You have
to be isolated," he quipped. "You sit out in the forest and you write
your music." Personally, he noted, he craves more contact, and looks
forward to working closely with the composers selected to create pieces
for Contact, the new-music series he'll be curating for the orchestra at Symphony Space.

Another newly announced initiative will see a guest conductor
invited each year to curate a three-week mini-festival. The inaugural
honors go to the ubiquitous Valery Gergiev, whose presentation, "The
Russian Stravinsky," arrives in April 2010. Gergiev was not present,
but in a video interview with Gilbert he described his concept: when
conducting Stravinsky's Petrushka on a program with another
composer's music, the style isn't hard to differentiate, but to make
the same piece stand out in the context of other Stravinsky works — The Firebird, The Rite of Spring and Les Noces
requires a deeper investigation into the specific character of each
piece. Joining Gergiev for his series here are pianist Alexei Volodin
and the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus; one sure highlight of the season will
be the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, to be performed four times in late April and early May with a cast that includes Waltraud Meier and Anthony Dean Griffey.

Yet
another new initiative announced this morning is the creation of a new
artist-in-residence position, to be filled for the inaugural season by
baritone Thomas Hampson. That announcement alone gave some indication
that the orchestra views this as another means by which to extend its
purview: Surely few vocalists have been appointed to similar berths
among major orchestras. Hampson, who spoke of his ideas for the role
with an eloquently patrician air, will perform as a soloist in
Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony (conducted by Vladimir Jurowski in his Phil debut , Nov. 5-10), John Adams's The Wound Dresser
(Jan 14-16) and a new commissioned work by Matthias Pintscher, details
of which are to be determined later. He is also to be involved as a
recital artist, a musical advocate, a lecturer and an educator.

The biggest coup announced today — and the one that came closest to
not happening for practical reasons, if orchestra president Zarin
Mehta's comments were anything to go by — was the local premiere of Le Grand Macabre
(May 27-29), the absence of which has been completely inexplicable (and
became far more so last year, when Lincoln Center saw its outlandish
production of Die Soldaten turn into the year's hottest ticket).

Staging Ligeti's maniacal farce is director and puppeteer Douglas Fitch, who has previously created novel concert stagings of The Soldier's Tale and Das Rheingold in
collaboration with Gilbert. Innovation will surely be a key element in
the staging Fitch described, a mix of puppets, clearly visible
puppeteers and oversize video projections.

Returning to the Avery Fisher Hall podium in 2009-10 will be
Riccardo Muti (for five weeks of programs), Kurt Masur, Antonio
Pappano, Helmuth Rilling (for the annual Messiah), David Robertson and
Xian Zhang. Soloists appearing for the first time will include
clarinetist Kari Kriikku, trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger, and pianists
David Fray and Nicolas Hodges. Daniel Boico, the orchestra's newly
appointed assistant conductor, will lead the orchestra's three Young
Peoples' Concerts.

Happily, in light of the financial crises that
have rocked all sectors of the arts sphere and the larger world beyond,
Mehta assured all assembled that the Phil's health is at present
robust. A representative from Credit Suisse, the orchestra's new
primary sponsor, reported that the firm's commitment to supporting the
arts remains as strong as ever — and even serves as a "happy
distraction" from the gloom elsewhere. When a reporter inquired about
the stability of the orchestra's own footing, Mehta indicated that
ticket sales and gifts remained strong throughout 2008-09, but noted
that it was too soon to know whether there would be an appreciable dip
going into the new season. Modest cutbacks and general fiscal prudence
were being exerted, but never at the cost of the artistry, Mehta
insisted.

One
introduction remained to be made. "Many people went to great lengths to
be here today," Gilbert said, "but only one won a Golden Globe last
night." Alec Baldwin, whose passion for classical music came out in a Los Angeles Times blog piece
by Choire Sicha last August, was introduced as the new voice of the New
York Philharmonic's weekly radio broadcasts. Most orchestras, Baldwin
noted, would have aimed for class by picking someone like Glenn Close
or Sigourney Weaver; only the New York Philharmonic would dare to
choose the guy from "the silliest, most inane show on television." But
he also noted a unique qualification for the position: "Like Magnus, I
would go out to the forest to prepare for my work." Baldwin ended his first
public appearance on the Phil's behalf with a request — or perhaps a
demand: "I would like to be referred to as the announcer-in-residence."