New York Philharmonic Announces Nat'l Weekly Radio Broadcasts for December 2010

In December 2010, The New York Philharmonic This Week - the two-hour, national, weekly radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin - begins with conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leading the Orchestra in Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila; Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, with Leonidas Kavakos as soloist; Debussy's Nocturnes, with the Women of the New York Choral Artists; and Stravinsky's 1919 Suite from The Firebird.

The following week, Sir Colin Davis conducts Beethoven's Symphony No. 2, closing with Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, with soprano Dorothea Röschmann in her Philharmonic debut and tenor Ian Bostridge. In the third broadcast, Bernard Labadie conducts the holiday favorite, Handel's Messiah, with soprano Karina Gauvin, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, tenor Tilman Lichdi, bass AnDrew Foster-Williams (all in their Philharmonic debuts), and the New York Choral Artists.

The final December broadcast will feature commercial New York Philharmonic recordings of American works, released on the Orchestra's own and other labels: Ives's Three Places in New England (conducted by Kurt Masur in 1998, released on New York Philharmonic Special Editions); Paine's Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 23 (Zubin Mehta, 1989, New World); Thomson's The Mother of Us All (Leopold Stokowski, 1950, New York Philharmonic Radiothon Special Editions); and Schuman's Symphony No. 8 (Leonard Bernstein, 1962, SMK).

The New York Philharmonic This Week airs locally in the New York metropolitan area on Classical 105.9 FM WQXR, Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. [Check local listings]. Concerts are available on the Philharmonic's Website, nyphil.org, for two weeks following the broadcast. The broadcasts are produced and syndicated to more than 300 outlets nationwide by the WFMT Radio Network. Alec Baldwin is the host of the program, WFMT's Mark Travis is the broadcast producer, and New York Philharmonic Audio Director Lawrence Rock is the engineer and music producer.

The New York Philharmonic's first Live National radio broadcast took place on October 5, 1930, over the CBS radio network. On that Sunday, Erich Kleiber was on the podium leading the Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Since that historic broadcast, the Philharmonic has enjoyed an almost continuous presence on national radio. Advancing its role as a media pioneer, the Philharmonic, since 2002, has shared its radio broadcast with a worldwide audience through its Website, nyphil.org. In 2004, the New York Philharmonic was the first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Following on this innovation, in 2009 the Orchestra announced the first-ever subscription download series: Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, available exclusively on iTunes, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic, and comprising more than 50 works performed during the 2009-10 season.

The New York Philharmonic This Week is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic's corporate partner, MetLife Foundation.

THE New York Philharmonic THIS WEEK: DECEMBER 2010

Week of December 6 (from November 26-27, 2010):

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor; Leonidas Kavakos, violin; Women of the New York Choral Artists; Joseph Flummerfelt, director.

GLINKA -- Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila

TCHAIKOVSKY -- Violin Concerto

DEBUSSY -- Nocturnes

STRAVINSKY -- Suite from The Firebird (1919)

Week of December 13 (from December 2, 4, and 7, 2010):

Sir Colin Davis, conductor; Dorothea Röschmann, soprano*; Ian Bostridge, tenor.

BEETHOVEN -- Symphony No. 2

MAHLER -- Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Week of December 20 (from December 14-18, 2010):

Bernard Labadie, conductor; Karina Gauvin, soprano*; Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto*; Tilman Lichdi, tenor*; AnDrew Foster-Williams, bass*; New York Choral Artists; Joseph Flummerfelt, director.