AP News, January 11th, 2008
Lorin Maazel will close out his seven years as music director of the New York Philharmonic by conducting Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand."
"It seems to be an appropriate closing statement," Maazel said at a news conference Thursday announcing the orchestra's 2008-09 season.
The Philharmonic's 167th season opens Sept. 17 with Maazel conducting a concert on PBS featuring James Galway in Ibert's Flute Concerto. Subscription concerts at Avery Fisher Hall begin the next night with the U.S. premiere of composer Steven Stucky's "Rhapsodies."
The 77-year-old Maazel, who first conducted the Philharmonic when he was 12, succeeded Kurt Masur as music director of the nation's oldest orchestra in fall 2002. He will be succeeded by Alan Gilbert, who turns 41 in February.
Gilbert will conduct two weeks of performances, including an all-Bernstein program on Nov. 14 at Carnegie Hall. That concert falls on the 65th anniversary of Bernstein's historic first appearance on the Philharmonic's podium.
Masur, a successor to Mendelssohn as conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, will return in early February to commemorate the German composer's 200th birthday.
Other highlights: Stanley Drucker marking his 60 years with the Philharmonic by performing Copland's Clarinet Concerto; a concert performance of Richard Strauss' opera "Elektra," all six Brandenberg Concertos by Bach; and "War Requiem."
"The moral in Britten's 'War Requiem' I think must be put forth again and again," Maazel said. "The futility of war, the tragedy, the pointlessness of the carnage."
Maazel, who will conduct 46 concerts over the season, will lead nearly 350 musicians in Mahler's sprawling Eighth Symphony, known as the "Symphony of a Thousand."
A week and a half before that grand finale June 27, he will conduct two of his own works: "Monaco Fanfares" and "Farewells."
The latter, he said, is "not a very cheerful work I'm afraid, because parting may be sweet sorrow. It's more sorrow than sweet."
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