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The New York Philharmonic

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Musicians

The Resume

    (1842- )
    Officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.
    Known globally as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO)
    Conducted by Willem Mengelberg (1922-30), Arturo Toscanini (1928–36), John Barbirolli (1936-41), Dimitri Mitropoulos (1949-58), Leonard Bernstein (1958-64, 65-69), Zubin Mehta (1978 - 91), Kurt Masur (1991-2002), Lorin Maazel (2002-2009), and Alan Gilbert (2009-2017)
    Based out of David Geffen Hall in New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
    Albums include 'Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 Patetique,' 'Symphony No. 8 Symphony of a Thousand,' 'Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5; Symphony No. 7,' 'Shostakovich: Symphonies No. 5 & 7 Leningrad' 'Mahler: Symphonie No. 3,' 'Bernstein: The Age of Anxiety,' 'Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in E Minor,' and 'Mahler Symphony No. 9 in D Minor'
    Appear in the PBS series 'Live From Lincoln Center'

Why they might be annoying:

    It took seven years for them to settle on a sole conductor, Theodore Eisfield (prior to this they rotated between seven conductors).
    They were criticized following President Lincoln's memorial concert for omitting the program's last movement, 'Ode to Joy' (in all fairness it probably was deemed inappropriate for the occasion).
    During an April 1962 concert featuring Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein turned to the audience to publicly disassociate himself with the performance.
    The apparent issue with the treatment was that Gould chose to take three very slow tempi in playing the three movements for the overture to Nielsen's Maskarade and for the First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms (angel of mercy).
    The performance did, in fact, turn out to be a disaster, though critics also took aim at Bernstein's attempt to distance from himself. The episode remains the most controversial part of the orchestra's history.
    They have been accused of being too 'safe' with their music selection (whereas a quasi-competitor like the Boston Pops have long eschewed the predictable 'dead composers' repertoire in favor of pop culture favorites).

Why they might not be annoying:

    Leopold Stokowski served as a co-principal conductor for a year.
    It is one of the oldest musical institutions in the United States (in addition to being the oldest of 'the Big Five' orchestras in the US).
    They helped popularize Beethoven in America with their inaugural concerts (he had been dead for less than fifteen years at that time).
    They received a Grammy for Best Album for Children for 'Peter and the Wolf' (1962).
    They won five Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album (1965, 1974, 1978, 1991, 2005).
    Leonard Bernstein's wildly successful debut with the orchestra, in 1948, was unrehearsed, and marked a historic, decades long, partnership between the two entities.
    Their award-winning CBS show, 'Young People's Concerts,' became one of the longest-running series of family concerts of classical music in the world.
    Their string section can be heard on the John Lennon's 'Imagine' album (credited as 'The Flux Fiddlers').
    They released the first recording of 'Sweeney Todd' by a symphony orchestra in honor of Stephen Sondheim's 70th Birthday, featuring George Hearn, Patti LuPone, and Audra McDonald.
    They set an attendance record at one Carnegie Hall performance, with a total of 14,000 concertgoers, in December 2004.
    They performed in Pyongyang at the invitation of the North Korean government, in the first significant cultural visit from the United States to North Korea since the end of the Korean War (Feb. 26, 2008).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 104 Votes: 51.92% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 55 Votes: 58.18% Annoying