LINCOLN CENTER

New York Philharmonic
Benjamin Britten

Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings
Spring Symphony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5RYBOPVc3ms

Today is a New York Philharmonic day!  We attended the rehearsal this morning and then the performance this evening.  Lots of music!

Regarding the rehearsal… The afternoon before the performance, yesterday at 4:30 PM, the tenor notified the Philharmonic that he would not be able to sing.  This morning, one hour prior to rehearsal, two tenors were acquired to sing the tenor roles.

That means… This rehearsal became a bit more of a rehearsal than that for the Beethoven's Ninth. 

The French Horn solos, valveless and valved, are played by the principal horn player of the Philharmonic.  He has been the principal horn player with the Philharmonic since 1980.  Let me say, he was spectacular. 

Philip Myers joined the Philharmonic as Principal French Horn (The Ruth F. and Alan J. Broder Chair) in January 1980, and made his solo debut with the Orchestra that month in the premiere of William Schuman’s Three Colloquies for French Horn and Orchestra. He has since appeared as a Philharmonic soloist often, most recently performing Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 2, conducted by Lorin Maazel, in New York in January 2008 and again in February 2008 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and Shanghai, China. Mr. Myers began his orchestral career in 1971 with a three-year term as principal horn of the Atlantic Symphony in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was third horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1974 until 1977. As principal horn of the Minnesota Orchestra for a season and a half, he made a solo debut with that ensemble in 1979, performing Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1, Sir Neville Marriner conducting. A native of Elkhart, Indiana, Mr. Myers holds two degrees from Carnegie–Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He plays Engelbert Schmid French horns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/arts/music/new-york-philharmonic-presents-a-britten-program.html?_r=0