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Symphony With Mission and Vision: Featuring Chinese Composer Tan Dun
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14366 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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6 / 1988 |
1,827 Words |
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Tom Pniewski
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In a city like New York, which seems to have too much of almost everything, fitting another orchestra in among the dozens of already existing professional ensembles sounds like artistic--and economic--madness.
But the New York City Symphony, long inactive but resurrected in recent years to concert status under Music Director David Eaton, has won a place of honor for itself with both critical acclaim and popular support. Its 1987-88 season, including a five-concert series at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, was recently augmented by an Avery Fisher Hall program devoted entirely to the works of a little-known but prodigiously gifted Chinese composer, Tan Dun.
Eaton emphasizes that the New York City Symphony has mission and vision, two attributes often missing in some of the better-known orchestras in town. But Eaton and the Symphony inherit a grand legacy of idealism. Leopold Stokowski and Leonard Bernstein have been music directors of the Symphony in years past, and have left their imprint on its philosophy.
The New York City Symphony was established in 1926 by Leopold Prince, a judge in the municipal court of New York. Prince was an enthusiastic violinist, and his amateur orchestra of their members had grown out of small chamber concerts in his home. In a few years, the ensemble increased to 110 players and won a large following through charity concerts performed in schools, churches, hospitals, and public auditoriums.
City Center
The orchestra reached a new level of accomplishment in the dark days near the end of World War II. In those times of economic uncertainty, New York's charismatic Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia took the bold step of establishing The New York City Center, a performing arts center for the general public designed as an alternative to the expensive and socially distant pleasures of the Metropolitan Opera and similar organizations. LaGuardia chose the fiery, iconoclastic Leopold Stokowski, who had established a worldwide reputation with the Philadelphia Orchestra, to head music programs at this center. Stokowski donated his services and turned to Judge Prince's orchestra to form the nucleus of a new resident orchestra for the center.
With Stokowski at the helm, the New York City symphony developed into a high-caliber ensemble, attracting many young, gifted, and committed professional players. The community tradition continued, of course, as the Symphony tried to bring music of the highest quality to the largest audience for the lowest cost. One of their many innovations was the scheduling of short concerts at midday and early evening so that workers could hear great music during their lunch hours or on their way home.
Stokowski succeeded in making the Symphony an integral part of New York's musical life, and in 1945 the 27-year-old Leonard Bernstein took over as music director. Needless to say, Bernstein put his own stamp on the symphony, with his energy and sense of public appeal. But he also championed new American works as well as rarely heard European composers. It was Bernstein who brought Mahler symphonies to a New York still full of anti-German sentiment after the war.
World-famous artists who shared the
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