Most free summer
concerts include music that’s either crowd-pleasing or familiar
– or both. More challenging works are saved for the regular season.
Although that’s certainly the case with the New York Philharmonic’s
July 11 concert in Prospect Park, there’s an added attraction:
violinist Jennifer Koh – who performs the old reliable warhorse
concerto by Tchaikovsky – is a versatile, supremely accomplished
musician as much at home making modern music by luminaries like
the recently deceased Hungarian master Gyorgy Ligeti (you should
hear her rip through his difficult-to-play concerto!) who makes
her long-awaited New York Philharmonic debut.
The Prospect Park concert is the second in the orchestra’s annual
Concerts in the Parks series, which features eight concerts throughout
the city’s boroughs, Long Island and New Jersey.
New York Philharmonic Associate Conductor Xian Zhang (pictured
at left), who was elevated to that post by Music Director Lorin
Maazel around the time she conducted the Philharmonic in last
summer’s Parks series, will again be on the podium, opening the
performance with another work by Tchaikovsky, "Coronation
March." Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 will be the final
work on the bill.
As always, the New York Philharmonic’s Concerts in the Parks
are free, and each evening ends with a fireworks display).
The New York Philharmonic performs Tchaikovsky and Dvorak at
8 pm on July 11 in Prospect Park’s Long Meadow. Enter the park
at 9th Street and Prospect Park West. Admission is free. For
more information, call (212) 875-5709 or visit www.newyorkphilharmonic.org,
which has a mini-site detailing the orchestra’s summer 2006 activities.
NY PHILHARMONIC TO PLAY PROSPECT PARK
