New York, new music
Van Zweden’s world premieres
In amongst the more conservative fare, Jaap van Zweden’s first season at David Geffen Hall will feature some intriguing world premieres, many of them New York Philharmonic commissions. Just before this issue went on sale,
Van Zweden conducted the first performances of experimental composer Ashley Fure’s Filament and Conrad Tao’s Everything Must Go. Louis Andriessen’s Iliad-inspired Agamemnon gets its first outing at the start of October, and at the end of January, Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my Mouth explores the clothing industry in New York City at the turn of the century, including the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 workers. A world premiere by David Lang will round out the 2018/19 season. prisoner of the state is billed as a contemporary take on Beethoven’s Fidelio – ‘Lang transforms the classic opera into an exploration of challenging an evil government, putting a fresh lens on the fall of a political tyrant,’ says the New York Philharmonic website.
Visit nyphil.org for more details.