Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Philharmonic history online


The New York Philharmonic has launched an online archive listing concerts, artists and programming back to its founding in 1842:

http://history.nyphil.org/nypwcpub/dbweb.asp?ac=a1

The archive lists five Richmond engagements, conducted by Josef Stransky (March 12, 1913), Willem Mengelberg (Jan. 5, 1928), Leopold Stokowski (April 16, 1947) and Leonard Bernstein (April 18, 1961, when Bernstein played Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, and Sept. 23, 1961, when Eileen Farrell sang Wagner's "Wesendonck Lieder").

Other Virginia appearances: One date in Norfolk (Stokowski conducting, April 15, 1947); three in Roanoke (Stransky, May 20, 1916; Bruno Walter, April 26, 1949; Dmitri Mitropoulos, April 10, 1954); and nine at Wolf Trap in Northern Virginia (Erich Leinsdorf, Aug. 19 and 20, 1972; Pierre Boulez, Aug. 22 and 23, 1975; Julius Rudel, Aug. 28, 1977; Zubin Mehta, Aug. 19 and 20, 1981, and Aug. 22 and 23, 1990).