(Following their custom, the NY Phil gave first access on this one to the Times while hastily calling a press conference for tomorrow morning for everyone else...and of course Wikipedia already contains the news.)
So it wasn't Daniel Barenboim after all...And, for the first time since Bernstein, a homegrown *and* young conductor ascends the podium as music director of the New York Philharmonic. ("Homegrown" in the most local of ways, of course, what with Gilbert's personal and lifelong associations with the Phil.)
I'm thrilled with the prospect of what Gilbert brings to the table, and hopefully behind us now are the days of many critics gloomily shuffling out of the Phil's annual press conferences in despair of the thoroughly lackluster programming announced for the upcoming season. On the other hand, this announcement comes with all the strictures and caveats of a modern music director: Gilbert will be conducting for a grand total of twelve weeks of the season, and Daniel Wakin reports the 40-year-old as saying that " it was premature to say whether he would move back to New York."
Journalists should collectively ban these NY Phil press conferences out of principal. It's ridiculous that they think we should sit there obediently as they announce this "news" that's already been out for over 12 hours.
Posted by: disgruntled journalist | July 18, 2007 at 07:47 AM