Wednesdays at 9:00 pM

May 1 - Leoš Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen

Tonight’s broadcast features a 2011 recording in which Alan Gilbert conducts a staged production of Leoš Janáček's seventh opera, The Cunning Little Vixen, a playful, yet poignant, reflection on the cycle of life. We will hear interviews with the producer Edouard Getaz, director Doug Fitch, as well as cast members and Janáček expert Gavin Plumley.

Conductor: Alan Gilbert

Soloists: Alan Opie, baritone

Melissa Parks, mezzo-soprano

Keith Jameson, tenor

Wilbur Pauley, bass

Joshua Bloom, baritone

Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano

Marie Lenormand, mezzo-soprano

Serena Benedetti, soprano

Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano

Emalie Savoy, soprano

Devon Guthrie, soprano

Lacey Benter, mezzo-soprano

New York Choral Artists/ Joseph Flummerfelt, director

Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus

May 8 - Alan Gilbert Conducts Mahler’s 6th Symphony

Tonight we feature a 2010 recording of Gustav Mahler’s 6th Symphony conducted by Alan Gilbert. The symphony contains a soaring theme dedicated to Alma Mahler in the first movement and ends with tragic hammer blows. The program opens with two works inspired by magical musical instruments: Mozart's overture to The Magic Flute and Schubert's overture to The Magic Harp.

Conductor: Alan Gilbert

Mozart: Overture to The Magic Flute

Franz Schubert: Overture to The Magic Harp

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6

May 15 - Christoph von Dohnányi Conducts Dvořák

Martin Helmchen is the soloist in Dvořák's piano concerto in G minor on a concert that also features the same composer’s Symphony No. 9, "From the New World." Christoph von Dohnányi conducts.

Conductor: Christoph von Dohnányi

Soloists: Martin Helmchen, piano

Antonín Dvořák: Piano Concerto in G minor

Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World

May 22 - Alan Gilbert Conducts Brahms and Schoenberg

This concert from Alan Gilbert's inaugural season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic features his good friend Frank Peter Zimmermann as soloist in the Brahms Violin Concerto. This is balanced with the ultra-Romantic and evocative Pelleas and Melisande by Arnold Schoenberg. Alan Gilbert conducts and your host is Alec Baldwin.

Conductor: Alan Gilbert

Soloists: Frank-Peter Zimmerman, violin

Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto*

Arnold Schoenberg: Pelleas and Melisande

May 29 - Aaron Copland Conducts The Tender Land

Aaron Copland leads the orchestra in an abridged version of his opera The Tender Land, recorded in 1965. Also featured are two jazz-inspired works: Bill Russo's Symphony No. 2, The Titans, featuring Maynard Ferguson as soloist with Leonard Bernstein conducting, and A Tone Parallel to Harlem featuring Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur.

Conductors: André Kostelantetz, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur

Soloists: Maynard Ferguson, trumpet

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra/ Wynton Marsalis, artistic director & trumpet

Joy Clements, soprano

Claramae Turner, mezzo-soprano

Richard Cassilly, tenor

Richard Fredricks, baritone

Norman Treigle, bass

Choral Art Society/ William Jonson, director

William Russo: Symphony No. 2, Titans

“Duke” Ellington arr.

Wynton Marsalis: A Tone Parallel to Harlem**

Aaron Copland: The Tender Land (abridged)