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The New York Philharmonic\u2019s spring gala is not usually of much musical interest. It tends toward mild fare \u2014 just enough to keep the donors happy before dinner and dancing.<\/p>\n
But this year, the playing will draw closer attention. The gala, on April 24, features the only appearance this season by Gustavo Dudamel, the Philharmonic\u2019s next music director<\/a>. He will take part in the celebration of the orchestra\u2019s education programs, including its signature Young People\u2019s Concerts, which are turning 100.<\/p>\n The Philharmonic has been careful not to have its Dudamel-led future<\/a> step too much on its less starry present. This season also brings the final months of Jaap van Zweden\u2019s brief tenure as music director, which will begin on his favored ground: the classics.<\/p>\n A mid-March program of Mozart\u2019s elegant Piano Concerto No. 17 (with Conrad Tao as soloist) and Beethoven\u2019s deathless Fifth Symphony is such a sure audience pleaser that the Philharmonic is confidently giving it four performances, rather than the usual three.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Van Zweden led the orchestra in Beethoven\u2019s Fifth in October 2015, a few months before he got the music director job. I wrote then<\/a> that \u201cconducting this imaginative and playing this varied don\u2019t appear at Geffen Hall every week.\u201d His meticulousness didn\u2019t come off as mannered, as it sometimes does. The inner two movements felt especially inventive, and I\u2019ll be listening for whether the whole thing has the polish and momentum that have tended to elude the orchestra recently.<\/p>\n A few days later, van Zweden will turn his attention to the new, as the Philharmonic plays fresh pieces by Tan Dun \u2014 a concerto for the principal trombonist, Joseph Alessi, called \u201cThree Muses in Video Game\u201d \u2014 and Joel Thompson.<\/p>\n Thompson\u2019s premiere, \u201cTo See the Sky,\u201d is the longest instrumental work of his young career. An Atlanta native, he has said the work is influenced by Afro-Caribbean rhythms and the Southern hip-hop tradition, among other styles. Even this contemporary-minded program, though, is anchored by a standard, Mendelssohn\u2019s fiery \u201cScottish\u201d Symphony.<\/p>\n Among the Philharmonic\u2019s guest conductors this spring is Manfred Honeck, who was favored by some during the search process that landed on van Zweden; in April, Honeck leads a premiere by Katherine Balch as well as works by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. And in a sign that the orchestra is exploring a new generation of talent, even with Dudamel starting soon, there will be podium debuts by Karina Canellakis and Thomas Sondergard before van Zweden returns for his climactic stretch in late May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The first of those final programs starts with Sofia Gubaidulina\u2019s fierce Viola Concerto, from 1996, then turns to Mozart\u2019s Requiem, an apt way to approach an ending. The next week focuses on soloists drawn from the orchestra in works by Mozart and Brahms, and Shostakovich\u2019s Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, which has never been played by the Philharmonic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The pianist in that concerto \u2014 and the only guest from outside the ensemble\u2019s ranks \u2014 is the fascinating Igor Levit<\/a>, who will also be appearing at Carnegie Hall in recital on March 7. His program at Carnegie delves into one of his longstanding interests: arrangements of older pieces, the way that music is passed down and adapted.<\/p>\n Liszt\u2019s dizzying version of Beethoven\u2019s \u201cEroica\u201d Symphony is on offer, as well as Ronald Stevenson\u2019s of the Adagio from Mahler\u2019s 10th. Filling out the concert, and making it appropriate material for the tail end of Carnegie\u2019s loosely plotted Weimar festival, is Hindemith\u2019s Roaring 20s-ish suite \u201c1922.\u201d<\/p>\n Arrangements are also on the agenda for the pianist Imogen Cooper, making a rare New York appearance at the 92nd Street Y on May 3. Her versions of Bach are by Busoni and Kempff, and appear on a program that also includes works by Beethoven, Schubert and Thomas Ad\u00e8s.<\/p>\n In April, the Metropolitan Opera will unveil a splashy new production \u2014 its first \u2014 of John Adams and Peter Sellars\u2019s moving Nativity oratorio \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o.\u201d But for those watching the Met as it struggles for financial stability<\/a> and artistic balance<\/a>, the most intriguing events this spring are revivals \u2014 and not just the much-anticipated debut of the riveting soprano Asmik Grigorian<\/a> in Puccini\u2019s \u201cMadama Butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons\u2019s \u201cFire Shut Up in My Bones\u201d<\/a> and Kevin Puts and Greg Pierce\u2019s \u201cThe Hours\u201d<\/a> are returning, not long after their well-sold Met premieres, and both will be watched for whether audience demand holds up for a second go-round with less publicity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cFire\u201d reopened the opera house at the start of the 2021-22 season after the long pandemic shutdown, and was heavily promoted for being the company\u2019s first work by a Black composer<\/a>. Will it retain as much interest under less of a spotlight? And while \u201cThe Hours\u201d will be buttressed by the same central trio of stars \u2014 Ren\u00e9e Fleming, Kelli O\u2019Hara and Joyce DiDonato \u2014 it\u2019s unclear how many repeat customers there will be for this blandish work.<\/p>\n Further uptown, at Columbia University, the Miller Theater\u2019s invaluable Composer Portraits series offers a dive into the spare, emotionally charged, often extended-duration music of Sarah Hennies on April 4. The Mivos Quartet will play two pieces: the hourlong \u201cBorrowed Light\u201d and, joined by the two pianists and two percussionists of Yarn\/Wire, \u201cSpiral Organ.\u201d<\/p>\n And, after premiering Natacha Diels\u2019s \u201cBeautiful Trouble\u201d in Philadelphia this month, the JACK Quartet brings it to Roulette in Brooklyn on March 15. The five-part piece, which marries surreal short films to a just-as-absurdist live performance, is an ideal vehicle for JACK\u2019s open-minded virtuosity.<\/p>\n Finally, a finale, and a sprawling one. For Jaap van Zweden at the Philharmonic, after a Requiem must come, early in June, a \u201cResurrection\u201d: Mahler\u2019s Second Symphony, one of the grandest works in the repertory and, with its long choral peroration, a stirring send-off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n