On Thursday May 30 at 8:00 p.m. in Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic and Kurt Masur will perform the first of three concerts bringing the 1995-96 season-Mr. Masur's fifth as the Orchestra's Music Director-to a close. Ernest Bloch's Schelomo and Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, "Romantic," comprise the program. Lynn Harrell is cello soloist in the Bloch composition. Subsequent performances are on May 31 and June 1.

Ernest Bloch s influence on American music early in the twentieth century can be expressed through the remarkable list of students he tutored. These included Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, and Randall Thompson-all of whom have been frequently performed by the New York Philharmonic. The Swiss-born Bloch, who died in 1959 and who once contributed program annotations to the New York Philharmonic, has also been performed by the Orchestra; Philharmonic Bloch performances have included the premiere of his America, the choral orchestral rhapsody extolling the ideal virtues of his adopted country. Bloch's deep reverence for his Jewish ancestry led him to convey, through music, his idea of the Hebrew spirit; the "holy fervor of the race which is latent in our soul," as he described it. Schelomo, first performed by the Philharmonic in 1931, is one such composition. It communicates the range of emotions found in the Book of Ecclesiastes in "a voice vaster and deeper than any spoken language:" The cello.

Cellist Lynn Harrell was born in New York of musical parents; his father was the renowned baritone Mack Harrell. He is known for his consummate artistry as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist. and teacher. In 1993 he was appointed principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and has made more than 30 recordings, some of which have won Grammy Awards. Mr. Harrell has also been in demand recently as a conductor, leading the Chicago and National symphonies in addition to other regional orchestras.

Though he considered himself born of lowly peasant stock, Anton Bruckner humbly aspired to great religious expression, and succeeded as no composer before him in bringing together the spiritual and technical resources of the nineteenth l-century symphony. The Romantic is among the better known of his nine symphonies, and was composed in 1874, although the original version was not publicly performed until 1979. Bruckner revised the symphony between 1878 and 1880. This has come to be known as the definitive version, and it is the one recorded by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic for Teldec Classics International. The opening of the Romantic, with its long, sustained build-up and "ground-theme" is a specific example of the composer' s oft cited architecture of breadth and majesty. Even during Bruckner's lifetime, the symphony acquired nicknames such as "Nature Symphony," or "Forest Symphony." These sobriquets were inspired by the composer's original program note: "A medieval town. Dawn. Morning calls from the watchtowers. The gates are opened. The knights ride out on their proud horses. They are surrounded by the magic of the forest."

Single tickets for these concerts range from $15 to $60 and may be purchased over the telephone by calling CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500 Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Sunday 12 noon - 6 p.m. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza. The Box Office is open 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. weekdays and 12 noon - 6 p.m. Sundays.

Thursday, May 30, 8:00 p.m. Open Rehearsal 9:45 a.m.

Friday. May 31, 11:00 a.m. Saturday. June l, 8:00 p.m.

Avery Fisher Hall
Kurt Masur. conductor
Lynn Harrell. cello

BLOCH Schelomo
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 in E-flat. Romantic

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