A bite of the Apple

For the first time in its 170-year history, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra has a native New Yorker at the helm. Music director Alan Gilbert (above) brings the band to the Barbican this month for a brief residency that crams four concerts into a little over 48 hours, starting with a performance of Mahler’s Ninth on 16 February. Later concerts include the UK première of Polaris, a ‘Voyage for Orchestra’ by Thomas Adès, and Lang Lang tackling Bartók’s famously arduous Piano Concerto No. 2. The residency will also see small groups of musicians venturing beyond the concert hall to perform for residents of East London housing estates as part of the Barbican’s Front Room Concerts series.

A Saturday matinée on 18 February pays explicit tribute to Leonard Bernstein, himself a former NYPO music director, with a Young People’s Concert of the kind he pioneered as far back as 1958.