Tomorrow night—Friday, May 17—Crash Ensemble, an Irish group that plays “with the energy and spirit of a rock group” (The New York Times), performs in Zankel Hall. Since tomorrow is also New York City's Bike to Work Day, we've got a live recording of Crash Ensemble performing "Jazzical Cyclebike" by Bill Whelan (who you may know as the composer of Riverdance) for your listening pleasure:

Last month, we posted about Link Up going international through a new partnership with Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, Spain. Thousands of students in northern Spain are busy in (and out of) their classrooms preparing for the first Link Up concert outside of North America, in which they’ll be sing, move, and play recorder as part of the Spanish-language edition of Link Up: The Orchestra Moves (La Orquesta se Mueve).

Students in Oviedo proudly display their Link Up books, which they received in January.

Students demonstrate great recorder technique.

 
Students take a more literal approach to the Link Up theme song, Come to Play, during recess.

 
Ready for the concert! Students will perform Link Up repertoire from their seats in the culminating Orquesta se Mueve concerts with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias on May 16 and 17.

Related:
Link Up

On May 17, The Philadelphia Orchestra performs its final program at Carnegie Hall this season. The orchestra's principal oboe player Richard Woodhams discusses his lifelong memories of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony.  

Sir Simon Rattle always brings engaging programs! This one seems to contrast the dark, sad, and macabre music of Webern, Berg, and Ligeti with one of Beethoven's sunniest works, the "Pastoral" Symphony. It has, for me, many pleasant associations, of which I'd like to mention just a few.

I first started listening to it when I was about 12 years old and starting to take up bicycle racing in my native northern California, so I connect the music with youthful energy and optimism. Some 25 years later, the "Pastoral" Symphony was my son's favorite piece of music as a young child. It also was on the first half of Eugene Ormandy's last concert with The Philadelphia Orchestra. This took place at Carnegie Hall in the early 1980s, and I was fortunate enough to be part of it. Mr. Ormandy conducted the Beethoven with brisk, vigorous tempos even though he was ailing. On the second half, he conducted Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. The score had been put before him, but he slammed it shut (to great applause) and nailed it by memory!
 
Woodhams at age 14, two years after he first discovered Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony, while on tour in Japan with the California Youth Symphony.

It's a great privilege in life to play with such an astonishing orchestra and we always love to be in Carnegie Hall with its clear, responsive acoustics. And I am constantly reminded of the rich continuum of symphonic music and its invaluable contribution to maintaining the quality of culture here in America, performed as it is by so many orchestras at such a high level.

Have you ever experienced a concert from our Balcony? We consider it one of New York's best-kept secrets because of the amazing sound one can experience there for a surprisingly low price. It's a favorite spot for our archivist, Gino Francesconi, who notes:

“I’ve worked or sat in every location in the Hall and personally found the Balcony to be the best to enjoy the Hall’s acoustics. When I was studying conducting, not only could I focus on the individual instruments from up there, but the overall sensation was wonderful. And if a performance was spectacular, you felt it twice as much from the Balcony. Even today when I know there is going to be something special, I will sit in the Balcony by choice.” 

To give you a taste of Balcony Bliss, we are running a sweepstakes this month where one grand prize winner will receive a pair of Balcony tickets to one of our 2013–2014 series (up to five concerts!). The winner can choose from more than 20 different series in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, with artists ranging from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to Kristin Chenoweth to Yo-Yo Ma. Fivesecond prize winners will also enjoy the view from on high with Balcony seats for a concert by the Mariinsky Orchestra and Music Director Valery Gergiev in October 2013.

Enter to win on Facebook or carnegiehall.org/BalconyBliss.

 Launched in July 2012, Carnegie Hall's Digital Archives Project continues apace. Earlier this year, we shipped more than 268 unique rolls of original film production materials to Colorlab, a specialist film laboratory in Maryland. The people at Colorlab are helping to preserve and digitize 16mm film elements from The 28 Week Miracle, a documentary on the renovation of Carnegie Hall's main auditorium in 1986.

Produced by Robert Dalrymple, it features a behind-the-scenes look at the seven-month construction process and includes interviews with Carnegie Hall president Isaac Stern, the Hall's then-chairman of the board James Wolfensohn, architect James Polshek, and Mayor Ed Koch. The documentary captures Carnegie Hall in a moment of great change during its more than 120-year history and is also a valuable resource for scholars interested in the preservation and renovation of a National Historic Landmark.

Colorlab is currently working on syncing the audio and picture for the original interviews and will digitally scan the footage in a high resolution.

Related:
Digital Archives Project
Carnegie Hall History

How do you get to Times Square? If you’re Carnegie Hall you get featured on our Season Sponsor, Bank of America’s Sensational Sign, in Times Square this week! Have you seen it?

Check out Bank of America’s Sensational Sign at the corner of Broadway and 46th Street!

Related: Bank of America Cardholder Offer

Tonight sees the finale of Renée Fleming's Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall with Vienna: Window to Modernity.

Here, Ms. Fleming, composer and conductor André Previn, and conductor and music historian Leon Botstein discuss how several of the major Viennese composers of the period—Korngold, Schoenberg, and Zeisl—spent a lot of time in Los Angeles and how their experiences there differed widely.

Renée Fleming in Conversation with Leon Botstein and André Previn: Viennese Composers in the US

Related:
May 4, Vienna: Window to Modernity
Renée Fleming Perspectives

In the final video of our short series which features soprano Renée Fleming and conductor and music historian Leon Botstein discussing Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, they talk about the "simple and heartbreaking" music of Richard Strauss. Strauss is a composer close to the soprano's heart and one who she believes has been ever popular but not always respected, particularly in Europe.

The series accompanies the May 4 finale of Renée Fleming's Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall. Vienna: Window to Modernity is a thoughtful tribute to the time and place where the European musical tradition, under the influence of literary and visual arts, gave way to the 20th century.

Renée Fleming in Conversation with Leon Botstein: The Music of Richard Strauss

Related:
May 4, Vienna: Window to Modernity
Renée Fleming Perspectives