The New York Philharmonic Gala: Where music becomes memory, and memory becomes light | amNewYork

"The evening began, as it always does, with the Star-Spangled Banner. Yet this time, beneath the vaulted brilliance of David Geffen Hall, it landed with an unfamiliar intensity. A familiar ritual was suddenly alchemized into revelation. The anthem did not announce the start of a programit pierced like a blade, summoning a tidal current of patriotism made bittersweet by the fractures of our time. For a moment, the music mended what rhetoric cannot."

"Cecile McLorin Salvant, in her Philharmonic debut, sang with a voice that did not merely echo the greats; it belonged to an entirely different register of enchantment. Her sound shimmered with the clarity of Baccarat crystal, refracting centuries of artistry in every phrase. If Ella Fitzgerald embodied velvet, Salvant embodied light: precise, mercurial, intoxicating. She moved effortlessly between Purcell's austerity, Sondheim's sly wit, Bizet's tempestuous arias, and Ellington's lush jazz idiomher range both technical and emotional, her every note charged with narrative."

"Anthony Parnther, commanding the Orchestra with grace and electricity, drew the Philharmonic through a program that felt like an illuminated manuscript of American and European geniusGershwin's jubilant Strike Up the Band, Ellington's magisterial Black, Brown, and Beige, and Bernstein's glittering encore, a dizzying Glitter and Be Gay that left the hall suspended in delight. This was not mere performance. This was ceremony, a liturgy of sound where every cadence was a benediction"

David Geffen Hall's Opening Night began with the Star-Spangled Banner delivered with an unfamiliar intensity that turned ritual into revelation and summoned a bittersweet patriotism. Cecile McLorin Salvant made a luminous Philharmonic debut with a crystal-clear voice that traversed Purcell, Sondheim, Bizet, and Ellington, combining technical mastery with narrative depth. Anthony Parnther conducted with grace and electricity, shaping a program spanning American and European works, including Gershwin's Strike Up the Band, Ellington's Black, Brown, and Beige, and a Bernstein encore, Glitter and Be Gay. The evening felt ceremonial, a benediction of sound that uplifted and transfigured the audience.

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