It's been four years since the New York Philharmonic appeared at the Park Avenue Armory, in a concert designed to take advantage of the unique acoustic properties of the Wade Thompson Drill Hall. The Phil returns to the Armory tomorrow and Friday with an all-Kaija Saariaho program led by the Phil's composer in residence – and Saariaho's longtime champion and fellow Finn - Esa-Pekka Salonen. Saariaho, who is embarking on a major season with the upcoming Met premiere of her 2000 opera L'Amour de Loin, will also make use of the cavernous Drill Hall in this performance. According to the Armory:
"The program features the New York premieres of Circle Map (2012), a new work for orchestra and electronics that builds out from six stanzas by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, and D’om le Vrai Sens (2010), written for and performed here while moving through the audience and orchestra by clarinetist Kari Krikku. The evening also includes the U.S. premiere of Lumière et Pesanteur (2009) as well as Lonh (1996), a work that combines medieval love poetry sung by rising soprano Jennifer Zetlan with an electronic score that manipulates sounds from nature to evoke a distant, luminous landscape.
Tickets and additional info available on the Armory website. (There is also a discussion with the composer and designers before Friday's performance.) Meet the Composer's excellent podcast on Saariaho can be heard below.