Gruppen grouping

Above is a rendering of the stage setup for Philharmonic 360, the upcoming collaboration between the NY Phil and the Park Avenue Armory. The program, to be presented on June 29 and June 30, will consist of Boulez’s Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna, the Finale of Act I of Don Giovanni, Stockhausen's Gruppen, and Ives’s The Unanswered Question. Alan Gilbert's co-conductors in the Stockhausen will be Magnus Lindberg and Matthias Pintscher; Michael Counts is the director and designer. These will be the second and third performances of Gruppen in New York; the first took place in 1965. Leonard Bernstein had wanted to present the piece in the Philharmonic's 1963-64 season, but the composer withheld approval, as a letter from Carlos Moseley to Alan Rich reveals.