About the Series
In this podcast, New York Philharmonic musicians and Barbara Haws compare how players across generations approached key passages and orchestral excerpts. The conversations focus on performance practice, sound, interpretation, and the lived culture of the Orchestra over time.
Select an episode to view the complete page.
Episode 1
Philip Smith (trumpet)
Published September 13, 2017 (recorded July 14, 2017)
This episode of Listening Through Time features the New York Philharmonic’s former Principal Trumpet Philip Smith in conversation with the Orchestra’s Archivist and Historian Emerita Barbara Haws. They consider how trumpet performance practices, instruments, and interpretations have changed ... or remained the same over the decades.
Episode 2
Stanley Drucker (clarinet)
Published October 27, 2017 (recorded August 4, 2017)
This episode of Listening Through Time features the New York Philharmonic’s former Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker in conversation with the Orchestra’s Archivist / Historian Barbara Haws, considering how clarinet performance practices and interpretations have changed and remained the same over the decades.
Episode 3
Orin O'Brien (bass)
Published December 7, 2017 (recorded August 25, 2017)
This episode of Listening Through Time features the New York Philharmonic’s bass, Orin O’Brien in conversation with the Orchestra’s Archivist and Historian Emerita Barbara Haws, considering how bass performance practices and interpretations have changed… or remained the same over the decades. Also discussed is Orin’s experience of becoming the first woman admitted to the Orchestra.
Episode 4
Joseph Alessi (trombone)
Published January 22, 2018 (recorded September 25, 2017)
This episode of Listening Through Time features the New York Philharmonic’s principal trombone, Joseph Alessi in conversation with the Orchestra’s Archivist and Historian Emerita Barbara Haws, considering how trombone and trumpet performance practices and interpretations have changed over the decades. One of Leonard Bernstein’s Hunky Brutes, Alessi discusses former Philharmonic members of the Metropolitan Opera.