Italy waits New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic will travel with concerts six Italian cities after more than 20 years. Throughout the tour, which was set to begin Thursday in Rome , music director Lorin Maazel will lead works by Berlioz, Brahms, Kodaly, Mahler, Mozart and Verdi, organizers said.

Photo: Italy waits New York Philharmonic

As usual, the playing of the orchestra under Mr. Maazel was vividly colorful and technically brilliant, although for me the performance was a little top-heavy and calculated, especially the first movement, depicting an impressionable and unstable young musician's passions for a woman he has seen just once. This was Berlioz the austere devotee of Gluck more than Berlioz the wild-eyed and visionary Romantic.

Riccardo Muti, who has already conducted the Orchestra, will guest conduct on June 18, in Ravenna . He will lead Schumann's Symphony N. 4 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony N. 5, organizers said.

The New York Philharmonic, founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians, plays some 180 concerts a year, reports the AP.

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