The New York Philharmonic has canceled its annual outdoor concerts this summer, but the concerts will return next year. In a release sent Tuesday night, the orchestra blamed it on “the scheduling impact of planned pre-season events.” The Times expands, explaining that the orchestra will instead offer extra events in September before the official start of the new season—a concert with Andrea Bocelli in Central Park, a night with Christopher Plummer and William Walton’s music from Henry V at Avery Fisher, and two other as yet unannounced concerts.
The Henry V event—which will also feature “music from Shakespeare’s time”—had been planned for this past spring, but was postponed because of a conflict with Plummer’s schedule. Can we say, then, that Plummer ruined summer this year for us Brooklynites? (The Philharmonic parks concert is my favorite event of the season!) The orchestra suggests we should instead blame Bocelli. “The Philharmonic chose to replace the normal parks concerts with the September performances after the Bocelli concert came up,” the Times reports. Well, thanks a lot, Andrea!