April 16, 2021 | By Ronald Blum,
Associated Press
Esa-Pekka Salonen walked on stage to join the New York Philharmonic, which had not gathered before an audience for exactly 400 days. “On behalf of all us on stage, welcome back,” the conductor told the crowd Wednesday night. “We have been dreaming of this moment for a long time.”
The Philharmonic gave its first public performance after a historic hiatus of more than 13 months caused by the coronavirus pandemic, playing in the vast McCourt Theater at the Shed in Hudson Yards, about two miles from its under-renovation Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.