Alan Gilbert Conducts 'Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario,' with Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer will narrate Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario, with music from Sir William Walton's score for the Laurence Olivier film of Shakespeare's Henry V, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, Monday, April 11, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. The program will also include music of Shakespeare's time. Joining the New York Philharmonic will be the Manhattan School of Music Symphonic Chorus and Chamber Choir, Kent Tritle, director, and The American Boychoir, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, director. 

In 1943-44 William Walton (1902-1983) composed the music for the film adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V, produced and directed by Laurence Olivier, who also played the title role. The late Christopher Palmer - a writer, orchestrator, and arranger - put together his Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario, using large sections of the Oscar- nominated score, for Neville Marriner and Christopher Plummer in 1988. Mr. Plummer has recorded and performed this version several times, including with the New York Philharmonic in December 1996, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

Christopher Plummer played the role of Henry in Shakespeare's Henry V in 1956 at the age of 26 at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. It was a performance that launched his career. -I was suddenly taken seriously,? he told The New York Times in 1981. He has performed it several times since and, as an accomplished pianist, has also branched out musically to narrate concert versions of Henry V, Peer Gynt, and Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos