The decision of the New York Philharmonic to hire Alan Gilbert as its next music director has been the talk of the classical-music world ever since the sudden announcement of his appointment in 2009. For the most part, the response has been favorable, to say the least. “Hooray! At last!” wrote Anthony Tommasini, a sober-sided classical-music critic.
One of the reasons why the appointment came as such a surprise, however, is that Gilbert is comparatively little known. Even Tommasini, who had advocated Gilbert's appointment in the Times, calls him “an unpretentious musician with no air of the formidable conductor about him.” As a description of the next music director of an orchestra that has hitherto been led by musicians like Gustav Mahler and Pierre Boulez, that seems likely to have struck at least some Times readers as faint praise.
纽约爱乐乐团决定聘请Alan Gilbert（艾伦·吉尔伯特）作为下一任的 音乐总监，从2009年任命被宣布之日起到现在，这次任命在古典音乐界引起了热议。别的不说，大部分人的反应是积极的。“好啊，终于好了！”Anthony Tommasini（安东尼·托马西尼）写道，他可是一个以严肃著称的古典音乐评论家。
但是，这个任命引起人们惊讶的原因却是Gilbert并不是很有名。甚至在《时代》杂志上发文支持Gilbert任命的Tommasini都称他为低调的音乐家。在他身上找不到那种飞扬跋扈的指挥家的气质。纽约爱乐乐团迄今为止都是由像Gustav Mahler（古斯塔夫·马勒）和Pierre Boulez（皮尔·布列兹）那样的音乐家领导的。这样去描述这个乐团的下一位指挥，至少对于《时代》的读者而言，这是一种苍白的表扬。