The maestro, who has led many of the world’s leading orchestras, has told The New York Times: "I’ve waited more than 85 years for this moment."
He added: "The moment an invitation comes from an orchestra, I still cannot resist saying yes. The temptation is always there to try to do it better than you have done before."
Wednesday’s concert, featuring works by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Weber, will be repeated on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Janowski, who turns 86 in three weeks, is one of the oldest conductors to debut with the NY Philharmonic.
He was born in 1939 in Warsaw to a Polish father and a German mother. He left Poland with his mother soon after the outbreak of World War II and was brought up in Wuppertal near Cologne, where his mother’s parents lived.
His father disappeared in Poland during the war.
Polish-born German conductor Marek Janowski. Photo: Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Janowski has developed a fine career as one of the foremost interpreters of the German musical tradition, earning worldwide recognition for his mastery of Wagner, Strauss, Bruckner and Brahms.
He has also served as music director for many top ensembles.
Janowski performs regularly in Poland. In October, he conducted the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra in a concert in Warsaw marking the ensemble’s 40th anniversary.
(mk/gs)