New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall Alan Gilbert had an elegantly straightforward idea for the New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve concert at Avery Fisher Hall (and on televisions everywhere, thanks to PBS). He set aside the orchestra's long tradition of following the Central European model of offering either bubbly programs of Viennese waltzes or grandly serious works like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as well as recent alternatives, like presenting a pops concert featuring a Broadway singer or light classics that would not otherwise be heard in a Philharmonic program. Instead Mr. Gilbert is building a tradition of his own. As in his first New Year's Eve concert with the Philharmonic in 2010, when he played works by Copland, Gershwin and Cole Porter, he assembled a program of crowd-pleasing American classics, composed by New Yorkers. True, you could argue that the works - Bernstein's "Candide" Overture and Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story," and Gershwin's Concerto in F and "Rhapsody in Blue" - are often played by pops orchestras. But none would be out of place at a Philharmonic subscription concert. And together they made a point about the importance of the musical vernacular in the creation of a distinctly American style. All that aside, Mr. Gilbert's choices also added up to just the right kind of celebration for the transition from 2011 to 2012. On the surface all four works are vigorous, virtuosic and lyrical, but there are countervailing undercurrents too: the Voltairean cynicism and social skewering that drive "Candide," for example, or the menacing cultural and racial clashes in the "West Side Story" dances. Even the ebullience of the Gershwin pieces is offset by the blue notes of their jazzy themes. As a listener you had a choice. You could ring in the year by surfing on the music's bright side or hear the program as a more nuanced observation about where we are. Either way the orchestra did its part, bringing out the glittery textures of the "Candide" Overture but also touching on the richness and warmth of Bernstein's scoring. In the "West Side Story" suite the orchestra's brasses and percussionists were in their element in the Prologue, the Latin-tinged dances and the fight scenes, and the strings and woodwinds shone in the love scenes and the finale. The French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the soloist in both Gershwin works. You might have wondered why, if the Philharmonic was shining its spotlight on American works, it did not also engage an American soloist. But there was some logic in the choice. Mr. Thibaudet's greatest strength is as a Ravel interpreter, and there are strong links between Gershwin and Ravel. And other projects of Mr. Thibaudet's suggest a fascination with jazz pianism. In any case he served the music well, moving easily between the classical and jazz strains in the concerto (whose finale owes much to Prokofiev) and bringing out the freewheeling spirit, rather than a sense of symphonic propriety, in "Rhapsody in Blue."