This August, how about a little night music?
Gilt City members are invited to one (or all!) of six concerts at Lincoln Center’s annual Mostly Mozart Festival.
The loosened-up, perfect-for-summer programs offer Mozart aplenty (including such favorites as the “Jupiter Symphony” and selections from “Don Giovanni”), as well as works by Beethoven, Schubert and Stravinsky. On the bills are choral works, violin and piano concerti, selections from operas…
This is more like a
lot of night music.
Make it a full evening with a pre-concert picnic from the Plaza Kiosk, which you can enjoy on the elevated Illumination Lawn. Or get even more elegant with a three-course Italian dinner, plus a glass of wine, at Arpeggio Food & Wine in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall.
A light summer meal, superb music and a convivial atmosphere: without Mostly Mozart, New York City summers would lose a little of their fizz.
Peggy Parker, Gilt City Editor
Launched in 1966, shortly after the completion of Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart was originally called “Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival,” with performances of only Mozart’s music in Avery Fisher Hall. It was the first indoor summer musical festival in the world, and was an instant hit in spite of skeptics who believed there was no audience in New York for summer music, much less purely for Mozart. It was the first exposure to a classical music concert for some, who were drawn by the informal atmosphere. Now in its fifth decade, the Festival has expanded into five venues with a musical repertoire spanning five centuries.
Today the Mostly Mozart Festival comprises period-instrument ensembles, dance presentations, new music groups, composers- and artists-in-residence, visiting orchestras and ensembles, opera productions, late-night concerts, films, lectures and artist discussions. The Festival has been graced with major contemporary artists, composers and ensembles including a Maori dance company. James Galway and Cecilia Bartoli debuted at Mostly Mozart.
At its heart is the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra under the leadership of Music Director Louis Langrée, offering orchestral works of Mozart, his contemporaries, predecessors and successors. But it is Mozart and his genius that inspires it all.
WED, AUGUST 3 at 8 PM
ALL-MOZART PROGRAM
Overture to “Le nozze de Figaro”
Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major for violin and viola
“Crudele?... Non mi dir, bell’idol mio,” from “Don Giovanni”
“Bella mia fiamma… Resta, o cara”
Symphony No.36 in C major (“Linz”)
FRI, AUGUST 5 at 8 PM
BACH: Overture No.4
BRUCH: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor
MOZART: Symphony No.40 in G minor
WED, AUGUST 10 at 8 PM
ALL-MOZART PROGRAM
Ave verum corpus
Symphony No.41 in C major (“Jupiter”)
Vesperae solennes de confessore
FRI, AUGUST 12 at 8 PM
ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAM
“Leonore” Overture No.2
Piano Concerto No.2
“Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?,” from “Fidelio”
Symphony No.8
FRI, AUGUST 19 at 8 PM
STRAVINSKY: Symphony in C
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No.4
FRI, AUGUST 26 at 8 PM
STRAVINSKY: In memoriam Dylan Thomas
SCHUBERT: Symphony No.8 (“Unfinished”)
MOZART: Requiem
WED, AUGUST 3 at 8 PM
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Antoine Tamestit, viola
Susanna Phillips, soprano
FRI, AUGUST 5 at 8 PM
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor
Joshua Bell, violin
WED, AUGUST 10 at 8 PM
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Iván Fischer, conductor
Lucy Crowe, soprano
Concert Chorale of New York, James Bagwell, director
FRI, AUGUST 12 at 8 PM
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor
Jeremy Denk, piano
Christine Brewer, soprano
FRI, AUGUST 19 at 8 PM
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor
Nelson Freire, piano
FRI, AUGUST 26 at 8 PM
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor
Julia Lezhneva, soprano (U.S. debut)
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Kaiser, tenor
Morris Robinson, bass
Concert Chorale of New York, James Bagwell, director