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July 07, 2016
Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival 2016: Week 2 (August 1-7)
Mostly Mozart Festival
Contact: Eric M. Gewirtz
212.875.5049
LINCOLN CENTER’S 50th MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL
Week 2: August 1–August 7, 2016
Emerson String Quartet and Emanuel Ax Join Forces with Two Concerts on August 1
Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Martin Helmchen Make Festival Debuts
with Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, August 2–3;
Paavo Järvi and Martin Fröst Return to Perform With Festival Orchestra, August 5–6
Popular “A Little Night Music” Series Begins This Week with Four Recitals, August 1–6,
Including Mahan Esfahani’s Festival Debut with Songs In The Key of Bach
International Contemporary Ensemble Continues 50 for 50 Series
With Free Mini-Concerts Including World and U.S. Premieres
NEW YORK (July 7, 2016) — Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, one of the world’s major music festivals and a beloved summer New York tradition, celebrates its milestone 50th anniversary season with eight performances and a variety of superb musicians, including artist debuts, late-night recitals, premieres, and the return of favorite artists during the festival’s second week.
The second week begins with two Mostly Mozart Festival mainstays, the Emerson String Quartet (festival debut, 1984) and pianist Emanuel Ax (festival debut, 1977), teaming up for the first time at the festival to perform two concerts on Monday, August 1. In the first concert, at 7:30 pm at Alice Tully Hall, the quartet will perform Purcell’s Chacony in G minor and Schubert’s String Quartet in A minor, D.804 (“Rosamunde”), and will be joined by Ax for Dvorák’s Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81. Afterward, they perform this summer’s first late-night recital at 10:00 pm at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, offering Schubert’s Quartettsatz in C minor, D.703, Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor, K.478; Ax performs Beethoven’s Six Variations in F Major, Op. 34.
The resident orchestra of the festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, will present four concerts, beginning with performances on August 2 and 3, featuring two artists making special debut appearances. The Colombian-born conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, also the Music Director of the Houston Symphony, makes his New York debut and first festival appearance leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at David Geffen Hall in a program featuring Haydn’s Symphony No. 59 in A major (“Fire”) and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K.550. Performing Mozart’s exuberant Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503, is the gifted German pianist Martin Helmchen, also making his festival debut. Helmchen will also perform pre-concert recitals on both evenings; details may be found in the listings below. On August 5 and 6, conductor Paavo Järvi and clarinetist Martin Fröst both return to Mostly Mozart with a panoramic program: Arvo Pärt’s La Sindone, Mozart’s famed Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60. Fröst then performs a late-night recital following the August 6 orchestral concert. Prior to the August 5 and 6 concerts, pianist Andrew Tyson will perform pre-concert recitals.
The festival’s unique late-night series begins this week and will continue throughout the summer. “A Little Night Music” presents intimate concerts at 10:00 p.m. with candlelit tables, complimentary wine, and a sparkling skyline at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse atop Lincoln Center’s Rose Building, with audiences up close to the artists. Four concerts will be presented this week, beginning with the Emerson String Quartet and Emanuel Ax performing Schubert, Beethoven, and Mozart on August 1. The following evening, August 2, pianist Paul Lewis, who mesmerized audiences at a late-night recital in 2013, returns to the festival to perform music by Schubert and Brahms. Later in the week, on August 5, Mahan Esfahani, a rising Iranian-American harpsichordist, makes his Mostly Mozart Festival debut with a program titled Songs in the Key of Bach, which includes music by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, J.C. Bach, Dušek, and Ligeti. On August 6, immediately following his appearance with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, clarinetist Martin Fröst will be joined by pianist Roland Pöntinen (who makes his festival debut) for a lively recital of folk dance–inspired music.
In celebration of the festival’s 50th anniversary season, the pioneering new-music group International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the festival’s artists-in-residence, presents 50 new works (including local, U.S., and world premieres) as part of their 50 for 50 series. The series continues during the second week of the festival with several free micro-concerts performed on Lincoln Center’s Hearst Plaza. Highlights of these free, 15-minute performances include members of ICE along with soprano Tony Arnold and harpist Bridget Kibbey, performing works by composers such as Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Gerald Barry, Ashley Fure, and students from The Walden School. Each of these concerts are co-presented by the Mostly Mozart Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors.
Throughout the festival, audiences can trace the history of one of the most celebrated classical music festivals in a free exhibition called Mozart Forever: Fifty Years of the Mostly Mozart Festival. The exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts includes artwork, photographs, memorabilia, interviews, concert excerpts, and more, illuminating the path from its all-Mozart roots to its current ambitious, visionary place in the cultural landscape. Mozart Forever: Fifty Years of the Mostly Mozart Festival is on display now through August 27.
LOUIS LANGRÉE
Louis Langrée, music director of the Mostly Mozart Festival since December 2002, was named Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director in August 2006. Under his musical leadership, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra has received extensive critical acclaim, and its performances are an annual summertime highlight for classical music lovers in New York City.
Mr. Langrée is also music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Earlier this year they performed in New York as part of the 50th anniversary season of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series, and future plans include a tour to Asia. Mr. Langrée will make his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the fall, and in February he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for performances of Carmen. In Europe he will conduct the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and the Orchestre National de France, the latter in Debussy’s opera and Schoenberg’s tone poem based on Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
Mr. Langrée was chief conductor of Camerata Salzburg until this summer, and has appeared as guest conductor with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Budapest Festival Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His opera engagements include appearances with La Scala, Opéra Bastille, Vienna State Opera, and Royal Opera House–Covent Garden. Mr. Langrée was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2006 and Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur in 2014.
Mr. Langrée’s first recording with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra features commissioned works by Nico Muhly and David Lang, as well as Copland’s Lincoln Portrait narrated by Maya Angelou. His DVD of Verdi’s La traviata from the Aix-en-Provence Festival featuring Natalie Dessay and the London Symphony Orchestra was awarded a Diapason d’Or. His discography also includes recordings on the Universal and Virgin Classics labels.
Jane Moss
Jane Moss is the Ehrenkranz Artistic Director of Lincoln Center, a position that includes her role as Artistic Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival. In that capacity, she has initiated and led the transformation and expansion of the festival into a multidisciplinary, multilayered, and far-reaching exploration of its namesake genius and his influence on succeeding generations. Ms. Moss also created several major new initiatives at Lincoln Center, including the international, multigenre Lincoln Center Festival, the New Visions series—which linked the worlds of the theater, dance, visual arts, and classical music—and Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, which focuses on classic and contemporary expressions of American song. In 2010 she launched the multidisciplinary White Light Festival, focused on exploring how the performing arts illuminate our interior lives as expressed by a dynamic, international spectrum of distinctive musical, dance, and theater artists. The programming she has introduced and directs represents a continuing contribution to the vitality of New York’s cultural landscape. Ms. Moss also oversees Great Performers, Lincoln Center’s major season-long classical music series; Midsummer Night Swing; and the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors summer series. Ms. Moss has played an important role as an innovator in musical and music-based presentation and is a recipient of the French Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
Prior to joining Lincoln Center, Ms. Moss worked as an arts consultant, designing and developing projects and programming initiatives for a variety of foundations and arts organizations, including the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts. As Executive Director of Meet the Composer, a national organization serving American composers, Ms. Moss created the country’s largest composer commissioning program, as well as a program supporting collaborations between composers and choreographers. In addition, she served as Executive Director of New York’s leading off-Broadway theater company, Playwrights Horizons, and Executive Director of the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York.
About the Mostly Mozart Festival
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival—America’s first indoor summer music festival—was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called “Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival” its first two seasons were devoted exclusively to the music of Mozart. The official title of Mostly Mozart was coined in 1970, and the festival has evolved over time to become a New York institution and a highlight of the city’s summer classical music season. Under the leadership of Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss and Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, Mostly Mozart has broadened its focus beyond the music of Mozart to include works by his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes performances by the world’s outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera productions, dance, film, and late-night concerts. Contemporary music has become an essential part of the festival, embodied in annual artist and composer residencies that have included Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, George Benjamin, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Among the many artists and ensembles who have had long associations with the festival are Joshua Bell, Christian Tetzlaff, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Hough, Osmo Vänskä, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Emerson String Quartet, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. The festival’s popularity has been reflected in several cultural touchstones, including an Al Hirschfeld illustration, a Peanuts cartoon strip, beer cans, and a cover of The New Yorker magazine.
The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly Mozart Festival, and is the only chamber orchestra in the U.S. dedicated to the music of the Classical period. Since 2002 Louis Langrée has been the Orchestra’s music director, and since 2005 the Orchestra’s David Geffen Hall home has been transformed each summer into an appropriately intimate venue for its performances. Over the years, the Orchestra has been the festival’s ambassador, touring to such notable festivals and venues as Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, the Kennedy Center, and The White House. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra include Michael Tilson Thomas, David Zinman, Jérémie Rhorer, Edward Gardner, Lionel Bringuier, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Susanna Mälkki, and Edo de Waart. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, flutist James Galway, soprano Elly Ameling, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida all made their U.S. debuts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.
ABOUT LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 16 series, festivals, and programs, including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, Legends at Lincoln Center: The Performing Arts Hall of Fame, Lincoln Center at the Movies, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is celebrating 40 years enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, visit LincolnCenter.org.
Lincoln Center is committed to providing and improving accessibility for people with disabilities. For information, call the Department of Programs and Services for People with Disabilities at 212.875.5375
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The Mostly Mozart Festival is made possible by Renée and Robert Belfer, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Chris and Bruce Crawford, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation, and Friends of Mostly Mozart.
Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
American Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Center
Nespresso is the Official Coffee of Lincoln Center
NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center
“Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Diet Pepsi
Media Partner WQXR
Artist catering provided by Zabar’s and Zabars.com
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INFORMATION AND UPDATES
Visit MostlyMozart.org for information about the festival and other updates.
PHONE NUMBERS/CONTACT INFORMATION
Lincoln Center general website: LincolnCenter.org
Mostly Mozart Festival website: MostlyMozart.org
Lincoln Center Customer Service: 212.875.5456
CenterCharge: 212.721.6500
VENUE LOCATIONS
Alice Tully Hall, 65th Street and Broadway
David Geffen Hall, 65th Street and Broadway
Hearst Plaza, North of the Metropolitan Opera House and in front of Lincoln Center Theater, near West 65th Street
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, between the Metropolitan Opera House and Lincoln Center Theater
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, Samuel B. and David Rose Building, 10th Floor, 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
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MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL 2016
WEEK TWO: August 1–August 7
Monday, August 1, 2016 at 7:30 pm Alice Tully Hall
Emerson String Quartet
Emanuel Ax, piano
Purcell: Chacony in G minor
Schubert: String Quartet in A minor, D.804 (“Rosamunde”)
Dvorák: Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81
Monday, August 1, 2016 at 10:00 pm Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
A Little Night Music
Emerson String Quartet
Emanuel Ax, piano
Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor, D.703
Beethoven: Six Variations in F Major, Op. 34
Mozart: Piano Quartet in G minor, K.478
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 7:30 pm David Geffen Hall
Wednesday, August 3, 2016 at 7:30 pm
Pre-concert recitals by Martin Helmchen, piano, at 6:30 David Geffen Hall
Mozart: Sonata in F major, K.332
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor M|M and New York debut
Martin Helmchen, piano M|M
Haydn: Symphony No. 59 in A major (“Fire”)
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503
Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K.550
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 10:00 pm Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
A Little Night Music
Paul Lewis, piano
Schubert: Sonata in B major, D.575
Brahms: Ballades, Op. 10
Wednesday, August 3, 2016 at 1:00 pm Hearst Plaza
International Contemporary Ensemble: Free Micro-Concert
Nathan Davis, dulcimer
Nathan Davis: Quatre Huîtres (world premiere)
Wednesday, August 3, 2016 at 6:30 pm Hearst Plaza
International Contemporary Ensemble: Free Micro-Concert
Peter Tantsits, tenor
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: For it will never return (world premiere)
Gerald Barry: Jabberwocky (U.S. premiere)
Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 1:00 pm Hearst Plaza
International Contemporary Ensemble: Free Micro-Concert
Young Composers Concert
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Bridget Kibbey, harp
Mike Lormand, trombone
Josh Modney, violin
Erin Rogers, saxophone
Students from The Walden School: Eight New Works (world premieres)
Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 6:30 pm Hearst Plaza
International Contemporary Ensemble: Free Micro-Concert
Tony Arnold, soprano
Bridget Kibbey, harp
Suzanne Farrin: Il Suono (world premiere)
Doug Balliett: David (world premiere)
Friday, August 5, 2016 at 6:30 pm Hearst Plaza
International Contemporary Ensemble: Free Micro-Concert
Ross Karre, percussion
Eli Keszler, percussion and electronics
Levy Lorenzo, percussion and electronics
Ashely Fure: Shiver Lung 2 (world premiere)
Friday, August 5, 2016 at 7:30 pm David Geffen Hall
Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 7:30 pm
Pre-concert recitals by Andrew Tyson, piano, at 6:30 David Geffen Hall
Chopin: Ballade in A-flat major, Op. 47
Beethoven: Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a (“Les Adieux”)
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, conductor
Martin Fröst, clarinet
Arvo Pärt: La Sindone
Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60
Friday, August 5, 2016 at 10:00 pm Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
A Little Night Music
Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord M|M
Songs in the Key of Bach
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in E-flat major, BWV 876, from the Well-tempered Clavier, Book II
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major, BWV 874, from the Well-tempered Clavier, Book II
C.P.E. Bach: Sonata in G minor, Wq 65/17
J.C. Bach: Sonata in C minor, Op. 5, No. 6
Dušek: Sonata in B-flat major
Ligeti: Hungarian Rock (Chaconne)
Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 6:30 pm Hearst Plaza
International Contemporary Ensemble: Free Micro-Concert
Ross Karre, percussion
Eli Keszler, percussion and electronics
Levy Lorenzo, percussion and electronics
Eli Keszler: Rake/Receiver (world premiere)
Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 10:00 pm Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
A Little Night Music
Martin Fröst, clarinet
Roland Pöntinen, piano M|M
Brahms: Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 120, No. 2
Bartók (arr. Jonas Dominique): Romanian Folk Dances, Sz.56
Szymanowski: Two Mazurkas, Op. 50, Nos. 1 and 10
Brahms (arr. Martin Fröst and Roland Pöntinen): Hungarian Dances Nos. 14, 21, and 1
Falla (arr. Martin Fröst): Nana
Göran Fröst (arr. Martin Fröst and Roland Pöntinen): Klezmer Dances
Sunday, August 7, 2016 at 3:00 pm Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse
Panel Discussion: Mozart’s Operatic Poets
Laurel E. Zeiss
Martin Nedbal
Edmund J. Goehring
Presented in association with the Mozart Society of America
Sunday, August 7, 2016 at 6:30 pm Hearst Plaza
International Contemporary Ensemble: Free Micro-Concert
Ryan Muncy, saxophone
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Lucy Deghrae, soprano
Levy Lorenzo, electronics
Ross Karre, percussion
Claire Chase, flute
Natacha Diels: Words to Sleep By (New York premiere)
Wojtek Blecharz: New Work (world premiere)
Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles: C.W. Rainforest (New York premiere)
M|M Mostly Mozart Festival debut
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Photo Credit: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco Size: 2640x1760 |
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Photo Credit: © Martin Sigmund Size: 3149x4724 |
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Photo Credit: © Mats Ba¨cker Size: 2100x1400 |
Paavo Järvi, conductor
Caption: Paavo Järvi conducts the The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in Alice Tully Hall on August 7 as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival 2014.Photo Credit: © Julia Baier Size: 1890x1177 |
Photo Credit: © Bernhard Musil/Deutsche Grammophon Size: 2700x1797 |
Photo Credit: © Armen Elliott Size: 2400x1600 |