The Mozartists continue their ground-breaking MOZART 250 series with two new concerts
Ian Page conducting The Mozartists © Benjamin Ealovega
Ian Page and The Mozartists continue their acclaimed MOZART 250 series in the coming months with ‘Mozart in 1772’ at Cadogan Hall on 21 November 2022 and ‘1773 – a Retrospective’ at Wigmore Hall on 17 January 2023.
For ‘Mozart in 1772’ they are joined by Louise Alder, one of the finest Mozart sopranos of her generation, and their principal keyboard player Steven Devine for a fascinatingly varied and wide-ranging cross-section of works composed by Mozart in 1772, while ‘1773 – a Retrospective’ places Mozart’s music alongside symphonies by Haydn and C. P. E. Bach and arias (sung by new company Associate Artist Alexandra Lowe) by Haydn, Mysliveček and Schweitzer.
MOZART 250 is conceived to run from 2015, the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s childhood visit to London (the city where he wrote his earliest significant works) until 2041, the 250th anniversary of his death. Described by The Observer as “among the most audacious classical music scheduling ever”, it provides an unprecedented opportunity for modern audiences to follow the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life and work in ‘real time’, not only exploring Mozart’s own music but also contextualising it alongside the works of his contemporaries.
‘Mozart in 1772’ 21 November, Cadogan Hall
PROGRAMME:
Mozart Symphony No. 21 in A major, K.134
“Dalla sponda tenebrosa” from Lucio Silla
Keyboard Concerto in D major, K.107/1
“Parto, m’affretto” from Lucio Silla
“Fra i pensier più funesti di morte” from Lucio Silla
Symphony No. 20 in D major, K.133
“Ah se il crudel periglio” from Lucio Silla
ARTISTS:
Louise Alder (soprano)
Steven Devine (harpsichord)
The Mozartists
Ian Page (conductor)
By 1772 the sixteen-year-old Mozart was approaching maturity as a composer, and his style was already fully formed. He spent most of the year at home in Salzburg before setting off in October for Milan, where he completed Lucio Silla and supervised the opera’s rehearsals and première.
This programme features two outstanding symphonies and an intriguing concerto, whose solo part is taken from keyboard sonatas by Johann Christian Bach but whose string accompaniment is pure Mozart. These are supplemented by Giunia’s four magnificent arias from Lucio Silla, two of which are among the most spectacularly virtuosic and technically challenging vocal music that Mozart ever wrote. They are here performed by soprano Louise Alder, one of the leading Mozart singers of her generation, who became an Associate Artist of The Mozartists in 2013 and in 2017 won the Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, while the soloist in the concerto is the internationally acclaimed harpsichordist Steven Devine, The Mozartists’ principal keyboard player.
‘1773 – a retrospective’ 17 January, Wigmore Hall
PROGRAMME:
Mozart Symphony No. 27 in G major, K.199
Schweitzer “Er ist gekommen… Zwischen Angst und zwischen Hoffen” from Alceste
C. P. E. Bach Symphony in B minor, Wq.182/5
Mysliveček “Potea quel pianto” from La Passione di Nostro Signore Gesu Cristo
Haydn “È la pompa un grand’imbroglio” from L’infedeltà delusa
Haydn Symphony No. 51 in B flat major
Mozart “Exsultate, jubilate”, K.165
ARTISTS:
Alexandra Lowe (soprano)
The Mozartists
Ian Page (conductor)
MOZART 250 enters its ninth year with this entertaining and illuminating selection of works composed in 1773. The programme begins with one of Mozart’s most beguiling middle-period symphonies and ends with his first enduringly popular masterpiece, the effervescently dynamic “Exsultate, jubilate” (written in Milan for the celebrated castrato Venanzio Rauzzini just a couple of weeks after the triumphant première of Lucio Silla). In between, Haydn’s famed horn writing takes the instrument to the almost ridiculous extremes of its compass and C. P. E. Bach conjures a remarkable depth of expression in arguably his finest symphony, while the latest addition to the company’s outstanding roster of Associate Artists, soprano Alexandra Lowe (a recent graduate of the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme), makes her eagerly awaited company début in arias by Schweitzer, Haydn and Mysliveček that are by turns dramatic, lyrical and virtuosic.
Artistic director Ian Page writes: “MOZART 250 is now getting to a stage where Mozart was approaching full maturity as a composer, and even creating a programme devoted exclusively to music that he composed in 1772 involved some difficult decisions. Already by the age of sixteen he was writing works which regularly reveal the unique hallmarks of his greatness, and his productivity was such that we could have filled three evenings with music that he composed during the course of the year.
“Our overview of 1773 includes only two works by Mozart – more will follow later in the year – but as with similar programmes in the series it incorporates some magnificent music by a few of his contemporaries. Anton Schweitzer is a composer not previously featured within MOZART 250, but the opening aria of his Alceste is an extraordinarily intense and dramatic tour de force, and, as with the works by Mysliveček and C. P. E. Bach that are also featured in this programme, it demonstrates that some of the music being written at the time was quite unlike the music of Mozart, Haydn and Gluck.”
Next recording project
The Mozartists return to the recording studio from 3-5 January to record the third volume in their acclaimed ‘Sturm und Drang’ series. This will feature Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 in E minor (‘Trauer’), Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor and Kozeluch’s Symphony in G minor, alongside arias by Schweitzer and Paisiello performed by company Associate Artist Emily Pogorelc.