American Classical Orchestra Sets 2023-24 Season With Three Concerts at Alice Tully Hall & More

The American Classical Orchestra has announced its 2023-24 season of four orchestral concerts led by Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford and a special pre-season chamber music performance for subscribers. The season opens with two beloved symphonies, Mozart's "Paris" and Beethoven's "Pastoral," coupled with his Romance in G Major for Violin and Orchestra (November 16). It continues with a holiday program of Italian works featuring Bencini's lost Christmas oratorio from the shelves of the Vatican archives, and Gianettini's Magnificat (December 14); Bach's beloved B Minor Mass with the ACO Chorus (March 7); and concludes with Mozart's "Jupiter" and C.P.E. Bach's B Minor Symphonies, along with Herschel's Oboe Concerto and Berlin's Concerto á 5 (May 8).

Featured soloists are award-winning violinist Augusta McKay Lodge, a regular concertmaster with Les Arts Florissants; the "especially impressive" (The New York Times) soprano Nola Richardson; Grammy-nominated American countertenor Reginald Mobley; "superb vocal soloist" (The Washington Post) and active Bach interpreter tenor Steven Soph; First Prize winner in the Oratorio Society of New York's Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition, bass Steven Eddy; oboist, noted historical instrument expert, ASCAP Award-winner, and Juilliard faculty member Gonzalo Ruiz; and early music artist Adam Cockerham, a specialist in theorbo, lute and Baroque guitar.

"This season, the ACO programs three pillars of classical repertoire: Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, Mozart's Jupiter, and the Bach B Minor Mass featuring our acclaimed ACO Chorus," said Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford. "Hearing 18th-century masterpieces played with passion, live in New York and on period instruments, is our greatest joy."

Pre-season performance: La musica notturna di Madrid

Thursday, September 28, 2023, 7 pm at the Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue

Adam Cockerham, Baroque guitar

Luigi Boccherini: Guitar Quintet in C Major, Op. 30, No. 6, G. 324, "La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid"

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Strings in G Major, RV 151

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Strings in G Minor, RV 157

This special pre-season chamber music performance for subscribers only presents an ACO string ensemble at the Salmagundi Club, a historic arts center on the National Register of Historic Places. The musicians are joined by Baroque guitar virtuoso Adam Cockerham, Associate Music Director of the Academy of Sacred Drama. The program opens with Boccherini's Guitar Quintet, initially written for strings, a work quite popular in Spain during the composer's lifetime. Attached to the Spanish Court of the late 1700s, Boccherini wrote the piece to evoke the lively atmosphere of Madrid at night. Its passe caille, or Passacaglia of the Street Singers section, has often been used in such modern settings as the 2003 film Master and Commander. Completing the program are two Vivaldi concerti written for string orchestra without a soloist. RV 151 is one of the composer's best-known works, familiar to cinema-lovers from the Bob Fosse film All That Jazz and Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.

Tickets, priced at $125 and offered to subscribers only, are available at www.aconyc.org, or by calling the ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4.

Season Opening: Premier coup d'archet

Thursday, November 16, 2023, 7:30 pm at Alice Tully Hall

Thomas Crawford, conductor

Augusta McKay Lodge, violin

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K. 297/300a "Paris"

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastorale"

Ludwig van Beethoven: Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in G Major, Op. 40

The title of this program, premier coup d'archet (first stroke of the bow), refers to a device whereby all the instruments play together at the start of a symphony-a practice popular at the time and one that Mozart used to great success in his Symphony No. 31. The work, written while the 22-year-old composer was looking for work in Paris, received hearty applause at its 1778 premiere. Beethoven's elegant Romance in G Major for Violin and Orchestra features young virtuoso Augusta McKay Lodge, an award-winning, historically informed violinist, and a founding member of ensembles Voyage Sonique (New York) and Spielerei Piano Trio (Amsterdam). The evening concludes with Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, loved for its portrayals of sounds of nature, including birds, a brook, and a thunderstorm. The ACO offers an authentic look at Beethoven's vision by the use of natural hunting horns, leather timpani, and 18th century Austrian woodwind instruments.

Tickets, priced at $75, $55, and $35, are available at www.aconyc.org, by calling at ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4, or by visiting lincolncenter.org or calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500. Subscriptions, priced at $255, $187, and $119, offer a 15% discount over individual ticket prices but do not include the chamber music concert on September 28.

Gesù Nato

Thursday, December 14, 2023, 7 pm at Corpus Christi Church, W. 121 St. between Broadway & Amsterdam

Thomas Crawford, conductor

Antonio Bencini: Gesù Nato

Antonio Gianettini: Magnificat

Antonio Bencini's Gesù Nato marks what is likely the modern premiere of the full work of this lost 1742 Christmas oratorio manuscript by the little-known composer who premiered it in Bologna before it was shelved at the Vatican Library for three centuries. The work features vocal soloists, a choir, and an orchestra of trumpets, oboes, and strings. Antonio Gianettini's version of the Magnificat, also known as the Canticle of Mary, is a prayer of praise to God found in the Gospel of Luke. It has been used in the daily prayers of the Catholic Church, and set to music by many composers. Gianettini-an Italian organist, concertmaster and composer-was considered to be one of the most talented composers of his era. In 1686, he took up the post of maestro di cappella to Duke Francesco II d'Este in Modena, for whom he wrote many sacred works until his death in 1791.

This performance is a co-production of the ACO and The Academy of Sacred Drama, founded in 2013 by ACO violinist and scholar Jeremy Rhizor. The Organization is dedicated to Baroque oratorio that draws its stories from biblical tales and the lives of saints.

Tickets, priced at $75, $55, and $35, are available at www.aconyc.org, or by calling at ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4. Subscriptions, priced at $255, $187, and $119, offer a 15% discount over individual ticket prices but do not include the chamber music concert on September 28.

B Minor Mass

Thursday, March 7, 2024, 7:30 pm at Alice Tully Hall

Thomas Crawford, conductor

Nola Richardson, soprano

Reginald Mobley, countertenor

Steven Soph, tenor

Steven Eddy, bass

ACO Chorus

Johann Sebastian Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232

Bach's Mass in B Minor was one of the composer's last achievements, completed a year before his death in 1749. A musical setting of the complete Latin Mass, this monumental work presents nine arias and duets, 14 ensemble sections for vocal groups of various sizes, and a range of instrumental solos in numerous styles. Based largely on Bach's earlier pieces, this mass is one of his best-loved vocal works. The orchestra is joined by the renowned ACO Chorus, comprised of professional vocalists from the New York metro area. Featured soloists will be soprano Nola Richardson, countertenor Reginald Mobley, tenor Steven Soph, and bass Steven Eddy.

Tickets, priced at $75, $55, and $35, are available at www.aconyc.org, by calling at ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4, or by visiting lincolncenter.org or calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500. Subscriptions, priced at $255, $187, and $119, offer a 15% discount over individual ticket prices but do not include the chamber music concert on September 28.

Astronomical

Wednesday, May 8, 2024, 7:30 pm at Alice Tully Hall

Thomas Crawford, conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 "Jupiter"

William Herschel: Oboe Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major

Johan Daniel Berlin: Concerto á 5 in A Major

C.P.E. Bach: Symphony in B Minor, H661 Wq182/5

Gonzalo Ruiz, oboe

The "astronomical" theme of this program is inspired by Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony, Herschel's telescopes, and Berlin's meteorological observations/alias composer roles. The concert begins with Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony, his longest and final symphony-the last of three composed in approximately two months and finished in 1748. Widely considered to be his strongest work and perhaps his most popular symphony, it is notable for its deft weaving of Classical and Baroque musical forms. Before the 18th century composer William Herschel played oboe and violin, he was an accomplished astronomer who built his own telescope and discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. His 1780 three-movement Oboe Concerto No. 1, written in the style of Corelli or Handel concerti grossi, features soloist Gonzalo Ruiz, a Juilliard faculty member and expert in historical reedmaking techniques, of which more than two dozen are on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Carl Philipp Emanuel (C.P.E.) Bach's Symphony in B Minor follows next. Johann Sebastian Bach's 5th child and one of the foremost clavier players in Europe, C.P.E. wrote the work during the German literature period of Sturm und Drang, when he created short pieces inspired by individualism. The evening closes with German-born Rococo composer Johan Daniel Berlin's Concerto á 5 in A Major. In 1737 Berlin became the town musician of Trondheim, Norway. In addition, he was a fire brigade captain, land surveyor, founding member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, and made a series of meteorological and astronomical observations. Today he is regarded as one of Norway's first known composers, although few of his works remain.

Tickets, priced at $75, $55, and $35, are available at www.aconyc.org, by calling at ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4, or by visiting lincolncenter.org or calling CenterCharge at 212.721.6500. Subscriptions, priced at $255, $187, and $119, offer a 15% discount over individual ticket prices but do not include the chamber music concert on September 28.

For details of American Classical Orchestra's 2023-24 season, click here.

About Thomas Crawford

The American Classical Orchestra's Artistic Director and Founder Thomas Crawford is a champion of historically accurate performance styles in Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic music. He founded two Connecticut orchestras: the Fairfield Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the period instrument offshoot of the Fairfield Orchestra, renamed the American Classical Orchestra in 1999. With the Fairfield Orchestra, Crawford commissioned numerous works by composers, including John Corigliano and William Thomas McKinley, and collaborated with artists such as Joshua Bell, John Corigliano, Vladimir Feltsman, Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, and Dawn Upshaw. He also conducted the world premiere of Keith Jarrett's Bridge of Light at Alice Tully Hall, subsequently recorded on the ECM label. An accomplished composer, organist, and choirmaster, Crawford won the prestigious BMI composition award for his organ work Ashes of Rose, which premiered at the American Guild of Organists. A passionate activist determined to bring the beauty of period music to a wider audience, Mr. Crawford received a Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth award from the National Endowment for the Arts, in recognition of the ACO's dynamic music outreach to New York City schoolchildren. A Pennsylvania native, he holds degrees in organ performance and composition from the Eastman School of Music and Columbia University.

About American Classical Orchestra

Founded in 1984 as the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the ensemble was renamed the American Classical Orchestra in 1999. Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford established its new and permanent home in New York City in 2005. It is now the City's only full-scale orchestra dedicated to performing 17th, 18th, and 19th century music on period instruments. Described as "simply splendid" by The New York Times, ACO players are the foremost in their field, consisting of artists who also perform with such major ensembles as Orchestra of St. Luke's, Handel and Haydn Society, and the New York Philharmonic. Its principal players are Faculty members at The Juilliard School, and the ACO works closely with students enrolled in the School's Historical Performance Program. The American Classical Orchestra Chorus, comprised of professional vocalists from the New York metro area, joins ACO for larger productions. By playing music on original instruments and using historic performance techniques, ACO strives to recreate the sounds that audiences would have heard when the music was first written and performed. The Orchestra and its "supremely skilled musicians" (Theater Scene) have won critical praise for its recordings, educational programs, and concerts, including appearances at Alice Tully Hall and in Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for a sold-out 25th anniversary performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Images from left to right: soprano Nola Richardson, countertenor Reginald Mobley, violinist Augusta McKay Lodge, oboist Gonzalo Ruiz. Courtesy of American Classical Orchestra.