American Classical Orchestra Unveils 2024-25 40th Anniversary Season

The American Classical Orchestra will celebrates its 40th anniversary season in 2024-25 with three orchestral concerts led by Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford at Alice Tully Hall, a chamber music concert at Weill Recital Hall, and two salon concerts to be offered at the University Club of New York and the Salmagundi Art Club. The season opens on September 18 at Alice Tully Hall with an all-Beethoven concert showcasing the composer's Piano Concerto No. 4, performed on fortepiano by soloist Petra Somlai, alongside his Symphony No. 7. 

Highlights of the 40th anniversary include two salon concerts in intimate venues, the first focusing on Schubert's Piano Quintet (The Trout) at the University Club of New York (October 30), followed by The Art of the Touch, a program spanning keyboard works from more than three centuries at the Salmagundi Art Club (December 6). Both salon concerts conclude with receptions that give audience members the opportunity to engage with the artists. Maestro Crawford will next lead the Orchestra and the ACO Chorus in Bach's grand choral masterwork, the St. John Passion, at Alice Tully Hall (January 30) before moving on to Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall for a performance featuring Mendelssohn's Octet (March 28). The ACO's 40th anniversary season culminates with a program titled “Mostly” Mozart spotlighting ACO principal bassoonist Andrew Schwartz in the composer's Bassoon Concerto, along with the Symphony No. 35, “Haffner” and Schubert's Incidental Music to Rosamunde at Alice Tully Hall (May 7).

“I can think of no better way to celebrate the American Classical Orchestra's 40th anniversary than by continuing along the successful path that brought us here,” said Artistic Director and Founder, Thomas Crawford. “During the 2024-25 season, we travel that path by inspiring Classical music fans with both large-scale and intimate chamber works by J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, underscoring our commitment to preserve and promote the music of the great Baroque and Classical composers with authentic, period instruments.”

Season Opener: 40th Anniversary Concert

Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 7:30 pm at Alice Tully Hall                              

American Classical Orchestra

Thomas Crawford, conductor

Petra Somlai, fortepiano

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92

The all-Beethoven season-opening program begins with the Piano Concerto No. 4, which offers a lyrical conversation between piano and orchestra that demonstrates Beethoven's power of invention. The work premiered with the composer at the keyboard in 1808 in a four-hour-long program that included the premieres of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies at Vienna's Theater an der Wien. The only classical-era concerto to start with a piano solo, the work was neglected until nine years later, when it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn in 1836. The performance features renowned Hungarian fortepianist Petra Somlai, professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and first prize-winner at the International Fortepiano Competition in Bruges, Belgium. The evening concludes with Symphony No. 7, which premiered with Beethoven conducting at the University of Vienna in 1813 as part of a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau. The work's second movement, the “Allegretto,” was so well received that it is often performed today on its own. Beethoven himself spoke of it fondly as “one of my best works.”

Tickets, priced at $75, $55, and $35, are available starting on August 1 at www.aconyc.org or by calling ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4; at lincolncenter.org or the Alice Tully Hall box office, or by 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 two salon concerts. Patron Society Memberships, priced at $875, include all six concerts, patron receptions, and a tax-deductible donation.

Salon Concert: The Trout

Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 7:30 pm

University Club of New York, 1 West 54th Street

Aisslinn Nosky, violin

Annie Garlid, viola

Myron Lutzke, cello

John Feeney, double bass

Mike Cheng-Yu Lee, fortepiano

Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet in A Major, D.667 (The Trout)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2

This intimate and special performance will take place at the historic University Club of New York, a private club chartered in 1865 for the “promotion of literature and art.” The program features Schubert's Piano Quintet, commissioned in 1819 by the wealthy music lover Sylvester Paumgartner, who specified that the work had to use a unique combination of instruments: piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Schubert expanded the uniqueness of the work by adding a fifth movement to the standard four-movement form, so that he could include a theme and variation movement based on the tune of Paumgartner's favorite Schubert song, Die Forelle, (The Trout). The evening also includes Beethoven's Trio in E-flat major Op. 70 No. 2, written for piano, violin, and cello, which was composed in 1808 in Vienna at the home of Countess Marie Erdödy and dedicated to her. The piece is representative of Beethoven's “Middle” stylistic period comprising many of his best-known works, including the Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral,” which was completed shortly before he wrote this Trio.

Tickets, priced at $125 for the special concert and cocktail reception, are available starting on August 1 exclusively at www.aconyc.org or by calling the ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4.

Salon Concert: The Art of the Touch

Friday, December 6, 2024, 7:30 pm

Salmagundi Art Club on Fifth Avenue at 12th Street

Chaeyoung Park, piano

Sandra Miller, flute

Masayuki Maki, clavichord

Avi Stein, harpsichord

François Couperin: Pièces de clavecin

J.S. Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903

C.P.E. Bach: Sonata for Flute and Obligato Keyboard in D Major, Wq 83

Ana Sokolovic: Danse 5 from Danses et Interludes (2003)

Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus, No. 15 - Le baiser de l'Enfant-Jésus

György Ligeti: Book Two: Étude 10 - Der Zauberlehrling

The season's second salon concert takes place at the Salmagundi Art Club, a historic arts center on the National Register of Historic Places. The performance covers keyboard works spanning many centuries—surveying the technological developments of keyboard instruments that created new possibilities in music composition. Beginning with Baroque composer Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin and J.S. Bach's virtuosic Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D Minor, moving on to the Classical era with the Sonata for Flute and Obligato Keyboard in D Major by C.P.E. Bach, and ending with contemporary works by Ana Sokolovic, Olivier Messiaen, and György Ligeti, the performance will illustrate how technology impacts art.

Tickets, priced at $125 for the concert and cocktail reception, are available starting on August 1 at www.aconyc.org or by calling the ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4.

St. John Passion

Friday, January 30, 2025, 7:30 pm at Alice Tully Hall   

American Classical Orchestra

Thomas Crawford, conductor

ACO Chorus

Kristen Hahn, soprano

Reginald Mobley, countertenor

Jacob Perry, tenor-evangelist

Additional soloists to be announced

J. S. Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245

Maestro Crawford conducts the Orchestra and ACO Chorus with Bach's grand choral masterwork, the St. John Passion. Composed just after Bach's 39th birthday for a vesper service on Good Friday, it premiered in 1724, three years before the St. Matthew, the only other surviving Passion of the five he wrote. While oratorios were originally developed as large-scale musical compositions for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra in celebration of a religious theme, Bach contributed to the genre with vigorous treatment of the choruses and the use of narrative as a binding element. Soloists include American Grammy Award-nominated countertenor Reginald Mobley—noted for his “shimmering voice”—who released his first solo album on Alpha Classics to great acclaim in June 2023; tenor Jacob Perry, who recently made his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic singing Handel's Israel in Egypt; and soprano Kristen Hahn, a crossover artist whose work spans multiple genres from Baroque to Broadway. She has appeared on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, recently starred in the Broadway National Tour of Hello, Dolly!, and performed with the ACO in March 2024 as a soloist in Bach's B Minor Mass. The ACO Chorus is comprised of professional New York metro area vocalists who join the Orchestra for larger works.

Tickets, priced at $75, $55, and $35, are available starting on August 1 at www.aconyc.org or by calling ACO at (212) 362-2727, ext.4; at lincolncenter.org or the Alice Tully Hall box office, or by 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 two salon concerts. Patron Society Memberships, priced at $875, include all six concerts, patron receptions, and a tax-deductible donation.

Chamber Music: Mendelssohn Octet

Friday, March 28, 2025, 7:30 pm, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall

Krista Bennion Feeney, Karl Kawahara, Theresa Salomon, Edson Scheid, violins

David Cerutti