Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival 2014 Week Three Features Beethoven, Gluck, Handel, Mozart and More

The third week of this summer's Mostly Mozart Festival, New York's acclaimed annual summer celebration of classical music, kicks off with a pair of all-Beethoven concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra leading one of the great works in the classical repertoire, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, today and tomorrow, August 12 and 13, at Avery Fisher Hall. Conducting this large-scale choral work is Gianandrea Noseda, featured at Mostly Mozart for a second consecutive summer following his debut last summer leading Rossini's Stabat mater. Singers for the performance include soprano Erika Grimaldi (U.S. debut), mezzo-sopranoAnna Maria Chiuri (Mostly Mozart debut), tenor Gregory Kunde, and bass Ildar Abdrazakov (Mostly Mozart debut). TheConcert Chorale of New York, directed by James Bagwell, will accompany the Festival Orchestra and soloists. The Festival Orchestra will also perform Beethoven's Overture to The Consecration of the House, Op. 124, to open the concerts. Additionally, the Amphion String Quartet will perform Barber's String Quartet, No. 11 in a pre-concert recital.

Later in the week, Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée leads two concerts with the Festival Orchestra, August 15 and 16, featuring two artists debuts and a Festival Orchestra first. Leading off the program will be Gluck's Dance of the Furies, from Orphée et Eurydice, followed by Mozart's Concerto in C major for flute and harp, K.299, with two young artists making their Festival debuts: Magali Mosnier, flute (also her U.S. debut), and Xavier de Maistre, harp (also his New York debut along with his late-night recital the previous evening). The second half of the program is devoted to one of the great symphonic works of the Romantic period, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. These will be the first performances of Berlioz's epic symphonic opus by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Each concert will have its own-pre concert event: Peter Bloom will lead a pre-concert lecture on August 15, and the duo of concerto soloists will perform works by Gluck, Smetana, and Fauré in their pre-concert recital on August 16.

In addition to its performances supporting Mark Morris Dance Group's presentation of Acis and Galatea, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra will be featured above the pit orchestra level for a one-night only concert performance of Handel's rarely performed Greek mythology opera Teseo, August 17 at Alice Tully Hall. Leading the Festival's early-music event is the orchestra's Music Director Nicholas McGegan ("a long-standing master of this repertoire," San Francisco Chronicle), along with a skilled cast featuring soprano Amanda Forsythe (Teseo, Mostly Mozart debut), soprano Amy Freston (Agilea, Mostly Mozart debut), soprano Dominique Labelle (Medea), soprano Céline Ricci (Clizia, Mostly Mozart debut), countertenor Robin Blaze (Arcane, Mostly Mozart debut), countertenor Drew Minter (Egeo), and baritone Jeffrey Fields (Priest of Minerva, Mostly Mozart debut). This production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. The San Francisco Chronicle said of the group's 2013 performances of the work: "beautiful and psychologically probing music...a sumptuous performance." Prior to the start of the concert, Ellen Rosand will give a pre-concert lecture.

The pioneering new music group International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) returns to the Festival for a fourth consecutive summer as Artists-in-Residence, performing a variety of contemporary programs which showcase its mission to draw attention to the composers of today. All of ICE's performances this summer are co-presented by Park Avenue Armory and will take place in the Armory's newly-revitalized Board of Officers Room. ICE, which was named Musical America's 2014 Ensemble of the Year, will perform three concerts featuring music by a wide range of composers. The first of their concerts takes place during the Festival's third week, on August 17, with a portrait concert devoted to the works of Sofia Gubaidulina, including her String Trio for violin, viola, and cello, and her Meditation on the Bach Chorale "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit."

The popular series A Little Night Music, Mostly Mozart Festival's late-night recital series featuring candles, complimentary wine and other refreshments in the intimate setting of the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, offers an opportunity to see the harp close up. In addition to his performances with the Festival Orchestra, and his pre-concert recital duet, Xavier de Maistre, former principal harp for the Vienna Philharmonic, makes his New York debut with a late-night recital on August 14 performing works by Pescetti, Mozart, Lizst and more, including some of his own arrangements.

Off the concert stages, Mostly Mozart will present a special panel discussion, titled "Mozart and the Promise of Opera," moderated by Bruce Allan Brown, on August 16 at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse. This event is presented in association with the Mozart Society of America.

All programs and artists are subject to change. Tickets for Mostly Mozart Festival 2014 can be purchased online at MostlyMozart.org, by phone via CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, or by visiting the Avery Fisher Hall or Alice Tully Hall box offices at Broadway and 65th St.

LOUIS LANGRÉE - Since Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée was appointed to lead the Mostly Mozart Festival in 2002, his tenure has been marked by wide critical acclaim. In addition to his work with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mr. Langrée is also Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a role he began in 2013, and Chief Conductor of the Camerata Salzburg. Highlights of Maestro Langrée's 2013-14 season included his debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (Don Giovanni) and the Wiener Symphoniker at the Konzerthaus in Vienna. He will also continue his regular appearances with the Wiener Staatsoper (La Traviata), and Opéra Comique in Paris (Pelléas et Mélisande). During the 2012-13 season, he made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and NHK Symphony in Tokyo, in addition to return engagements with the Orchestre de Paris, Budapest Festival and Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras. He also returned to the Metropolitan Opera in New York (Dialogues des Carmélites), with which he has a long-term relationship. Recent conducting engagements include the Wiener Philharmoniker in concert in both Vienna and Salzburg. He has worked with many other orchestras in North America, Europe and further afield, including the London Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Santa Cecilia in Rome, La Scala, the Detroit, St. Louis and Baltimore symphony orchestras in the United States, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. He also regularly conducts chamber orchestras including the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and period instrument ensembles: the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enligtenment and Le Concert d'Astrée. Festival appearances have included Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Mozartwoche, BBC Proms, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. He has held positions as Music Director of the Orchestre de Picardie (1993-98) and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège (2001-06).

Louis Langrée was Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1998-2000) and Glyndebourne Touring Opera (1998-2003). He has also conducted at La Scala, the Royal Opera House-Covent Garden, Opéra-Bastille and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dresden Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre in Geneva and the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. Louis Langrée's discography includes recordings for Virgin Classics, Universal and Naïve. Many of these have won awards including Diapason d'Or, Gramophone and Midem Classical. His most recent release is a DVD of La Traviata recorded at the Aix-en-Provence Festival with the London Symphony Orchestra for Virgin Classics, which has been awarded a Diapason D'Or. In 2006 he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

About the Mostly Mozart Festival - 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. Renamed the Mostly Mozart Festival in 1970, it has become a New York institution and, now in its 48th year, continues to broaden its focus to include works by Mozart's predecessors, contemporaries, and related successors. It is currently the only group in the United States dedicated to the Classical period. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra,Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by visiting period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensembles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as staged music presentations, opera productions, dance, film, and visual art.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Mostly Mozart Festival. Over the years, the Orchestra has toured to such notable festivals and venues as Ravinia, Great Woods, Tanglewood, Bunkamura in Tokyo, and the Kennedy Center. Conductors who made their New York debuts leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra include Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Edo de Waart. Soloists including Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Alicia de Larrocha, Richard Stoltzman, Emanuel Ax, and Garrick Ohlsson have had long associations with the Festival. Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, flutist James Galway, soprano Elly Ameling, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida all made their U.S. debuts at the Mostly Mozart Festival.

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 relations, 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 15 series, festivals, and programs including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Artist Program, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, Martin E. Segal Awards, Meet the Artist, Mostly Mozart Festival, Target Free Thursdays, and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and its 11 resident organizations, which include the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The 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, the School of American Ballet and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus renovation, completed in October 2012.

Visit MostlyMozart.org for information about the Festival and other updates.

MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL, WEEK THREE (August 11-August 17):

Tuesday, August 12, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. Avery Fisher Hall

Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 8:00 p.m.

Pre-concert recital by the Amphion String Quartet at 7:00 p.m. Avery Fisher Hall

Barber: String Quartet, Op. 11

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra

Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Erika Grimaldi, soprano (U.S. debut)

Anna Maria Chiuri, mezzo-soprano M|M

Russell Thomas, tenor

Ildar Abdrazakov, bass M|M

Concert Chorale of New York

James Bagwell, director

All-Beethoven program

Overture to Die Weihe des Hauses (The Consecration of the House), Op. 124

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125

Thursday, August 14, 2014 at 10:00 p.m. Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Xavier de Maistre, harp M|M

Pescetti (arr. de Maistre): Sonata in C minor

Mozart (arr. de Maistre): Keyboard Sonata in C major, K.545

Liszt (arr. Renié): Le rossignol

Tárrega (arr. de Maistre): Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Fauré: Impromptu, Op. 86

Caplet: Divertissements

Smetana (arr. Trnecek): Moldau

Friday, August 15, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. Avery Fisher Hall

Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 8:00 p.m.

Pre-concert lecture on Friday, August 15 by Peter Bloom at 6:45 p.m. Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Pre-concert recital on Saturday, August 16 with Magali Mosnier, flute,
and Xavier de Maistre, harp, at 7:00 Avery Fisher Hall

Gluck: Dance of the Blessed Spirits, from Orphée et Eurydice

Smetana (arr. Trnecek): Moldau

Fauré: Fantaisie, Op. 79

Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra

Louis Langrée, conductor

Magali Mosnier, flute (U.S. debut)

Xavier de Maistre, harp

Gluck: Dance of the Furies, from Orphée et Eurydice

Mozart: Concerto in C major for flute and harp, K.299

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Saturday, August 16, 2014 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Panel Discussion: Mozart and the Promise of Opera

Bruce Alan Brown, moderator

Presented in association with the Mozart Society of America

Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 3:00 p.m. Alice Tully Hall

Pre-concert lecture at 1:45 p.m., by Ellen Rosand Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Amanda Forsythe, soprano M|M

Amy Freston, soprano M|M

Dominique Labelle, soprano

Céline Ricci, soprano M|M

Robin Blaze, countertenor M|M

Drew Minter, countertenor

Jeffrey Fields, baritone M|M

Handel: Teseo, Op. 9

In Italian with English supertitles

Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. Park Avenue Armory, Board of Officers Room

International Contemporary Ensemble

All-Gubaidulina program

String Trio

Sotto Voce

Quasi Hoquetus

Meditation on the Bach Chorale "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit"

Co-presented with Park Avenue Armory