A radical new portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has been commissioned by Royal Northern Sinfonia, to reflect what they and their Music Director Lars Vogt see as the 'true' face of a composer we all think we know. "Somehow we've come to think of his music as pretty, brilliant and maybe even a little two-dimensional," says Vogt, lamenting what he calls the 'chocolate box' idea of Mozart, "But in fact the more you listen to him the more you realise that we've got him wrong. That music is often dramatic, daring, edgy and, yes, dark, and those qualities must have been there in the man."
The striking new portrait will be projected, by renowned American artist
Tim O'Brien, catches precisely those qualities. And whenever Royal Northern Sinfonia perform Mozart's music this season (in a series entitled "Reclaiming Mozart") it will be dramatically
projected onto buildings around the orchestra's home cities of Newcastle and Gateshead, starting Thursday 17th September.
O'Brien, whose work has frequently appeared in Time Magazine, National Geographic and Newsweek and is exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, caused a stir some years ago with a cover for Gramophone magazine that depicted Beethoven as a contemporary figure, influenced by images of Bono. For his Mozart, he has again drawn from iconic contemporary musicians.
"The few existing images of Mozart are very cosy and pretty," says O'Brien, "I know of few musicians of real depth where you can't see some of that complexity in the face. So to find the Mozart who was obsessively driven (after all he was incredibly prolific and you can hear that drive in his music), who pushed boundaries and who lived in a world where harsh poverty and crime were a very real facts, I looked at musicians from our own era to provide some inspiration. Photos of
Johnny Cash and
Eric Clapton suggested both obsession and some kind of danger.
Johnny Rotten provided a certain precocious brilliance, and I related to those for Mozart."
Alongside the new portrait, the projection, and the Mozart concerts at RNS's home venue, Sage, Gateshead, Vogt and the orchestra will be giving '
pop-up performances' throughout the season of some of Mozart's darker chamber music - in some surprising venues, very far from the glamour of a concert hall. The precise locations will be revealed on social media just before the performances occur, but they will reflect some of the darker corners Mozart would have encountered in 18th century Vienna.
Finally, in a light-hearted touch, and a nod to Mozart being a composer 'of the people', Newcastle's
Wylam Brewery will be creating a dark ale for the season, called "Mozart's Dark Side". The ale will be available at Sage, Gateshead - and the pump clips will, of course, feature O'Brien's new portrait!
Royal Northern Sinfonia have proven credentials in this repertoire, having been hailed as "one of the most daringly responsive Mozart orchestras in the country" by The Guardian. "We're very proud of what we're setting out to achieve this season, in trying to redefine Mozart in a way that gets back to what he always was - a composer of immense power, complexity and even darkness," says the Director of Royal Northern Sinfonia, Thorben Dittes, "Our ambition for this new portrait was to reflect our 21st century view of Mozart's music, and to create something of today that people can relate to."
For more details of Royal Northern Sinfonia's "Reclaiming Mozart" series, visit
sagegateshead.com. Opening night of the season. conducted by Lars Vogt, is on Friday 18th September at Sage Gateshead.
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Royal Northern Sinfonia, the orchestra of Sage Gateshead, is the UK's only full-time chamber orchestra and the leading professional orchestra in the North East. Since its inception in 1958, it has built a distinctive reputation as a fresh-thinking and versatile orchestra, performing with a trademark zest and stylistic virtuosity. It is the only UK orchestra to have a purpose-built home for all its rehearsals, concerts and recordings.
This season is the first with new Music Director
Lars Vogt, along with new Principal Guest Conductor,
Julian Rachlin. Both internationally-renowned soloists perform as well as conduct throughout the season, alongside Conductor Laureate,
Thomas Zehetmair.
Vogt, who recently played the opening night of the BBC Proms, will be opening the RNS season at Sage Gateshead on 18thSeptember with a programme that includes Mozart's Symphony No. 25, as well as a contemporary work,
Insula Deserta by Erkki-Sven Tuur.
Playing a wide repertoire of diverse orchestral music, Royal Northern Sinfonia works regularly with a roster of globally renowned artists from all genres. The new season sees the orchestra work with Christian Tetzlaff, Christian Lindberg, Olli Mustonen, Paul McCreesh, Robert Levin, Montenegrin guitarist Miloš Karadagli? and a host of world-class singers including Sally Matthews, Karen Cargill and Elizabeth Watts. They have also collaborated with leading popular voices such as Sting, Ben Folds and John Grant. The orchestra contributes to the continuing re-invention of orchestral repertoire with regular commissions and premieres, most recently from Benedict Mason and David Lang, John Casken and Kathryn Tickell.
Open in its approach and broad in its reach, Royal Northern Sinfonia engages audiences and communities throughout its own region as well as further afield, with residencies at festivals from Aldeburgh to Hong Kong, as well as regularly featuring in the BBC Proms and neighbouring Edinburgh Festival. Back home at Sage Gateshead, Royal Northern Sinfonia works with adults of all ages and young people, through the Young Musicians Programme and In Harmony project, both of which provide world-class instrumental learning opportunities.
