Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The Louis Langrée-led Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra makes a brief but poignant appearance at Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages

• By drediman
• August 8, 2021
• No Comments

In typical years, the Mostly Mozart Festival has been synonymous with summers in New York. Well, neither the summers of 2020 nor 2021 have been anything but typical. Unsurprisingly, the festival’s flagship orchestra – the aptly-named Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra – wasn’t able to convene last year. This year, however, they managed to make a brief but poignant appearance this weekend as part of this summer’s free, outdoor Restart Stages series, Lincoln Center’s impressive attempt to safely bring the performing arts back post-lockdown. The hourlong concert, which took place at Damrosch Park, was the culmination of a week of mostly pop-up performances and rehearsals incorporating students from a number of New York’s music schools.

The orchestra’s indispensable and longtime music director Louis Langrée led Friday evening’s program (which was live-streamed and repeated on Saturday), which was comprised of Mozart’s first and last symphonies – Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 41 (“The Jupiter Symphony”). After a heartfelt introduction that extolled the merits of live music (particularly that of classical music), the orchestra dived into Mozart’s first, which the composer created when he was only eight years old (!). Along with the orchestra’s roster of established musicians, the players were augmented by some of the aforementioned music students. The overall performance was breezy yet inspired, as befits a comfortable summer night.

Then after a short pause, the evening concluded with Mozart’s Symphony No. 41. It was fascinating to hear this final symphony directly juxtaposed with the composer’s technically proficient but relatively indistinct maiden work. The Jupiter Symphony, however is a four-movement masterpiece that grows richer with each listen. For its performance, the orchestra’s full set of players were gathered, and they didn’t disappoint. As typical of the Festival Orchestra, the playing was elegantly musical. Indeed, there was a warm intimacy and joy to the performance that I found extremely moving. Here’s hoping that next summer we’ll get the full slate of programming back at the Mostly Mozart Festival.

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MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
Classical music / In-person
Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages
1 hour (without an intermission)
Closed