Artistic Director and Conductor Jung-Ho Pak leads the San
Diego Chamber Orchestra in music honoring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and his 250th birthday. This is the second concert of the Orchestra’s
23rd season, which will be performed November 10th, 13th, and 14th. Maestro
Pak has assembled three unique musical perspectives to play homage to the
composer’s legacy, and declares, "But like everything we do,
we're doing it with a twist!" Mozart’s music is known
for its supreme intelligence, clarity and beauty, and for its joyful playfulness
and humor. This is one birthday celebration not to miss, particularly
since it comes with a few surprises.
The concert opens with a work that might come as a surprise to some, Antonio
Salieri’s La Grotta di Trofonio. Salieri has been depicted
as Mozart’s rival and the man responsible for Mozart’s death in Peter Schafer’s
play, “Amadeus" and Pushkin’s "Mozart and Salieri" which
was written shortly after Salieri’s death, when the rumors of Salieri’s confession
to having poisoned Mozart were still fresh. Jung-Ho Pak explains his choice of
Salieri’s La Grotta di Trofonio saying, "There is
a false belief that Salieri and Mozart were enemies. This birthday celebration
would be a great chance to dispel that belief.”
The second piece, Jacques Ibert’s Homage to Mozart is cast
as a single movement with music that vividly evokes the spirit of Mozart all
the while retaining Ibert’s characteristic color and piquancy. Alfred
Schnittke provides the final tribute to Mozart is the theatrical Moz-Art à la
Haydn. Schnittke uses a kaleidoscope of musical quotes and original melodies
stitching them together with modern textures and instrumentation. The
theatrics occur in the form of staging that plays off of Franz Joseph Haydn’s "Farewell" Symphony
in which musicians departed from the stage during the course of the piece. Schnittke
took it a few steps further, beginning with a blank stage, adding musicians
gradually, choreographing them to change positions, and then directing them
to leave the stage in much the same way they entered. It is truly a visual
and musical art, Moz-Art; dance like, theatrical and aurally gratifying.
And what tribute to Mozart would be complete without a grand milestone of
Mozart’s repertoire, Symphony No. 39, one of the last three extraordinary symphonies
the composer wrote during the course of about six weeks in the summer of 1788. Celebrate
the love of Mozart and be prepared for a few surprises!
This concert will be performed at all three of the San Diego Chamber Orchestra
venues. The Downtown concert, performed in Saint Paul’s Cathedral,
will take place on November 10th at 7:30 pm The La Jolla concert,
performed in the Sherwood Auditorium, will take place on November 13th at
7:30 pm The Rancho Santa Fe concert, performed at the Del Mar Country
Club, will take place on November 14th at 7:30 pm Tickets range from
$15 to $355 and can be purchased at the door or in advance. For ticket
information, please contact the ticket office by phone at 858-350-0290, ext.
7. Online tickets are now available at www.sdco.org.
