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Mostly Mozart Opening Night Gala information at 212.875.5316
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WNYC airs the Mostly Mozart Festival Opening Night Gala, as Music Director Louis Langrée leads the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in an all-Mozart program with two soloists: Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim Bronfman and internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená making her Mostly Mozart debut.
These performances celebrate Mozart and the start of the festival, as well as the lyrical talents of each soloist. Magdalena Kožená will perform a selection Mozart arias, including "Al desio di chi t'adora," K. 577; "Ch'io mi scordi di te...Non temer, amato bene"; "Vado, ma dove?"; and "Alma grande e nobil core." Yefim Bronfman will perform the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 and Louis Langrée leads the Festival Orchestra in performances of the Symphony No. 41 in C. major, K. 551 ("Jupiter") and Overture to La clemeza di Tito.
About Magdalena Kožená
Mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená began her studies at the Brno Conservatoire, graduating from the College of Performing Arts of Bratislava in 1995. In her debut at the 1998 Drottningholm Festival, Miss Kožená sang Paride in Glück's Paride ed Elena. Already an internationally established concert and recital artist, Magdalena Kožená appears regularly at the Prague Spring and Concertus Moraviae Festivals.
She has debuted at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris as Orphée; the Vienna Festival in L'Incoronazione di Poppea; the Edinburgh Festival as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito; the Leipzig Opera; the Aix-en-Provence Festival; the Netherlands Opera; and the Salzburg Festival. Most recently, Miss Kožená sang Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare under Marc Minkowski at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Miss Kožená's recordings include a recital of Bach arias, Handel's Roman Motets and Italian Cantatas and Messiah with Marc Minkowski, and her first solo recital disc (Dvorák, Janácek and Martin with Graham Johnson) won the Gramophone Solo Vocal Award in 2001. Her new CD on Deutsche Grammophon entitled "In Recital" offers an international program featuring Ravel's enchanting Chansons Madécasses, Shostakovich's biting Satires and Britten's haunting Charm of Lullabies, accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, flutist Paul Edmund-Davies, violinist Christoph Henschel, cellist Jiri Barta, and the Henschel Quartet.
In 2003 she was awarded the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. Magdalena Kožená sings the title role in Cavalli's Calisto for the Bavarian State Opera. Other forthcoming engagements include both Idamante and Dorabella under Simon Rattle (Salzburg Easter Festival and in Berlin), as well as her debut with San Francisco Opera as Dorabella.
» back to top About Yefim Bronfman
Pianist Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide. After immigrating to Israel in 1973, he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, as well as at the Juilliard School, Marlboro and the Curtis Institute, and with Rudolph Firkunsky, Leon Fleischer and Rudolph Serkin in the U.S.
Following his 1975 international debut with Zubin Mehta and the Montreal Symphony, Mr. Bronfman debuted with the New York Philharmonic in 1978. Since his equally acclaimed debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1989 and Avery Fisher Hall in 1993, Mr. Bronfman has appeared with such celebrated ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestranot to mention his regular participation in a myriad of summer festivals. In 1991 he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists.
In addition to his major symphonic accomplishments, Yefim Bronfman has collaborated with the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri and Juilliard quartets, as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. During the 2003-2004 season, Mr. Bronfman performed with the symphony orchestras of several major North American cities, as well as with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Lucerne Festival, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. An exclusive and prolific Sony Classical recording artist, Mr. Bronfman won a Grammy Award in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
» back to top About Louis Langrée
French conductor Louis Langrée was appointed Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in December 2002. Maestro Langrée is also Music Director of the Orchestra Philharmonique de Liège. Other orchestral engagements have included leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de Suisse Romande, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and his debut at the BBC Proms with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Following his first season as Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival, Maestro Langrée returned to his busy conducting schedule in Europe to lead the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a critically acclaimed performance of Berlioz's Symphonie
Fantastique at the Royal Festival Hall in November 2003: "When it's played with the ferocious intensity of Louis Langrée's performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique sounds like one of the most modern pieces in the repertoire. Langrée and the LPO thrillingly realized Berlioz's orchestral effects..." (London, The Guardian, November, 2003).
He works regularly in opera, including frequent appearances at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera where he will conduct Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande this summer, and engagements at London's Royal Opera House, the Dresden Staatsoper and the Grand Théâtre in Geneva.
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MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT GALA PROGRAM
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Louis Langrée, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano (Mostly Mozart debut) All-Mozart program
MOZART Overture to La clemenza di Tito, K. 621
MOZART Ch'io mi scordi di te...Non temer, amato bene, K. 505
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
MOZART Al desio di chi t'adora, K. 577
MOZART Vado, ma dove?, K. 583
MOZART Alma grande e nobil core, K. 578
MOZART Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 ("Jupiter")
Links and resources:
» Mostly Mozart Festival
» The Sounds of Summer
» 2003 Mostly Mozart Festival Opening Night Gala
» WNYC's Alicia Zuckerman previews the 2003 Festival
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