McFerrin and Mozart

Featured as part of the Classic Series

Friday January 16, 2009 8:00PM
Saturday January 17, 2009 8:00PM

The Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle
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Bobby McFerrin, Conductor and soloist

Description:

“The true musician brings light into people’s hearts.”
– Bobby McFerrin

“Mozart’s music always sounds unburdened, effortless, and light. That is why it unburdens, releases, and liberates us.”
- Karl Barth

-Bobby McFerrin’s debut with the Toledo Symphony resulted in sold-out houses and standing ovations. He returns, not only with his signature musical improvisations, but also with his interpretations of one of the great musical geniuses and improvisers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

-The twenty-ninth Symphony is considered one of the turning points in the young Mozart’s output. Composed at the age of 18 while on a tour to Vienna, many commentators have remarked upon the increased sophistication and elegance that adds an added sheen to the youthful high spirits that still pervade the work. The fortieth Symphony, Mozart’s penultimate, is one of his most tragic utterances. One of only two minor-key symphonies by Mozart, it is one of his most-admired compositions.

Points of interest:

· -Bobby McFerrin has been a frequent collaborator with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and released a CD entitled The Mozart Sessions with the SPCO and pianist Chick Corea. McFerrin’s website, noting the essential role that improvisation played in the concert life of any eighteenth-century pianist, describes the CD as a unique blending of the styles of McFerrin, Corea, and Mozart. Since his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in 1990, McFerrin has collaborated with many great American orchestras, and led the Vienna Philharmonic on a recent European tour.

· -According to Mozart biographer Otto Erich Deutsch, Mozart’s last three symphonies may have been originally attended for a series of concerts that would have helped to inaugurate a new casino. However, there is no solid evidence that indicates whether those concerts actually took place, or were cancelled due to lack of interest.

Performances sponsored by 5/3 Bank

Program:

Mozart Symphony No. 29 in A Major 28'

McFerrin Improvisations

INTERMISSION

Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G Minor 35'

WGTE - FM 91 broadcasts the Toledo Symphony on FM 91 In Concert. Tonight's concert will be broadcast Thursday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m. through the generosity of the Edward H. Schmidt Musical Arts Fund.

Toledo Symphony