Made in the Shade: The 2011 Mostly Mozart Preview

Wolfie's ready for summer. Are you?
Photo doctoring by the Borustan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra.

The sun is out, the temperatures are slowly going up, and it's time to start talking about summer festivals. We've already offered a profile of the upcoming music offerings at the Lincoln Center Festival, so Mostly Mozart is next.


Founded in 1966 as "Midsummer Serenades", this most venerable of New York's summer music festivals is a central component of Lincoln Center's summer programming, not to mention a way to get into a nice air-conditioned concert hall for a few hours and hear some really good music.

Mostly Mozart starts in August and runs for the entire month. There are concerts every week in Avery Fisher Hall, and some are at Alice Tully Hall across the street. If you get there early, some concerts are paired with "opening" piano recitals. Most programs feature the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra under the baton of Louis Langree.

Igor Stravinsky: Where does Mozart get those wonderful glasses?

Here's some highlights of the 45th season:

• Don Giovanni: Mozart's most dramatic comedy (or is that comic tragedy) returns to Lincoln Center. Two concert performances at Avery Fisher Hall. Featuring the Budapest Festival Orchestra, led by Hungarian maestro Ivan Fischer.
• Stravinsky Too: There are a number of programs dedicated to the great Russian expatriate and composer of The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky on Film explores the Russian composer's celluloid legacy. Alice Tully Hall also hosts an all-Stravinsky program featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble.
• Christine Brewer stars in the aforementioned Don Giovanni. She then joins the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra for an all-Beethoven program featuring an aria from the composer's lone opera, Fidelio.
• Juha Pohjonen joins the orchestra for Mozart's A Major concerto, coupled with Beethoven's Fourth Symphony under the baton of Jonathan Nott.
• Nicholas McGegan brings the Philharmonia Baroque Ensemble to town for a concert performance of Handel's opera Orlando at Alice Tully Hall.
• Nelson Friere plays Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto in a program featuring no Mozart.
• The festival concludes with Mozart's unfinished Requiem at the end of August, paired (appropriately) with Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony.

For more information and to order tickets for this summer's festival, visit MostlyMozart.org.