Download CSO to Perform Mozart`s Exquisite Clarinet Concerto November 20

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October 19, 2015
CSO to Perform Mozart’s Exquisite Clarinet Concerto
November 20 & 21
Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto, one of his last and most beautiful works, anchors this superlative
program that also features one of Beethoven’s most light-hearted symphonies and Benjamin Britten’s
engaging work based on delightful themes composed in his youth. The program will be conducted by
CSO Music Director Rossen Milanov and feature guest clarinetist Ricardo Morales.
The Columbus Symphony presents the Mozart Clarinet Concerto at the Southern Theatre (21 E. Main St.)
on Friday and Saturday, November 20 and 21, at 8pm. Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased at the
CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase
tickets by phone, please call (614) 228-8600 or (800) 745-3000. The CAPA Ticket Center will also be
open two hours prior to each performance. Young people between the ages of 13-25 may purchase $5 All
Access tickets while available. For more information, visit www.GoFor5.com.
The 2015-16 Masterworks Series is made possible through the generous support of season sponsor
Anne Melvin.
Prelude – Patrons are invited to join Christopher Purdy in the theatre at 7pm for a 30-minute, pre-concert
discussion about the works to be performed.
Postlude – Patrons of the Friday performance are invited to join the CSO musicians at Thurber’s Bar in
the adjacent Westin Hotel following the concert. Patrons of the Saturday performance are invited to enjoy
the sublime music of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in a live, on-stage performance following the concert.
About CSO Music Director Rossen Milanov
Respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike, Rossen Milanov is the new Music Director of
the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and begins his tenure with transformative and creative ideas for new
programming and expanding the orchestra’s reach to new audiences.
Recently completing his first season with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra to enthusiastic
acclaim, Milanov is also the Music Director of the Princeton Symphony and of the Orquesta Sinfónica del
Principado de Asturias (OSPA) in Spain. During the 2015-16 season, he is dedicating the Princeton
concert season to the creativity of women, showcasing the compositions of some of the most respected
emerging female composers, such as Anna Clyne, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snyder. With
OSPA, he celebrates the orchestra’s 25th anniversary with 25 new works and premiere performances in
Spain. He will also be conducting a new production of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” at the Zurich Opera.
In 2015, he completed a 15-year tenure as Music Director of the nationally recognized training orchestra,
Symphony in C, in New Jersey.
Milanov studied conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where he received the
Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship.
About guest clarinetist Ricardo Morales
Ricardo Morales is the principal clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Prior to this, he was principal
clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, a position he assumed at the age of 21 under the direction
of James Levine. He began his professional career as principal clarinet of the Florida Symphony at age
18. In addition, he has performed as guest principal clarinet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the
New York Philharmonic, and at the invitation of Sir Simon Rattle, performed as guest principal clarinet
with the Berlin Philharmonic. He has also participated as principal clarinet of the Saito Kinen Festival
Orchestra in Matsumoto, Japan, under maestro Seiji Ozawa.
About composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten was a central figure of 20th-century British
classical music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral, and chamber
pieces. Written between December 1933 and February 1934, his Simple Symphony is a work for string
orchestra or string quartet based on eight themes which Britten wrote during his childhood (two per
movement) and for which he had a particular fondness. He completed his final draft of this piece at age
20, and it received its first performance in 1934 at Stuart Hall in Norwich with Britten conducting an
amateur orchestra.
About composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed more than 600 works,
many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is
among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western art
music is profound. His Clarinet Concerto was written in 1791, shortly before his death, for the clarinetist
Anton Stadler. It was one of Mozart's final completed works, and his final purely instrumental work. The
concerto is notable for its delicate interplay between soloist and orchestra, and for the lack of overly
extroverted display on the part of the soloist.
About composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical
and Romantic eras in Western music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all
composers. The Symphony No. 4 is a symphony in four movements composed Beethoven in the
summer of 1806. It premiered in March 1807 at a private concert of the home of Prince Franz Joseph von
Lobkowitz. The work was dedicated to Count Franz von Oppersdorff, a relative of Beethoven's patron,
Prince Lichnowsky. The Count met Beethoven when he traveled to Lichnowsky's summer home where
Beethoven was staying. Von Oppersdorff listened to Beethoven's Symphony No. 2, and liked it so much
that he offered a great amount of money for Beethoven to compose a new symphony for him. Beethoven
completed it in roughly a month, while working on the Fourth Piano Concerto and revising his opera
Fidelio, then still known as Leonore. The dedication was made to "the Silesian nobleman Count Franz
von Oppersdorf". Hector Berlioz was so enamored of the symphony's second movement that he claimed it
was the work of the Archangel Michael, and not that of a human.
www.columbussymphony.com
CALENDAR LISTING
The Columbus Symphony presents the MOZART CLARINET CONCERTO
Friday & Saturday, November 20 & 21, 8 pm
Southern Theatre (21 E. Main St.)
Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto, one of his last and most beautiful works, anchors this superlative
program that also features one of Beethoven’s most light-hearted symphonies and Benjamin Britten’s
engaging work based on delightful themes composed in his youth. The program will be conducted by
CSO Music Director Rossen Milanov and feature guest clarinetist Ricardo Morales. Tickets start at $10
and can be purchased at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and
www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 228-8600 or (800) 745-3000.
www.columbussymphony.com
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The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, education
excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The CSO also appreciates the support of the Greater Columbus
Arts Council, supporting the city's artists and arts organizations since 1973, and the Sayre Charitable (Huntington),
Martha G. Staub, Kenneth L. Coe, and Jack Barrow funds of The Columbus Foundation, assisting donors and others
in strengthening our community for the benefit of all its citizens.
About the Columbus Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1951, the Columbus Symphony is the only full-time, professional symphony in central Ohio. Through an
array of innovative artistic, educational, and community outreach programming, the Columbus Symphony is reaching
an expanding, more diverse audience each year. This season, the Columbus Symphony will share classical music
with more than 200,000 people in central Ohio through concerts, radio broadcasts, and special programming. For
more information, visit www.columbussymphony.com.
Contact:
Rolanda Copley
614.719.6624
[email protected]