The debate over who is the greatest composer of all time will never be resolved. But some people at New York City’s Lincoln Center have certainly laid down their cards. Every summer for the past 46 years they’ve run a festival themed around the music of Mozart.
This year’s Mostly Mozart Festival kicks off with a free preview show on Saturday (July 28) and runs until August 25. As always there’s a theme, and this year it’s the “influence of birdsong on composers and visual artists”.
The avian theme will carried through shows both inside and outside the concert hall. Naturally there’ll be performances from this summer’s Artists-in-Residence, the intrepid Brooklyn-based International Contemporary Ensemble.
But there’ll be some less conventional moments too. For example, a sound installation called The Murder of the Crows has been setup at Park Avenue Armory and participants are encouraged to join one of the organized bird walks through Central Park.
Although inspired by his works, the festival is never just the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but rather always strives for variety. This time around that’s translated into a dozen concert works by Schubert, and there’s some ornithological-related pieces by Messiaen and several contemporary composers.
Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…
