Classical Hour – Mozartfest

Everything changed with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 20. Suddenly the piano concerto was more than a superficial entertainment and outlandish display. Now it embodied music that could engage an audience in a serious reflection of what it is to live, love and laugh - to ensnare listeners with stories of drama, conflict, joy and loss.

At this concert Dejan Lazic brings us not just a performance of Mozart’s thrilling D minor piano concerto, but a discussion of it courtesy of regular visitor to the orchestra, the conductor Jan Willem de Vriend. He also conducts an intriguing rarity: a performance of the only theatre incidental music Mozart wrote, his score for the five-act play Thamos, King of Egypt. The music foreshadows Mozart’s The Magic Flute in its pitting of light against dark, its glowing tensions and its moments of dramatic brilliance.