Jaap Van Zweden Leads Mozart's Fortieth
Off to a flying start, newly inaugurated 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Jaap Van Zweden leads a program of works by Bach, Schubert and Strauss, rounding off the evening with the Mozart's iconic Fortieth Symphony. After Andrew Webern's six-voice fugue arrangement of Bach's Musical Offering, the ensemble's artist-in-residence Matthias Goerne lends his expressive, richly-timbred baritone to a selection of Schubert and Strauss' beloved songs.
Perhaps the most popular of all of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's forty-one symphonic works, No. 40 lives on in popular culture thanks to its unforgettable melodies, even becoming one of the most ubiquitous cell phone ringtones of the 90s. Transporting the listener to a time of opulence and revolution, the symphony is one of the rate occasions the composer wrote in minor keys, showcasing darker tonalities and stronger emotional forces.