MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL: GIANANDREA NOSEDA & PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD / BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA / TAKÁCS QUARTET & JEREMY DENK / JOSHUA BELL / “A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC”
David Geffen Hall (Aug. 2 & 3 ) / Geffen Hall (Aug. 4) / Geffen Hall (Aug. 6 &7) / Alice Tully Hall (Aug. 5) / Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse (Aug. 6, 7 & 9)
The Festival digs deep into both “Mostly” and Mozart, commencing with a “Mostly” evening comprised of Beethoven (Piano Concerto No. 4) and Schubert (“Great” Symphony No. 9) conducted by National Symphony Orchestra maestro Gianandrea Noseda leading the Festival Orchestra, with the extraordinarily expansive pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, at Geffen Hall.
Also at Geffen Hall, Handel arias frame Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, performed by the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Music Director Iván Fischer, with soprano Jeanine De Bique handling the Handel.
Violin celeb Joshua Bell and the Festival Orchestra explore aspects of the Austro-Hungarian empire that birthed Mozart, beginning with Mozart’s “Prague Symphony (No. 38) and concluding with Antonín Dvořák’s Bohemia-inflected Violin Concerto (A minor), bracketing an orchestral outing on Kodály’s Dances of Galánta.
At Alice Tully Hall, The Takács Quartet tackles string quartets by Beethoven (F major) and Mozart (“Prussian” in D major”) alongside Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi’s Piano Quintet No. 1, played by MacArthur genius Jeremy Denk.
The Festival’s “A Little Night Music” series of candle-lit, 10:00pm performances in the intimate Kaplan Penthouse embrace the four hands of Dutch brother pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen on Mozart’s Sonata for Piano Four Hands, Schubert’s Fantasie in F minor and Smit’s Divertimento for Piano Four Hands.
Brooklyn Rider, the iconoclastic string quartet, flit from one movement of Mozart’s String Quartet in G major (the Andante cantabile), to Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 8, with stops to sample work by young Indian-American composer Reena Esmail (Zeher) and something by the group’s esteemed violinist, Colin Jacobsen (Sherrif’s Lied, Sheriff’s Freud).
Finally, pianist Steven Osborne addresses Schubert’s final piano sonata (B-flat major).
NAUMBERG ORCHESTRAL CONCERTS: ORPHEUS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Temple Emanu-El (Aug. 6)
The 114th season of Naumberg Bandshell concerts in Central Park carries on, absent the park and the bandshell, which is being renovated. Transported to Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue, the concerts continue to be free and this month feature the uniquely conductor-less Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in a program of Spanish and South American music that spans the 20th Century, with bandoneon virtuoso JP Jofre.
TAKA KIGAWA: BEETHOVEN PIANO SONATAS
(Le) Poisson Rouge (Aug. 26)
One of NYC’s more eclectic downtown music venues hosts one of classical music’s more venturesome pianists in a nightclub setting, playing Beethoven’s late piano sonatas (Nos. 28-32).
The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (Aug. 9-11; 16-18)
The extraordinarily completist Bard Music Festival in Annandale-on-Hudson re-examines the protean career of composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, from his childhood as a Vienna prodigy, through his Weimar Berlin cabaret songwriting career, to his expatriate years from Hitler’s Germany as a Hollywood film-scoring master, including a performance of his most popular opera, Die tote Stadt. A deluxe charter bus from NYC is available for select performances.
METROPOLITAN OPERA: SUMMER HD FESTIVAL
Lincoln Center Plaza (Aug. 23-Labor Day)
Free screenings of Met Live in HD broadcasts from past seasons, right out front of the opera house; from Aida to Samson et Dalila, plus a special showing of the classic Astaire-Hepburn Hollywood musical Funny Face.
