PITTSBURGH – Each of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s vast number of compositions is considered a musical gem. Join Music Director Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as they celebrate Mozart’s masterpieces during “Mozart Extravaganza” on Monday, April 28 at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in New Castle, Pa.
The exciting program features celebrated Mozart scholar and pianist Robert Levin, who will join the Pittsburgh Symphony in performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, a favorite concerto of Beethoven’s. Attendees are in for a special treat, as Levin performs improvisations (á là Mozart) on themes suggested by the audience and the symphony performs Mozart’s famous “Eine kleine Nachtmusik.” Principal Horn William Caballero gives the first performance of Levin’s new edition of Mozart’s stunning Concerto No. 1 in D major for Horn and Orchestra. The program closes with Honeck leading the popular Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter.”
The performance is at 8 p.m. and tickets range in price from $16 to $59. Tickets for “Mozart Extravaganza” can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 800-743-8560 or by visiting pittsburghsymphony.org. The performance is part of the symphony’s child/parent program; student tickets (18 and under) are free with the purchase of a parent or guardian ticket.
The Scottish Rite Cathedral will offer a pre-concert buffet dinner on Monday, April 28 serving between 6 and 7 p.m. The cost is $22 per person and the reservation deadline is April 18. Call 724-654-6683 (option 3 then option 2) or email info@cathedralnewcastle.com for reservations or more information.
Manfred Honeck was appointed the ninth music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in January 2007, and began his tenure at the start of the 2008-2009 season. After a first extension in 2009, his contract was extended for the second time in February 2012, now through the 2019-2020 season. Honeck was born in Austria and studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna. An accomplished violinist and violist, he spent more than 10 years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. He began his career as conductor of Vienna’s Jeunesse Orchestra, which he co-founded, and as assistant to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in Vienna. In 2010, Honeck was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. Apart from his numerous tasks as conductor, he has been artistic director of the “International Concerts Wolfegg” in Germany for more than 15 years. Honeck served as principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, a position he has resumed for another three years at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season. As a guest conductor, Honeck has worked with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic and in the United States with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Manfred Honeck’s successful work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is now captured by Reference Recordings. The first SACD — of Strauss tone poems — was released in fall 2013 and received rave reviews. Several additional recordings are completed and it is expected that two releases will be issued per year.
William Caballero has been principal horn for the Pittsburgh Symphony for 25 years. Before joining the Pittsburgh Symphony in May 1989, Caballero previously held principal horn positions with the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and Hartford Symphony. He held third horn positions with the Montreal Symphony, Montreal Opera and acting third horn with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops. He has also performed as guest principal horn with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony. Born in New Mexico and reared in Wisconsin, Caballero’s early horn studies included working under Larry Simons, Barry Benjamin and Basil Tyler, as well as studying the piano and pipe organ. Caballero graduated from New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with Richard Mackey and Thomas Newell, both former members of the Boston Symphony. Currently, Caballero is the associate teaching professor of horn at Carnegie Mellon University School of Music and chairs the Brass Department. He also joined the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival as performer and teacher. In 2012, Caballero began a collaboration with the Internet music teaching company ArtistWorks.com to provide the complete horn teaching curriculum on the ArtistWorks.com website for horn students worldwide. He holds the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Anonymous Foundation Principal Horn Chair.
Pianist and conductor Robert Levin has been heard throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia. His solo engagements include the orchestras of Atlanta, Berlin, Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, Utah and Vienna on the Steinway with such conductors as Semyon Bychkov, James Conlon, Bernard Haitink, Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen. On period pianos, he has appeared with the Academy of Ancient Music, English Baroque Soloists, Handel & Haydn Society, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Renowned for his improvised embellishments and cadenzas in Classical period repertoire, Levin has recorded a Mozart concerto cycle for Decca; a Beethoven concerto cycle for DG Archiv (including the world premiere recording of Beethoven’s arrangement of the Fourth Concerto for piano and string quintet); and the complete Bach harpsichord concertos with Helmuth Rilling. A passionate advocate of new music, Levin has commissioned and premiered a large number of works. He is a renowned chamber musician and a noted theorist and musicologist. His completions of Mozart fragments are published by Bärenreiter, Breitkopf & Härtel, Carus, Peters and Wiener Urtext Edition, and recorded and performed throughout the world.
Editors Please Note:
Monday, April 28, 8 p.m.
Scottish Rite Cathedral, New Castle, PA
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
MOZART EXTRAVAGANZA
MANFRED HONECK, conductor
WILLIAM D. CABALLERO, horn
ROBERT LEVIN, piano
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart:
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525
I. Allegro
II. Romance: Andante
III. Menuetto: Allegretto
IV. Rondo: Allegro
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart:
Concerto No. 20 in D minor for Piano and Orchestra, K. 466
I. Allegro
II. Romanza
III. Rondo: Allegro assai
Solo Improvisation á la Mozart
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart:
Concerto No. 1 in D major for Horn and Orchestra, K. 386b [412]
(completed and edited by Robert D. Levin)
I. Allegro
II. Allegro
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart:
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, “Jupiter”
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante cantabile
III. Allegretto
IV. Molto allegro