Huntsville Symphony Celebrates Mozart Anniversary

This month marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra is celebrating with a concert on January 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Von Braun Center. The program includes an early symphony of Mozart, his Piano Concerto No. 19, and the popular “New World” Symphony by Antonin Dvorak. Leading the HSO is the prominent British conductor and pianist Howard Shelley, recognized world-wide as a master of the classical repertoire. The concert is sponsored by Physicians 100 and the guest artist sponsor is Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama.

Opening the program is the Symphony No. 32, a “miniature symphony” written by Mozart at the age of thirteen. The Piano Concerto No. 19 was one of Mozart's personal favorite works, and he performed it often. The audience is in for a rare treat as pianist Howard Shelley performs as soloist and leads the orchestra from the keyboard, a common practice of Mozart's.

After intermission, Shelley will lead the HSO in Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” Legend has it that this remarkable symphony was inspired by the spirituals and Native American legends Dvorak encountered during his three-year sojourn to America, where he served as the director of the National Conservatory in New York City. Supposedly, the gently lyrical second movement, with its lovely English horn solo, was a orchestral setting of the spiritual "Goin' Home." But the song remembered as "Goin' Home" has no ties to the deep South. It is Dvorak's own melody, written specifically for this piece; the words its now evokes were set to it later by one of his students.

As for other folk tunes supposedly echoed in the new symphony, the composer had a succinct response. "That is a lie," he wrote to one quizzical European conductor. "I tried to write only in the spirit of those national American melodies." Thus was this most American of symphonies wholly written by a European.

Tickets maybe purchased by phone at 539-4818, in person at the HSO Offices and online at www.hso.org. Tickets may also be purchased the night of the concert at the VBC beginning at 6:30 p.m. Single ticket prices range from $27 to $58, with student and group rates available. There is a $5.00 student rush for available seating beginning ten minutes before the concert. Discounted balance-of-season ticket packages for the remaining four concerts of the Classical Series Pre-Concert Conversations are thirty-minute informal talks beginning at 6:45 before the concert. “Sneak Preview,” HSO’s final rehearsal at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, is open to the public for a nominal charge of $5.00. Children 5 and under are free. Sponsor is Publix Super Markets Charities and Compass Bank.

Artist Biographies

Howard Shelley, Guest Conductor and Piano Soloist

“There are few more dexterous or musicianly pianists than Howard Shelley” says Grammophone. The BBC says, “Howard Shelley's playing is dazzling.” After winning the premier prize at the Royal College of Music at the end of his first year, Howard Shelley's career began with a highly successful London recital and a televised Promenade concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson-Thomas in the same season. Since then he has performed regularly throughout the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Russia, Australia, and the Far East. He has also made over eighty highly acclaimed commercial recordings.

As pianist he has performed, broadcast and recorded around the world with leading orchestras and conductors including Ashkenazy, Boulez, Boult, Davis, Jansons, Rozhdestvensky and Sanderling. In a unique series of five London recitals, broadcast by the BBC, he played Rachmaninoff's complete solo piano music. He has given complete cycles of Rachmaninov concertos with the Royal Scottish National, Beethoven concertos with the BBC Philharmonic and Mozart concerto series with the London Mozart Players, Camerata Salzburg and Munich Symphony. As conductor he has performed with the London Philharmonic, London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the Philharmonia, Royal Scottish National and Ulster orchestras as well as the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Filarmonica de la Ciudad de Mexico, Seattle Symphony, among many others. He has held positions of Associate and Principal Guest Conductor with the London Mozart Players for over twenty years. He has toured with them to Japan, Korea, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Holland, Ireland and to the Prague Autumn Festival. Their many recordings together have received exceptional critical acclaim.

Mr. Shelley has appeared regularly on television since the age of ten when he gave a recital of Bach and Chopin. He has recorded extensively for Chandos, Hyperion and EMI. Mr. Shelley is married to fellow pianist Hilary Macnamara, with whom he has performed and recorded in a two-piano partnership, and they have two sons.

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