The Genius of Mozart

Bernard Labadie, conductor
Benedetto Lupo, piano

MOZART: "Chaconne" from Idomeneo
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488
MOZART: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551, “Jupiter”

An evening devoted to Mozart, led by renowned 18th century specialist Bernard Labadie, celebrates the composer’s genius for drama, beauty, and invention.

The concert opens with the ballet music from Idomeneo, Mozart’s first mature opera, written at age 24 for a grand Munich celebration. Its Chaconne – composed in a creative burst just before the premiere – combines elegance and vitality, recalling the glittering court ballets of Versailles.

Benedetto Lupo performs the Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, completed in 1786 alongside The Marriage of Figaro. Often described as Mozart’s most perfect concerto, it blends radiant lyricism with delicate melancholy, sunlight touched by shadow. Both works capture his uncanny gift for expressing the full range of human emotion through music of clarity and grace.

The concert concludes with Symphony No. 41 in C Major, “Jupiter,” Mozart’s final symphony and one of the greatest achievements in Western music. Composed – alongside two companion works – in the miraculous summer of 1788, it unites brilliance and grandeur in a dazzling finale of contrapuntal mastery that anticipates Beethoven while recalling Bach.

Together, these pieces reveal Mozart at his height: a composer of boundless imagination and emotional truth whose music continues to astonish with its vitality, balance, and transcendence.