Concerto Summer Evenings No 2

Mozart: Marriage of Figaro – overture

Mozart: Concertone in C major, K. 190
Amira Abouzahra, Mariam Abouzahra violin

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

Conductor: András Keller

Mozart, the foremost, one could say natural lead part in the summer evening concerts, dominates this programme under the baton of András Keller, with two evergreens and a rarely performed double concerto. Following in the wake of the elemental overture of Marriage of Figaro, we have the C major concertone for two violins and orchestra penned by an 18-year-old Mozart in 1774, moreover with violin solos by Amira Abouzahra and Mariam Abouzahra, the astonishingly gifted sisters seen recently on the TV show Virtuózok and at the spring Mozart Day. Mozart entered his penultimate, G minor symphony into the works catalogue on 25 July 1788. Researchers have never been able to prove beyond all doubt that it was performed in public during the composer’s lifetime. It is easier to be more certain about the status and popularity of the symphony named ‘Great’ (to differentiate it from the other Mozart symphony in G minor), since Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann were just as enthusiastic about this work as successive generations of concertgoers have been over the past 200 years.