RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra: Mozart with Peter Whelan and Aoife Miskelly

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra: Mozart with Peter Whelan and Aoife Miskelly

Friday, 14 May 2021, 7.00pm

An evening devoted to the glorious music of Mozart with two fast-rising stars: conductor Peter Whelan, among the most exciting and versatile exponents of historical performance of his generation and praised for conducting of “rich insight, style and charisma” (Guardian), and “stylish verve” (BBC Music Magazine), makes his RTÉ NSO conducting debut in a concert in which he is joined by soprano Aoife Miskelly, hailed for her ‘ravishingly good’ (Bachtrack) and ‘exquisitely sung’ (The Times) Mozart, for simply gorgeous arias from the much loved roles of Despina (Così fan tutte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni). The overture to The Impressario and Symphony No. 39 complete the picture.

Composed at the command of Emperor Joseph II as entertainment for a lavish luncheon, The Impresario (Der Schauspieldirektor) gleefully parodies the staging of an opera. With a glancing nod towards the grandeur of the occasion, the richly scored but sprightly Overture carries itself with characteristic high spirits to puncture theatrical pomposity with winning wit.

In Così fan tutte, two army officers conspire to test their sister-fiancés’ fidelity by wooing them in disguise. The scheming seducers having departed to sea, the sisters’ complaints at being abandoned are mocked by the maid Despina in ‘In uomini’. ‘In men,’ she pointedly asks, ‘you hope for faithfulness?’

From Mozart’s masterpiece rom-com Le nozze di Figaro, ‘Giunse alfin il momento… Deh vieni non tardar’ finds the maid Susanna, relentlessly pursued by the lecherous Count Almaviva, offering proof of her love to her jealous husband to be, Figaro. ‘Oh come, don’t delay’, she enticingly sings in one of Mozart’s most lyrical and lovely creations for the soprano voice.

Lust and love collide in Don Giovanni as country girl Zerlina is stalked by Mozart’s greatest villain, the lecherous Count. Fearing her jealous beloved Masetto’s reaction she tries to persuade him of her innocence by pleading, somewhat unconventionally, ‘Batti, batti’ (‘Beat me, beat me’).

Symphony No. 39 was the first of Mozart’s last, tightly integrated three symphonies. A majestic display of a master at work, it is a brilliantly executed exercise contrasting light and dark, moving seamlessly between both before emphatically coming down on the side of vitality and optimism in an effervescent finale of thrilling firework virtuosity.

WATCH: Live-streamed on www.rte.ie/culture
LISTEN: Broadcast live on RTÉ lyric fm

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Published by The Journal of Music on 10 May 2021

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