“A dozen years ago the Mostly Mozart Festival epitomized much of what was wrong with the tradition-bound ways of classical music,” writes Anthony Tommasini in Sunday’s (7/28) New York Times, stating that the festival has now “found the right balance between honoring the Mozart brand and implementing innovative initiatives. Back in the dull days, who could have imagined that Mostly Mozart would have the members of the brilliant International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE, for short) as risk-taking artists in residence? This once-hopeless festival has become an unlikely model of change.” Tommasini writes that artistic director Jane Moss and music director Louis Langrée have “embraced a set of forward-looking common-sense principles that enabled them to inject new purpose into the festival without rejecting its identity. It’s important to put the festival in the larger context of the challenges facing classical music. The field is facing enormous problems, [including] internal habits that keep institutions clinging to outmoded ways of presenting the art form.… Mostly Mozart shows that it can be done. It did not invent any of the principles that pulled them out of stagnation. They simply embraced them: Artistic Leadership Is Everything. New Music Fosters New Vitality. Smaller Is Better. Give Opportunities to Emerging Artists. Encircle the Orchestra. Take Chances.”
Posted July 29, 2013
Photo of Louis Langrée and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra by Hiroyuki Ito
