Beethoven Academie . Hervé Niquet

The new artistic director of the Beethoven Academie, Hervé Niquet, has put together a remarkable and festive Mozart night, in which the most beautiful arias alternate with parts of a piano concerto and with opera overtures. By way of introduction, they perform Mozart's very first symphony, written in London in 1764 - at the tender age of eight! It is still clearly influenced by the style of his London teacher, Johann Christian Bach. Mozart often wrote soprano arias for a particular singer: 'Vado, ma dove?' for Louise Villeneuve, 'Un moto di gioia' for Adriana Ferrarese and 'Ch'io mi scordi di te' for Nancy Storace, with Mozart himself solo at the piano. In the second part of the concert, each aria is introduced by the overture of the same opera. After the opera buffa 'Così fan tutte', we hop to the opera seria 'La clemenza di Tito', and then to the opera buffa 'Le nozze di Figaro', causing the soprano, Véronique Gens, to assume a series of different roles in quick succession, from Fiordiligi through Vitellia to Cherubino.