The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be featured in a concert by the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra Thursday (Feb. 28).
The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre of the Creative Arts Center on WVU s Evansdale Campus. Performances will be conducted by Mitchell Arnold, acting director of orchestral studies at WVU .
The concert will showcase violinist Mikylah Myers McTeer and violist Maggie Snyder as soloists in MozartsSinfonia Concertante.The two were appointed to the faculty of the Division of Music in WVU s College of Creative Arts last fall. While both have performed numerous times at University events, this is their first performance with the WVU Symphony Orchestra.
Mozart composed hisSinfonia Concertanteupon returning to his native Salzburg, Austria, from a trip to Mannheim, Germany, and Paris in the late 1770s.
In Mannheim, he was struck by both the sheer technical virtuosity of the citys orchestra and by the style of the compositions written for it,Arnold said.He incorporated some of the technically brilliant writing and extreme dynamics into his �€~Sinfonia Concertante.
The genre, featuring two or more soloists on instruments from the orchestra, was also quite popular in Paris.
Mozart was looking for a way to leave Salzburg for good, but was unable to leave the employ of the archbishop,Arnold said.Bringing this new kind of composing into the musically conservative environment of Salzburg was perhaps the best he could do at the time. Within two years, he managed to get himself literally kicked out by the archbishop.
The second movement is one of Mozarts most profound works in orchestral writing, Arnold said. Quite a few writers have mentioned that Mozarts mother died while accompanying him on the trip to Paris, and they point to the second movement as an expression of loss.
The concert program also features the premiere of WVU Division of Music senior Zachary WilsonsFirst Essay for Orchestra.
We had a session in December where the orchestra took an evening to read through student works, and we liked Zacharys piece and felt it was something that would fit well into one of our events,Arnold said.
Music from Franz Schuberts incidental music toRosamundeand Giuseppe Verdis brilliant overture toNabuccowill complete the concert.
The concert is part of activities related to the High School Honors Orchestra event being held at the Creative Arts Center, Feb. 28-March 1.
For tickets and information, call WVU s box office at 304-293-SHOW.