Louis Langrée, Music Director, Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

Louis Langrée has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) since 2013 and Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center since 2003.

Langrée, known for imaginative programs, began his CSO tenure with Jennifer Higdon’s On a Wire with Eighth Blackbird, Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait, narrated by Maya Angelou and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Two of his recordings with the CSO were Grammy-nominated in the Best Orchestral Performance category: Transatlantic, with works by Varèse, Gershwin, and Stravinsky; and Concertos for Orchestra, featuring world premieres by Sebastian Currier, Thierry Escaich, and Zhou Tian. His Pelléas et Mélisande trilogy contrasted settings by Fauré, Debussy, and Schoenberg. A multi-season Beethoven Revolution cycle paired the symphonies with world premieres and 20^th-century masterworks, culminating with a recreation of the legendary 1808 Akademie.

A regular presence at Lincoln Center since his 1998 debut, Langrée has conducted around 250 concerts and productions, including more than 50 Metropolitan Opera performances; has taught Juilliard School masterclasses; appeared with the CSO as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series; and made his New York Philharmonic guest conducting debut in March, 2020. Langrée has raised the artistic profile and repertoire of the Festival Orchestra well beyond the classical period, from Lully to Magnus Lindberg.

An advocate for the music of our time, Langrée has conducted premieres by Julia Adolphe, Daníel Bjarnason, Anna Clyne, Jonathan Bailey Holland, David Lang, Nico Muhly, André Previn, Caroline Shaw, and Julia Wolfe among numerous others including, with the CSO, the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 6, the composer’s final opus. Among the many period-instrument ensembles he has worked with are the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Freiburg Baroque, Concerto Köln, and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.

Louis Langrée has guest conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, and Leipzig Gewandhaus among others. In addition to the Met, he frequently conducts at the leading opera houses including the Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Bavarian Staatsoper, and at festivals including Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms, Edinburgh International, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Langrée was previously music director of the Orchestre de Picardie, Opéra National de Lyon, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, and chief conductor of the Camerata Salzburg. A native of Alsace, France, he is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

INSIGHTS
from Music Director Louis Langrée

The reduced orchestra size we are using during this pandemic gives us an amazing opportunity to reinvigorate the music of the Viennese Classical composers on the stage of Music Hall. The symphonic and concerto music of Mozart represents the zenith of this style and displays his ability to place structure, articulation, phrasing, and meaning in perfect balance. We will be presenting four all-Mozart programs, two this weekend and two the last weekend of April. Each of the four programs explores a different aspect of the composer’s writing and life, allowing us all to dive deep into the musical language and world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Alpha & Omega

In listening to and performing Mozart’s first and last symphonies, we can hear the evolution of Mozart’s compositional voice. He wrote the first symphony at the age of eight, while studying music with J.C. Bach in London. Mozart’s last symphony, Jupiter, is the culmination of Mozart’s orchestral writing, of Classical Viennese orchestral music, and of his ideals within the Age of Enlightenment. We are thrilled to welcome Conrad Tao for Mozart’s 17th Piano Concerto. Leonard Bernstein said:

If I absolutely had to name my all-time favorite piece of music, I think I would vote for the Andante [of Piano Concerto No. 17].… It is Mozart at the peak of his lyrical powers, combining serenity, melancholy, and tragic intensity in one great lyric improvisation. You will hear the tranquility of a Schubert Lied, the filigree of a Chopin, the brooding of a Mahler…. It is a perfect product of the age of reason—witty, objective, graceful, delicious. And yet, over it all hovers the greater spirit that is Mozart’s—the spirit of compassion, of universal love, even of suffering—spirit that knows no age, that belongs to all the ages.

LOUIS LANGRÉE has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2013. His two most recent CSO recordings, Transatlantic and Concertos for Orchestra, were Grammy-nominated for Best Orchestral Performance, and several of his other recordings have received awards, including Gramophone, Diapason d’Or and International Classical Music awards. He is also Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, and is invited as a guest conductor by the most prestigious orchestras and opera houses, including the Berlin, Vienna, London, Tokyo and New York Philharmonic orchestras and the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Bavarian State Opera. Louis Langrée is a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Honorary Member of the Confrérie Saint-Étienne d’Alsace, an Alsatian wine-makers’ brotherhood dating back to the 14th century.

Conrad Tao, piano

Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer. He is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist—an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. This weekend marks his second CSO subscription weekend performance; he debuted in February 2016 with guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero.

Tao opened the 2018–19 season with the New York Philharmonic’s world premiere of his piece Everything Must Go and went on to make debuts with the LA Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony. In the 2019–20 season, following his recital debut at Carnegie Hall, Tao made his debut in recital at Walt Disney Hall, where the LA Philharmonic presented him in works by Copland and Rzewski. Following his debut at Blossom, The Cleveland Orchestra presented Tao in Severance Hall in a special program inspired by jazz and Dadaist art film, performed with pianist Aaron Diehl. Recent concerto highlights include performances of his own work for piano and orchestra, The Oneiroi in New York, with the Seattle Symphony, as well as performances with the Baltimore, Charlotte, Pacific and Phoenix symphony orchestras.

A Warner Classics recording artist, Tao released his third album, American Rage, in 2019, featuring works by Julia Wolfe, Frederic Rzewski and Aaron Copland.

Conrad Tao was born in Urbana, IL, in 1994. He has studied piano with Emilio del Rosario in Chicago and Yoheved Kaplinsky in New York.

View Artist Website

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Born: January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria
Died: December 5, 1791, Vienna

Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major, K. 16

Composition History: Mozart composed the Symphony No. 1 during the second half of 1764, when he was only eight years old. Its premiere date is unknown.

Instrumentation: 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, harpsichord, strings

CSO Subscription Performances: The CSO has performed the Symphony No. 1 on three previous subscription weekends. The CSO subscription premiere took place in April 1974, Carmon DeLeone conducting; the most recent subscription performance was in April 2006, Jaime Laredo conducting.

Concerto No. 17 in G Major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 453

Composition History: Mozart composed his Piano Concerto No. 17 on or before April 10, 1784. A piano student of his, Barbara Ployer, gave the concerto’s first performance on June 13, 1784 at her father’s house in a suburb of Vienna.

Instrumentation: solo piano, flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings

CSO Subscription Performances: The CSO has performed the Piano Concerto No. 17 on three previous subscription weekends. The CSO subscription premiere took place in February 1957, Thor Johnson conducting and Lukas Foss, piano; the most recent subscription performance was in October 1982 with Michael Gielen conducting and Russell Sherman, piano.

Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551, Jupiter

Composition History: Mozart composed the Jupiter Symphony No. 41 between July 25 and August 10, 1788, in Vienna. Its premiere date is unknown.

Instrumentation: flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

CSO Subscription Performances: The CSO has performed the Jupiter Symphony on 23 previous subscription weekends. The CSO subscription premiere took place in January 1897 with the Orchestra’s first Music Director, Frank Van der Stucken, conducting; the most recent subscription performance was in November 2014, Louis Langrée conducting.