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.

Traveling with Mozart

Mozart spent nearly a third of his life traveling around Europe in more than 200 cities starting at the very young age of six. Traveling increased his awareness of other music, cultures, and styles, which influenced and inspired his music. Mozart spent about a year looking for a job in cities in Germany and in Paris from 1777 to 1778, and during this time he composed the Paris Symphony. Mozart’s popularity in Vienna was shaky at times, but he retained a devoted following in Prague, which led to his being invited to the city, where he presented the Symphony No. 38, Prague. Many of the titles for Mozart’s works were not provided by Mozart. However, Mozart titled his third violin concerto Straßburger-Concert (“Strasbourg Concerto”) most likely because of a section in the third movement that features a dance popular in Strasbourg at the time. We are delighted that Melissa White will join us for this concerto.

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.

Melissa White, violin

Violinist Melissa White has enchanted audiences and critics around the world as both a soloist and a chamber musician. A first-prize laureate in the Sphinx Competition, she has performed with such leading U.S. ensembles as The Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Louisville Orchestra, the National Philharmonic, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras. White is a founding member of New York-based Harlem Quartet, with which she has performed and engaged in educational activities throughout the U.S., as well as in Europe, Africa, Japan and the United Kingdom, since the quartet’s inception in 2006.

A native of Michigan, she holds performance degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory. Her current instrument, “Matilda,” was commissioned as part of a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant in 2014 by the American violin maker Ryan Soltis.

Melissa White is represented worldwide by New York-based Sciolino Artist Management. These concerts are her CSO subscription weekend debut; she previously performed with the CSO and John Morris Russell in 2002, at a community concert at Lincoln Heights Missionary Baptist Church.

View Artist Website

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

Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K. 297, Paris

Composition History: Mozart composed the Symphony No. 31 while seeking employment in Paris in 1778. It was first performed on June 12, 1778 at the Paris home of Count Sickingen; a revised version with a new Andante movement was first performed a few months later at a Paris concert on August 15.

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings

CSO Subscription Performances: The CSO has performed the Paris Symphony on five previous subscription weekends. The CSO subscription premiere took place in January 1941, Sir Thomas Beecham (co-founder of the London Symphony Orchestra and founder of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) conducting; the most recent subscription performance was in January 1987, David Loebel (then-Associate Conductor of the CSO) conducting.

Concerto No. 3 in G Major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 216, Strasbourg

Composition History: Mozart composed his Strasbourg Violin Concerto No. 3 in 1775 in Salzburg, while he was Konzertmaster at the Salzburg court, for violinist Gaetano Brunetti. Brunetti likely first performed the work that year at court.

Instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 horns, strings

CSO Subscription Performances: The CSO has performed the Strasbourg Violin Concerto on five previous subscription weekends. The CSO subscription premiere took place in October 1958, Max Rudolf conducting and Joseph Fuchs, violin; the most recent subscription performance was in January 2018, James Conlon conducting and Jennifer Frautschi, violin.

Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504, Prague

Composition History: Mozart composed the Symphony No. 38 in 1786 while in Prague. The work received its premiere on January 18, 1787 in Prague.

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

CSO Subscription Performances: The CSO has performed the Prague Symphony on 11 previous subscription weekends. The CSO subscription premiere took place in February 1915 (Emery Auditorium), Ernst Kunwald conducting; the most recent subscription performance was in January 2010, Paavo Järvi conducting.