Mozart: Robin Levin & Academy of Ancient Music, Barbican

Christopher Hogwood was a man of many talents. As well as being an esteemed harpsichordist, musicologist and the founder of the Academy of Ancient Music, he conducted a groundbreaking cycle of Mozart’s symphonies. It was the first to be performed on period instruments, and hugely changed listeners’ perceptions of how the pieces should sound. Some years later, he collaborated with Robin D. Levin – himself a musicologist, and acclaimed completer of Mozart’s lost works – on a similarly acclaimed cycle of the piano concertos. This concert, reuniting the two, was to be one of the year's best classical events in London.
On the 24^th September 2014, Christopher Hogwood sadly passed away. He will be much missed. The Barbican promises to choose another celebrated condcutor to continue the concert. They will be joined by Hogwood’s Acadamy, whose reputation as first-rate interpreters of baroque and classical music is attested to by their demand around the world and their unmatched array of recordings. This will be a fitting memorial for a colossus of the classical world.
The evening begins in a celebratory mood, with the iconic overture from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
And then it’ll dive straight into the deep end, with Levin-led performances of Piano Concertos No. 21 and 24. The first, in C major, begins with a quiet march before soaring into a lyrical cacophony. Its ‘Andante’ movement is a dream-like masterpiece of its own. No. 24, in C minor, is a complex work, driven by a dark momentum and riven with explosive moments. You can hear the seeds of heroic romanticism, as exemplified by Beethoven and Schubert, in Mozart’s creative travails. Finally, the night ends with Symphony No. 35, dubbed the Haffner after the family that commissioned it. Within a tight twenty-minutes, here all the spark of Mozart’s melodic genius have room to fizz. The final movement, while largely stormy in tone, is especially laden with rich musical surprises. In the hands of the Academy of Ancient Music, this promises to be a fine tribute to Christopher Hogwood indeed.