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Taos Chamber Music Group artistic director Nancy Laupheimer has programmed a Mozart concert for the holidays.
During past winter holiday concerts, the Taos Chamber Music Group has celebrated the season by playing selections from the Baroque repertoire. This year the ensemble’s artistic director Nancy Laupheimer has a serious obsession with Mozart’s music.
Works by Mozart for string trio, flute quartet and violin and viola duo will be presented during the Taos Chamber Music Group’s “A Mozart Holiday” performance next weekend at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos.
“The music is consummate, sparkling and sublime and yet economical and unadorned, qualities that I think are particular to Mozart’s genius,” Laupheimer explained. “All the works (in the concert) are in major keys, and their elegance and lightness provide a festive musical complement to the holiday season.”
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If you go WHAT: Taos Chamber Music Group presents “A Mozart Holiday” WHEN: 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15 and Sunday, Dec. 16 WHERE: Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux St., Taos HOW MUCH: $20 in advance; $12 for children under 16 at www.taoschambermusicgroup.org or at the Harwood Museum of Art’s gift shop, $22 if tickets are available at the door. For more information call 575-758-0150 |
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Joining ensemble regulars violinist LP How, cellist Sally Guenther and flutist Laupheimer is newcomer Christof Huebner, who plays the viola.
A colleague of How’s in New York’s Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Huebner is the artistic director emeritus and a founding member of the Boston-based Walden Chamber Players. He also has appeared as a guest soloist with the American String Quartet and the New World String Quartet and frequently tours with Musicians from Marlboro. A native of Austria, Huebner studied at the Vienna Conservatory and was a Fulbright Scholar.
Huebner and How open the concert with Mozart’s Duo in B Flat Major for violin and viola. The viola has a melodic part in this duo that Mozart wrote in 1783.
“The story goes that the Duo was written in just a few days to complete a commission from the Archbishop of Salzburg,” said Laupheimer. “Haydn was supposed to write six violin and viola duets. When he became ill after he completed four of them, Mozart, who was a friend of Haydn, wrote the last two and submitted them under Haydn’s name so Haydn’s salary wouldn’t be suspended.”
Laupheimer is delighted to be playing one of her favorite flute quartets next weekend. Mozart’s Flute Quartet in D Major is a work she has performed quite a bit through the years but never at a Taos Chamber Music Group concert.
“I particularly love this piece,” she said. “It’s one of Mozart’s best-known flute pieces. He brought out a brilliant singing quality of the instrument. It’s going to be fun to revisit the piece this holiday season.”
