Seattle, WA USA – Seattle Symphony – Rossini, Mozart

PERFORMERS
Benjamin Lulich, clarinet
Seattle Symphony
Xian Zhang, conductor

PROGRAMME
Rossini: Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Clarinet Concerto
Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 “Haffner”
Symphony No. 39

VENUE NOTE
Two prodigies, Mozart and Rossini, meet on this program, each of them writing brilliant music with almost unbelievable speed. Rossini’s Italian Girl in Algiers (the whole opera!) was composed in less than a month and was a big hit. Its overture sets the scene for exotic locales, hilarity and dramatic love. Principal Clarinet Benjamin Lulich is our featured soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, some of the most sublime music ever written. When commissioned to write another symphony at a moment’s notice and “up to his eyeballs” in work, Mozart set to reworking his “Haffner” Serenade. The eventual result was this celebratory 35th Symphony, aka the Haffner Symphony, presented in this program. And alongside it, Mozart’s 39th Symphony bubbles with dance-like rhythms and lightness.