"But, projected by the figure of the singer, Schubert's original vision is always implicated. This new take on Winterreise is not an avant-garde assault or a confection of rebarbative modernism. Rather it is a work that offers us a conversation—and sometimes a confrontation—between the past and the present."

Photo by Richard Termine

Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni

First performed to sold-out houses at Mostly Mozart in 2011, the Budapest Festival Orchestra's provocative staged concert of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni returns August 17, 19, and 20. Directed and conducted by the orchestra's founder, Iván Fischer, this presentation illuminates Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte's haunting work and stars one of the foremost interpreters of the title role, baritone Christopher Maltman, alongside Laura Aikin as Donna Anna and Lucy Crowe as Donna Elvira.

In the final FestivalOrchestra concerts on August 18 and 19, Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony, a clever, early 20th-century spin on the musical conventions of Haydn's time, precedes Mozart's own musical interpretation of Haydn in the "Little G minor" Symphony (No. 25). The program concludes with Gil Shaham performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.

At the candlelit A Little Night Music series in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, audiences will experience intimate concerts by international stars as well as new talents. The series kicks off with Sō Percussion on August 2. Trailblazing accordionist Ksenija Sidorova makes her festival debut on August 5 playing Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Piazzolla, and others. In his first appearance in the late-night series, Bell will join Isserlis and pianist Ana-Maria Vera in Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 on August 9. Additional concerts feature