The Mozart Week 2021 will begin with a very unusual afternoon, during which a completely unknown Mozart piece will be presented to the public for the first time and performed in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum. At the heart of „94 seconds of new Mozart“ is the Allegro in D Major K. 626b/16, a three-part, dance-like piano piece presented under the moderation of Ulrich Leisinger, the director of the research department of the Mozarteum Foundation, and premiered by the US pianist Robert Levin. The Mozart autograph was acquired by the Mozarteum Foundation from private ownership before the Corona crisis; in the meantime it has been verified that this is a hitherto completely unknown piano piece written down by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart in his own hand, which the composer most likely wrote down at the age of 17 at the beginning of 1773 at the end of his third trip to Italy or immediately after his return to Salzburg.

Robert Levin will also participate in the revival of a historical concerto by Franz Xaver Mozart from 1805 with the Salzburg Mozarteumorchester conducted by Riccardo Minasi. The concerts by Sir András Schiff are also of historical interest: with the Cappella Andrea Barca he will be performing two works that make a special drama in Mozart’s life tangible: The last concerto written in Salzburg, the Piano Concerto K. 271 from 1777, and the Piano Concerto K. 595 – the premiere in 1791 was Mozart’s last public performance. In his Mozartiade, Schiff illuminates Mozart’s Lied creations; stars such as Luca Pisaroni, Sylvia Schwartz, Ema Nikolovska and Mauro Peter interpret all of the composer’s songs.

The festival will be surrounded by two festive concerts, each offering a look back and a look forward: In the opening concert Keri-Lynn Wilson will conduct the Salzburg Mozarteumorchester; in the closing concert the Collegium 1704 will perform Mozart’s impressive G Minor Symphony KV 550 under the direction of Václav Luks and with Mojca Erdmann as soloist. Thomas Hengelbrock will conduct the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble in a pastiche specially conceived for this Mozart Week, Scenes of a Marriage. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra will perform a concert together with Kristian Bezuidenhout and tenor Daniel Behle. The Ensemble L’Arpeggiata under the direction of Christina Pluhar returns with two sacred works in minor, the Missa Brevis and the Requiem, Mozart’s declaration of love to Constanze, the Mass in C minor, will be performed by Alain Altinoglu, the Vienna Philharmonic, a hand-picked soloist cast and the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus. Daniel Barenboim continues his cycle of late symphonies and piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic, supported by the mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa. Mitsuko Uchida also continues her Mozart cycle with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with two piano concertos and the ballet music from Idomeneo, and Ivor Bolton conducts the Camerata Salzburg in a concert performance of Il re pastore.

Exquisite chamber music – top-class soloist concerts
They have known each other since childhood and have been acclaimed duo partners for many years: the keyboard titans Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim play selected works by Mozart four hands. The Hagen Quartet comes with the six Haydn Quartets, young pianist Maximilian Kromer performs with Quatuor Van Kuijk and Robert Levin together with Quatuor Hermès. Furthermore, the strings of the Spunicunifait Quintet will come to the DomQuartier.

The Mozart Week under the artistic direction of Rolando Villazón stands for the interplay of universal forms of expression such as music, dance, word, pantomime and puppetry, which Mozart loved so much to reflect his dramatic diversity on stage. This will remain the case for the upcoming festival edition despite limitations: At the premiere of the project Mozart Moves! – Ewig dein dich liebender… in the Salzburg Landestheater with Magdalena Kožená at the center, concert arias, songs, dances and little-known fragments of Mozart’s pen form a captivating musical narrative strand that combines with a choreographic interpretation with dancers from the Salzburg Landestheater to form a veritable musical theater about the various facets of love. The 2020 Mozartwednesday production Pùnkititi! has played itself into the hearts of the audience, the performance returns to the Salzburg Puppet Theater in reduced form five times, for safety reasons a live musical accompaniment has to be omitted. The pianist Jory Vinikour brings Mozart together with Charlie Chaplin: Mozart Meets Chaplin and a Cat in the Villa Vicina, which will be reopened in autumn 2020. In the SZENE Salzburg, Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek combine dance, pantomime, acrobatics, object theater and music with Magic Mozart to create a magical, moving total work of art. In OVAL – Die Bühne im EUROPARK, The Little Mozart invites you on a musical journey for the whole family. Cara sorella mia from the series Letters and Music is performed by Eldbjørg Hemsing on Mozart’s „Costa“ violin, Marie Sophie Hauzel on the fortepiano and actress and audience favorite Adele Neuhauser (recitation) and sheds light on Wolfgang Amadé’s relationship with his sister Maria Anna.

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