25 Jul Press Release: Moonlit Mozart

Les Délices Opens Season with a Revelatory All-Mozart Program

CLEVELAND –  Les Délices kicks off its 2024-25 Concert Series Visions & Dreams with a revelatory all-Mozart program featuring eight of North America’s top historical woodwind players. Live performances of Moonlit Mozart (Oct 3-6) will offer audiences an extraordinarily rare opportunity to hear Mozart’s timeless music performed with crystalline timbre and rhythmic verve by an ensemble of oboes, clarinets, natural horns, bassoons, and double bass.

Moonlit Mozart is an all-instrumental program including Mozart’s transcendent Serenade in C minor “Nachtmusik” (K388) and historical arrangements of arias from Mozart’s iconic operas The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni for wind band.

Les Délices will give three performances of this sensational, unique program this October 3, 5, and 6th in Akron, Cleveland Heights, and Rocky River. Early Music in Columbus will host a touring performance of Moonlit Mozart on October 4th. A filmed version of this concert will be available to watch on-demand via Les Délices’ Vimeo platform November 8-25, 2024. Subscription packages and single tickets for all events in the 2024-25 season (including virtual releases) will go on sale August 15, 2024.

Featured artists for Moonlit Mozart include Artistic Director Debra Nagy and Kathryn Montoya (oboes), Eric Hoeprich and Madison Vienna (clarinets), Stephanie Corwin and Clay Zeller-Townson (bassoons), Nathanael Udell and Sadie Glass (horns), and Sue Yelanjian (double bass).

An Unforgettable Encounter

It’s been ten years since Artistic Director Debra Nagy created a program for Les Délices that threw the spotlight solely on historical woodwinds. At that time ClevelandClassical.com observed, “Debra Nagy’s clever programming and her rolodex of superb musicians produced yet another splendid concert…You won’t hear finer baroque wind playing anywhere — or another program like this one anytime soon.”

Moonlit Mozart continues in this vein. Nagy explained, “Moonlit Mozart is a total bucket-list program for me. It’s not easy (or cheap!) to assemble a woodwind team of this quality; it’s usually bigger-budget organizations that hire this many wind players so that they can perform symphonic repertoire. As a result, I’ve never had the opportunity to perform woodwind octets in a professional setting. The music is sublime and the sound of the ensemble is gorgeous – powerful yet light and transparent. This will be a truly memorable concert!”

The Viennese Wind Band: Reviving a Tradition

On a summer’s evening in 18th century Vienna, it was common to hear live music in public spaces performed by wind bands. Nagy explained, “Wind bands offered an effective – and colorful – means to present many genres of music in virtually any setting. As an ensemble, wind bands were more portable than a full orchestra and their vibrant sound could be enjoyed indoors or outside. Performing ‘lighter’ genres like nocturnes and serenades, dance music, or even operatic or symphonic reductions, an ensemble of eight woodwinds could cover most – if not all – bases. Soaring melodies were often split between first oboe and first clarinet, inner parts were covered by other winds and horns, bassoons would alternate between tenor solos and bustling bass lines, and a double bass often provided reinforcement on the low end.” In a letter to his father, Mozart himself wrote about a charming encounter with a Viennese wind band:

“At eleven o’clock at night I was treated to a serenade performed by two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons–and that of my own composition . . . These musicians asked that the street door might be opened and, placing themselves in the center of the courtyard, surprised me, just as I was about to undress, in the most pleasant fashion imaginable with the first chord in E-flat.”

     –from a letter written by W. A. Mozart to his father dated November 3, 1781

Moonlit Mozart will include the Adagio movement from that very same E-flat Serenade mentioned in Mozart’s letter, in addition to arrangements of overtures and arias from Mozart’s operatic masterpieces The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni. While Artistic Director Debra Nagy is no stranger to adapting and arranging works to fit LD’s forces, in Moonlit Mozart, the operatic arrangements of Mozart works are themselves historical artifacts, created in the 18th century by oboists Joseph Heidenreich and Josef Triebensee.

Illuminating Pre-Concert Talks with WCLV’s John Mills

Preceding the performances on Saturday, October 5th and Sunday, October 6th, WCLV host John Mills will host pre-concert conversations with Artistic Director Debra Nagy and guest clarinetist Eric Hoeprich (pictured left). Says Nagy, “Eric’s recordings have been among my go-tos for years, I’ve  had the honor of playing with him on many occasions, and I’m thrilled to collaborate with him on this program. Eric literally wrote the book on the history of the clarinet and he’s performed with all the most important early music ensembles for decades. Furthermore, Eric’s enthusiasm and creativity are infectious: he was an early music trailblazer;  he built all his own instruments; and he has taught generations of clarinetists about the early versions of their instruments. I’m excited for Northeast Ohio audiences to experience Eric’s artistry and learn from his experience.”

Subscription packages ($75-$110-$125-$200) and single tickets ($28-$45) for Moonlit Mozart and all other 2024-25 programming will go on sale at lesdelices.org on August 15, 2024.

Event Details:

Moonlit Mozart
North America’s finest period-instrument woodwind players unite for a revelatory all-Mozart program

Live performances
October 3, 2024 at 7:30 pm
First United Methodist Church of Akron
263 East Mill Street, Akron, OH

October 4, 2024 at 7:30 pm *touring engagement*
PRESENTED BY EARLY MUSIC in COLUMBUS
First Community Church South
1320 Cambridge Boulevard, Columbus, OH

October 5, 2024 at 7:30 pm
Arts Center at Disciples Christian Church
3663 Mayfield Rd, Cleveland Heights, OH
A pre-concert conversation with WCLV’s John Mills, LD Artistic Director Debra Nagy, and guest artist Eric Hoeprich will take place at 6:45 pm.

October 6, 2024 at 4:00 pm
West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church
20401 Hilliard Boulevard, Rocky River
A pre-concert conversation with WCLV’s John Mills, LD Artistic Director Debra Nagy, and guest artist Eric Hoeprich will take place at 3:15 pm.

Digital release on Vimeo: Nov. 8-25, 2024