October Newsletter: Majestic Mozart at the Kimmel Center

On Friday, October 30, at 8 p.m., Valentin Radu and the Ama Deus Ensemble will present Majestic Mozart, our 29th season's first concert at the Kimmel Center. The concert will feature choral, vocal and instrumental solo music as well as a popular symphony. The Ama Deus Ensemble welcomes our stellar quartet: Andrea Lauren Brown (soprano), Jody Kidwell (alto), Timothy Bentch (tenor) and Kevin Grace (bass). In addition to his role as conductor, Maestro Radu will also appear as piano soloist for Mozart’s jubilant Piano Concerto No. 23, performing this work while conducting from the keyboard of the incomparable Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano.

Don’t miss this all-Mozart concert! Click here for tickets.

Read on for some insight into the music.

Maestro's Mozart Kicks off Season 29 at Daylesford Abbey

We are thrilled to start our 29th season at Daylesford Abbey, a favorite venue for VoxAmaDeus performances.

Maestro’s selection of Mozart gems is perfect for a late-summer evening concert. The lighthearted Divertimento No. 15 in B-flat for two horns and strings (played in this concert by a 7-part solo consort)—so admired that it became the score for two of Balanchine ballets—is followed by two works for solo flute: the exquisite Andante for Flute in C and the delightful Flute Concerto in D. Of Mozart’s twentyseven piano concertos, the No. 20 stands among Maestro’s favorites, and the concert comes to a thrilling conclusion as Maestro plays and conducts this masterpiece from the keyboard of the Bösendorfer Concert Grand Piano.

The Three B's with Maestro Peter Donohoe featured on WRTI's "Crossover"

Maestro Peter Donohoe returns to Philadelphia for VoxAmaDeus’s 28th season finale concert entitled The 3 B’s - Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, and will be performing the Bach Piano Concerto in d minor, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"), and the Brahms First Piano Concerto. The concert will take place in the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater on May 15 at 8 p.m.

Purchase tickets here.

Maestro Donohoe with the Ama Deus Ensemble Orchestra

 Maestro Donohoe was featured recently on WRTI’s Crossover with Jill Pasternak with Maestro Valentin Radu. Some excerpts from the interview:

The Bach is probably the newest of the three concertos to me. In some ways, for me it is the most difficult piece on the program. First, it was originally written for the harpsichord, and therefore one has to adapt to the music on the modern instrument. Second, for me specifically, I came into the profession from the twentieth century and moved backwards in time…The music from the Romantic era, then the Classical era, then the Baroque period—they came to me professionally in that order… So as a professional I was exposed mostly to music of the twentieth century—and Bach is a long way from that.

Interview with Rainer Beckmann, recorder soloist for April's Brilliant Baroque concert

Rainer Beckmann 

Recorders

The VoxAmaDeus E-Newsletter’s national correspondent last reported on the popular recorder artist Rainer Beckmann, a native of Germany, back in February of 2011. Then, catching by surprise his many fans in the VoxAmaDeus audience—as well as his professional colleagues—Mr. Beckmann took a sabbatical from concert appearances throughout the 2013-14 season. But now, happily for his audiences and his colleagues, as well as Maestro Radu, Rainer is back as an integral and effervescent part of the VoxAmaDeus instrumental ensemble!

His sabbatical from VoxAmaDeus formally ended last December with his participation in the two Renaissance Noël concerts. Coming next will be a major solo appearance during each of Vox’s Brilliant Baroque concerts on Friday, April 24, and Sunday, April 26.

Bach B-Minor Mass ~ Meet our new soloists

VoxAmaDeus presents 

Johann Sebastian Bach's masterpiece

Sunday, March 29, at 4 pm
at St. Katharine of Siena Church, Wayne

 

Friday, April 3, at 8 pm in the Perelman Theater
at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

[click on the above dates to purchase tickets]

Megan Monaghan soprano (March 29) 
Karina Sweeney alto (March 29)

Julie-Ann Green soprano (April 3)
Jody Kidwell alto (April 3)

Timothy Bentch tenor
André Courville bass

The High Mass in B Minor is Bach's crowning achievement—his musical testament—was written over a twenty-year period and never performed during his lifetime. It was discovered by Mendelssohn one hundred years later and performed then in Leipzig's St. Thomas Church, where Bach spent his last twenty-seven years as its most prolific and famous organist, Musikdirektor and Kapellmeister.

We now invite you meet two new soloists for these concerts.