Mozart – too much of a good thing?
If you ask Lavard Skou-Larsen, the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth has taken on absurd proportions.
“There is such geniality in Mozart,” said Skou-Larsen, director and violinist of the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, who will perform at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday. “His music has such a big value, and people like it so much … even people who aren’t concertgoers.
“Besides his artistic genius, his music is like a homeopathic medicine for the soul, like a religion.”
But Salzburg’s favorite son was no fan of his hometown, Skou-Larsen noted. He found it provincial and narrow-minded and could not wait to leave.
“So when you hear Mozart in every castle, around every street corner in Salzburg, it can be too much,” he said.
Skou-Larsen describes the inhabitants of Salzburg as generally annoyed with the tourism that supports the Austrian city.
“We forget that we live from tourism,” he said. “And people here (in Salzburg) often don’t care as much about Mozart and musicians as you might think. They don’t necessarily appreciate their own.
“We have to fight to perform here, there is so much competition. We are better known outside Austria.”
Skou-Larsen notes that Salzburg is a melting pot of cultures. This was true in Mozart’s time, and it fueled the composer’s creativity.
The 17 string players making up the Salzburg Chamber Soloists – appointed by the city of Salzburg to perform during this anniversary year in all the cities where Mozart himself performed, from Vienna and Prague to London and Paris – promise to deliver less on the hype and more on the substance of the composer’s tremendous musical footprint.
“There is a special energy in Mozart’s music,” said Skou-Larsen. “Everything is so perfectly proportioned … the fortes and pianos, the frequencies.
“And do you know the health impact of listening to Mozart? An experiment with cows shows they give more milk when listening to Mozart, and it’s good to listen to Mozart if you are pregnant or giving birth.”
Larsen says his chamber orchestra, which he founded in 1991, is ideally suited to perform Mozart.
“A chamber orchestra is more powerful than a quartet, for example, but more flexible than a large orchestra,” he said. “We perform like a group of soloists which achieves the special kind of articulation and technique needed for Mozart.
“Mozart is often badly played. It’s important to play him without pretension … to be humble playing his music, yet also to enjoy the music as it is happening.”
German pianist Andreas Klein will join the chamber orchestra in a Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, including the pianist’s own cadenza in the opening movement. The first half of the program will feature Mozart’s Salzburg Symphony.
“With Mozart, you have to find the middle between activity and passivity,” said Skou-Larsen. “There is some particular magic in his music that you don’t find in so many other classical composers.”
The ensemble will also perform Beethoven’s “Serioso” String Quartet, as orchestrated by Gustav Mahler and further retouched by Skou-Larsen, plus works by Franz Schubert and Astor Piazzolla.
“We are known for our crossover music-making,” said Skou-Larsen. “I want to show this side, too.”
Salzburg Chamber Soloists
CLASSICAL MUSIC|Gates Concert Hall, Newman Center for the Performing Arts; 2344 E. Iliff Ave.| SATURDAY |7:30 p.m.|$25-$55| 303-871-7720 or ticketmaster.com
