MUSIC

Mercury Baroque is proud to announce its season finale: Classical in the Raw on Saturday, May 15 at 8:00pm at the Wortham Center, Cullen Theater. This unique concert features Mozart’s famed 40th Symphony in G minor and Beethoven’s 1st Symphony, both being performed for the first time in Texas on period instruments. Mercury’s popular pre-concert lecture series with Dr. Yvonne Kendall continues at 7:15pm prior to the concert in the Wortham Center’s Green Room.

“This is the perfect season finale,” says Antoine Plante, Artistic Director of Mercury Baroque. “This whole season we have performed a wide variety of Baroque masterpieces and now we are approaching these Classical period Symphonies with the same progression as a musician in the 18th century would have. We are performing these pieces with the prospective of looking forward from the Baroque to the Classical era rather than looking back at them from a modern musician’s point of view.”

For audiences, it is a very rare treat to hear Classical Symphonies performed on period instruments. Mercury Baroque’s core ensemble will be joined by virtuoso baroque wind and brass players from around the country in order to meet the demands of the instrumentation.

Maestro Plante carefully selected the two Symphonies on the program. Mozart’s 40th Symphony represents one of his last and greatest Symphonies. Beethoven’s 1st Symphony, however, still shows heavy influence from his teachers and predecessors like Haydn. When Beethoven wrote his 1st Symphony in his late twenties, he had yet to develop his unique sound. “These two works, then, represent the peak of the Classical period and the verge of Romanticism,” says Plante.

Mercury Baroque has been a dynamic member of the Houston arts community since 2000. Founded as a chamber ensemble, the group has grown into a Baroque orchestra performing a full subscription season of concerts in downtown Houston and touring both domestically and internationally. The organization continues to pursue its goal of building a strong tradition of Baroque music performance in Houston, starting with its educational outreach programs designed to train the city’s future musicians and create the audience of the future.

Although Mercury is focused on bringing the best Baroque to Houston, the ensemble has toured to other countries as well, including two tours to Quito, Ecuador. In September, 2010, Mercury will revive its popular performance of Lully’s opera Armide in Paris.

The 2010-2011 Season will be Mercury’s important 10th Season.

Mercury Baroque photos by George Hixson.