ORLANDO — When the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park hosts a concert on Sunday, Nov. 3 devoted to the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and others, there will be a unique addition to the play list. The organizers of the Society just announced there will be a special addition to that performance: “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik,” a newly rediscovered Mozart composition dating back centuries, and making its Central Florida debut.
“This remarkable concert will also include Mozart’s celebrated Requiem, alongside works by Jean Sibelius and Ted Ricketts,” Bach Festival Society noted while announcing the new composition.
“Ganz kleine Nachtmusik,” also known as “Serenade in C,” is a composition for string trio believed to have been written in the late 1760s. The piece’s rediscovery was announced in September, after classical music researchers found a manuscript containing the previously unknown piece from the Carl Ferdinand Becker collection in Leipzig’s music library. The manuscript was believed to be a copy of Mozart’s original manuscript produced in 1780.
The composition was first performed for an audience on Sept. 19 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
Now this unique discovery is coming to Orlando.
When Will Mozart’s Lost Composition Be Performed?
The Mozart | Sibelius | Ricketts concert will be on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 3 p.m. in Steinmetz Hall at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets start from $35.
“While this piece was publicly premiered in Leipzig on September 19th, this will be one of the first opportunities for American audiences to experience this lost work live,” the Society noted. “The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park is surely among the first professional orchestras in the U.S. — if not the first—to present this musical treasure.”
As the Smithsonian Magazine noted, this Mozart song hasn’t been heard for centuries — if ever before its recent and remarkable rediscover.
“A 12-minute piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has been discovered in a library in Germany,” author Sonja Anderson noted. “Researchers think the composer wrote the previously unknown piece — called ‘Serenade in C’ — when he was a young teenager. The composition was hidden in the holdings of Germany’s Leipzig Municipal Libraries — some 280 miles north of Salzburg, Austria, where Mozart was born in 1756 … Researchers say the music fits stylistically with other works from the 1760s, when Mozart was between the ages of 10 and 13.”
This is not the only concert that is coming up for the Bach Festival Society.
What is Bach Festival Society’s Next Concert?
The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park is now celebrating its 90th Season. It was founded in 1935 at Rollins College to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s birth by presenting his orchestral and choral music to the public.
Next up for Bach Society will be Rossini – Petite messe solennelle with Bach Vocal Artists, a concert in Tiedtke Concert Hall at Rollins College, 1000 Holt Ave. in Winter Park on Thursday, Oct. 24 starting at 7:30 p.m.
“Experience the delightful fusion of sacred music and operatic charm with Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle,” the Society notes. “Despite its solemn title, this mass is a spirited celebration of melody and mirth, showcasing Rossini’s signature wit and musical prowess.”
The Society is promising that this will be “a performance brimming with vitality, laughter, and the enduring charm of Rossini’s genius.”
The concert would also be unique, the Society notes, because “adding to the richness of this masterpiece is the rare inclusion of the harmonium, whose warm and delicate tones further enhance the work’s unique character.”
The harmonium, also known as the pump organ or reed organ, was created in 19th-century France by Alexandre-François Debain, and it “produces its sound by pushing air through metal reeds with foot-operated bellows … The harmonium quickly gained popularity in Europe and North America, especially in homes and smaller churches. It was an affordable alternative to the massive pipe organ, making it a go-to instrument for accompanying hymns, choirs, and even parlor room entertainment.”
Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright, and author of the book A Christmas Eve Story. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.
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