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Putting together an all-Mozart programme sets a challenge, and yet he makes life easy for us: all the repertoire is there for a scintillating evening of masterpieces. The key is to find a programme that reveals the variety of his genius, so the performers can take the audience on a journey through the drama of his works to experience all the facets of his gift.

With Mozart, almost above any other composer, you have extremes of light and dark. Just as we have titled one of our concerts ‘From the Ridiculous to the Sublime’ (15 September), you find in Mozart the earthiest, lowest humour alongside astonishing beauty, high seriousness. We know from his letters that as a private man, he had a mundane, if eccentric life, full of black and often ribald comedy and pain, but at the same time you can sense in his music something transcendent, otherworldly. He had an extraordinary ability to communicate emotion through his music, and to touch and move the listener. Yet, it’s also important that we don’t put this veneer of perfection over everything he created, that we enjoy his unpolished side too.

There’s an intense pressure on performers, built up over years of recorded performances, as to how Mozart ‘should’ be played. Do we use authentic instruments, follow Leopold’s instructions exactly on string playing style, or use modern instruments, and a sound and style refracted through the 19th

and 20th centuries? The nervousness springs, of course, from an absolute veneration for Mozart’s music. But I feel it’s important today to remember that Mozart was a dynamic young man even when he died, who was always experimenting, always moving on. He never became stuck in his ways. As a young conductor, it’s important to approach the music in a spirit of freshness, try to go one’s own way, and let the music speak naturally.

I don’t think of Mozart’s music as ‘nice’, as merely having a surface attraction or an easy-listening appeal. Yes, music does change after Mozart and with a composer like Beethoven you hear more obvious drama and struggle. But with Mozart you don’t have to peel back many layers to discover drama just as intense. There is a powerful sense of theatre in everything he wrote, an innate connection with his society, and a sense of dialogue or conversation running through every note.

This series at Kings Place explores a huge range of his orchestral music, from lesser-known concertos to the mature symphonies, with a fantastic array of interpreters, including Sir Colin Davis conducting the Linz Symphony - one of the really great Mozartians, who gave his music a new spirit, a new breath. As a conductor it’s thrilling to bring these works to life, and we are so privileged to have this opportunity to immerse ourselves in Mozart’s world.

‘It’s important today to remember that Mozart was a dynamic young man even when he died, who was always experimenting, always moving on.’ NICHoLAS CoLLoN conductor, Aurora orchestra

Nicholas Collon

THE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

‘It really is far too easy when you have such glorious

music. All the conductor has to do is stand back and try

not to get in the way. Mozart is doing all the work.’

SIR CoLIN DAvIS conductor

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC In MOzART UnwRAppEd31 DECEMBER 2010 / 1 JANUARY 2011orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Jonathan CohenProgramme includesSymphony No. 39 in E flat, K543

6 JANUARY 2011 Aurora orchestra / Sir Colin Davis Programme includes Symphony No. 36 in C, K425 Linz

9 MARCH 2011Aurora orchestra / Nicholas Collon Programme includes Symphony No. 27 in G, K199 Symphony No. 31 in D, K297 Paris

13 APRIL 2011Academy of St Martin in the FieldsProgramme includesSymphony No. 17 in G, K129Symphony No. 29 in A, K201

14 SEPTEMBER 2011Academy of St Martin in the FieldsDivertimenti and the Gran Partita Programme includesSerenade in B flat, K361 Gran Partita

15 SEPTEMBER 2011Aurora orchestra / Nicholas CollonProgramme includesSymphony No. 35 in D, K385 Haffner

16 SEPTEMBER 2011Academy of St Martin in the FieldsProgramme includesSymphony No. 1 in E flat, K16Symphony No. 41 in C, K551 Jupiter

14 OCTOBER 2011Academy of St Martin in the Fields Jaime MartínProgramme includesSymphony No. 38 in D, K504 Prague

30 NOVEMBER 2011Academy of St Martin in the FieldsProgramme includesSerenade in G, K525 Eine kleine NachtmusikSymphony No. 40 in G minor, K550

3 DECEMBER 2011Academy of St Martin in the FieldsProgramme includesSymphony No. 21 in A, K134

For details, see Calendar p25

27 Jan 1 756Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, son of composer and violinist Leopold.

1 761 Aged 5, he writes his first compositions, including the Minuet in G, K1e and Minuet in C, K1f.