But in concerts this weekend and next, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and maestro Jaap van Zweden are only too happy to show you otherwise. They've scheduled a mini-Mozart festival that samples a marvelous range of this Austrian genius's tremendous output.
I attended Thursday night's opening of this weekend's concerts, which are reprised on Friday and Saturday (Jan. 18 and 19). They open with the overture to the Abduction From the Seraglio and then are joined by the superb violinist Augustin Hadelich in the Turkish Violin Concerto. He responded to the tremendous ovation Thursday night with a skillful encore of a Paganini caprice.
The second half of the program is an interesting set of bookends: Mozart's first and last symphonies.
He wrote the Symphony No. 1 at the age of 8 in London, while on one of his many childhood "prodigy" tours of Europe. The story goes that his father became very ill when they were in London, and young Wolfgang was forbidden to practice so as not to disturb the ailing Leopold. So to pass the time, Wolfgang decided to write a symphony. Pretty much what any 8-year-old will do when he's bored! And while it's obviously not the work of a mature composer, it is surprisingly fresh and innovative.
Mozart's final symphony, No. 41 (Jupiter), is of course one of the early landmarks of the symphonic literature. And in the hands of van Zweden and the DSO, it is as thrilling as ever. Few orchestras in the world today are as good at bringing out the subtleties and nuances of great music like this.
Next weekend (Jan. 24-27), we get another all-Mozart program, with the Idomeneo Overture, the Piano Concerto No. 24 with soloist Yefim Bronfman, the Adagio and Fugue, and my personal favorite Mozart symphony, No. 40.
If you want to know why Mozart is still important, get over to the Meyerson this weekend and next.
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