Carneiro, Mozart & Goodyear: with the NAC Orchestra

What to know about this concert:

Stewart Goodyear is both a pianist and composer—just like Mozart, whose Piano Concerto No. 23 Goodyear will bring to life on the Southam Hall stage. After her seismic performances of two Igor Stravinsky ballets with the NAC Orchestra, Joana Carneiro returns to conduct Felix Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony.

A heartfelt work guided by the composer’s devout Protestant faith, Felix Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, a pivotal event in the history of the Lutheran Church. Throughout this monumental work, you’ll encounter music inspired by Renaissance masses, religious processions, and Johann Sebastian Bach chorales, culminating in a triumphant finale based on Martin Luther’s famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

And like Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony, Magnus Lindberg’s Chorale pays tribute to music of faith—in this instance, the Johann Sebastian Bach chorale “Es ist genug” (It Is Enough), whose theme becomes the foundation for a dazzling set of orchestral variations.

Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear—“one of the best of his generation” (Philadelphia Inquirer)—returns to the NAC Orchestra to perform Mozart’s Concerto No. 23 for piano and orchestra, a joy-filled work of operatic lyricism the composer wrote at the same time as his madcap romantic comedy The Marriage of Figaro.