American Classical Orchestra presents
Enlightenment
A Chamber Music Concert
Friday, October 23 at 7:30pm
Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford and the American Classical Orchestra (ACO), New York City’s leading period instrument orchestra, present Enlightenment, a chamber music concert at the Irvington Theater. The evening offers a performance of:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 and
Joseph Haydn's String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 33, No. 2 “The Joke”.
Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581, was dedicated to his friend and virtuoso clarinetist Anton Stadler. It is the composer’s only piece for this instrumentation and one of the first to exploit the clarinet’s agility and range. Premiered in 1789 in Vienna, the quintet spotlights the clarinet’s then-untapped potential as a solo instrument and remains one of Mozart’s most beloved works. The soloist is Elise Bonhivert, a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, who plays, makes, restores, and repairs clarinets, with a diverse collection of more than 100 instruments of her own.
In the early 1770s, Haydn began to experiment with the string quartet, writing witty divertimenti intended for entertainment. Around 1781, his Op. 33 “Russian Quartets” replaced the traditional minuet movement with a scherzo. Following its publication, the work quickly acquired the nickname “Gli scherzi” (The Jokes), with the second quartet of Op. 33 becoming known as “Lo Scherzo” (The Joke).
The performance will be approximately 75-minutes long with no intermission.
Wine reception with the artists included with ticket purchase.
Thomas Crawford, Artistic Director and Founder
Serafim Smigelskiy (cello)
Jessica Troy (viola)
Elise Bonhivert (basset clarinet)
Edson Scheid (violin)
Aisslinn Nosky (violin)
About the American Classical Orchestra
The American Classical Orchestra recreates the sound world of the master composers.
The ACO is devoted to preserving and performing the repertoire of 17th, 18th and 19th century composers. By playing the music on period instruments and using historic performance technique, they attempt to recreate the sounds an audience would have experienced when the music was written and first performed. They pass along skills and appreciation for this practice to future generations through concert performances and educational programs.
Because period instruments were made of different materials, they produce a profoundly different sound from the 20th century instruments used in modern orchestras. Period instruments, with their softer and more transparent tone, produce a delicacy in the gentler phrases and a pungent bite in the stronger passages. Using period instruments, the ACO can, in the 21st century, bring audiences closer to the musical genius of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and other master composers.
The American Classical Orchestra, under the direction of founder Thomas Crawford, is New York City’s leading period instrument orchestra. Comprised of the nation’s finest period instrumentalists, the ACO plays an annual series at Lincoln Center and produces the award-winning educational program Classical Music for Kids. Founded in 1984 as the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the orchestra was renamed American Classical Orchestra in 2005, when Mr. Crawford established its permanent home in New York City. In the City, the Orchestra has won critical praise for its recordings, educational programs, and concerts, such as appearances on the Lincoln Center Great Performers Series and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The American Classical Orchestra is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.