Spend Tuesday Evening Enjoying Mozart Under the Stars

Mozart is the name of the prolific, influential and most enduringly popular composer of the Classical Era. 

Just his name alone evokes visions of crystalline, graceful and passionate music, brocaded men’s coats, powdered wigs, and formal dancing in huge ballrooms. But it’s the music that transports us to late 18th century Salzburg and Vienna.  Now, just imagine an entire evening of nothing but the sublime music of Mozart.

At 8 p.m., Tuesday, Gustavo Dudamel will conduct an all-Mozart program at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and his renowned virtuoso friend violinist Gil Shaham. On the program will be three works: The Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio, the Violin Concerto No. 5, and the Symphony No. 41, the “Jupiter.”

The Hollywood Bowl is listed among the historic-cultural monuments in Hollywood.  Nestled in the Hollywood hills, it is a beautiful place for before-the-performance picnicking.  The sun sets as the music plays and the audience is treated to an evening of a concert under the stars.  It’s a wonderful musical experience, and an evening of all-Mozart’s music is nothing short of glorious.

You can get a direct shuttle from the Chatsworth Train Depot to the Bowl and back, avoiding traffic and parking hassles. Click here for details.

The Abduction from the Seraglio was the first opera that Mozart wrote when he arrived in Vienna in 1781.  In the Violin Concerto No. 5, his last, he achieved complete mastery of the form with great imagination and experimentation; in the alla turca section, Mozart has the cellists and bassists playing with the wood of their bows in order to get a percussive sound.  

In the “Jupiter” he produces some astonishing musical acrobatics. To quote the Bowl’s own description: “Near the end of the finale of Mozart’s last symphony, he goes for broke in a stunning example of counterpoint (combining more than one melody). He takes five individual melody lines and combines them all at once, each one taking turns being on top, on the bottom or in the middle. It makes your head spin. Music nerds live for that moment.”

Gustavo Dudamel is the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s young and vibrant new music director.  From Venezuela, Dudamel is also the principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden. Additionally he directs the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, a Venezuelan youth orchestra.  He is a product of and a great proponent of El Sistema, the publicly financed method of music education in Venezuela.

American-Israeli violinist Gil Shaham will be the soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5. Shaham has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19.  Tickets and information are available at hollywoodbowl.com or by calling the box office at 323-850-2000 or Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000.