The orchestras Mozart conducted were smaller compared to 2017 or 1850: they were sized for a palace’s “chamber.” The world still has many great small orchestras, but unlike the great large orchestras of Berlin and Vienna, most of the small ones were created in the last fifty years, such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (1981) or the Australian Chamber Orchestra (1976).
An early pioneer of the return to quality before quantity was Sir Neville Marriner (1924-2016), who gathered a group of friends to perform in a church off Trafalgar Square in 1959, and over four decades built up an enormous discography and a preeminent reputation for his ensemble, sufficient to attract the American superstar violinist Joshua Bell to become its music director in 2011.
Bell will lead ASMF in two different programs of music on consecutive weekend nights.
The chance to hear violin concertos by Tchaikovsky and Mozart is sure to get suburbs of lounge-room music lovers off the sofa and into the Concert Hall. There’s also the slow movement from Schumann’s, along with the Eroica, Mendelssohn’s Italian symphony and Mozart’s Symphony No. 25. Buy early.