Handel + Haydn Society Presents Mozart + Haydn at Symphony Hall

The Handel and Haydn Society continues its 2017-18 Season with a program of Mozart and Haydn, conducted by Harry Christophers. The program includes Haydn's Symphony No. 49, La Passione and Symphony No. 87 as well as Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola featuring H+H concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky on violin and guest soloist Max Mandel on viola.

The concert opens with Haydn's Symphony No. 49, known as La Passione for its slow opening and moving minor key, and described by famed musicologist H.C. Robbins Landon as "dark-hued, somber-even tragic." This will be followed by Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, considered Mozart's most successful attempt at a cross-over between concerto and symphony. The concert closes with Haydn's sunny Symphony No. 87, the last of Haydn's Paris Symphonies.

"Mozart's gorgeous Sinfonia Concertante for solo violin and viola, with its exquisitely intertwining melodies and high-voltage virtuosity, is just one of many delights in this program of showpieces, conducted by Harry Christophers," said H+H President and CEO David Snead. "Once again, we are proud and excited to present what is sure to be an exquisite evening, showcasing the incredible talent of the H+H Orchestra, performing on the instruments from the composers' period, bringing the music alive and making it sound brand new again."

Performances will take place on Friday, January 26 (7:30 PM) and Sunday, January 28 (3:00 PM) at Symphony Hall, located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Tickets range from $24 - 96 and may be purchased by calling 617-266-3605, visiting handelandhaydn.org or in person at 9 Harcourt Street in Boston (M-F 10 AM - 6 PM). Student and group discounts are also available.

About Harry Christophers, Artistic Director

The 2017-18 Season marks Harry Christophers' ninth as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society. Since his appointment in 2009, Christophers and H+H have enjoyed an ambitious artistic journey including showcases of works premiered in the US by H+H since 1815, broad education programming, community partnerships, concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tanglewood, and the release of a series of recordings on the CORO label. Between 2015 and 2016, Christophers and H+H celebrated the organization's Bicentennial, and he now proudly leads the ensemble in its third century of music making. Christophers is known internationally as founder and conductor of the British choir and period-instrument ensemble, The Sixteen. He has directed The Sixteen throughout Europe, America, Australia, and Asia, gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th- and 21st-century music. In 2000, he instituted The Choral Pilgrimage, a tour of British cathedrals from York to Canterbury. He has recorded over 120 titles for which he has won numerous awards, including the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music and the prestigious Classical Brit Award. His CD IKON was nominated for a 2007 Grammy and his second recording of Handel's Messiah on The Sixteen's own label CORO won the prestigious MIDEM Classical Award. In 2009, he received one of classical music's highest accolades, the Classic FM Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year Award, and The Sixteen won the Baroque Vocal Award for Handel Coronation Anthems, a CD that also received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination, as did Palestrina, Vol. 3 in 2014. From 2007, he has featured with The Sixteen in the highly successful BBC television series Sacred Music, presented by actor Simon Russell Beale. The latest hour-long program, devoted to Monteverdi's Vespers, was screened in 2015. Harry Christophers is principal guest conductor of the Granada Symphony Orchestra and a regular guest conductor with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In October 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Leicester. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and also of the Royal Welsh Academy for Music and Drama, and was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honors.

About Aisslinn Nosky, Leader and Violin
Ms. Nosky was appointed Concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society in 2011. With a reputation for being one of the most dynamic and versatile violinists of her generation, Nosky is in great demand internationally as a soloist, leader, and concertmaster. Recent collaborations include the Thunder Bay Symphony, the Lameque International Baroque Festival Orchestra, Arion Baroque Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic, Collegium Musicum Hanyang, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Nosky is also a member of I FURIOSI Baroque Ensemble. For over a decade, this innovative Canadian ensemble has presented its own edgy and inventive concert series in Toronto and toured Europe and North America, while drawing new audiences in to Baroque music. With the Eybler Quartet, Nosky explores repertoire from the first century of the string quartet literature on period instruments. The Eybler Quartet's latest recording of Haydn's Opus 33 string quartets was released to critical acclaim in 2012. Since 2005, Nosky has been a highly active member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and has toured and appeared as soloist with this internationally renowned ensemble. watch to view Aisslinn Nosky talking about her relationship with her baroque violin.

H+H's 2017-18 Season

Beethoven No. 9 October 6 + 8 Symphony Hall

Mozart + Beethoven October 27 + 29 Symphony Hall

Amadeus Live November 10 + 11 + 12 Symphony Hall

Handel Messiah December 1 + 2 + 3 Symphony Hall

Bach Christmas December 14 + 17 NEC's Jordan Hall

Mozart + Haydn January 26 + 28 Symphony Hall

Bach Brandenburg Concertos February 16 Sanders Theatre

February 17 + 18 NEC's Jordan Hall

Bach Mass in B Minor March 23 + 25 Symphony Hall

Purcell The Fairy Queen April 6 + 8 NEC's Jordan Hall

Handel Hercules May 4 + 6 Symphony Hall

About David Snead, President and CEO

David Snead joined H+H as President and CEO in October 2015 after serving as Vice President of Marketing, Brand, and Customer Experience at the New York Philharmonic, a role he held since 2001. Previously, he led the marketing programs of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Symphony, and Hartford Symphony. He has also served as Associate Marketing Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, General Manager of the Richmond Symphony, and Executive Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony. Snead is on the faculty of the League of American Orchestras' Patron Model seminars, and is a regular lecturer at New York University and Drexel. A noted expert on the relationship between orchestras and their audiences, he has been a featured speaker at national conferences in the United States, England, France, Finland, the Netherlands, and Australia.

About the Handel and Haydn Society

The Handel and Haydn Society is internationally acclaimed for its performances of Baroque and Classical music. Based in Boston, H+H's Orchestra and Chorus delight more than 50,000 listeners each year with a 10-concert subscription series at Symphony Hall and other leading venues, in addition to a robust program of intimate events in museums, schools, and community centers. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Harry Christophers, the ensemble embraces historically informed performance bringing classical music to life with the same immediacy it had the day it was written. Through the Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program, H+H also provides engaging, accessible, and broadly inclusive music education to more than 11,500 children each year through in-school music instruction and a Vocal Arts Program that includes six youth choruses.

Founded in Boston in 1815, H+H is the oldest continuously-performing arts organization in the United States, and is unique among American ensembles for its longevity, capacity for reinvention, and distinguished history of premieres. H+H began as a choral society founded by middle-class Bostonians who aspired to improve the quality of singing in their growing American city. They named the organization after two composers-Handel and Haydn-to represent both the old music of the 18th century and what was then the new music of the 19th century. In the first decades of its existence, H+H gave the American premieres of Handel's Messiah (1818), Haydn's The Creation(1819), Verdi's Requiem (1878), and Bach's St. Matthew Passion (1879). Between 2014 and 2016, H+H celebrated its Bicentennial with two seasons of special concerts and initiatives to mark 200 years of music making. Since its founding, H+H has given more than 2,000 performances before a total audience exceeding 2.8 million.

In addition to its subscription series, tours, and broadcast performances, H+H reaches a worldwide audience through ambitious recordings including Haydn (Vol. 1-3), the critically-acclaimed Haydn: The Creation, the best-selling Joy to the World: An American Christmas, and Handel Messiah, recorded live at Symphony Hall under Christophers' direction. http://handelandhaydn.org/