The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra’s 2019 season ends on a lighthearted note, with four works that are more connected than they may seem at first glance. Pianist Steven Osborne performs the cheerful piano concerto Shostakovich composed for his son Maxim’s 19th birthday. Maxim, then a budding pianist, is said to have been the inspiration for the tongue-in-cheek inclusion of the Hanon piano exercises in the final movement, a musical joke. Schnittke displays a similar sense of humor in his Moz-Art à la Haydn, in which every note in the piece has been repurposed from either Haydn or Mozart. Beginning with dimmed lights, it quotes Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, incorporating stage-play among the musicians, and, like the Farewell, leaving the conductor alone at the end. Mozart’s beloved “Haffner” Symphony, one of the composer’s most challenging, yet fun, works, is a joyous conclusion to the summer.

Haydn: Overture in D major, Hob. Ia:7

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Schnittke: Moz-Art à la Haydn

Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, K.385 (“Haffner”)