Mainly Mozart at new Del Mar Fairgrounds Venue

The best news I’ve heard in months, nay, perhaps years, is coming to fruition on October 12, 14, and 15. The Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra is returning to the great indoors for the first time since the 2019 Festival. The venue is the brand-new Centre Theater at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

I’ve taken a look at the repertoire being performed and have decided that an English Autumn is the theme. Each of the three concerts features a key piece of music by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

I was pleased when Mainly Mozart Music Director Michael Francis presented The Wasps Overture during the June 2022 Festival. I have long lamented the lack of Vaughan Williams in San Diego concert halls. I would vote in favor of Mainly Mozart creating a subsidiary festival entitled “Very Vaughan Williams.” With three Vaughan Williams pieces scheduled I am quite giddy with anticipation.

The opening concert, on Wednesday, October 12, has five balanced pieces of music. The first is J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin” followed by Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue. Then we get Fantasia on Theme by Thomas Tallis” by Vaughan Williams. Georg Frederic Handel’s Royal Fireworks and Felix Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture complete the show.

The concert on Friday, October 14, has four pieces of music. French composer Jacques Ibert is first in line with his high energy Divertissement. Then we have Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 and The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. The final piece is Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. All four pieces are astounding and work well together to create a diverse music tapestry.

The Festival concludes on Saturday, October 15. This concert has three pieces of music on it. I like the tidy way the concerts move from five to four to three pieces. It suggests that Michael Francis has programmed a coherent festival as opposed to three concerts that happen in the same week.

The pieces for the final concert are Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and Slavonic Dances Op 72 by Antonin Dvořák. These three pieces are quite famous within the classical music universe. “Greensleeves” is probably a little more famous than that owing to it being retconned into a Christmas carol and the myth that King Henry VIII wrote the lyrics for Anne Bolyn.

These concerts are well worth attending for anyone who loves classical music and enjoys hearing it performed at the highest possible level. Visit mainlymozart.org for more information about The Mainly Mozart Festival.