Woodstock Mozart Festival opens on Saturday

The Woodstock Mozart Festival will present its 29th season July 25-Aug. 9, with opening and closing weekends at the Woodstock Opera House and a middle weekend at the Sanfilippo Foundation's Place de la Musique concert hall in Barrington Hills.

Single tickets are on sale now.

The Woodstock Opera House program lineup is as follows. All guest artists' bios are available at mozartfest.org/artists/bios/.

Performances

July 25 and 26 at Woodstock Opera House: Conductor Brian Groner, pianist Mykola Suk, violinist Kevin Case, cellist Nazar Dzhuryn.

• The Overture from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, K. 588, is from the last of the composer's three Italian-style comic operas and has been referred to as the "Cinderella" of the series.

• Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C Major for Violin, Cello, Piano and Orchestra, Op. 56 requires three superb soloists to meet the challenges of this work, which the composer wrote, not by commission, but from his own desire.

• Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D Major "Prague," K. 504, in three sonata movements, "unites grandeur and lyricism as no other" of his symphonic works.

Aug. 1 and 2 at Place de la Musique: Conductor/violinist Igor Gruppman, violinist/violist Vesna Gruppman.

• Bach's Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C Minor, BWV 1060, transcribed in these performances for two violins, is in a happy fast-slow-fast concerto format established by Vivaldi.

• Vivaldi's The Four Seasons ("Summer," Op. 8, No. 2 on this program), one of the most famous early examples of program music, was presented to and performed for the composer's Bohemian patron, Count Venceslas Morzin.

• Holst's "St. Paul's Suite" for String Orchestra displays his growing interest in English folk music and features lively, dance-inspired movements.

• Piazzolla's The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires ("Summer" and "Autumn" on this program) was originally a series of single-movement tangos for solo violin and strings, which Russian composer Leonid Desatnikov adapted, periodically adding little musical allusions to Vivaldi's Seasons.

• Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," an enduring lyrical ballad, is from his musical Roberta.

The Aug. 1 and 2 programs include a 90-minute preconcert tour of the Sanfilippo estate.

Aug. 8 and 9 at Woodstock Opera House: Conductor Igor Gruppman, pianist Mykola Suk.

• Mozart's Divertimento in D Major for Strings, K. 136 (125a) has been described, along with two similar works from the same year, as a symphony only for strings.

• Beethoven's Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, for Piano and Orchestra may have received its nickname when a French army officer referred to it as "an emperor among concertos."

• Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550, one of his last three symphonies in "The Great Trilogy," is a masterfully written work with a wide and varied range of expression and symmetry exceptional even for Mozart and described by Philip Hale as "perfect."

Tickets

The 2015 Woodstock Mozart Festival's performances at the Woodstock Opera House, 121 Van Buren St., Woodstock, take place at 8 p.m. Saturdays, July 25 and Aug. 8, and 3 p.m. Sundays, July 26 and Aug. 9. Preconcert introductions take place one hour before each performance. Single tickets are $33-58, $28 for students, and are currently on sale, along with group rate tickets, through the Woodstock Opera House Box Office at (815) 338-5300 or at mozartfest.org/buy-tickets. php.

Performances at the Sanfilippo Foundation's Place de la Musique in Barrington Hills take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2. Tickets are $65 per concert, each including the preconcert tour beginning one and one half hours before each performance. General admission single tickets, which will not be available at the door, are on sale now, along with group rate tickets, at sanfilippofoundation.org/woodstock-mozart-festival-2015.html/.

For information, visit mozartfest.org.