Mozart Madness

Wolfgang Amadeus reigned supreme when the Santa Barbara Symphony staged its first concert of the New Year at the Granada under veteran maestro Nir Kabaretti.

It was one weekend, two different concerts and eight masterworks, including the glorious “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” during the Mozart Marathon.

The highly entertaining two-part show, spanning Saturday and Sunday, included elegant concertos for piano with Natasha Kislenko, oboe with Lara Wickes, violin with Jessica Guideri, and flute and harp with Amy Tatum and Michelle Temple. 

The event included, as well, one of the Austrian composer’s final symphonies, “No. 35 in D Major (‘Haffner’).”

Mozart died at his home in Vienna at the all-too-early age of 35 and, depending on who you believe, was buried in an unidentified pauper’s grave.

The last time I was in Vienna I visited one of his homes, The Figaro House, which resembled a scene from a Dickens’ novel, hardly the residence of one of the world’s most famous composers.