Richard Goode plays Mozart

“Some of the most mind-blowing musical sorcery I have experienced in a long time” — this was the reaction of the Icelandic Fréttablaðið critic to American piano giant Richard Goode's performance at Harpa in spring 2015. For decades, Goode has been in the top ranks of American musicians. A New York Times music critic called the Grammy-winner's Carnegie Hall performance “majestic, profound readings ... organic and inspired.” Here Goode teams with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra to perform one of Mozart's last piano concertos, written in 1786, at the height of his career.

Brahms' Symphony no. 1 has sometimes been called “Beethoven's tenth”, as many considered it to have proven that the composer was a worthy successor to the Master. The elegant closing theme can be viewed as correlating with Beethoven's Ode to Joy, yet Brahms carves out his own path, and the result is one of the most stunning symphonies of the Romantic period.

Dutch conductor Edo de Waart began his career as an oboist with the renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra but has for decades been an outstanding interpreter of music from various periods in history. He began his conducting career as an assistant to Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic, and since then he has served as Chief Conductor of a number of orchestras, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony, and the New Zealand Symphony.