Ian Page and The Mozartists marked 250 years of Sturm und Drang at Wigmore Hall, closing on Haydn’s Farewell Symphony as the players leave the stage one by one.
Ian Page and The Mozartists played Wigmore Hall in Marylebone on Thursday 24 September 2026, the latest date in MOZART 250. The soprano Chiara Skerath joined them.
MOZART 250 began in 2015, the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s childhood visit to London. It follows his life year by year, programming what he wrote and heard in each corresponding season. It runs until 2041, the 250th anniversary of his death.
This season has reached 1776. Sturm und Drang is the movement that ran through the arts in the decade before, and Klinger’s play, which gave the movement its name, turns 250 in 2026.
The first half paired Kraus’s Symphony in C minor with arias from Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide, Jommelli’s Fetonte and Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. Kraus was a Swedish court composer whom Haydn is said to have rated above himself.
Traetta’s Antigona and Haydn followed the interval. The evening closed on Haydn’s Symphony No. 45, known as the Farewell, in which the players leave in turn until two violins remain.
Page conducted, and he gave a pre-concert talk before the performance.