The Midsummer Mozart Festival was founded by Maestro George Cleve in 1974 and presented Mozart concerts for 41 years until his death in 2015. In recent years PHI has been the major sponsor of the Midsummer Mozart Festival.
Fortunately we recorded George's last Midsummer Mozart concert in August 2015.
You can watch a video of the great pianist Seymour Lipkin playing Mozart's last piano concerto (K 595, No. 27, in B-Flat). The camera remains close on Seymour for the entire concerto (after they walk on stage), so you can experience the music from the soloist's point of view. Most viewers have found this to be an utterly fascinating video of a very great artist. Seymour died only a few weeks after his dear friend George.
Click here to watch Seymour play the concerto (with George conducting).
We also recorded George Cleve conducting Mozart's Haffner Symphony (K 385, No 35, in D major). The camera remains on George for the entire concert, so you can imagine being a member of his beloved orchestra. Many of these musicians have played for George for 40 years, and it is amazing to watch the rapport between Maestro and his players.
Click here to watch George conduct Mozart's Haffner Symphony.
The photo above is George Cleve in a trattoria in Naples, after visiting PHI's archaeology project at Herculaneum.
In 2011 PHI and Opera San Jose created a new production of Mozart's opera Idomeneo, conducted by George Cleve.
The story of Idomeneo is set in ancient Crete just after the Trojan War. PHI designed this production inspired by Minoan art and architecture. The sets are all influenced by archaeological evidence (unknown in Mozart's time).
Click here to read about our production.
Click here to read a review.
Click here to see photos of our production.
Click here to watch a video of Act 1, here to watch Act 2, and here to watch Act 3.
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth in 1756, the Packard Humanities Institute in 2006 published digitally photographed editions of Mozart's own manuscript scores of his last seven operas: Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, and La clemenza di Tito.
Each opera comes in a two or three volume set, consisting of an introductory volume and full-size color photographs of Mozart’s entire handwritten score.
These “bibliophile” sets (hard cover with genuine leather spines) are for sale in the United States for $175.00 per opera (including shipping at the standard book rate within the U.S.A.). To make this low price possible, the sets are available only by direct order.
Click here to read comments about the project.
Click here for information on ordering,
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), the second son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was one of the most influential and prolific composers of the eighteenth century. His oeuvre encompassed virtually every musical genre of the time, except opera, and enjoyed a high reputation and wide distribution well beyond the composer’s lifetime. The recovery in 1999 of the archives of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, which include many unique copies of Bach’s Hamburg Passions and cantatas once thought to have been lost during the Second World War, has made it possible to present for the first time the complete works of this important composer.
PHI has now published more than 75 of the planned 115 volumes of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works.
Click here for our main CPE Bach website.
Click here for a project description by the Managing Editor Paul Corneilson.
Click here for a review of PHI’s single-volume anthology The Essential CPE Bach.
Our joint project with the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg has given everyone in the world free web access to every page of the authoritative 127-volume Neue Mozart Ausgabe (New Mozart Edition).
Click here for the website in Salzburg.
The Bach-Archiv Leipzig or Bach-Archiv is an institution for the documentation and research of the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bach-Archiv also researches the Bach family, especially their music. PHI has provided major support for many years.
PHI has been providing support for editorial work on the new critical edition of Gioachino Rossini's music, directed by Philip Gossett at The Center for Italian Opera Studies at the University of Chicago.
Opera San Jose was founded by Metropolitan Opera diva Irene Dalis (born in San Jose) after her professional retirement in 1984. Since 2004, PHI has been a major supporter of Opera San Jose.
PHI supervised and partially funded the renovation of the California Theatre (built in 1927) so that it could become the new home for Opera San Jose. The theatre was originally a motion picture palace, but the acoustics and general ambiance have proven to be remarkably successful for opera.
Click here for photographs of The California Theatre in San Jose.
PHI has supported various Opera San Jose productions, especially of Mozart operas.
PHI has a strong interest in cataloging and making available 78-RPM records and other early formats. We support projects at UC Santa Barbara, The Library of Congress, and elsewhere.
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (supported by PHI) has become an authoritative resource on sound recording in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, one consulted by a broad range of scholars, recording enthusiasts, and the public. The database is recognized widely as a model for the organization and presentation of discographic information and the project remains the key underpinning of the Library of Congress National Jukebox program.
Click here for their website.
Click here for the Library of Congress National Jukebox.
For over a decade we have supported research on American musical theatre for a database (including performance history by traveling companies). We are considering how best to make this data available.
PHI sponsored a series of recordings of music by Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern conducted by John McGlinn in London in 2001. We hope to have these available soon.