Mozart vs. Chevalier de Saint-George

The 18th-century composer, violinist, and fencing champion Joseph Bologne ‘Chevalier de Saint-George’ was the illegitimate son of a plantation manager and an enslaved woman in Guadeloupe. He went to Paris at a young age, where he found himself in the midst of a city on the brink of revolution. He quickly made a name for himself in the highest circles of Parisian society. The 2022 film Chevalier tells his extraordinary life story. This is a unique opportunity to hear his music, performed by the acclaimed baroque violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte. This young Frenchman is considered ‘the great sensation of the baroque violin’ (Volkskrant).

Théotime also performs the solo part in the first major masterpiece by Bologne’s contemporary Mozart, the lithe Third Violin Concerto. Equally beloved is Mozart’s Parisian Symphony, written in Paris at the age of 22, and notably scored for a large orchestra. Mozart incorporates something that was popular in Paris at the time: a large crescendo, played in unison – beautiful.