Heroic at Alice Tully Hall: The ACO Ignites Lincoln Center
This was a night of illuminated musical time travel. Some evenings in the concert hall announce themselves, even before the first note sounds, as something out of the ordinary. The evening of May 5, 2026, at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center was precisely such a night. The American Classical Orchestra presented a program entitled Heroic, and the title was, in every sense, earned. The pairing of Mozart's luminous Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, KV 453, with Beethoven's monumental Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, the “Eroica,” delineated the arc of Western music's most consequential stylistic transformation: the passage from the placid, crystalline certainties of the Classical period to the turbulent grandeur of the Romantic. And yet, for all its historical gravity, the evening was utterly, irresistibly alive.
Matthew Figel Performs Mozart's Concerto No. 17 in G Major on the fortepiano with the American Classical Orchestra. Photo by Edward Kliszus
Joyful, Intrepid Time Travel
What the ACO accomplishes—and what continues to set it entirely apart—is a form of joyful, intrepid time travel. Listening to these two magnificent works performed on period instruments is an experience that thwarts easy description. One does not simply hear the music; one inhabits it, suddenly aware that this is something like the very sonic world in which early nineteenth-century audiences first encountered these masterpieces. To close one's eyes, accordingly, in the full and generous radiance of Alice Tully Hall is to feel transported—back, perhaps, to that June morning in Döbling when, as Mozart himself described in a letter, "Fräulein Babette is playing her new concerto in G" at Ployer's house. Breathtaking, in the truest sense of the word.
Thomas Crawford: The Maestro Who Makes Music a Conversation
Before a single note was played, Thomas Crawford—Founder and Artistic Director of the ACO, organist, composer, and one of the most compellingly charismatic musical personalities in New York—came forward for his customary pre-concert remarks, and the audience, as it invariably does, leaned in with undivided attention. Crawford's introductory commentaries have become one of the most beloved and distinctive features of the ACO experience—a kind of animated symposium where musicology meets dry wit meets authentic passion.
Maestro Thomas Crawford conducts the American Classical Orchestra. Courtesy aconyc.org
A Guided Illumination
On this evening, Crawford opened by inviting the orchestra to demonstrate the main theme of the Mozart concerto—a gentle, luminous gesture that immediately oriented the ear and warmed the hall. He then pivoted, with characteristic expressive flair, to a guided illumination of the Beethoven to come. Through brief orchestral illustrations, he mapped the famous four-note figures that Beethoven deploys to build a mighty symphonic architecture, the sweeping Romantic theme of the first movement, and the paralyzing intensity of the funeral march. The audience chuckled at his wry asides, nodded at his deeper observations, and emerged from the introduction not simply informed but truly eager. Crawford possesses, not unlike Leonard Bernstein's legendary Young People's Concerts at Lincoln Center, the rare and invaluable gift of making the meaningful feel personal and accessible—as though he alone has discovered something marvelous, and is sharing it with you in confidence. Indeed, many in the full house evidently regard Crawford's commentary as an event in itself, a curtain-raiser worthy of the works that follow.
Moreover, Crawford’s conducting was precise, articulate, expressive, and effective. And it’s always remarkable to see a conductor lead an orchestra without a score, demonstrating his confidence born of a complete understanding of the music.
Matthew Figel and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major: Hidden Laughter, Hidden Sadness
The Fortepiano Master Takes the Stage
Then came Matthew Figel—and what a revelation he proved to be. Currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at the Eastman School of Music under the guidance of Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers, Figel is also a prizewinner of the International Bach Leipzig, the Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition, the Harold Protsman Classical Period Competition, and the Eastman Concerto Competitions. He has performed fortepiano recitals at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Concertgebouw Brugge, and participated in a Mozart piano concerto workshop led by Mitsuko Uchida as part of Carnegie Hall's Perspectives series. That impressive résumé was, on this occasion, richly justified.
Matthew Figel, pianist. Courtesy matthewfigel.com
A Concerto of Opalescent Feeling
As program annotator John Thiessen explains, the concerto was "composed in 1784 for Mozart's student Barbara Ployer," scored for solo piano, strings, flute, oboes, bassoons, and horns—an intimate palette that Mozart converted into something radiant. "The effervescent lyricism of the opening movement," Thiessen writes, "is followed by the composer's ingenious use of wind instruments as quasi-operatic characters in wordless dialogue with the piano in the middle Andante." Figel navigated all three movements with a balance of intellectual care and expressive tenderness entirely befitting the fortepiano's character: lighter of touch than the modern concert grand, more silvery in its upper register, with a natural transparency that makes every inner voice audible and every ornament sparkle. Cuthbert Girdlestone, in his authoritative study of Mozart's piano concertos, observed of this very work that "no words can describe the continuous iridescence of feeling of the first movement, or the passionate tenderness of the second"—and sitting in Alice Tully Hall, one experienced the truth of that formulation with uncommon immediacy.
A Starling Faithfully Singing a Tune
Furthermore, the finale's "humorous Papageno-like melody," as Thiessen aptly describes it, brought smiles to many faces—not least because the program notes likewise remind us of the charming biographical footnote: that Mozart later visited a Viennese bird seller's shop and, hearing a starling sing a tune faithfully mimicking the Allegretto's rondo theme, purchased it as a treasured household pet. That story, in its very absurdity as well as sweetness, is pure Mozart—a genius who could find the comic and the cosmic within a few bars of music, and who never forgot that music is, above all, for the delight of human beings. New York Concert Review has described Figel's playing as possessing "a tone and approach entrancing from the outset," and on this evening, that characterization felt, if anything, understated.
Beethoven's Eroica: The Symphony That Changed the World
A Turning Point in Musical History
After intermission, the evening shifted decisively toward the heroic in the fullest and most consequential sense. Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major is, as musicologist Harold Schonberg wrote, "one of the turning points in musical history." And yet—even knowing this, even having read about the Eroica, listened to it on recordings, encountered it in lecture halls—nothing quite prepares one for the experience of hearing it live, performed on period instruments by an ensemble that has made this music its life's work. As Schonberg observed, "with one convulsive wrench, music entered the nineteenth century."
Beethoven in 1814. (etching by Blasius Höfel after a drawing by Louis Letronne). Public Domain via Wikipedia Commons The Full Abandonment of French Revolution Ideals
Program annotator John Thiessen situates the work's genesis with admirable clarity: Beethoven composed the Eroica between 1803 and 1804, originally intending it as a tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte. Then, when Bonaparte declared himself Emperor—an act of self-aggrandizement that Beethoven interpreted as "the full abandonment of French Revolution ideals"—the dedicatory title page was dramatically torn from the score. Thiessen notes, moreover, that this act of political disillusionment may even have influenced Beethoven's decision to remain in Habsburg Vienna for the remainder of his life, abandoning any plans for a Paris residency. The composition that emerged from this forge of political idealism and personal betrayal is accordingly more than music: it is a manifesto.
The ACO's Performance: Transparency, Power, and Poignant Clarity
What the ACO brought to the Eroica under Crawford's direction was precisely what one hopes for and rarely receives in such full measure: the translucence and fullness of period instruments allowing every voice, every harmonic shadow, to register with exquisite clarity. The opening movement's famous early dissonance—that startling E-flat chord against the cellos—landed with the force of something genuinely unexpected, reminding one that Beethoven's original audiences had never heard anything like this. The Marcia funebre (Adagio assai) was devastating in its restraint; on gut strings and with natural horns, the timbre has an honesty and vulnerability that make the mourning feel immediate rather than monumental. The Scherzo seethed with irresistible energy, and the great Finale, with its variations on a theme from Beethoven's own ballet Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, arrived with the inevitability of a conclusion that nonetheless astonishes afresh.
Young Mozart holding a music book 1768. By Johann Eusebius Alphen, (Vienna 1742-1772). Elektromagikum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Concertmaster Cynthia Roberts led the violin section with poise and musicality; principal cellist Myron Lutzke and the cello section provided the emotional bedrock of the evening; and the winds—including Marc Schachman on oboe, Nina Stern on clarinet, principal flutist Sandra Miller, and the natural horns of R.J. Kelley and colleagues—were superb throughout. The full roster of musicians brought nothing less than their very best to a program which demanded, and received, everything.
Support the American Classical Orchestra: Keep This Music Alive
The work of the American Classical Orchestra depends vitally on the generosity of music lovers, educators, and philanthropists who believe, as its musicians so clearly do, that historically informed performance of Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic repertoire is not simply a scholarly exercise yet a living, breathing, irreplaceable form of cultural inheritance. To support the ACO and ensure that future seasons continue to bring this extraordinary music-making to New York, please visit americanclassicalorchestra.org/support.
Additionally, the ACO's upcoming La Serenissima Benefit Concert—Vivaldi & Vino—takes place on May 13, 2026, from 6:30–8:30 PM at the Columbus Citizens Foundation, 8 E. 69th Street, New York City. Fundraiser tickets are $800 per person, and all attendees will be named as "Season Supporters" in all Season 42 concert programs. A magnificent evening of Vivaldi awaits—along with the knowledge that your giving directly sustains one of New York's most remarkable musical institutions.
American Classical Orchestra performs "Heroic" at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center NYC. Photo courtesy American Classical Orchestra Season 42: What Awaits
Season 42 of the American Classical Orchestra is certain to be nothing short of magnificent. From Haydn's “Lord Nelson” Mass and transcendent J.S. Bach motets to Mozart, Berwald, and not one but three more Beethoven symphonies—including the thunderous Fifth—the coming season is a banquet for the historically curious and the passionately musical alike. These are concerts to circle on your calendar, to bring a friend, and above all, do not miss a single note.
Heroic at Alice Tully Hall: The ACO Ignites Lincoln Center
Venue: Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center Address: 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023 Tickets & Season Information: americanclassicalorchestra.org Donate to the ACO: https://aconyc.org/donate/
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