so that nobody feels left out. It’s an all-embracing approach that elides the difference in mission between the commercial-entertainment machine and an institution that uses philanthropic dollars to support less capitalistic artistic pursuits. Lincoln Center’s leaders promise that the summer ensemble will have a significant, but as yet undefined, role in that transformation. It may even perform some regular old classical music.
Change comes gradually, then all of a sudden. Over the course of the past several decades, Mostly Mozart evolved from a diet of light classics into a sometimes sprawling series that treated its namesake composer more as a starting point than a consistent theme. This made historical and intellectual sense.
This summer’s finale continues in that vein. A new work by jazz trumpeter Amir ElSaffar leads into a performance of Mozart’s C-minor Mass. In another concert, anchoring Lincoln Center’s Korean Arts Week, composer Soo Yeon Lyuh’sBut the change in nomenclature and focus suggests that this is not enough. It projects a sense that there’s something out-of-date and out of step about the symphonic tradition, a fustiness that Mozart presumably embodies and now needs to be cleansed.