Langry told the Cincinnati Symphony in 2021 that he would not renew his contract there after the 2023-24 season. That year, French President Emmanuel Macron appointed him to direct the Opéra-Comique. Langry said it was the first job he ever applied for.
However, his departure from Mostly Mozart was blurry. His contract there was due to expire this summer, but there was no official announcement if he would renew his contract. The festival had darkened in 2020, and by the time it was to return, last year Lincoln Center had a new artistic conductor, Shanta Thak, who put forward a summer series that featured no proper festival and fewer performances than before mostly the Mozart Festival Orchestra. . The 2019 edition was unofficially the last edition of the festival. Langry said how can he renew something that does not exist?
Langre wanted nothing more to say about the end of his tenure on Mostly Mozart – by all accounts a triumph of ensemble-building and musical curiosity. He wanted to protect the players and the orchestra to continue. Most recently, Jonathon Heyward was named their musical director, an appointment that came with the news of the group’s name change.
Thacke said that, as a New Yorker who knows the Mostly Mozart Orchestra as a beloved New York institution, she can see that Langrée’s final season entry, “They’re stronger than ever.” And there are still Langres performances to come, such as the pairing of Mozart’s C-Minor Mass and the premiere of Prince of the Yellows, Starting July 25th.
Langre moved to Paris as soon as he got his start at the Opéra-Comique, and when working in the US he starts his day early, with about three hours of meetings before rehearsal begins. It’s a challenge, but in the future, he’ll perform even less: away from his concerts in Cincinnati next season, he’ll only make two guest appearances.
Instead of studying scores, he was now acquainted with the non-technical side of his field, which now stresses not on orchestral concerts, but, for example, on the effect of inflation on the cost of running a theatre.