The program includes Mozart's Symphony No. 35 ("Haffner") and the Allegro movement from his Piano Concerto No. 23, as well as three Handel arias.

In all, the festival will include 11 performances by music director Louis Langr_e and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Other highlights include a revival of Mark Morris's L'Allegro, Il penseroso ed Il moderato, set to Handel's music, three years after it was presented at the 2002 festival. Nicholas McGegan again conducts, leading the Orchestra of St. Luke's this time; sopranos Dominique Labelle and Christine Brandes also return. Tenor Iain Patton and bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams make their Mostly Mozart debuts.

Another anticipated revival, Peter Sellars' staged version of Bach Cantatas Nos. 199 and 92, was canceled because of mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's injured back.

The festival's guest soloists include Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, James Galway, Louis Lortie, Garrick Ohlsson, Gil Shaham, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Visiting ensembles include the Russian Patriarchate Choir and Emmanuelle HaÇm's Concert d'Astr_e, both making their American debuts, and the Gabrieli Consort, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Mostly Mozart was founded in 1966, at a time when most urban concert halls were dark during the summer, and has spawned countless imitators.