Events

Samuel Barber was a serious composer and a gifted orchestral craftsman perhaps best known for his cinematic Adagio for Strings. Equally lush and compelling, his violin concerto gained popularity for its lyrical and songful first two movements and completely virtuosic third. The great violinist Gil Shaham returns to Sun Valley to share this marvelous work with us. To open the concert, Euan Shields conducts several excerpts from Thomas Adès’s Inferno, whose passages vividly depict episodes in Dante’s journey through Hell.

Beethoven wrote a string quintet?? Though it was published after his death, scholars believe the great composer re-arranged his famous “Kreutzer” violin sonata into a quintet featuring two cellos. Full of fiery passion, it features demanding solo parts for each instrument. The program opens with Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and String Quartet, a piece commissioned by a harp company to show off its instruments. Yet while the harp shines brightly, this is ultimately a shared tapestry that showcases Ravel’s masterful orchestration.

The Festival’s Summer Season concludes with Mahler’s first symphony, whose monumental score demanded the largest orchestra ever assembled at the time. An epic narrative of struggle and triumph, it opens with the sounds of nature awakening, moves through dances, folk tunes, and a funeral march that twists “Frère Jacques” into something of a parody, and in the final movement pulls the audience into a heroic journey from despair to a glorious triumph. Watch out for some of Mahler’s tricks along the way–just when you think you might have arrived in heaven, things crash down only to begin the journey all over again!