Alasdair Neale, Music Director

Violinist Juliana Athayde and pianist Orion Weiss perform Beethoven’s effervescent “Spring” Sonata. Published in 1801, the work finds the composer in game-changing mode as he anticipates the Romantic-era gestures of Mendelssohn and Schumann. From the innocence of the opening Allegro to the joyous Rondo Finale, you can almost smell the Austrian countryside. In Mothership—a dancing scherzo where improvising soloists “dock” with the orchestral mothership—Music Director Alasdair Neale and the full orchestra will demonstrate why Mason Bates is one of America’s most popular and performed contemporary composers.

Enjoy some positive family dynamics in this survey of Festival orchestra musicians and their talented offspring. From their homes to yours, members of the orchestra team up with their kids to perform selections of their choosing. Like most family gatherings, expect some cute moments and perhaps some surprises—one musician’s son has already soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony!

Grammy Award-winning pianist and 2019 Musical America Artist of the Year, Russian-born Daniil Trifonov brings his vibrant musical talent to bear on a pair of colorful masterpieces. First up is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 18, known as “The Hunt,” thanks to a buoyant horn-call motif in the finale. In it, you’ll notice playful high spirits are to the fore, yet there’s room for tenderness, too. Then, nothing conjures images quite like Pictures at an Exhibition. A gallery guide in musical form, the half-hour work—originally written for and played tonight by solo piano—paints a series of vivid musical canvases connected by Mussorgsky’s famous “Promenade” theme.

A musical smorgasbord opens with harpist Julia Coronelli playing Debussy’s shimmering “Arabesque No. 1” (you’ll recognize it) followed by Schumann’s dreamy “Romance” for Oboe and Piano played by Erik Behr and guest artist Orion Weiss. Clarinetist Jason Shafer finesses Gershwin’s jazz-inflected Three Preludes before Polina Sedukh performs a 21st-century masterwork: Missy Mazzoli’s evocative Vespers for amplified violin and electronic soundtrack. Concluding the concert in martial style, Music Director Alasdair Neale conducts the orchestra in the colorful third movement from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique.”