Festival Concerts

Join us for a cherished SMF tradition—a captivating lecture by former SMF Music Director Robert Levin! Renowned for his incredible expertise and engaging style, Levin shares insights on topics like performance practice, improvisation, music history, and music theory, inspiring both Fellows and audiences alike. Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2025 lecture topic—it’s sure to be a highlight of the season!

Composed in 1938, Henri Tomasi’s delightful Concert Champêtre ushers us into the elegant, stately world of 17th- and 18th-century courtly dance music. Icelandic cellist and SMF alum Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir performs the fascinating Bow to String, composed especially for her by her countryman Daniel Bjarnason. Schubert wrote the stormy Rondo for Josef Slavik, performing it with his friend less than two years before his untimely death. Schubert’s String Quintet, written in the composer’s final burst of inspiration, is brought to life by Thorsteinsdóttir and the GRAMMY®-nominated Miró Quartet.

Alberto Ginastera’s String Quartet No. 1, composed in 1948, skillfully combines the angular musical language of Bartók with rhythmic and tuneful Argentinian folk traditions. Modeled on Mozart’s Serenade, Richard Strauss’s Suite for 13 Winds—written when he was just 18—exemplifies his extraordinary talent for melody and catapulted him to international fame. Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, based on his emotionally charged art song, “Death and the Maiden,” reveals the composer at his most passionate. Sandy Yamamoto, a former member of the Miró Quartet and SMF alum, will lead the orchestral arrangement Mahler envisioned for this intense and profound work.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s work for nine players premiered in 1894 and was not heard again until recently. It showcases the composer’s admiration for Dvořák while revealing his distinctive, late-Romantic voice. Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings, composed as his fame was on the rise, solidified his reputation as a master composer. Pianist and Mozart scholar Robert Levin leads the Festival Orchestra from the keyboard in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17, which was the last of four concertos he composed between 1784 and 1786 and remains one of the composer’s most popular works.

Festival fellows bring their favorite chamber works to life, performing a selection of short pieces and movements.

The final Artist Showcase of the 2025 Festival opens with Haydn’s lighthearted Divertimento No. 1, written to entertain the court of Esterhazy. Cellist Emmanuel Feldman and New York Philharmonic violist Rebecca Young make their Festival debuts in Joaquín Turina’s 1931 Piano Quartet, a unique mélange of classical form and Spanish flair. Feldman and Jeffrey Kahane join forces for Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata. One of a very few chamber works Rachmaninoff composed, the powerful work traverses a dazzling range of emotion.

Festival fellows bring their favorite chamber works to life, performing a selection of short pieces and movements.

The theme of music and memory takes center stage in the final Festival Friday. Samuel Barber’s 1953 Summer Music, an evocative portrayal of a balmy outdoor afternoon, was composed with the wind players’ favorite effects in mind. Richard Strauss’s powerful Metamorphosen, featuring 23 unique string parts, delves into a period of massive change in Germany. Singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane, Jeffrey Kahane’s son, performs October 1, 1939/Port of Hamburg, based on his grandmother’s diary as she traveled across America in 1939 after fleeing Germany. Jeffrey Kahane is the soloist in Heirloom, the piano concerto his son composed and dedicated to him “with love, admiration, gratitude, and awe.” Gabriel Kahane conducts this captivating and deeply personal work that intertwines three generations of family history.

The 2025 Sarasota Music Festival concludes with a true “Hollywood ending.” Elena Urioste, a Festival alum, will captivate you with her passion and flair for drama as she performs Korngold’s post-Romantic Violin Concerto, brimming with soaring melodies from his film scores. In his Symphony No. 2, Robert Schumann draws inspiration from other music, honoring Bach and incorporating the music of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and perhaps even his own scores. Tinged with only a hint of melancholy, the work’s overall message is one of joy, concluding the 61st Sarasota Music Festival on a jubilant note.