Mariinsky Orchestra

The “marvelous” (Los Angeles Times) Mariinsky Orchestra and its Music Director Valery Gergiev—renowned for their high-octane, virtuosic performances—perform two masterpieces that will set pulses racing. The Brahms concerto’s muscular solo part, rich orchestration—including a sublime cello solo in the Andante—and melodic splendor make it one of his most enduring works, while Strauss’s epic tone poem Ein Heldenleben excites with its lush orchestration and a cinematic sensibility, especially in a famous scene where the hero battles his critics.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Solemnity, fury, and joy—sometimes in a single work—characterize the music on this program. Ives’s Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day) with its allusions to church bells, hymns, and military band music evokes a mood of reverence. Brahms also conjures a serious tone in the second movement of his Symphony No. 2, but the work’s overall warmth and jubilant finale dispels all sorrow. Beethoven balances a stormy mood, melancholy, and high spirits in his groundbreaking Piano Concerto No. 3, a work played by Igor Levit, “one of the essential artists of his generation” (The New York Times).

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Bartók’s passion for Hungarian and Romanian folk music, his stunning skill as an orchestral colorist, and sharp dramatic gifts are showcased. Legendary vocalist Márta Sebestyén will sing traditional Hungarian songs with a handful of musicians from the orchestra, setting the stage for Bartók’s vibrant folk song and dance treatments. In a different vein, but no less exciting, his one-act opera Bluebeard’s Castle, with its sumptuous orchestral and expressive vocal writing, is a riveting climax to a concert that, when performed by the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer in London, was called “thought-provoking and exhilarating” by The Guardian.