Our 51st season begins with a thrilling program that spotlights the genius of three masters. Ligeti’s enchanting Six Bagatelles is a playful excursion through the wide range of delights only a wind quintet can offer, and Beethoven’s landmark Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 69, revels in the virtuosic demands placed on both the piano and cello, played here by Zoltán Fejérvári and, in his Festival debut, Narek Hakhnazaryan, whose performances the San Francisco Chronicle hailed as “nothing short of magnificent.” The program comes to a spectacular close with Mendelssohn’s superlative D Minor Piano Trio, which Schumann called “the master trio of our time.” 

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Beethoven, Ligeti & Mendelssohn

New Mexico Museum of Art

Award-winning pianist Zoltán Fejérvári—praised for the “gripping power” of his performances by Gramophone— plays a rich recital program that features a varied collection of short works by Ligeti, Schumann, and Bartók as well as Brahms’s first published work: the highly virtuosic and symphonic Sonata in C Major. 

Zoltán Fejérvári Piano Recital

Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and acclaimed pianist Myra Huang present a recital program that spotlights dramatic and complex literary heroines. Grieg’s song cycle Haugtussa (The Mountain Maid) incorporates Norwegian folk melodies into its story about Veslemøy, a young shepherd girl who struggles with the burdens of having psychic powers, while Haydn’s cantata Arianna a Naxos takes listeners through Cretan Princess Arianna’s grief, wrath, and despair after she’s abandoned by her lover, Theseus. The program also features Korngold’s Five Songs, Op. 38, which incorporates lush melodies from the Academy Award–winning composer’s acclaimed film scores. 

Kelley O'Connor & Myra Huang Recital

This program spans three eras of classical music: the Romantic, the avant-garde, and the contemporary. Anthony Manzo, solo bassist of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra, makes his Festival debut in Dvořák’s sonorous and sunny String Quintet in G Major, and violinist Yura Lee and pianist Zoltán Fejérvári present a riveting dialogue of rhythmic complexity in Bartók’s vibrant Sonata No. 1. Dutilleux’s Les Citations weaves a rich tapestry of sound with its unusual instrumentation of harpsichord, oboe, bass, and percussion.

Bartók & Dvořák

The Miami String Quartet plays beloved works by Mozart and Mendelssohn. Mozart’s String Quartet in D Minor is from a set that the composer dedicated to Haydn, who, after hearing the set, told Mozart’s father that his son was “the greatest composer” he’d ever known. Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F Minor is his impassioned final chamber work, which he wrote following the death of his beloved sister Fanny, just months before his own death at the age of 38.

Miami String Quartet

Immerse yourself in the delights of high French Baroque music—from the passion of Rameau to the poise of Lully—with this keyboard-centered program performed by New York Philharmonic harpsichordist Paolo Boridignon, violinist Yura Lee, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and cellist Peter Stumpf. 

French Baroque Masters: Rameau & Lully

Dvořák & Prokofiev

In their Festival debuts, two renowned artists—baritone Benjamin Appl, called “the most promising of today’s up-and-coming song recitalists” by the Financial Times, and pianist Simon Lepper—present The Sound of Silence, an intimate recital program that focuses on pauses and silences in music as well as on introspection as the starting point for inspiration. Appl was one of legendary German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s final students, and here he showcases his extraordinary artistry in Schumann’s complete Liederkreis, an arresting Gregorian chant, and moving works by Schubert, Monteverdi, Richard Strauss, and other masters.

Benjamin Appl & Simon Lepper Recital

Two crown jewels of the chamber music repertoire— Ravel’s hypnotic Piano Trio and Brahms’s grand Piano Quartet in A Major—share a program with Elizabeth Ogonek’s Lightenings, a stunning and complementary piece that the Festival commissioned and premiered in 2016. Pianist Ran Dank, whom The Washington Post praised for playing with “explosive force and triumphant exultation,” is featured in the Ravel and Ogonek, and Haochen Zhang, hailed for his “preternatural virtuosity” by The Boston Music Intelligencer, joins violinist Paul Huang, violist Toby Appel, and cellist Peter Stumpf for the Brahms. 

Ravel & Brahms

Pianist Gilles Vonsattel gives an all-Beethoven recital that includes the revolutionary Appassionata Sonata, written during the same visionary period as the Eroica Symphony and considered by the composer to be one of his finest piano sonatas.

Gilles Vonsattel Piano Recital

Four virtuoso soloists are featured in works by two illustrious members of the Bach family. Oboist Robert Ingliss and violinist Daniel Phillips play J. S. Bach’s lively and warm-hued Concerto for Oboe and Violin, flutist Bart Feller performs C. P. E Bach’s popular D Minor Flute Concerto, and pianist Gilles Vonsattel closes the program with J. S. Bach’s E Major Keyboard Concerto, a work that’s both lighthearted and full of challenging complexity. 

All Bach

This piano-trio program unfolds entirely in the key of E-flat Major—a key that often expresses grandeur and majesty. The program opens with the floating theme of Schubert’s Notturno; moves to Beethoven’s uncommonly lighthearted Op. 70, No. 2; and closes with a masterpiece from Schubert’s final year: his D. 929. An internationally renowned lineup of artists comes together for this tender yet thrilling program.

Schubert & Beethoven

The Verona Quartet—called a “powerhouse” ensemble by Classical Voice America—makes their Festival debut with a rich and wide-ranging recital program that includes the last of Mozart’s charming Milanese quartets, Britten’s delicate and ethereal Third Quartet, and Verdi’s only string quartet, which transports listeners into the world of Italian opera on a small yet potent scale. 

Verona Quartet

The stunning German mezzo-soprano Annika Schlicht is joined by Donald Runnicles (the renowned conductor) on the piano for this beautifully crafted recital, which features 19th- and 20th-century works by Debussy, Brahms, Lili Boulanger, and Roger Quilter that transport listeners along an international journey of song. 

Annika Schlicht & Donald Runnicles Recital

Grammy-nominated clarinetist Todd Palmer joins the Verona Quartet in Osvaldo Golijov’s celebrated quintet The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, an epic journey that invokes both the divinity of prayer and the freewheeling world of klezmer. The Verona then joins guitarist Łukasz Kuropaczewski for Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Guitar Quintet, which the composer described as a “melodious and serene work written almost in a Schubertian vein.” 

Golijov: The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind

International guitar sensation Łukasz Kuropaczewski is joined by violinist Danbi Um, the Verona Quartet, and double bassist Mark Tatum for a program of Italian charm and splendor. Two dazzling duo sonatas by Giuliani and Paganini are framed by two of Vivaldi’s warm and energetic guitar concertos in this tribute to the guitar’s beauty, versatility, and enduring appeal.

Italian Splendor: Vivaldi, Giuliani & Paganini

Donald Runnicles makes his Festival debut conducting Mahler’s consummate fusion of song cycle and symphony, Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), performed here in its intimate chamber orchestra version. Mahler was reeling from the loss of his daughter and other crises when he wrote this deeply moving work, and the poems he set to music evoke the beauty, sadness, and transience of life. An all-star ensemble is joined by two extraordinary soloists who are also making their Festival debuts: German mezzo-soprano Annika Schlicht, whose voice OperaWire has praised as “extraordinary for its beauty of tone,” and American heldentenor Clay Hilley, who was lauded by The New York Times for his “vocal heft [and] clarion sound.” 

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

The world premiere of a Festival-commissioned work by composer Xinyang Wang, who draws equal inspiration from classical music and traditional Chinese arts, opens this program, which also features clarinetist Todd Levy in Academy Award–winning composer Bernard Herrmann’s quintet Souvenirs de Voyage, a cinematic journey through England, Ireland, and Italy. 

Souvenirs de Voyage

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton—hailed as “a once-in-a-generation voice” by Opera magazine—makes her highly anticipated Festival debut in a recital with renowned pianist Julius Drake. Barton’s passion for telling stories through song provides the vibrant underpinning for an enthralling and eclectic program of works by Dvořák, Ives, Duparc, and Sibelius. 

Jamie Barton & Julius Drake Recital

The dramatic dynamism of the duo form is spotlighted in the first half of this program, which features two vastly different works: Mozart’s perfectly crafted Duo in G Major, performed by violinist William Hagen and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, and Kodály’s thrilling and demanding Duo for Violin and Cello, played by Leila Josefowicz and Paul Watkins. Mozart is featured again in the second half, as his exquisite Clarinet Quintet showcases the soaring artistry of clarinetist David Shifrin and the Escher String Quartet. 

Mozart Clarinet Quintet

Pianist Julius Drake joins horn player Nathaniel Silberschlag and violinist William Hagen in treasured works by Schumann and Beethoven, which provide a lyrical and emotive frame for Schoenberg’s fiendishly difficult String Trio, performed here by violinist Leila Josefowicz, violist Milena-Pajaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Paul Watkins. 

Schumann & Beethoven

Telemann’s lyrical expressiveness, Zelenka’s harmonic inventiveness, and Vivaldi’s pyrotechnics are all on display in this program of Baroque riches, which culminates with Bach’s immortal Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. The evening’s celebrated soloists include violinist William Hagen, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, National Symphony Orchestra Principal Bassoon Sue Heineman, and Nashville Symphony Principal Trumpet William Leathers. 

Bach, Telemann & Zelenka

Widely considered the most influential quartet cycle after Beethoven’s, Bartók’s collection of six string quartets is a landmark artistic achievement. The rare opportunity offered here—to experience the full quartet cycle performed over the course of one evening—gives listeners a unique insight into Bartók’s creative development as he revolutionized the string quartet genre and moved from composing in the Late-Romantic style to pioneering modernism. The Escher String Quartet, praised by The New York Times for their “penetrating intelligence” and “gorgeous tonal sheen,” plays the six quartets in order, with two intermissions.

Escher String Quartet Plays Bartók

On this powerful program, eight acclaimed wind players—including Minnesota Orchestra Principal Oboe Nathan Hughes and Cleveland Orchestra Principal Horn Nathaniel Silberschlag—come together to play Mozart’s earliest masterpiece for wind ensemble, the Serenade, K.375, and violinist William Hagen leads an all-star ensemble in Brahms’s Piano Quintet, which one of the composer’s contemporaries, conductor Hermann Levi, described as “beautiful beyond words.”

Mozart & Brahms Masterworks

Longtime Festival collaborator Kirill Gerstein, praised by The Guardian as “a peerless performer,” offers a rich Romantic recital program that includes Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasy—a visionary work that, while writing 

Kirill Gerstein Piano Recital

Mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, hailed as a “knockout performer” by The Times, and pianist Julius Drake, who made their Festival debuts together in 2022, present a children-themed recital that evokes both humor and tragedy. The duo performs selected songs by Schumann and gives the first-ever Festival performances of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) and Mussorgsky’s Detskaya (The Nursery). 

Fleur Barron & Julius Drake Recital

Violinist Ida Kavafian, violist Steven Tenenbom, and cellist Eric Kim play an early work by Beethoven—the seminal String Trio in C Minor—and violinist John Storgårds and pianist Katia Skanavi join all three musicians for the Festival’s first presentation of Weinberg’s haunting Piano Quintet, a rarely performed masterpiece that stands as one of the great piano quintets of the 20th century. 

Beethoven & Weinberg

The Dover Quartet makes their first Festival appearance of the season playing Janáček’s moving testament to Love, Intimate Letters, and Debussy’s only string quartet, which ushered Impressionism into the genre with its exotic scales and rhythmic spontaneity. 

Dover Quartet

In his first-ever Festival appearance, Santa Fe Opera Music Director Harry Bicket leads an ensemble of Opera musicians in music from Handel’s regal Water Music, which was originally performed on the River Thames for King George I and went on to enthrall audiences over the centuries with its enchanting melodies, spirited rhythms, and vibrant orchestral colors. 

Handel Water Music

Members of the Dover Quartet join other Festival artists in the youthfully exuberant, Classical-era Sonata a quattro No. 1, written by Rossini when he was 12 years old, and Brahms’s sweeping String Sextet in G Major. Between the two works, the Festival presents the US premiere of a commissioned quintet by Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen, who Gramophone notes “[fuses] jazz and classical idioms” and “draws on her Lapland roots and on the mystery and melancholy of life in the north.” 

Rossini & Brahms

In this season-finale concert, violinist John Storgårds and pianist Kirill Gerstein play Janáček’s Violin Sonata, which is noted for both its urgency and lyricism, and, for the first time ever, Gerstein joins forces with the Dover Quartet for a performance of one of the standouts of the chamber music repertoire: Dvořák’s rousing Piano Quintet, Op. 81. The modal harmonies and improvisational feel of Janáček’s sonata coupled with the dumka and Bohemian dances in Dvořák’s quintet offers an invigorating taste of the folk music these two composers brought from their shared homeland and onto the international concert stage. 

Santa Fe Chamber Music festival

Jul 14, 2024

Beethoven, Ligeti & Mendelssohn

Jul 16, 2024

Zoltán Fejérvári Piano Recital

Jul 17, 2024

Kelley O'Connor & Myra Huang Recital

Jul 17, 2024

Bartók & Dvořák

Jul 18, 2024

Miami String Quartet

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