Debussy loved the sea, especially its unpredictable and ever-changing motion. His most performed work, La Mer, captures—in music, as only Debussy could—the play of light on the water and the sea’s place in the natural world. Also on the program, the Festival’s exploration of Mozart’s wind concertos continues with Principal Bassoon Andrew Cuneo performing Mozart’s concerto for the bassoon, a piece that shows off the instrument’s remarkable agility and range. Opening the program, Maestro Neale leads the orchestra in Agnegram, a short piece composed by his friend and mentor, the great conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

Vivacious and unpretentious—and both emotionally and physically exhausting to play—Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto has become so popular that it’s often performed at opening night galas. Grammy-winning violinist Hadelich performs this concerto with the Festival Orchestra on a program with Florence Price’s Andante moderato.

Violinist Augustin Hadelich joins Festival Orchestra musicians for an evening of chamber music featuring Brahms’s Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major. It’s a work of infectious joie de vivre, offering both songs and dances alongside lively musical conversations between the two violins, two violas, and two cellos. The second movement’s theme and variations have been featured in settings as diverse as Star Trek: The Next Generation and the 2001 French film The Piano Teacher.

After hearing Sasha Cooke sing Mahler’s Rückert Lieder on August 10, audiences may recognize some themes in tonight’s symphony. The fourth movement, the Adagietto, draws explicitly from the Lieder and is recognized as a love letter from Mahler to his wife, Alma. Leonard Bernstein famously led the New York Philharmonic in a performance of the heartbreakingly beautiful Adagietto at Robert Kennedy’s funeral service in 1968. The rest of the symphony is pretty good, too.