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.

It’s hard to imagine a piece of classical music causing a riot, but that’s the word often applied to the audience’s reaction when Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring debuted in Paris in 1913. The music (and dancing) broke with tradition so dramatically that it’s often called the first example of modernism in music. As a young man, Stravinsky’s first inspiration to write music for dance came from seeing Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, so it’s fitting that the Festival Orchestra plays some excerpts from that ballet to open this concert.

Bronfman, a “marvel of digital dexterity, warmly romantic sentiment, and jaw-dropping bravura” (Chicago Tribune), returns to Sun Valley to perform Schumann’s only piano concerto. After a wildly successful premiere by his wife, Clara, the piece immediately became known, and loved, for the exquisitely delicate way in which Schumann weaves together equal roles for the pianist and the orchestra. The concert opens with Finlandia, which Jean Sibelius wrote as a patriotic celebration of his homeland in 1900, followed by Threnody (In Memory of Jean Sibelius), which was written in 1965 by U.S. composer William Grant Still in honor of the great composer’s birth 100 years prior. The annual dance party on the lawn will follow this concert.