South Florida Classical Review

Grieg and Beethoven Piano Concertos. Miami International Piano Festival. October 19.

For several years, the Miami International Piano Festival has opened its season with a concerto evening featuring multiple soloists with orchestra. While last season’s iteration comprised rarely heard works, this year’s opener hews toward popular repertoire. The impressive Russian-born virtuoso Alexander Gavrylyuk returns after a long absence to play Grieg’s Concerto in A minor. Dmitry Ablogin assays Beethoven’s Concerto No. 2 and Ilya Itin offers the same composer’s Concerto No. 4 in G Major. Igor Gruppman conducts. miamipianofest.com (LB)

Bach Motets. Patrick Quigley/Seraphic Fire. November 13-16.

The six motets of Johann Sebastian are among the Baroque master’s most striking and original works. Seraphic Fire has twice presented these scores (in 2006 and 2017) and their revival is an event to look forward to. These experimental works push the boundaries of form and harmonic structure, challenging the limitations of Baroque style and the performers’ techniques. Artistic director Patrick Quigley has always excelled in Bach’s most ambitious creations and these motets should summon his patrician skill at choral balancing and ensemble cohesion. seraphicfire.org (LB)

Kevin Puts’ Silent Night. Florida Grand Opera. November 15-18 (Miami); December 6-8 (Fort Lauderdale).

A production of an acclaimed contemporary opera in South Florida is always a rare event. Premiered in 2011 and highly praised in numerous productions by regional American and European opera companies, American composer Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night is the story of a Christmas truce of 1914 when French, British and German troops ceased fighting in World War I to celebrate the holiday and reconnect to their shared humanity. fgo.org (LB)

Music of Mahler, Haydn and Johann Strauss. Manfred Honeck/New World Symphony. December 13-14.

Manfred Honeck, longtime music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, is one of the finest leaders on the podium today. The Austrian conductor’s sporadic appearances with the New World Symphony have always produced outstanding concerts. After too long an absence, Honeck returns with a program of the prime repertoire he does best. Johann Strauss’ Overture to Die Fledermaus, Haydn’s Symphony No. 93, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Each, in their own way, share a Viennese sensibility that promises to capture Honeck’s strongest attributes—total command of the orchestra and a sense of idiomatic stylishness. nws.edu (LB)

Music of John Adams. John Adams and Stéphane Denève/New World Symphony with Vikingur Ólafsson. January 17-18, 2026. 

The formidable Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson solos in John Adams’ recent After the Fall concerto in his Miami debut. The iconic American composer shares the podium with New World artistic director Stéphane Denève in an all-Adams program, which also features his Chairman Dances, I Still Dance and Doctor Atomic Symphony (based on Adams’ opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer). nws.edu (LB)

Verdi’s Requiem. Franz Welser-Möst/Cleveland Orchestra.  January 23-24.

Verdi’s Requiem is a sacred music drama comparable to the Italian master’s greatest large-scale operas. To open its annual Miami residency, the Cleveland Orchestra under music director Franz Welser-Möst present this grand masterpiece. The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and a worthy lineup of soloists should provide both dramatic thunder and spiritual reflection. arshtcenter.org (LB)

Music of Mozart and Shostakovich. Franz Welser-Möst/Cleveland Orchestra. February 1.

For all their greatness, Mozart’s symphonies appear less frequently on Florida concert programs than the bigger, louder symphonies of 19th and 20th century composers. So here’s a chance to hear Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, a work that ranks with his greatest, played by the renowned Cleveland Orchestra under music director Franz Welser-Möst. The orchestra also will perform Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, a monumental work that may offer another example of the riddles, veils and disguises that marked Shostakovich’s attempts to maintain his freedom and his artistic integrity in the Soviet Union. Whether the symphony portrayed Czar Nicholas II’s crushing of dissent in 1905, as advertised by its subtitle, or the Soviet Union’s violent repression of Hungary in 1956, it’s an atmospheric and theatrical work, with its evocations of street violence and rich use of Russian folk songs. kravis.org (DF)

Music of Brahms. Yannick Nézet-Séguin/Philadelphia Orchestra. February 19.

The “Fabulous Philadelphians” have given some outstanding concerts in South Florida during recent seasons but always under the baton of a guest conductor. Finally, music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin arrives in Miami with the ensemble he has helmed for the past 14 seasons. Showcasing the romantic era repertoire for which the orchestra is famous, two of Brahms’ great symphonies (Nos. 2 and 4) should illustrate the bond between conductor and orchestra as well as the group’s legendary sumptuous sonority. arshtcenter.org (LB)

Music of Peter Lieberson and Ravel. Stéphane Denève/New World Symphony with Kelley O’Connor. March 7.

Stèphane Denéve and the New World Symphony present two distinctly original works to conclude their downtown Arsht Center series. The Neruda Songs by the late American composer Peter Lieberson may be the first bona fide masterpiece of the 21^st century. Based on the writings of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, the 2005 song cycle is harmonically lush and sensual. The excellent mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor does the solo honors. Ravel’s ballet score Daphnis et Chloe is rarely performed in its entirety and almost never with the prominent choral part. The Master Chorale joins Denève and the New World fellows for a rendition of the complete score as Ravel originally conceived it. nws.edu (LB)

Music of Mahler and Bartók. Andris Nelsons/Vienna Philharmonic with Lang Lang, March 9.

The Vienna Philharmonic returns to the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach with music of Gustav Mahler, not only one of history’s greatest composers but also the Vienna ensemble’s most famous conductor. The orchestra, which gave a gripping 2024 performance at Kravis of Mahler’s final completed symphony, will perform his Symphony No. 1. Conducting will be Andris Nelsons, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Joining the orchestra will be the pianist Lang Lang to perform Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a work rarely heard in South Florida, which Bartók wrote at the very end of his life. kravis.org (DF)

Music of Dvořák and Shostakovich. Friends of Chamber Music. Balourdet Quartet with Asiya Korepanova. April 14.

Asiya Korepanova is one of the finest collaborative pianists on the concert scene. She returns to the Friends of Chamber Music with the Balourdet Quartet. The rising Balourdet foursome were winners of the coveted Avery Fisher career grant in 2024. Classic piano quintets by Dvořák and Shostakovich should display the artists’ impressive technique and stylistic diversity.   miamichambermusic.com (LB)

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