Sarasota Music Festival: Death and the Maiden

Alberto Ginastera’s String Quartet No. 1, composed in 1948, skillfully combines the angular musical language of Bartók with rhythmic and tuneful Argentinian folk traditions. Modeled on Mozart’s Serenade, Richard Strauss’s Suite for 13 Winds—written when he was just 18—exemplifies his extraordinary talent for melody and catapulted him to international fame. Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, based on his emotionally charged art song, “Death and the Maiden,” reveals the composer at his most passionate. Sandy Yamamoto, a former member of the Miró Quartet and SMF alum, will lead the orchestral arrangement Mahler envisioned for this intense and profound work.