A triumphant debut for a new maestro at Sarasota Orchestra

Music Director Designate Giancarlo Guerrero took the reins of the Sarasota Orchestra at the Nov. 8 Masterworks 1 performance with cheerful clarity and an exuberance that electrified the audience filling the Sarasota Opera House.

Grammy Award winner Guerrero is currently music director of the Nashville Symphony. He will join the Sarasota Orchestra full time in the 2025-26 season. 

Opening the Masterworks program, "Going Places," was Antonin Dvořák’s Carnival Overture, Op. 92, which overflows with joyful energy. In this performance the orchestra brought it all out in full force. Guerrero was emphatic with demarcations and the contrasts that add the polish to this score. 

The audience was equally emphatic, rising to their feet immediately for a standing ovation, not so common after the first item on a program.

It surely was the excitement of welcoming Guerrero and the deep gratitude that there was a Masterworks concert at all after hurricane damage closed the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, where the program was scheduled to take place.

Thankfully, the Sarasota Opera could accommodate these Masterworks 1 concerts in their handsome hall, but the orchestra simply sounded different. Not worse, but more distant at first. It was an apt illustration of why an orchestra thrives in a performance hall with well-designed acoustics, including a proper shell.

Yet, the audience was not shorted in the least. The program continued with a thrilling Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 featuring the commanding virtuosity of Vadim Gluzman. 

A lovely partnership of violinist, conductor and orchestra in the mesmerizing first movement, topped by Gluzman’s compelling artistry, provoked another spontaneous standing ovation. 

Interrupted but undisturbed, the musicians returned to the exquisite Canzonetta weaving its way into our hearts before blowing the roof off the Opera House (too soon?).

Gluzman brought forth a remarkable array of colors, remarkably rich low tones and bell-like in the upper reaches. Interesting note: He plays on the 1690 "Auer’" Stradivari. The previous owner, Leopold Auer, was the famous violinist to whom Tchaikovsky dedicated this concerto.

“This violin possesses every imaginable—and sometimes unimaginable— shade of color and intensity, from the darkest, deepest, most intense colors to the lightest, most featherlike, ethereal sounds! Having such an enormous palette at your disposal is the most extraordinary gift an artist can receive," Gluzman told Strings Magazine back in March 2014.

As an encore, Gluzman invited concertmaster Daniel Jordan to join him for a simple duet in which we could admire beauty of tone and pleasing music. He prefaced this gesture by acknowledging that in November 1998, both he and Jordan first performed with Sarasota Orchestra. Many of us were at that concert and have followed the growth of the orchestra for 26 years since with gratitude.

It's not easy to bring the sense of fresh new music to our ears when performing a stalwart such as Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op.95, “New World.” Yet, Guerrero revealed inner lines and gestures like never before, sculpting another new world.

The orchestra was in fine form, particularly the strings achieving the faintest of a misty halo where called for. There are many instances where the woodwinds wove together seamlessly and the English horn solo shone in its spotlight.

Guerrero emphasized the jubilance of the Scherzo and moved onto the athletic for the final movement. Uninhibited, he threw himself into the spirit of it all.  

His movement was purposeful though at times entertaining on its own. Skipping, bouncing, even stomping on the podium translated into a forceful and clearly disciplined performance that won the hearts of the audience.

Born in Nicaragua, Guerrero and his family fled civil war and found refuge in Costa Rica, where he trained with a free youth orchestra before making his way to the U.S.

If anything, Guerrero’s triumphant debut as music director designate foretells what we hope are years ahead fueled by this man’s compelling life force.