Leading his final Sarasota Orchestra Masterworks concert of the season, Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero provided some perspective on the connections involved in the April 17-19 “Bernstein and Mahler” program.

Both Leonard Bernstein and Gustav Mahler were composers and among the most popular and respected conductors of their times. Mahler, however, didn’t have quite the recognition for his compositions before his death at age 51 in 1911 as Bernstein did with his orchestra, Broadway and Hollywood work. Much of our contemporary appreciation of Mahler’s music, Guerrero said, can be attributed to Bernstein, who championed it as a conductor.

The program opened with Bernstein’s “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium,” a complex conversation about love’s many forms. Even with nearly every seat filled in the cavernous Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, violin soloist Chee-Yun drew the pining first notes from her instrument from an anticipation-filled silence. It led to longing high notes, sensual call-and-answer themes between the soloist and ensemble; intimate conversations between Chee-Yun and principal cellist Natalie Helm; whispered, barely-audible notes; fast-paced chases; and thrilling flourishes. It is a gorgeous and vulnerable illustration of love’s kaleidoscopic forms. 

Relentless applause led to Chee-Yun’s brief but delightful encore of Fritz Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice, Op. 6 with all the technical and musical elements of a true virtuosic piece. She danced her way through a maze of trills, dramatic double stops, playful pizzicatos and jaw-dropping flourishes prompting a second ovation – this time with extra shouts of approval. 

The second half of the concert featured Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor. Written in three parts and at a length of 70 minutes, it is a titanic depiction of the emotions surrounding a pivotal moment in life. In Mahler’s case it was his own close brush with death. 

It begins with a mournful, yet defiantly triumphant trumpet solo. The first movement delicately explores the initial stages of grief, the shock of that first decisive moment, the realization of a “before” and “after” that forever alters one’s perspective on life. The second takes us through the stormy onslaught of emotions that batter us as we process the effects. It is filled with shifting emotions – heartbreaking grief in the wail of the brass, uncertainty in the unsteady lilt of the string melody, heart-pounding terror in the drums, rushes of excitement and confusion in the whirling woodwinds – all coming together in moments of dissonant rage. 

Guerrero led the way into the bounding third movement, dancing on his podium with an energy enthusiastically reciprocated by the orchestra. Having processed the shock, we could now revel in the joy of surviving. Yet, the memory lingers, present in the haunting recurrent horn solos. For a few moments, Guerrero shared the baton with co-principal horn Joshua Horne standing in the back of the ensemble. Even from there, his resonant and powerful melodies filled the hall and commanded the audience’s attention. 

On a personal note, it was the fourth movement that captured my heart as much as his love his love won over Alma Schindler, who married him after he wrote this movement for her. Mysterious, gentle and enchanting, it brilliantly rediscovers life’s most simple, beautiful and cherished moments. Sometimes, a change in perspective is indeed necessary to force us to take note of them, making them all the more beautiful when we do. 

Leaving behind the notes of uncertainty and longing, the final movement takes off in a fun, lighthearted and excited dash toward the future. The strings and woodwinds chase each other through fast melodies punctuated by powerful fanfares in the brass. The wall of sound from earlier returns in a thunderous fanfare, propelling us to a magnificent finish that had Guerrero leaping off the podium and the audience leaping out of its seats for a deafening ovation. 

The most beautiful element of music is its transcendence. With vulnerability, honesty and heartfelt truth, composers embed fragments of personal experience with the human spirit into notes on a page. It is the musician who finishes the job by lifting the meaning from the page and transforming it into something less tangible but far more powerful. The Sarasota Orchestra’s performance achieved just that, leaving us all no doubt feeling a variety of emotions, but all of them undeniably human. 

‘Bernstein and Mahler,’ Sarasota Orchestra, Giancarlo Guerrero, music director. Reviewed April 17. Final performance 2:30 p.m. April 19, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $39-$109. sarasotaorchestra.org; 941-953-3434