Leonard Bernstein
(1918-1990)
3 Dance Variations from Fancy Free Ballet
Approximate duration 8 minutes
World premiere for the ballet: 18 April 1944 in New York City, New York; For the 3 Dance Episodes February 3 1946
- Bernstein’s career was skyrocketing when Fancy Free premiered
- The ballet’s music was later re-worked into Bernstein’s On the Town
- He later became the first American-born conductor of the New York Philharmonic
Fancy Free, Bernstein’s first complete stage work, was a collaboration with dancer and choreographer Jerome Robbins. The ballet was intended to perk up morale during the war. Robbins’s idea, about three sailors on shore leave, was both specifically American and contemporary. It addressed the reality of wartime while incorporating popular music and dance.
The scenario, attributed to both Robbins and Bernstein, follows:
With the sound of a juke box, the curtain rises on a street corner with a lamp post, a side street bar and New York skyscrapers pricked out with a crazy pattern of lights, making a dizzying background. Three sailors explode onto the stage; they are on shore leave in the city and on the prowl for girls. The tale of how they meet first one, then a second girl and how they fight over them, lose them and in the end take off after still a third, is the story of the ballet.
Fancy Free evokes the traditional tension in the battle of the sexes, all in pursuit of a good time. Bernstein’s brilliant use of jazz piano, trap-set percussion effects and muted trumpets sets the stage. He portrays each of the three sailors in the Waltz, Danzon and Galop.
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbal, cowbell ad lib., triangle, woodblocks, piano and strings.
Chichester Psalms
Approximate duration 19 minutes
World premiere: July 15, 1965 inNew York City, New York
- The texts are Old Testament Psalms, sung in Hebrew
- Bernstein’s commission came from an Anglican cathedral
- Notice there are no woodwinds on the stage
- Watch the percussionists and listen for their colorful sounds
The lovely Chichester Psalms, commissioned in 1965 by England’s Chichester Cathedral, is Bernstein’s best known choral work. Somewhat unusual when it was introduced, Chichester Psalms has become mainstream. Its exhilarating, mostly tonal themes beckon the listener into the musical web, persuading us that the comparatively unfamiliar sound of Hebrew tongue and the occasionally clangorous passages are absolutely right. Always sensitive to language, Bernstein colors the Psalm texts with the instincts of a born musician who believes in the meaning of the texts.
The results are spectacular, in part because of the unusual scoring. Bernstein preferred an all-male chorus using boys’ voices for the soprano and alto parts; however, he condoned performance by a mixed chorus. He would not budge, however, on the boy soprano for the second movement solo. The Adonai introducing the 23rd Psalm is a pinnacle of the 20th-century vocal/choral literature. Its strains will resonate in your mind’s ear long after this performance is over.
Instrumentation: three trumpets, three trombones, timpani, two harps, a large percussion battery requiring five players (snare drum, bass drum, bongos, tambourine, crash cymbals, suspended cymbal, triangle, woodblock, temple blocks, whip, rasp, chimes, glockenspiel and xylophone), mixed chorus, boy soprano and strings.
Alexander Borodin
(1833-1887)
Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Approximate duration 14 minutes
World premiere November 16, 1890 in St. Petersburg
- Borodin was one of the ‘Russian Five,’ also known as the ‘Mighty Five,’ a group of nationalist composers
- His gorgeous melodies in these dances found their way into a Broadway show
- This was originally ballet music, thus rhythm and percussion play important roles
Borodin’s greatest work and sole opera, Prince Igor, was a long-range project to which he turned periodically over a period of eighteen years. The opera remained unfinished when he died in 1887 at age 54. Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov reconstructing the incomplete portions so the opera could be produced. The Polovtsian Dances are the ballet music from the opera’s second act, and are among the finest moments in Borodin’s score.
The dances take their name from a Eurasian tribe of warriors called either Polovtsians or Kipchaks. They were eastern neighbors of the Slavs, inhabiting the Russian domain in the late middle ages. During the 12th century they were extremely powerful.
The Polovtsian Dances are Borodin’s most successful marriage of Russian folklore with musical exotica from Russia’s far East. Pagan rhythms, distinctive instrumental coloring and an abundance of memorable melodies captivate the listener. Despite the popularization of these themes in the 1953 Broadway musical Kismet, the dances sound fresh and exciting today, nearly a century and a half after they were composed.
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, tambourine, glockenspiel, cymbals, harp and strings
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
Suite from L’oiseau de feu [The Firebird], 1919 Revised Version
Approximate duration 23 minutes
World premiere: June 25, 1910 in Paris. The premiere of the 1919 Suite is undocumented.
- Firebird was Stravinsky’s first collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev
- The magical bird of the title, the handsome prince, the evil ogre, the captive princess all come alive in the music
- Fire and electricity course through Kashchei’s Infernal Dance
Stravinsky’s The Firebird is adapted from a Russian fairy tale in which a handsome prince is drawn into an enchanted garden and palace by the exotic bird of the title, who is a sort of good fairy. He falls in love with a beautiful captive princess, but must break the spell of the evil Kashchei (who presides over the palace) before he may claim his bride.
Stravinsky drew heavily on the Tchaikovskian ballet model, which was essentially derived from French principles. He took great care to bind the music closely to the action on stage. If one listens carefully, even the Suite follows the chronological events and essential outline of the story. The original ballet was first performed in Paris in 1910 by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Stravinsky reduced it for solo piano and extracted a concert suite in 1911. He re-orchestrated the Suite in 1919, employing the somewhat smaller orchestra that we hear. The entire score bursts with color. Its final tableau remains one of the symphonic literature’s most splendid conclusions.
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbal, triangle, xylophone, harp, piano, celesta and strings
PROGRAM NOTES FOR JACKSONVILLE SYMPHONY 2026-2027 SEASON
Florida Blue Classical Series 2: Bernstein & Stravinsky October 16 & 17, 2026
By Laurie Shulman © 2026
First North American Serial Rights Only
Get tickets · Watch Insight into the program with Music Director Courtney Lewis · Listen on Spotify
