On Christmas morning 1870, Richard Wagner’s new wife, Cosima, awakened to quite the surprise: 15 musicians on the staircase outside of her bedroom performing a new piece Richard had written for her birthday. In this instrumental pastorale Wagner lovers will hear many favorite horn calls and bird songs from the composer’s Ring-Cycle opera, Siegfried. Richard Strauss’ Le bourgeois gentilhomme Suite – a stark departure from the composer’s traditionally High Romantic work – is a Neoclassical gem with lively material compiled from his incidental music for a play about a nouveau riche man hoping his riches will elevate him to the status of gentleman.

Franz Schubert revered Beethoven, and even attended the premiere of the giant’s Ninth Symphony. Schubert’s greatest tribute to the master was to write a grand symphony - his own Ninth. Fellow composer Robert Schumann offered these praises: “ enthralls its listeners, drawing them along to the last joyous note.” The strings of the Jacksonville Symphony shine in the opening work, Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro. Join the Symphony family for a musical toast as we close the season with Schubert’s final symphony.