The Jacksonville Symphony Danced the Night Away with Beethoven and Rachmaninoff
Look inside any beehive and you’ll find bees dancing for one another. Wiggling and waggling, bees dance to share the location of nearby pollen in relation to the sun and the hive. In much the same way, Theseus, an ancient Greek hero, danced the Crane Dance to show young Athenians how to escape from the Minotaur in the myth of Ariadne. Today, young Jacksonvillians dance with friends on the beach or in exercise classes or even for video games—dancing in all its forms is essential to life together.
In celebration of dance, the Jacksonville Symphony performed a concert of orchestral music Friday and Saturday nights at Jacoby Symphony Hall. Guest conductor Michael Stern led the ensemble in an energetic and moving program of musical dance, drawing the entire hall into Guillaume Connesson’s Flammenschrift, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.
Stern opened the program with a warm welcome and insightful comments, with high praise for Jacksonville’s investment in the high quality of its orchestra. In particular, he shared the story of his encounter with a young attendee as the crowd entered the Jacksonville Center for Performing Arts—highlighting how vital it is to welcome younger audience members.
The ensemble’s performance of the opening work, Connesson’s energetic and impetuous Flammenschrift (Flame writing), impressed with bright string tone and energetic winds. The orchestra’s athleticism was on full display in this newer work, with continuous streams of thrilling notes like lightning flashing through the sky, as Stern explained beforehand. As an homage to German music, the piece (whose name comes from one of Goethe’s most intimate poems) sought to depict the mind and genius of Beethoven—perfectly setting the tone for one of Beethoven’s most raucous symphonies to follow.
Stern’s reading of Beethoven’s Seventh highlighted hidden gems of the Jacksonville Symphony’s forces. The virtuosity of the bass section, balanced with a presence and fullness of tone, in the first movement laid the groundwork for an extroverted yet warm viola section in the second. While a focus on the grandeur of the strings’ sound overshadowed passages requiring a leaner agility, the drama of the pauses and winds-vs.-strings remained captivating.
The undeniable charm of the Seventh Symphony’s dancing rhythms came across in the orchestra’s energy—one couldn’t help but imagine the Easter Beagle (of the Charlie Brown classic) dancing through the first movement and the high-kicks of the final movement’s can-can. Surprisingly, the energy did not wane for the famous second movement. Stern’s interpretation, likely considered too fast in some contexts, seemed to capture the anxiety of dancing in this political moment—an act of defiantly asserting the power of our humanity amidst chaos. Perhaps Stern was showing us the way to something.
Following intermission, the audience was met with a warm sound and welcome brass presence in the opening of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. The expectation for intensity in dance rhythms, set up in the first half of the program, was met here with an earthy sound and wind virtuosity. However, a new addition surprised: the expertly played alto saxophone solo brought a tone color not often featured in the Florida Blue Classical Series, making a strong impression without stealing the show.
The program concluded with Rachmaninoff quoting the famous “Dies irae” (from the Requiem mass) in the third of the Symphony Dances, bringing the night’s theme of dance into the realm of the sacred. The bassoons’ soaring lines of Russian orthodox chant among the musical dance rounded out this impressive program. With dance running through so much of life, it only makes sense that it find no enemy in this more mysterious part of ourselves (Ren McCormack, of Footloose, would agree).
Review by Matt Bickett | Concerts were January 31 & February 1, 2025
Matt Bickett is a musician and scholar living in Jacksonville, FL. He serves as Director of Music Ministries at Riverside Presbyterian Church and Artistic Director of the Friends of Music at Riverside.
