Concert Review

Jacksonville Symphony celebrates the season with Britten, Sibelius, Elgar

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The Jacksonville Symphony ushered in Northeast Florida’s season of sweater weather this past weekend with two concerts on their Classical Series. After a week with temperatures dipping into the 50s, the Symphony performed masterworks from even colder climates, including Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” and Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” The Symphony was also joined on stage by violin virtuoso Stefan Jackiw for a rendition of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s “Violin Concerto.”

Despite its title, Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” proved appropriate for all ages. The audience experienced the unique strengths and skills of individual members of the Jacksonville Symphony through the work’s cycle of variations focused on each instrument section. The work re-introduced even seasoned concertgoers to sections not often heard in isolation.

Of particular note, the unified sound of the basses in the eighth variation demonstrated the virtuosity of a section sometimes thought to play a supporting role. The work offered a condensed tour through the orchestra in its concluding movement (called a “fugue”). The impressive speed and runs of the performance left some details lost in a mist, but the bigger picture remained recognizable with the clear return of the work’s main theme played by the brass to close the movement.

The second work on the program brought us from the gray chill of the British Isles to the harshness of the snowy Finnish countryside. The violins set the scene with a wintry harmony depicting falling snow. Jackiw’s commanding execution of Sibelius’s opening violin solos brought attention to the loneliness of the work’s first movement. Jackiw convincingly portrayed Sibelius’s bleak portrait of man versus snowy nature.

The ensemble responded with a grounding earthiness in their tone, although with a sense of timidity sometimes at odds with the expansive landscape of Sibelius’s score. Nevertheless, the collaboration solicited an enthusiastic response of applause following the first movement. Jackiw brought attention to an even more impressive sound in the slow second movement. A folk feeling accompanied the virtuosic leaps and very quick tempo of the final movement. While the soloist handled the faster pace with poise, I felt the ensemble hurrying too quickly to leave the cold for the fireplace — an understandable instinct for Floridians facing Sibelius’s harsh cold.

Following another appreciative response from the audience, Jackiw returned to the stage for a subtle performance of the Sarabande from J.S. Bach’s Second Violin Partita. Jackiw left us wanting even more with his exceptional display of depth in an encore following such a monumental concerto. Guided to intermission by his sensitivity to meter and masterful bow technique, I couldn’t help but wonder about his take on the Partita’s famous Chaconne.

The concert’s final work, Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” offered warm comfort like a gathering of friends around the hearth. A set of variations depicting Elgar’s circle of friends, the work rightfully positioned Elgar among the giants of the classical canon. Even without the specific context about each of the composer’s individual friends, the Jacksonville Symphony’s descriptive portrayals brought imagined characters to life in this music.

Music Director Courtney Lewis’s pacing of the movements demonstrated his special affinity for, and mastery of, this British masterwork. Beginning with the second variation’s playfully energetic leaps, Lewis’s conducting came into its own throughout the work. The thrilling energy of his interpretation in the seventh variation also garnered an unusually enthusiastic response from the audience with applause that did not feel out of place.

Lewis’s interpretation captured a Victorian grandeur that reached its peak in the crowd favorite ninth variation, “Nimrod.” The variation’s climax played to the brilliance of the Symphony’s sound with Elgar’s broad swells to full ensemble. Just after, the expressiveness of principal violist Yun-Ting Kuo’s solo in the 10th variation recalled the sensitivity with which she handled the solo in the sixth. Following from here, the Symphony continued to enthrall through the work’s successive variations, handling the lightness, drama, then sincerity of Elgar’s depictions. The Symphony’s portrayal of Elgar’s warm affection for his friends offered a comforting conclusion to the icy winter hinted at in the first half of the program, even if that winter may not reach Jacksonville.

Matt Bickett is a musician and scholar living in Jacksonville. He currently serves as director of music ministries at Riverside Presbyterian Church and artistic director of the Friends of Music at Riverside.