A while back I noticed that the London Symphony Orchestra would be in Daytona for the Florida International Festival performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. I’ve wanted to see that performed live for years, and to have the LSO performing it just up the road was just more than I could have hoped for. So I grabbed a couple of tickets for Allison and myself–second row, just right of center–and we went to the concert.

It was amazing. First of all, the venue (the Peabody Auditorium) was great. It was very “cozy” in the front. The stage had been extended forward to accommodate the choir (the Winter Park Bach Festival Society Choir) and the vocal soloists (world class performers, all four), so the front row had the stage protruding into the space where their extra leg-room would normally be. We were right behind them–no more than 6 feet from the principal cellist, who was directly in front of us. After the second movement the vocal soloists were brought out to the front of the stage to quietly await their fourth movement performance, and if the bass vocalist (Neil Davies) decided to fall off the front of the stage he would have landed on us. We were close enough to make eye contact with performers, which happened regularly, and to see their expressions as they played. I was honestly afraid at times that the very animated and entertaining conductor (Francois-Xavier Roth) was going to fling sweat onto my face. Good times.

The performance itself was beyond my wildest expectations, which were unachievably high–or so I thought… I was prepared to be disappointed. The show opened with Beethoven’s relatively short 1st Symphony, and then, after a short intermission, we settled in for the ~75 minute 9th Symphony. This was really cool, because it allowed us to experience the evolution of Beethoven’s sound first-hand.

I never particularly cared for Beethoven’s 1st Symphony, but that night I sat in awe at the brilliance of the London Symphony Orchestra, and I loved every minute of it. I’ve played in orchestras (though, obviously nothing of that caliber), and I’ve seen a lot of symphonies. These guys were in a different league. You can usually make out a note here or there that is slightly off pitch, or that doesn’t “land” with quite the right force, or some other imperfection… not with these guys. It was clear that any one of those performers could have stood at the front of the stage and performed a concerto on his or her instrument, and been a star in his or her own right.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was almost beyond description. The performance was flawless. From our perspective, tucked right up against the stage near center, we could hear the melodies being passed around between the string sections, and it had a multi-dimensional feel to it that made it very immersive. The choral parts were overpowering. It was, in a word, awesome.

We were so impressed, we grabbed tickets for the LSO Pops concert the next night. The LSO happens to be the orchestra that actually records most of John Williams’ scores, so we were able to hear the themes from Star Wars, Superman, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, E.T., and others, played by the people who actually recorded them for the movies. The whole show was great, culminating in a Star Wars encore in which Darth Vader and a small army of Storm Troopers invaded the floor as Francois-Xavier Roth conducted the orchestra with a light saber.

It turns out that the LSO comes to this festival and performs for 16 days every two years! Who knew?