The LSO returns to the Florida International Festival for a series of concerts.
By JOHN FLEMING
Published July 17, 2003
[Photo: London Symphony Orchestra]
Daytona Beach hosts five classical programs and a pops concert put on by the London Symphony Orchestra through July 26.
The London Symphony Orchestra makes its biennial pilgrimage to Daytona Beach for the Florida International Festival, with a series of five classical programs plus a pops concert beginning this weekend and continuing through July 26.
It is a rather improbable event, since Daytona is best known as motorhead central, home of NASCAR races, Bike Week and driving on the beach. But the town goes all out for the festival, and LSO musicians have a genuine fondness for their summertime sojourn to steamy Florida.
Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the opening two concerts Friday and Saturday. The repertoire is not adventurous - Beethoven, Berlioz, Mussorgsky, Sibelius, Elgar and Stravinsky - but hearing the LSO, one of the world's top orchestras, is always a pleasure. Soloists include violinist Leonidas Kavakos in the Sibelius concerto Friday and pianist Horacio Gutierrez in Beethoven's Emperor Saturday.
Donald Runnicles is on the podium for Sunday's performance, which features soprano Christine Brewer in Strauss' Four Last Songs. Next week, Mstislav Rostropovich leads the orchestra in a pair of concerts of Russian music, including an all-Prokofiev program. Erich Kunzel will be on hand to conduct the LSO's grand finale of patriotic music and pops.
Classical concerts are at the 2,500-seat Peabody Auditorium, which has decent acoustics in spots, such as the upstairs loge. The pops concert is at the Ocean Center.
The festival, which got under way last weekend, presents other performing arts groups, such as Noche Flamenca, Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre, the Miami String Quartet and the Dukes of Dixieland. LSO members also play chamber concerts.
The Florida International Festival was founded by Tippen Davidson, publisher of the Daytona Beach News-Journal, who led an effort to polish the town's tawdry image in the 1960s. He continues as festival director today.
The LSO first came for four weeks, playing two concerts a week, in 1966. It returned every year for the rest of the '60s, but then financial hardships put the festival on hiatus in the '70s. It was revived in 1982, and since 1985, the orchestra has returned every two years.
With five classical concerts, each with a different program, as well as the pops performance, the musicians work hard during the festival, but they also get to work on their tans, play golf or go fishing.
The resort atmosphere can be conducive to good musicmaking, and the LSO has played some memorable concerts over the years in Daytona.
The London Symphony Orchestra performs at the Florida International Festival in Daytona Beach's Peabody Auditorium. Classical concerts are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. July 24 and 25. Tickets: $20-$65. The LSO plays a pops program at 7:30 p.m. July 26 in the Ocean Center. Tickets: $25-$40. 386 257-7790 or www.fif-lso.org
