Just as he had two nights earlier in conducting a stirring rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Eric Jacobsen wore red socks with his black tuxedo, the latter of which directed me toward the paronomastic pursuit of linking it with the tales from Scheherazade’s One Thousand and One Nights, though I suspect Jacobsen did not wear different tails each night.

And, just as he had a week earlier, when conductor Anthony Parnther had put the pressure on him by announcing that he would be playing the violin part in the theme from Schindler’s List originally performed by Itzhak Perlman, concertmaster and 1st violin Jeremy Black provided the audience with a memorable experience.

A final word about Scheherazade. Even if the music weren’t beautiful, how could you not like a composition whose final movement is described in the program as concluding with The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock, which gives me the chance to plug a musical comedy about a ship that goes to pieces on an iceberg (I guess it’s not too soon), Porchlight Music Theatre’s upcoming spring 2025 Chicago premiere of Titanique, presented in association with Broadway In Chicago.