The 2008-2009 Season

Explore the complete list of performances scheduled for our 2008-2009 Season including the Wachovia Securities Orchestral Series.

Subscriptions Still Available! 

Mahler 9

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Friday, November 21, 2008 at 8pm
- Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 8pm

David Robertson, conductor
Jeremy Denk, piano

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 19 in F Major, K. 459
MAHLER Symphony No. 9

Mahler, in the winter of his life, composes a great symphony both terrifying and tender, finding an elegiac grace, a gentleness, a musical language of farewell beyond tears, beyond grief.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

Explosions: Percussion Festival⁴

TOUHILL SUNDAYS

- Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 2pm

Orli Shaham and Peter Henderson, piano
Richard Holmes and William James, percussion
N. Scott Robinson, percussion
David Kuckhermann, percussion
Haig Manoukian, percussion

BARTÓK  Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
Intermission
Program To Be Announced from Stage

Percussion is versatile and wildly inventive. Whether you listen to rock or country, hip hop or classical, percussion is an integral part of any music. For the fourth year at the Touhill, SLSO musicians explore the exciting possibilities of the most primal human musical act.

Touhill Performing Arts Center, UM-St. Louis
Contact the Touhill at 314-516-4949 or visit www.touhill.org for more information.

Young People’s Concert

EDUCATION CONCERTS
Fall Program (grades 4- 6)

Tuesday, November 25, 2008 at 9:30 & 11am

Courtney Lewis, conductor

Mussorgsky saw an exhibition of paintings and was inspired to translate the paintings into a piano work, Pictures at an Exhibition. Later, Ravel re-made Pictures into a work for orchestra. Both composers combined their senses–seeing and hearing–to make music. Can we see sound? Can we hear images? For tickets or more information, call (314) 286-4156 or email to education@slso.org

Bring Family and Friends - 3 or more tickets are just $20 each!  more info...

Tricksters

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Friday, November 28, 2008 at 8pm
- Saturday, November 29, 2008 at 8pm

Marc Albrecht, conductor
Orli Shaham, piano

RAVEL Mother Goose Suite
BARTÓK Piano Concerto No. 3
R. STRAUSS Don Juan
R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks

Ravel expresses the fantastic world of Mother Goose. Strauss delves deep into the archetypes of seducer/adventurer and trickster/prankster in two works of mesmerizing invention. Orli Shaham, with magic up her sleeves, reveals a simplicity in Bartók that is both of our time, and timeless—the best trick of all.

PreConcert Perspective with Hugh Macdonald one hour prior to each concert.

Picture the Music

FAMILY CONCERTS

- Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 3pm

Courtney Lewis, conductor

$10 Adult, $6 Child  |  (ages 3+)

The Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky visited an exhibition of paintings and was inspired to translate the paintings he had seen into sound. He wrote Pictures at an Exhibition for piano. Later, the French composer Maurice Ravel added to Mussorgsky's work to make it a composition for full orchestra. Both composers combined their senses—seeing and hearing—to create works of art. Can we see sound? Can we hear images?

Young Adult Concert

EDUCATION CONCERTS
Fall Program (grades 7-12)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 10am

Courtney Lewis, conductor

The Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky visited an exhibition of paintings and was inspired to translate the paintings he had seen into sound. He wrote Pictures at an Exhibition for piano. Later, the French composer Maurice Ravel added to Mussorgsky’s work to make it a composition for full orchestra. Both composers combined their senses–seeing and hearing–to create works of art. Can we see sound? Can we hear images? For tickets or more information, call (314) 286-4156 or email to education@slso.org

Warm Music for Cold Nights

ORCHESTRAL SERIES
Presented by Thompson Coburn LLP

- Friday, December 5, 2008 at 10:30am (Coffee Concert)
- Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 8pm
- Sunday, December 7, 2008 at 3pm

Michael Christie, conductor
Louis Lortie, piano

BARBER Essay No. 1
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 1
TCHAIKOVSKY Suite No. 3

Barber’s Essay lights a bright American candle. Chopin’s piano concertos are all of fire, a dramatic combustion between orchestra and soloist, a battle as riveting as a volatile marriage. Tchaikovsky’s suites are just as incandescent. Being Russian, he knows the darkest nights require heat and light. He brings them.

PreConcert Perspective with Amy Kaiser one hour prior to each concert.

St. Louis Children's Choirs Holiday Concert

Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 8pm -

PLEASE NOTE: Only full price tickets are available online. Children's price tickets cannot be purchased online and must be purchased through the Powell Hall Box Office (314-534-1700, Mon-Sat 9-5pm).

There is a 10 ticket limit per online order.

Join the St. Louis Children's Choirs for their annual Holiday concert at Powell Symphony Hall.

Discover America

CLASSICAL DETOURS
Presented by The Boeing Company

- Friday, December 12, 2008 at 6:30pm

David Robertson, conductor
Carolyn Banham, english horn
Thomas Drake, Trumpet

JOHN WILLIAMS   The Cowboys Overture
BERNSTEIN   Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
                      The Great Lover
                      Lonely Town: Pas de deux
                      Times Square: 1944
COPLAND   Quiet City
RODGERS   Carousel Waltz
BERNSTEIN   Candide Overture

American music encompasses the cities and towns, the urban streets and the open countryside, the intimate longings and the extravagant ambitions of a diverse people. In a sense, American composers have always been discovering America and finding new musical definitions of who and what we are.

$30 Reserved, limited availability | $20 General Admission
Pre-concert happy hour begins at 5:30pm.

El Niño (A Nativity Oratorio)

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 8pm
- Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 3pm

David Robertson, conductor
Jessica Rivera, soprano
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Steven Rickards, Daniel Bubeck
Brian Cummings, countertenors
Jonathan Lemalu, bass-baritone
Saint Louis Symphony Chorus
Amy Kaiser, director
The St. Louis Children’s Choirs
Barbara Berner, director

JOHN ADAMS El Niño

“The piece is my way of trying to understand what is meant by a miracle,” John Adams says of his nativity oratorio. Handel’s Messiah is indeed a model, but the shout of “Hallelujah” is propelled by a convergence of forces, as if orchestra and chorus were caught up in a whirlwind of history and myth, faith and doubt, memory and dream. Prepare to be blown away.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

Please note there will be no late seating for these performances.

Bach Society of St. Louis - Christmas Candlelight Concerts

Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 7:30pm -
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 7:30pm -

The Bach Society Chorus and Orchestra

Trumpets and timpani signal the opening portion of Bach’s festive Christmas Oratorio to launch this annual St. Louis favorite. Then, imagine yourself surrounded by shimmering candles and joyous voices during St. Louis’ only candlelight processional at Powell Symphony Hall. The Archdiocesan Children’s Choir directed by John Romeri and audience carols led by CLASSIC 99’s Ron Klemm all add to your delight this holiday season.

For more info, please call 652-BACH or visit bachsociety.org.

Ideal (Dis-) Placements Concert at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

- Wednesday, December 17 at 7:30pm

PLEASE NOTE that this concert has been rescheduled from the original Oct. 29 date to Dec. 17. 

MESSIAEN   Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (1944)

Molly Morkoski, piano

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
3716 Washington Blvd

A Gospel Christmas

SPECIAL EVENT
Presented by AmerenUE

- Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 7:30pm
- Friday, December 19, 2008 at 7:30pm

Robert Ray, conductor
CeCe Winans, vocalist
Gwendolyn Packnett, Master of Ceremonies
Saint Louis Symphony IN UNISON® Chorus

RICHARD SMALLWOOD     Anthem of Praise
CAROL CYMBALA     “Carol Medley” from Light of the World
JOHN RUTTER   “Quoniam tu solus sanctus” from Gloria
arr. WHALUM   Betelehemu
arr. CHARLES FLOYD   Glory to the Newborn King
arr. TEENA CHINN   “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration
CeCe Winans   Selections will be announced from stage

Two nights of soul-stirring gospel music to celebrate this most joyous of seasons. The artistic combination of Robert Ray, the Saint Louis Symphony IN UNISON® Chorus, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra have made A Gospel Christmas a tradition that delivers all of the promises of the holiday, and then some, especially with the dynamic Gospel star, CeCe Winans.

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Holiday Celebration

SPECIAL EVENT
Presented by Scottrade

- Friday, December 19, 2008 at 2pm
- Saturday, December 20, 2008 at 7:30pm
- Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 2pm

Ward Stare, conductor
Doug LaBrecque, vocalist & narrator
The St. Louis Children’s Choirs
Barbara Berner, director

BACH   Overture to Suite No. 3 in D major
HUMPERDINCK   Prelude to Hansel and Gretel
TCHAIKOVSKY   Selections from The Nutcracker
BERNARD arr. BARKER  Winter Wonderland
BERLIN arr. BENNETT   White Christmas
MATHIAS   Selections from Salvator mundi
                    Be we Merry in this Feast
                    Susanni
                    Welcome, Yule
arr. BARKER  Do You Hear What I Hear
ANDERSON   A Christmas Festival
arr. KESSLER  O Chanukah
arr. PIPPIN   The Christmas Song / Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
JOHN RUTTER   Star Carol
R. BASS   The Night Before Christmas
ADAM arr. BARKER  O Holy Night
ANDERSON  Sleigh Ride
                     Singalong TBA

Popular songs mixed with orchestral favorites. Doug LaBrecque warms the Hall with song and narrates ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. This season you’ll find candy canes, eggnog, hot chocolate and Santa in the foyer! Remember to warm up your voices for the traditional sing-along with The St. Louis Children¹s Choirs!

Compton Heights Concert Band

Monday, December 22, 2008 at 2pm -
Monday, December 22, 2008 at 8pm -

Join the Compton Heights Concert Band in its annual December Holiday Pops Spectacular concert at Powell Hall, featuring the world renowned tenor Hugh Smith and the Herald Trumpets!

Gold Patron Tickets are available for the evening performance only, and include the best seats in the house in the Grand Tier and Dress Circle Boxes as well as a post-concert reception with Hugh Smith immediately after the evening performance. Gold Patron Tickets are not available online. Please call the Compton Heights Band office at (314) 776-2227 for Gold Patron Tickets.

Oz with Orchestra

SPECIAL EVENT
Presented by Charter Communications and The Chrysler Foundation

- Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 7:30pm
- Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 3pm

David Robertson, conductor

We’re off to see the Wizard! The 1939 classic has been stunningly re-mastered and restored, and now, the wonderful Harold Arlen score will be played live by the SLSO,with David Robertson conducting. The Wizard of Oz will be as enchanting to those who’ve seen it dozens of times as to those who are seeing it for the first time. Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” with the SLSO: We’re off!

New Year’s Eve Concert

SPECIAL EVENT

- Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 7:30pm

David Robertson, conductor

The program for the SLSO’s annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the best-kept– and most-enjoyed–secrets of the year. It’s a surprise party of entertainment, but as anyone knows who’s been here before, David Robertson and the SLSO will make this the first (and best) stop on your New Year’s Eve revels.

Opera Night

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Friday, January 9, 2009 at 8pm

James Gaffigan, conductor
Kelly Kaduce, soprano

VERDI La forza del destino Overture
VERDI arias from La Traviata
PUCCINI arias from Madama Butterfly and Gianni Schicchi
WAGNER Symphonic Suite from “The Ring of the Nibelungs” including “Ride of the Valkyries”

Rising star Kelly Kaduce has captivated Opera Theatre of St. Louis audiences in the title roles of Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre and Suor Angelica. Spend a riveting night with Kaduce as she sings Verdi and Puccini, including a reprise from Madama Butterfly—her summer ’08 star turn at OTSL.

PreConcert Perspective with Hugh Macdonald one hour prior to each concert.

Kristin Chenoweth at the Fox Theatre with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 8pm - On Sale Sat. Nov. 22 at 10am

The premier collaboration of Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra is history in the making! Not only does this performance mark the first time Chenoweth has performed in St. Louis it is also the first time that the SLSO in its entirety has appeared on stage at the Fox Theatre. Many remember Kristin Chenoweth’s show-stealing, Tony-winning performance in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown produced on Broadway by Fox Theatricals. She also originated the role of Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, which earned her a leading actress Tony Award nomination. Chenoweth can currently be seen starring in the ABC series Pushing Daisies, where she was recently nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. A veteran of the concert scene, Chenoweth has had numerous collaborations with various symphonies, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony.  She can now add the SLSO to that list when she performs with them on January 10 at the Fabulous Fox Theatre!

Opera Passions

TOUHILL SUNDAYS

- Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 2pm
James Gaffigan, conductor
Kelly Kaduce, soprano

Soprano Kelly Kaduce moves to the Touhill stage for a stunning afternoon of opera passions. Kaduce sings Verdi and Puccini, and the exciting young American  conductor James Gaffigan leads the SLSO in a program that includes the full power of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Touhill Performing Arts Center, UM-St. Louis
Contact the Touhill at 314-516-4949 or visit www.touhill.org for more information..

Susan Graham

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8pm
- Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 8pm

Philippe Jordan, conductor
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano

WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
BERG Seven Early Songs
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

Music critics reach for the adjectives to describe her voice: lustrous, creamy, ample, supple, gleaming, beautifully focused, plush, silky, golden, and so forth. After singing as a seductive Scheherazade and a vanquished Cleopatra with the SLSO, you know that few vocalists immediately become as intimate with an audience as Susan Graham. Sexy? That too.

PreConcert Perspective with Peter Henderson one hour prior to each concert.

Orchestral Magic

FAMILY CONCERTS

- Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 3pm

Ward Stare, conductor

$10 Adult / $6 Child  |  (ages 3+)

The composer Paul Dukas employs a number of different instruments to represent a number of different characters in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Instrument families not only serve as different characters, but also set the mood and tone. Discover how music may depict scenes that at one moment may be comic, and at the next moment menacing.

Young People’s Concert

EDUCATION CONCERTS
Winter Program (grades 4- 6)

Tues, January 20, 2009 at 9:30 & 11am
Wed, February 18, 2009 at 9:30 & 11am

Ward Stare, conductor

The composer Paul Dukas employs a number of different instruments to represent a number of different characters in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Instrument families not only serve as different characters, but also set the mood and tone. Discover how music may depict scenes that at one moment may be comic, and at the next moment menacing.

Dancing with Fate

ORCHESTRAL SERIES
Presented by MasterCard

- Friday, January 23, 2009 at 8pm
- Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 8pm

Edward Gardner, conductor
Johannes Moser, cello

BRITTEN Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto No. 1
RACHMANINOFF Symphonic Dances

Even amidst the harshness of life, the impulse of art is to inspire. Britten writes of living from the sea and living with community, and the pleasure and pain of both. Shostakovich creates beauty with the Gulag looming. Rachmaninoff rises from human strife, with a physical dance to celebrate the divine.

PreConcert Perspective with Peter Henderson one hour prior to each concert.

Ideal (Dis-) Placements Concert at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

- Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 7:30pm

David Robertson, conductor

SOFIA GUBAIDULINA            Meditation on Bach Chorale: Vor deinen Thron
                                                tret ich hiermit (1993)

STOCKHAUSEN                     Adieu (1966)

HARRISON BIRTWISTLE       Bach Measures (1996)

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
3716 Washington Blvd

Emanuel Ax

ORCHESTRAL SERIES
Presented by American Airlines

- Friday, January 30, 2009 at 10:30am (Coffee Concert)
- Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 8pm

David Robertson, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano (Whitaker Guest Artist)

HAYDN Symphony No. 92, “Oxford”
R. STRAUSS Burleske
GEORGE BENJAMIN Dance Figures
SZYMANOWSKI Symphony No. 4 (Symphonie concertante)

One of the most exciting virtuosic displays of last season was Christian Tetzlaff’s sensational performance of Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto. Let Szymanowski become a household name to you when the phenomenal Emanuel Ax plays a late work of the Polish composer to complete a program of raucous sophistication.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

Latin American Carnival

CLASSICAL DETOURS
Presented by The Boeing Company

- Friday, January 30, 2009 at 6:30pm

Rhythm is as fine a way of defining a place and a people as history, language or landscape. To imagine Latin America is to hear rhythms, wonderful variations of beat and pulsation, and to feel lives moving with distinctive grace. The SLSO makes Latin rhythms sing in this Classical Detour.
$30 Reserved, limited availability | $20 General Admission
Pre-concert happy hour begins at 5:30pm.

Seasons of the Heart

ORCHESTRAL SERIES
Presented by Thompson Coburn LLP

- Friday, February 6, 2009 at 8pm
- Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 8pm
- Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 3pm

Christopher Seaman, conductor (Whitaker Guest Artist)
Daniel Lee, cello

TIPPETT Suite in D
ELGAR Cello Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5

Music of the seasons, from an Asian perspective. Then Elgar’s concerto, written near the close of World War I, makes music from the ashes of a world destroyed, hauntingly played by SLSO Principal Cello Daniel Lee. Out of Tchaikovsky’s struggles of the heart, he makes an eloquent appeal to Fate.

PreConcert Perspective with Amy Kaiser one hour prior to each concert.

Verdi’s Requiem

Broadway Valentine

SPECIAL EVENT

- Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 3pm

David Robertson, conductor
Orli Shaham, piano

Ain’t love grand? Especially as it’s expressed in this concert of fantastic Broadway show tunes by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. Orli Shaham plays Gershwin’s scintillating piano concerto, with her husband David Robertson conducting.

Young Adult Concert

EDUCATION CONCERTS
Winter Program (grades 7-12)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 11am

Ward Stare, conductor

The composer Paul Dukas employs a number of different instruments to represent a number of different characters in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Instrument families not only serve as different characters, but also set the mood and tone. Discover how music may depict scenes that at one moment may be comic, and at the next moment menacing.

Kinder Konzert

EDUCATION CONCERTS
Winter Program (grades K-3)

Thurs, February 19, 2009 at 9:30 & 11am
Fri, February 20, 2009 at 9:30 & 11am

Ward Stare, conductor

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which many people know from the classic Disney movie, Fantasia, is actually a musical interpretation of a poem by the German poet Goethe. Mozart imagines a fantastic world in The Magic Flute. Through our imaginations music creates pictures in our minds.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band

SPECIAL EVENT

- Friday, February 20, 2009 at 7:30pm

The "house" band for the birthplace of jazz. Preservation Hall sits at the heart of the French Quarter, and the musicians who make up the band learned from legends who played with the forefathers of New Orleans jazz: Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and others. Spirits preserved.

Lift Every Voice: Black History Month Celebration

SPECIAL EVENT

- Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 7:30pm

Robert Ray, conductor
Saint Louis Symphony IN UNISON® Chorus

Join the SLSO and the Saint Louis Symphony IN UNISON® Chorus for the Black History Month Concert. Celebrate the rich experience of African and African-American culture that has influenced musical composition over the past three centuries and shaped the lives of people around the world.

Light Play

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Friday, February 27, 2009 at 10:30am (Coffee Concert)
- Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8pm
- Sunday, March 1, 2009 at 3pm

Jun Märkl, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
TBA, organ

LISZT Les Préludes
DVORÁK Piano Concerto
SAINT-SAËNS Symphony No. 3, “Organ”

“Chiaroscuro” means the contrasts between lights and darks in a picture or painting. It’s an effective word to describe this concert: Liszt’s tone poem of life and death; Dvorák’s concerto, with an interplay between soloist and orchestra like dappled light; and Saint-Saëns’ symphony of dazzling variations.

PreConcert Perspective with Amy Kaiser one hour prior to each concert.

Dance/Music I

ORCHESTRAL SERIES
Presented by American Airlines

- Friday, March 6, 2009 at 8pm

David Robertson, conductor
Scott Andrews, clarinet
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (Whitaker Guest Artist)
(Performing Bach, Stravinsky and Bernstein)
Jim Vincent, artistic director

BACH Movements from Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 & 1
STRAVINSKY Symphonies of Wind Instruments
BERNSTEIN Prelude, Fugue & Riffs
RAVEL Boléro

In the first of two deliciously different concerts, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago adds the grace and power of the human form to works by Bach, Stravinsky and Bernstein, as played by the SLSO. Then a purely orchestral finale as the musicians unleash the sensual sounds of Ravel's Boléro.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

Dance/Music II

ORCHESTRAL SERIES
Presented by American Airlines

- Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 8pm

David Robertson, conductor
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (Whitaker Guest Artist)
(Performing Mozart and Britten)
Jim Vincent, artistic director

MOZART Symphony No. 40
BRITTEN Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
RAVEL Boléro

Mozart inspires a divine comedy of physical gesture as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago reveals the composer's ingenious wit through bodies in motion. Then a new HSDC work, performed to Britten's homage to his teacher. Boléro—with the SLSO alone providing the movement—closes this exquisite evening of music and dance.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

Dance & Music: Boléro

FAMILY CONCERTS
(ages 3+)

- Sunday, March 8, 2009 at 3pm

David Robertson, conductor
Scott Andrews, clarinet
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (Whitaker Guest Artist)
Jim Vincent, artistic director

$10 Adult / $6 Child

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago brings the SLSO Dance Festival to the final Family Concert of the season. Rarely do such extraordinary dancers and such exceptional musicians perform together live, and with the exciting Boléro and David Robertson conducting, this is one family event that will delight everyone.

Beethoven’s “Pastoral”

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Friday, March 13, 2009 at 10:30am (Coffee Concert)
- Friday, March 13, 2009 at 8pm
- Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 8pm

Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Mark Sparks, flute

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
NIELSEN Flute Concerto
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”

Beethoven treasured the sounds of the woods, even when those sounds were more remembered than heard. His “Pastoral” Symphony contains a storm (of nature and of mind) that inspired many cinematic soundtracks to come. In Vaughan Williams and Nielsen you hear two composers who listened as deeply to nature, and were as inspired.

PreConcert Perspective with Peter Henderson one hour prior to each concert.

Discover Beethoven

TOUHILL SUNDAYS

- Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 2pm

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Guest conductor Nicholas McGegan reveals the wonders of one of the best-loved symphonies. McGegan shares his understanding of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” with slide show, discussion, and musical excerpts. Then McGegan leads the SLSO in a full performance of the composer’s dramatic evocation of the natural world.

Touhill Performing Arts Center, UM-St. Louis
Contact the Touhill at 314-516-4949 or visit www.touhill.org for on-sale dates.

Youth Orchestra

- Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 3pm

Ward Stare, conductor

BEETHOVEN   Symphony No. 8, Op. 93, in F major 
Concerto TBD
ELGAR  Enigma Variations, Op. 36

Haydn lavishes intricate pleasures on an audience in his "Oxford" Symphony. Elgar paints musical portraits of his dearest friends in the Enigma Variations. It is like being invited to a garden party filled with wit—and a bit of intrigue. This season’s YO Concerto Competition winner performs as well.

Single tickets on sale Monday, September 29 at 9am.

Ideal (Dis-) Placements Concert at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

- Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 7:30pm

PHILIPPE MANOURY    Pluton for piano and live electronics (1988)

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
3716 Washington Blvd

Middle East Crossroads

CLASSICAL DETOURS
Presented by The Boeing Company

- Friday, March 20, 2009 at 6:30pm

The Middle East is where peoples of the world—with disparate beliefs, customs, religions, and histories—have converged for most of human time. This passionate mingling of cultures, these crossroads of hopes and dreams are the source materials for the finale to this season’s Classical Detours.
$30 Reserved, limited availability | $20 General Admission
Pre-concert happy hour begins at 5:30pm.

Beethoven's "Emperor"

Three musical portraits. Two composers draw portraits of heroic (and antiheroic) musical figures. Beethoven creates a portrait of power. The soloist for these concerts, Richard Goode, is known for music-making of tremendous emotional power. With Beethoven’s ultimate piano concerto, a well-known classic receives the most unique expression. Expect unexpected passions.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

Transformations

ORCHESTRAL SERIES

- Friday, March 27, 2009 at 8pm
- Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 3pm

David Robertson, conductor
Karita Mattila, soprano (Whitaker Guest Artist)
Anssi Karttunen, cello

WAGNER Good Friday Music from Parsifal
ZIMMERMANN Canto di Speranza
SIBELIUS Luonnotar
Kaija SAARIAHO Mirage (US Premiere)
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5

Tensions build. Worlds break open and take new form. Transformation–magical, mystical, spiritual, physical–is the theme here: contemplations of Good Friday, a cello song of the spirit, the mystery of things seen and unseen, and Sibelius’ wondrous evocation of swans in flight.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

The 5 Browns

SPECIAL EVENT

- Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 7:30pm

Take five precociously gifted siblings (Juilliard-trained, no less), five pianos, and some of the greatest music ever written, with that music superbly played at a feverpitch by those five siblings—and you get some small sense of the phenomenon that is The 5 Browns. Bring your whole family for an awesome entertainment experience.

The Damnation of Faust

David Sedaris

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 7pm - Tickets Available Through KWMU

An Evening with David Sedaris at Powell Symphony Hall

Nadja

ORCHESTRAL SERIES
Presented by Thompson Coburn LLP

- Friday, April 24, 2009 at 8pm
- Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 8pm
- Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 3pm

Vasily Petrenko, conductor
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin (Whitaker Guest  Artist)

ELGAR Cockaigne Overture
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

With the Bruch concerto, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is given a melody that never stops from beginning to end. Watch where it takes her. She nearly took the roof off Powell Hall when she played Tchaikovsky two seasons ago. Just as well, Shostakovich is sure to give you a view of the sky.

PreConcert Perspective with Peter Henderson one hour prior to each concert.

Community Concert

FREE SPECIAL EVENT

Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 6pm

Robert Ray, conductor
Saint Louis Symphony IN UNISON® Chorus
André Thomas, guest conductor

The relationships between the SLSO and the local community continue to grow and evolve, as with this free concert in one of the city’s historic African-American churches. This event takes place at Union Memorial United Methodist Church, located at 1141 Belt, St. Louis. Call 314-533-2500 for details.

Showing Off

Youth Orchestra

- Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 3pm

Ward Stare, conductor

VERDI   La forza del destino Overture
TCHAIKOVSKY   Symphony No. 5, Op. 64, E minor

A Verdi overture invites you into the entertainment to come—La forza del destino opens you to a world of romance. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 is as dramatic as they come, with the troubled composer making great music out of his anguished heart.

Single tickets on sale Monday, September 29 at 9am.

Ode to Joy

Beethoven, nearly deaf, must have been composing as if in a dream as he built the rugged grandeur of his final symphony. “All creatures drink joy!” it shouts ecstatically, and ecstasy (the emotion and the drug) is a theme of Thomas Adès’ Asyla. Music starts. Enter dream.

PreConcert Perspective with David Robertson one hour prior to each concert.

Please note there will be no late seating for these performances.

Ideal (Dis-) Placements Concert at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts

- Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 7:30pm

JONATHAN HARVEY            Death of Light, Light of Death (1998)

HELMUT LACHENMANN      Allegro sostenuto (1986-88)

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
3716 Washington Blvd

Casual Classics