Skrowaczewski

Friday, October 17, 2008 at 8pm

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8

Bruckner wanders into mists of uncertainty, emerging toward intimations of profound faith. He makes sound cathedrals: sweeping harmonic structures propelling you both inward and outward. Perhaps not so incongruously, Bruckner has found fans among heavy-metal devotees, especially the last movement: Feierlich, nicht schnell. Could be the name of a band.

Shaham

Friday, November 28, 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.

Graham

Friday, January 16, 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.

Robertson


Brewer

Friday, February 13, 2009 at 8pm

David Robertson, conductor
Christine Brewer, soprano
Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano
Marcus Haddock, tenor
Roberto Scandiuzzi, bass
Saint Louis Symphony Chorus
Amy Kaiser, director

VERDI Requiem

Giuseppe Verdi liked to tell a story about how he walked to the village church three miles, sometimes without shoes, to play the organ each Sunday. A bit of a tall tale, but it conveys the sense of devotion realized in his great Requiem Mass. You might imagine yourself walking miles to hear it.

Sparks

Friday, March 13, 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.

Murphy

Friday, May 8, 2009 at 8pm

David Robertson, conductor
Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano
Jennifer Dudley, mezzo-soprano
Brandon Jovanovich, tenor
Jonathan Lemalu, bass-baritone
Saint Louis Symphony Chorus
Amy Kaiser, director

THOMAS ADÈS Asyla
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9, “Choral”

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.