Robertson


Bronfman

Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 8pm
Presented by MasterCard

David Robertson, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano

JOHN ADAMS Guide to Strange Places
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 3
BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

The passion of art. The passion of life. You find it in Yefim Bronfman playing the ferociously difficult, and exhilarating, Rach 3. You find it in John Adams’ tour of the strange. And you find it in Bartók, who, as mad war ravages his homeland, writes an impassioned concerto of homecoming.

Serkin

Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 8pm

Ingo Metzmacher, conductor
Peter Serkin, piano

MUSSORGSKY/SHOSTAKOVICH Dawn on the Moskva River from Khovanshchina
MESSIAEN Les offrandes oubliées
STRAVINSKY Capriccio
MESSIAEN Oiseaux exotiques
MUSSORGSKY/RAVEL Pictures at an Exhibition

Mussorgsky was inspired by an exhibition of paintings; Ravel was inspired by Mussorgsky. Create your own pictures from the sound images Mussorgsky draws, and to which Ravel adds color. Plus Messiaen’s bright exotic birds and Stravinsky showing off: syncopated, jazzy, fascinatin’.

Zukerman

Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 8pm

David Robertson, conductor
Pinchas Zukerman, viola

BARTÓK Viola Concerto
MAHLER Symphony No. 9

It has been too long since Pinchas Zukerman played at Powell. For his return, he plays a work that sings a dream of return: Bartók, in exile in America, far from his native Hungary. Zukerman’s restless viola imagines a final peasant dance of the heart. With Mahler’s tender symphonic farewell.

Moser

Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 8pm
Presented by MasterCard

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.

Ohlsson

Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8pm

Jun Märkl, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Todd Wilson, 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.

Coote

Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 8pm

David Zinman, conductor
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano
Matthew Polenzani, tenor
Kyle Ketelsen, bass-baritone
Joshua Winograde, bass
Saint Louis Symphony Chorus
Amy Kaiser, director
The St. Louis Children’s Choirs
Barbara Berner, director

BERLIOZ La Damnation de Faust

Berlioz’s journey to damnation transitions from mocking to mirthful to dark and shadowy in a few measures. A theatrical setting can hardly accommodate the shifts in mood, from fiery abyss to the purity of heaven, yet sung and played in concert, the music vividly takes you on Faust’s scandalous (and highly entertaining) descent.