July 2006 Archives

It may be Monday and 100 degrees, but the week looks full of promise in St. Louis. Not only did the Cardinals pick up Ronnie Belliard from the Indians – and Belliard wears his cap really cool; and many citizens are taking their leiderhosen out of the closet for Strassenfest this weekend (www.strassenfest.org), where you can hear more oom-pah music than you can shake a stein at; and the 1979 cult classic The Warriors is playing the late show at the Tivoli this weekend; but – drum roll, please: SLSO subscription tickets are being stuffed into envelopes in the foyer at this moment.

Yesterday I took part in a meeting where we discussed the projection of narrative text to accompany the opening-weekend performance of Dvorak’s The Wooden Prince. Thus you will be able to follow along with the folk tale as the orchestra plays. For those of you of the Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth crowd: get psyched.

This, without a doubt, is our favorite piece of text: Now she hates him.

Last night as I was leaving I heard the deep sensual moan of a cello on stage. I peeked in and it was Principal Cello Daniel Lee tuning up for some summer practice.

If you have been reading along, you have probably noticed that I like to mix up the cultural references: Robbie Robertson, the Schumanns and Brahms, the Cardinals and the Aspen Music Festival.

This week on artsjournal.com you can read a running conversation between a handful of classical-music observers as they discuss the health of the industry. You will find a lot there, including a quote from Robbie Robertson, which, to me, spices things up considerably.

That’s the first question asked back at the hall this morning. What follows is either “When did you get it back?” or “Oh no, that’s awful.”

Another big storm just blew through here. Outside our windows we witnessed another stormy night in the late morning. It seems to have passed, and I just stepped outside and the temperature has dropped significantly, which hopefully offers some relief to those still without power, of which there are many thousands. We cross our collective fingers to hope this swift storm didn’t just knock out the power of many more.

I sincerely wish by Monday I can report on something musical.

St. Louis got hit by a big storm last night, one that has left much of the region without power, and combined with the high temperatures we have a very serious situation in the city and throughout the region.

Along with the UniverSoul Circus and its massive blue tent pitched in the lot east of Powell Hall comes the world's biggest boom box, or at least a facsimile thereof. Today it played, among other tunes, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Carmina Burana, “Hokey-Pokey” and the theme from The Jeffersons: “Movin’ on up/ to the east side/ to that deluxe apartment in the sky….”

I don’t know what it is about Powell Hall that it attracts circuses. The second circus of the summer has pitched a really big blue tent in the lot east of the hall, the UniverSoul Circus.

I failed to make a Friday post due to the fire alarm that refused to stop alarming the staff that day. The first one came around 8:45am, and we made our exit dutifully. We then made the mistake of returning to the building, where the alarm revisited us throughout the morning.

Last summer I had my nose in Jan Swafford’s extensive Johannes Brahms: A Biography, a thorough examination of a most curious character. The SLSO performed four major Brahms works last season, and I found it worth my while to research the life that produced the music.

Principal keyboardist Barbara Liberman took on the task of rescuing a fallen fledgling this spring. Here’s a record of the progress of Barbara and bird:

Last spring violinist Lorraine Glass-Harris initiated the first of what she hopes to become a series of photographic exhibitions in the Musicians’ Lounge downstairs. On the Road: Shots from Missouri Tours consists of 10 works by Israel Borouchoff, who was principal flute from 1958 to 1966. Lorraine says of the images: “They’re exquisite photographs. The faces and bodies in these pictures talk to you. They are works of art. They have a texture and an intensity that’s startling.”

The American Arts Alliance is a grassroots network of over 4000 members that does the good work of advocating for nonprofit performing arts organizations before the Congress and other makers of public policy. You can visit the triple-A website at americanartsalliance.org.

I recently reported that Ernie Hays, the revered organ player at Busch Stadium, had played the classic “Whiter Shade of Pale” at the Cardinals-Indians game SLSO folks attended a week or so ago. I was in error.

The music world is responding to the loss of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson with a combination of shock and profound sadness. You can read two fine appreciations of the soulful mezzo-soprano today.

The sublime American mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson died Monday in her home in Santa Fe after a long illness. She was 52.