September 2006 Archives

Before the morning Coffee Concert, bass player Warren Goldberg, without shame or remorse, absconded with two trays of donuts, then descended downstairs to the musicians’ lounge to share them with his colleagues. Remarkably, the Orchestra played on tempo, unlike those of us in the hall who listened more acutely on our caffeine-and-sugar rush.

My colleagues across the hall in Development have a sofa—a long, comfortable, inviting sofa that they are kind enough to share. On very rare occasions, say, in late afternoons when my word-producing mechanisms have turned to mush, I take no more than a minute or two to get recharged on the sofa and return, with due diligence, to what needs to be done.

An LOA fan writes: “What was the encore played by the wonderful pianist Leif Ove Andsnes?”

An SLSO fan writes in response to yesterday’s post: “I was at that concert! Had Sufjan introduced his people by name, perhaps I would have been more likely to cheer even louder. How exciting for Josh.”

An SLSO fan writes in response to yesterday’s post: “I was at that concert! Had Sufjan introduced his people by name, perhaps I would have been more likely to cheer even louder. How exciting for Josh.”

SLSO trumpeter Josh MacCluer has been busy lately. He followed yesterday afternoon’s performance of The Wooden Prince for an evening gig at the Pageant with Sufjan Stevens (of Illinoise fame). Today he’s rehearsing over at the Pulitzer for the concerts there Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, playing Luciano Berio’s Sequenza X. When I asked David Robertson how he picked Josh to play the work, Josh stepped in with “Because he knew I was the only one crazy enough to do it.” And Josh is back to the day job with Haydn, Elliott Carter and Strauss (Don Quixote) this week.

I’ve heard good things about last night’s Sound Check concert. A modest house of high school and college students responded enthusiastically to the Opening Weekend program.

Tonight if you are a high school or college student (16-25), you get a special sneak preview of the Opening Weekend program. You get it all – David Robertson, Leif Ove Andsnes (who was still alone on center stage playing when I left here at 5 o’clock yesterday), and one great big orchestra (for the Bartok, especially, even saxophones) for $10. And you can hang out in the hall with the musicians after. Come on down. You can just buy a ticket at the box office and walk right in. Come as you are. Bring some friends. Make some friends. The concert’s at 7.

The Wooden Prince is about a woman who becomes enchanted, until she discovers that the object of her enchantment can’t dance. A dilemma I’m sure many in the audience will immediately recognize and understand.

You know that the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra is back in rehearsals when a whole gaggle of musicians show up at Everest – the marvelous Nepalese restaurant that serves up an economical and flavorful lunch buffet on Washington Ave. – in the break before the 1:30 afternoon rehearsal. Mike Sanders, Gerry Pagano, David Halen, Danny Lee, Mark Sparks, Carolyn White, Lorraine Glass-Harris: all filling their plates with great concoctions made of chicken and spinach and tofu and eggplant and many spices and rice pudding I can’t eat because of my onerous visit to the nutritionist this summer.

Last February, St. Louis magazine editor Jeannette Batz Cooperman got a backstage-eye view of a concert that included feature performers David Robertson, Christine Brewer, and the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus. The program was titled “Mourning,” and included Gyorgy Kurtag’s Stele and Mozart’s Requiem.

I heard that at last night’s festive Forest Park concert, David Robertson compared Sibelius’ Finlandia to his mother-in-law, but I’m not sure which one (he’s had three of them). Whichever, it certain is a provocative take on mothers-in-law, and Finns.

This morning the SLSO’s rehearsal of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks (for tonight's free concert in Forest Park, 7pm at the base of Art Hill) is coming through the little speaker in my office. Stately, balanced, well-proportioned music to have the day after the big whirlwind of activity we experienced yesterday.

Tomorrow I will write some things about the big day. But for now, I'll just say that it's early evening and the orchestra is rehearsing for the Forest Park concert and they sound just fine.

When Jon Kimura Parker returned to the stage for an encore following the thunderous response from the audience to his performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in Kansas City last weekend (David Robertson conducting the KC Symphony), he played Billy Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” Now what do you think about that?

I’m all for it. However, if he’d have played Billy Joel’s “classical” music, I’d have been appalled.

We have moved into full gear in preparation for a host of activities, not the least of all being Opening Weekend. This morning we were greeted by the familiar Auditions in Progress signs, which divert us from adding to the degree of difficulty that comes to playing for a job. Violas are being heard today and tomorrow. Then the gang’s all here for the Forest Park concert rehearsals Wednesday and Thursday – the concert itself is Thursday evening at 7pm at the base of Art Hill. Free and in the open air. Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, Copland, Sibelius are some of the composers whose works will be performed – a kind of musical travelogue that will offer a taste of the “travel” theme of the new Classical Detours series this season.

Stage Manager Mike Lynch said, “Hey, Eddie. Come over and take a look.”

I don’t think I’ve mentioned anything about our music director in a while. If you pick up the September 4 issue of The New Yorker, you can read Alex Ross’ piece on music education. When Ross visited here last fall, he watched David in action at Dunbar School in a classroom presentation that included violinist Debbie Bloom and SLSO Board Chairman Cynthia Brinkley. In the recent article, Ross reports that David is not unlike the “late great Fred Rogers” in his manner with children. Is there any higher praise? Won't you be my neighbor?

If you have noticed that anxiety levels are up around your house, perhaps there’s a young musician living there who auditioned for the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra last week. A YO mom sent me an email the other day in which she mentioned how she and her daughter were suffering through the wait for the acceptance letter together.

When you come to Powell Symphony Hall, the first faces here to greet you are the ushers. The SLSO is graced by a truly generous group of people who make the transition from street to hall to auditorium a pleasant one. Many of these folks have been ushering audiences into the hall for decades. They are a special part of the concert experience.

The Leif Ove Andsnes interview is up. You can find it by going here.