For those of you reading somewhere other than St. Louis, we citizens in the Lou are anticipating a nasty bit of winter on this last day of November – it’s already getting icy, I hear, to the west and north of the city, with predictions of five to eight inches of snow tonight.
With the conclusion of the rehearsal for Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with guest soloist Kyoko Takezawa getting a hearty round of applause from the orchestra, I was backstage and Josh (one of the Henchmen) told me to come take a look at something cool. He pulled from his Henchmen’s office locker the score to George Crumb’s Black Angels, which an SLSO string quartet is going to play at the Pulitzer in February. Kronos Quartet fans know this piece, and I suspect are going to converge like music-hungry wolves to hear it live.
David Robertson conducted a performance of Chaplin’s City Lights with the San Francisco Symphony last weekend. In attendance, as David’s guest, was Cardinals skipper Tony LaRussa. I know this because yesterday afternoon David’s assistant, Suzanne Leek, appeared in my office, somewhat giddy, and played Tony’s voice-mail message over her cell phone for me. I recognized that voice right away (I’m an old Oakland A’s fan, so me and Tony go way back), and I became pretty giddy too.
Last night I met a longtime SLSO fan, a friend of one of my neighbors who is also a longtime SLSO fan, who told me that she got her calendar mixed up last weekend. She showed up at Powell Hall on Saturday night, November 25, to use one of her Classic Choice coupons to hear Jerzy Semkow conduct Brahms Symphony No. 1. A gracious Box Office salesperson informed her that Semkow conducts this coming Saturday, December 2. However, the Youth Orchestra was playing that night.
This being a family place, most folks are taking vacation time this week. The rest of us fill each other in on who is actually working on each floor. Who’s on Seven? Who's on Eight?
In honor of the passing of Robert Altman, I am officially requesting that “Tapedeck in His Tractor,” from Nashville, be included in the next Classical Detours concert, “American Made.”
I can at least ask.
An SLSO fan who attended the first Classical Detours concert, “Voyage to Spain,” on Friday night writes:
The beer’s here and chillin’ for the premiere of the Classical Detours Series. Tapas from BARcelona Restaurant should be here soon too. Come on down for a great happy hour with the best band in town tonight (Friday, November 17).
I asked SLSO Concertmaster David Halen to share his thoughts on Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, which he performs this weekend as part of the “Higher Realms” program. I realized the other day that I’ve been having these conversations with David for, at least, ten years, back to when I used to write about the orchestra for a local weekly. I’m a lucky guy.
Here’s what David had to say:
Tonight Jeremy Denk and Peter Henderson are the piano duo performing Olivier Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, which is just a hop, skip and a jump from Powell Hall. Tickets are still available. I believe SLSO Artistic VP Jeremy Geffen will be there to chat it up. I think sitting on the stairs is best at Pulitzer concerts, but chairs are provided as well. Be sure to check out the Cindy Sherman room, which is part of the Portrait/Homage/Embodiment exhibition.
As if a terrific morning Coffee Concert wasn’t enough, there was some wicked cool Piazzolla being rehearsed in the Green Room by the Arda Ensemble this afternoon. Arda plays world music and is made up of SLSO musicians Chris Woehr, Cathy Lehr, Manuel Ramos, Chris Carson, Tom Stubbs and Becky Boyer Hall (I think that’s all). Each person who passed by added a slight tango step to his or her walk.
I heard the flute when I came in the stage door early this morning. The backstage monitor was turned on, and I saw Mark Sparks sitting alone with his flute centerstage. He’d play a tune. Stop. Study the workings of his instrument for a while. Play a scale. Play a phrase from the Haydn concerto. Stop. Think. Play some more.
Guest conductor JoAnn Falletta possesses this marvelous gliding energy that moves about the post-rehearsal hubbub with grace and charm, responding to a technical question here, making a lunch date there. She has that great spirit you find in people who love, love, love what they do.
Powell Symphony Hall may look like a big place on the corner of Delmar and Grand, but with busloads of schoolchildren streaming in for Young People’s Concerts this morning, finding a quiet space to practice Copland and Britten before the performance calls for adaptability.
1) Last Thursday, as part of the Young People’s Concert, two members of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Tony Morales (violin) and David Ramos (viola), performed Handel’s Passacaglia to an auditorium of absolutely mesmerized teenagers. Their playing was amazing, but just as incredible was the total attention they received from their peers. I believe they were rewarded with five ovations. Imagine if you were a teen, and you saw and heard somebody your own age take the stage and play music that was out of this world. I think your own view of the world would shift just a little. (Not to mention if you were the parents of one of those musicians, as SLSO violinist Manuel Ramos and SLSO cellist Cathy Lehr are the parents of David – who were on the stage beaming ecstatically in the midst of the orchestra.)
This weekend’s soloist Jeremy Denk discourses on an imaginary episode of Law & Order, Beethovenian Morse Code, and Ludwig van like a dog on a bone:
I saw Jeremy Denk backstage before rehearsal for the Beethoven First Piano Concerto, and before I even asked he told me he almost had his blog post done. It will have nothing to do with toasted ravioli, even though I suggested it as subject matter. He says he’s actually writing about the Beethoven concerto.
In the break in rehearsal between Ravel and Lutoslawski, Brad Buckley, of the double-reed tribe (bassoon and contrabassoon) told me that he recently gave a bassoon master class to members of the New World Symphony, in Miami, over a live T2 hookup – or something like that. I get lost when the techno-lingo pops up. Anyway, Brad was basically two places at once: in St. Louis giving his demonstration; and in Miami where the brave New Worlders watched and listened and learned from the master like he was some mystical hologram.
