May 2009 Archives

With the William Tell Overture to be performed as the galloping finale to the Casual Classics concert Friday night, I wondered, does anyone in the post-baby boom generations know that the William Tell was the theme of a famous radio and TV show?

So I asked a colleague, a little more than half my age.

Nope. Not a clue.

My colleague Adam Crane, a native St. Louisan, found himself, as so often happens to Midwesterners, living in LA. But, as so often happens to St. Louisans, he came back home, and became Director of Communications of the SLSO and my immediate and noble supervisor last summer.

This morning as I was chatting with the guy who picks up our recycling in the alley next to the hall--another part of the glamorous life--a dark-haired, solidly-built man stopped his car on Grand and stepped out looking somewhat distressed. "This is Powell Hall, isn't it?" Yes. "I'm rehearsing with the orchestra this morning and I don't know where I'm supposed to park."

I'll be away for a brief vacation starting Tuesday, May 19. While I'm gone, there is the first Casual Classics concert of the season, "Ravishing Rachmaninoff," with guest pianist Natasha Paremski playing the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Ward Stare conducts the concert that includes wonderfully seductive stuff such as Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (or say it in French: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, mon amour) and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture. Let your summer romance start here, Friday, May 22 at 7:30pm. Show up early for food and drinks, and please, these are Casual Classics. Dress how you feel. (Actually, that's always my suggestion for SLSO fans.)

When I return the Circus Flora big top will be up in the east parking lot and maybe there will be time to visit the horses. My next post will be Tuesday, May 26.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I was trying not to trip over the power cords or knock over a speaker set up for the Beach Boys show. This morning Mike Lynch and a Henchman were setting up musician chairs and music stands and a conductor podium, preparing for a morning of Puccini and an afternoon of Strauss (rehearsals for OTSL productions of La bohème and Salome, respectively). The lighting and props and sets and costumes and actors/singers will be added at the Loretto-Hilton Center at a later date. I'm not sure if there will be house plants, maybe a palm frond for Salome. But no amps; I'm sure of that. Although I could imagine La bohème in a surfer-dude setting--southern California bohemian, Musetta as a bikinied blond, consumption on the beach.

Compared to the megaequipment the Beach Boys road crew has been setting up since early this morning, the SLSO travels light. Lighting, sound, props, instruments--I'm not even going to include the house plants. What would it be like if they played Mahler?

Half an orchestra in Webster Groves rehearsing La bohème for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the other half begins Salome Wednesday morning, the first of the high school and college graduation ceremonies beginning at Powell, and reports of a flock of Beach Boys arriving tomorrow. A bit overcast with a chance of rain.

Saturday afternoon I joined the combined forces of KFUO and SLSO for the Subscription Sale Celebration, broadcast live from Powell Hall on 99.1 FM. We took up a corner on the first tier level near the stairs. KFUO stars Jim Connett and Ron Klemm were at the mics with SLSO President Fred Bronstein, and at 4pm they were talking up the 0910 season and sending out the 314-533-7888 Box Office number over the air waves so folks could call in to subscribe. When Jim, Ron and Fred weren't discussing the 0910 highlights (1812 Overture, Gala with Yo-Yo Ma, Beethoven Festival, etc.) there was music to be heard from next season, all recordings by the SLSO, beginning with the finale to the "New World" Symphony (Ward Stare's SLSO subscription concert debut, Nov. 27-28, 2009).

Thursday morning, Concertmaster David Halen and I were discussing the wonders of the new technologies. I, still stumbling into the new century, managed to gift the Adventureland soundtrack to my wife for her birthday so she could download it onto her iPod. I did this having discovered that an actual CD of the soundtrack doesn't even exist. I know, most of you out there are thinking that I sound like a former presidential candidate who barely knew about "the Google," but I remain fond of the material world: a book in the hand, or a newspaper, a CD and its cover art. I blog. I Google. I participate in most of the verbs that didn't exist a very few years ago, and I even enjoy them, am astounded by them; but the here and now; the physical; place and time as a state of being, rather than as something to escape--those are a few of my favorite things, as well as the longing for them.

I was here fairly early this morning, but I got to the hall to find the Henchmen had been here much earlier and were very busy preparing for Thomas Adès' Asyla. I have seen more musicians on stage before (György Kurtag's Stele, a couple Mahler symphonies) but the combination of musicians and instruments--a significant percussion battery, a grand piano and two uprights and celesta, an expansive array of woodwinds (flutes, piccolos, bass flute, oboes, English horns--yes, plural, Cally Banham on bass oboe, clarinets, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet--which was last present in the orchestra at the beginning of the season for Adams' Guide to Strange Places--bassoons and contrabassoon). No double reed kitchen sink.

When auditions are in progress, as they are today (violin), the staff is asked to avoid using the elevator. With any number of musicians trying out for a spot in the orchestra, the process moves along more briskly if the elevator is available to serve the candidates--who are camped out on various floors--when the call comes to perform on stage. This means a more efficient, less-harried audition process for the musicians; it means a health benefit for the staff. I've walked to the seventh floor twice today and feel invincible.

 

SLSO and SLSYO fans write:

"My wife and I attended another outstanding performance by the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra on Sunday. I always leave Powell Hall awestruck after their performances. There, lucky us, on the Powell stage is the future and it really looks and sounds great.

"In addition to the outstanding performance of the Youth Orchestra we were treated to a marvelous performance by cellist James Perretta [Elgar Concerto]. Double bonus.

"Again SLSYO members, Ward Stare, staff, teachers, AND parents, many thanks to a great season. See you next year."

Progress as promised. Chris King indeed had his drawing of Marc-Andre Hamelin signed by the pianist. Hamelin listened to the second half of the show seated next to SLSO artistic vp Bret Dorhout. Not every artist sticks around to listen when his/her work is done. I remember Jeremy Denk taking in a Lutoslawksi symphony a couple years ago. Julia Fisher, Nadja--they've stayed for the music as well. Perhaps the French-Canadian Hamelin felt at home with the French repertoire, and/or simply chose to take the opportunity to hear the orchestra in a relaxed mode. This was Hamelin's first performance with the SLSO, and visiting artists don't often get to hear the orchestra they're playing with except in rehearsal.

For Chris' post, click. I'm calling this the Derby Weekend Special post, in honor of the great race in Louisville and to highlight that the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra is playing at Powell on Sunday afternoon at 3pm. YO Concerto Competition Winner James Perretta plays the Elgar Cello Concerto, and Tchaikovsky's passionate Symphony No. 5 is on tap as well. Ward Stare conducts. The YO is a terrific orchestra, and the final concert of the season is always an emotionally moving experience as, for some, it's their last time with the ensemble before they move on to more of life.

I was looking for someone who had seen Anvil: The Story of Anvil backstage before the concert Friday morning, and that someone turned out to be Principal Harp Frances Tietov, who shared my enthusiasms about it. Frances told me that she saw it with her son and his wife. Frances said it was a movie experience that she knew she and her son could really share; her son was a metal head back in the day, played electric guitar, so Frances was well-versed in the music of Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer, et al. "I felt a kind of nostalgia for it all," seeing the documentary, she said. She admitted that she never fell in love with heavy metal, "but some of the guitarists in those bands were truly amazing."