January 2010 Archives

If you heard Gary Lee during the intermission interview on KFUO Saturday night, you got some sense of what a sweet, generous, high-spirited fellow he is. Son of Des Lee, father of David Lee, the Knickerbocker's star forward, Gary spoke lovingly of his dad, proudly of his highly-talented son, and with genuine admiration for the SLSO.

At the Town Hall Meeting after-party in the foyer Thursday night, I was happy to see an SLSO fan going over the 2010-11 season calendar and making many happy sounds. "You're doing the Schubert Mass [No. 6]!" And then, "What's Leonard [Slatkin] conducting?" He found the Thanksgiving Weekend dates. "Oh, Prokofiev Five will be good. Olga Kern! Rachmaninoff Rhapsody! And they haven't played Arvo Pärt in years. That's a great program." He turned a few more pages, "I remember when Robertson conducted Mahler 'Resurrection' when Semkow cancelled. It was fantastic!" And so on.

If you were at Powell Thursday night, or were watching on HEC-TV, you know a lot of the big news of the 10-11 Season, but you don't know that under one of Tom Stubbs' cymbals he had written "La Mer Mvmt 3" as if that cymbal held the secrets of the sea.

 

If I miss a blog day it's generally because it is expletive-crazy around here. This is the annual expletive-crazy run up to the announcement of the new season, Thursday night at the Town Hall Meeting on the Powell Hall stage. Somehow I did manage to catch snippets of Beethoven 5 rehearsal as I was panting at my keyboard.

David Robertson on Urban Alchemy Concert Series from The Pulitzer on Vimeo.

Erik Harris and Dave DeRiso were laying down some rhythm on electric bass guitar. Patti Wolf was sitting down to the electric piano. I half expected folks to launch into an old Dave Clark 5 hit, but instead David Robertson appeared to conduct the rehearsal for Louis Andriessen's Hoketus, to be performed at the Pulitzer Foundation this Wednesday.

I remember being at Powell Hall in April 2001--I had to look up the date--when Respighi's Pines of Rome was performed. I actually came to the concert that weekend because I wanted to see/hear Jonathan Haas and Richard Holmes perform Philip Glass' Timpani Concerto. That was the night I heard someone in the audience say after the concerto, "I never thought I'd like something by Philip Glass."

In this week's video blog Peter Henderson practices, Will James shows what he can do with two hands, and Respighi's Pines of Rome begins with radiance.

I receive an occasional request from SLSO fans for information about past concerts. We're archivally challenged around here, but I make an effort.

One of the great things about a live orchestral concert is the visuals. Listening in on KFUO is the next best thing, but the best thing is being here. In the midst of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique last weekend, our four percussionists--Will James, Richard Holmes, John Kasica and Tom Stubbs--each played a single timpano (thank you, Maggie Bailey, for giving me the singular of timpani), which resulted in an eerie duet with Cally Banham on the English horn. The sight of the four drummers drumming, then Cally, seated at the end of the woodwinds, replying with a lyrical cry on her instrument, created a hypnotic tension in the music, in the hall, in our heads, which would be unleashed by the full orchestra moments later. All the players sounded impressive, but in the seeing was the believing.

Something in the way Principal Percussion Will James sauntered toward the cymbals in Magnus Lindberg's Parada reminded my of John Wayne entering the frame to bring order to a lawless land.

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After the time one spends with the second movement of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, it feels wholly appropriate to ask it if it would like to spend the night.

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Always a good sign: Backstage after the final applause had died, the conductor (Susanna Malkki) warmly congratulated the soloist (Ingrid Fliter) and said, "That was fun!"

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While the audience was still on its feet at the finale to Symphonie fantastique, a woman turned to me and said, "An event! It's more than a symphony. It's an event!"

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I am officially recommending that the next time Berlioz's fever-dream is performed, absinthe be available at the bar.

I'll be rushing backstage tonight to wrangle members of the double bass section--Carolyn White, Chris Carson, and Don Martin--to take them to the makeshift 7th floor KFUO studio to talk to Ron Klemm at intermission. SLSO President Fred Bronstein will make some announcements prior to the bass talk. And Adam Crane will be speaking with Ron between the Lindberg Parada- Ravel Concerto break. Hope you're tuning in on 99.1FM or on the internet at classic99.com, because the best thing will be the music, and that is what you'll hear the most.

Friday after rehearsal clarinetist Diana Haskell told me a story about playing the E-flat clarinet part in Symphonie fantastique for the first time when she was with the Milwaukee Symphony. She said she was waiting for her entrance in the first rehearsal, she was a bit nervous, and suddenly the right lens popped out of her eyeglasses and landed on one of the second violins. She looked to the Principal Clarinet, who was sitting next to her, and rather than gasping in shock, he bent over laughing.

Somehow the lens was rapidly retrieved. Diana quickly popped the lens back in and played right on beat. She said the conductor didn't notice a thing.
 

Before you watch the video blog from Wednesday morning's Symphonie fantastique rehearsal, I want you to know that Cally Banham and Felicia Foland were speaking extemporaneously, totally off-the-cuff. As a matter of fact, Cally hadn't even gotten to her chair when I collared her by the side of the stage for a few words. I thought Felicia would just say she was excited to play the Ravel Piano Concerto in G this weekend, but then she gave about a one-minute lesson into what the piece is about. I was kind of blown away. I hope you will be too.

The Saint Louis Symphony Chorus page of the SLSO website is all swank and new, with major kudos to Amy Kaiser for gathering the info and remaining perseverant and patient throughout the process and to Dale Fisher for making it so. Check it out. Click. 

E. Desmond Lee passed away early Tuesday morning. For those of you outside of St. Louis, Des Lee was one of the great philanthropists of our city. He was a dear friend to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, but then, anyone who ever came in contact with Des went away feeling he or she had just made a dear friend.

I don't know how this passed under the blogosphere radar (thank you, Brad Graham, rest in peace), but last week music from the SLSO's recording of John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony and Guide to Strange Places made it onto NPR's Morning Edition interlude music. Click. If you scroll down, you'll see that Steve Reich was on too.

Mike Lynch of Mike Lynch and the Henchmen stopped by to ask if I'd blogged anything yet--a sure sign that he had an idea as to what I should post. (For those of you new to the neighborhood, Mike is the SLSO Stage Manager and the Henchmen are the stage hands.)

Half of the stage floor has been cleaned and coated with new varnish. The other half will get done Friday, with time for it all to dry and be gorgeous when the musicians return next week. It will look like an old floor again by next Thursday.

Also, some old planks of flooring are being removed and replaced. I understand that wood from pirogues that were used by the Corps of Discovery are being installed because of their excellent acoustic. Honest.

St. Louis has a peculiar relationship with snow, and a totally perverse relationship with the prospect of snow. Snow is in the forecast, and I've heard anywhere from two inches to eight inches predicted for Wednesday night.

I was either brave or foolish or desperate enough to take a walk around the Grand Center neighborhood Monday in the single-digit wind-chill weather. It was so cold that tears sprang from my eyes as if I'd just seen Bambi's mom shot again. I didn't repeat the adventure today (Tuesday), which I believe is even colder.

I'm sure many of you have participated in New Year's cleansing rituals, which may be as profound as chanting in a sweat lodge or as mundane as scrubbing the kitchen floor.

The Henchmen were cleaning out their backstage office this afternoon. I saw carpeting I haven't seen in many months. The Henchmen chose not to wear Hazmat suits, nor were they chanting.