Symphony Preview: Stereophonic sound and other enhancements.

Akiko Suwanzi
Photo: Kiyotaka Saito

This Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22, Stéphane Denève returns to conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program titled Bernstein and Williams: Cinematic Visions. That would be Leonard and John, respectively. Therefore, I would like to open this preview with a song:

That number is from the 1957 film version of Cole Porter’s 1955 musical Silk Stockings, which was based on the 1939 non-musical movie Ninotchka. It goes to show that the Broadway/Hollywood barrier has never been all that impermeable.

The song pokes fun at what was, at the time, the cutting-edge technology of stereo sound in cinemas. It was but one of a number of technological changes in movies that included widescreen filming (CinemaScope and its successors) and enhanced color (Technicolor, Metrocolor, etc.). These days, when you can get surround sound and high definition color in your living room, this might all seem a bit quaint, but it was a big deal Back in the Day.

The evening begins and ends with music based on film scores. Kicking things off is the yearning, romantic theme John Williams (b. 1932) composed for the 1996 movie Seven Years in Tibet, featuring a solo cello line that’s deeply infused with Essence of Erhu. Yo-Yo Ma played that in the film soundtrack. This weekend Yo-Yo Ma will be played by the SLSO’s own Yin Xiong.

Up next is the US debut of the 2018 violin concerto Les Horizons Perdus (Lost Horizons) by contemporary French composer Guillaume Connesson (b. 1970). The concerto’s connection to the “Cinematic Visions” concept is a bit tangential since it was inspired by James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon rather than Frank Capra’s classic 1937 film or (heaven forfend) the 1973 musical film. Its four movements capture the contrast between the tranquil utopia of Shangri-La and the hectic quotidian world. “More than the illustration of a fanciful narrative,” writes Connesson, “it is this division and radical opposition between the active life and the perfection of the inner life that constitute the basis of my work” (“Plus que d’illustrer une narration Romanesque, c’est ce déchirement et cette opposition radicale entre la vie active et l’absolu de la vie intérieure qui constituent la trame de mon oeuvre”).

The first movement, “Premier voyage,” is a cacophonous and aggressive depiction of that world, with brief lyrical moments reflecting the desire to find a bit of calm amidst the noise

“Shangri-La 1 – Deuxième voyage” (the linked second and third movements) consists of a brief glimpse of the tranquility of the utopian Shangri-La followed by an exuberant dance-cum-chase scene suggesting the brief departure from and return to the Himalayan paradise.

The start of that journey is where the novel ends, leaving it unclear as to whether the protagonist finds his way back to Shangri-La. Connesson leaves no doubt about it with the final movement, “Shangri-La 2” (hence the title change from singular to plural). It’s the mirror image of the first movement—a slow, meditative mix of the sublime and the nostalgic. “At the end,” writes the composer, “a new theme appears for muted violin, which sings with an infinite tenderness of rediscovered ties with childhood” ("À la fin, un nouveau thème apparaît au violon en sourdine, qui chante avec une infinie tendresse les liens retrouvés avec l’enfance").

Denève has expressed his admiration for Connesson’s music and has programmed several of his works in previous seasons. He conducted the Brussels Philharmonic in the world premiere performance with soloist Renaud Capuçon, so between him and this weekend’s soloist—Tchaikovsky Competition winner Akiko Suwanai—the music will be in good hands.

There’s an intermission between the sublime finale of Horizons Perdus and the raucous opening of An American Port of Call by Adolphus Hailstork (b. 1941). Inspired by Norfolk,Virginia—the city he calls home—the title of the work is both a tip of the hat to the suite Escales (Ports of Call) by Jacques Ibert and a portrait of, in the composer’s words, “a bustling American port city.”

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Hailstork himself has to say:

To me, An American Port of Call bears more than a passing resemblance to another orchestral work about a bustling port city (or at least an etching of one by Thomas Rowlandson): Portsmouth Point by William Walton (1902–1983). Here, in any case, is the celebrated American conductor JoAnn Faletta and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra delivering a slam-bang performance of An American Port of Call. Enjoy!

The program’s big finish (just before the closing credits, including several thousand digital animators) is the 1955 suite Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) assembled from his score for the 1954 Oscar-winning crime drama about corrupt labor unions, On the Waterfront. The composer “initially resisted accepting the commission for the score,” writes musicologist William Runyan, due to his “deep antipathy for the director, Elia Kazan.” He was notably outraged at Kazan’s cooperation with Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-leftist witch hunts and his participation in the infamous Hollywood Blacklist, which destroyed many careers and lives.

Not coincidentally, the script was written by Budd Schulberg and starred Lee J. Cobb—both of whom also collaborated with McCarthy.

Bernstein was also less than thrilled about the way his music was treated in the editing process—which is probably why On the Waterfront was his first and last soundtrack.

“And so the composer sits by,” Bernstein wrote in a May 30, 1954, article for the New York Times, “protesting as he can, but ultimately accepting, be it with a heavy heart, the inevitable loss of a good part of the score. Everyone tries to comfort him. ‘You can always use it in a suite.’ Cold comfort. It is good for the picture, he repeats numbly to himself: it is good for the picture.”

The suite has, in any case, been critically praised for the way in which it weaves together themes from the original score into a twenty-minute distillation of the original story. As critic Mark Swed wrote in the Los Angeles Times, Bernstein “wrenched his atmospheric themes into something far grander, a symphonic suite.” Listen to the composer’s own performance with the New York Philharmonic and see if you don’t agree.

And, of course, the full playlist for the concert is available on Spotify.

The Essentials: Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, along with soloists Yin Xiong (cello) and Akiko Suwanai (violin) in music by John Williams, Guillaume Connesson, Adolphus Hailstork, and Leonard Bernstein. Performances are Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 7:30 pm, March 21 and 22, at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The Saturday evening performance will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 and will be available for streaming late the following week at the SLSO web site