Review: A gripping performance of Shostakovich's final symphony by Andrey Boreyko and the St. Louis Symphony

This review originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Conductor Andrey Boreyko
Photo: Richard de Stoutz

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[Find out more about the music with my symphony preview post.]

“It's not where you start”, runs a Dorothy Fields lyric from the 1973 musical Seesaw, “it's where you finish. It's not how you go, it's how you land.” If the fifteenth and final symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich is any indication, the great Russian composer's own landing was bleak and despairing, but this past weekend's performance (Saturday, January 21) by the dynamic Russian conductor Andrey Boreyko and the St. Louis Symphony was gripping nevertheless.

That's impressive because Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 in A major-written in 1971 from a hospital bed as the composer was being treated for the lung cancer that would kill him four years later-is not easy music for the listener or the performers.

For the musicians, the Shostakovich fifteenth consistently calls for nothing but the best playing. That's because, although written for large orchestra with a massive percussion section, the symphony contains long stretches of delicately scored passages for solo instruments or small ensembles. There's nowhere to hide for musicians who aren't top drawer.

For the listener, the challenge is to accept the music's many outpourings of anguish without being overwhelmed by them. This was the final big statement by a man who had survived all the horror the Soviet Union could throw at him, and it's filled with remembered desolation. Uplifting socialist realism is nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony were more than up to the challenges Shostakovich created. Under Mr. Boreyko's skilled baton-or just his hands, for the more delicate passages-they played their hearts out in flawless, virtuoso performances.

There was wonderful work here by Principal Flute Mark Sparks (most notably in the first movement), Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews, and Principal Bassoon Andrew Cuneo. Ditto Principal Trombone Timothy Myers in his long second movement solo. In that same movement, Principal Cello Daniel Lee brought out all the anguish in the solo that pushes the instrument to the very top of its range. Concertmaster David Halen demonstrated his skill in multiple passages, as did Principal Bass Erik Harris.

Shostakovich gives an important role to the percussion section, mostly notably in the enigmatic coda in which castanets, snare drum, wood block, xylophone, and triangle clatter away in what sounds to me like a reference to the hospital machinery that was probably in the background as the symphony was written. Principal William James and the rest of his crew brought it all to life brilliantly.

For his part, Mr. Boreyko—who made such a strong impression here in 2012 and 2014—pulled everything together in an absolutely riveting interpretation that honored both the sound and the silence of Shostakovich's enigmatic sonic tapestry. The pain, the nostalgia, and the sarcasm all came through powerfully. So did the dark humor of the first movement (originally subtitled "The Toyshop") with its not-quite-funny quotes from Rossini's William Tell Overture. And the final percussion toccata was appropriately chilling. Mr. Boreyko paused at the end just long enough for everyone to hear the silence.

Pianist Till Fellner
Photo: Ben Ealovega

The concerts opened with a positively dynamic reading of that Rossini overture, distinguished by a fine cello solo from Daniel Lee and an especially fiery coda that accelerated to a breakneck finish. I think it must be difficult to put one's own stamp on a piece as famous (and frequently parodied) as the William Tell Overture, but Mr. Boreyko did so nevertheless.

Between the Rossini and Shostakovich, Mr. Boreyko and soloist Till Fellner gave us a delightfully crisp and graceful performance of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19, by Beethoven. Written before but published after the Concerto No. 1, it marks the beginning of Beethoven's dual careers as pianist and composer of concerti for his instrument of choice. The influences of Mozart and Haydn are easy to hear, but ultimately it's all Beethoven. That's particularly obvious in the dramatic cadenza, written around 14 years after the concerto.

Soloist Till Fellner did especially well by that cadenza, positively burning up the keyboard. He and Mr. Boreyko were every bit as compelling in the rest of their performance, which included a heartfelt Adagio and a glittering, jolly Rondo finale. Mr. Fellner's program bio refers to his "scrupulous musi¬cianship, purity of style, and sparkling key¬board command" and, while it's usually best to take such things with a grain of salt, I have to say I heard all of those qualities in this very gratifying reading.

Next at Powell Hall: David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and trumpet soloist Håkan Hardenberger on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., January 27-29. The program consists of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite, and the local premiere of Fisher King (Trumpet Concerto) by contemporary Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin. The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center.

Roll over, Beethoven

Andrey Boreyko

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Who: The St. Louis Symphony conducted by Andrey Boreyko with violinist Adele Anthony
What:  Music of Stephanie Berg, Nielsen, and Beethoven
When: Friday and Saturday, January 10 and 11, 2014
Where: Powell Symphony Hall

The first of the St. Louis Symphony's "Beethoven Festival" concerts this weekend brought exciting performances by guest conductor Andrey Boreyko of three works, each separated by nearly a century: Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7 in A major", Op. 92 (first performed in 1813), Carl Nielsen's Op. 33 "Violin Concerto" (1912 premiere), and "Ravish and Mayhem", a colorful little tone poem by Missouri composer Stephanie Berg from 2012 that opened the evening.

New music at the symphony isn't often greeted with wild applause. More often the reaction is polite (if somewhat baffled) approval from audience members who aren't sure whether they missed something important or whether, as Anna Russell once observed, the composer was just trying to get away with something.

Stephanie Berg

Not so with "Ravish and Mayhem," which drew enthusiastic ovations for both the orchestra and—when Mr. Boreyko persuaded her to appear on stage—Ms. Berg as well. Inspired, according to the composer, by a vision of "an ancient Middle Eastern street festival," this unabashedly cinematic and vivid piece was a delight from the opening Coplandesque fanfares and melismatic woodwind figures to the brass glissandi near the end that conjured up images of trumpeting elephants.

Yes, dear friends, it was the 21st century version of Ketèlbey's 1920 hit "In a Persian Market." And I mean that in the best way possible. Many contemporary composers, in my view, could benefit from trying to be a bit more like the late British master of "light music" and a bit less like (say) Karlheinz Stockhausen.
The symphony musicians handled this new work with the same ease they display with well-worn favorites. There were especially notable contributions by Andrea Kaplan (flute), Ann Choomack (piccolo), Scott Andrews (clarinet), and Diana Haskell (E-flat clarinet) in the lively opening section.

Next was Carl Nielsen's violin concerto, a work that, like many of the Danish master's symphonies and other larger works, often defies expectations in ways that can leave audience members a bit confused. Which might explain why the concerto wasn't heard at Powell until 2001 (nearly 90 years after its premiere) and hasn't returned since Robert Spano conducted a performance with Yang Liu in October of 2002. Adele Anthony was the soloist this time, and she gave us a thoroughly idiomatic and assured reading (as you might expect from a Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition winner), dashing off the cadenza and final pages of the Allegro cavalleresco that closes the first half of the concerto so impressively that she was awarded with a spontaneous burst of applause.

Adele Anthony

Personally, I've always loved Nielsen's music. I find the composer's joy in the unexpected and characteristic melodic voice immensely appealing. It would be nice to see more of it on the stage at Powell.

The evening closed with an exhilarating Beethoven "Symphony No. 7," beautifully shaped by Mr. Boreyko. He last conducted the orchestra in an all-Tchaikovsky program in November of 2012 that was distinguished by an electrifying performance of the "Violin Concerto" by Vadim Gluzman and a "Symphony No. 1" that exploited all of the work's extremes in tempi and dynamics while still pulling everything together into a coherent whole. The Beethoven Seventh comes from a more restrained emotional world than the Tchaikovsky First, but Mr. Boreyko nevertheless found and effectively exploited all the drama inherent in the music.

He displayed an unerring ability to build to an effective climax, both within movements (as in the opening Poco sostenuto) and in the overall structure of the symphony. The white-hot intensity of the finale was simply the inevitable conclusion of an arc that had been built from the first notes of the first movement—the conclusion of which got a round of spontaneous applause—and which ran through the steady rhythmic pulse of the second and the fleet-footed romp of the third. An enthusiastic and thoroughly justified standing ovation followed.

It's likely that the orchestra that first performed Beethoven's seventh was somewhat smaller than 73 musicians assembled for this weekend's performance, but they played with the crisp articulation and precision of a much smaller ensemble. Timpanist Shannon Wood, in particular, deserves a shout-out for exactitude and endurance during that remarkable final movement.

The Beethoven Festival continues this coming weekend with the "Piano Concerto No. 5" (the "Emperor") along with Weber's "Euryanthe Overture" and Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra." Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts with soloist Louis Lortie . Performances are Friday at 10:30 AM (a Krispy Kreme coffee concert), Saturday at 8 PM, and Sunday at 2 PM, January 17-19. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Tales of the unexpected

First page of Beethoven's 7th

This weekend the symphony brings us the first of four "Beethoven Festival" concerts that will feature performances of the third and fifth symphonies, the fifth piano concerto (the "Emperor") and, this Friday and Saturday, the "Symphony No. 7 in A Minor," Op. 92. The two works that precede the Beethoven this weekend, however, are at least as noteworthy.

I'm not knocking the Seventh, mind you. First performed at a December 8, 1813, charity concert to benefit widows and orphans of soldiers killed in the Battle of Hanau—which marked the beginning of the end of Napoleon's dreams of empire—the work was greeted with wild acclaim by audiences and critics alike. The second movement Alegretto in, in particular, "enchanted connoisseur and layman," according to a contemporary review in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. Welsh musicologist David Wyn Morris has called the symphony "the continuous cumulative celebration of joy," and I'd have to agree.

But we get to hear the Beethoven seventh quite a lot. The symphony last performed it, for example, two years ago with Semyon Bychkov on the podium. By way of contrast, the piece that takes up most of the first half of the concert—Carl Nielsen's 1911 "Violin Concerto"—didn't make it's SLSO debut until 2001 and hasn't been seen on the Powell Hall stage since Robert Spano conducted a performance with soloist Yang Liu in October of 2002.

Carl Nielsen in 1910

Not that this is unusual. The concerto doesn't have anything like the high profile of the Sibelius concerto from six years earlier—possibly because it, like many of Nielsen's large-scale works, often defies expectations in ways that can leave audience members a bit confused. "The Violin Concerto," writes René Spencer Saller in her program notes, "for all its Neoclassical trappings, is similarly weird, not to mention unusually long and difficult to play. Notes ring out shrilly; harmonies collapse into dissonances; themes collide and implode. Its beauty is severe and gleams like a glacier."

For me, this is exactly what makes Nielsen such a very cool composer. His symphonies have always been favorites of mine, along with his concerti, programmatic pieces like the remarkable "Helios Overture," and the quirky incidental music he wrote for Adam Oehlenschläger's "dramatic fairy tale" "Aladdin" in 1919. When you encounter his concerto, expect the unexpected. It's in two movements instead of the usual three of four, for one thing, and each movement is preceded by a slow introduction. It's dramatic stuff but it makes no effort to impress with simple virtuoso display. Even the concluding Rondo, in the composer's own words, "renounces everything that might dazzle or impress." But I think you'll be impressed anyway.

The concerts open with a brand-new piece, "Ravish and Mayhem," written in 2012 by Missouri native Stephanie Berg (she was born in Parkville, MO, in 1986 has a Master's in composition from the University of Missouri). "With its wide-eyed, almost Coplandesque harmonies and hectic rhythms," writes René Spencer Saller, "Ravish and Mayhem neatly encapsulates Berg's approach. Dramatic brass vies with whimsical woodwinds; grand gestures are interrupted by playful passages; ceremony succumbs to chaos. The sonorities are at once American and exotic." Berg is also quoted in the symphony program as acknowledging an "Arabic" influence in the work in that "the melodies involve a lot of trills and flourishes, which seem to be a feature of music from that region." "It's a very high-energy piece," she said in a 2012 interview for Vox Magazine, "very folk-like melodies."

Stephanie Berg

Why the title? I have no idea, and Ms. Berg hasn't been quoted on the subject as far as I can see. I guess we'll just have to draw our own conclusions once we've heard it.

Turning from the music to the performers, this week's conductor, Andrey Boreyko, last led the symphony in an all-Tchaikovsky program in November of 2012 that was distinguished by an electrifying performance of the "Violin Concerto" by Vadim Gluzman and a "Symphony No. 1" that exploited all of the work's extremes in tempi and dynamics while still pulling everything together into a coherent whole. It will be interesting to see what he does with this weekend's vary varied program.

Mr. Boreyko's violin soloist, Adele Anthony, is making her SLSO debut. It's appropriate that she's playing the Nielsen, since she first made her mark on the international scene at Denmark's 1996 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. She has gone on to appear with important orchestras world wide, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, NDR Orchestra Hannover, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; also all six symphonies of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She performs on a 1728 Stradivarius.

Andrey Boreyko conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Adele Anthony this Friday and Saturday, January 10 and 11, at 8 PM at Powell Hall in Grand Center. The Saturday concert will be broadcast on St. Louis Public Radio, 90.7 FM, HD 1, and live streaming at the station web site. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of January 6, 2014

Andrey Boreyko
Photo: Susanne Diesner

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The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents the first in a series of Beethoven Festival concerts, as Andrey Boreyko conducts the Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 along with Nielsen’s Violin Concerto, Op. 33 and Stephanie Berg’s Ravish and Mayhem (written in 2012) on Friday and Saturday, January 10 and 11, at 8 PM at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand.  “Beethoven’s mastery of rhythm and harmony are on full display in the composer’s rhythmic Seventh Symphony. From the expansive introduction to ecstatic finale, the delightful work is a consummate audience favorite. Hear this magnificent work alongside Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s dazzling Violin Concerto featuring the subscription debut of Nielsen International Violin Competition winner Adele Anthony.” For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Jarvi, presents Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on Sunday, January 12, at 3 PM at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand.  “Student performers from STAGES St. Louis will join the St. Louis Symphony to act out this family favorite.” For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents The Steve and Jennifer Project on Wednesday, January 8, at 7:30 PM.  “Husband and wife team Henry Claude on percussion and Tracy Andreotti on cello return to Tavern of Fine Arts for an exciting night of new improvised music.  Sometimes mellow, sometimes intense, always delivered with a half smile, the Steve and Jennifer Project create a fast changing and varied soundscape. Drawing from numerous musical styles, and incorporating various electronic devises, the Steve and Jennifer Project create a unique spontaneous music for our times.”  The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood.  For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

Members of The Chamber Project St. Louis

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents The Chamber Project St. Louis in A Very Open Rehearsal on Thursday, January 9, at 7:30 PM.  “Percussionist Jeff Barudin makes his debut with Chamber Project. Check out his first rehearsal with flutist Jen Gartley as they prepare Brett Abigañaʼs "Little Match Girl" for vibraphone, flute, and narrator.  Experience the rehearsal process. Learn how the performance of a piece of music is put together. And feel free to ask questions and make suggestions.”  The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood.  For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents pianist Nicholas Susi in a program of music by Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, and contemporary American composers on Friday, January 10, at 8 PM.  The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood.  For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

Heather Fehl

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents soprano Heather Fehl and pianist Jon Garrett on Saturday, January 11, at 8 PM.  “Heather Fehl, despite her last name, is currently on her feet...kind of. She lives at home with her mother and has a part time job at Starbucks. She has a Bachelor of Music with a degree in vocal performance from Millikin University, and we all know how that turned out. She does sing with two choirs, the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and the St. Louis Chamber Chorus; the latter just recorded a CD of American music that will be available within the year.”  The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood.  For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

Winter daydreams

Vadim Gluzman
Photo by Marco Borggreve

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrey Boreyko with violinist Vadim Gluzman
What: An all-Tchaikovsky program
Where: Powell Symphony Hall
When: November 16-18, 2012

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Physics may tell us that you can’t strike sparks with wood, but I’m here to tell you that Vadim Gluzman did exactly that with his exhilarating performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Friday morning. The difficult first movement cadenza, in particular, was mesmerizing in its intensity and precision.

Tchaikovsky appears to have written the concerto as a kind of therapy after his disastrous attempt at marriage failed and he was plunged into the despair heard so tellingly in his Symphony No. 4. The concerto, by way of contrast, is unfailingly sunny. It’s also technically demanding, although you’d hardly have known it from Mr. Gluzman’s seemingly effortless performance. He played the way Fred Astaire danced. The audience awarded him with applause after the first movement and a standing ovation at the end of the piece.

Russian-born guest conductor Andrey Boreyko, who began his tenure as Music Director of the National Orchestra of Belgium this season, provided a sensitive and nuanced accompaniment that was, in its own way, every bit as spectacular as Mr. Gluzman’s performance.

Mr. Boreyko’s style on the podium, to begin with, was fascinatingly idiosyncratic. He was very physically expressive and used the baton sparingly, often setting it down and using his hands to seemingly shape phrases in the air. At times he even mimicked the actions of players, with a sawing action here for the strings or a wiggle of the fingers here for a trill in the winds. It brought to mind the showy style of the late Leopold Stokowski.

Let me not, however, leave you with the impression that Mr. Boreyko was all style. His approach to both the concerto and the other two works on the program was solid and insightful, and it served Tchaikovsky very well.

This was perhaps most apparent in the closing work, the rarely heard Symphony No. 1, subtitled either “Winter Dreams” or “Winter Daydreams”, depending on how you translate the Russian. The composer agonized over the work, revised it substantially six years after its premiere in 1868, and didn’t get to hear a full performance of the final version until 1883. It’s a piece I have always found captivating, from the first movement’s mysterious evocation of a wintry landscape, to the melancholy beauty of the adagio (with its flute and oboe duet played beautifully by Mark Sparks and Barbara Orland, respectively), the swirling snowstorm of the Scherzo (which seems to anticipate the “Dance of the Snowflakes from Nutcracke), and the sharp contrasts of the folk–song-based finale. This is a work of extremes in tempi and dynamics, and Mr. Boreyko fully exploited all of them while still pulling everything together into a coherent whole.

That same willingness to follow Tchaikovsky’s highly expressive lead was apparent in the opening work, the even more rarely heard symphonic poem Voyevoda from 1890. Like most of you, I expect, my only exposure to this piece has been on CDs or classical radio stations. The score calls for an orchestra of nearly Mahlerian proportions, including relatively uncommon instruments like the bass clarinet, celesta, and harp. It’s a lot of personnel for a highly poetic ten-minute piece that doesn’t even have (to quote a line from Amadeus) “a good bang at the end...to let them know when to clap.” Mr. Boreyko fearlessly went where the composer led him, and I found the result immensely satisfying.

The final performance of this concert is Sunday, November 18, at 3 PM. Next on the calendar: David Robertson returns to the podium with violinist Gil Shaham for the Beethoven concerto along with Haydn’s “London” Symphony and Strauss’s Tales from the Vienna Woods. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3, November 23 through 25. For ticket information: stlsymphony.org