Symphony Review, January 22, 2016: A fine romance

Percussionist William James

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This weekend was a busy one for David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony, with regular subscription concerts Friday morning and Saturday night and tonight and a Whitaker Foundation-sponsored "Music You Know" concert Friday night.

Initiated in the fall of 2014, the "Music You Know" mini-series (three concerts per season) features classical "greatest hits": relatively short works, most of which are likely to be familiar to regulars at Powell Hall. As was the case with the previous program in the series, there was also a local premiere—"Girlfriends Medley" by percussion virtuoso Bob Becker—but for the most part the music was tried and true.

Things got off to a galvanizing start with the overture to Smetana's 1865 comic opera "The Bartered Bride." Mr. Robertson adopted a tempo for the opening fugal section that might have been risky for a less disciplined string section, but Concertmaster David Halen and his forces came through with flying colors. Hearing them rip through those scurrying figures with such precision was a dose of sheer musical adrenaline.

The four selections from the incidental music Gabriel Fauré wrote for a 1900 production of Maeterlinck’s elusive and once-popular drama "Pelléas and Mélisande" that followed made for a nice lyrical contrast. The "Prélude" swelled with understated passion. The swirling strings of the "Entr'acte" (depicting Mélisande at her spinning wheel) cast an ethereal spell. The famous "Sicilienne" was a model of elegance, and Mélisande's death scene was profound in its tragic resignation.

The performance featured some fine solo work from (among others), Principal Flute Mark Sparks and Principal Harp Allegra Lilly, along with some fine playing by the double reeds and clarinet.

Bob Becker

The first half came to a big close with a spectacular display of xylophone virtuosity by Principal Percussionist William James in the "Girlfriends Medley." Originally written for percussion ensemble but re-scored here for xylophone and strings, the work is a ragtime-style mashup of three vaudeville-era songs that all have women's names in their titles—"My Little Margie," "Dinah," and one I'm embarrassed to say I didn't recognize. Mr. James's performance was a stunning mix of technical flash and musical elegance. If Fred Astaire had played the xylophone, it would have sounded like this. Mr. James got a well-deserved standing ovation.

The second half of the concert opened with the familiar "Wedding March" from Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's Dream" incidental music, a complete performance of which is on the SLSO bill next month, followed by the most weighty entry of the evening: the fourth movement "Adagietto" for harp and strings from the work that takes up most of the other concert program this weekend, Mahler's "Symphony No. 5."

As Mr. Robertson reminded us in his prefatory remarks, the movement is generally seen as the composer's musical love letter to his wife Alma and a profound musical statement of the sentiment that the world is a better place for the presence of one's love. But because nothing with Mahler is ever simple, there's also the suggestion, here and there, that love, like everything else human, is mortal and must pass.

The beauty and tragedy of this music was wonderfully conveyed by the orchestra's performance. Mr. Robertson let the music breathe, in accordance with the composer's sehr langsam ("very slowly"), but never allowed it become static (as I've heard happen with some performances). This was real "lump in the throat" material and completely captivating.

The evening came to a jolly conclusion with the second of two suites from Manuel de Falla's ballet "El sombrero de tres picos" ("The Three-Cornered Hat"). Mr. Robertson held the performance up as an example of why he loves to conduct this orchestra, and it was easy to hear why. It was a vibrant, exciting reading and a welcome opportunity for the percussion section to strut their stuff. The English horn solo in the final "Jota" had a nice bite as well. It was a welcome antidote to the cold and wind outside.

As Mr. Robertson pointed out in his remarks from the stage, last night's concert took place on the same date and same day of the week when, seventeen years ago, he made his debut with the SLSO. As if that weren't reason enough to celebrate the date, the soloist for that concert was pianist Orli Shaham, who would later become his wife. It's nice that we all got to help him observe the event with such an exemplary evening of music making.

The St. Louis Symphony begins a West Coast tour this coming week, so their next local appearance won't be until February 5 and 6, when violinist Anthony Marwood will conduct an evening of chamber music by Bach, Dvorák, and Peteris Vasks. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Symphony Preview, January 22, 2016: Love is in the air

"The Bartered Bride as performed at Zoppsot" by Unknown
Taken from: Rous, Samuel Holland (1919).
"Bartered Bride Prodana Nevesta". Retrieved 2009-06-17.
Licensed under PD-US via Wikipedia

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It's another two-for-one sale at Powell Hall this Friday and Saturday as David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony present "Music You Know: Romantic Favorites" on Friday night, and major works by John Adams and Mahler Friday morning and Saturday night. I'll talk about the second program in another article.

The Friday night favorites concert opens with the lively and colorful overture to Smetana's 1865 comic opera "The Bartered Bride." It was his biggest stage hit in his native Bohemia but hasn't gotten much traction elsewhere. Operabase.com places it number 3 in its list of most-performed operas in the Czech Republic, but it doesn't even make their top fifty world-wide. The overture is another story, often showing up on concert programs and in recordings, often in conjunction with the popular "Dance of the Comedians". You can even hear the latter in the 1994 Road Runner cartoon "Chariots of Fur."

Next is a suite from the incidental music Gabriel Fauré wrote for a 1900 production of Maeterlinck’s elusive and once-popular drama "Pelléas and Mélisande". The story of doomed and forbidden love inspired multiple composers, including Debussy, who fashioned a weirdly compelling opera from it. Fauré's suite nicely captures the oddly ethereal and unsettled nature of the play.

Bob Becker
nexuspercussion.com

Bringing us up to intermission is the 1987 "Girlfriends Medley" for xylophone and strings by Bob Becker, a member of the innovative percussion ensemble Nexus (a ragtime LP by whom I still treasure). "As a composer," says Wikipedia, "Becker employs a multicultural approach by mixing the style of western military drumming with North Indian Hindustani idioms, such as raga scale patterns and tabla drumming." You won't hear any of that in this charming short piece, though, which rings changes on some ragtime and Great American Songbook standards.

The second half kicks off with the familiar "Wedding March" from the incidental music Mendelssohn wrote for a production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1843. The orchestra will be performing all of Mendelssohn's score later this season (an uncommon occurrence on concert stages), with actress Maureen Thomas reading bits of the play, so think of this as a preview.

The next piece is a preview of sorts as well; it's the "Adagietto" for harp and strings from the work that takes up most of the other concert program this weekend, Mahler's "Symphony No. 5." There's no evidence that Mahler ever intended this haunting, sweetly sad little gem to be played independently (although that was already being done as early as 1909, four years after the symphony was first published), but it has proved so popular that conductors and audiences alike seem to find it irresistible all on its own.

Three-Cornered Hat at the Alhambra Theatre,
Cape Town, in 1966
grutbooks.com

Things come to a vibrant finish with the second of two suites from Manuel de Falla's ballet "El sombrero de tres picos" ("The Three-Cornered Hat"), which had its premiere in 1919 in London with choreography by Léonide Massine and sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso. The suite concludes with the ballet's final "jota," in which the opera's comic villain gets tossed up and down on a blanket by frolicking party guests to the hilarity of all. Try it at your next party, but don't say I gave you the idea.

The essentials: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson presents "Music You Know: Romantic Favorites" Friday at 8 p.m., January 22. The performance takes place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand. For more information: stlsymphony.org.