(TPTBT) The Place to Be Tonight : Thursday, May 9, 2013

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Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by David Robertson with soloists Susanna Phillips, soprano; Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano; Joseph Kaiser, tenor; and Corey McKern, baritone
What: Music of Bruckner, Berg, and Beethoven
Where: Powell  Symphony Hall
When: Tonight through Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3 PM
Why: "Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 9 is a truly inspirational piece celebrating the highest aspirations of humanity as a whole. Combining the forces of the STL Symphony and Chorus paired with vocal soloists under one baton, David Robertson leads this certain to be memorable season finale that crescendos into the magnificent choral finale, “Ode to Joy.”"

Franz Hawlata as Wozzeck and
Joel Sorensen as Andres
in San Diego, 2007

All true, but what's really interesting is what makes up the first half of the program: Bruckner's motet "Christus Factus Est" and the third act of Alban Berg's unsettling and bizarre opera Wozzeck, composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925.  Its nihilistic brutality stands in stark opposition to the spiritual joy of the motet and the secular joy of the Beethoven.

Immediately following the Friday evening performance,  Maestro Robertson holds an informal Q and A on the Orchestra Level. This should provoke some discussion.