St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of October 30, 2023

What's on St. Louis theater and cabaret stages this coming week. Please leave a comment if anything was wrong or got left out

Act Two Theatre presents the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through November 5. “With the houselights down, a man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical The Drowsy Chaperone. Mix in two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a not-so-bright hostess, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Don Juan, and an intoxicated chaperone, and you have the ingredients for an evening of madcap delight. Winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Original Score, The Drowsy Chaperone is a loving send-up of the Jazz Age musical, featuring one show-stopping song and dance number after another!” Performances take place at the St. Peters Cultural Center in St. Peters, MO. For more information: www.acttwotheatre.com

Mindgame

Albion Theatre presents the thriller Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz through November 5. “Horowitz is known for his novels (including The Alex Rider series, Magpie Murders and many more) and his TV work (Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders etc.)  This is his only full-length play.  Set in an asylum for the criminally insane, a writer of ‘true crime’ paperbacks is trying to get an interview with a notorious mass murderer but nothing is as it seems.” Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center 501 N. Grand in Grand Center. For more information: albiontheatrestl.org.

The Black Mirror Theatre Company presents White Rabbit / Red Rabbit by Nassim Soleimanpour Tuesday through Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, November 2 through 5. “Imagine being 29 and forbidden to leave your country. Playwright Nassim Soleimanpour dissects the experience of a whole generation in a wild, utterly original play. Barred from travel, he turned his isolation into a theatre experience that brings actor and audience together through uncharted terrain. A different actor reads the script cold—for the first and last time—at every performance.” Performances take place at the The Chapel on Alexander Drive in Clayton. For more information: www.blackmirrortheatre.org.

Ken Haller

The Blue Strawberry presents I’m Just Ken with singer Ken Haller Thursday, November 2 at 7:30 pm. “What happens when your name is Ken, and you meet Barbie, but you realize that you'd rather be with Bobby?   Acclaimed cabaret artist Ken Haller (Best St. Louis Cabaret Artist, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2015, 2019) explores this and other burning questions about the things we learn as we grow older in his 69th Birthday show, "I'm Just Ken!" Ken and renowned Music Director Jeff Franzel bring you songs by Johnny Mercer, Lerner & Loewe, Lennon & McCartney, William Finn, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and many more in a show described by Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX as "...emotionally compelling [with a] heaping helping of humor. Haller managed the ingenious trick of putting together an evening that dealt with the experience of joining the Medicare Generation without using a lot of songs that specifically dealt with aging…a varied and neatly balanced song list, just enough patter to let us know why the list made sense, and a perfect mix of the mirthful and the moving."”  For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com

Ari Axelrod

The Blue Strawberry presents singer Ari Axelrod in A Place for Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway on Saturday, November 4 at 7:30 pm. “Celebrated artist Ari Axelrod is thrilled to bring his internationally acclaimed show "A Place For Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway" to Blue Strawberry. Hailed by BroadwayWorld as, "genuinely one of the finest shows this writer has ever seen," the multi-award-winning show celebrates Jewish vitality and Jewish culture by honoring the songs and stories of Jewish composers and their contributions to the American Musical. From Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Jerry Herman to Leonard Bernstein, Jason Robert Brown, and Stephen Sondheim, you'll hear songs you've listened to your entire life in ways you've never heard them before.”   The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle in the Central West End. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com

Circus Flora presents the St. Lou Revue Friday at 1 and 7 pm, Saturday at 11 am and 3 pm, and Sunday at noon and 4 pm, November 3 through 5. “Circus Flora is thrilled to announce an all-new edition of the variety show, The St. Lou Revue! This 75-minute performance features many amazing acts from St. Louis (and beyond).” Performances take place at the Big Top in Grand Center. For more information: circusflora.org.

Come From Away
Photo by Matthew Murphy for Murphymade

The Fabulous Fox presents the musical Come From Away November 3 through 5.  “This New York Times Critics’ Pick takes you into the heart of the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded passengers and the small town in Newfoundland that welcomed them. Cultures clashed and nerves ran high, but uneasiness turned into trust, music soared into the night, and gratitude grew into enduring friendships.” The Fabulous Fox is on North Grand in Grand Center. Check out the interview with cast member Stanton Morales at Chuck's Culture Channel! For more information: fabulousfox.com.

Daddy Long Legs

The Hawthorne Players present the musical Daddy Long Legs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, November 3 through 11, and Sunday, November 12, at 2 pm.  “A heartwarming Cinderella story about a witty and winsome young woman and her mysterious benefactor, based on the classic novel, which inspired the 1955 movie starring Fred Astaire. Jerusha Abbott is the “Oldest Orphan in the John Grier Home” until a mysterious benefactor decides to send her to college to be educated as a writer. Required to write him a letter once a month, she is never to know the benefactor’s identity – so she invents one for him: Daddy Long Legs. Jerusha’s letters chronicle her emergence as a delightfully independent “New American Woman”. Yet, there is one startling fact that Jerusha has yet to uncover – a fact that will change her life forever.”  Performances take place in the Florissant Civic Center Theatre in Florissant, MO. For more information: www.hawthorneplayers.info.

The Lemp Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre and Jest Mysteries present Zombie Love through November 4. "Calling all Zombies! Tired of being judged for munching on the occasional brain? So what if you're not really "alive" anymore. You can still enjoy socializing with the living and enjoying a hilarious show together. Well, we've got the perfect show for you. Drama! Comedy! Looove! ...And, of course, Zombies! But some zombie has ignored rule number one in the “Zombieing for Dummies” handbook…No biting.  Nina Tina Deena May will never be the same…do you know who’s to blame? And, no, it was not Mike Tyson! " The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place in south city. For more information: www.lempmansion.com

The cast of Eddie and Vinnie

Metro Theater Company presents Eddie and Vinnie, a new play by Jenny Millenger, through November 5. Public performances are Fridays at 7 pm, Saturdays at 10:30 and 2 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm, October 27 through November 5.  “Eddie is an unstoppable artist with a uniquely beautiful mind – and his best friend is a gecko. Together, the pair spends hours making intricate and beautiful puzzles. But he’ll be solving worse puzzles in summer school if he can’t get his grades up. In a last-ditch effort, Eddie teams up with the overly helpful new girl for the dreaded end-of-year report. Will their presentation on MC Escher save his grades? Eddie & Vinnie reminds us all that there is more than one way to learn – and more than one way to shine.”  Best enjoyed by ages 6 – 12, the show’s approximate run time is 60 minutes with no intermission. For more information: www.metroplays.org

Tesseract Theatre presents The Mad Ones Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 4 pm, November 3 through 12.  “Samantha Brown balances on the edge of her future, car keys in hand. Caught between a yearning for the unknown and feeling bound by expectation, she telescopes back to a time before her world had fallen apart. As she sits in the driver's seat, she faces a choice: will she follow in her mother's footsteps, or take the dare of her impetuous best friend and chart a new path?” Performances take place at the Marcelle Theatre in Grand Center. For more information: www.tesseracttheatre.com.

Cabaret

The Washington University Performing Arts Department presents the musical Cabaret Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through November 5. “Join us for a raucous and risqué revival of Kander and Ebb’s musical masterpiece.  Set in the chaotic world of Weimar Berlin, Cabaret is a phantasmagorical theater of pleasure, churning with hedonistic “camp,” that dances wildly on the edge of disaster.  As the looming Nazi storm becomes terrifyingly real, the play asks the challenging, and deeply resonant, question:  “What would you do?”” Performances take place in the Edison Theatre on the Washington University Campus. For more information: pad.wustl.edu

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.

To get your event listed here, send an email to chuck at kdhx.org Your event information should be in text format (i.e. not part of a graphic), but feel free to include publicity stills.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.

Symphony Preview: Some of my favorite things

This Friday and Sunday, November 3 and 5, Music Director Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and pianist Paul Lewis in a program that I pretty much guarantee will include at least one of your favorites. It certainly includes my favorite of the five piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827).

[Preview the music with the SLSO's Spotify playlist.]

"Beethoven Letronne" by Blasius Höfel
Licensed under Public Domain
via Wikimedia Common

The concerto in question is Beethoven's Fourth in G major, Op. 58, composed in 1806 and first performed in March 1807 at a private concert at the home of Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz. The public got its first exposure to it at an infamous four-hour concert on December 22nd of the following year at Vienna's Theater an der Wien, with the composer as both soloist and conductor.

That concert was such an unpleasant, ill-prepared disaster that it was not until Mendelssohn revived the work in 1836 that it began to catch on with the public, which has loved it ever since.

The Fourth is my favorite in part because it's so concise. I don't think there's a spare note in the entire work, and everything is perfectly proportioned. It's also remarkably innovative for its time in that it begins with a short declaration by the solo piano which is then taken up by the orchestra. Normal procedure would have been to have the orchestra state all the major themes before the piano made its first entrance. Instead, the movement seems to grow out of a dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra.

The second movement is a dialogue between the soloist and the band as well, but this time it's in the form of a call and response, in which dramatic pronouncements by the orchestra are met, at least initially, with more subdued and lyrical material by the soloist.

This unusual structure has given birth to a notion (first advanced by Beethoven's biographer Adolph Bernhard Marx in 1859) that the movement was inspired by the story of Orpheus’s descent into Hades. When I first heard this movement, though, it conjured up the image of an argument (or maybe a debate), with the aggressive stance of the orchestra met, at first, with attempts at calm reason, then with agitation, and finally with a kind of resignation. It's as if, after trying in vain to calm and placate its orchestral partner, the piano finally sighs and say, "OK, OK, you win. Let's just drop it."

Gluck in 1775
by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis
Public Domain

It is, in any event, hard to say what Beethoven actually had in mind. The bottom line is that when the movement comes to its tragic conclusion, I have always felt a need to exhale slowly and then bask in the relief of the jolly, Haydnesque Rondo finale.

“In the 4th piano concerto,” said Joshua Weilerstein on his “Sticky Notes” podcast this past June, “Beethoven turns his entire musical brand so to speak upside down. Instead of a blazing fire, we get a gentle warmth, instead of drama, we get tenderness. And instead of virtuosity, we get a practically transcendental level of simplicity.”

Speaking of Orpheus in the underworld, the work immediately preceding the Beethoven concerto is the popular “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from Act II Scene 2 of the opera “Orfeo ed Euridice” (1762) by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787)—a pairing that surely isn’t coincidental. In the opera it accompanies a ballet that introduces a scene set in Elysium. The work’s prominent role for the flute has made it a favorite among folks like James Galway (whose recording is on the SLSO’s Spotify playlist), while the serene mood it creates has earned it a place on albums and playlists emphasizing music for relaxation.

Maurice Ravel in 1925
en.wikipedia.org

After intermission it’s back to the Baroque as re-imagined by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Written between 1914 and 1917, “Le Tombeau de Couperin” began life as a six-movement solo piano work that invokes the style and form of the 17th century French keyboard suites epitomized by François Couperin (1668–1733). Each of the movements was dedicated to a friend of Ravel’s who died in World War I. That lends a dual meaning to the work’s title since “tombeau” literally translates as “tomb” but musically it means “tribute to” or “in memory of.”

That sounds like it ought to be music for lamentation. Instead it’s a bubbly, graceful, and altogether charming work, especially in the 1919 four-movement version for full orchestra that will be on the program this weekend. James M. Keller describes Ravel’s orchestration as “crystalline”—the perfect adjective as far as I’m concerned.

“Crystalline” would not be a bad description of the sound of the final work on the program, the Symphony No. 1 (“Classical), Op. 25, by Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953). It’s not a word one would use to label most of the composer’s output, and thereby hangs a tale.

Prokofiev’s "Classical" symphony came about in part as a reaction by the composer to his growing reputation as an aggressive modernist—said reputation springing from his spiky Piano Concerto No. 2 and his electrifying "Scythian Suite." He also felt that he was becoming too dependent on the piano as a compositional medium. So in 1917, with the socialist revolution exploding around him, he retreated, sans piano, to a village outside of St. Petersburg and completed the symphony he had begun the previous year.

Prokofiev in New York, 1918
Photo by Bain News Service

“When our classically inclined musicians and professors (to my mind faux-classical) hear this symphony, they will be bound to scream in protest at this new example of Prokofiev’s insolence,” wrote the composer in his diary. “But my true friends will see that the style of my symphony is precisely Mozartian classicism and will value it accordingly, while the public will no doubt just be content to hear happy and uncomplicated music which it will, of course, applaud.”

Audiences have been applauding ever since.  The symphony does, indeed, take the Classical style and give it a distinctly 20th-century sound. It will also give our orchestra's string section something of a workout as it demands a lot from them, with rapid passages in the first movement and a high soft entry in the second, and generally requires players that can handle the lightness and transparency of the orchestration.

The Essentials: Stéphane Denève conducts the SLSO and piano soloist Paul Lewis in a program consisting of Gluck’s “Dance of the Blessed Spirits” from “Orfeo ed Euridice,” Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”). Performances take place at the Touhill Center on Friday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, October November 3 and 5.  The Friday performance will be broadcast Saturday evening, November 4, at 7:30 pm on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 and will be available for streaming for a limited time at the SLSO web site.

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

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of October 23, 2023

What's on St. Louis theater and cabaret stages this coming week. Please leave a comment if anything was wrong or got left out

Act Two Theatre presents the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm, October 26 through November 5. “With the houselights down, a man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical The Drowsy Chaperone. Mix in two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a not-so-bright hostess, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Don Juan, and an intoxicated chaperone, and you have the ingredients for an evening of madcap delight. Winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Original Score, The Drowsy Chaperone is a loving send-up of the Jazz Age musical, featuring one show-stopping song and dance number after another!” Performances take place at the St. Peters Cultural Center in St. Peters, MO. For more information: www.acttwotheatre.com

Mindgame

Albion Theatre presents the thriller Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz hrough November 5. “Horowitz is known for his novels (including The Alex Rider series, Magpie Murders and many more) and his TV work (Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders etc.)  This is his only full-length play.  Set in an asylum for the criminally insane, a writer of ‘true crime’ paperbacks is trying to get an interview with a notorious mass murderer but nothing is as it seems.” Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center 501 N. Grand in Grand Center. For more information: albiontheatrestl.org.

John Lloyd Young

The Blue Strawberry presents Tony Award-winner John Lloyd Young Wednesday and Thursday, October 25 and 26, at 7:30 pm. “John Lloyd Young's Broadway: In his signature passionate and thrilling style, Tony and Grammy Award winner John Lloyd Young interprets the spine-tingling, soul-bearing showstoppers that shaped his earliest Broadway aspirations. Young sings from Jersey Boys, The Wiz, Chicago, Hair, Les Misérables and more, along with classics by legendary Broadway writers including Rodgers, Hart, Hammerstein, and Loesser. John Lloyd Young is the Tony and Grammy award-winning star from the Original Broadway Cast of Jersey Boys, as well as Clint Eastwood's Warner Bros. movie adaptation. Young is the only American actor to date to have received all four major Lead Actor honors in a Broadway musical: the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Award.”   The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle in the Central West End. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com

Joe Serafini

The Blue Strawberry presents Joe Serafini, from Disney+'s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Friday and Saturday, October 27 and 28, at 7:30 pm. “Joe Serafini is an actor & musician, best known for his role as Seb Matthew Smith on the Disney+ hit, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. A theatre kid from Pittsburgh, PA, Joe grew up playing the piano and performing in musicals from a very young age. Most recently, he starred as Jack in Into the Woods at the Pittsburgh CLO. He debuted his solo show to a sold-out crowd at the Green Room 42 last summer, and is working on putting out his own original music in the near future.”    The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle in the Central West End. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com

Tim Schall and Carol Schmidt

The Blue Strawberry presents Sunday Standard Time with Tim Schall and Carol Schmidt on Sunday October 29 at 6 pm. “Join Tim Schall (vocals) and Carol Schmidt (piano) in the lounge for a casual, classy Sunday evening of jazz standards, a little sophisticated pop and a dash of classic Broadway. Tim is no stranger to the theater and concert stages of St. Louis, Chicago and New York's Lincoln Center. Carol has a rich history of entertaining St. Louis audiences as musician and singer. Together they will help you wind down your weekend with timeless music and a lot of irreverent dry humor.” The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com.

See You in a Minute

Contraband Theatre presents the world premiere play See You in a Minute by Jacob Juntunen, directed by Ellie Schwetye Wednesdays at 7pm and Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, through October 28. “In 2041 Kathryn returns to her parents to take care of them during a pandemic, risks her NYC job, and this brings up no 2020 trauma. Right?” Performances take place at The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Drive in Clayton, MO.  For more information:  www.eventbrite.com.

The Lemp Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre and Jest Mysteries present Zombie Love through November 4. "Calling all Zombies! Tired of being judged for munching on the occasional brain? So what if you're not really "alive" anymore. You can still enjoy socializing with the living and enjoying a hilarious show together. Well, we've got the perfect show for you. Drama! Comedy! Looove! ...And, of course, Zombies! But some zombie has ignored rule number one in the “Zombieing for Dummies” handbook…No biting.  Nina Tina Deena May will never be the same…do you know who’s to blame? And, no, it was not Mike Tyson! " The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place in south city. For more information: www.lempmansion.com

The cast of Eddie and Vinnie

Metro Theater Company presents Eddie and Vinnie, a new play by Jenny Millenger, through November 5. Public performances are Fridays at 7 pm, Saturdays at 10:30 and 2 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm, October 27 through November 5.  “Eddie is an unstoppable artist with a uniquely beautiful mind – and his best friend is a gecko. Together, the pair spends hours making intricate and beautiful puzzles. But he’ll be solving worse puzzles in summer school if he can’t get his grades up. In a last-ditch effort, Eddie teams up with the overly helpful new girl for the dreaded end-of-year report. Will their presentation on MC Escher save his grades? Eddie & Vinnie reminds us all that there is more than one way to learn – and more than one way to shine.”  Best enjoyed by ages 6 – 12, the show’s approximate run time is 60 minutes with no intermission. For more information: www.metroplays.org

The Immigrant
Photo: Jon Gitchoff

New Jewish Theatre presents The Immigrant Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 4 and 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through October 29. “Rural Central Texas, 1909. A young Russian-Jewish immigrant, newly arrived in America through the port of Galveston, pulls his banana cart into the hamlet of Hamilton. Fleeing the vicious pogroms of his homeland, he has sought refuge in the land of the free. Able to speak only Yiddish, alone amid a staunchly Christian community, he begs for shelter. Taken in by a local couple, over the next 30 years, he makes a home and raises a family in this tiny town. A religion meets religion, culture meets culture, fear meets fear and love meets love. This is the true story of Haskell Harelik, ‘the Immigrant’.” Performances take place at the SFC Performing Arts Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. For more information: jccstl.com

Saturday Night Fever
Photo: John Lamb

Stray Dog Theatre presents the musical Saturday Night Fever Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 through October 28, with additional performances 2 pm Sundays, October 15 and 22. “Based on the 1977 film that became a cultural phenomenon, this electrifying show is packed with legendary hits from the Bee Gees, classic disco tracks, and new original songs. Burn, baby, burn!” Performances take place at Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee in Tower Grove East. For more information: www.straydogtheatre.org

Bitter Fruit
Photo: ProPhoto STL

Upstream Theater presents the US premiere of Bitter Fruit, by award-winning playwright Héctor Levy-Daniel in a translation by Philip Boehm, through October 29. “ María doesn’t understand why her mother hired this new maid. She’s convinced the woman’s spying on behalf of the workers in their factory. But there’s something about her even more unsettling… Tensions smolder as a web of secrets, deceptions, and denials begins to unravel in this taut drama by Argentine playwright Héctor Levy-Daniel, where memory may be challenged, identities displaced, and even love may be sacrificed on the altar of class.” Performances take place at the Marcelle Theatre, 3310 Samuel Shepard Dr. in Grand Center. For more information: www.upstreamtheater.org

The Washington University Performing Arts Department presents the musical Cabaret Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm, October 27 through November 5. “Join us for a raucous and risqué revival of Kander and Ebb’s musical masterpiece.  Set in the chaotic world of Weimar Berlin, Cabaret is a phantasmagorical theater of pleasure, churning with hedonistic “camp,” that dances wildly on the edge of disaster.  As the looming Nazi storm becomes terrifyingly real, the play asks the challenging, and deeply resonant, question:  “What would you do?”” Performances take place in the Edison Theatre on the Washington University Campus. For more information: pad.wustl.edu

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.

To get your event listed here, send an email to chuck at kdhx.org Your event information should be in text format (i.e. not part of a graphic), but feel free to include publicity stills.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.

Symphony Review: Sunshine and shadow with Mǎcelaru and the SLSO

Have you ever walked out of a fiercely air conditioned building and directly into the kind of parboiled summer weather we had this past summer? It’s like smacking into a wall. The impact is visceral.

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

That’s the sensation I had this past Sunday (October 15, 2023) at the Touhill Center when the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru cranked up the first few measures of the program opener, “heliosis.” Which is exactly what the composer had in mind.

Commissioned by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, “heliosis” (the medical term for heat exhaustion) is the work of Austrian composer/conductor/pianist Hannah Eisendle (b. 1993). Eisendle calls it a “summer piece,” and so it is. But the summer it evokes is dirty, suffocating, sticky with dust.”  Not so much the languorous summer of, say, Honegger’s “Pastorale d’été” (presented by the SLSO in 2021) as that of The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City.”

So that first massive 15-second orchestral assault perfectly set the stage for a brilliantly orchestrated six-minute run through a heat-drenched acoustic landscape. Unorthodox effects like string harmonics and glissandos suggested  something surreal or unearthly (summer on Mars, perhaps?). At one point they combined to produce an effect very much like a tape recording grinding to a halt. There was also an aggressive march that wouldn’t have been out of place in a Shostakovich symphony, and the whole thing built to a final blast reminiscent of the last measures of Stravinsky’s “Sacre du Printemps.”

It was all very unsettling, as Eisendle apparently intended it to be. More to the point, it was brilliantly played by Măcelaru and the band—no small accomplishment, given the wild and wooly nature of the score. It certainly deserved more than the single round of applause that it got, if only for the quality of the performance.

L-R: Cristian Măcelaru, Benjamin Beilman 

Ah, well. The Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 that followed dissipated any aural heat exhaustion in short order. The last of the composer's violin concertos, the Fifth is filled with unexpected turns of phrase, including the so-called "Turkish" interlude of the finale in which the cellos and basses strike their strings, col legno, to produce an exotic percussive effect. Or it would have if Mǎcelaru hadn't downplayed it.

There are also multiple cadenzas—one in each of the first two movements and two more in the finale—plus an abrupt interruption in the opening Allegro aperto movement for a six-bar solo Adagio. Mozart was playing around a bit with the concerto form and since he was the original soloist, he had plenty of opportunities to do so.

All this means that there are plenty of chances for the soloist to shine, which Benjamin Beilman emphatically did. Fully engaged with the music, his fellow performers and Măcelaru, he brought a beautifully full tone and wide emotional range to the concerto. I don’t know whether the cadenzas were his own or not—many violinists have written their own, going back to (at least) Joseph Joachim (1831–1907)—but in any case, they exhibited a gratifying variety of expression.

Warm applause was followed by an encore: a pair of Béla Bartók’s brief 44 Duos for Two Violins with Cristian Măcelaru as his performing partner—a reminder that the conductor started his musical life as a violinist, as well as a demonstration that he remains quite a good one.

Concluding the program was the Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, by Brahms. Written and first performed in 1877, it boasts one of the sunniest final movements you will ever hear, a fact which has led many commentators (including yours truly) to view it as, in the words of Redland Symphony program annotator James Keays, “one of the most cheerful of Brahms' mature works.”

Which it is, at least in its last two movements. The sonic sky is almost cloudless during the Allegretto grazioso (Quasi Andantino) third movement and the Allegro con spirito finale wraps everything up in a blaze of glory. But taken together these constitute only around a third of the work’s roughly 45 minutes. The Allegro non troppo first movement opens with some aural sunshine in the horns, but clouds quickly move in via an ominous roll on the tympani that anticipates the violent confrontations of the ensuing Adagio non troppo.

The Brahms Second is, like many of the composer’s works, a multi-layered work that operates on more than one emotional level at once. It’s one of the things that makes him a great composer and that can make conducting his symphonies a challenge.

When Măcelaru began his performance with a more leisurely tempo than I would have expected, I was afraid that this might be an interpretation that leaned too heavily on the dark side. As the symphony progressed and I became more engrossed in his well-shaded rendering of the composer’s emotionally complex canvas, however, it became clear that such fears were unjustified. Indeed, given the wide interpretive range Măcelaru has displayed with the SLSO in past appearances, I realized that I should have known better. This is a conductor who rarely makes a misstep.

This is an orchestra that now seems incapable of them as well. While all the musicians were in top form, special kudos must go Principal Horn Roger Kaza and the rest of his section. Brahms has given the horns some pretty choice stuff here, and they gave it their all. The long solo in the first movement coda was a “perfect 10.” Congratulations to the strings as well on those wide leaps Brahms hands them early in that same movement.

A few comments on the venue itself are in order. With a smaller stage than the Stifel Center and about half the seating capacity (1600 seats vs. 3100 at Stifel) the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall at the Touhill Center has a somewhat warmer acoustic signature than Stifel, but it’s still “dry” enough to make individual instrumental voices easy to discern. This was especially beneficial in the Mozart concerto, where even the most subtle of Beilman’s playing was clearly audible. And, of course, the small size means that it’s difficult to get too far away from the orchestra. It is, altogether, a fine symphonic space, at least from the audience standpoint.

Next at the SLSO: Elim Chan conducts the SLSO and piano soloist Ingrid Fliter in a program consisting of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”), and the symphonic poem “Moondog” by contemporary composer Elizabeth Ogonek. Performances take place at the Touhill Center on Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 7:30 pm, October 20 and 21.  The Friday morning performance will be broadcast Saturday evening on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 and will be available for streaming for a limited time at the SLSO web site.

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

Symphony Preview: Moonlight over Edinburgh

This weekend guest conductor Elim Chan leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and pianist Ingrid Fliter in a concert that brackets the second installment of the orchestra’s Beethoven piano concerto cycle with a pair of works that evoke strong visual images.

[Preview the music with the SLSO's Spotify playlist.]

Elizabeth Orgonek
Photo: Kajaka Studios

The concerts open with the first of those two highly visual pieces, “Moondog” by contemporary American composer Elizabeth Ogonek (b. 1989). Written for and premiered by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra this past January, “Moondog” is too new to be available anywhere online, so the best I can do is refer you to Steve Holt’s interview with the composer for the SFSO.

In it, Ogonek notes that a “moondog” is “kind of halo that happens around the moon because of the way the ice crystals in clouds refract light” and that her intention was to “do a vocalese [a melody without words] for the orchestra. I wanted to evoke this sense of nighttime and dreaminess.”

“My three orchestral gods are Stravinsky, Debussy, and Sibelius,” she says in response to question about what her music sounds like. “I’m a very visual composer. I think when people hear my music, they can get that sense. It tends to be sort of cinematic, not in a “movie music” kind of way, but just visually evocative.” The whole interview is worth a read, but those are the bullet points.

Trivia note: As some of you may be old enough to recall, Moondog (real name: Louis Thomas Hardin, 1916–1999) was also an eccentric composer/performer whose

Next is the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). A dramatic work that was the beginning of Beethoven’s break with the influences of Mozart and Haydn, the Third Concerto shows the composer in a role for which he is not, in my experience, always given enough credit: that of an "early adopter" of technology.

Beethoven in 1803
Painted by Christian Horneman

The technology in question is that of the piano. At the time Beethoven was writing the C minor concerto (around 1800, although he had ideas for it a few years earlier), major technological advances were being made in the design and construction of the instrument. It was becoming bigger and heavier; the sound was getting more robust and the range of notes wider. When Beethoven began composing in the 1780s, the piano (then called the fortepiano) was basically an amped-up harpsichord with strings that were struck instead of plucked and a range of around four or five octaves. By the time he died in 1827, the piano had evolved into something closely resembling the contemporary concert grand, with a range of nearly eight octaves and the ability to produce the kind of thunderous climaxes that composers like Franz Liszt loved so much.

A major player in this technological revolution was the English firm of John Broadwood and Sons. As part of their marketing campaign, they sent their new pianos to Beethoven, with the result that Beethoven made use of the expanded range of notes for his new concerto. “As originally composed,” wrote René Spencer Saller in program notes for the SLSOs 2016 performance of the work, “his Third Concerto requires the soloist to play a high G, which is believed to be the earliest instance of that particular note in the piano repertory.”

That said, it’s hard to be sure exactly what the piano part looked like for the concerto’s 1803 premiere at the Theater an der Wien since it hadn’t been written down yet. Beethoven was the soloist and played the whole thing from memory, which drove Ignaz von Seyfried (his student and page turner) to distraction. “I saw empty pages with here and there what looked like Egyptian hieroglyphs,” he would later recall, “unintelligible to me, scribbled to serve as clues for him… So, whenever he reached the end of some invisible passage, he gave me a surreptitious nod and I turned the page.” Fortunately, it became one of those stories that get funnier after the fact. “My anxiety not to miss such a nod amused him greatly,” wrote Seyfried, “and the recollection of it at our convivial dinner after the concert sent him into gales of laughter.”

The soloist for the concerto’s second Viennese performance a year later was Ferdinand Ries (another pupil) when, happily, everything was written down and there were no blank pages.

The ruins of Holyrood Abbey
By Kaihsu at English Wikipedia

The concerts conclude with the Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56, ("Scottish") by Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847). Although not completed until 1842, the symphony’s genesis dates back to an 1829 walking tour of the British Isles, when Scotland in general and Edinburgh in particular made a strong impression on him. He got the idea for the slow introduction to the first movement when he visited the ruined Holyrood Chapel in Edinburgh. "In the evening twilight," he wrote, "we went today to the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved... Everything round is broken and mouldering and the bright sky shines in. I believe I today found in that old chapel the beginning of my 'Scottish' Symphony."

But how “Scottish” is the Symphony No. 3, really? The composer himself never referred to it as anything other than his third symphony, and as this week’s program notes remind us, he was “notoriously reluctant to assign explicit programs or narratives to his music.” Eric Bromberger (in notes for the San Diego Symphony), went so far as to declare that the work “tells no tale, paints no picture, nor does it quote Scottish tunes."

On the other hand, British composer and conductor Julius Harrison (in "The Symphony," edited by Robert Simpson, 1967) thought the symphony "illustrates the near-scenic aspect of Mendelssohn's romantic art" and felt that the jaunty clarinet theme of the Vivace non troppo second movement has "a touch of 'Charlie is My Darling' about its dotted quavers—something Mendelssohn may have remembered and set down." Given that the composer’s 1829 walking tour included a bagpipe concert, a visit to Sir Walter Scott, and extensive hiking around the highlands, that wouldn’t be surprising.

I fall more into the late Mr. Harrison's camp, but wherever you come down on the "Scottishness" of this music, there's no getting around its unflagging appeal and elegant construction. To hear this music is to love it. It was the last Mendelssohn symphony to be performed in the composer’s lifetime (the Fourth and Fifth symphonies were performed before the Third but published after it). Not a bad swan song, as those things go.

The Essentials: Elim Chan conducts the SLSO and piano soloist Ingrid Fliter in a program consisting of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”), and the symphonic poem “Moondog” by contemporary composer Elizabeth Ogonek. Performances take place at the Touhill Center on Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 7:30 pm, October 20 and 21.  The Friday morning performance will be broadcast Saturday evening on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 and will be available for streaming for a limited time at the SLSO web site.

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

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of October 16, 2023

What's on St. Louis theater and cabaret stages this coming week. Please leave a comment if anything was wrong or got left out

Albion Theatre presents the thriller Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz October 20 through November 5. “Horowitz is known for his novels (including The Alex Rider series, Magpie Murders and many more) and his TV work (Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders etc.)  This is his only full-length play.  Set in an asylum for the criminally insane, a writer of ‘true crime’ paperbacks is trying to get an interview with a notorious mass murderer but nothing is as it seems.” Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center 501 N. Grand in Grand Center. For more information: albiontheatrestl.org.

Beth Leavel

The Blue Strawberry presents Tony Award-winner Beth Leavel Friday and Saturday, October 20 and 21, at 7:30 pm. “Tony Award winner Beth Leavel (The Prom, The Drowsy Chaperone) is bringing her award-winning cabaret act to Blue Strawberry for two fabulous nights of fun! Join Beth for an evening of story and song as she takes you through her illustrious career as one of Broadway’s biggest, belting-est divas. Filled with laughs, surprises and some joyously chaotic misbehaving, this is one show you don’t want to miss!”  The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle in the Central West End. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com

Tim Schall and Carol Schmidt

The Blue Strawberry presents Sunday Standard Time with Tim Schall and Carol Schmidt on Sunday October 22 at 6 pm. “Join Tim Schall (vocals) and Carol Schmidt (piano) in the lounge for a casual, classy Sunday evening of jazz standards, a little sophisticated pop and a dash of classic Broadway. Tim is no stranger to the theater and concert stages of St. Louis, Chicago and New York's Lincoln Center. Carol has a rich history of entertaining St. Louis audiences as musician and singer. Together they will help you wind down your weekend with timeless music and a lot of irreverent dry humor.” The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle. For more information: bluestrawberrystl.com.

See You in a Minute

Contraband Theatre presents the world premiere play See You in a Minute by Jacob Juntunen, directed by Ellie Schwetye Wednesdays at 7pm and Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, through October 28. “In 2041 Kathryn returns to her parents to take care of them during a pandemic, risks her NYC job, and this brings up no 2020 trauma. Right?” Performances take place at The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Drive in Clayton, MO.  For more information:  www.eventbrite.com.

Beetlejuice
Photo: Matthew Murphy

The Fabulous Fox presents the musical Beetlejuice through October 22.  “It’s showtime! Based on Tim Burton’s dearly beloved film, this hilarious musical tells the story of Lydia Deetz, a strange and unusual teenager whose whole life changes when she meets a recently deceased couple and a demon with a thing for stripes.” The Fabulous Fox is on North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: fabulousfox.com

KTK Productions presents the comedy Play On! Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through October 22. “One plucky community theatre is about to produce a show called Murder Most Foul, a new “murder mystery play” with the same title as an Agatha Christie novel but with no relation whatsoever. The director/theatre manager, Gerry, thought producing the play was a good idea since the inexperienced playwright has agreed to let the company perform the show for no charge. Gerry, however, had no idea wat disasters awaited her: the show is hilariously amateur, the “murder mystery” plot doesn’t really have a murder, and to top it off the playwright keeps changing the story and script only two days from its premiere! It doesn’t help that the cast is disgruntled, and the playwright accidentally deletes the entire sound effect board. All of the disasters come to fruition in Act III when the company performs the actual show with hilarious mishaps as every turn. Play On! is a hilarious love letter to community theatre.” Performances take place at the Saint John The Baptist Gymnasium, 4200 Delor Street in south St. Louis. For more information: kurtainkall.org

The Lemp Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre and Jest Mysteries present Zombie Love through November 4. "Calling all Zombies! Tired of being judged for munching on the occasional brain? So what if you're not really "alive" anymore. You can still enjoy socializing with the living and enjoying a hilarious show together. Well, we've got the perfect show for you. Drama! Comedy! Looove! ...And, of course, Zombies! But some zombie has ignored rule number one in the “Zombieing for Dummies” handbook…No biting.  Nina Tina Deena May will never be the same…do you know who’s to blame? And, no, it was not Mike Tyson! " The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place in south city. For more information: www.lempmansion.com

The cast of Eddie and Vinnie

Metro Theater Company presents Eddie and Vinnie, a new play by Jenny Millenger, October 18 through November 5. Public performances are Fridays at 7 pm, Saturdays at 10:30 and 2 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm, October 27 through November 5. “Eddie is an unstoppable artist with a uniquely beautiful mind – and his best friend is a gecko. Together, the pair spends hours making intricate and beautiful puzzles. But he’ll be solving worse puzzles in summer school if he can’t get his grades up. In a last-ditch effort, Eddie teams up with the overly helpful new girl for the dreaded end-of-year report. Will their presentation on MC Escher save his grades? Eddie & Vinnie reminds us all that there is more than one way to learn – and more than one way to shine.”  Best enjoyed by ages 6 – 12, the show’s approximate run time is 60 minutes with no intermission. For more information: www.metroplays.org

Metro Theater Company presents Maddi’s Fridge by Anne Negri, adapted from the Book by Lois Brandt with illustrations by Vin Vogel.  “What if the only way to help a friend was to break a promise? Sofia and Maddi are best friends. They live in the same neighborhood, go to the same school, and play at the same rock-climbing gym. But when Sofia learns a secret about Maddi’s family, she’s faced with a difficult decision: to keep her promise or tell her parents about Maddi’s empty fridge. With humor and heart, this play is sure to inspire conversations with your young people about honesty, sensitivity, empathy and helping others.”  Best enjoyed by ages 5 – 11, the show’s approximate run time is 50 minutes with no intermission. It's available for school tours through October 22. For more information: www.metroplays.org

The Lion in Winter
Photo: Todd Davis

The Midnight Company presents James Goldman’s comedy/drama The Lion in Winter Thursdays through Saturdays 8 pm through October 21. “Comedic in tone, dramatic in action - THE LION IN WINTER takes place in 1183, in a Castle in Chinon, France, telling the story of the Plantagenet family, who are locked in a free-for-all  of competing ambitions to inherit a crown.  The queen, and wealthiest woman in the world, Eleanor of Aquitaine, has been kept in prison since raising an army against her husband, King Henry II of England.  She’s been let out only for the holidays, and hence the play centers around the inner conflicts of the royal family - including their sons -  the warrior Richard Lionheart, the crafty middle son Geoffrey, and the youngest and Henry’s favorite John - as they battle over the kingdom.  The situation is complicated by Henry’s paramour - Alais, a French princess - and her brother, Philip, the new King of France, itching for his own war against England.” Performances take place at the .ZACK in Grand Center. For more information: midnightcompany.com

The Immigrant
Photo: Jon Gitchoff

New Jewish Theatre presents The Immigrant Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 4 and 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through October 29. “Rural Central Texas, 1909. A young Russian-Jewish immigrant, newly arrived in America through the port of Galveston, pulls his banana cart into the hamlet of Hamilton. Fleeing the vicious pogroms of his homeland, he has sought refuge in the land of the free. Able to speak only Yiddish, alone amid a staunchly Christian community, he begs for shelter. Taken in by a local couple, over the next 30 years, he makes a home and raises a family in this tiny town. A religion meets religion, culture meets culture, fear meets fear and love meets love. This is the true story of Haskell Harelik, ‘the Immigrant’.” Performances take place at the SFC Performing Arts Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. For more information: jccstl.com

Kevin Roston Jr. in Twisted Melodies
Photo: Richard Anderson

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Twisted Melodies through October 22. “This powerful one-man show is based on the life of St. Louis soul music icon Donny Hathaway. Twisted Melodies is an immersive and crushing play about the brilliant singer and composer’s compelling inner struggle. Torn between the muses that inspire him and the mental illness that torments him, Hathaway evaluates his life in a gripping performance by St. Louis native Kelvin Roston, Jr.” Performances take place at the Berges Theatre at COCA in University City. For more information: repstl.org

St. Louis Actors’ Studio presents Dr. Ride’s American Beach House through October 22. “Dr Ride’s American Beach House is an intimate snapshot of queer anti-heroines. On the eve of Dr. Sally Ride’s historic space flight, four women with passionate opinions and no opportunities sit on a sweltering St. Louis rooftop, watching life pass them by.” Performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 360 N. Boyle. For more information: stlas.org.

The St. Louis Writers' Group presents The Final Round of its Playwright Slam on Tuesday, October 10, at 6:30 pm. “In rounds one and two each script will be given a five minute read, and scored by a panel of judges based upon audience reaction. the highest scoring plays will go to the final, which is based on  which will be ten minutes of the same script, from which a winner will be chosen.” The Playwright Slam takes place upstairs at Big Daddy’s in Soulard. For more information, visit the St. Louis Writers' Group Facebook page.

Saturday Night Fever
Photo: John Lamb

Stray Dog Theatre presents the musical Saturday Night Fever Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 through October 28, with additional performances 2 pm Sundays, October 15 and 22. “Based on the 1977 film that became a cultural phenomenon, this electrifying show is packed with legendary hits from the Bee Gees, classic disco tracks, and new original songs. Burn, baby, burn!” Performances take place at Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee in Tower Grove East. For more information: www.straydogtheatre.org

Bitter Fruit
Photo: ProPhoto STL

Upstream Theater presents the US premiere of Bitter Fruit, by award-winning playwright Héctor Levy-Daniel in a translation by Philip Boehm, through October 29. “ María doesn’t understand why her mother hired this new maid. She’s convinced the woman’s spying on behalf of the workers in their factory. But there’s something about her even more unsettling… Tensions smolder as a web of secrets, deceptions, and denials begins to unravel in this taut drama by Argentine playwright Héctor Levy-Daniel, where memory may be challenged, identities displaced, and even love may be sacrificed on the altar of class.” Performances take place at the Marcelle Theatre, 3310 Samuel Shepard Dr. in Grand Center. For more information: www.upstreamtheater.org

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.

To get your event listed here, send an email to chuck at kdhx.org Your event information should be in text format (i.e. not part of a graphic), but feel free to include publicity stills.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.

Symphony Preview: Good day sunshine

“Grab your coat and get your hat / Leave your worry on the doorstep / Just direct your feet / To the sunny side of the street” – Dorothy Fields, “The Sunny Side of the Street,” 1930.

[Preview the music with the SLSO's Spotify playlist.]

Sunshine is good for us. It’s a source of vitamin D, a deficiency of which can cause a raft of health issues. Inadequate sunshine can exacerbate sleep disorders and contribute to Seasonal Affective Disorder, which is a fancy way of saying weeks on end of gloom tends to make one gloomy.

Hannah Eisendle
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

But, like any other good thing, too much of it is no good at all. Too much vitamin D can lead to a nasty assortment of illnesses. Too much exposure to the sun can increase your chance of skin cancer. And the combination of excessive sun and heat can lead to heat exhaustion, dehydration, irritability, and sunstroke—the medical term for which is heliosis.

Which, by no coincidence at all, is the title of the first work Cristian Măcelaru will conduct on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program this weekend (October 13 and 15) at the Touhill Center.

Commissioned by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and first performed by that ensemble under the baton of chief conductor Marin Alsop last March, “heliosis” [sic] is the work of Austrian composer/conductor/pianist Hannah Eisendle (b. 1993). This is not the cheery evocation of summer in Fields’s lyrics but rather, as Eisendle (quoted in this week’s program notes) says, the kind of summer that is “dirty, suffocating, sticky with dust.”  Not “The Sunny Side of the Street” so much as the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City”: “All around, people looking half-dead / Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.”

“Eisendle’s threatening brass and multiplicity of percussion effects,” wrote David Karlin of the August 2002 performance at the BBC Proms, “took us on a short, vivid journey across the terrors of a desert landscape, weirdly glissando strings perhaps giving a clue to our disorientation.”

Having listened to the BBC Proms performance on YouTube, I can only agree. It’s a tour de force of orchestration and, at a little over six minutes, it’s just the right length. Because of what I wrote above about “too much of a good thing.”

Mozart by
Johann Nepomuk della Croce
Public Domain

Next, things cool down a bit with the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K.219, by Mozart (1756–1791), first performed in 1775 with the composer as the soloist (a role filled this weekend by Benjamin Beilman). The last of the composer's violin concertos, the Fifth is filled with unexpected turns of phrase, including the so-called "Turkish" interlude of the finale in which the cellos and basses strike their strings, col legno, to produce an exotic percussive effect. The result is a work "very nearly in line with the instrumental concerto of the next century,” as Blair Johnson points out at Allmusic.com. “Though the piece itself is clearly within the Classical chamber concerto tradition, its scale (better than 25 minutes, usually) and the degree of its technical demands mark the work as something new for the violin."

After intermission, it’s back to the Dorothy Fields brand of sunshine with the Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, by Brahms (1833–1985). Written and first performed in 1877, the Second concludes with one of the sunniest final movements you will ever hear. Indeed, as James Keays writes in program notes for the Redland Symphony, the Second "is one of the most cheerful of Brahms' mature works, so much so that it is often called his 'Pastoral,' an obvious reference to Beethoven's symphony of the same name."

The comparison is an apt one since Brahms, like Beethoven, loved nature and often drew inspiration from it. “Raised in a hard-scrabble part of Hamburg,” wrote Tim Munro in program notes for the SLSOs 2013 performance “he took long walking trips with his family. Later, escaping Vienna meant he could breathe and be alone with his thoughts."

The escape that led to the Second Symphony was to the Austrian town of Pörtschach am Wörthersee. Brahms loved the place and rhapsodized that "the melodies flow so freely that one must be careful not to trample on them." He rented two small rooms for himself at the village that summer, and if his correspondence is an indication, he couldn't have been happier, as Philip Huscher writes in notes for the Chicago Symphony:

"It is delightful here," Brahms wrote to Fritz Simrock, his publisher, soon after arriving, and the new symphony bears witness to his apparent delight. Later that summer, when Brahms's friend Theodore Billroth, an amateur musician, played through the score for the first time, he wrote to the composer at once: "It is all rippling streams, blue sky, sunshine, and cool green shadows. How beautiful it must be at Portschach."

Brahms c. 1872
Photographer unknown
Public Domain

Listening to the symphony once again, I was struck by the sense of serenity, openness, and good humor in the piece. I was also struck by the similarity between the second theme of the first movement and Brahms's famous "Lullaby" ("Wiegenlied" in German) from 1868. Whether that was intentional or not is hard to say but, as Dick Strawser of the Harrisburg Symphony points out in a 2010 blog post, Brahms does report that the rooms where he was staying in Pörtschach am Wörthersee were near the summer home of Bertha and Arthur Faber, the couple for whom he wrote the "Wiegenlied" in the first place. Personally, I like to think that it was a genial nod to his friends and to the joy he felt in composing this cheerful work.

The Essentials: Cristian Măcelaru conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, with violin soloist Benjamin Beilman, in Hannah Eisendle’s “heliosis”; Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K.219; and the Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op. 73, by Brahms. Performances are Friday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, October 13 and 15, at the Touhill Center on the UMSL campus. The Friday performance will be broadcast on Saturday the 14th at 7:30 pm on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.

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