“Zoom, zoom, zoom zoom / The world is in a mess,” sings Fred Astaire in the 1937 film Shall We Dance?:
With politics and taxes
And people grinding axes
There’s no happiness.
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| Kevin John Edusei Photo: Marco Borggreve |
The remedy (and the title of that Irving Berlin classic) is to “Slap That Bass.” If Berlin were still with us, he I think he might concede that next best thing was the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday (November 29). Guest conductor Kevin John Edusei made his SLSO debut in a toe-tapping evening of music by Bela Bartók (1881–1945), Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827).
The lively opening number was Bartók’s 1923 Dance Suite. Its six short movements are inspired by (but not direct quotes of) Wallachian, Hungarian, and even (courtesy of a 1913 trip to Algeria) Arabic songs and dances. This is Bartók at his most approachable, with endless melodic and rhythmic invention.
Here, as in the program as a whole, Edusei’s approach to the music was consistently joyful with strong emotional commitment and the kind of choreographic podium style that reminded me a bit of former Music Director David Robertson. The musicians responded with the high level of playing we have come to expect from them. Principal Bassoonist Andrew Cuneo and Contrabassoonist Ellen Connors deserve a special nod for their prominent solos, particularly in the first movement.
Kevin John Edusei. Phot by Marco Borggreve
Last performed here in 2013 with Hannu Lintu, the Dance Suite might not be Bartók’s Greatest Hit, but it’s certainly appealing and a real workout for the band. Perhaps we should encounter it more often.
The rest of the evening, though, it was all hits all the time, with Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini closing out the first half and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 filling up the second.
First performed here only few months after its 1934 Baltimore premiere with the composer at the piano, the Rhapsody is as popular with pianists as it is with audiences. This set of 24 variations on the last of Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin served as a showpiece for the composer’s formidable keyboard skill during his lifetime and has continued to do the same for pianists ever since. It certainly did for Joyce Yang Saturday night.
Yang is no stranger to some of the more intimidating parts of the repertoire. She took the Silver in the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and has gone on to appear with many high-profile orchestras worldwide. That includes the SLSO, with whom she played another notoriously difficult Rachmaninoff work, his Piano Concerto No. 3, in 2019. Her reading of the Rhapsody was a fine mix of finesse and fireworks, neatly reflecting and enhancing the many moods of the work.
Her lyrical 18th variation had an extra dose of lush romanticism, due at least in part to Edusei’s slower tempo choices in both the 17th and 18th variations. The music seemed to breathe a bit more here than it sometimes does. This gave the shift to the increasingly daunting Final Five variations that much more impact. The composer himself is said to have found the final variation a bit frightening, but Yang’s powerful performance felt truly fearless.
Her encore was both welcome and unusual: the third of the 1976 7 Virtuoso Etudes After Gershwin by pianist/transcriber Earl Wild (1915–2010). Based on “The Man I Love,” it’s an Andante study in (mostly) 16th notes that looks hair-raising on the page but, in a performance of this quality, flows along luxuriantly.
Joyce Yang. Photo by KT Kim.
Written over 200 years ago, the Beethoven Symphony No. 7 was wildly popular from the start. One would think that it would by now have been done to death. And yet the best conductors continue to find ways to keep it fresh. Stéphane Denève did it in 2021 and Kevin John Edusei did it again last Saturday.
A theatrical director friend once said that way to direct Shakespeare was to simply avoid getting in The Bard’s way. One might say the same of conducting Beethoven. This is of course much easier said than done,but Edusei accomplished it with a mixture of precision, strong contrasts, and above all, an obvious joy in the process. The first movement was so positively celebratory, with a coda so impassioned that it might have provoked spontaneous applause if Edusei hadn’t elected to proceed straight to the sober Allegretto second movement attacca (without pause). It was an unexpected choice and a very effective one.
The Presto third movement was marked by a strongly contrasting trio with excellent playing by the horns under Associate Principal Thomas Jöstlein. The trumpets under Principal Steven Franklin joined them in the spotlight for the rousing Allegro con brio finale.
Edusei conducted without a score—a sign that he had internalized the music so thoroughly that he was able to be transparent to the composer’s intent without being invisible. The result was an eminently satisfying Beethoven Seventh that was both familiar and fresh.
There was a gratifyingly full house for Saturday night’s performance. If you weren’t among them, know that the concert will be available for streaming later this week at the SLSO web site, where it will remain for the next month.
Upcoming: At the Sheldon Concert Hall, SLSO oboist Xiomara Mass and bassoonist Julia Paine perform in a concert of works by Villa-Lobos, Eugène Bozza, Jeff Scott, and Júlio Medaglia on Thursday, December 4, at 7:30 pm. At Powell Hall, John Storgårds conducts the SLSO and cellist Kian Soltani in Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major. The program includes Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 and the St. Louis premiere of the Three Romances by Clara Wieck Schumann (orchestrated by Benjamin de Murashkin). Performances are Friday at 10:30 a.m. and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., December 5 and 6.
The Saturday concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and on Classic 107.3. Classic 107.3 is also where you can hear Tom Sudholt and me host the Symphony Preview episode about the concert on Wednesday, December 3, from 8 to 10 pm.
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