Symphony Review: A mostly French St. Louis Symphony program highlights principal players

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Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson
What: Music of Bizet, Debussy, Elgar, and Ravel
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: May 1-3, 2015

[Find out more about the music with the SLSO program notes and my symphony preview.]

Allegra Lilly
harpcolumn.com

This is a big weekend for the Principal and Associate Principal players in the St. Louis Symphony (and even a couple of guests). The concerts begin with an orchestral suite from Bizet's massively popular 1875 opera "Carmen" and end with Ravel's even more massively popular "Bolero"—both works packed with solos for individual instruments.

In between are pieces that feature SLSO musicians not often seen in the solo spot: Principal Harp Allegra Lilly in Debussy's 1904 "Danses sacrée et profane" ("Sacred and Profane Dances") for harp and strings, and Principal Tuba Michael Sanders in Vaughan Williams' 1954 "Tuba Concerto in F minor."

For people like me who enjoy seeing members of the band step forward and strut their stuff, it's all very gratifying.

The "Carmen" selections consist of eleven of the twelve sections of the two suites that Bizet's friend and fellow composer Ernest Guiraud put together in the 1880s. Bizet never heard them—he died shortly after "Carmen" opened to tepid reviews and public apathy in 1875—but I think he would have appreciated the way his colleague reassigned the original vocal lines to a wide range of individual instruments. The trumpet, in particular, carries a lot of the weight, with prominent roles in the "Habañera," "Seguedille," "La Garde montante," and most notably, the famous (and often parodied) "Chanson du Toréador."

Mr. Robertson's rearrangement of the order of the selections made me hear this music in a very different way. Having the brisk march of "Les Toréadors" segue immediately into the ominous Act I "Prelude," for example, created a nice bit of dramatic contrast. Ditto putting the delicate "Intermezzo," with its lovely duet for harp and flute, in between the "Chanson du Toréador" and the lively "Danse bohème." His interpretation brought out all the drama and high spirits of the opera, ending with a "Danse bohème" that burned up the stage.

A few fluffs here and there not withstanding, the musicians with the solo spots performed brilliantly. Principal Trumpet Karin Bliznik had the most to do, of course, but there were also terrific moments from Principal Flute Mark Sparks, Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks, Associate Principal Bassoon Andy Gott along with fellow bassoonist Felicia Foland, Principal Piccolo Ann Choomack along with second piccolo Jennifer Nichtman (doubling on flute), harpist Megan Stout, and Concertmaster David Halen. Mr. Halen's solo in the "Nocturne" starts at the bottom of the violin's range, and brought a dark, silky tone to it.

As the second half of the concert began, Allegra Lilly made a strong impression before she even played a note, gliding onstage in a iridescent blue spaghetti strap gown that was as lovely and elegant as her playing—and that's saying something. Soloists sometimes get lost in the fog of Powell Hall's acoustics, especially for those of us in the Dress Circle, but Ms. Lilliy's harp came through rich and clear, its full-bodied sound assisted by a resonating platform and Debussy's intelligent orchestration, which never allows the string ensemble to overcome the soloist. She and Mr. Robertson gave the music a graceful and sensitive treatment that emphasized the shimmering, shifting colors of this music. I know Debussy disliked the term "impressionism," but for works like this it feels quelle apropos nevertheless.

Michael Sanders
stlsymphony.org

The Vaughan Williams tuba concerto was next, and you couldn't have asked for a more marked contrast from the Debussy. It's a consistently ingratiating and playful piece, with a strong English folk flavor. The composer wrote it with (and for) London Symphony Orchestra Principal Tuba Philip Catelinet—who must have been quite the virtuoso, judging from the difficulty of the solo part. The first and third movement cadenzas, in particular, exploit the instrument's full range, including those growling bottom notes.

Soloist Michael Sanders did very well by the piece Friday morning, dancing with ease through those cadenzas and the rapid passages that begin the final movement. He had an appealingly full, mellow sound at the upper end of his range (which is where most of the part lies), running into difficulty only in those growling bottom tones. As a former low brass guy myself (trombone, euphonium and, yes, Sousaphone) I sympathize.

The concert came to a slam-bang tang of a finish with Ravel’s ever-popular “Bolero.”

What can one say about "Bolero" that hasn't already been said a thousand times? Ravel himself apparently began to view it in somewhat the same way that Rachmaninoff came to view his equally popular “Prelude in C sharp minor”: as a career milestone that eventually became a millstone. At least Ravel wasn’t obliged to perform it everywhere he went. It is, in any case, music that never fails to entertain—and it certainly did on Friday morning.

The individual solos were impeccable, featuring most of the same players from the Bizet. Notable performances were also turned in by Principal Bassoon Andrew Cuneo and Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews, assisted by Associate Principal Diana Haskell on E-flat clarinet and Tzuying Huang on the rarely-heard bass clarinet. Guests Nathan Nabb and Jeffrey Collins on soprano and tenor sax, respectively, brought a bit of a jazzy feel to their solos, as did Principal Trombone Timothy Myers.

Performances of "Bolero" inevitably remind me of Garrison Keillor's joke that the worst pumpkin pie you'll ever eat isn't that much different from the best pumpkin pie you'll ever eat. It's hard to screw this music up as long as the orchestra's technique is solid. That said, there's no gainsaying that Mr. Robertson brought real visceral excitement to this old warhorse and sent us all home with smiles on our faces. And for that, we were all thankful.

This weekend's program repeats Friday and Saturday (May 1 and 2) at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. The Saturday evening concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio.

Next at Powell Hall: Mr. Robertson conducts the orchestra, chorus and an international roster of soloists in a complete concert performance of Verdi's beloved potboiler "Aida," including special lighting and video design by S. Katy Tucker. Performances are Thursday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., May 7, 9 and 10. Friday night, May 8, at 8 p.m. Mr. Robertson conducts the last of the Whitaker Foundation "Music You Know" programs, with popular classics by (among others) Copland, Elgar, Bizet, Liszt, Vaughan Williams, and Charles Ives. For information on all concerts: stlsymphony.org.

Symphony Preview: The (mostly) French connection with the St. Louis Symphony, May 1-3, 2015

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To close out the current season, the St. Louis Symphony has put together three blockbuster concerts of music sure to appeal to just about anyone who loves the classics. It starts this weekend as David Robertson conducts works by Bizet, Debussy, Vaughan Williams, and Ravel.

Georges Bizet in 1875
en.wikipedia.org

Opening the concerts will be eleven orchestral selections culled from the two suites Ernest Guiraud put together in the 1880s from his friend Georges Bizet's massively popular 1875 opera "Carmen." Poor Bizet died before he could hear them, alas—he passed at the age of 36 from a heart attack a few months after the opera opened to tepid reviews and public apathy. So he went to his grave not knowing that he had composed what would become one of the most popular operas ever written. Operabase statistics for the 2013/2014 season, in fact, show it as number 2 worldwide, surpassed only by Verdi's "La Traviata."

For this weekend's concerts, Mr. Robertson has taken the two suites, reshuffled them, and dropped the "Marche des Contrebandiers" ("March of the Smugglers") from Bizet's Act III. The new re-arranged suite looks like this:

1. Les Toréadors: "Procession of the Toreadors" from Act IV.
2. Prélude: Includes the "Fate" motif first heard from the brasses at the beginning of Act I.
3. Habañera: Carmen's famous Act I aria, "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" ("Love is a rebellious bird").
4. Seguedille: The Seguidilla from Act I, "Près des remparts de Séville" ("Near the ramparts of Seville"), in which Carmen invites the hapless Don Jose to run away with her to Lilas Pastia's Inn (a decision he will come to regret).
5. Les Dragons d’Alcala: the entr'acte between Bizet's Acts I and II, covering the scene change from the Act I cigarette factory to Pastia's Inn.
6. La Garde montante: Back to Act I, as Don Jose marches in with the soldiers, who are greeted and the imitated by a crowd of street urchins singing "Avec la garde montante, nous arrivons, nous voilà! / Sonne trompette éclatante!" ("With the mounting guard, we arrive; here we are! / Sound, dazzling trumpet!").
7. Aragonaise: The entr'acte between Bizet's Acts III and IV, giving the stage hands time to change the scene from the smuggler's mountain hideout to the bullring.
8. Nocturne: Back to Act III as Don Jose's loyal but naïve girlfriend Micaéla arrives at the smuggler's camp in a futile attempt to get him to return to the army. "Je dis, que rien ne m'épouvante," she sings ("I say, that nothing terrifies me"); "je dis, hélas, que je réponds de moi, / j'ai beau faire la vaillante / mais j'ai beau faire la vaillante / au fond du coeur, je meurs d'effroi!" (I say, alas, that I take care of myself, / But try as I might to be the brave "girl, / At the bottom of my heart, I'm dying of fright!")
9. Intermezzo: The entr'acte between Acts II and III, for the scene change from Pastia's Inn to the smuggler's camp.
10. Chanson du Toréador: The famous "Toréador song" from Act IV. 'Nuff said!
11. Danse bohème: From the top of Act II, as Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès dance for some army officers in Pastia's Inn; a certified rouser and an ideal Big Finish.

Debussy in 1908
en.wikipedia.org

Music from another famous Frenchman is next: Debussy's "Danses sacrée et profane" ("Sacred and Profane Dances") for harp and strings. The famed French instrument makers Pleyel and Wolff commissioned the piece in 1904 as part of a marketing effort for their latest invention, the chromatic harp. Unlike the conventional pedal harp, which was then (and still is) the concert standard, the chromatic harp had two sets of strings, one tuned to C major and the other tuned to F-sharp/G-flat pentatonic. Unlike a conventional harp, this allowed the player to produce all twelve of the notes in a chromatic scale.

The instrument was not a success. As Daniel Durchholz writes in his program notes, the instrument "turned out to be too cumbersome in a variety of ways. It was hard to tune and keep in tune, difficult to play, and simply not as resonant as a standard harp. Without much fanfare, it was quickly abandoned." Fortunately, the music was easily adapted to the conventional pedal harp and has proved enduringly popular.

Which makes it a bit surprising that the SLSO has only performed it twice—on October 10th and 21s, 1981, with Frances Tietov at the harp and Leonard Slatkin on the podium for both performances. That interpretation was, happily, preserved on by Telarc on a CD that also contains "La Mer" and "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune." It's still in print and definitely worth having. This time around the solo role goes to SLSO Principal Harp Allegra Lilly, whose work has graced the Powell Hall stage since 2013.

FYI, the word "profane," in this context, means "secular" or "sensual," to indicate that the second of the two dances is less serious than the first.

Michael Sanders
stlsymphony.org

After intermission, an instrument that rarely gets the solo spot will be front and center: the tuba. Specifically, it will be an F tuba (as opposed to the bigger and deeper B-flat tuba more commonly heard in orchestras) played by SLSO Principal Tuba Michael Sanders. He'll be playing the "Tuba Concerto in F minor" that Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote in 1954 with (and for) London Symphony Orchestra Principal Tuba Philip Catelinet. Catelinet premiered the concerto at the LSO Golden Jubilee Concert in June of 1954, and while it has never been wildly popular—the only previous SLSO performance was in September of 1987—that's probably more a reflection of the dearth of great tuba players than any knock on the music itself. It's consistently ingratiating and playful with a strong English folk flavor. And it will be nice to see Mr. Sanders in front of the orchestra for a change.

The concerts close with one of the most popular orchestral works ever written and certainly the best-known thing Maurice Ravel ever wrote: "Bolero." Composed originally on commission for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, "Bolero" was first performed by her at the Paris Opéra on 22 November 1928, with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and designs by Alexandre Benois.

Not mentioned for two whole paragraphs
officialboderek.com

"Inside a tavern in Spain," runs the scenario printed in that first program, "people dance beneath the brass lamp hung from the ceiling. [In response] to the cheers to join in, the female dancer has leapt onto the long table and her steps become more and more animated." In program notes for the New York Philharmonic, the late New York Times music critic Louis Biancolli goes into greater detail. "The men gathered in the public room of the inn eye the dancer fixedly. As her movements grow more animated, their excitement mounts. They beat out an obbligato with their hands and pound their heels. At the peak of the crescendo, where the key abruptly shifts from C major to E major, the sharpening tension snaps. Knives are drawn and there is a wild tavern brawl."

Sounds like a hell of a party. There will be no weapons at Powell Hall this weekend, fortunately, so you will be able to enjoy Ravel's Greatest Hit in safety.

And you will notice I got through two entire paragraphs on "Bolero" without once mentioning Bo Derek.

The Essentials: David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with harpist Allegra Lilly and tuba player Michael Sanders on Friday at 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m., May1-3. The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.