Symphony Preview: New worlds, new sounds

The regular concert season of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO)  resumes on this Friday and Saturday (January 10 and 11) as Opera Theatre’s Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari leads the orchestra in music by Dvořák and Samuel Barber, along with the world premiere of the Accordion Concerto by composer and multi-instrumentalist Nina Shekhar with Hanzhi Wang as the soloist.  The fact that this program is accurately titled “American sounds” tells you a lot about our nation's musical diversity.

[Preview the music with my Spotify playlist.]

The concerts open with the “School for Scandal,” composed by Samuel Barber (1910–1981) at the ripe old age of 21 (and finally performed two years later), when the composer was still a student at the Curtis Institute. Along with his 1935 “Music for a Scene from Shelley,” the overture established his reputation as an exponent of music that was “distinctive and modern but not experimental.”

Samuel Barber, photographed by
Carl Van Vechten, 1944
Public Domain

If you’re not familiar with the 1777 Sheridan comedy that inspired the music, fear not; the overture is an entertaining mix of sprightly and romantic themes that’s perfectly capable of standing on its own. Barber described it as “a musical reflection of the play’s spirit,” which is a mix of social satire, romantic misfires, and mistaken identities typical of late 18^th-century British comedies. The Encyclopedia Britannica has a plot summary for those interested.

Next, it’s the world premiere of the Accordion Concerto by contemporary American composer Nina Shekhar (b. 1995). Commissioned for accordionist (and this weekend’s soloist) Hanzhi Wang by Young Concert Artists and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the work runs around 23 minutes. “Writing this concerto,” says the composer, “was an exciting opportunity to learn more about this amazing instrument and allow its unique sound world and extensive technical capability to enrich my own musical vocabulary.”

To me, that vocabulary looks fairly rich already. Her official biography describes her as “a composer and multimedia artist who explores the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter to create bold and intensely personal works.” A quick glance at her past projects reveals an artist with a wide range of interests and a willingness to embrace unorthodox techniques.

To pick just one example, her “Mad Libs,” commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, adapts the “fill in the blanks” format of the vintage party game of the same name. The performers were given short stories and musical settings that contain “blanks.”  The students then filled in the story blanks with words of their choosing and came up with sounds that represented those words. 

Nina Shekhar
Photo: Shervin Laniez

Closer to home, her “Turn Your Feet Around” (2021), written for the new music group Alarm Will Sound and the Mizzou International Composers Festival (where the group is the ensemble in residence), deconstructs Gloria Estefan’s “Get on Your Feet.” Check out the video and don’t let yourself be fooled by the unexpected uses of silence.

Closing the concerts is the Symphony No. 9 in E minor, op. 95, (“From the New World”) by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech master wrote it during a visit to America in the early 1890s, and while he never explicitly quotes any American folk material, there's still something about this music that strongly suggests America. From the flute theme in the first movement that seems to echo "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," to the second movement Largo that has (at least for me) always evoked the majestic solitude of the plains (Dvořák said he wrote it after reading Longfellow's "Hiawatha"), to the "bluesy" flatted seventh chords of the finale, Dvořák "New World" symphony just shouts "USA"—even if it does so with a strong Czech accent.

Some critics have complained about the symphony's structural weaknesses and its episodic nature.  In an essay published posthumously in "The Symphony" (Penguin Books, 1967), English composer/conductor Julius Harrison noted that the work "has come in for considerable criticism as being mainly a succession of enchanting and virile tunes…presided over or helped out by a strongly rhythmic phrase bundled into each movement whenever Dvořák found himself wondering how best to proceed."

Anton and Anna Dvořák in London, 1886
en.wikipedia.org

I beg to differ. As conductor Joshua Wallerstein pointed out in the episode of his “Sticky Notes” podcast dedicated to the Ninth, that “strongly rhythmic phrase” is not just something tossed in whenever Dvorak wasn’t sure what to do. In combination with the pentatonic scale on which it’s based, it is in fact the tiny acorn from which the mighty oak of the symphony grows. It's embedded in every single melodic idea (starting with the main theme of the first movement) and is the major unifying factor of the symphony. “[T]his piece is not only a heavily traditional symphony,” observes Wallerstein, “it’s practically through composed from its very first notes.”

Dvořák gets more respect than he used to these days. As a long-time fan of his music, I’m happy to see that.

P.S. This week’s playlist doesn’t have the Shekhar concerto since but it does have fine recordings of the Barber and Dvořák, both by the SLSO conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

The Essentials: Daniela Candillari conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 7:30 pm, January 10 and 11. The program consists of Samuel Barber’s “The School for Scandal” Overture, the world premiere of Nina Shekhar’s Accordion Concerto with soloist Hanzhi Wang, and the Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”). Performances take place at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri St. Louis campus. The Saturday concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3

UPDATE Friday, January 10th: Due to the cancellation of the Friday morning concert, a second performance has been added on Saturday the 11th at 10:30 am. Details at the SLSO web site.. Check the web site for details.

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

Symphony Preview: 'Tis the season, part 5: Ring in the New

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s (SLSO) holiday programming concludes Tuesday, December 31, at 7:30 pm with the annual “New Year’s Eve Celebration” concert. This year the figure on the podium will be a familiar one—former SLSO Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress. She conducted the NYE concert in 2022 as well, at which time I wrote that she had  “won the audience over from the very start with a cheerful and unassuming stage presence.” It’s reasonable to expect more of the same this time around.

[Preview the music with my Spotify playlist.]

Daniela Candillari
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

One thing will be very different this New Year’s Eve, though. In the past, details of the program have always been kept secret until concert time. This year the theme is “dance music from around the world” and the program is available at the SLSO web site. We’ve been told to expect “a few surprises along the way,” but here’s a quick look at the official list.

Antonín Dvořák (1841 – 1904):  Slavonic Dance No. 1. Dvořák wrote two sets of Slavonic Dances (Op. 46 in 1878 and Op. 72 in 1886) as pieces for two pianos. They were so popular he was obliged to orchestrate them—and those versions proved even more popular. Dance No. 1, in C major, is a certified rouser of a furiant, a lively dance in alternating 2/4 and 3/4 time.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893):  Overture from “The Nutcracker”. The popular 1892 ballet is one of those works that is inescapable at this time of year. While the ballet is not generally regarded as one of the composer’s best, the suite that he assembled from it prior to the premiere has become a concert staple. The “Miniature Overture,” with its emphasis on the orchestra’s higher voices, neatly sets up a fairy tale atmosphere.

Anna Clyne (b. 1980): “Masquerade” for Orchestra. Composed for and premiered at the 2013 Last Night at the Proms. “Masquerade” is a short, wildly energetic romp for large orchestra. As Clyne writes at her publisher’s web site, it was inspired by “the original mid-18th century promenade concerts held in London’s pleasure gardens… where people from all walks of life mingled to enjoy a wide array of music…Combined with costumes, masked guises and elaborate settings, masquerades created an exciting, yet controlled, sense of occasion and celebration. It is this that I wish to evoke.” And, in fact, there’s an effervescent exuberance to the piece that’s a perfect fit for New Year’s Eve.

Joseph Turrin: Fandango. This 2000 commission for the New Mexico Wind Symphony is scored for solo trumpet, trombone, and concert band. “This six-minute piece,” writes the composer, “explores the rhythmic, melodic and syncopated elements of the Spanish fandango dance form (A lively dance in triple time for two dancers).” Principal Trumpet Steven Franklin and Principal Trombone Jonathan Randazzo will have the featured roles Tuesday night.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 – 1912)  “Valse de la Reine” (“The Queen’s Waltz”) from “Four Characteristic Waltzes,” Op. 22. Although his music is rarely heard these days, the British-born Coleridge-Taylor was, in his time, a celebrated composer, conductor, and teacher. Unlike his more famous works, such as his three cantatas based on Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha,” the “Characteristic Waltzes” are charming little “salon” pieces of the sort you might hear genteel young ladies playing at the pianoforte—not profound, but definitely “ear worms.”

William Walton (1902 – 1983): Crown Imperial. Composed for the coronation of King George VI in 1937, “Crown Imperial” is very much in the rousing patriotic tradition of, say, Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” marches. Walton’s inspiration for the title comes from a speech in Shakespeare’s “Henry V” describing the trappings of kingship, including

the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921): "Danse Baccanale” from “Samson et Dalila” The composer was a dedicated world traveler who took inspiration from the places he visited. It’s hard to know how much of his 1874 trip to Algiers wound up in the lush exoticism of the Act III Temple of Dagon orgy scene from his 1876 opera, but it certainly packs a great dramatic punch, especially in the ecstatic coda.

Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990): "Lonely Town” from “Three Dance Episodes from On the Town.” The first and last movements from the composer’s first stage hit are brash and pure Broadway, albeit with some sophisticated harmonies and polyrhythms that weren't typical of the Great White Way back then. The “Lonely Town” second movement, on the other hand, sets a more elegiac and wistful mood, with muted trumpet over clarinets and strings.

Johann Strauss, Jr. (1825 – 1899): “Frühlingsstimmen” (“Voices of Spring”). It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without at least one Strauss waltz. This one was written with an optional coloratura vocal line and while I’m not sure which version we’ll hear on Tuesday (there’s no soprano soloist listed, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a surprise guest star in the wings), I couldn’t resist including the vocal version in the play list, especially since the singer is the celebrated Kathleen Battle (b. 1948) and the recording is from the 1987 New Year’s Eve concert in Vienna. Prosit!

José Serebrier (b. 1938): Selections from the  “Carmen Symphony in Twelve Scenes.” Since I have no idea which selections will be on the program (although I’ll be amazed if it doesn’t conclude with the “Gypsy Dance”), I have included all twelve in my play list. This 2004 suite is more properly a collection of orchestral excerpts from Bizet’s opera than a symphony, although it does follow the arc of the plot. Serebrier makes minimal changes in Bizet’s original score, although he has assigned the original vocal lines to instruments in the same ranges. Carmen’s famous “Habanera,” for example, is sung by the alto sax and Escamillo’s “Toreador” is assigned to the trombone.

Serebrier is best known as a conductor rather than a composer (although his catalog of compositions is sizeable), so I have included his own recording of the work with the Orquestra Simfonica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya in my playlist.

It’s likely that there will be additions to the program on Tuesday night, probably including an “Auld Lang Syne” sing-along, but we’ll have to wait until then to find out.

The regular concert season resumes on January 10 and 11 as Opera Theatre’s Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari leads the orchestra in music by Dvořák and Samuel Barber, along with the world premiere of the Accordion Concerto by composer and multi-instrumentalist Nina Shekhar with Hanzhi Wang as the soloist. Check out the SLSO web site for details.

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

Review: An entertaining evening of opera encores closes out the SLSOs season

What’s better than having the full St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) back on stage for an evening of “Operatic Encores”? Well, how about having free beer and pretzels in the lobby beforehand, courtesy of Schlafly and Gus’s, respectively?

Daniela Candillari, who just finished conducting the “New Works, Bold Voices Lab” at Opera Theatre last week, was on the podium on Thursday (June 24) for this entertaining traversal of works by a diverse group of composers, including one—Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799)—who was the first known black composer of Western classical music. That was a St. Louis premiere, as was the “Entr’acte Sevillana” from Jules Massenet’s “Don César de Bazan.” Candillari found the piece in the SLSO library where it had sat, unperformed, since 1918.

The evening got off to fine start with an energetic performance of the overture to Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” Candillari’s opera house experience is extensive, and it showed in her ability to bring out all the drama here and elsewhere in the program.

Erin Schreiber takes a curtain call on April 23rd

Up next was the 1883 “Carmen Fantasy” by the Spanish violinist/composer Pablo de Sarasate. Sarasate's skill was legendary, and this mini-violin concerto assembled out of themes from Bizet's opera bristles with technical challenges, including an elaborately ornamented version of the famous “Habanera” and the insanely fast finale, based on the Act II “Danse bohème.” The soloist was Assistant Concertmaster Erin Schreiber, who brought down the house with Ravel’s “Tzigane” in April.

Needless to say, she did it again Thursday night. Her playing of the harmonics in the opening Allegro moderato were impressively clear, she had a fine singing tone in the Lento assai, and she handled the flashy finale with stunning precision. Her concentration was intense and her communication with Candillari was close. She earned every bit of her standing ovation.

Schreiber also has a keen understanding of the visual aspect of musical performance, as have many of the great virtuosos of the past. Paganini, for example, famously dressed entirely in black. Schreiber’s color of choice is apparently red, often matching her blood-red violin with bright red gowns that reflect the music being played. This time around, she wore a long, high-necked dress with marked Spanish elements (most prominently lace).  A solo performance is, like it or not, a form of theatre, and costume choice is an important part of that.

Next was the brief and moving prelude to Act III of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” with its fleeting recollections of earlier melodies and the descending motif that anticipates Violetta’s death, all played with great sensitivity by the strings. The mood shifted to the jocular with the overture to Bologne’s only surviving opera, “L’amant anonyme” (“The Anonymous Lover”). It’s an appealing piece, with a jolly opening theme reminiscent of Haydn.

Two works by Jules Massenet were next, beginning with the familiar “Meditation” from Massenet's 1894 operatic potboiler "Thaïs." In the opera it accompanies a wordless scene in which the titular courtesan contemplates abandoning her sybaritic life to join the Cenobite monk Athanaël in the desert. The solo violin and harp are prominently featured, and those roles were filled expertly and with compelling passion by Second Associate Concertmaster Celeste Golden Boyer and Principal Harp Allegra Lilly.

Next was “Entr’acte Sevillana”—brief, colorful, and engaging, with a flute part that anticipates the “Castillane” from his “Le Cid” ballet neatly done by Associate Principal Andrea Kaplan and company.

It was back to familiar territory with the three closing works, starting with the overture to Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”), the 1791 Masonic-tinged singspiel (the 18th-century equivalent of a Broadway musical) that would prove to be his last completed work for the stage. The three solemn opening chords were especially stately under Candillari’s baton, and the ingeniously constructed Allegro was delivered with meticulous verve.

Next was the justifiably popular “Intermezzo” from Pietro Mascagni’s one and only hit “Cavalleria rusticana.” The title is usually translated as “Rustic Chivalry,” although that hardly does justice to the opera’s lurid verismo tale of seduction, betrayal, and murder. Thursday night’s performance was romantic enough to make one swoon, which I nearly did; well done.

The evening came to a lively conclusion with the excessively familiar overture to Rossini’s “William Tell.” The opera is rarely performed because of its length and vocal demands, but the overture is another story, especially the stirring “March of the Swiss Guards” that concludes it. Thank you, Lone Ranger.

Daniela Candillari conducting
daniellacandillari.com

In any case, Candillari led the orchestra in a powerful reading of it. The opening “Dawn” section was beautifully done by Principal Cello Daniel Lee, Associate Principal Melissa Brooks, and the double basses under Assistant Principal Christopher Carson. The famous “Storm” sequence had great impact, followed by a perfect English horn and flute duet by Cally Banham and (I assume) Andrea Kaplan, respectively.

The “March” was, of course, a Certified Rouser and an appropriate finish to a crowd-pleasing evening. Credit Candillari’s impressive conducting for that, with its abundance of fire and attention to detail, along with the usual fine playing by the members of the band. It has been quite a while since they were all able to assemble like this, but you wouldn’t have known that from the quality of the performance.

Candillari’s informal and informative comments on the music also added to the easygoing charm of the evening.

The concert opened with a big “thank you” from orchestra CEO Marie-Hélène Bernard and Principal English Horn Cally Banham, who is also the musician representative on the board. They bade a fond farewell to three members of the orchestra who are retiring at the end of the season: Music Librarian Elsbeth Brugger, Principal Flute Mark Sparks, and percussionist and cymbal virtuoso Thomas Stubbs, who has been with the orchestra for half a century.

Mr. Stubbs’s work on his principal instrument can be heard for the next few weeks at the SLSO web site in the spectacular Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 that was originally performed in 2017 and rebroadcast on June 12th on St. Louis Public Radio. The cymbal part in the finale is insanely fast and Stubbs’s performance is nothing short of heroic.

The special “Operatic Encores” concert marked the end of the current season, but tickets are now on sale for the first part of the 21/22 season at the SLSO website. The orchestra will be up to full strength and Powell Hall will be operating at a minimum of 50% capacity, depending on what happens with the pandemic.  Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and get our shots if haven’t already done so, OK?

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