Review: "Music You Know" brightens a gloomy night

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

Gerard Pagano (L) and the St. Louis Symphony Trombones

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It was damp and gloomy outside Friday night (April 28) but inside Powell Hall it was all light and cheer as David Robertson conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a festive romp through the last of the Whitaker Foundation's "Music You Know" concerts.

Launched back in November 2014, the "Music You Know" series features familiar classics often mixed with new but highly approachable works. This edition followed the same pattern, but with one charming wrinkle: the first music heard Friday night—the "Sword Dance" from Arbeau's Orchésographie, in a simplified arrangement by Bob Phillips—was played not by the SLSO but by one of the participants in the Symphony in Your School program: the Jennings Jr. High School string orchestra, conducted by their director, James McKay. Preceded by a video in which Mr. McKay, some of the players, and the ensemble's SLSO mentors reflected on the joy of their shared experience, the brief piece was an inspiring beginning to a highly enjoyable evening.

The SLSO part of the program began with a performance of the overture to Carl Maria von Weber's 1821 opera Der Freischütz that emphasized the work's dark and dramatic themes while still delivering an appropriate rousing finale. An unfortunate moment in the first entrance by the horns not withstanding, it was well played, with fine individual contributions, like the clarinet solo leading into the first statement of the big second theme.

Next up was a the premiere of The Arch, a concerto written for SLSO bass trombonist Gerard Pagano by James Stephenson and inspired by the Gateway Arch. Accompanied by a series of slides showing the construction of the arch, this listener-friendly work was a reminder of a time when America was brimming with courageous postwar optimism. The contrast with our current climate of paranoia and pessimism was both stark and sad. Mr. Pagano's performance was inspirational, though, and earned him a standing ovation.

The first half of the concert concluded with one of my favorite marches, William Walton's Crown Imperial. Intended for the coronation of Edward VIII—who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson before the ceremony could take place—it was finally played to mark the ascension of George VI. It's a certified rouser, with a broad, noble second theme and an inspiring finale. Mr. Robertson and the orchestra gave it an appropriately powerful reading, with an especially high-gloss treatment of that second theme.

Julie Thayer

The second half of the program opened with a leisurely stroll through Mendelssohn's 1830 musical postcard from Scotland, the Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture. This is vividly evocative music, and while Mr. Robertson's more relaxed treatment didn't always deliver that sense of the wild, storm-tossed Scottish coast, it did feature some exemplary playing, including Scott Andrews and Tina Ward in the important clarinet parts. And Mr. Robertson's approach certainly brought out the strong dramatic contrasts in the score.

A beautifully delicate performance of Debussy's Clair de lune (in the popular André Caplet orchestration) was next, featuring Allegra Lilly's gossamer harp, followed by a real rarity: an orchestration of the 1964 Nocturno for horn and piano by Franz Strauss, father of the celebrated composer Richard. A virtuoso player in his own right, Franz (as Mr. Robertson pointed out in his prefatory remarks) showed Richard what the instrument was capable of—which explains the very challenging horn writing in so many of the younger Strauss's works. The SLSO's own Julie Thayer was the soloist, in a performance that was the auditory equivalent of liquid gold.

The concerts concluded with a bold and fiery run through another musical souvenir, Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien. Written during a visit to Rome in the winter and spring of 1880, the Capriccio shows the composer in an exuberant and dramatic mood. From the opening fanfare (inspired by the bugle calls from the nearby military barracks that woke the composer up every morning), to the irresistible tunes informed by Italian folk songs, to the rousing and dramatic coda, this is the kind of stuff that inevitably brings an audience to its feet—which it certainly did Friday night.

“Tchaikovsky knows what the instruments can do in a virtuoso way," observed conductor JoAnn Falletta in program notes for a 2011 Virginia Symphony performance of the Capriccio. "He brings them to their limit in the most thrilling fashion." And "thrilling" is exactly what Friday night's performance was, with exceptional playing from everyone and a perfectly shaped interpretation from Mr. Robertson. It was an immensely pleasing way to end the evening and the current "Music You Know" series.

Next at Powell Hall: David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and vocal soloists in a concert version of Richard Wagner's opera Der Fliegende Holländer better known in English as The Flying Dutchman, with projected visuals by S. Katy Tucker. Performances are Thursday and Saturday, May 4 and 6, at 8 p.m. at Powell Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Concert review: Beethoven premieres show off the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Friday and Saturday, January 23 and 24, 2015

David Robertson

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by David Robertson
What: An all-Beethoven concert
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: Friday and Saturday, January 23 and 24, 2015

If the 1807 premiere of Beethoven's "Mass in C major" at the court of Prince Nikolaus Esterházy had been as good as the performance we got from David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Friday night, the prince might have been less of a jerk with the composer afterwards.

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

As it was, the shoddy effort by an ill-prepared and apathetic chorus left the prince baffled. "My dear Beethoven," he remarked, "what have you written there?" Beethoven was not amused, and it would be a number of years before the work began to gain a following.

Even so, it has never gotten the same attention as Beethoven's other major choral works—especially the earlier "Christus am Ölberge," ("Christ on the Mount of Olives") and the later "Missa Solemnis"—and this weekend's performances were the first by the SLSO. Which makes the high quality of what we heard Friday night that much more impressive.

The chorus carries most of the burden in the mass, and Amy Kaiser's forces were more than equal to the occasion, displaying that mix of power and finesse that I have come to expect from them. This was especially apparent in the "Credo," the longest and most elaborate of the five sections and the dramatic heart of the work. It's a remarkably exuberant declaration of faith from a man who was not necessarily all that devout, and the symphony choristers gave it a thrilling reading. They were equally at home in the more lyrical passages, especially the hushed "donna nobis pacem" that concludes the sometimes stormy "Agnus dei."

The score calls for four soloists, but they serve a mostly ancillary role, adding decoration and emphasis. That said, we had a quartet of very solid voices here in the persons of soprano Kate Reimann, mezzo-soprano Johanna Nordhorn, tenor Keith Boyer, and bass-baritone Jeffrey Heyl. All four are chorus members as well as familiar figures on the local opera and concert scene, and acquitted themselves well.

There was wonderful work from the orchestra here also. There are some important and very exposed solo passages in the "Agnus Dei," and they came through with wonderful clarity Friday night.

The other big Beethoven piece on the program was the genial "Symphony No. 8" in F major, Op. 83. Written at the same time as the more popular and flashy Seventh, the symphony is, in the words of the Philadelphia Orchestra's Christopher H. Gibbs, "a shorter, lighter, and far more good-humored work than its imposing neighbors, the relentless Seventh and the towering Ninth." Listening to this witty and playful music, it's hard to believe that it was written at a time when the composer was embroiled in an ugly and ultimately futile quarrel with his brother over the latter's love life.

Here, as in the "Mass" Mr. Robertson appeared to have incorporated some of the ideas of the HIP (Historically Informed Performance) set into his approach to "big band" Beethoven. Aside from the tympani (which appeared to be reproductions of the kind of smaller drum Beethoven would have recognized) the instruments were all modern and the ensemble was larger than it would have been in Beethoven's time, but the performances had the kind of snap and drive that I tend to associate with guys like Roger Norrington. I have heard this same influence in the past—most recently in his Mozart "Jupiter" last week. As a fan of the HIP approach, I'm all for it.

Mr. Robertson seemed especially in tune with the whimsical spirit of the Eighth symphony. I'm all for that as well.

The concerts opened with a truly rara avis, the "Three Equali for Four Trombones," written at the request of Franz Xaver Glöggl, the music director of the Linz Cathedral, for an All Soul's Day celebration in 1812. They constitute, in the words of New York Philharmonic annotator James M. Keller, "one of the most curious items in [Beethoven's] entire catalogue." The three short chorales gave four members of the SLSO trombone section a rare chance to take the spotlight, and they delivered the goods.

As an old trombone player myself I am, I suppose, a bit biased, but I must admit that it was a pleasure to hear the precision with which Timothy Myers, Amanda Stewart, Jonathan Reycraft, and bass trombonist Gerard Pagano (who could easily win a G.B Shaw look-like contest) played and even breathed in unison. Yes, I know the two go together, but it's still marvelous to see.

Next at Powell Hall: The regular season continues next week as Nicholas McGegan conducts the orchestra in a program of music by the Johann Sebastian Bach family on Friday at 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m., January 30 and 31. Soloists are Andrea Kaplan and Jennifer Nitchman, flutes; Jelena Dirks and Philip Ross, oboe; Asako Kuboki and Ann Fink, violin; and Melissa Brooks, cello. The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.