Symphony Review: The SLSO lights up the new year

The annual New Year’s Eve concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has always been a festive occasion and this year was no exception. Indeed, the mix of elegance and entertainment former SLSO Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress brought was particularly welcome for many of us who view the coming few years with more than a little apprehension. As it says in John 1:5, “the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.”

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

This year the theme was “dance music from around the world,” and while that description turned out to be a bit of a stretch, the results spoke for themselves. The important thing is that the evening was bright, balanced, and good-humored—everything, in short, that it needed to be.

Steven Franklin
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

There were certainly more than enough dance-inspired pieces. The concert opened with a lively yet nuanced “Slavonic Dance No. 1” by Dvořák and was followed by the sparkling overture to Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet with (to quote Mr. Gilbert) “gaily tripping, lightly skipping” playing in the upper woodwinds.

Next was Anna Clyne’s 2013 “Masquerade,” a raucously cheerful work that felt like an exponentially more sophisticated take on the ground covered in Ketelby’s “Bank Holiday (‘appy ‘amstead).” It’s a wild sonic mashup that demands (and got) precise playing by the orchestra.

Clyne is one of those composers who can be profound OR playful as her whimsy takes her—an enviable skill, to say the least. Her music has often been heard at the SLSO, which will present the world premiere of her multi-media work “PALETTE” on Valentine’s Day weekend.

SLSO Principal Trumpet Steven Franklin and Principal Trombone Jonathan Randazzo were the soloists in a 2024 orchestral expansion of Joseph Turrin’s 2000 “Fandango” for trumpet, trombone, and concert bands. There’s flashy stuff here (close harmony and tricky double-tonguing, just for starters) that was played with a brilliance matching the soloists’ sequined tuxedos. Indeed, this is the first time I can recall a soloist’s wardrobe getting applause before the music even starts. Very New Year’s Eve, that.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s orchestration of his kitschy solo piano bonbon “Valse de la Reine” (“The Queen’s Waltz”) offered a charming, easy-on-the-ears interlude between “Fandango” and the rousing Act I closer, Walton’s sweeping, patriotic “Crown Imperial (Coronation March).”

Composed for the coronation of King George VI in 1937, the piece is very much in the “Pomp and Circumstance” tradition with a fast opening tune and a broad, ceremonial march that makes its first appearance in the trio and returns in the big, all-stops-out coda. I first encountered this piece in the Frederick Fennell/Eastman Wind Ensemble Mercury recording of W. J. Duthoit’s band arrangement back in the 1960s and was impressed by the difficulty of some of the wind writing, particularly for the horns. The SLSO horn section got a richly deserved ovation for their performance Tuesday night.

The second half opened with "Danse Baccanale” from Camille Saint-Saëns’s 1876 opera “Samson et Dalila.” It opens quietly enough with a melismatic  oboe solo, sinuously delivered by Jelena Dirks, before moving quickly to the dance proper. It all builds to an appropriately orgiastic finale marked “Di piú in piú animato” (“more and more animated”), which conductors often interpret as “as fast as is humanly possible.” Certainly that’s what Childress gave us in this performance and while it was thrilling, it also felt as though it was all in danger of going off the rails at times. It never did, of course, but it made for a wild ride.

Jonathan Randazzo
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

Next was a bit of pure frivolity not listed in the program and introduced by Childress (accurately, IMO) as “the gooey butter cake of American light music”: Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter.” It is, as far as I know, the only work out there for typewriter and orchestra. The soloists (one for the typewriter and one for the bell) are usually members of the percussion section but this time both roles were taken by none other than Childress herself.

A gutsy move, that, considering (silly as this may sound) the difficulty of the typewriter part. It’s mostly eighth notes with an Allegro vivace tempo marking, and there are points at which both the typewriter and bell have to be hit simultaneously. That didn’t always happen at this concert, but it was all such good fun that nobody (including me) really cared. As Childress wryly commented afterwards, this was proof that the SLSO could play some pieces without a conductor.

A more lyrical interlude followed with the bluesy “Lonely Town” movement from Bernstein’s “On the Town,” featuring the wistful muted trumpet of (I think) Michael Walk, followed by the mandatory Strauss waltz. Not the well-worn “Blue Danube” this time but rather slightly less famous (but no less infectious) “Frülingsstimmen” (“Voices of Spring”). The latter got a properly Viennese treatment, complete with that slight accent on the second beat, from Childress and the band.

Bringing the official program to a satisfying close were four movements from the 2004 “Carmen Symphony” by noted conductor/composer José Serebrier. Childress said that she wanted to include something operatic because it was opera that introduced her to SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève—undoubtedly an event worth celebrating for both them and us.

More of a suite than a symphony, Serebrier’s score makes minimal changes in Bizet’s original. Mostly, he has assigned the original vocal lines to instruments in the same ranges. Escamillo’s “Toreador,” for example, is assigned to the trombone and the horns, who played with properly heroic swagger. The selections from the suite concluded with the fiery “Gypsy Dance” from Bizet’s Act II. Like Saint-Saëns’s “Baccanale,” it’s a real crowd pleaser that cranks up the speed and volume in its final moments.

This being New Year’s Eve, of course, the end of the printed program wasn’t the end of the show. Childress and the orchestra returned for Kabalevsky’s “Saber Dance” and, as always, the sing-along of “Auld Lang Syne.”

As she did the last time she conducted the SLSO New Year’s Eve concert back in 2022, Stephanie Childress impressed with her easy-going stage presence and impeccable musical taste. I hope we will see and hear more of her here in the coming years.

The regular concert season 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. 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.

Symphony Review: Childress scores a palpable hit in her first New Year's Eve concert with the SLSO

Every Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra goes through at least two rites of passage. The first and most obvious is their first regular season concert with the band. The second is the first New Year’s Eve concert. Stephanie Childress, our current AC, got her first shot at the latter last Saturday and it was, to quote The Bard out of context, “a hit, a very palpable hit.”

It's worth noting that while the New Year’s Eve concert requires the same conducting skills as the regular season, it also demands the ability to take on the role of Master of Ceremonies. That’s not necessarily a role with which all conductors are comfortable, and not all of the SLSOs previous ACs have been equally at home in it. Childress, however, was thoroughly engaging and won the audience over from the very start with a cheerful and unassuming stage presence. Coupled with the high-energy performance of the overture to Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 operetta “Candide” that opened the proceedings, it got things off with a bang that no amount of ordnance could match.

Over the decades “Candide” has been revised more often than George Santos’s biography but the overture has emerged unscathed, and with good reason. It’s a certified rouser with lots of flash and some showy stuff for the horns, played with real relish by Roger Kaza and company. But then, truth be told, the whole band sounded great on Saturday.

Stephanie Childress
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

The ”Candide” overture was one of three Bernstein works on a program that prominently featured American composers in general and American theatre composers in particular. That gave the proceedings more of a “pops” feel than has sometimes been the case in the past, but as a musical theatre lover I could hardly complain. Besides, any concert that includes such a virtuoso delivery of the rhythmically complex “Mambo” from “West Side Story” has my vote. Percussionists Alan Stewart, Kevin Ritenauer, Sasha Luthy, and Kim Shelley certainly distinguished themselves here. Ditto Principal Timpani Shannon Wood.

The Broadway orientation also gave the vocal soloists a chance to strut their stuff. Tenor Jeff Kready and soprano Mikaela Bennett (whom many of you will likely remember from her Muny appearances) have solid musical theatre backgrounds and put them to good use in both their solos and duets.

Kready’s “Younger Than Springtime” (from “South Pacific”) had plenty of naïve romance, Bennet’s “I Could Have Danced All Night” (from “My Fair Lady”) had a power and clarity that made her mic irrelevant, and both were appropriately rapturous in the “Tonight” balcony scene from “West Side Story.” I also enjoyed their “You’re the Top” from “Anything Goes,” although I would have liked it even more had they sung more than just the first two of Porter’s witty verses. Unfortunately, the staging of their duets had Bennett’s face turned away from a good third of the audience, but her strong theatrical presence offered some compensation.

Let me not leave you with the impression that the usual classics were slighted, however. Childress’s finely paced version of “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” included many subtle touches that made it more than simply a collection of dance tunes, and her performance of the “Nimrod” movement from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” taken at a tempo that was closer to Largo than the Moderato marked in the score, simply oozed with lush romanticism. I don’t know whether or not that tempo would work within the context of a complete performance (Childress will be conducting one this April), but as a palate cleanser between “You’re the Top” and a lively trio of dances from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” it was spot on.

That trio consisted of the familiar “Polonaise” (taken at a brisk tempo that probably would have challenged dancers but provided no obstacle for the SLSO musicians) and the “Waltz” followed by the far less familiar “Écossaise” (a fast 2/4 number in the style of a Scottish country dance). I don’t think I’ve ever heard it outside of the opera, which made it a nice surprise, especially when played with such brio and punch. The attempt to turn a secondary tune from the “Waltz” into a sing-along did seem a bit odd, however.

The concert closed with the “Galop Infernal” (more widely known as the “Can-Can”) from the overture to Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld” and the traditional sing-along of “Auld Lang Syne,” played (as usual) in a key that’s not friendly to us bass-baritones. But after a glass or two of Cava from the Met Bar, who cares, really?

Next at Powell Hall: Pianist Alice Sara Ott makes her SLSO debut with Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. Cristian Măcelaru is the guest conductor in a program that also includes the third of Saint-Saëns’s three “Tableaux symphoniques” from his incidental music for the play “La foi,” and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1. Performances are Saturday at 10:30 am and 8 pm, January 14. The Saturday evening concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classical 107.3.

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

Symphony Digital Review: Scenes from childhood

“Spring work,” wrote famed naturalist John Muir, “is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” By that standard, there is over an hour of spring work on display in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) digital concert that’s available for on-demand streaming through July 24th, 2021.

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

Recorded at Powell Hall April 9-11 and originally reviewed by me back then, the concert features the SLSO’s newly appointed Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress leading the SLSO strings in a cheerfully blooming program of music by Britten, Dvořák, and contemporary British composer Sally Beamish.

Stephanie Childress conducts Britten

As Ms. Childress notes in her introductory comments, the common thread among the three works is childhood. Britten used tunes recycled from his youthful compositions (he began writing at the age of 5) in his “Simple Symphony”; Dvořák’s “Serenade for Strings” was inspired, in part, by the birth of his first child; and Beamish dedicated “The Day Dawn” to her friend Christine McKemmie, whose daughter Zoe had just died. “[T]he piece symbolizes new beginnings,” she wrote, “recalling the sense of calm Chris felt on the day of the funeral, dawning bright after a week of rain.”

Originally written with student ensembles in mind (and when the composer himself was only 20), Britten’s symphony is, in indeed, simple enough for both young audiences and performers, but it’s also sophisticated enough to appeal to adults. And in the hands of a polished professional ensemble like the SLSO strings, it yields delightful details of wit and nuance that might escape less experienced players.

This is very apparent in Ms. Childress’s interpretation, which brings out the rambunctious fun of the “Boisterous Bourrée” first movement, delivers delicate and cheerful precision in the “Playful Pizzicato” second, and is sweetly nostalgic in the “Sentimental Sarabande.” A lively romp through he “Frolicsome Finale” brings the entire business to a most successful conclusion. Indeed, the echoes of that last movement continued to frolic in my memory for days afterwards.

Celeste Golden Boyer and Eric Schreiber

Beamish’s “The Day Dawn” is a more serious affair for a larger ensemble (around 40 players, twice the size of the Britten symphony) and with a degree of musical detail that can be both heard and seen clearly in the HD video. Opening with an early spring sunrise in the low strings followed by a pop-up thunderstorm and a return to sylvan tranquility, it’s a richly evocative piece that conjures up images of the Scottish highlands and the Shetland islands that provided the work’s titular folk tune.

That tune is heard most clearly in the dramatic central section and again at the very end, played simply and sweetly by violinists Celeste Golden Boyer and Erin Schreiber in a close-up shot that makes it easy to admire their concentration. But it seems to me that the tune lies at the heart of the sonically layered and richly contrapuntal body of the work as well. The orchestra plays it with heart and polish under Ms. Childress’s sympathetic direction.

Dvořák’s Op. 22 “Serenade,” which dates from May 1875, concludes the program. It’s a work that has always been a favorite of mine and, based on her video comments, a favorite of Ms. Childress’s as well. Certainly her reading of it was loving and finely shaded—clearly the product of someone attuned to the sunny springtime mood that permeates the serenade’s five melody-saturated movements.

That said, there are times when I find her approach perhaps a bit too loving and lyrical. I would have preferred a brisker tempo in the Moderato opening movement, for example, and a bit less lingering over the poetic trio section of the Tempo di valse second movement. There is, on the other hand, a bracing energy to both the Scherzo and the final Allegro vivace as well as real beauty in the sentimental Larghetto, so on the whole I can’t complain. It’s a fine performance, and perfectly played by all concerned.

Stephanie Childress

This was Stephanie Childress’s debut as a conductor (she appeared as a violin soloist with the orchestra March 26-28), and it was intriguing to watch her at work when I saw the original concert of April 9. Her podium style was elegant and precise, neither flamboyant nor overly reserved. I had the sense that she felt great confidence in the expertise of her orchestra and was content to simply keep them moving in the direction they had already carefully rehearsed. The video close-ups of her strongly reinforce those initial impressions.

London Symphony violinist Hugh Bean once opined that conducting “is the strongest evidence I’ve yet seen that telepathy, in one form or another, exists.” Seeing Ms. Childress in action, I’m inclined to agree.

Available through July 24, this is the first in a summer series of digital recordings of concerts by the SLSO from this past spring. If you missed them live, this is a golden opportunity to see them in the comfort of your own home. For more information, visit the SLSO web site.

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

Review: Stephanie Childress makes her SLSO conducting debut with a spring in her step

“Spring work,” wrote famed naturalist John Muir, “is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” By that standard, there was over an hour of spring work on display at Powell Hall last weekend (April 9-11) as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s newly appointed Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress led the SLSO strings in a cheerfully blooming program of music for strings by Britten, Dvořák, and contemporary British composer Sally Beamish.

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

As Ms. Childress noted in her introductory chat with the audience, the common thread among the three works was childhood. Britten used tunes recycled from his youthful compositions (he began writing at the age of 5) in his “Simple Symphony”; Dvořák’s “Serenade for Strings” was inspired, in part, by the birth of his first child; and Beamish dedicated “The Day Dawn” to her friend Christine McKemmie, whose daughter Zoe had just died. “[T]he piece symbolizes new beginnings,” she wrote, “recalling the sense of calm Chris felt on the day of the funeral, dawning bright after a week of rain.”

Originally written with student ensembles in mind (and when the composer himself was only 20), Britten’s symphony is, in indeed, simple enough for both young audiences and performers, but it’s also sophisticated enough to appeal to adults. And in the hands of a polished professional ensemble like the SLSO strings, it yields delightful details of wit and nuance that might escape less experienced players.

Stephanie Childress
stephaniechildress.com

This was very apparent in Ms. Childress’s interpretation, which brought out the rambunctious fun of the “Boisterous Bourrée” first movement, delivered delicate and cheerful precision in the “Playful Pizzicato” second, and was sweetly nostalgic in the “Sentimental Sarabande.” A lively romp through he “Frolicsome Finale” brought the entire business to a most successful conclusion. Indeed, the echoes of that last movement continued to frolic in my memory for days afterwards.

Beamish’s “The Day Dawn” is a more serious affair for a larger ensemble (around 40 players, twice the size of the Britten symphony) and with a degree of musical detail that made me glad I was seated close enough to the band to hear it all clearly. Opening with an early spring sunrise in the low strings followed by a pop-up thunderstorm and a return to sylvan tranquility, it’s a richly evocative piece that conjures up images of the Scottish highlands and the Shetland islands that provided the work’s titular folk tune.

That tune is heard most clearly in the dramatic central section and again at the very end, played simply and sweetly by violinists Celeste Golden Boyer and Erin Schreiber, but it seems to me that it lies at the heart of the sonically layered and richly contrapuntal body of the work as well. The orchestra played it with heart and polish under Ms. Childress’s sympathetic direction.

Dvořák’s Op. 22 “Serenade” concluded the program. It’s a work that has always been a favorite of mine and, based on her pre-concert comments, a favorite of Ms. Childress’s as well. Certainly her reading of it was loving and finely shaded—clearly the product of someone attuned to the sunny springtime mood (the work was completed in May 1875)—that permeates the serenade’s five melody-saturated movements.

That said, there were times when I found her approach perhaps a bit too loving and lyrical. I would have preferred a brisker tempo in the Moderato opening movement, for example, and a bit less lingering over the poetic trio section of the Tempo di valse second movement. There was, on the other hand, a bracing energy to both the Scherzo and the final Allegro vivace as well as real beauty in the sentimental Larghetto, so on the whole I can’t complain. It was a fine performance, and perfectly played by all concerned.

This was Stephanie Childress’s debut as a conductor (she appeared as a violin soloist with the orchestra March 26-28), and it was intriguing to watch her at work. Her podium style was elegant and precise, neither flamboyant nor overly reserved. I had the sense that she felt great confidence in the expertise of her orchestra and was content to simply keep them moving in the direction they had already carefully rehearsed.

London Symphony violinist Hugh Bean once opined that conducting “is the strongest evidence I’ve yet seen that telepathy, in one form or another, exists.” Seeing Ms. Childress in action, I’m inclined to agree.

Next at Powell Hall: Ms. Childress returns Friday at 11:30 am, Saturday at 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm, April 16-18, to conduct Luigi Boccherini’s “Overture in D major,” Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” (K.364), and the third of Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances” suites. Only 300 tickets will be sold for each performance and strict health protocols will be in place. For more information, visit the SLSO web site.

Meanwhile, the SLSO’s digital concert series continues with on-demand performances of “Night Music” (which I reviewed on March 31) through April 24 and “The Heart of the Matter” through May 8.