"For me, it starts with a vision": Part 4 of a conversation with Stéphane Denève

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) may have suspended its current season because of the COVID-19 threat, but the 2020/2021 season is scheduled to go forward as usual. In February, I sat down with SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève to talk about the new season. Here's the fourth and last installment of that four-part conversation, with minor edits for clarity.

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CL (Chuck Lavazzi): What other things in the upcoming season are you really excited about and that we haven't touched on yet?

Hilary Hahn

SD (Stéphane Denève): I have never spent so much time with any other orchestra putting together a season as I have here. With most other orchestras you're just responsible for your own concerts and don't do the rest. But here there's a feeling that you need to address every community. So I'm excited by every program. Because you have to combine so many different ideas and put it all together in a way that makes sense. So I just love every program.

Of course, the two-week "His Story. Her Story. Our Future." concert pair in November is very meaningful. I hope there will be a lot of interaction with the audience on that.

[Note: Per the SLSO press release, "History. Her Story. Our Future." explores influential historical female figures through works including John Adams's "Lola Montez Does the Spider Dance" from Golden Girls of the West, Berlioz's The Death of Cleopatra, Saint-Saëns' Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah, selections from Bizet's opera Carmen, "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Strauss's opera Salome, Schmitt's The Tragedy of Salome Suite, and the SLSO's first performances of Arthur Honegger's monumental oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake. The festival also will include talks, special events, and additional concerts: SLSO Crafted, Live at the Pulitzer, the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra--all designed to encourage a dialogue with audiences to help understand the past and shape the future."]

One thing we didn't speak about is the number of great soloists next season. We start the season with [violinist] Hilary Hahn and we have big names like [pianist] Leif Ove Andsnes. And we have current friends of the orchestra like [pianists] Emanuel Ax, Kirill Gerstein, and Hélène Grimaud. Also five musicians from our orchestra will be featured.

Beatrice Rana

CL: One name I was especially happy to see on the roster was Beatrice Rana. I saw her at the Cliburn Competition and I thought she should have taken first place, personally.

SD: Well, competitions are always unfair one way or another. But, yeah, she's great. I'm happy she is making her debut here. She is also making a European debut in Brussels. So I will collaborate with her a lot next season. I hope this will be the start of a relationship with the orchestra.

CL: And she's doing the Prokofiev Third Concerto, which is just a beast of a piece to play.

SD: Yes, it's impossible, but she can do it. I recently listened to her recording of the Prokofiev Second Concerto and it's really good. She can really play.

Another thing I'm proud about as well with the next season is that in spite of being so focused on the narrative and the theme there's still something for everyone. There are great symphonies by Mozart, Beethoven's Second and Fifth symphonies, and the Mahler Third. You have the big pieces that everybody loves like Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" and Stravinsky's "Firebird." But they're always paired with some new music.

[Note: the program includes 19 new pieces, 18 of which will be local premieres.]

And James Macmillan, who is a friend of mine, is coming here to conduct a program of his own music. So all the big pieces are there but when we do "Scheherazade," for example, we will pair it with a new piece by Tan Dun ["Nu Shu: The Secret Songs of Women"]. It's a very special multi-media piece. It will include Chinese women singing on-screen and interacting with the orchestra and with harp soloist Allegra Lilly. It's a beautiful piece.

CL: That sounds very challenging to produce.

SD: Yeah, it is, but Tan Dun is very smart. He knows how to put things together and he's very good with technology.

Composer Tan Dun

CL: You were talking earlier about assembling the season. What is that process like? How do you do that? Do you get a lot of input from other people?

SD: It's complicated because every season is a different process. For me it starts with a vision of a general theme. And that theme was very clear for me, as I said before, because it comes from the DNA of the orchestra.

When I got hired, I tried to learn about the orchestra. I read about Vladimir Golschmann [SLSO Music Director from 1931 to 1958, the symphony's longest-serving MD] and the different Music Directors over the years. I read and analyzed every program for the last 30 years just to understand the history. I learned many things and one of them was what happened with equality in this orchestra and how it was definitely a leader in that area. So that's what inspired me for the season.

Then it becomes a complicated process. Some you think of [snaps fingers] like that. And some are maybe great but the soloist you want is not free and without that soloist you don't want to do that piece. Or the chorus can do this piece but not that week and so on.

CL: So, a lot of moving parts that all have to be put together.

SD: It's a jigsaw puzzle for sure. And sometimes it's very frustrating because you dream something and then just one details doesn't allow you to do it, so you have to be creative. So this problem often forces you to think "out of the box," but it's great when everything comes together.

I work a lot with [SLSO Vice President-Artistic and Operations] Erik Finley, my "partner in crime," and also with [SLSO President and CEO] Marie-Hélène Bernard who knows a lot about music and is very opinionated, so we discuss a lot about music discuss all of that together. She lets us be very free but she also has a big point of view so we collaborate.

And then suddenly when a program comes together, it's like "yes!" It's very exciting. You feel like you stage a story and then suddenly, boom, it happens.

I really hope the audience will enjoy each concert and that they will be curious to see the resonance among all the different programs. For me curiosity is key, to have people curious for more.

CL: So, engaging them and getting them to think, "well, I liked this, so I wonder what I'll think of that."

SD: Exactly, yes.

As this is being written, the SLSO season is on hiatus because of a COVID-19 lockdown. For current information, visit the SLSO web site.

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

Review: Powerful and idiosyncratic classics by Matthias Pintscher and Kirill Gerstein

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

Matthias Pintscher
Photo by Felix Broede

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The Friday night (February 1) concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was notable for a pair of powerful and somewhat idiosyncratic interpretations of music by Rachmaninoff and Mendelssohn by guest conductor Matthias Pintscher along with a persuasive local premiere of Scriabin's 1897 Piano Concerto by Kirill Gerstein.

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

According to pianist Garrick Ohlsson, Scriabin's son-in-law, the pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky, once observed that the composer's music can "overthrow you emotionally" and that "[y]ou have to have ice cubes in your veins" to handle it. I don't know about the state of his veins, but there's no doubt in my mind that Kirill Gerstein brought just the right mix of steely precision and emotional warmth to his performance of the concerto Friday night.

Scriabin was still very much under the influence of Chopin when he wrote his first and only piano concerto, and Mr. Gerstein brought out that poetic sensibility even in the relatively flashy opening and closing movements. The Andante second movement was especially moving, with its lovely simple theme and four strongly contrasting variations that ran the gamut from fanciful to grave.

The orchestra played extremely well under Mr. Pintscher's direction. A special shout-out is due Associate Principal Clarinet Diana Haskell for her impressive work here. Scriabin provided the clarinet with a number of important passages, especially in the second movement, and Ms. Haskell's limpid tone and clear articulation made the most of them.

Kirill Gerstein
Photo by Marco Borggreve

The performance got an enthusiastic reception, prompting an encore of a waltz by (appropriately enough) Chopin. Taken at an unusually fast tempo, it made for a dazzling showpiece.

The concert opened with a bold and dynamic interpretation of Rachmaninoff's 1909 symphonic poem "Isle of the Dead." Inspired by a popular painting by the Swiss Symbolist Arnold Böcklin that depicts the stark landscape of an island necropolis towards which a white-robed figure is being rowed, the work is dominated by the "Dies Irae" theme that pops up in much of Rachmaninoff's work. It's a haunting and powerful work that got a sweeping and dramatic reading from Mr. Pintscher and the orchestra.

There were outstanding solos by Associate Concertmaster Heidi Harris, Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks, and Principal Flute Mark Sparks. The horn section under Roger Kaza distinguished itself both here and throughout the rest of the evening with a bold, rich sound.

Closing the concert was an unusually dark and weighty take on Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish"), a work that the composer began during an 1829 visit to Scotland and didn't finish until a decade later. Inspired strongly by a visit to what Mendelssohn described as the "broken and mouldering" ruins of Holyrood Chapel in Edinburgh, the symphony certainly has a somberness that is somewhat untypical of Mendelssohn. Even so, Mr. Pintscher's compelling interpretation gave the work more high drama and gravitas than I have heard in the past.

Version 3 of "Island of the Dead"
en.wikipedia.org

The perky second movement (which might or might not paraphrase the folk tune "Charlie is My Darling") sounded even more cheerful than usual by way of contrast, and the hymn-like finale had a bit of lingering solemnity that seems to reflect Mr. Pintscher's description of it (in a program interview with Tim Munro) as a "waving farewell" or "a tombeau" (i.e. a memorial). I wouldn't necessarily call it my favorite take on this familiar music, but it made me hear it in a different way--no small feat for a piece this well worn.

The orchestral playing was of a high order once again, with notable work by Mark Sparks and Jennifer Nitchman on flute, Jelena Dirks and Xiomara Mass on oboe, bassoonists Andrew Cuneo and Felicia Foland, and the horns under Associate Principal Thomas Jöstlein.

As the Music Director of the contemporary music group Ensemble Intercontemporain and a composer of some note, Mr. Pintscher had an interesting and novel take on the Romantic works on the program. His conducting style was active and graceful, with big, commanding gestures. The result was an impressive local debut, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the Powell Hall stage again in the future.

Next week Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève conducts the conducts the orchestra and chorus, along with SLSO Concertmaster David Halen, in Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525, The Lark Ascending and Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams, and the Brahms Symphony No. 2. Performances are Friday at 10:30 am, Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm, February 8-10.

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of July 18, 2016

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The Compton Heights Concert Band presents free Musical Mondays concerts featuring marches, show tunes and classical favorites at Mondays at 7:30 p.m. through August 8. The guest performer this week (July 18) is St. Louis Symphony trombonist Jonathan Reycraft, who will perform Rimski-Korsakov's Trombone Concerto. The concert takes place in Tower Grove Park at the historic Henry Shaw Bandstand. For more information: chband.org.

The Compton Heights Concert Band presents free Sunday Serenades concerts featuring marches, show tunes and classical favorites on Sundays at 7:30 PM through August 7. The guest performer this week (July 24) is soprano and Winter Opera founder Gina Galati. The concerts takes place in Francis Park at Donovan and Eichelberger on the Compton Heights Band's "Carol Joy Brooks Memorial" Stage. For more information: chband.org.

The Gateway Festival Orchestra

The Gateway Festival Orchestra presents Music for the Royals, a free concert on Sunday, July 24, at 7:30 PM. "Enjoy a free live concert by a fifty-piece professional orchestra. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket for relaxing on the grass in beautiful Brookings Quadrangle on the campus of Washington University. Parking is free and plentiful. Ted Drewes Frozen Custard is available for purchase, and children receive an attendance prize." The program includes music by Handel Mozart, Beethoven and Rodgers and Hammerstein. The concert takes place at the Brookings Quadrangle on the Washington University campus. For more information: www.gatewayfestivalorchestra.org.

The University City Summer Band presents a concert on Tuesday, July 19, at 7 p.m. "Concerts last about 80 minutes, and include a short intermission. Seating is on the lawn. Bring a lawn chair or blanket as available seating is limited. Bring your children! Bring a picnic!" The concert takes place in Heman Park, 1028 Midland in University City. For more information: ucsummerband.org.

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of February 8, 2016

Xufei Yang
Photo: EMI Classics / Paul Mitchell

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The Ethical Society presents a Great Artist Guitar Series concert with Xuefei Yang on Saturday, February 13, at 8 p.m. "Born in Beijing and now based in the UK, she was the first-ever guitarist in China to enter a music school (Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music), and the first Chinese guitarist to launch an international professional career. A master of many styles from baroque to contemporary, Ms. Yang is committed to expanding the guitar repertoire, including the music of China." The performance takes at the Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road. For more information: ethicalstl.org.

The St. Louis Chamber Chorus presents Concert Four: Languish With Love on Sunday, February 14, at 3 p.m. "Music in honor of love is the natural complement for this day. We present Romances by Robert Schumann, Rakastava by Jean Sibelius, and a hymn to Juno, goddess of marriage, by Orlandus Lassus. Our modern masterwork is the passionate Amore Langueo of Francis Pott, which is paired with a commission from Clare Maclean." The concert takes place at Trinity Lutheran Church, 812 Soulard St. in Soulard. For more information: www.chamberchorus.org.

Anibal Diaz Dance With Carmen Morelos
Telemundo studios, Miami

The St. Louis Cultural Flamenco Society presents the Anibal Diaz Dance Company performing a world premier of Argentina-Andalucia, Two Tangos on Saturday, February 13, at 8 p.m. Passion, sensuality, virtuosity and rivalry are elements connecting two cultures in the same staging. Two Tangos, the Argentine Tango and the Flamenco Tango - come to the stage, with the most powerful expression of a New Vision through Dance, where passion and challenge dominate this presentation. Choreography by Anibal Diaz General Directo, Artistic Director Marisel Salascruz. The performance takes place at the Sheldon Concert Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlouisflamenco.org.

The St. Louis Symphony presents Lift Every Voice: A Black History Month Celebration on Friday, February 12, at 7:30 p.m. Join conductor Kevin McBeth, special guest artist Larnelle Harris, and the STL Symphony IN UNISON Chorus to commemorate the legacy of African-American art, music, culture and community. The concert takes place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The St. Louis Symphony presents A Night of Symphonic Rock on Saturday, February 13, at 7:30 p.m. "Bringing the sounds of the Strip to Powell Hall, this concert features the swingin' tunes of the Rat Pack and songs from Vegas icons including Tom Jones, Neil Diamond, Elvis Presley and more. A cast of crooners join the orchestra for this afternoon of romantic favorites including "Luck Be a Lady," "Young at Heart," "The Way You Look Tonight" and more!" The concert takes place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The St. Louis Symphony presents A Las Vegas Valentine's Songbook on Sunday, February 14, at 3 p.m. Kansas' John Elefante joins the STL Symphony for an evening devoted to your favorite classic rock bands this Valentine's Day weekend. With songs from Aerosmith, Foreigner, Journey, Led Zepplin and more, relive generations of classic rock that changed music forever. The concert takes place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Alarm Will Sound

The Sheldon Concert Hall presents the contemporary chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound on Friday, February 12, at 8 PM. "The ensemble performs the newest music being composed today with energetic virtuosity and a sense of adventure, creating programs that not only span a wide range of styles, but also transform the traditional concert experience itself." The Sheldon is at 3648 Washington in Grand Center. For more information: thesheldon.org.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents a classical open stage night on Monday, February 8, from 7:30 - 9 PM. "Come by yourself or bring your quartet. Sight read through a Beethoven quartet or use this as an opportunity to put the finishing touches on that Hindemith Viola Sonata you have been working on. All ages and skill levels are welcome. We have a 6' grand piano and an accompanist." The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents Cupid's Celebration: A Senses in Harmony Production on Saturday, February 13, at 8 p.m. "Cupid and his friends would be delighted to entertain you for this cheery holiday! Our collective goal will be to transport us all back to the sweet days of annual Valentine's parties in grade school. Music, art, laughter, and many fun surprises are in store! " The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood. For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

Symphony Review: Variety is the spice of the St. Louis Symphony's Thanksgiving weekend

Variety was the order of the day Friday night as the St. Louis Symphony livened up the Thanksgiving weekend with classical favorites by Prokofiev and the local premiere of a new contrabass concerto by Chinese composer Tan Dun in a stunning performance by SLSO Principal Double Bass Erik Harris.

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

Erik Harris

Tan Dun is probably best known here in the USA for his film and multimedia work—most notably his score for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in 2000—but his musical interests are wide-ranging and heavily weighted toward the theatrical. Some of his earliest works were written for the stage and even his concert pieces often have extra-musical reference points.

In the case of his "Contrabass Concerto: The Wolf" the inspiration was the Chinese novel "Wolf Totem" by Jiang Rong. According to the composer's web site the novel "resonated deeply with Tan Dun’s personal connection and fascination with the spirits of the natural world and the sounds and customs of the ancient cultures along the Silk Road. The symbol of the Mongolian wolf and its life in the grasslands for Tan Dun is a mirror of the human spirit and our relationship to the natural world."

The concerto starts mysteriously with high harmonics in the basses and soft tones from Tibetan singing bowls suggesting a vast, empty landscape. That Largo melancholia introduction soon gives way to an Allegro depicting (to quote the web site again) "the running of the wolves and wild horses across the Mongolian grasslands." An elegiac Andante molto second movement suggests "the loneliness of a young wolf missing its mother; missing the sky and grasslands of its home" while the final Allegro vivace "returns us to the scene of the running horses, heard in the galloping rhythms of the orchestra while the soloist alternates between the lyrical and percussive capabilities of the instrument."

It's all very dramatic—I might even say cinematic—as well as tremendously appealing. As Mr. Harris points out in an interesting video interview with Mr. Robertson that's shown during the stage change preceding the concerto, it also poses some stiff challenges for the soloist, with lots of rapid passages and extended sections calling for bowing and fingering techniques more typical of the Chinese erhu. Mr. Harris, I'm happy to report, appeared to have completely embraced those challenges, delivering a performance that combined impressive technique with artistic sensitivity. Spontaneous applause broke out after the exhilarating first movement and the entire piece got a standing ovation.

Preceding the concerto is Prokofiev's "Symphony No. 1 in D major," op. 25, ("Classical"). One of the composer's most popular works, it takes classical style and gives it a distinctly 20th-century twist, with harmonies and key changes that would probably have astonished Haydn or Mozart. It relies heavily on the strings (especially the violins) to produce an exceptionally light and transparent sound, and the SLSO players did quite well by it. The violins sounded a bit more astringent than they usually do, which worked quite well for this music.

Mr. Robertson, for his part, brought out a wealth of orchestral detail in a superbly balanced and subtly shaded performance. As often as I've heard this music, there were still facets of the score that came through here in ways that I hadn't noticed in the past.

Lara Teeter

The second half of this weekend's concerts opens with a short suite from Rimsky-Korsakov's 1882 opera "The Snow Maiden". The piece is a real rarity—the SLSO hasn't performed it since 1926. Which is rather a shame as it's filled with some vivid music, colorfully evoking the fairy tale world of the opera. The "Dance of the Birds," with its inventive writing for the woodwinds, was especially delightful, especially when played with the kind of precision I heard Friday. Mr. Robertson and his forces brought out all the loopy comedy of the "Coretge," and the concluding "Dance of the Tumblers"—undoubtedly the best-known piece from the opera—was fittingly energetic.

The concerts conclude with another of Prokofiev's greatest hits, the 1936 children's story for narrator and orchestra, "Peter and the Wolf," about a brave lad who outsmarts a nasty predator. The SLSO has taken a variety of approaches to this piece in the past, but this one was perhaps the most remarkable in that it used fanciful watercolor-inspired animation and not one but two narrators: Webster Conservatory acting student Annie Barbour and Webster faculty member Lara Teeter.

A familiar figure from both the local and Broadway stages, Mr. Teeter handled the bulk of the narration in a slightly arch and humorous style, while Ms. Barbour was a bit more straightforward. I thought it worked quite well, especially in combination with Natalie Arco's charming animation, but I'm not sure splitting up the narration added anything much. The orchestral playing was excellent, in any case, with fine work by Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews as the cat, Associate Principal Flute Andrea Kaplan as the bird, and Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks as the unfortunate duck who gets swallowed whole by the wolf.

Next at Powell Hall, Bernard Labadie conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with soloists Lydia Teuscher, soprano; Allyson McHardy, mezzo-soprano; Jeremy Ovenden, tenor; and Philippe Sly, bass-baritone, in Handel's "Messiah." Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., December 3-6. For more information: stlsymphony.org