Concert Review: Dreamy Shakespearean music with Hans Graf and the St. Louis Symphony February 27 and 28, 2016

Hans Graf

Share on Google+:

We call it a soundtrack now, but back before movies and recorded sound the music that accompanied a dramatic presentation was performed by live musicians and was known as "incidental music." This weekend, as part of its ongoing Shakespeare Festival, the St. Louis Symphony and guest conductor Hans Graf gave us sterling performances of a couple of excellent examples from the mid-nineteenth century.

[Find out more about the music with my Symphony Preview.]

The concerts opened with a brief (six-movement) suite from the score Gabriel Fauré wrote in 1889 for an Odéon Theatre production of "Shylock," a verse adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" by the playwright and poet Edmond Haraucourt. The play, which (its title notwithstanding) emphasized the romantic subplot over Shylock's tragedy, quickly dropped from sight. Fauré's music has fared little better and, in fact, this weekend marked its first appearance on the Powell Hall stage.

DeWayne Trainer

It's engaging music, though, painted with the sonic equivalent of pastels and shot through with some lovely instrumental details. Concertmaster David Halen, for example, had elegant solos in the second movement "Entr'acte" and the fifth movement "Nocturne," which accompanies a moonlit love scene in Portia's garden. The winds and brasses also acquitted themselves well in the "Entr'acte" with the noble music that accompanies the entrance of Portia's suitors, and harpists Allegra Lilly and Megan Stout helped set the dreamy atmosphere in the opening "Chanson".

That "Chanson" was the first of two languorous love songs Fauré wrote for the play, and tenor DeWayne Trainer delivered them with great feeling, along with a real sense of what program annotator Paul Schiavo calls Fauré's "quiet rapture." Mr. Graf conducted with a sure hand, bringing out all the delicate shades of this shimmering score.

Maureen Thomas

The main event this weekend, though, was the complete incidental music that Mendelssohn wrote for an 1843 production of Shakespeare's comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The "Overture," "Scherzo," "Nocturne," and (especially) the "Wedding March" are well known, of course, but the rest of the hour or so of music Mendelssohn wrote is rarely heard, probably because it's so closely integrated with the text. Out of that context, some of the brief music cues can sound like disconnected snippets.

Maestro Graf's solution to that problem was to collaborate with playwright John Murrell and Canadian actress Maureen Thomas to create a kind of mini-version of the play in which Ms. Thomas plays all ten of the principal roles, skillfully switching between characters with small but clearly delineated changes in voice, body language, and even accent. Ms. Thomas appeared with the symphony this weekend, turning in a bravura performance that made for a very entertaining evening. The use of special blue lighting and a darkened stage for the "fairy land" sequences were also very effective.

Debby Lennon

Mendelssohn included music for two of the songs in Shakespeare's text: "You spotted snakes," which the fairies sing as a lullaby for their queen Titania in Act II, and "Through the house give gathering light," based on short speeches by Titania and Oberon in the final act. They're irresistibly melodic and were impeccably sung by the women of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and soloists Laurel Dantas and Debby Lennon. Although both women are sopranos, Ms. Lennon's voice has a rich lower register, which made for a nice contrast with Ms. Dantas's lighter sound. The singers all skipped on and off the stage for their scenes just like the fairies they portrayed, producing some nice chuckles from the audience.

Mr. Graf found lots of interesting moments and elegantly shaped phrases in this music, especially in the coda of the "Overture," and his "Scherzo" was noticeably fleet-footed. He took it at a tempo that might have been risky with a less capable orchestra, but there were no such concerns here. This was, overall, a very coherent and dramatically effective reading.

Laurel Dantas

Mendelssohn's transparent orchestration gives individual members of the band many opportunities to take the spotlight. A couple that stood out for me were provided by Roger Kaza's horns in the "Nocturne" and the duo of Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews and Principal Bassoon Andrew Cuneo in the droll "Funeral March" that accompanies Bottom's absurdly overacted play-within-a-play death scene.

The St. Louis Symphony's Shakespeare-themed concerts continue next weekend as Gilbert Varga conducts the orchestra in selections from Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" and Tchaikovsky's rarely heard "Hamlet" overture. The program includes Shostakovich's "Piano Concerto No. 2 with Denis Kozhukhin as the soloist. Performances are Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., March 5 and 6; visit the SLSO web site for details.

Symphony Preview, February 27 and 28, 2016: Incident report

The phrase "incidental music" seems to imply something of secondary importance. But in reality, music written to accompany a non-musical play is often essential and not infrequently outlives the play for which it was written. Productions of Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," for example, are vanishingly rare, but Grieg's incidental music has become justly famous.

Gabriel Fauré in 1895
en.wikipedia.org

Which brings us to the first set of pieces on the St. Louis Symphony's all-Shakespeare program this weekend. The second of four regular season concerts dedicated to the work of the Bard of Avon, this one opens with the SLSO premiere of music written by Gabriel Fauré for an Odéon Theatre production of "Shylock," a verse adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" by the playwright and poet Edmond Haraucourt. The play, which (its title notwithstanding) emphasized the romantic subplot over Shylock's tragedy and quickly dropped from sight. Fauré's music has fared little better.

And that's a shame, because there is some very appealing stuff here. The "Entr'acte" that accompanies the entrance of Portia's suitors, for example, has real nobility, as does the "Epithalame" wedding night music, although in the latter piece it’s the kind of gracious nobility that you hear in (for example) the middle section of Holst's "Jupiter" movement from "The Planets." The soaring violin line in the "Nocturne" that accompanies a moonlit love scene in Portia's garden is, in the words of Jean-Michel Nectoux (in "Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life"), "one of Fauré's most moving inspirations." And the concluding "Final" (marked "allegretto vivo") brings everything to a cheerful conclusion with a reunion of all the lovers—which tells you how far Haraucourt had deviated from Shakespeare.

Fauré's music may have languished in obscurity at least in part because of the poor performances it got at the Odéon. "Shylock," writes Mr. Nectoux, "received its first performance at the Odéon on 17 December 1889 and was played fifty-six times altogether. The critics praised the beauty of the décor, directly inspired by the palaces of Venice, but for the most part passed over Fauré's music in silence. He conducted the orchestra himself, but had his forebodings: 'For the first three performances,’ he wrote to Elisabeth Greffulhe, 'I'll have a reasonable little theatre orchestra. But from the fourth night onwards the Odéon's economic cutbacks begin to take effect: several of the good players are being dropped and instead they're hiring all the useless, feeble, and superannuated hacks they can scrape together from the Luxembourg quarter. I can see there's a bumpy ride ahead!'"

I think we can safely say that there will be no such issues this weekend.

Taking up the rest of the concert will be the complete incidental music Mendelssohn composed for Shakespeare's comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream." In this case, both the play and some of the music written for it have retained their popularity over the centuries, with Mendelssohn's "Overture," "Scherzo," "Nocturne," and (of course!) the "Wedding March" firmly ensconced in classical music's roster of Greatest Hits.

Portrait of Mendelssohn by
James Warren Childe
(1778–1862), 1839
en.wikipedia.org

"One of the major miracles of Mendelssohn's life," wrote British broadcaster and music critic John Amis for the English Decca recording of the complete "Dream" music in 1969 (issued here in the states on the London lablel), "was his composition at the age of seventeen of the Overture...one of the minor miracles of his life was that he was able to pick up the threads sixteen years later to write the rest of the incidental music... The Overture, opus 21, was composed in 1826 out of sheer enthusiasm, with no particular performance in mind; the Incidental music, opus 61, was commissioned by King Frederick William IV for a production of the play at Potsdam in 1843."

It helps that, at 17, Mendelssohn was already such an accomplished composer that there’s little audible difference between the Overture and the rest of the music.

When hearing a work as familiar as the "Overture," it’s easy to become complacent and lose track of what a very well-crafted piece of music it is. As Paul Schiavo reminds us in his program notes, the "Overture" presents us with a nearly perfect distillation of the major elements of Shakespeare’s play. Within less than twelve minutes Puck and company scamper through the twilight, the four mismatched lovers swoon, the Duke rides to the hunt, Peter Quince and the Mechanicals dance, and the magically altered Bottom brays. The "Scherzo" and "Nocturne" are also vividly evocative of, respectively, the opening scene of Shakespeare’s Act II (which introduces Puck and the other fairies) and the enchanted sleep of the lovers in Act IV.

Hearing all fourteen of the pieces Mendelssohn wrote for the play, though, gives you a real appreciation of just how closely the music and text are integrated. If you're familiar with the script, you can easily visualize the scenes as you hear the score. And even if you're not, Mr. Schiavo has provided a detailed description of how it all fits together. Or you can read the whole thing on line.

One of my favorite bits is the setting for two sopranos and four-part women's chorus of the song "You spotted snakes," which the fairies sing to lull the queen Titania to sleep in Act II, scene 2:

You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
Philomel, with melody
Sing in our sweet lullaby;
Lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby:
Never harm,
Nor spell nor charm,
Come our lovely lady nigh;
So, good night, with lullaby.
Weaving spiders, come not here;
Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence!
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm nor snail, do no offence.
Philomel, with melody, & c.

The theme for "Philomel with melody..." is, as Mr. Amis noted, "surely one of the most captivating tunes ever written." Captivating tunes abound here, in fact. If you've never heard the complete score, I think you'll find this a happy journey of discovery.

The Essentials: Hans Graf conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus along with soloists Laurel Dantas, soprano; Debby Lennon, mezzo-soprano; DeWayne Trainer, tenor; and actress Maureen Thomas Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. February 27 and 28. The program is part of the Symphony's four-week Shakespeare Festival. Performances take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Symphony Preview: A visit to Russia House with Graf, Hadelich, and the SLSO February 27-March 1, 2015

Share on Google+

If you missed last week's big double dip of Russian romanticism or if (to quote a famous Big Band-era lyric) you just "can't get enough of that wonderful stuff," the St. Louis Symphony has another helping helping of it for you this weekend as Hans Graf leads the orchestra and violinist Augustin Hadelich in a program of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and Lyadov.

"Lyadov?" I hear you cry, "who the heck is that?"

Anatoyl Lyadov
en.wikipedia.org

A reasonable question. "Anatoly Lyadov," writes Daniel Durchholz in his SLSO program notes, "is considerably less well-known than Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky or Igor Stravinsky, and to some degree that may be his own fault. Though a composer of considerable skill and a professor (albeit an eccentric and pedantic one) at the St. Petersburg Conservatory whose students included Sergey Prokofiev and Nikolay Myaskovsky, Lyadov produced no works of sustantial [sic] length and grandeur, as had a number of his contemporaries."

Lyadov's laziness (and resulting unreliability) essentially conspired with his self-criticism to prevent him from producing a large body of work, although he did write a number of piano miniatures (his 1893 "Musical Snuffbox" still shows up as an encore piece on a regular basis). Even so, he became associated with (if not an actual member of) the "Mighty Handful" (a.k.a. the "Russian Five") of composers who were so important in the formation of the Russian nationalist school. The actual five were Mily Balakirev (composer of the fiendishly difficult "Islamey" for piano), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.

Appropriately for a Russian nationalist, Lyadov is represented this weekend by three orchestral miniatures based on Russian folklore: "Baba-Yaga" (Op. 56), "The Enchanted Lake" (Op. 62), and "Kikimora" (Op. 63). They're short (4-7 minutes each), colorful, and great fun. Which makes them a great way to open the concert (and provide multiple opportunities for latecomers to be seated).

Up next is Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto in D Major." Although wildly popular these days, the concerto was originally dismissed as "unplayable" by St. Petersburg Conservatory violin professor Leopold Auer (to whom it was originally dedicated and who was supposed to play it at its premiere). Tchaikovsky's colleague Adolf Brodsky would replace Auer as both the first performer and the dedicatee.

Eduard Hanslick in 1865
en.wikipedia.org

Worse yet, it was roundly condemned by critics at its 1881 Vienna premiere. Eduard Hanslick, the notoriously conservative critic who Wagner had mercilessly parodied a decade earlier in "Die Meistersinger," was especially scornful. After admitting that the work was "musical and is not without genius," he went on to unload a tub of bile that would not be out of place on AM talk radio. It's worth quoting at length, if only to illustrate just how clueless critics can sometimes be (the translation comes from Minneapolis Symphony program notes by Donald Ferguson).

"[S]oon savagery gains the upper hand," he ranted, "and lords it to the end of the first movement. The violin is no longer played; it is yanked about, it is torn asunder, it is beaten black and blue. I do not know whether it is possible for anyone to conquer these hair-raising difficulties, but I do know that Mr. Brodsky martyrized his hearers as well as himself. The Adagio with its tender national melody, almost conciliates, almost wins us; but it breaks off abruptly to make way for a finale that puts us in the midst of a Russian kermess [a German country festival]. We see wild and vulgar faces, we hear curses, we smell bad brandy. Friedrich Vischer once asserted in reference to a lascivious painting, that there are pictures that 'stink in the eye.' Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto brings us for the first time to the horrid idea that there may be music that stinks in the ear."

But aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

Today it can be hard to understand what Hanslick was gassing on about (although his description of the finale suggests that anti-Russian bigotry could be involved). Apparently written as a kind of therapy after Tchaikovsky's disastrous attempt at marriage failed and he was plunged into the despair heard so tellingly in his "Symphony No. 4," the concerto is an unfailingly sunny piece that never fails to please. Yes, it's technically demanding, but generations of violinists have mastered it and made it a central part of the repertoire.

Costume sketch for The Firebird by Leon Bakst
en.wikipedia.org

The concerts will conclude with a suite that Stravinsky put together in 1945 from the music for his 1910 ballet "The Firebird". The first in what turned out to be a series of successful collaborations between the composer and impresario Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, "Firebird" contains hints of the upheaval Stravinsky would generate with "Rite of Spring" and "Les Noces" but also pays homage to the work of Rimski-Korsakov, especially the Orientalism of (say) "Le Coq d’Or".

Interestingly, Stravinsky owed the opportunity to write "Firebird" to the laziness of—yes—Anatoly Lyadov. Diaghilev originally commissioned Lyadov to write the score but (according to Verna Arvey in "Choreographic Music") when, after months of waiting, Diaghilev went to see Lyadov to view his progress, the composer said, "it won't be long now. It's well on its way. I have just bought the ruled paper."

Soon Lyadov was out and Stravinsky was in. The premiere of "Firebird" put Stravinsky on the map, musically speaking, and it remains one of his most popular works. Stravinsky prepared three concert suites from the ballet: one in 1910, a second in 1919, and the third in 1945. In both the second and third suites the composer reduced the size of the orchestration. The last and leanest suite is the one you'll hear this weekend.

Both the conductor and violin soloist this week have appeared with the SLSO in the past. On the podium will be Hans Graf, former conductor of the Houston Symphony and an artist-in-residence at the Shepherd School of Music at my alma mater, Rice University. At his last SLSO appearance, Graf gave us masterful readings of Rachmaninoff's first and second piano concertos along with a wonderfully transparent interpretation of Shostakovich's dark and acerbic "Symphony No. 1." That bodes well for this weekend.

The young Italian-born violinist Augustin Hadelich, last heard here two years ago in a performance of Paganini's "Violin Concerto No. 1" that combined virtuoso flash with real emotional sensitivity. He'll certainly need both of those skill sets for the Tchaikovsky.

The essentials: Hans Graf conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Augustin Hadelich on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., February 27-March 1. The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of February 23, 2015

The Bach Society at Powell Hall

Share on Google+:

The Bach Society of St. Louis presents Handel’s Messiah on Sunday, March 1, at 3 PM.  “Few choral works even come close to the profound impact that Handel’s Messiah has had on audiences for over 250 years. This dramatic work offers an inspiring meditation on the life of the Messiah, from the prophecy of His birth through His death and resurrection, and culminating in man’s redemption and thanksgiving. The Chorus and Orchestra are joined by four outstanding Baroque soloists. Bach Society favorites mezzo-soprano Patricia Thompson and bass Curtis Streetman will return, while introducing two new performers to our audience: tenor Steven Soph and soprano Nathalie Colas from Strasbourg, France.”  The concert takes place at Firsts Prebyterian Church of Kirkwood, 100 East Adams.  For more information: www.bachsociety.org

The Ethical Society presents a Great Artist Guitar Series concert with Martha Masters on Saturday, February 28, at 8 p.m.  "In October of 2000 Martha Masters won First Prize in the GFA International Solo Competition, a recording contract with Naxos, a concert video with Mel Bay, and an extensive North American concert tour. In November of 2000, she also won the Andres Segovia International Guitar Competition in Linares, Spain. She has been a prizewinner or finalist in many other international competitions.
In addition to being on the guitar faculty of California State University Fullerton and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Masters is also the President of the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), dedicated to supporting the instrument, its players and its music in the US and throughout the world." The performance takes at the Ethical Society of St. Louis, 9001 Clayton Road.  For more information: ethicalstl.org.

The Sheldon Concert Hall presents Sheldon Classics: Asia on Wednesday, February 25, at 8 PM. “Asia is a large and diverse continent, and many classical composers have been influenced by its music, including Claude Debussy, Florent Schmitt and Dmitry Kabelevsky. We’ll hear their beautiful and imaginative works, as well as music by 20th century composer Toru Takemitsu, and top composers of today – Bright Sheng and Tan Dun.” The Sheldon is at 3648 Washington in Grand Center.  For more information: thesheldon.org.

Hans Graf
cmartists.com / Bruce Bennett

Hans Graf conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Augustin Hadelich on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., February 27-March 1.  "Following his outstanding 2013 performances of the Paganini with the STL Symphony, violinist Augustin Hadelich is back to perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, a tour-de-force that will dazzle with its sizzling technical displays and tender melodies.  Hans Graf leads Stravinsky’s radiant Firebird Suite, known for its brilliant and colorful orchestration, bringing this concert to a spectacular conclusion."  The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center.  For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The Tavern of Fine Arts presents a chamber music concert by the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra on Tuesday, February 24, at 7:30 p.m.  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 Passione ed Armonia: Baroque String Band on Saturday, February 28, at 4:30 p.m.  " The Baroque string band “Passione ed Armonia” plays a program of Italian music for strings by Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Marini, Uccellini, Bertali and others." The Tavern of Fine Arts is at 313 Belt in the Debaliviere Place neighborhood.   For more information: tavern-of-fine-arts.blogspot.com.

Rach and roll, part 2

Who: Pianist Stephen Hough and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf
What: Music of Rimski-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: April 28 and 29, 2012

Share on Google+:

[Download the complete St. Louis symphony program notes in PDF format]

Rachmaninoff’s Second may not be the best of his four piano concerti—both the revised First and (my favorite) the Third are more economical and generate more momentum—but it’s unquestionably his most popular. Saturday night’s performance by Stephen Hough and guest conductor Hans Graf demonstrated why. The flashy (and technically demanding) solo passages, soaring melodies, and showy finale make for a real crowd pleaser, especially when delivered with such intensity and conviction.

The Second is, in some ways, more of a symphony for piano and orchestra than a traditional concerto. There are no extended cadenzas and the piano is closely integrated with the orchestra. As Laurie Shulman points out in her program notes, “Rachmaninoff entrusts most of the melodies to the large ensemble, whereas the piano takes a decorative, textural role.”

That means the orchestra had better be as good as the soloist and that both should work in perfect harmony if the piece is going to really take flight—which is exactly what Saturday’s performance did. From that famous seven-chord introduction to the big tune of the finale (popularized by Frank Sinatra in 1945 as “Full Moon and Empty Arms”), this was a Rach Second that delivered all of the composer’s goods. The orchestra was pretty near flawless and if Mr. Hough looked a bit tired at the end of the evening, I couldn’t hear any indication of that in his elegant and powerful playing. As with the Rach First on Friday morning, he and Mr. Graf were clearly in tune with each other. It was all immensely satisfying.

Also on the program were Shostakovich’s dark and acerbic Symphony No. 1, as well as the local premiere of Rimski-Korsakov’s colorful Skazka (Fairy Tale). For my thoughts on those, check out my review of the Friday morning concert. For now, I’ll just add that Skazka holds up well on a second hearing, episodic and disjointed though it may be, and the Shostakovich First remains a remarkable mix of nose-thumbing comedy and anguish.

Next at Powell Hall: The “Rach Fest” continues Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 2, April 28 and 29, with the Rachmaninoff ‘s Second Piano Concerto replacing the First. The rest of the program is the same as Friday’s. The Rach Fest concludes May 4-6 with the Piano Concerto No. 1 (Friday at 8 PM) and Piano Concerto No. 3 (Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3). Stephen Hough is at the keyboard again with Peter Oundjian at the podium. The program for all three concerts includes Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. For more information you may call 314-534-1700 or visit stlsymphony.org.

Rach and roll, part 1

Who: Pianist Stephen Hough and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf
What: Music of Rimski-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: April 27, 2012

Share on Google+:


[Download the complete St. Louis symphony program notes in PDF format]

Pianist Stephen Hough has both tremendous power and a delicate touch. Hans Graf is a conductor who, while he maintains a disciplined presence on the podium, can nevertheless be passionate and lyrical. Put them together and you have a killer beginning to the two-week “Rach Fest" at the Powell Hall.

Friday morning’s program featured compelling performances of Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” (in the 1917 revision) and Shostakovich’s dark and acerbic “Symphony No. 1”, as well as the local premiere of Rimski-Korsakov’s colorful “Skazka” (“Fairy Tale”). It was, to say the least, a tremendous success and was warmly received by a larger than usual audience.

It has been almost exactly a year since the multi-talented Mr. Hough (he’s a composer and writer on music and theology as well as a virtuoso pianist) graced the stage at Powell Hall. Last time it was a knockout reading of Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”. This time around his Rachmaninoff First was at least as impressive. Mr. Hough has done the Rach First with the symphony before—in February of 2007 under Maestro Robertson. At that time I noted that he “played with the ease and confidence that are the hallmarks of solid keyboard technique” and see no reason to change that assessment now.

Originally written while Rachmaninoff was a student at the Moscow Conservatory, the concerto was later revised substantially on the eve of the Russian Revolution in 1917, and it's not hard to hear the faint echoes of that turbulence in the sweep and drama of this remarkably concise and vigorous work. Mr. Hough has the chops to give full vent to that drama, cruising through all the flashy writing in the opening and closing movements, but he was equally convincing in the nocturnal yearning of the Andante. Mr. Graf matched him with a soulful reading that made effective use of rubato at key moments without ever losing the concerto’s sense of momentum. His tempo for the finale was brisk, but the symphony musicians handled it with ease.

Friday morning Mr. Hough acknowledged his well-deserved standing ovation with a delightful encore: his own mashup of the Russian song “Leningrad Nights” (known here in the West as both “Midnight in Moscow” and “Moscow Nights”) with motifs from Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”. It reminded me of the clever Piano Puzzlers that Bruce Adolphe provides for PRI’s “Performance Today” radio broadcast and was much appreciated.

Much as I love Rachmaninoff, the most interesting thing about these concerts to me was the presence of the rarely heard Shostakovich symphony and the even rarer Rimski-Korsakov.

Written as a Leningrad Conservatory graduation piece and first performed in 1926 (when the composer was only 19), Shostakovich’s First Symphony is a remarkable study in contrasts, with chamber music-style solo passages cheek by jowl with the full-tilt bombast of the composer’s more popular works. There are wonderful moments, for example, for the principal oboe, bassoon, flute, clarinet, and cello as well as piano part that calls to mind Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”—a piece that was very likely in the composer’s mind at the time. Perky melodies reminiscent of the stuff Shostakovich probably heard during his work as a cinema pianist pop up in the first and second movement, standing in stark juxtaposition to the brooding and sporadically anguished gloom of the third, while the final Allegro molto wraps everything up in a classic flourish of brass and percussion which manages to sound both triumphant and sarcastic at the same time.

With so many “concerto for orchestra” solo passages, the Shostakovich First is rife with opportunities for individual players to shine—which is exactly what they did Friday morning. Mr. Graf’s interpretation was, I thought, very transparent to the music, allowing Shostakovich to come through pretty much unfiltered. It was tremendously exciting stuff.

This was my first opportunity to see Mr. Graf perform live, by the way. His style, it seemed to me, was marked by equal parts of precision, warmth, and good humor. His podium presence is not overly demonstrative, but I was nevertheless left with the sense that he takes great joy in the music he conducts. That appeared to communicate itself to both the musicians and the audience.

Like the Shostakovich, Rimski-Korsakov’s brief tone poem “Skazka” (“Fairy Tale”) is also filled with lovely solo passages, particularly for clarinet, flute, oboe, and violin. Its episodic structure suggests an underlying narrative related to the work’s literary inspirations—Russian folk tales and Pushkin’s Ruslan and Lyudmila—but the composer declined to be specific, allowing the listener’s mind to conjure up whatever exotic images the colorful music suggests.

Mr. Graf’s performance made the most of the music’s many contrasting moods and the symphony musicians responded with their usual fine playing. The solo passages were beautifully realized, even if the flute had to briefly contend with cell phone accompaniment at one point.

Which brings me to the only negative aspect of Friday morning’s concert: the clueless conduct of some audience members. It’s bad enough that Mr. Graf was obliged to hold the opening downbeat for a minute or two while waiting from some folks on the house floor to stop yakking. What was really rather embarrassing was the applause that broke out during the transition between the third and fourth movements of the Shostakovich. Concert etiquette says you don’t start applauding until the conductor lowers his baton. For many composers (like, say, Shostakovich) silence is an element of composition. Conductors usually respect that. So should audiences.

Next at Powell Hall: The Rach Fest concludes May 4-6 with the “Piano Concerto No. 1” (Friday at 8 PM) and “Piano Concerto No. 3” (Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3). Stephen Hough is at the keyboard again with Peter Oundjian at the podium. The program for all three concerts includes Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5”. For more information you may call 314-534-1700 or visit stlsymphony.org.