Symphony Preview: Sous le ciel de Paris

This weekend (November 15 and 16) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the second of two programs devoted almost entirely to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). It’s all Mozart all the time—except for the 12 minutes or so that will be Anna Clyne (b. 1980).

[Preview the music with the SLSO's Spotify playlist.]

An English-born composer now residing in the USA, Clyne’s name is one that should be familiar to SLSO regulars. The orchestra has played a number of her works over the last decade or so, usually to appreciative (and well-deserved) applause. In fact, the Clyne work we’ll hear this weekend was the first of her compositions that the SLSO played.

That work is “Within Her Arms” for string orchestra. Written as an elegy for the death of the Clyne’s mother in 2008, the piece is (as I wrote back then) a kind of memory play. Its somewhat mysterious music, which at times seems to harken back to Vaughn Williams or even Thomas Tallis, rises from a whisper to a roar before finally fading away, slowly, into nothingness. “The rest,” as Hamlet says, “is silence.”

Anna Clyne
Photo by Christina Kernohan courtesy of the SLSO

“Within Her Arms” is the only work on the program that’s missing from the SLSO’s Spotify playlist. Which is a bit surprising since there’s quite a splendid performance of it there by the adventurous chamber orchestra The Knights. When you listen to the SLSO’s playlist, just pause it and play “Within Her Arms” right before Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 (“Paris”) for the full effect.

The concerts open with Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, K. 16, penned when Mozart was eight years old and known primarily as a piano prodigy. It’s a modest and charming three-movement piece that sounds more like work of Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) than Mozart. Still the somewhat enigmatic second movement does include, according to the anonymous program annotator for the Kamuela Philharmonic Society Orchestra, “a four-note motif that also appears in several later Mozart compositions, including his Symphony No. 33, and the finale of his Jupiter Symphony.” And it does end with a jolly little Presto.

Up next is the more substantial Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. It was, I believe, last presented by the SLSO in 2017, at which time I described it as engrossing, menacing, and filled with the kind of high drama that audiences would come to love so much in the ensuing decades of the 19th century. Beethoven, for one, loved this concerto, performing it often and composing two cadenzas for it, Mozart's own having been lost to history. It is, in fact, sufficiently "modern" for its time that Viennese audiences might have been put off by it, had it not been the work of a man who was at the peak of popularity.

Mozart, age 6
Painter unknown

The soloist this weekend will be the talented young (born in 1990) pianist Behzod Abduraimov. I last saw him in 2018 when he played the Grieg Concerto with Gemma New on the podium. At the time, I praised the ideal mix of technical flash and sensitivity in his performance. Which bodes well for this weekend.

Next, it’s the overture to Mozart’s early opera “Mitridate, re di Ponto” (“Mithridates, King of Pontus”), which is filled with engaging tunes that belie the work’s tragic finale. First performed at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan, it was something of a hit despite the fact that the composer was only 14. Mozart’s more mature operas have overshadowed it since then and revivals are rare.

The concerts will close with the Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K.297 (300a) ("Paris") composed in the City of Light in June, 1778. Mozart and his ailing mother Anna Maria had arrived there after a concert tour in search of additional professional opportunities, but the pickings were slim, and the pair soon found themselves in debt. The arrival of a commission for a new symphony from Jean LeGros, the director of the high-profile Concert Spirituel, was therefore a welcome development.

The audience at the symphony's June 18th public premiere was enthusiastic, if Mozart's account is accurate. The work was interrupted by applause several times (both between and within movements) and the composer was ebullient. "I was so happy," he wrote to his father, "that as soon as the symphony was over, I went off to the Palais Royal, where I had a large ice, said the Rosary as I had vowed to do—and went home.”

His joy was short-lived. Although Anna Maria was at first invigorated by the weather and the attentions of old friends like the tenor Anton Raaff and horn player Franz Joseph Heina and his wife, even small outings tired her out. A day at the Jardin du Luxembourg with the Heinas on the 10^th left her exhausted and her health began to worsen.

Behzod Abduraimov
Photo: Evgeny Eutykhov courtesy of the SLSO

As Mozart scholar and conductor Jane Glover relates in “Mozart’s Women” (Harper-Collins, 2006), by June 26th the situation was grave enough that Mozart “was told that she should make her final confession, which she did on the 30^th. At 10:21 on the evening of 3 July, with a nurse and Heina and her beloved Wolfgang beside her, Anna Maria died.” She was only 58.

You won’t hear any of the mental anguish Mozart must have felt as he watched his mother’s health deteriorate, though, in this vigorous and graceful three-movement work. Instead, you hear the Parisian sunshine and revel in the composer’s use of what the BBC’s Tom Service calls “the biggest orchestra Mozart had used in a symphonic context.” Service’s article includes an excellent analysis of the piece, in fact, and I highly recommend it as a bit of pre-concert reading.

The Essentials: The SLSO’s Mozart celebration concludes this weekend (Friday and Saturday, November 15 and 16, at 7:30 pm) with Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, Symphony No. 31 (“Paris”), and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. Behzod Abduraimov will be the soloist. Performances take place at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Saturday’s concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.

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

Symphony Review: An optimistic universe in Mozart's "Requiem"

“The universe is optimistic.” Thus spake Music Director Stéphane Denève at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this past Saturday (November 9). The inspiration for that declaration, he said, was the fact that the final chord in the score of Mozart’s “Requiem” (the major work on the program) is ambiguous. It could be either major or minor, but the overtones suggest the former.

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

I see the Universe as being indifferent myself, but I can hear what he means in the music, especially in a performance as good as the one I witnessed Saturday night.

Erin Freeman
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

Under the direction of its new director Erin Freemen the SLSO Chorus sang with a mix of power and clarity that was a joy to hear. The latter was especially apparent in, for example, the contrapuntal sections of the “Kyrie” and “Sanctus,” in which the individual lines were lucidly delineated. Newly installed baffles behind the singers might have helped project their sound a bit more effectively than in the past, but that was just icing on the proverbial cake. This was and is a splendid group of singers of whom Freeman is clearly proud.

Mozart’s “Requiem,” like Verdi’s (which the SLSO performed back in April), is unabashedly theatrical but not in the same way. Verdi was all about heaven-storming drama while Mozart was more interested in consolation here on earth. That’s not to say that he neglected the drama entirely—the “Dies Irae” and “Rex Tremendae” can be pretty intimidating. But Mozart—and his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766–1803), who completed the “Requiem” after Mozart’s death—tempered the cataclysmic with the comforting.

That means that a good “Requiem” must bring us the tenderness along with the terror, and Denève’s performance certainly did that. His uncanny knack for highlighting interesting details and finding nuances that aren’t always apparent in the work stood him in good stead here. When Mozart and Süssmayr called for drama, it was there, but so was the compassion. This was a finely tuned reading that got equally fine playing from the orchestra.

Dashon Burton
Photo by Hunter Hart

Kudos are also due to the soloists, both individually and as members of the quartet.  Bass-baritone Dashon Burton and tenor Josh Lovell made a strong impression in the “Tuba mirum” duet with trombonist Jonathan Reycraft, although Burton seemed to falter a bit on the cadenza. Soprano Joélle Harvey and mezzo Kelly O’Connor displayed the deepest connection with both the audience and the text. All four were extremely moving in the heartfelt “Benedictus.”

The evening opened with Mozart’s 1788 Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, for strings. This is a stark and emotionally charged work consisting of a newly composed Adagio followed by an arrangement of the Fugue in C minor, K. 426, for two pianos from 1783. It was a genuine showpiece for the rich, full-bodied sound of the SLSO strings. Articulation was clean and the lines of the fugue were clearly laid out.

Somber as the mood was at that point, it became a bit darker with the next work, the "Vier Präludien und ernste Gesänge" ("Four Preludes and Serious Songs") by Detlev Glanert (b. 1960). Published in 2005, the work is an arrangement/expansion for baritone and orchestra of the last thing Brahms wrote, the Op. 121 "Four Serious Songs."  The songs are pure Brahms, but the preludes that separate them are a mix of the two composers. It’s not difficult to hear the transitions, but even so they are handled tastefully and complement rather than detract from the original songs.

The texts, adapted from the Lutheran Bible but stripped of any explicitly religious content, are meditations on death as sometimes bitter, sometimes comforting, and always inevitable. It’s not until the final song, “Wenn ich mit Meschen und mit Engleszugen redete” (“If I could speak with the tongues of men and of angels”), that the tone becomes consoling. Based on I Corinthians 13, it delivers a message that some alleged Christians these days are ignoring: “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.”

This was all beautifully sung by Burton. He captured the mood of each song, from authoritative to soothing, with emotional honesty and vocal power. The orchestra did justice to Glanert’s demanding preludes, and Denève brought it all together in a poignant interpretation that included a long moment of silence at the end—a perfect choice.

The SLSO’s Mozart celebration concludes this weekend (Friday and Saturday, November 15 and 16, at 7:30 pm) with Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major, Symphony No. 31 (“Paris”), and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. Behzod Abduraimov will be the soloist. Performances take place at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Saturday’s concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.

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

Symphony Preview: The final problem

This weekend (November 9 and 10) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the first of two programs devoted almost entirely to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Think of it as a mini-version of the fabled Mostly Mozart Festival at New York City’s Lincoln Center, which featured the work of Mozart along with other classical-era composers as well as contemporary composers inspired by the period.

[Preview the music with the SLSO's Spotify playlist.]

The two contemporary composers featured in our mini-festival weren’t directly inspired by 18^th-century music, but they have been cannily chosen to fit the mood and theme of each concert. Indeed, this week’s composer, Detlev Glanert (b. 1960), cites Mahler and Ravel as his primary influences. But in an evening that will feature Mozart’s last work, the Requiem in D minor, K. 626, Glanert’s "Vier Präludien und ernste Gesänge" ("Four Preludes and Serious Songs") is a perfect fit.

Published in 2005 and last heard here a decade ago, the work is an arrangement for baritone and orchestra (the original is for baritone and piano) of the last thing Brahms wrote, the Op. 121 "Four Serious Songs." The songs are pure Brahms, but the preludes that separate them are a mix of the two composers. Quoted in the program notes from its 2014 local premiere, Glanert says of the original music: "...I tried to use it and transform it like a stylistic muscle, so that the music starts in his world, is sliding slowly into our world, and then falling back again." Check out the SLSO’s Spotify playlist to find out what that sounds like.

Detlev Glanert
Photo: Bettina Stoess
Courtesy of the SLSO

Before Glanert, though, there will be Mozart: the Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, for strings. Described on the SLSO web site as “a dark and almost mystical vision,” the piece is a bit of an enigma in that it’s not clear why Mozart wrote it. “Perhaps,” writes Martin Pearlman in a program note for Boston Baroque, “it was a way of taking a brief time-out from symphony writing. But one might also wonder whether it may have been a way of immersing himself briefly in his old counterpoint studies before turning to his last symphonies and the intricate counterpoint that ends the ‘Jupiter.’”

Like Glanert’s “Four Preludes and Serious Songs,” the work is a mix of the old and new. The Fugue is an arrangement of Mozart’s Fugue in C minor, K. 426, for two pianos from 1783. Mozart composed a new Adagio to act as a prelude and, on June 26, 1788, entered the new work in his catalogue as “a short Adagio for two violins, viola, and bass for a fugue I wrote a long time ago for two pianos."

While the fugue was somewhat out of fashion by Mozart’s time, the work of German Baroque masters like Bach and Handel was still highly respected, especially by diplomat and enthusiastic musical amateur Baron Gottfried von Swieten. A patron of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, it was von Swieten who encouraged Mozart to study the music of Bach and Handel. By 1782, Mozart was a regular guest at the von Swieten household. As he wrote to his father Leopold that April, “I go every Sunday at twelve o'clock to the Baron van Swieten, where nothing is played but Handel and Bach.”

The results of that exposure to Baroque musical forms can be found in many of Mozart’s works other than the C minor Adagio and Fugue. The Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”), for example, concludes with a multi-voice fugato. More to the point, though, is Mozart’s use of counterpoint in the “Requiem”—most prominently in the “Kyrie” fugue but also in the opening “Requiem aeternam” and the “Recordare” sections.

Last heard here in 2022 under the baton of Houston Grand Opera’s Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers, the “Requiem” must surely be one of the most controversial of all Mozart’s major works. Setting aside, for the moment, the raft of apocryphal stories surrounding its composition—of which there were many, even before Peter Shaffer’s play and film “Amadeus” added to the pile—it is, to begin with, only partly a Mozart composition.

The “Requiem” was written in the last year of Mozart’s life, 1791—the same year he composed not only “La Clemenza di Tito” but also “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) and his K. 622 Clarinet Concerto. Maybe that’s why (as I wrote back in 2022) Mozart died before he could complete it—his creative spirit was just too strong for a body weakened by poverty and illness.

Indeed, the only part Mozart completed in its entirety was the opening “Introitus—Requiem.” The following “Kyrie” was mostly finished, but the rest was in various stages of completion when the composer died. What happened after that has been in dispute ever since.

We know that Mozart’s pupil and copyist Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766–1803) was there right to the end to write down the music Mozart’s mind could create but that his dying body, racked with fever and with hands too swollen to hold a pen, could not commit to paper. Süssmayr’s completion, which included some of his own music along with Mozart’s, has long been the version most often encountered in concert halls and on recordings.

Choral director Duain Wolfe, Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, Philadelphia Orhcestra
and Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus
in the Mozart Requiem in 2023 
Photo courtesy Bravo! Vail

But at least two other completions were done in the early 19th century and many musicologists have produced their own over the last four or five decades. Last year at the “Bravo! Vail” festival, for example, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in a 1971 edition by German violinist and musicologist Franz Beyer (1922–2018).

Perhaps the most extreme revision was published in 1988 by British mathematician and musicologist Richard Maunder (1937–2018), who jettisoned everything Süssmayr had done and substituted his own work. If you’re wondering what that sounds like, Christopher Hogwood’s 1983 recording of it with the Academy of Ancient Music is available on Spotify.

I have no idea which version Maestro Denève will be using this weekend but given that the SLSO’s playlist includes Herbert von Karajan’s very traditional recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, I’d lay odds on some version of Süssmayr. The only way to know for sure is to attend one of the concerts.

The Essentials: Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, November 9 and 10, in Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546; Detlev Glanert’s “Four Preludes and Serious Songs”; and Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626. Bass-baritone Dashon Burton is the soloist for the Glanert. For the Requiem he’s joined by soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor, and tenor Josh Lovell. Performances take place at the Stifel Center downtown. 

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

Opera Review: Babes in khaki

Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s new production of Mozart’s last and arguably most controversial opera “Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti” (roughly “All women are like that, or the school for lovers”) is the fifth in the company’s history and the third that I have seen. The last two (in 1997 and 2012) were a bit disappointing but I had high hopes for this latest version, based on the insightful program note by director Tara Branham. They were not, sadly, fulfilled.

The cast of Così fan tutte
Photo: Eric Woolsey

A quick look at the story of “Così” shows why this can be a difficult piece to present to a contemporary audience. Two army officers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, are so convinced of the faithfulness of their fiancées—Dorabella and her sister Fiordiligi, respectively—that they accept a bet from their cynical philosopher friend Don Alfonso that the women can't be seduced. Don Alfonso convinces the boys to go away on a mock military expedition and then return in disguise and attempt to seduce each others' fiancées. The usual complications result, helped along by the wily maid Despina. All ends happily, more or less, but only after the disillusioned officers are forced to admit, in the words of Sherlock Holmes, that "women are never to be entirely trusted—not the best of them."

Even in Mozart’s day the story was seen, as Julian Rushton writes at Grove Online, as a “heartless farce clothed in miraculous music” and the opera was not widely performed until the second half of the last century. Ferrando and Guglielmo seem to take an almost sadistic delight at undermining the sisters’ fidelity and display an ugly braggadocio when they do. The “happy ending” in which the couples are reconciled is unusually abrupt and clumsy for Mozart (who usually could be counted up for elegant finales like the one he delivers at the end of the opera’s first act). Attempts to stage it in a way that undercuts the reconciliation have proved no more convincing than the original.

In the program, Branham acknowledges the libretto’s “problematic gender stereotypes,” but appears to grasp one of the opera’s major themes. “Life and love continue,” she writes, “as the experienced Despina and Don Alfonso know all too well. Love will continue to complicate matters for the rest of their lives… Lead with compassion for those experiencing life for the first time, and remember that love is beautiful even when it challenges everything we’ve ever known.”

Inexplicably, none of that keen understanding ever makes it to the stage.

L-R: Angel Romero, John Chest
Photo: Eric Woolsey

A major issue is the decision to set the piece in World War II Britain. Given that “Così” was composed during the Austro-Turkish War of 1788–1791, the idea isn’t a bad one, but Branham makes it the commanding visual image of the work rather than a background element and plot device as it was for Mozart and DaPonte. In the process, key social and power relationships are undone.

Ferrando and Guglielmo become new volunteers instead of professional officers. Don Alfonso is transformed from an old friend and mentor to a recruiting officer. Dorabella and Fiordiligi are changed from somewhat spoiled aristocrats to Red Cross volunteers, their wily maid Despina becomes an Army nurse, and the sisters’ household somehow becomes a hospital ward. When Ferrando and Guglielmo enter in disguise they are wounded American sailors instead of the comically exotic foreigners (think Saturday Night Live’s “wild and crazy guys”) of the original.

Mozart’s opera takes place in a seaside villa far removed from the war. In this version, everybody is in the Army now. It’s W.S. Gilbert’s topsy-turvy world, and it’s a mess.

The saving grace of this production is the high quality of the performances by the cast. As Ferrando and Guglielmo, tenor Angel Romero and baritone John Chest are as effective in their comic posturing as they are in their anger and despair as they realize their conquest campaigns have been just a bit too successful. Chest makes Guglielmo’s Act II aria simultaneously criticizing and praising women (“Donne mie la fate a tanti”/”Ladies, you treat so many this way”) a comic gem and Romero infuses “Fra gli amplessi” (“Very soon now”), the lyrical duet that finally melts  Fiordiligi’s heart, with such anguish that it’s not hard to see why he finally wins her over.

L-R: Megan Moore, Murella Parton
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Soprano Murrella Parton is an utterly convincing Fiordiligi with a spectacular voice to match. “Come scoglio” (“Like a rock”), the famous Act I aria in which she heroically rebukes the advances of the disguised Ferrando and Guglielmo, is a triumph of vocal art. Mozart’s music is challenging, with massive octave-plus leaps and florid decoration, but Parton’s opening night performance was so impressive that it literally stopped the show. Fiordiligi is the one character who genuinely grows in stature during the opera, and Parton made sure that we saw and heard that.

Dorabella emerges sadder but wiser as well, fully coming to terms with her unbridled sensuality. Mezzo Megan Moore communicates that quite effectively in her second act aria “È amore un ladroncello” (“Love is a little thief”). Her rich voice matches Mozart’s sophisticated instrumentation perfectly.

The role of Despina comes to us straight from the commedia dell’arte tradition: the clever and cheerfully sensual maid who runs rings around her employers. Soprano Vanessa Becerra’s comic timing and vocal flexibility serve the part well, making it easy to ignore the absurdity of that uniform. Her impersonation of the fake doctor in Act I, whose fake magnetic therapy miraculously saves the disguised Ferrando and Guglielmo from their fake suicide attempt, is brilliant stuff. And that’s despite the fact that the “magnet” gag (originally a parody of the notorious quack Franz Mesmer) makes no sense in a 20th century setting.

Vanessa Bacerra and magic magnet
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Baritone Hugh Russell, last seen on the OTSL stage in 2017 as the tragically simple-minded Noah Joad in “The Grapes of Wrath,” demonstrates his musical and dramatic range here as the cynical Don Alfonso. He’s funny and ingratiating and handles the character’s patter numbers with aplomb.

Conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson shows a deep understanding of Mozart’s complex musical structure and delivers a perfectly balanced reading of the score. Her performance of the overture was so good that I was able to largely ignore the onstage pantomime in which Don Alfonso bizarrely turns the sisters’ home into a recruiting center. Under her direction the ensemble of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra members plays with all the finesse I have grown accustomed to hearing during the SLSO's regular season.

So: are the musical values of this “Così” exemplary enough to compensate for a wrong-headed directorial concept? In my view, I’m sorry to say, the answer is no. Mind you, there is plenty of slapstick stage action—some of it in scenes where it doesn’t belong—so if that is your thing you might find this entertaining. Many of the audience clearly did on opening night. Otherwise I’d say you can give this one a miss.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s “Così fan tutte” runs through June 23rd at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Performances are sung in Andrew Porter’s superb English translation with projected English text. For more information, consult the OTSL web site.

[Footnote: the title of this article is a Firesign Theatre reference.]

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

Symphony Review: Mozart, Romantic and elegant, with Glover and the SLSO

Musicologist Theodore E. Heger (1939–1977), has described Mozart’s five symphonies as “among the great masterpieces of symphonic literature.” The validity of that assessment was apparent from the performances of the Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 (“Linz”), and the Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 (“Prague”), by Dame Jane Glover, DBE, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra last weekend (December 9 through 11) as part of an all-Mozart evening.

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

Dame Jane Glover
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

As the Music Director of the London Mozart Players from 1984 to 1991 and the author of a book on Mozart (“Mozart's Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music,” 2005), Glover has a good feel for the composer’s work. Certainly her previous two appearances here with Opera Theatre (“The Magic Flute” in 2014 and “Don Giovanni” in 2011) have demonstrated her Mozartian credentials. This past weekend’s performances only enhanced them.

Both symphonies are solid examples of the Classical style firmly established by Mozart’s friend and supporter Joseph Haydn, at least as far as their musical architecture goes. There’s even a fair amount of counterpoint that reminds us of how much Mozart admired the music of Bach. But, especially in his final symphonies, Mozart imbued that standard Classical model with a degree of emotional power that looked forward to the more unbuttoned Romantic era.

Glover’s interpretations, to my ears, emphasized that proto-Romantic sensibility. But they did so with subtle changes of emphasis here and there, stronger dynamic contrasts, and other tweaks that often made me think of early Beethoven as much as late Mozart. It’s the sort of thing that could only be done by someone who has thoroughly internalized the music. The fact that Glover conducted both works without a score only underlined that point.

A few examples will suffice for illustration. The second movement of the “Linz” flowed along gracefully while still bringing out the profound melancholy of the development section. The use of natural (valveless) horns (the contemporary valved horn wasn't invented until well after Mozart's death) gave a boisterous feel to opening of the Menuetto third movement (nice work there by Thomas Jöstlein and Spencer Park) that contrasted well with the more refined sounds of the oboes and bassoons in the trio. The final movements of both the “Linz” and “Prague” had plenty of energy. And the dramatic, portentous Adagio opening of the latter’s first movement was neatly balanced by the invigorating Allegro that followed.

On the podium, Glover conducted with the fluidity of a Tai Chi master along with the same gestural clarity we got from guest conductor Xian Zhang in an early 20th-centure program a couple of weeks ago, and her communication with the orchestra was impeccable. I was left with the impression that working with her might have been a congenial experience.

David Halen
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

There seemed to be congeniality as well in the easy give and take between Glover and SLSO Concertmaster David Halen— the soloist—in the Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K 218, that concluded the first half of the program.  I have praised Halen’s mix of solid technique and emotional depth in the past and now find myself doing so again. The former was apparent in his exceptional performance of the first movement cadenza and the latter in the Andante second movement, which took us on an emotional journey from sad to wistful to, finally, resigned. The mood shifts of the final movement were elegantly handled by both him and Glover.

In fact, “elegant” is as good a word as any to describe the entire evening. It wasn’t electrifying but it was immensely satisfying.

Next at Powell Hall: The holidays rule for the rest of December. Kevin McBeth conducts the orchestra, the IN UNISON Chorus, and guest artist Sheléa in the annual “Gospel Christmas” concert on Thursday, December 15, at 7:30 pm.

The weekend of December 16 through 18 brings five performances of the another annual event, the "Mercy Holiday Celebration." This year Byron Stripling conducts, plays the trumpet, and sings (not, presumably, all at once) in a program of holiday favorites. The program repeats Tuesday and Wednesday, December 20 and 21, at 7:30 pm at Lindenwood University’s Scheidegger Center in St. Charles.

Next, it’s a pair of seasonal film events. “Home Alone in Concert” on December 22 and 23 is sold out at this time, but tickets are still available for “Elf in Concert” on Thursday and Friday, December 29 and 30, at 7:30 pm.

The festivities conclude with another annual event, the "New Year’s Eve Celebration." Stephanie Childress conducts the orchestra and soloists Mikaela Bennett (soprano) and Jeff Kread (tenor) in performances at 2 and 7:30 pm on Saturday, December 31st.

Symphony Preview: More notes, Mozart!

History tells us that Handel’s “Messiah,” which the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed last weekend (December 2–4), was written in only 24 days. This weekend (December 9–11), Dame Jane Glover conducts the orchestra in an all-Mozart program that opens with the Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 (“Linz”), which was dashed off in 20 days less than that. And yet it, like “Messiah,” is widely regarded as a masterpiece.

[Preview the music with my commercial-freeSpotify playlist.]

That old corporate cliché about having to choose between getting a thing done fast or getting it done right clearly does not apply to some of history’s great composers.

Mozart, as drawn by Doris Stock, 1789

The Symphony No. 36 carries the nickname “Linz” because Mozart wrote it during a visit to that town in 1783, on his way back to Vienna after a visit to Salzburg with his wife Constanze. There they stayed with Count Thun and his wife, who were avid supporters of the arts. The countess had met Mozart back in 1762 (when he was seven and she was 18). By 1781 she had become a major patron.

The countess, it must be said, was a fairly accomplished musician. The noted English music historian and composer Charles Burney (in his “The Current State of Music in Germany,” 1773) described her as “a most agreeable lady of very high rank, who, among other talents, possesses as great skill in music as any person of distinction I ever knew; she plays the harpsichord with that grace, ease, and delicacy which nothing but female fingers can arrive at.”

But I digress.

“When we reached the gates of Linz,” Mozart wrote to his father ”we found a servant waiting there to drive us to Count Thun’s…. I really cannot tell you what kindnesses the family are showering on us. On Tuesday, November 4th, I am doing a concert in the theatre here and, as I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing a new one at break-neck speed, which must be finished by that time.”

Why a new symphony? There were two good reasons. First, it was common for audiences to expect new works on a regular basis. The preference for “decomposing composers” didn’t become a thing until the mid-19th century.

The second good reason was that Mozart didn’t learn about the November 4th concert until he arrived in town—on October 31st. He had brought no sheet music with him. So, as Joshua Weilerstein says in the episode of his “Sticky Notes” podcast on the Symphony No. 36, Mozart apparently decided that “rather than try to copy out parts from memory from one of his old symphonies, he would instead write something completely new.”
    
This weekend’s program notes have an excellent synopsis of the music. Between that and my Spotify playlist, you should be amply prepared to appreciate the way in which Mozart managed to stuff plenty of surprises and inventive ideas into what is, on the surface, a typical Classical-era work. As a bonus, the recordings of the two symphonies on the playlist are by Glover and the London Mozart Players, where she was the artistic director from 1984 until 1991.

One interesting tidbit about the “Linz”: the original manuscript has been lost. This has resulted in what Weilerstein calls “a game of sheet music telephone [that] has resulted in many contradictions in this piece, over matters as trivial as a bowing or phrase marking, to matters as big as a tempo marking.” For many years, for example, the second movement tempo marking was believed to be Poco Adagio, but copies of the score that Mozart sold to the Fürstenberg court at Donaueschingen in 1786 show the tempo as a slightly faster Andante, which imparts a more dance-like feel to the movement. These days, Andante is the preferred tempo.

The concerts will close with Mozart’s next symphony, No. 38 in D major, K. 504 (there is no Symphony No. 37 as such). It, too, bears the name of the city in which it was first performed: Prague. It was written in 1786 and had its premiere on January 19, 1787, at the Nostitz Theater during a visit to the city by the composer, who was much admired by the Bohemian public. The score calls for an unusual number of winds (two each of oboes, flutes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets) which might or might not be an intentional tribute to the sterling reputation of Bohemian wind players in the late 18th century.

Maria Wilhelmine,
Countess Thun-Hohenstein
by Heinrich Friedrich Füger
Public Domain

Mozart would write only three more symphonies after No. 38. Taken as a group, symphonies 35¬–41 are, in the words of musicologist Theodore E. Heger (1939–1977), “among the great masterpieces of symphonic literature.” Listening to these works now, it’s clear that they simultaneously honor the Classical-era symphonic ideal while paving the way, intentionally or not, for the Romantic-era symphony that would be jump-started by Beethoven.

In between the two symphonies (and just before intermission) we’ll hear the Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218. Given Mozart’s reputation as a pianist, it’s easy to forget that he was no slouch as a violinist. His first real job in Salzburg was concertmaster at the court of Archbishop Colloredo and while his acrimonious departure from that gig is the stuff of legend, he nevertheless composed five highly regarded concertos for the violin: the first in 1773 and the other four in the space of only eight months in 1775.

Mozart himself played the Concerto No. 4 at an informal concert he had given in the Heiligkreuz Monastery near Augsburg in 1777. “In the evening at supper,” he wrote to his father, “I played the Strasbourg Concerto. It flowed like oil: everyone praised the beautiful, pure tone.”  This weekend’s soloist, SLSO Concertmaster David Halen, has received his share of similar critical praise in the past. I look forward to seeing what the does with the concerto.

Footnote: The “Strasbourg” nickname refers, according to composer and former BBC radio producer Misha Donat, to the “musette-like episode” in the final movement which “closely resembles a popular tune used by [Carl Ditters von] Dittersdorf in the Ballo Strassburghese of one of his symphonies.”

Next at Powell Hall: Dame Jane Glover conducts an all-Mozart program consisting of the Symphony No. 36, K. 425 (“Linz”), the Violin Concerto No. 4 (with Concertmaster David Halen as soloist), and the Symphony No. 38, K. 504 (“Prague”). Performances are Friday at 10:30 am, Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm, December 9–11. The Saturday concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.

Opera Review: Could it be magic? Opera Theatre's 'Magic Flute' pushes the envelope but keeps the enchantment

Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) has had a long and mostly happy history with Mozart’s final opera “The Magic Flute.”  The current production, which runs through June 26th, is the fifth in the company’s 47-season history and one of the most entertaining, even if it does flirt with revisionism a bit.

Written towards the end of the composer's sadly brief life (Mozart had only a few months to live when it premiered in September of 1791), “The Magic Flute” is a singspiel—the 18th century equivalent of a present-day musical—set in a mythical land of monsters and magic. The protagonists are Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina, who find themselves and the less-than-heroic bird catcher Papageno caught up in a war between The Queen of the Night, Pamina’s mother, and Sarastro, High Priest of the Sun.

L-R: Erica Peterocelli and Joshua Blue
Photo: Eric Woolsey

The Queen and her three Ladies con the young prince into believing Sarastro is an evil wizard from whom Pamina must be rescued. Arming Tamino with the titular flute and Papageno with a set of magic bells, they summon a trio of Spirits to lead the lads to Sarastro’s temple.

Shortly after arriving at the temple, Tamino realizes that he has been played and that Sarastro actually wants  to end the Queen’s reign of eternal night and usher in a new age of light, wisdom, and brotherhood. Furthermore, he wants the lovers to undergo the purification of trials by fire and water so that they can marry and replace him as equal rulers of the Temple of the Sun. Which, with the aid of the flute’s magical melodies, is exactly what happens.

Essentially, it’s the age-old story that Joseph Campbell would later codify as “The Hero’s Journey,” with a  heavy dollop of Masonic symbolism. Both Mozart and his librettist Emanual Schikaneder (who also produced the work’s premiere and played the role of Papageno) were Masons and wanted the work to reflect Masonic values—which is to say, the values of the Enlightenment. Indeed, as Peter Branscombe and Stanley Sadie have written, “The Magic Flute” is "above all an opera of the Enlightenment. In it, the forces of darkness and light are counterposed: the former in the person of the Queen of the Night and her entourage, the latter in that of Sarastro and his priestly community, which erects temples to Wisdom, Nature, and Reason."

Jeni Houser
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Director Omer Ben Seadia puts her thumb on the ethical scale a bit by suggesting, as related in her program notes, that the Queen and Sarastro represent “two equal and competing forces.” Both are “determined to secure their legacies but, in the process, they managed to leave the ground beneath them scorched and barren.” In this context the struggle is seen less as one of reason and freedom vs. superstition and autocracy (i.e. Enlightenment vs. Medievalism) and more as a generational conflict in which the lovers must “decide for themselves how to reshape the nature and the character of the world.”

That sounds revisionist, but practically speaking this “Magic Flute” is still a story of the journey from darkness and deception into light and truth. The moment when, after the Queen and her minions are routed, Ryan Howell’s desolate and monochromatic set suddenly blossoms with color and golden light is still a powerful affirmation of the transformative power of love.

If that all sounds a bit weighty, fear not. Mozart and Schikaneder set out to entertain as well as educate, and this new English version, with dialog by Ben Seadia in combination with earlier translations by Andrew Porter and Colin Graham, retains all the comedy, fantasy, and romance of the original. Howell’s sets, Jessica Jahn’s inventive and colorful costumes, and Christopher Akerlind’s lighting all combine to create a fanciful atmosphere.
 
That said, a few of Ben Seadia’s additions sometimes sound a bit too contemporary. Adding same-sex relationships to the lyrics of Papageno and Pamina’s Act I duet extolling the joys of love, for example, might be seen by some as a bit too 21st century. Still, I suspect politically liberal Mozart would probably approve.

Adam Lau and the temple monks
Photo: Eric Woolsey

The cast is generally a strong one, as is often the cast at OTSL. As Papageno, baritone Jonathan McCullough’s clear diction, impeccable timing, and just the right amount of shtick make him immediately appealing. He is the perfect fumbling foil for Joshua Blue, whose big, clear tenor and stalwart sincerity make him an ideal Tamino. Soprano Erica Petrocelli is an appealing and vulnerable Pamina.

Bass Adam Lau radiates calm authority as Sarastro and projects even the lowest notes effectively. Tenor Christian Sanders brings just the right mix of despicable lust and comic incompetence to the role of the Monostatos, whose attempts to have his way with Pamina end badly for him. The staging of his punishment as a violent stomping by some of the monks, however, feels gratuitous and weirdly out of synch with the rest of the production.

Soprano Jeni Houser handles the Queen of the Night’s two big numbers with ease, hitting all the unnervingly high notes with accuracy and clarity. But either her voice lacks power or she has been directed to dial it back. The result, in any case, is that her character feels as pallid as the plain white gown she wears in Act I. Is this, like the oddly brutal punishment of Monostatos, a directorial attempt blur the difference between the Queen and Sarastro by softening her image and hardening his? If so, making the character less powerful also makes her less interesting and somewhat blunts the effect of her famous Act II “revenge” aria.

Jonathan McCullough
Photo: Eric Woolsey

Speaking of the Queen, here’s a bit of applause for the way soprano Meghan Kasanders and mezzos Meridian Prall, and Stephanie Sanchez turn each of the Queen’s Three Ladies into distinct, fully realized characters. They harmonize beautifully  as well.

Seán Curran’s choreography is inventive, but the ritualistic movement he has given the temple monks in all their appearances sometimes feels unnecessary and even distracting. Less would have been more here.

Rory Macdonald conducts members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a clean, clear, and smartly paced reading of the score. The overture was particularly impressive, with the fugal sections impeccably precise. A tip of the hat is also due to Damien Krzyek, whose glockenspiel serves as the voice of Papageno’s magic bells, and to SLSO flutist Jennifer Nitchman. Kevin J. Miller’s chorus sings with the same power and clarity that it displayed in “Carmen” on opening night.

New York Times critic Charles Isherwood once wrote that “the first responsibility of the director should be serving the musical drama,” and while Ben Seadia’s concept of “The Magic Flute” pushes the envelope a bit, I think it ultimately remains true to the spirit of the 18th century Enlightenment. Her web site bio notes that she is “known for her inventive, thoughtful, and socially conscious productions” and in her program notes she states that she is “concerned about our world, threatened by natural disaster, climate change, and polarizing social and political camps.”

Rear: Megan Kasanders, Meridian Prall, 
Stephanie Sanchez
Front: Joshua Blue, Jonathan McCullough
Photo: Eric Woolsey

It’s not hard to see those concerns as a logical outcome of Enlightenment values such as reason, science, and the Big Three: liberty, equality and fraternity. Those values sparked revolutions in both Europe and the colonies which would eventually become the USA. At a time when one of those “polarizing social and political camps” is dedicated to the destruction of those values, their celebration in “The Magic Flute” could hardly be more relevant.    

Opera Theatre of St. Louis's "The Magic Flute" runs through June 26th in rotating repertory with three other operas. To get the full festival experience, come early and have a picnic supper on the lawn or under the refreshment tent. You can bring your own food or purchase a gourmet supper in advance from the OTSL web site. Drinks are available on site as well, or you can bring your own.  For more information, visit the web site.

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

Digital Symphony Review: The SLSO summer digital series concludes with two very varied quintets

Available for on-demand streaming through August 31st, the fifth of five videos in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s digital series presents two quintets by Prokofiev and Mozart. The pair are a study in contrasts, and not just because they were written nearly 250 years apart. They’re also scored for two very different groups of instruments and represent very different moods.

Prokofiev's Quintet

The video opens with Prokofiev’s Quintet in G minor, op. 39. Scored for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass, the quintet was written in Paris in 1924. The work was originally intended as the score for “Trapeze,” a circus-themed ballet that was to be performed by a five-member dance troupe of fellow Russian émigrés. The oddball instrumentation was dictated by the instruments the troupe had on hand.

The ballet never happened, but you can hear more than a hint of the Big Top in what Second Associate Concertmaster Celeste Golden, in her spoken introduction to the original live video performance on March 14th 2021, called the “technical acrobatics” of the score.

There are times, especially in the second and fourth movements of this six-movement work, when the music turns wistful, grim, and even a bit creepy, but on the whole the Quintet is all bright lights, greasepaint, and reckless abandon. It’s fun to hear, and fascinating to watch as the performers do, indeed, execute some musical high-wire acts. At one point the camera zooms in on Celeste Golden Boyer’s fingers rapidly dashing up and down the strings; at another you can see Principal Bass Erik Harris working at the extremes of his instrument’s range. Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews, Cally Banham (on oboe rather than her usual English horn), and violist Shannon Farrell Williams provide copious amounts of dazzling moments as well.

The instrumentation of Mozart’s String Quintet No. 4 in g minor, K. 516, was also unusual for its time: two violins, two violas, and one cello. The dominance of the lower and darker voices is a perfect match for the predominantly tragic and even angry mood of the work. It’s fraught with drama and overhung with musical storm clouds that don’t clear until the lengthy adagio introduction of the fourth movement gives way to a sunny, danceable allegro in rondo form.

L-R: Alvin McCall, Jonathan Chu,
Beth Guterman Chu

In her spoken introduction, Assistant Principal Second Violin Eva Kozma describes this as one of her favorite chamber works, and you can both see and hear that in the passion she and Principal Second Violin Alison Harney bring to their performances. Mozart gives the violas prominent roles as well, and the wife and husband team of Principal Viola Beth Guterman Chu and Associate Principal Viola Jonathan Chu fill them admirably. To my eyes and ears, at least, their playing seems to have that extra level of intimacy that can come with living together as well as playing together. Cellist Alvin McCall provides a deep, resonant backbone for the ensemble.

The Prokofiev was broadcast live only once and although it was recorded last February the Mozart Quintet is, as far as I know, being presented here for the first time. So for many of you this will be your only chance to enjoy these excellent performances. Both were recorded in an audience-free Powell Hall, and the long-distance shots of five performers alone in that big auditorium add an extra layer of melancholy to the Mozart.

The St. Louis Symphony’s concert of quintets by Prokofiev and Mozart is available via on-demand video through August 31st. For more information visit the SLSO digital concerts page.

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

Symphony Review: An all-Mozart program shows that last minute can also be first rate

It’s not easy for big institutions like the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to change course abruptly but on the relatively rare occasions when necessity has demanded it, they’ve proved to be remarkably nimble in doing so. Last weekend’s program (March 4-6) was a good example.

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

The original plan was for Russian conductor, countertenor, and violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky to conduct Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626 along with a mix of works by J.C. Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel. Sinkovsky would have played the violin in a Vivaldi concerto and sung two Handel arias in addition to leading the orchestra.

Patrick Summers

All that changed early last week when, according to an SLSO press release, Sinkovksy was “unable to travel to St. Louis,” resulting in his replacement with Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. That meant that while the “Requiem” stayed on the program, everything else had to go.

Which, as it turned out, was not a bad thing at all. The program went from mostly Mozart to all Mozart, and it was all so well done that once you got past the printed program inserts, there was nothing to even hint at last-minute changes.

The revised program began with the overture to “La Clemenza di Tito,” which, like the Requiem, was composed in the last year of Mozart’s life, 1791. As befits an opera that is serious without being tragic—nobody dies because Good Emperor Titus insists on forgiving all his enemies—the overture is majestic and vigorous. Summers’s interpretation was resplendent, especially in the final statement of the martial opening theme, and played with perfection.

Jennifer Johnson Cano
Photo by Fay Fox

One of the characters Titus pardons is Vitellia, who spends most of the opera plotting against Titus and exploiting the noble Sesto towards that end. In her aria “Non più di Fiori” she finally sees the error of her ways and resolves to confess everything. Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano brought it to dramatic, deeply felt life Friday night. She has a big voice with solid low notes and put it to good use both here and in the “Requiem” later.

A tip of the critical hat is also due to SLSO clarinetist Ryan Toher, who performed the basset horn obbligato part that Mozart added to the aria for his friend, the clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler.  Toher played the bubbling arpeggios and long melodic lines with fluid grace.

Roger Kaza

Writing works for his friends was, as Summers pointed out in pre-concert remarks, a common practice for Mozart. For his friend Joseph Leutgeb he wrote four horn concertos which have since become part of the core repertoire for the instrument.  Principal Horn Roger Kaza took us into intermission with a skillful and nuanced rendition of the second of the four concertos. He had a reserved stage presence but a good feel for the light, precise, and cheerful nature of the work that brought enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Before raising his baton for the final work of the evening, the Requiem, Summers asked for a moment of silence for the people of Ukraine, thereby giving an already powerful work an extra sense of immediacy. The SLSO Chorus, silenced for two years by the pandemic (which has also brought its share of unnecessary death), gave eloquent voice to the music, singing with perfect clarity while masked (singer’s masks having been on the market for a while now). The contrapuntal passages—and there are plenty of them—were impressively precise, and the big dramatic sections like the “Dies irae” and “Rex tremendae” were formidable.

Summers’s operatic background was apparent in the well-paced theatricality of his interpretation. It has often been said of Verdi’s “Requiem” that it was one of his best operas, and I think the same is true of Mozart’s. Or would have been if he had lived to finish it. The sense of dramatic continuity in Summers’s reading made it easy to forget that the only part Mozart completed in its entirety was the opening “Introitus—Requiem.” The rest represents a mix of Mozart, his pupil and copyist Franz Xaver Süssmayr, and possibly a few others as well.

L-R: Erica Petrocelli, Jennifer Johnson Cano,
Nicholas Phan, Soloman Howard

Soloists Jennifer Johnson Cano, soprano Erica Petrocelli, tenor Nicholas Phan, and bass Soloman Howard were all in excellent form.  Howard’s big, rolling voice blended well with both Amanda Stewart’s flawless trombone solo in the “Tuba mirum” and Phan’s ringing vocals. I’m not sure what the logic was of having Petrocelli deliver her two short solos from downstage right in front of the small positive “box” organ, but doing do nicely highlighted those moments, both in Friday night’s performance and in the Saturday night broadcast.

It was, in short, a potent and moving evening. And a reminder that what’s done at the last minute can still be first rate.

Next at Powell Hall: Stéphane Denève returns to conduct the orchestra and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Egyptian”) along with Dukas’s ballet “La Péri,” a suite from Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” and the world premiere of “Goddess Triptych” by contemporary composer Stacy Garrop. Performances are Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, March 12 and 13. There’s also a special one-hour “Crafted” concert of the Dukas and Stravinsky works on Friday at 6:30 pm, March 11 that includes drink specials and complimentary snacks.

Members of the SLSO will also perform a concert of contemporary works for chamber ensemble and video at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 pm. As is often the case with Pulitzer events, however, both nights are sold out at this time because the performance space there is very small.

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

Symphony Preview: Ch-ch-changes

If you’re on the email list of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), you probably know that earlier this week there were major changes in the program for this weekend (March 4-6). Patrick Summers, the Artistic and Music Director of the Houston Grand Opera, will make his debut with the SLSO on short notice, leading the orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Chorus, Principal Horn Roger Kaza, and a quartet of soloists in an all-Mozart program. That quartet includes mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano who, on equally short notice, will sing “Non più di Fiori” from “La Clemenza di Tito.” Ditto Kaza, who will perform Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 2.

[Preview the music with my commercial-free Spotify playlist.]

Summers replaces Russian conductor, countertenor, and violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky, who was scheduled to conduct and appear as a soloist in a program that included music by Handel and Bach. Sinkovsky, notes the press release, “is unable to travel to St. Louis this week.”

Mozart, as drawn by Doris Stock, 1789

Make of that what you will.

What hasn’t changed is the major Mozart work that takes up the second half of the concerts: the Requiem in D minor, K. 626, from 1791—the last year of Mozart’s life and the same one in which he composed not only “La Clemenza di Tito” but also “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) and his K. 622 Clarinet Concerto. Which may explain, in part, why Mozart died before he could complete it—his creative spirit was just too strong for a body weakened by poverty and illness.

Indeed, the only part Mozart completed in its entirety was the opening “Introitus—Requiem.” The following “Kyrie” was mostly finished, but the rest was in various stages of completion when the composer died, with basically nothing in his hand after the first eight bars of the “Lacrymosa.” At the request of Mozart’s widow Constanze, the composer’s pupil and copyist Franz Xaver Süssmayr filled out the rest, possibly with the help of others.

Or possibly not. The fact is, everything about the “Requiem” has been a source of dispute since Mozart's death, including the wisdom of using Süssmayr's completion. At least two other completions were done in the early 19th century and many musicologists have produced their own over the last four or five decades. You can read all about it on Wikipedia or take a look at Christoph Wolff's 1994 book Mozart's Requiem.

But I digress. The important thing is that four-fifths (or thereabouts) of a Mozart masterpiece is still very fine stuff. And it will be good to hear the SLSO Chorus once again, as their voices have been silent for far too long. Joining them, in addition to Cano, will be soprano Erica Petrocelli, tenor Nicholas Phan, and bass Soloman Howard.

Cecelia Hall and Laura Wilde in 
Titus (La Clemenza di Tito) at Opera Theatre
Photo: Ken Howard

The concerts will open with the overture and aria from “La Clemenza di Tito,” an opera last seen here in a 2017 production by Opera Theatre. It was commissioned by the Prague National Theatre, which needed a ceremonial piece to celebrate the coronation of King Leopold II. Mozart had been trying to get some patronage out of Leopold for the past year, so it probably looked like a golden opportunity for the perennially impoverished composer.

The original libretto, by the ever-popular Metastasio, was based on the historical Roman Emperor Titus who, in Metastasio's incarnation, was the Platonic ideal of the benevolent despot, routinely forgiving his enemies and ruling with wisdom and justice. Mozart had the Viennese court poet Mazzolà revised and shorten the script in keeping with then-fashionable notions of what constituted “a true opera” (i.e., one employing elements of both opera buffa and opera seria) and added some very Masonic/Christian notions of forgiveness and repentance. The final product made Tito/Titus look more like a saint than an earthly ruler, which probably suited King Leo just fine.

The moving aria “Non più di Fiori” comes from the final act of the opera. In it, Vitellia, who has been plotting from the beginning to overthrow Tito, finally sees the error of her ways and spills the beans to Tito. Who, of course, forgives her instead of literally throwing her to the lions.

Fun fact: as a gift to his friend, the clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler, Mozart wrote a basset horn obbligato part to accompany the soprano. Essentially a larger version of the clarinet with a more powerful low end and a darker tone quality, the basset horn looks a bit like a cross between a clarinet and a sax. The instrument made its last appearance on the Powell Hall stage as part of the 2021 chamber music festival, when it was played by Ryan Toher of the clarinet section.

Buffet Crampton basset horn

Stadler wasn’t the only notable instrumentalist for whom Mozart wrote showpieces. He composed four horn concertos for his friend Joseph Leutgeb which have since become part of the core repertoire for the instrument. This weekend we’ll be hearing the 1783 Concerto No. 2, K. 417, with Principal Horn Roger Kaza as the soloist. He’ll be playing a modern valved horn, which will have a distinct advantage over Leutgeb, who had to produce all of Mozart’s notes with a valveless natural horn. He wasn’t showing off; the valved horn wasn’t invented until 1814, by which time both he and Mozart were no longer with us.

The concerto runs a little over 15 minutes and is in the usual three-movement format. It and the other three horn concertos are instantly likeable works that require little in the way of introduction or analysis. “The first movement,” writes Caitlin Custer in this weekend’s program notes, “is a well-mannered conversation, the second full of beautiful long lines, and the third a dance between solo horn and sparkling strings.”

That, as Mr. Keats wrote, “is all ye know…and all ye need to know.”

The Essentials: Patrick Summers conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and soloists in an all-Mozart program Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm, March 4-6. Performances take place at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center. Saturday’s concert will also be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 both over the air and on the Internet.

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