Symphony Preview: Distant drums

In Act I, scene 1 of Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” Leonato, the Governor of Messina, plays down his niece Beatrice’s insulting description of Benedick, saying that there is “a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.”

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

You can hear that wit in the opening measures of the work that opens the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this Friday and Saturday (March 22 and 23) as Music Director Stéphane Denève leads the band in a performance of the overture to Hector Berlioz's 1862 operatic treatment of “Much Ado About Nothing,” "Béatrice et Bénedict.” The short, playful opening theme immediately calls to mind the thrust and parry of the verbal duel that invariably begins when Beatrice and Benedick meet.

Berlioz in 1832
Painting by Émile Signol

Berlioz wrote the libretto himself (even though he neither spoke nor read English all that well), considerably condensing the original "battle of the sexes" comedy in the process. Huge swathes of plot were axed, along with great comic characters like Constable Dogberry to create what the composer called “a caprice written with a point of a needle.” Written just after the monumental “Les Troyens,” the opera had great success at its Baden-Baden premiere as well as in Weimar a few months later. There was no French performance until 1890, though, and "Béatrice et Bénedict.” has never really made it into the standard repertoire.

The overture has fared better in concert halls. It gets high marks for the skill with which Berlioz uses themes from his score to create a kind of vitamin pill version of the opera, with all the comedic and dramatic ingredients combined into a single eight-minute tone poem. “Though drawn from no less than six different arias or ensembles,” writes Michel Austin at The Hector Berlioz website, “the music is seamlessly fused by Berlioz into a coherent symphonic whole, much as Weber had done in his overtures to Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, and Oberon."

Julia Wolfe
Photo: Peter Serling

Up next is the local premiere of “Pretty” by contemporary American composer Julia Wolfe (b. 1958). A co-commission by the SLSO, Berlin Philharmonic (where the world premiere took place last June), Houston Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the work’s title is frankly ironic. One might even say that it’s at war with the actual music which, based on the brief excerpts I’ve heard at the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall, is a high-energy jamboree that’s anything but “pretty” in the conventional sense.

“The word ‘pretty’ has had a complicated relationship to women,” writes the composer on her website.  “It implies an attractiveness without any rough edges, without strength or power…My Pretty is a raucous celebration – embracing the grit of fiddling, the relentlessness of work rhythms, and inspired by the distortion and reverberation of rock and roll.”

War pops up once again as the backdrop for the work that concludes this weekend's concerts, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, op. 73 (“Emperor”). Indeed, the concerto was composed under the cloud of war and occupation.

When Beethoven was writing the concerto in 1809, Vienna was not so much the fabled “City of Dreams” as a metropolis of nightmares. The French laid siege to it with shelling so fierce that at one point the composer took refuge in his brother's house and covered his head with pillows to escape the din. The royal family—including Beethoven's friend and patron Archduke Rudolf—fled, along with many of the notable families with whom the composer had become close.

Left alone and, once the French occupation began, in difficult financial circumstances due to rapid inflation, Beethoven had little else to do but compose. The fifth concerto is probably the most famous work to emerge from this difficult period, although the Op. 81a piano sonata (“Les Adieux”) is probably a close second. Both were dedicated to Rudolph.

Beethoven
As if you didn't know.

Much has been written about the Concerto No. 5 and, in fact, the program notes this week (based on earlier notes by Paul Schiavo and Yvonne Frindle) provide quite a good map of the composer’s stunning musical landscape. The magisterial first movement, the wistful second, and the jolly concluding rondo all show Beethoven at his best.

The soloist this weekend is Tom Borrow (b. 2000), a 2024 Artist-In-Residence with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and winner of the Terence Judd-Hallé Orchestra Award 2023. His big professional break came in 2019, when he was called in at the last minute (the last 36 hours, to be precise) to replace Khatia Buniatishvili in a series of twelve concerts with the Israel Philharmonic. "Tom Borrow is already a star,” wrote Yossi Schiffman of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, “and we will all surely hear more about him."

I was unable to locate anything by Borrow on Spotify but he does appear in several videos on YouTube, including the second and third movements of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major from that legendary 2019 concert.

The Essentials: Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and soloist Tom Borrow in the Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”) by Beethoven, along with the overture to "Béatrice et Bénedict” by Berlioz and the local premiere of “Pretty” by Julia Wolfe. Performances are Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 7:30 pm at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the UMSL campus. The Saturday concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3 and will be available for streaming for a limited time afterward at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra site.

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

Symphony Preview: Les feuilles mortes

We’re only a week past the autumnal equinox and over a month away from the dreaded end of daylight saving time but, at least here in St. Louis, it’s finally beginning to feel like fall. Temperatures are mercifully cooler, days are shorter, and I find myself thinking of that Kurt Weill lyric about how the “the days dwindle down to a precious few.” Winter is coming, and so is the night.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts Stéphane Denève will conduct this weekend (September 30 and October 1) have a decidedly nocturnal and autumnal feel to them, starting with a pair of local premieres by Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996) and Chinese-born Qigang Chen (b. 1951).

Tōru Takemitsu
Photo: Guy Vivien

The concerts open with Takemitsu’s “Night Signal,” the second of two “antiphonal fanfares” for brass ensemble (the first, not surprisingly, is “Day Signal”) published collectively as “Signals from Heaven” in 1987. Unlike the prototypical fanfare, “Night Signal” is a quiet, almost mysterious piece in which the physical distance between the two instrumental groups becomes an integral part of the work. In that way, it's a bit reminiscent of the antiphonal brass music Giovanni Gabrielli (c. 1554/1557–1612) wrote for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, in which groups of players engaged in “call and response” music across the vast space of the church. Perhaps that’s why “Night Signal” somehow sounds ancient and modern at the same time.

Distance is also a factor in the next piece, Qigang Chen’s “Éloignement” for string orchestra. It’s there in the title (which translates as “distance” or “separation”), as well as in the music itself, in which a traditional Chinese tune “Zou Xi Kou” (“Going Beyond the Western Gorges”) repeatedly struggles to be heard against more agitated motifs. Describing the song as “a love-song upon the departure of a beloved one, plaintive and nostalgic,” the composer says that “its melody is used in L’Éloignement because it retains a basic simplicity and because it gives the composer the possibility to express therein his own estrangement.”

This is, in short, music that speaks of the disconnection of the émigré from their homeland. The sense of conflict in “L’Éloignement” represents the composer’s own conflicting feelings. “L Éloignement,” writes Chen in program notes for the Minnesota Orchestra,  “depicts separation, disorder, imagination, and yearning. The music is both happy and sad, nostalgic and exciting, all of which account for the conflicting moods of the departing one.”

Qigang Chen
Photo: Boosey.com

Formally speaking “Éloignement” is a traditional rondo, but one that sometimes feels like a pitched battle. It ends serenely, but only after a considerable struggle.

Perhaps the greatest distance, though, is the one between life and the eternal darkness of death. The latter is the subject of this weekend’s major work, "Das Lied on der Erde" ("The Song of the Earth") by Gustav Mahler (1860–1911).  When Mahler began work on the piece in the summer of 1907 (as I originally wrote in notes for the SLSO’s last performance of “Das Lied” in 2014), his eldest daughter had just died of scarlet fever at the age of four and the composer himself had just been diagnosed with the heart condition that would lead to his demise four years later. Suddenly death—which had always been a theme in Mahler's music—became very personal.

Scored for large orchestra and two singers (typically tenor and mezzo-soprano, although Mahler allows for the substitution of a baritone in the second, fourth, and sixth songs), "Das Lied" is essentially a vocal symphony. Mahler didn’t call it that, though, because it then would have been his Symphony No. 9. And he had come to believe that because Beethoven and Schubert died after writing nine symphonies, the ninth symphony would always be a composer’s last.

Mahler in 1907
Photo: Moritz Nähr
en.wikipedia.org

Absurd? No doubt. And yet Mahler would go on to seemingly prove the superstition he essentially invented by writing a Symphony No. 9 and then promptly dying before he could complete his Symphony No. 10.

“Das Lied” takes its texts from Hans Bethge's "The Chinese Flute," a German-language rewrite of English, French, and German translations of some ancient Chinese poems. Further edited and rewritten by Mahler, the lyrics contemplate a variety of aspects of life and death. "Every mood," writes Tony Duggan at musicweb-international.com "from cynical and drunken hedonism to serene and Zen-like stasis gets covered in the course of the hour this work takes. At the end, the message is that, since the beauties and mysteries of the earth renew themselves year after year, our own passing should not be feared but accepted calmly and without rancour. The earth, the world and nature goes [sic] on without us."

Too true. In particular, the last movement—"Das Abschied" ("The Farewell")—is possibly one of the most emotionally powerful things you will ever encounter in a concert hall. In it, the narrator's farewell to a friend becomes a farewell to life itself: "Die liebe Erde allüberall Blüht auf im Lenz und grünt aufs neu! Allüberall und ewig blauen licht die Fernen! Ewig... ewig..." ("Everywhere the good earth blossoms in spring and turns green once again! Everywhere and forever, distant spaces shine their blue light! Forever...forever...").

"Mahler’s own philosophy saw death as a part of life,” writes Tim Munro in his program notes, “and in Der Abschied we meet death as friend, not foe.” It's a notion of death which, while uncommon, is hardly unknown. The character Death of the Endless from Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" graphic novels comes immediately to mind.

[Note: "Les feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves") refers to the 1947 Joseph Kosma/Jacques Prévert song beter known to us Anglophones as "Autumn Leaves." Either way, the message is the same.'

The Essentials: Stéphane Denève conducts the SLSO in Tōru Takemitsu’s “Night Signal,” Qigang Chen’s L'Éloignement," and Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde,” with mezzo Kelley O’Connor and tenor Clay Hilley. Performances are Friday at 7:30 pm Saturday at 8 pm, September 30 and October 1.  The Saturday concert will be broadcast live, as usual, on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.

Under the baton of Ben Whiteley, the SLSO returns on Sunday, October 2 at 3 pm for a "A Little Sondheim Music." A joint presentation with The Muny, this program of the music of the late Broadway legend features six prominent singers, including St. Louis's own Ken Page. All performances take place at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center.

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

Symphony Review: Joachim's "Fanm D'Ayiti" highlights the beginning of the SLSO's new season

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève began the second of the opening pair of concerts of the 2022/23 season on Sunday, September 18, with a hearty “bonjour,” as he usually does (“bon soir” for evening shows). This time, though, he went on to remind us that words of welcome were especially relevant because the concert came at the end of the 10th anniversary of Welcoming America’s “Welcome Week.”

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

“Through Welcoming Week,” states the non-profit’s web site, “organizations and communities bring together neighbors of all backgrounds to build strong connections and affirm the importance of welcoming and inclusive places in achieving collective prosperity.”  The SLSO’s welcome took the form of a musical travelogue that took the audience to Italy, Tunisia, Spain, Haiti, and Bohemia (or, as it is now known, the Czech Republic). Under Denève’s sympathetic baton, it was two hours of music that brought joy to the heart and an occasional tear to the eye, and I wouldn’t have missed it for…well, the world.

It’s traditional to open a concert with a brief, upbeat work. Usually it’s also a well-worn favorite. This time, however, it was a piece that hadn’t been heard locally in over 20 years: the 1922 suite “Escales” (“Ports of Call”) by the under-appreciated Jacques Ibert (1890-1962). Its three movements take us on a 15-minute visit to multiple Mediterranean venues. Yes, the composer’s tone painting borders on the cliché (a tarantella for Palermo, Iberian dance rhythms for Valencia, etc.) but the colorful orchestration and irresistible melodies are entertaining nevertheless.

Nathalie Joachim and the Spektral Quartet

“Escales” provides some substantial solos for the woodwinds in general and for the oboe in particular. That’s especially true in the “Tunis – Nefta” movement, dominated as it is by its sinuous, “snake charmer” melodic line, but the truth is that all three movements feature the oboe prominently. Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks’s rich and flexible sound served Ibert exceptionally well and her solo bow was richly deserved. Under Denève’s knowing direction, the entire band exploded like a musical kaleidoscope. Great fun.

Next, we were off to Haiti for a suite based on the Grammy-nominated 2019 album “Fanm d’Ayiti” (“Women of Haiti) by flutist, composer, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim (b. 1983), who was also the flute and vocal soloist. The concert version of “Fanm d’Ayiti” consists of five of the original album’s eleven tracks arranged for orchestra, voice, and flute, along with the recorded voices of a girls’ choir from the Haitian town of Dantan and the voice of Joachim’s grandmother, whose death in 2015 served as the original inspiration for the work.

This orchestration of the intimate original has its pluses and minuses. The expanded sonic palette allows Joachim to add layers of musical color that weren’t possible with the modest forces on the original album, but the difficulties inherent in mixing the recorded sound and a live microphone with the orchestra seriously muddied some of those sonic hues.

For me, the music had the most impact when it used the least amount of amplified sound. A good example is the fourth movement, “Madame Bellegarde,” which begins with a recording of the tune sung by Joachim’s grandmother and then continues with an affecting setting for voice and viola, accompanied by the strings, harp, and vibraphone. Joachim and Principal Viola Beth Guterman Chu clearly drew considerable pleasure from their fine collaboration.

The opening “Prelid” was equally blissful, with radiant vocals and a virtuoso flute solo by Joachim that sparked a spontaneous ovation, and the closing “Fanm d’Ayiti,” was an inspiring tribute of the valor and resilience of the island nation’s women: “Women of Haiti stand / Like all valiant women / To reclaim our rights / To say freedom lives.”

Words to live by, and words to banish the mad, angry darkness that sometime seems to be enveloping our world.

After intermission, which included a champagne toast to the new season led by Maestro Denève, it was time to hop into the Wayback Machine, set the dial for 1889 Bohemia, and revel in Anton Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, Op. 88. Written at a time of great happiness in the composer’s life, which followed hard on the heels of a time of considerable grief, the Eighth is perhaps the best single example of Dvořák’s ability to mingle smiles and tears with a series of ravishing melodies.

Stéphane Denève conducts the SLSO
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

The fact that all this rests on some solid musical architecture is not readily apparent. “Dvořák's is an art that conceals art,” writes The Guardian’s Tom Service, “and which appeals on many different levels precisely and paradoxically because this symphony's initial impact is so powerful, because Dvořák has distilled his melodic gifts to their symphonic essence.” That’s not something you necessarily need to be aware of as a listener, but it’s vital for the conductor to have a grasp of it. Otherwise the Eighth can feel somewhat rambling and episodic.

When he last conducted the piece here in 2015, Maestro Denève (then a guest conductor) gave us a performance which, persuasive as it was, occasionally struck me as somewhat idiosyncratic. Either his approach has changed in the intervening seven years or (more likely) my own view of the work has evolved, because this time around I felt his reading was quite seamless and indicated a clear vision of the “deep structure” of Dvořák’s musical thought. The fact that he was conducting from memory (i.e. without a score) seemed to reinforce that idea.

Either way, it was immensely satisfying. This was a Dvořák Eighth that maintained a sense of momentum even during the seemingly static second movement, with its forlorn bird calls in the woodwinds and the “mortal storm” that threatens to overturn everything. The third movement Allegretto grazioso was a perfect balance of mirth and melancholy, and the final pages of the concluding Allegro ma non troppo were a boisterous bombshell.

Let me not staunch the flow of encomiums without heaping some praise on the SLSO woodwinds, including (but by no means limited to) Principal Flute Matthew Roitstein (first rate solos in the first and last movements especially), along with clarinetists Ryan Toher and Principal Scott Andrews. Principal Cello Danny Lee and his compatriots also deserve praise for their delivery of the important melodic role Dvořák gave them. Dvořák arguably wrote some of the best cello music of the 19th century, after all, so it’s good to hear it done do well.

Next at Powell Hall: Justin Freer conducts the orchestra in Alexandre Desplat’s score for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” while the film is projected on the hall’s big screen. Showings are Friday and Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, September 23-25. The regular season resumes the following weekend as Stéphane Denève conducts Tōru Takemitsu’s “Night Signal,” Qigang Chen’s L'Éloignement (“Distance”), and Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” (“The Song of the Earth”) with soloists Kelley O’Connor and tenor Clay Hilley. Performances are Friday at 7:30 pm Saturday at 8 pm, September 30 and October 1.  The Saturday concert will be broadcast live, as usual, 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.

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of January 27, 2020

Music for a variety of different ensembles is available for your listening pleasure this week, from a trombone group to the full orchestra with piano soloist.

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The Chamber Music Society of St. Louis

The Chamber Music Society of St. Louis presents Mozartiana, a concert of chamber music by Mozart, Monday and Tuesday, January 27 and 28 at 7:30 pm. The performances take place at the Sheldon Concert Hall in Grand Center. For more information: chambermusicstl.org.

The Community Music School of Webster University presents the Young People's Concert Orchestra on Sunday, February 2, at 2 pm. The Community Music School is at 535 Garden Avenue on the Webster University campus. For more information: webster.edu/cms.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents a Pulitzer Series concert on Tuesday and Wednesday January 28 and 29, at 7:30 PM. The concert features contemporary chamber works performed by members of the string section of the SLSO. The performance takes place at the Pultzer Center for the Arts, 3716 Washington. Note that the January 28 concert is currently sold out. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Pianist Saleem Ashkar

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, along with pianist Saleem Ashkar on Friday at 10:30 am Saturday at 8 pm, January 31 and February 1. The program consists of Schmnann's Manfred Overture, Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2, and a suite from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet. Performances take place at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Cente. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Second Presbyterian Church presents The Trombones of the St. Louis Symphony on Sunday, February 2, at 4 pm. "The Trombones will present works they have commissioned from composers with strong St. Louis roots including Caleb Burhans (Alarm Will Sound) and Adam Maness (The 442s). They also will perform their own arrangements of works by Giovanni Gabrieli, Sergei Prokofiev, and others." The church is at 4501 Westminster Place in the Central West End. For more information: secondchurch.net.

The Sheldon Concert Hall presents St. Louis Symphony Principal Flute Mark Sparks, along with cellist Valentina Takova and pianist Peter Henderson, in a chamber music concert on Wednesday, January 29, at 8 pm. The program includes music by Bach, Phillippe Gaubert, and Verne Reynolds. The performance takes place at the Sheldon Concert Hall in Grand Center. For more information: thesheldon.org.

The University City Symphony Orchestra presents Slavic Soul on Sunday, November 24, at 3 pm, with a pre-concert talk at 2:15 pm. "Please join us in celebrating Slavic cultures with Russian violist Ivan Numerov. Mr. Numerov will excite audiences as he performs Niccolò Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 4, arranged for viola by E. Petrov. Also on the concert will be Ludwig van Beethoven's overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, and Wind Serenade by Antonín Dvorák” The performance takes place at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City. For more information: ucso.org.

Pianist Aaron Diehl

The Department of Music at Washington University presents pianist Aaron Diehl in a concert of music by American composers on Friday, January 31, at 7:30 pm.   The program includes works by Copland, Gershwin, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton, and takes place in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City. For more information: https://music.wustl.edu/events.

The Department of Music at Washington University presents contemporary chamber group Alarm Will Sound on Saturday, February 1, at 7:30 pm.  "The program includes music by A. Pyper and Lucrecia Dalt as well as Hexactinellida by Chelsea Komschlies. A. Pyper joins Alarm Will Sound as singer and violinist for the world premiere of her new work, Descansos. Descansos are roadside memorials that mark where a loved one has died. Pyper’s work reflects on the composer’s own life experience growing up as a gay woman in a Mormon family, and trying to mark and move on from those spots in life where loss and trauma have occurred." The concert takes place in the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City. For more information: https://music.wustl.edu/events.

Symphony Review: Leonard Slatkin returns with an entertaining evening of music old and new

The evening air was crisp and so was the playing of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO last night (Saturday, October 12) as Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin led the band in an entertaining and expertly played program of music that spanned nearly 250 years.

Leonard Slatkin
Photo courtesy of the SLSO

The concert opened with a new version of a piece that Mr. Slatkin originally commissioned in 1996, his final year with the orchestra. As a kind of farewell present, he asked four composers who had been in residence at the SLSO during his tenure--Joseph Schwantner, Joan Tower, Donald Erb, and Claude Baker--to each create a different variation of the "Caprice No. 24" by Niccolò Paganini. Slatkin wrote one of his own as well and titled the result "Yet Another Set of Variations (on a Theme of Paganini)."

As Mr. Slatkin approached his 75th birthday he thought a revision might be in order. The new version has the same title as the original but it now has thirteen short movements by a dozen composers (including Mr. Slatkin) that's just under 20 tremendously entertaining minutes in length. The wide emotional range of the suite runs from the solemnity of Truman Harris's "Sarabande" (featuring the bassoon, Mr. Harris's instrument) and the drama of John Corigliano's "Apotheosis (:90)" (referring to the fact that each variation was supposed to run between 60 and 90 seconds) to the Spike Jones-ish comedy of Mr. Slatkin's "Introduction, Theme, and Variant (with apologies to S.R.)."

The latter makes fun of the most famous set of Paganini variations--the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" by Sergei Rachmaninoff (i.e. "S.R") as does Mr. Slatkin's "Quodlibet and Finale," which references all the other composers involved and includes Kelly Karamanov playing the Rachmaninoff's famous 18th variation offstage from what sounded like on old upright piano.

Mostly, the work was about colorful orchestration, musical in-jokes, and a general sense of fun. Donald Erb's "Ave Atque Vale L.S." sounds like an intoxicated after-party. Film and television composer Daniel Slatkin (son of Leonard) covered an impressive number of musical movie memes in his "Paganini Goes to the Movies." And William Bolcom's "Presto scherzando" sounds like a soundtrack for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

"Yet Another Set of Variations (on a Theme of Paganini)" also sounds like a wild ride for the musicians, who are inundated with what were clearly virtuoso passages. Needless to say, the members of the SLSO pulled it off with their customary assurance.

Jelena Dirks
Photo courtesy of SLSO

Speaking of assurance, SLSO Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks displayed plenty of that in a graceful rendition of Mozart's one and only Oboe Concerto that honored what program annotator David Garrett accurately calls the "galant manner" of the piece. And she did it with sparkling precision and a good sense of what Donald Francis Tovey (as cited by Mr. Garrett) saw as the operatic underpinnings of the concerto. The "Adagio non troppo" second movement, for example, could easily be a little love song from one of Mozart's comic operas, and the "Rondo: Allegretto" finale actually quotes a tune from "The Abduction from the Seraglio." Ms. Dirks's oboe sweetly sang the former and skipped cheerfully through the latter.

As a bonus (and something of a reference to the work that opened the concert), Ms. Dirks finished each movement with a cadenza written by a different composer. So we had John de Lancie (long-time Principal Oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra) for the first movement, English oboist Melinda Maxwell for the second, and John Mack (also a former Principal Oboe with the Philadelphians) for the third.

The concert concluded with a glorious, wide-screen, hi-def performance of Richard Strauss's colorful and rousing tribute to himself, "Ein Heldenleben" ("A Hero's Life"). Maestro Slatkin gave it a sweepingly romantic interpretation that did not neglect the fine details of Strauss's inventive use of the orchestra. Richard Freed once observed that "Ein Heldenleben" "represented in its time a new level in the exploitation of the resources of the modern orchestra, and it remains an outstanding landmark in that respect," and you could certainly hear all of that in this utterly compelling performance.

Richard Strauss in 1898
By Fritz Erler (died 1940)
Private collection, Public Domain
commons.wikimedia.org

And the SLSO musicians played flawlessly. Big laurel wreathes are especially due to the horns and the massive brass section as a whole, which sounded great, even in the softest passages. It helped that Mr. Slatkin had the brass section spread out across the entire width of the stage, just in front of the percussion, which made it easier to hear the individual sections, even during the rock concert--level din of the "Hero's Battlefield" section.

Concertmaster David Halen had what is essentially the star turn in "The Hero's Companion" section. It's a loving tribute to Strauss's wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna, in which the violin plays the role of Ms. de Ahna, and an emotionally varied one it surely is. In a letter to Romain Rolland (cited by Mr. Freed), the composer described her musical character as "very complex, a trifle perverse, a trifle coquettish, never the same, changing from minute to minute." Mr. Halen neatly captured the character's many moods.

Principal English Horn Cally Banham also had a lovely moment in the transition to the final section, "The Hero's Retreat from the World and Fulfillment," but ultimately the entire orchestra performed heroically under Mr. Slatkin's skilled direction. I'm a sucker for Strauss, granted, but this was nevertheless a well-balanced and unfailingly arresting performance.

Next at Powell Hall: Stéphane Denève returns to lead the orchestra and violin soloist Karen Gomyo in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1. The program also includes a suite from Poulenc's ballet "Les Biches," and Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances." Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm October 18-20 at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center.

Symphony Preview: Tales of the unexpected

Former Music Director Leonard Slatkin, who led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) during what was possibly its period of highest international visibility (and who is now a resident of Our Fair City once again) returns to lead the SLSO this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, October 12 and 13) in an evening of works which all have intriguing histories.

The concert opens with a new version of a piece that Mr. Slatkin originally commissioned in 1996, his final year with the orchestra. As a kind of farewell present, he asked four composers who had been in residence at the SLSO during his tenure--Joseph Schwantner, Joan Tower, Donald Erb, and Claude Baker--to each create a different variation on the "Caprice No. 24" by Niccoló Paganini. Slatkin wrote one of his own as well and titled the result "Yet Another Set of Variations (on a Theme of Paganini)."

Leonard Slatkin

As Mr. Slatkin approached his 75th birthday (which, interestingly, falls on the same date as mine...) he thought a revision might be in order. Here's what he did, from his program notes for this weekend:
:

I invited five orchestras where I have held a position of artistic leadership to commission five composers with whom I have shared a close collaboration over the course of my career. Specifically, the SLSO invited John Corigliano to contribute a new variation, as it was with that orchestra that I first conducted and recorded John's music. Composer Truman Harris served as assistant principal bassoon in the National Symphony and assisted me in orchestrating several works I wrote for that ensemble. Guillaume Connesson was resident composer with the Orchestre National de Lyon during my tenure. Cindy McTee, aka Mrs. Slatkin, was closely associated with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Daniel Slatkin is my son and a composer for motion pictures and television. His variation was commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, one of the most active recording orchestras in the country.

Mr. Slatkin revised his earlier variation and wrote additional material to tie everything together, and we'll hear this result this weekend.

It's worth noting that Paganini's original caprice includes some pretty fancy variations of its own, as you can both see and hear in a YouTube video featuring violinist Salvatore Accardo and including images of the sheet music synched with his performance. The 24th caprice has proved to be irresistible as the basis for more variations by a wide variety of composers from Brahms to Eugène Ysaÿe. Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" is probably the most well known of the lot, even producing a romantic tune (in variation 18) that has had a life of its own, including a brief run as the accompaniment for (if my memory is correct) a Folger's coffee commercial.

Pop and jazz songwriters have gotten into the act as well. Most notably, Andrew Lloyd Webber made Paganini's tune the basis of his 1977 "Variations," recorded in 1978 with his brother Julian Lloyd Webber as the soloist. That set of variations, like Rachmaninoff's, also produced a little earworm of a melody that eventually grew lyrics courtesy of Don Black and got the title "Unexpected Song."

Mozart, as drawn by Doris Stock, 1789

Speaking of things unexpected, for nearly 150 years, nobody expected to hear Mozart's K. 314 Oboe Concerto for the simple reason that it had simply dropped out of sight after Anton Meyer, an oboist in Prince Esterhàzy's orchestra, requested a copy for his own use in 1883. It was chalked up as a lost work until 1920. In notes for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Phillip Huscher describes what happened then:

In 1920, Mozart scholar and conductor Bernhard Paumgartner, who was director of the Salzburg Mozarteum archives, discovered a package of old orchestral parts. The bass part was marked "Concerto in C/Oboe Principale" followed by Mozart's name. When Paumgartner recognized the music, however, as the familiar flute concerto in D major--the one flutists had long counted as the second of Mozart's two concertos--a 137-year-old mystery began to unravel. Apparently, sometime during the winter of 1777-78, Mozart had made an arrangement of the oboe concerto in order to make fast work of a commission for the amateur flutist Ferdinand de Jean, probably passing the recycled work off as brand new. By exposing Mozart's fraud, Paumgartner's find simultaneously cut Mozart's flute concerto output in two and handed oboists a concerto they had never expected to play.

This weekend will be the first time the concerto has been played by the SLSO (although the SLSO Youth Orchestra did it in 1987, with Mr. Slatkin conducting). The soloist will be SLSO Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks. In a brief email interview, I asked her if playing a piece written for the somewhat simpler oboe of Mozart's day posed any challenges. Her answer was surprising and educational:

Interestingly enough, the Classical period oboe is much more closely related to the modern oboe than the Baroque oboe. Much of the progress that has been made since Mozart's era lies simply in the addition of keys. While keys are meant to make things easier (especially in the complicated, more adventurous compositions of the Romantic and Contemporary eras) they also have some intriguing consequences. One of the biggest changes which resulted is that they even out the colors of different notes. However, the fact is, even to this day, no two notes sound alike on the oboe. That is one of the best and also one of the trickiest things about the oboe! I learned to revel in the differences of sound, to use it when I think it's effective and to hide it when I don't want it.

So what does that all mean in the context of this particular Mozart concerto? Ms. Dirks elaborated:

[T]he opening phrase is a trill, a scale, and then a high c (a brilliant note on the oboe). It is fun to exercise this note and to explore the open nature of the c- as in allegro aperto (open) from the first movement tempo marking. In the vocal second movement, I try for as close to singing an opera aria as I can get. In the third movement, the writing is such that it portrays the bright joyfulness of C major on the oboe. So, to answer your question the long way around, it is more about embracing the qualities of the oboe than anything else!

Jelena Dirks
Photo courtesy of SLSO

The qualities of the oboe, in fact, are what attracted Ms. Dirks to the instrument in the first place. "I come from a family of professional string players," she notes, "and when my mom hosted a baby shower for one of her friends (yes, an oboist!) I was eager to try something no one else in my family played."

Sometime during the party I remember a conversation in which my mom's friend asked me to try making the embouchure for an oboe, and then told me that "I would make a perfect oboist." I don't remember knowing what an oboe was, my ten year old self simply thought 'wow, can I please play that?'...I think it's safe to say that I continued playing oboe because I do thrive on a challenge and I also fell in love with the sound and the expressive nature of the instrument and repertoire.

"Expressive" is certainly a word you might use to describe the final work on the program, Richard Strauss's 1899 "Ein Heldenleben" ("A Hero's Life"). It's one of the more impressive examples of musical egotism, right up there with Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique". Despite the composer's disclaimer that the work was only party autobiographical and that it was intended to be "a more general and free ideal of great and manly heroism," there's not much doubt that Strauss' hero was Strauss. The work is chock full of quotes from Strauss' music and its portrayal of music critics by a gaggle of chattering woodwinds provoked the expected outrage from the composer's detractors.

As Richard Freed observes in program notes for The Kennedy Center, Strauss eventually had to admit the hero in "Ein Heldenleben" was, in fact, himself:

Strauss did concede, after all, in a remark to the writer Romain Rolland, that he found himself "no less interesting than Napoleon," and his gesture of conducting the premiere himself instead of leaving that honor to the respected dedicatee may well be viewed as further confirmation of the work's self-congratulatory character.

That said, "Ein Heldenleben" is such a lavish and dramatic work that it ultimately doesn't matter whether Strauss meant it as a symphonic selfie or not. "A Hero's Life," writes Mr. Freed, "represented in its time a new level in the exploitation of the resources of the modern orchestra, and it remains an outstanding landmark in that respect." It uses a massive orchestra of over 100 players (some of whom will be offstage for the big "battle" sequence, in which The Hero vanquishes his enemies) and includes infrequently heard instruments like the B-flat and E bass clarinets, the tenor tuba, and the contrabassoon. The sheer volume and variety of sound is impressive.

The Essentials: Leonard Slatkin conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra along with Principal Oboe Jelena Dirks in Mozart's Oboe Concerto, K. 314; Richard Strauss's "Ein Heldenleben"; and "Yet Another Set of Variations (on a Theme of Paganini)." Performances are Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm October 12 and 13 at Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center.

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of September 16, 2019

Lots of new music on the program this week, including concerts by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and New Music Circle.

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The New Music Circle presents Out Sounds: Daniel Wyche (Chicago) w/ McNeil/Williams on Friday, September 21, at 8 pm. "Daniel Wyche is a Chicago-based guitarist, composer and improviser. Working with a wide range of physical preparations, extended techniques, and pedal instruments, his recorded work and live performances are characterized by long-form structured improvisations. Recently, this approach has become increasingly integrated with the exploration of multi-channel performance and the spatialization of sound, including new compositions for quad- and 8-channel guitar." The performance takes place at the Flood Plain Gallery, 3151 Cherokee. For more information: floodplaingallery.org.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet
jeanyvesthibaudet.com

Stéphane Denève conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, September 21 and 22. "Stéphane Denève's first concert as SLSO Music Director is a joyous celebration, which includes the world premiere of a piece the SLSO commissioned in his honor. Gershwin's much-loved An American in Paris is conducted by a Frenchman in St. Louis. Denève introduces the SLSO's first Artist-in-Residence, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who plays a concerto that sparkles and swings, and Debussy shows off the color and vitality of this great orchestra and its new leader." Performances take place at Powel Symphony Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Soorya Performing Arts presents the 6th STL Indian Music Festival Friday through Sunday, September 20-22. "Presenting an absolute experience of Indian Music, including traditional, classical, instrumental and modern. Food and drinks available for purchase." The festival takes place at the Gandhi Center, 727 Weidman Rd in Ballwin, MO. For more information: www.sooryaperformingarts.org.

The Washington University Department of Music presents the 560 Block Party from 5 to 7 pm on Tuesday, September 17. "Free block party to celebrate the upcoming season with students, faculty, staff, friends, and 560 Music Center arts organizations that call us home! Enjoy live music provided by jazz pianist Kara Baldus followed by the Zafira Quartet while sipping on free beer (generously donated by Urban Chestnut) and sangria. Free food will also be provided! RSVP to this event today!" The event takes place on the Front Plaza at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City. For more information: music.wustl.edu

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of May 20, 2019

This week, the St. Louis Chamber Chorus gives us Hope, New Music Circle gives us a season finale, and the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra closes its season with a concert classic.

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The St. Louis Chamber Chorus

The St. Louis Chamber Chorus presents Hope on Sunday, May 26, at 3 pm. "Romantic literature from Beethoven and Hugo Wolf are contrasted with more contemporary expressions of joy and triumph by Benjamin Britten and Darius Milhaud, while American composer William Schuman offers some humorous versions of advertisements originally placed in the Sears & Roebuck catalog! A highlight will be the world premiere of “Hope” written specially for the occasion by poet Charles Anthony Silvestri and our new Composer-In-Residence Mårten Jansson." The concert takes place at Congregation Shaare Emeth, 11645 Ladue Road. For more information: www.chamberchorus.org.

The New Music Circle presents Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas on Saturday, May 25, at 8 pm. "Natural Information Society is a shifting collective led by bassist, composer, and improviser Joshua Abrams. A long-time presence in the Chicago jazz and experimental music community, he's spent the past five years releasing albums-including Natural Information, Represencing, and the recent double LP Magnetoception-that have concentrated on meditative, pulse-driven music. Lead by Cooper Crain -of Chicago-based krautrock revivalists, Cave- Bitchin Bajas' music draws inspiration from the minimalist and new age records of the late '60s and '70s. Their group crafts patient and serene zone-out music that made heavy use of vintage synthesizers and tape loops." The performance takes place at Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp. For more information: www.brownpapertickets.com.

Gemma New

Gemma New conducts the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra on Sunday, May 26, at 3 pm. The program includes Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, featuring concerto competition winner Theo Bockhorst, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. The performance takes place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Preview: "I'm not afraid of going for emotion," a conversation with composer Jeff Beal

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

Composer Jeff Beal

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin leads the orchestra in the second of a pair of concerts this weekend, May 3 and 4, 2019. During his tenure with the orchestra, Mr. Slatkin championed new works and infrequently heard pieces by American composers, so it's not surprising that this weekend's concerts features one of each.

The concerts will open with the Symphony No. 1 by Samuel Barber. Composed in 1935 and 1936 in Rome, the work netted him the American Prix de Rome at the ripe old age of 25. It's expansive, dramatic music with a wide emotional range--the sort of thing that made some critics dismiss him as "conservative" at a time when serialism was all the rage and actual melodies were seen as somehow déclassé. It's great stuff.

Up next is the new work: "The Paper Lined Shack," a song cycle by contemporary American composer Jeff Beal that's getting its world premiere this weekend. Mr. Beal is probably best known for his music for the TV series "House of Cards," but he also has extensive film and, more recently, concert credits. I talked with him late last week.

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Chuck Lavazzi (CL): I'd like to start off with a little bit about your background. I know you were a jazz trumpeter before you started composing, and that you picked up the trumpet at a very early age.

Jeff Beal (JB): Yes, I was in grade school--probably third or fourth grade--and I went to a school assembly with my dad where musicians were demonstrating different instruments. This guy picked up the trumpet and I pointed and said, "that's the one!" It's funny how your fate might get sealed at an early age, but I love the trumpet. It's a vocal instrument in many ways and it has always been a big part of my voice. When I started composing, I think improvising and being a jazz trumpet player opened the doors for me to be a composer.

CL: So you came to composing from the world of jazz. What was that transition like, moving from the freer atmosphere of jazz to composing for film and the concert hall?

JB: I think when you improvise in jazz, it really is a form of spontaneous composition. Also the other childhood connection that really influenced me was playing trumpet in the Oakland Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is a really fine youth orchestra. I'll never forget, we were playing Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," and I was listening to that incredible music, that mind of Stravinsky's, the colorful nature of it, and the fact that it was from a ballet so it had a narrative to it--and I knew that I wanted to write all kinds of music. Not just jazz but for the orchestra, to express my musical urges through composition.

CL: I was reading that you are something of a one-man band. You compose, orchestrate, and even engineer and record your own works. How does it feel to turn your artistic children out into the wild to be performed by others?

JB: That's a great question. Having done film for so long, I really missed that chance to connect back to the world of live performance. And I think I have relaxed a little bit. I'm 55 now and I'm more forgiving of the unpredictable nature of live performance. In fact, I really quite enjoy it.

One of the things I've discovered during these years of recording and producing my own scores is that often I prefer to use the first or second take, which is more like a live performance. So the energy of a live performance is one of the ultimate ways to not only have your work done but to listen to music.

I find myself going to a lot more concerts than when I was in the darkroom writing film scores. I think when you listen to music played live in a room by people something magical happens. For me it's like flying first class, especially with Hila Plitmann singing and Leonard Slatkin conducting. I couldn't be happier.

CL: The piece they're going to do is "The Paper Lined Shack," a song cycle. It's the world premiere. What has the experience been like working on that with the orchestra?

Soprano Hila Piltmann
Photo courtesy St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

JB: I had a session with Hila several weeks ago, and that was really useful. You always have a sense in your mind of what the piece is going to feel like and I do a little mock-up with the computers when I'm writing, but there's always something I learn when it really gets played by the orchestra and the way it lives and breathes in the room. I know I'm going to understand the piece in a different way, which is an enjoyable part of the experience for me. Whenever you're doing something for the first time, it has a life of its own and you're sort of discovering it, even if you wrote it. That's the amazing thing about music for me--it's a performance medium so I'm really looking forward to that.

One of things I like about Hila is that she always memorizes her music and she really takes on the story that she's singing. What she brings to it as a performer will be a powerful part of the piece.

CL: The text for "The Paper Lined Shack" is based on a diary by your great-grandmother Della that you found while unpacking some boxes.

JB: Yes, this was 20 years ago. My wife and I discovered it and she started reading it. I knew the general outline of what her story was, but reading it we thought "this is really special." There's some really beautiful writing, especially in the way she describes that crucial moment in her life when she was in Idaho pregnant with her sixth child and her husband got sick and died suddenly. She ended up raising these six kids on a farm by herself.

It was always in the back of my mind that it would be great to do something with this. I knew I wanted to have a strong female character for Hila because of her acting ability, something that really had dramatic weight, and that's when this came back to me. I read it with my wife Joan who helped me craft parts of this diary into a libretto. We both had similar ideas about the important images and parts of her life that we wanted in the song cycle.

CL: What made you think of this as a good choice for Leonard Slatkin and the SLSO?

JB: To me the St. Louis Symphony and Leonard Slatkin represent a very American take on culture and the part of the country that's dependent on the pioneer spirit, because anybody that didn't start on the East coast was a pioneer of some sort. Even though I grew up in San Francisco, I always felt that the West was part of the mythology of how I identified.

CL: I like the way your great-grandmother Della talks about her garden as part of the cycle of life.

JB: Yes, we bring that back in the last movement. I realized that's a really important part of my story as well. There's a documentary film I scored called "The Biggest Little Farm" opening May 10th. It's about a husband and wife that took over this farm in southern California, and I realized there's something powerful about that connection to the earth. There's something spiritual and mythical about it in a way, tapping into that universal part of the story.

This is a very personal text for me, but my hope is that, as a concert piece, it won't just be about my story. I hope that everybody will find something in Della that they can relate to. She was the only girl in a family of four brothers, so she was a kind of tomboy. This is the story of how she found her identity and a woman and became who she was. It's wonderful the humility she had and the lack of self-pity. It's a sort of Midwestern, Protestant work ethic that I find quite beautiful, hopeful, and not cynical.

I think we're living in such a horribly cynical time, politically and otherwise, so to me this isn't nostalgia. It's about values and celebrating the best we can be. The best of us.

CL: I think it also touches on something we seem very blind to in this country, which is our debt to the past. Americans seem to have this belief that the past doesn't matter and that we can reinvent ourselves every day, and that's just not real.

Della's paper lined shack

JB: I think that's a great point. I think inventiveness is great, but there's a danger in that. In fact, I rediscovered myself writing this.

I came up with the title based on a description of the house. It's really startling when you live in the modern era in a relatively wealthy country, it's a reality check to be reminded how so many people had so little and got by with so little and made it work.

CL: There's a picture of it in the program, so people will see it when the come.

JB: It has a kind of Ken Burns iconic look.

CL: Let's talk about the music. What are people going to hear when they experience "The Paper Lined Shack"?

JB: The music follows the beats of Della's life. It's somewhat chronological. So you first meet her as a young girl and the music has a childlike, playful character. There's energy and a definitely American sound. I'm really honored to be on the same program as Samuel Barber because his musical language is part of what I love.

The garden movement is much more lyrical and bittersweet. When Hila and I were rehearsing it we both started crying at a certain point because those are powerful words. I love music like that, that's cathartic. That probably goes back to my roots as a film composer. I'm not afraid of going for emotion in what I do. That part of what I love about being a composer, trying to communicate the feelings of an experience with somebody.

CL: I love these final words in the text: "It was love that we planted in the garden / There our hearts bloomed, / Our hearts opened. / Carry my heart." That feels like a wonderful way to close it.

JB: Thank you. I certainly hope people are moved by it.

CL: Is there anything more you want to communicate to the listeners?

JB: Well, Leonard Slatkin has been an important mentor in my life and I'm grateful to have him as a partner. His parents were very involved with film music, so he's not afraid to reach out to a film composer to write a piece of concert music. That's very special to me.

And I really feel--and I know Leonard feels this way too--that the more we can break down the barriers between "high" art and "low" art and the more we can have the story telling drive what gets played, I think that's the way music is going. I'm not the only one doing this and it's nice that this is starting to happen.

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The Essentials: Leonard Slatkin returns to conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and soprano soloist Hila Plitmann Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 8 pm, May 3 and 4 at Powell Hall in Grand Center. In addition to the Barber and Beal works, the concert features Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 ("Pathetique"). In an interview with me last week, Mr. Slatkin said his interpretation "will perhaps remind audiences, sonically, of what that collaboration [with the SLSO] was like in the earlier days when I was music director. It has changed over the years, but for the next couple of weeks we old timers will show the kids how we used to play."

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of May 21, 2018

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The Community Music School of Webster University presents the Webster University Singers Reunion Concert on Sunday, May 27, at 3 pm. "Forty alumni reunite for a weekend of singing to celebrate Webster University's nationally recognized choral music program. Join us for a concert program of the singers' favorite selections, including music from the Western European choral tradition, a Cuban rumba, and African American spirituals." The Community Music School is at 535 Garden Avenue on the Webster University campus. For more information: webster.edu/cms.

Hamid Drake

New Music Circle presents a first-time collaborative performance by Hamid Drake, Cooper-Moore, and Joshua Abrams on Saturday, May 26, at 8 pm. "As a composer, performer, instrument builder/designer, storyteller, teacher, mentor, and organizer, Cooper-Moore has been a major, if somewhat behind-the-scenes, catalyst in the world of creative music for over 40 years. As a composer, performer, instrument builder/designer, storyteller, teacher, mentor, and organizer Joshua Abrams is a composer, bassist, and improviser. His early formative musical experiences include performing in a chamber group conducted by Earle Brown, and busking on the streets of Philadelphia as an original member of The Roots. Since the mid-1990s, Abrams has been a key figure in Chicago's creative music communities. Hamid Drake is an American jazz drummer and percussionist, living in Chicago, but spending a great deal of his time touring worldwide. Drake is widely regarded as one of the great percussionists in jazz and improvised music, with a uniquely poetic approach to drumming; he draws from Afro-Cuban, Indian and African percussion instruments and influences." The performance takes place at Off Broadway, 3511 Lemp. For more information: newmusiccircle.org.

The St. Louis Chamber Chorus presents Memorial Dances on Sunday, May 27, at 3 pm. "MUSIC conveys those emotions which words alone cannot contain. In her latest piece for the Chorus, Composer-in-Residence Melissa Dunphy celebrates our memories but captures our grief at the passing of those we love. This naturally leads us to one of the most personal and poignant of all Requiems, that written for his son by the British composer, Herbert Howells." The concert takes place at Kirkwood Presyterian Church, 100 E. Adams in Kirkwood, MO. For more information: www.chamberchorus.org.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra presents The Strings of Arda performing a concert of music from countries around the world, inlcuding Somalia, Syria, Bosnia, Congo, and Cuba, on Wednesday, May 23, at 11 am. The Strings of Arda consists of SLSO musicians Asako Kuboki and Becky Boyer Hall, violins; Christian Woehr, viola; Alvin McCall, cello; Christopher Carson, bass; and Thomas Stubbs, percussion. The free concert takes place at The International Institute of St. Louis, 3401 Arsenal. For more information: slso.org.

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of June 5, 2017

Act Inc presents the comedy The 39 Steps, based on the classic Hitchcock film, Friday and Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 2 p.m. June 9 - 11, and again on Saturday at 8 Sunday at 2 p.m., June 24 and 25. "A beautiful spy tells a lethal secret to a man she's just met. With that, our hero Richard Hannay finds himself embroiled in a riotous chase across England and Scotland, discovering clues, dodging police, and charming ladies at every turn. With tons of characters played by a small group of actors, the play provides actors the opportunity to perform multiple wildly creative characters in the midst of a fast-paced, hilarious evening at the theatre." Performances take place in the Emerson Black Box Theatre at the J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts on the Lindenwood campus in St. Charles, MO. For more information, visit actincstl.com.

Gitana Productions presents Between Worlds: An American Journey June 8 - 11. "This contemporary dance theater performance challenges us to look within and at our shared history to rediscover the power that fuels 'We the people!' Using dynamic movement, music, drama and spoken word Gitana will take you on a journey 'between worlds.' As diverse Americans, what do we want to become together? How does democracy depend on our ability to connect with each other in authentic ways?" Performances take place at The Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square in Grand Center. For more information: www.gitana-inc.org.

The Black Rep presents a revival production of their original musical revue Crossin' Overthrough June 18. "From roots in Africa - from village to slave ship - through the middle passage - from auction block to plantation fields and up to the modern Civil Rights movement, CROSSIN' OVER tells its tale with traditional West African drumming, hymns, psalms and Gospel standards such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Precious Lord," and "We Shall Overcome," as well as contemporary gospel music today." Performances take place in the Emerson Performance Space on the campus of Harris-Stowe State University in midtown. For more information: theblackrep.org.

The Lemp Mansion Comedy-Mystery Dinner Theater presents Death of a Blackheart through July 29. "Welcome aboard the largest, (and safest), cruise liner ever to sail the low seas. That's right. Welcome aboard the Gigantic! But wait! What do I hear? "Argggghhhhhhh!" Avast ye mateys and get yer gizzard ready to be robbed by the most famous pirate ever to pillage a maiden! Of course, we're talkin' Captain Jack Blackheart! He's the pirate that has cheated more people, emptied more pockets and pillaged more ladies than any politician. Gee. I hope no one kills him off. You'll meet lots of fun characters at this show. In fact audience members will get to play lots of fun characters in this show because it's "chock full" of "Fair Maidens", "Lost Boys", "Rival Pirates", and more. One thing is for sure. If you've ever wanted to stand up and shout out Arggggghhhh!...then "Death of a Blackheart" is the show for you!" The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place. For more information: lempmansion.com.

St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley presents An Evening of One-Act PlaysApril June 7 - 11. Performances take place in the Fisher Theatre on the campus at 3400 Pershall RoadFor more information, www.stlcc.edu/fv/ or call 314-644-5522.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents the world premiere of The Grapes of Wrath by Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie, based on the John Steinbeck novel, through June 25. "When the Dust Bowl sweeps across Oklahoma, the Joad family sets out for a new life in California. But the promised land isn't all it seems. In the face of countless obstacles, can the American dream survive? Both heartbreaking and uplifting, this acclaimed opera vividly captures all the beauty of John Steinbeck's best-selling novel." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hilton Center at 135 Edgar Road on the Webster University campus. All performances are sung in English with projected English text. For more information: experienceopera.org or call 314-961-0644.

Stages St. Louis presents the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoatthrough July 2. "One of the most enduring shows of all time, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is the irresistible family musical about the trials and triumphs of Joseph, Israel's favorite son." Performances take place in the Robert G. Reim Theatre at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 South Geyer Road in Kirkwood. For more information: stagesstlouis.com

Madame Butterfly

Photo: Ken Howard

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents Puccini's Madame Butterfly through June 24. "A Japanese geisha. An American soldier. Their attraction is immediate, but their love story can't last. When their union results in a child, Cio-Cio-San is forced to do whatever it takes to protect her son's future. Set to breathtaking music, this timeless opera pays powerful, wrenching tribute to a mother's love." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hilton Center at 135 Edgar Road on the Webster University campus. All performances are sung in English with projected English text. For more information: experienceopera.org or call 314-961-0644.

Stray Dog Theatre presents the world premiere of Monsters, by St. Louis playwright Stephen Peirick, Thursdays through Saturdays, April June 8 - 24. "Jeremy and Davis are brothers who have masterminded a plan to commit the perfect crime. When Davis' wife finds a distraught man tied up in their basement, the fool proof plan immediately begins to unravel. In this fast-paced comedy/thriller, impulsive decisions and poorly kept secrets have dire consequences." Performances take place at The Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee. For more information, visit straydogtheatre.org or call 314-865-1995.

Insight Theatre Company presents the musical Next to Normal June 8 - 25. Next to Normal examines how one typical suburban family handles the slow retreat into manic depression the mother is battling.  Performances take place in the Heagney Theatre, 530 East Lockwood on the campus of Nerinx Hall High School in Webster Groves. For more information, call 314-556-1293 or visit insighttheatrecompany.com .

The Bissell Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre presents Phantom of the Grand Old Opry through July 30. The Bissell Mansion is at 4426 Randall Place. For more information: bissellmansiontheatre.com.

Independent Theater Co. presents Don Nigro's Scarecrow Friday and Saturday at 7 and 8:30p.m., June 9 and 10. "A lonely girl lives with her eccentric mother in an old farmhouse on the edge of a cornfield. She meets a strange man under a tree by the creek and is led into a web of lust and betrayal. Scarecrows are supposed to frighten crows, but the scarecrow in this cornfield is something more." Performances take place at Southampton Presbyterian Church, 4716 Macklind in south city. 

New Line Theatre presents the Marvin Hammlisch musical Sweet Smell of Success, based on the 1957 film of the same name, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM, through June 24. "It's New York, 1952. After dark. Welcome to Broadway, the glamour, power, and sleaze capital of the universe. J.J. Hunsecker rules it all with his daily gossip column in the New York Globe, syndicated to sixty million readers across America. J.J. has the goods on everyone, from the President to the latest starlet. And everyone feeds J.J.'s appetite for scandal, from J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy, down to a battalion of hungry press agents who attach their gossip to a client that J.J. might plug. When down-and-out press agent Sidney Falco tries to hitch his wagon to J.J., all while keeping secrets about his new client's relationship with J.J.'s sister, Sidney learns that you can become no one fast when J.J. turns on you." Performances take place at the Marcelle Theater, 3310 Samuel Shepard Drive, three blocks east of Grand, in Grand Center. For more information, visit newlinetheatre.com or call 314-534-1111.

Circus Flora presents its new show, Time Flies, theough June 25 under the air-conditioned, red-and-white, big top tent in Grand Center next to Powell Hall. "Imagine that you could travel through time. Would you go back to relive historic events? What if you could alter the course of your own life? Now imagine you had the grace, power, and beuty of an acrobat or aerialist. Circus Flora's all new production uses the timeless art of circus to explore the fabric of time." For more information: circusflora.org.

The Midnight Company presents Title and Deed Thursdays through Sundays at 8 p.m., June 8 - 24. "Behold the newest nobody of the funniest century yet. He’s almost Christ-like, from a distance, in terms of height and weight. Listen closely or drift off uncontrollably, as he speaks to you directly about the notion of home, about the notion of the world. All of it delivered with the authority that is the special province of the unsure and the un-homed, which is a word he made up accidentally. The running time, if he doesn’t die or think of anything else, is roughly one hour." Performances take place at Avatar Studios, 2675 Scott Avenue, downtown. Downtown. For more information: brownpapertickets.com . 

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents Mozart's Titus (La Clemenza di Tito) opening on Saturday, June 10, and running through June 24. "Politics turn lethal as a new emperor takes the throne of Rome, and the Capitol is set ablaze by an explosive mix of ambition, conspiracy, and romantic intrigue. With an assassin lurking in the shadows, can the world's most powerful city still be ruled with compassion? Experience this transcendent Mozart masterpiece, handpicked by conductor Stephen Lord for his final appearance as OTSL Music Director." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hilton Center at 135 Edgar Road on the Webster University campus. All performances are sung in English with projected English text. For more information: experienceopera.org or call 314-961-0644.

Broadway Fantasies presents A Toast to the Tonys Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. theough June 11. "This is the 28th consecutive year that St. Louis' original song and dance revue featuring talented professionals and amateurs from all walks of life, will perform for fun and for charity. All net proceeds from this Broadway Fantasies production are donated to CORP, County Older Residents Programs. This year's show is directed by Christy Simmons with musical director Joe Dreyer." Performances take place at St. Joseph's Academy, 2307 S Lindbergh Blvd. For more information: broadwayfantasies.com

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents The Trial by Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton, based on the novel by Kafka, through June 23. "It's strange enough that Josef K. spontaneously finds himself arrested on his 30th birthday ‚stranger still that no one seems able to explain why. He embarks on a year-long search for justice, encountering absurd characters and situations at every turn. Based on Franz Kafka's novel, this dark comedy comes to St. Louis after a sold-out run at London's Royal Opera House." Performances take place at the Loretto-Hilton Center at 135 Edgar Road on the Webster University campus. All performances are sung in English with projected English text. For more information: experienceopera.org or call 314-961-0644.

The Monroe Actors Stage Company presents Wild Oats Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., through June 11, in the Historic Capitol Theatre in downtown Waterloo, Illinois. "Wild Oats is your typical knee-slapping wild West story, complete with the evil landlord coming for the rent, long lost children, bar room sing-a-longs and... Shakespeare?" For more information, visit www.masctheatre.org or call 618-939-7469.

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents the comedy/drama The Winter's Tale nightly except for Tuesdays, theough June 25. " Written in approximately 1610, The Winter's Tale is considered to be one of a group of Shakespeare's plays defined by their tragic undertones and simultaneous use of straightforward comic situations. Other plays that are grouped in this category include Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, All's Well that Ends Well, and Timon of Athens." Beginning at 6:30 the Green Show presents pre-play entertainment a variety of local performers on multiple stages. The play begins at 8 p.m. Performances take place in Shakespeare Glen next to the Art Museum in Forest Park. For more information, visit shakespearefestivalstlouis.org.

Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville presents the musical Working, based on the book by Studs Terkel, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through June 11. Performances take place in the Dunham Hall Theater on the campus in Edwardsville, IL. For more information, call 618-650-2774 or visit siue.edu

Looking for auditions and other artistic opportunities? Check out the St. Louis Auditions site.

For information on events beyond this week, check out the searchable database at the Regional Arts Commission's Events Calendar.

Would you like to be on the radio? KDHX, 88.1 FM needs theatre reviewers. If you're 18 years or older, knowledgeable in this area, have practical theatre experience (acting, directing, writing, technical design, etc.), have good oral and written communications skills and would like to become one of our volunteer reviewers, send an email describing your experience and interests to chuck at kdhx.org. Please include a sample review of something you've seen recently.