Symphony Preview: Celebrity soloists glitter at the Red Velvet Ball on Saturday, October 18

Lang Lang
stlsymphony.org

As I wrote in a previous post, it's a musical doubleheader at the St. Louis Symphony this weekend: the regular series concerts on Friday and Sunday with Leonard Slatkin, the orchestra, and violin soloists Celeste Golden Boyer and David Halen; and the annual "Red Velvet Ball" fundraiser concert on Saturday night with David Robertson conducting and international celebrity pianist Lang Lang in the solo spot. Here's a preview of the latter.

The Red Velvet Ball concert is only part of a formal fundraising event that includes premium seating, pre-concert cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner and post-concert cocktails, dessert, and dancing. It's a dressy (and pricey) affair in which the orchestra and a fair percentage of the audience are decked out in their best formal attire. It always features a big name soloist, and superstar pianist Lang Lang is all that beyond a doubt.

Described as "the hottest artist on the classical music planet" by the New York Times, the 32-year-old Chinese pianist says he was inspired to learn the piano when he saw the classic Tom and Jerry cartoon "The Cat Concerto" at the age of two. By the age of five he was already appearing public recitals. He won the Xing Hai Cup Piano Competition in Beijing in 1994 and the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Pianists in Japan the following year. Since then his unique mix of technical proficiency, artistic taste, and charismatic performance style have made him an international, genre-crossing superstar—the "the J. Lo of the piano," in the words of the great keyboard virtuoso Earl Wild.

Tchaikovsky in 1906
en.wikipedia.org

Mr. Lang will be playing Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1," an enduring chestnut that always gets a warm response. The lively melodies (some appropriated from Ukrainian folk sources) and flashy piano part never fail to appeal. It has had plenty of exposure at Powell over the last few years, with splendid (and very different) performances by Kirill Gerstein (September 2013) and Yefim Bronfman (April 2011). What will Mr. Lang do with it? I don’t know, but based on his work to date it's likely to be compelling.

The concert will open with J.S. Bach's "Suite No. 2 in B-minor," BWV 1067, which features a prominent role for the flute. It was, like many of Bach's works, written for the government—specifically, for the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, where Bach was the resident composer and music director from 1717 to 1723.

The prince was fond of what symphony program annotator Paul Schiavo (in his notes for a performance of the Bach "Suite No. 1" in October 2012) described as "lively secular instrumental music", and Bach filled the bill nicely with an appealing site of six dances preceded by a short "French overture" (the name possibly refers to the fact that the form first appears in the operas of Jean Baptiste Lully) with its characteristic majestic opening followed by a main section.

Mark Sparks
stlsymphony.org

If some of the recordings of the Bach suites in my collection are any indication, it’s easy to treat this music as weighty stuff. Even in his "light" music, after all, Bach couldn’t stop being a genius at counterpoint. Still, I would expect Mr. Robertson to deliver a performance that remains true to the suite’s terpsichorean origins.

The solo flute role will be taken by SLSO Principal Flute Mark Sparks. It's not the first time he has been in the spotlight. As recently as last March he performed the Christopher Rouse "Flute Concerto" with the symphony and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras all over the world. Great as it is to have an international celebrity like Lang Lang playing with the orchestra, it's at least as gratifying to see a member of the orchestra take center stage.

The essentials: David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and soloists Lang Lang, piano, and Mark Sparks, flute, in Bach's "Orchestra Suite No. 2" and Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1" Saturday, October 19, at 8:30 p.m. The concert is part of the annual Red Velvet Ball formal fundraising event and takes place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, visit the web site.

We had a ball

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson with cellist Yo-Yo Ma
What: Music of Suppé, Haydn, Hérold, Faure, and Saint-Saëns
Where: Powell Symphony Hall
When: October 19, 2013

Before the first note sounded at Saturday night’s Red Velvet Ball fundraiser concert, the evening was already a success, in that it had raised over $600,000 for the symphony.  In return for all that cash, the near-capacity crowd at Powell Hall got a solid evening of great music from the orchestra under David Robertson and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The Red Velvet Ball is always a festive occasion, with the musicians decked out even more formally than usual (“don’t they look great?” asked Mr. Robertson as he took the podium).   There were a fair number of formal gowns and tuxes in the audience as well.  A spirit of jolly good humor pervaded the evening, with Mr. Ma often exchanging smiles with Mr. Robertson and the symphony musicians and Mr. Robertson doing a bit of clowning about on the podium.

That’s not to say that the performances were anything less than polished.  It’s just that everyone was clearly having a good time, and the feeling was contagious.

The two big events of the evening were cello concertos by Haydn and Saint-Saëns.  They represented a nice balance of styles and showed Mr. Ma's talents nicely.

The first was Haydn's Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIb/1.  It's an early work, written somewhere around 1761-65 (when Haydn was in his 30s) and apparently intended for Haydn's friend Joseph Franz Weigl, who was the principal cellist of Prince Nicolaus's Esterházy Orchestra. Judging from the difficulty of the solo part, Weigl must have been quite the virtuoso.  He might also have played the ensemble cello part as well since the score has only one cello line, marked either "solo" or "tutti," depending on the cello’s role.

Mr. Ma played both the tutti and solo lines with fleetness and lightness of tone that perfectly matched the material.  Mr. Robertson’s tempi were a bit on the slow side for my taste but as this was “big band” Haydn, I could see the logic in that approach.  Certainly the audience loved it, applauding after each movement and standing at the end.

The second (and longer) solo work was another Cello Concerto No. 1.  This one, in A minor, is the Op. 33 of the prolific French romantic master Camille Saint-Saëns.  Like Haydn, Saint-Saëns was in his 30s when he wrote this in 1872.  Also like Haydn, he wrote it for a specific performer: the Belgian cellist, viola de gamba player, author, and instrument maker Auguste Tolbecque.  This, too, is a work that demands a great deal from the soloist—which makes it very popular with top-drawer soloists like Mr. Ma.

Mr. Ma and Mr. Robertson played the Saint-Saëns for maximum contrast and drama.  Mr. Ma’s sound was big and lush when the music led him there, yet wonderfully delicate in the little minuet-like melody of the central “Allegretto con moto” section.  Here, as in the Haydn, Mr. Ma interacted not just with the conductor but with members of the orchestra as well, often nodding and smiling to concertmaster David Halen.  This is a man who clearly loves what he does, and that’s always a pleasure to see on stage.

Each of Mr. Ma’s solo appearances was preceded by a popular overture.  Before the Haydn we got the overture to Franz von Suppé’s 1866 operetta Leichte Kavallerie (Light Cavalry) and before the Saint-Saëns the overture to Zampa, an somewhat absurd 1831 opéra comique by French composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold. 

Some fine playing by the brasses—including principal trumpet Karen Bliznik—highlighted the former, while principal clarinet Scott Andrews had a fine solo turn in the latter.  Mr. Robertson conducted both with genial flair and not a little bit of humor.  When the famous “galloping” theme began in Light Cavalry, for example, he turned to the audience with a grin as if to say, “we all know this one, don’t we?”  Yes, we do, and it was great fun.

There was one solemn moment in the evening, though.  As I noted in my review of Friday’s concert, symphony contrabassoonist Andrew Thompson died suddenly this past Tuesday of a heart attack at the shockingly young age of 27.  Maestro David Robertson paid homage to him Friday with a moving eulogy and a moment of silence.  Saturday night, the tribute was musical: Gabriel Fauré’s 1883 Élégie for cello and orchestra, played by Mr. Ma just before the Saint-Saëns concerto.  It was a last-minute addition to the program, but nothing about the performance sounded slapdash, and it was a moving tribute.

Although this was the fifth annual Red Velvet Ball, it was the first one I’d attended.  It was immensely gratifying to see such a large turnout, especially given the higher than usual ticket prices  And there is something to be said for “putting on the Ritz” now and then.  Yes, I know: we don’t want to make attending the symphony seem too formal and off-putting.  But it’s still fun to dress up in ways that match all that cream, red and gold décor at Powell.  Besides, I don’t get that many opportunities to wear my tux these days.

This coming Wednesday (October 23) there’s a Pulitzer Concert with cellist Danny Lee and violinist Helen Kim performing Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes for Solo Violin and Kodály‘s Sonata for Solo Cello at the Pulitzer Center just west of Powell Hall.  Friday and Saturday it’s back to Powell Hall for a concert featuring Rimski-Korsakov’s Scheherazade along with the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 (the one with the prominent trumpet part in the final movement) and a suite of dances from Thomas Adès’s 1995 chamber opera Powder Her Face.  Peter Oundjian conducts with pianist Stewart Goodyear and the symphony’s Karin Bliznik on trumpet.  For ticket information: stlsymphony.org.

After the ball

Yo-Yo Ma and fellow performers from the
Goad Rodeo Sessions CD

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As I wrote in a previous post, there are two St. Louis Symphony concerts this weekend: the regular concert series on Friday and Sunday with Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu on the podium and Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma as the soloist; and the annual "Red Velvet Ball" fundraiser concert on Saturday night with David Robertson conducting and celebrity cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the solo spot. Here's a preview of the latter.

The two big events of the evening will, of course, be the cello concertos.  They represent a nice balance of styles and should show off both the instrument and Mr. Ma's talents nicely.

Haydn circa 1770
Painting by
Ludwig Guttenbrunn

The first is Haydn's Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIb/1 ("Hob." refers to the definitive catalog of over 750 Haydn works by Dutch collector and musicologist Anthony von Hoboken).  It's an early work, written somewhere around 1761-65 (when Haydn was in his 30s) and apparently intended for Haydn's friend Joseph Franz Weigl, who was the principal cellist of Prince Nicolaus's Esterházy Orchestra at the time. Judging from the difficulty of the solo part, Weigl must have been quite the virtuoso.  He might also have played the ensemble cello part as well since the score has only one cello line, marked either "solo" or "tutti" ("all," indicating the orchestral part).

Haydn wrote only two cello concertos, and two decades would elapse before he produced another one.

Fun Fact: The concerto was lost until 1961, when a copy turned up in the Prague National Museum.

The second (and longer) solo work another Cello Concerto No. 1.  This one, in A minor is the Op. 33 of the prolific French romantic master Camille Saint-Saëns.  Like Haydn, Saint-Saëns was in his 30s when he wrote this in 1872.  Also like Haydn, he wrote it for a specific performer: the Belgian cellist, viola de gamba player, author, and instrument maker Auguste Tolbecque.  It, too, is a work that demands a great deal from the soloist—which makes it very popular with top-drawer soloists like Mr. Ma.

Camille Saint-Saëns
(Tully Potter collection)

Unlike the Haydn concerto, this one unfolds in one long movement, running around 20 minutes.  It breaks up into three sections, with two fast end movements bracketing a more lyrical "Allegretto," but they're all closely related thematically.  The concerto ends with an appropriately flashy finale.

Fun Fact: Like Haydn, Saint-Saëns wrote only two cello concertos, and he let quite a bit of time elapse between them.  His second concerto was written in 1902, three decades after the first.

The concert opens with the overture to Franz von Suppé’s 1866 operetta Leichte Kavallerie (Light Cavalry).  It's one of his most popular pieces, so even if you don't recognize the name it's a safe bet you'll recognize the music—especially the "galloping" tune that follows the slow introductory fanfare.

Suppé's grave
at the Zentralfriedhof

Suppé is a classic example of the composer who achieved fame and fortune in his lifetime, only to slide into obscurity afterwards. Although he wrote thirty operettas and hundreds of other works, mostly for the stage, Suppé is represented these days almost entirely by a handful of overtures—at least on this side of the Atlantic. Some of his operas still see the light of day in Europe, particularly in his native Austria. Fortunately his Requiem and some of his stage works are available on CD for those curious as to what the rest of his music sounds like.

Fun Fact: The overture's opening fanfare was the theme for the afternoon movie series Men at War on (if my memory is correct) channel 4 (KMOV) here in St. Louis in the 1950s.  As you might guess from the title, the series featured old war movies, mostly from WW II.

In between the two concertos is the overture to Zampa, an 1831 opéra comique by French composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold.  An opéra comique is not a comic opera, by the way, but a musical theatre piece in which there is spoken dialog between the arias.  It's an ancestor of operetta and, for that matter, American musicals.

Hérold by
Louis Dupré, 1830

The plot of Zampa is a farrago of the sort of improbable coincidences that Gilbert and Sullivan loved to lampoon in their operettas, complete with an absurdly supernatural ending that's an obvious reference to Mozart's Don Giovanni.  The opera itself fell out of favor in the early 20th century but the rousing overture is still a concert favorite.

Fun Fact: In his time, Hérold was very successful and even earned the French Legion of Honor in 1828.  Today he's remembered only for the Zampa overture and, to a lesser extent, the ballet La fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) from the year in which he got his Legion of Honor.  Sic transit gloria mundi.

The concert takes place after the Red Velvet Ball fundraiser on Saturday, October 19th.  The black tie ball begins at 7:30, the concert at 8:30.  Tickets for the concert start at $100.  Gala packages, which include preferred seating, cocktails, dinner and dancing, start at $750.  For more information: stlsymphony.org.