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.

Invitations to the dance

Who: Pianist Sarina Zhang and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ward Stare
What: Music of Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Gershwin, Bernstein, and Ravel
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: May 18, 2012

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Sarina Zhang and friends play the Saint-Saëns Dance Macabre

It was a lively and entertaining evening at Powell Hall last night with a dance-infused program that included three of Dvořák’s popular Slavonic Dances, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Bernstein’s still-amazing Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and an appropriately hallucinatory reading of Ravel’s death knell for the 19th century, La Valse. There was also a performance of the "Bacchanale" from Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila with a highly charged coda.

Pity it was only one night because it drew a large and (as far as I could tell) somewhat younger than usual crowd, at least some of whom apparently weren’t symphony regulars. That’s a good thing; maybe they’ll come back for the 2013 season.

Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, while popular on classical radio stations and in the record and CD collections of music lovers, aren’t heard all that often in live performances, in my experience. For Friday’s concert Mr. Stare chose a nice trio of them: a lively Serbian kolo (Op. 72, No. 7), a graceful sousedská (Op. 46, No. 4), and a brilliant furiant with an elegiac trio (Op. 46, No. 8). Mr. Stare’s reading was particularly effective at bringing out the lyrical side of these colorful works and reminded me once again of how effectively Dvořák turned these original dance tunes into little symphonic fragments. They’re filled with lovely bits of orchestral detail as well—all brought out nicely by the orchestra players.

There’s not a lot that needs to be said about the colorful “Bacchanale” from Saint-Saëns’s 1876 opera Samson et Dalila, except to note that the composer was a dedicated world traveler who took inspiration from the places he visited. How much of his 1874 trip to Algiers wound up in the lush exoticism of the Act III orgy scene in the Temple of Dagon is hard to say, but it certainly packs a great dramatic punch, especially when the performance is as intense as this one was. From Phil Ross’s polished opening oboe solo to the fierce tympani and horn duel of the finale, this was a winner.

The Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue was, I expect, the big draw for the evening and it didn’t disappoint. Although she’s only fifteen, pianist Sarina Zhang nevertheless had her own unique take on the piece instead of the cookie-cutter approach one might expect from a young prodigy still learning her craft. Her technique was solid—not surprising, given the awards she has already earned as both a pianist and cellist—but so was her grasp of the jazzy inflections that are not fully spelled out. The same was true of Mr. Stare and his players, particularly in the famous opening clarinet and “wah-wah” trumpet solos (Scott Andrews and Tom Drake, respectively).

If your only exposure to the dance music from Bernstein’s West Side Story is via the film or touring productions of the show, you might not be aware of just how brilliantly scored it is. Theatrical pit bands rarely have enough players to do it justice, which may be why the composer created the Symphonic Dances in 1961. It’s a remarkable piece, filled with tricky polyrhythms, dissonance, flashy orchestration (including an expanded percussion battery), and a raft of other touches that remind us of how effectively Bernstein bridged the worlds of concert hall and Broadway theatre.

This is not easy stuff to perform and, in fact, the performance seemed a bit scrappy in places but overall it was really very solid.

The evening concluded with Ravel’s La Valse, a work that began in 1911 as (to quote the composer) “a piece in the style of the earlier Strauss, not Richard” entitled simply Wein (Vienna). Before it could be completed, however, World War I (in which the composer served as a driver) intervened, and by the time La Valse was completed 1919, it had become “an impression of a fantastic whirl of destiny leading to death”. I can’t hear it without envisioning a huge, ornate machine spinning faster and faster until it hurls itself to pieces—as the complex structure of 19th-century Europe did in the so-called “war to end all wars”. Mr. Stare gave us a highly dramatic reading, complete with an appropriately hallucinatory finale.

The last time I saw Mr. Stare conduct a full program with the symphony (December 2nd of last year), I was impressed by the clarity of his communication with the orchestra and the intensity of his focus. This time around I was also struck by his very visceral style on the podium. He got quite an aerobic workout from this program and generated plenty of musical excitement in the process.

The post-season season at Powell Hall continues through June 22nd. Highlights include a James Bond film music program with vocalist Debbie Gravitte and conductor Michael Krazewski on June 2nd, and Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to the Beatles on the 22nd. For details on these and other “one of” events, you may visit stlsymphony.org.

Rhythm and hues

Celeste Golden Boyer

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson with violinist Celeste Golden Boyer and the Juan Carmona ensemble
What: Music of Chabrier, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Juan Carmona
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: November 25 and 26, 2011

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A longer than usual Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Friday night was also long on excitement. We had impressive violin technique by Second Associate Concertmaster Celeste Golden Boyer in Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, brilliant orchestral writing by Chabrier (España) and Ravel (Rhapsodie espagnole, Bolero), and visceral thrills from guitarist/composer Juan Carmona and his troupe in the North American premiere of Carmona’s Sinfonia Flamenca. The piece itself is a bit of a mixed bag, but there was no denying the vitality of the performance.

Originally composed in 2006, the Sinfonia incorporates a variety of different melodic and rhythmic flamenco traditions into a three-movement work for orchestra and solo ensemble. It is, as the composer himself acknowledges, “a risky undertaking because we’re mixing two different philosophies: the flamenco one, which is oral tradition from the grass roots, and the classical world, which is more intellectual and is written.” It also makes for a dicey acoustic mix since, at least in these performances, the flamenco musicians are amplified.

Melding such radically different approaches requires, to my way of thinking, the kind of deep knowledge of the traditional orchestra and its instruments that would allow the larger group to be integrated with the soloists. I would think that Mr. Carmona, with his Paris Conservatory training would have that knowledge, but if so he has not seen fit to employ here. As it is, the Sinfonia Flamenca uses the orchestra largely as a homogenous back-up band for Mr. Carmona and his fellow performers.

Juan Carmona

But then, it’s Mr. Carmona and his fellow performers who generated the most excitement Friday night. Yes, the orchestra did their usual fine work and Mr. Robertson was so caught up in the music that he did almost as much dancing on the podium as Carmona ensemble member Nino de los Reyes did on the plywood platform set up for that purpose downstage. Ultimately, though, it was the energy, virtuosity, and intimate, chamber music-style give and take of the guest artists that won over me and (judging from the thunderous applause) the rest of the audience.

The official program lists the Carmona ensemble as follows: Juan Carmona, guitar; Paco Carmona, guitar; Domingo Patricio, flute; El Kiki, vocals; Nino de los Reyes, dancer; and Sergio Martinez, percussion. In reality, though, nearly all of them acted as percussionists at some point, given the importance of hand clapping, finger snapping, and (of course) the athletic, staccato dancing that codifies “flamenco” in the popular imagination. Mr. de los Reyes’s flashy footwork drew the most attention, but each of the six was striking in his own way. Given how hard it often was to hear Mr. Carmona and his players clearly (despite the amplification) it would have been nice to hear them perform by themselves as an encore instead of what we got, which was a repeat of a movement from the Sinfonia.

The remainder of the program was devoted to French music with a Spanish connection, opening with Emmanuel Chabrier’s infectiously cheerful España from 1883. The product of an Iberian vacation in 1882 (during which Chabrier was apparently obsessed with both Spanish music and Spanish women), España was an immense hit and a big boost for the composer’s career. Watching it performed live, I was reminded of what a skilled orchestrator Chabrier was. The music is filled with charming and witty touches as its irresistible melodies are tossed back and forth between sections. Mr. Robertson gave it a brisk but never rushed reading that allowed all the composer’s little touches to come through.

Up next was Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso for violin and orchestra. Originally written for the legendary Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate in 1863, the work’s attractive tunes and flashy writing have made it a hit with violinists and audiences ever since. As was the case last week, Mr. Robertson gave a symphony member the opportunity to step into a solo role. Second Associate Concertmaster Celeste Golden Boyer played with fierce concentration and great facility, earning a well-deserved standing ovation. As much as audiences love to see big-name soloists in front of the orchestra, it’s good to be reminded that we have world-class players in the home-town band.

Concluding both the first and second halves of the program were works by Maurice Ravel, who was born in the Basque region of France and spent much of his youth in Spain. His Rhapsodie espagnole, written in 1907 and 1908, was his first major orchestral work and, with its evocation of sultry nights, sensuous dances, and fiery festivals, demonstrates the ingenious use of instrumental color that would mark the rest of his career. The attention to detail and flexible interpretation of tempi that have served Mr. Robertson so well in the past did so here as well, delivering a performance that did full justice to the many moods of the appealing music and brought the first part of the evening to an impressive close.

Ravel’s ever-popular Bolero was the finale of the program and, really what is there to be said about it? Ravel himself apparently began to view it in somewhat the same way that Rachmaninoff came to view his equally popular “Prelude in C-sharp minor”: as a career milestone that eventually became a millstone. At least Ravel wasn’t obliged to perform it everywhere he went. It is, in any case, music that never fails to entertain, especially when the many solo passages are performed with the kind of consummate skill we got on Friday night. It generated the usually visceral excitement and sent us all home with smiles on our faces. And for that, we were all thankful.

Next at Powell Hall: December 2 through 4, Ward Stare is on the podium for Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 and the St. Louis premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Sidereus, with Jennifer Koh as the violin soloist for Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. For more information you may call 314-534-1700, visit stlsymphony.org, like the Saint Louis Symphony Facebook page, or follow @slso on Twitter.