Review: Young at heart

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

Matthew Halls
Photo by Eric Richmond

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

The accent was on youth this past Sunday (February 18, 2018) as guest conductor Matthew Halls made his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut with a program of music by a trio of early 19th-century composers who flourished early, died young, and left behind a sizeable body of music.

The concert opened with Symphony No. 3 in D major by Franz Schubert, dashed off in July 1815, when the composer was 18 years old. It opens with a slow, majestic introduction but the mood quickly turns sunny with a lilting main theme on the clarinet and remains cheerful for the next 25 minutes or so.

Conducting without a baton (as he did for the entire concert), Mr. Halls summoned those dramatic opening chords with a big, sweeping two-armed gesture and took the Adagio maestoso introduction at a relaxed pace that made the brisk first appearance of that main theme, expertly played by Associate Principal clarinet Diana Haskell, that much more energizing. It's marked Allegro con brio, which roughly translates as "quickly with energy," and it had energy in abundance.

In fact, his entire approach to the symphony made the most of the strong contrasts in the score. The Allegretto second movement was gracefully balletic, with a folksy charm in the contrasting middle section, while the Menuetto third movement danced along with subtle shadings of tempo and dynamics. The Presto vivace finale, with its tarantella-style 6/8 rhythm, raced along with fleet-footed playing by the strings and a satisfying sonic blend overall. Mr. Halls had Ms. Haskell stand for well-earned applause at the end along with her fellow woodwind leaders Philip Ross (Associate Principal oboe) and Andrew Gott (Associate Principal bassoon), but the fact is that everyone played extremely well.

The first half of the concert concluded with the Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, which Carl Maria von Weber wrote in 1811 at the age of 24. As befits a composer best known for his operas, the concerto is a work that often feels like it should be sung, with a dark and technically challenging first movement, a second that could pass for an opera aria, and a flashy Rondo finale.

Scott Andrews

SLSO Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews was the soloist, delivering a performance that had plenty of heart and soul (to cite an old song title) along with an easy virtuosity that allowed him to sail through the concerto's many difficult passages with an Astaire-like grace. He had a sensitive, singing tone in the lyrical second movement and approached the Rondo finale with a playful joy. He got great support from Mr. Halls and the orchestra, including some lovely playing from Roger Kaza and his fellow horns.

The concert ended with big, passionate interpretation of the Symphony No. 1 in C minor by Felix Mendelssohn from 1824. The composer was only 15 when he wrote it, but as he already had a dozen string symphonies to his credit at that point you could hardly call it the work of a beginner. It has, in fact, a maturity that belies Mendelssohn's youth, and Mr. Halls gave it a sense of weight and majesty that I have not always heard in other interpretations.

Conducting without a score, he drew a muscular, bold sound from the orchestra from the dramatic opening right through to the dynamic final movement with its powerful sense of momentum and sophisticated double fugue. There were many wonderful moments here, such as the almost inaudibly soft string pizzicati in the final movement and the elegant woodwind chorale in the Andante second movement. The sharp contrast between the vigorous outer sections and the gentle center of the third movement Menuetto was especially striking, generating a kind of tension that called to mind the transition into the finale of the fifth symphony of Beethoven, whose final symphony appeared the same year as Mendelssohn's first.

One could take issue with some of Mr. Halls' choices, but the sheer power of the overall result spoke for itself. As SLSO conducting debuts go, this one was pretty auspicious, and I look forward to seeing more of Mr. Halls in the future.

Next at Powell Hall: Kevin McBeth conducts the St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus and soloist Oleta Adams in Lift Every Voice, a concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Friday, February 23, at 7:30 pm; note that as this is being written, the concert is standing room only. On Saturday at 7 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, February 24 and 25, the SLSO presents a showing of the Alfred Hitchcock classic North by Northwest with the score performed live by the orchestra. All concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center.

Symphony Preview: Forever young

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

Mendelssohn, age 12
Painting by Carl Joseph Begas

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Youth is the theme at Powell Hall this weekend (February 17 and 18, 2018) as Matthew Halls makes his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut conducting Schubert's Symphony No. 3 (written when the composer was 18), Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 1 (age 24), and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 (age 15; the picture above is Mendelssohn at age 12).

All three of this weekend's composers were guys who bloomed early and died young. Schubert passed away at the age of 30, Mendelssohn at 38, and Weber was the relative Methuselah of the bunch, dying just short of 40. And yet, despite their short time on this earth, all three produced an impressive body of music. Schubert led the pack with over 1000 compositions (not bad for someone whose career lasted only 20 years), but Mendelssohn and Weber were no slackers, either.

As you might have guessed from the amount of music he wrote, Schubert composed very quickly. His "Symphony No. 3" was dashed off in the summer of 1815 (mostly between July 11th and 19th) and was probably first performed by an amateur orchestra that was meeting at the house of the violinist Otto Hatwig. Like most of Schubert's symphonies, it didn't get an official public performance until well after the composer's death.

The symphony opens with the kind of slow dramatic introduction for which Haydn was so famous, but the mood quickly turns sunny with a chirping main theme on the clarinet and remains cheerful for the next 25 minutes or so. The Allegretto second movement is lilting and graceful, the third movement is almost too boisterous to truly justify its Menuetto designation, and the finale gallops along to a rapid tarantella rhythm. If this doesn't bring a smile to your lips, you're a hopeless grouch.

Carl Maria von Weber's first clarinet concerto (he wrote two, along with a concertino for the instrument) dates from 1811 and was written for the virtuoso Heinrich Joseph Baermann, whose playing also inspired pieces by Meyerbeer, Franz Danzi, and even Mendelssohn. Unlike the Schubert symphony, the Weber concerto is dramatic and operatic, with a dark and technically challenging first movement, a second that could pass for an opera aria, and a flashy Rondo finale. It's quite a workout, and should offer a chance for the soloist, SLSO Principal Clarinet Scott Andrews, to strut his stuff.

Carl Maria von Weber
Painting by Ferdinand Schimon

Mendelssohn's 1824 C minor symphony might bear the number "one," but the reality is that he had already written over a dozen string symphonies at that early point in his life, so he was hardly a newcomer to the form. That said, there's no doubt, as the anonymous annotator for the Utah Symphony points out, that the influences of Mozart and Beethoven can be heard here. Mendelssohn's love of Bach shows up as well, most notably in the fugal passages in the final movement. Mendelssohn put his own personal melodic spin on it, though, especially in the lyrical second movement, with what John Palmer at Allmusic calls its "beautifully transparent" orchestration.

Adding to the youthful feel of this weekend's concerts is the fact that guest conductor Matthew Halls, making his SLSO debut, is no geezer himself. Although he's only in his early 40s, he has already performed with orchestras around the world.

Originally a keyboard player and early music specialist, he has since expanded his repertoire to include Mozart, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and even Messiaen and Michael Tippet. Reviewing his Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Toronto Symphony, the Toronto Star said that he "captured much of the energy and excitement that its first audience must have felt at its premiere nearly 200 years ago." It will be interesting to see if he brings that same fresh perspective to this weekend's program.

The Essentials: Matthew Halls conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and clarinet soloist Scott Andrews Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, February 17 and 18. The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center.

Symphony Review: Cage Match

Shannon Wood at a preview concert
Photo: Maureen Byrne, St. Louis Sympony

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[Note: This article was originally published at Classical Voice North America.]

For the penultimate concerts of the current season, on April 30 and May 1, David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra chose a striking contrast of music old and new, pairing Schubert’s monumental Symphony No. 9 (“The Great”) with William Kraft’s Timpani Concerto No. 2 (“The Grand Encounter”). The Schubert was completed just before the composer’s death in 1828, while Kraft’s concerto was first performed in 2005 and then, in a substantially revised version, in 2007. Even so, they both present significant challenges to performers and audiences alike.

SLSO principal timpani Shannon Wood, the soloist in Kraft’s concerto, has an impressive resume as both performer and composer, and he delivered a bravura performance of this demanding work.

Special mallets used in the performance
Photo: Maureen Byrne, St. Louis Sympony

Unlike many of the timpani concerti that have emerged over the last 50 years or so — Michael Daugherty’s Raise the Roof, for example, or Philip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy — Kraft’s work emphasizes the timpani’s melodic role as much as its rhythmic one. It does this, in part, by calling for an unusually large array of 15 tuned drums, arranged in a circular “drum cage” surrounding the soloist and ranging in pitch from a low C below the bass clef to an A above – a span, as Wood pointed out in a pre-concert interview, of nearly three octaves. That extended range is most apparent in the Lento second movement, which exudes the kind of concentrated and somewhat eerie lyricism I associate with the music of Alban Berg, as well as in the unsettled opening of the third movement. But the bottom line is that throughout the work, the soloist is called upon to perform in ways that go above and beyond the usual demands on a timpanist.

Kraft’s concerto, to quote Wood, “stretches the limits of the performer. It’s very athletic, and the range of motion is vast. The work also demands the player to stand while pedaling, which is challenging.” In fact, watching Wood perform, I was struck by how much the work called for the precision and grace of a dancer as well as musical skill. Attired in slacks, shirt, and sneakers, Wood didn’t just play his drums; he virtually danced around that drum cage.

Challenging as the concerto is for the soloist, it can also be a tough nut for the audience to crack. In avoiding the clichés of what, in a 2007 interview, Kraft called the “rat-a-tat, boom-boom music” written for solo percussion since the mid-20th century, the composer has gone to the other extreme and produced a work that, for much of its length, lacks a strong rhythmic pulse and sense of momentum. There are compelling moments, as when the soloist is “trading licks,” jazz-style, with the substantial battery of instruments played by his fellow percussionists. There are even some remarkable solo passages for other instruments, including a virtuoso flutter-tongued flute cadenza leading up to the intense concluding Epilogue. But overall, this work felt episodic and more appealing to the head than the heart.

David Robertson
Photo: Dan Dreyfus, St. Louis Symphony

That said, Robertson and the orchestra did a splendid job with it. Kraft’s score demands a high level of playing from the orchestra as well as the soloist, and the SLSO musicians did not disappoint. Individual lines were clear, the balance with the soloist was excellent, and the percussionists – Will James, John Kasica, Tom Stubbs, and Alan Stewart – skillfully managed a vast variety of instruments. That assortment included an array of gongs, marimba, xylophone, tuned cowbells, and, of course, lots of drums. Peter Henderson also deserves praise for his work on prepared piano.

An obviously leaner orchestra took the stage for the Schubert Ninth, a work that, in its day, was also seen as quite a challenge. Usually referred to as “The Great” to distinguish it from the earlier and less expansive Sixth Symphony, also cast in C major like the Ninth, the last of Schubert’s symphonies was never performed in public during the composer’s lifetime. The premiere didn’t take place until 1839 – 11 years after Schubert’s death – under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, and even then musicians viewed it as too long and too difficult to play.

They had a point about the length. Clocking in at around 50 minutes, the Ninth would have seemed gargantuan at the time, dwarfed only by Beethoven’s Ninth from four years earlier (1824). Still, it’s hard to hear the Schubert Ninth now and not be completely captivated by the endless flow of irresistible melodies and the rhythmic drive that runs throughout.

Robertson’s tempo choices, while a bit on the stately side at times, nevertheless contributed to a performance that was beautifully proportioned and served to clarify Schubert’s ambitious musical architecture. The solid orchestral playing was highlighted by some especially fine work from the horns, led by principal Roger Kaza. I’m still partial to the “original instrument” approach to music of this period, exemplified by conductors like Sir Roger Norrington and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, but this performance reminded me of the virtues of the “big band” version.

Chicago Capsule: Voices of spring

Photo: Todd Rosenberg

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Who: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti
What: Music of Schubert and Mahler
When: June 19 - 21, 2014
Where: Orchestra Hall, Chicago

June 19 through 21, Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony are offered a pair of symphonies which, while originating in vastly different musical and cultural worlds, still have their roots in a love of nature and the sense of renewal that comes with spring.

The connection is most obvious in Mahler's 1881 "Symphony No. 1," with its hushed, expectant opening, its birdcalls, and what CSO program annotator Phillip Huscher calls "the gentle hum of the universe, tuned to A-natural and scattered over seven octaves." Schubert's 1816 "Symphony No. 5," though, has always had a sunny, "spring is here" feel for me as well. The association seems even more obvious when they're heard back to back.

As was the case with the Schubert 1st and 6th symphonies earlier in the week, Muti took a relaxed and elegant approach to the 5th, emphasizing the music's Mozartian grace. The little G-minor digression in the second movement has never sounded so wistfully sad—dark clouds are never far away from the sun in much of Schubert's music—and the performance as a whole was simply irresistible.

The Mahler that followed intermission was simply one of the most riveting and dramatically coherent performances of this wonderfully excessive symphony that I have ever heard. In his tempo choices (surprisingly slow for the first and last movements) and his ability to maintain a coherent musical and dramatic line, Muti reminded me a great deal of legendary Mahlerians like Bernstein and Walter.

The Mahler 1st has had a difficult history—audience and critics found it baffling from the beginning—and the episodic nature of the writing poses significant challenges to conductors. Muti held it all together nicely, though, with a beautifully and intelligently shaped performance. You never got the sense (as one sometimes does with this symphony) that the entire business was about to come to a screeching halt.

And he did that while still highlighting the chamber music–like moments and striking solo passages that alternate with Mahler's heaven-storming outbursts. Principal bass Alexander Hanna gave us an appropriately Hitchcockian funeral march in the third movement, for example, and the little dance band parodies in the woodwinds were delightfully cheeky. I heard details in the harp and strings that I had never heard quite so clearly before.

The big orchestral bits, meanwhile, were as overwhelming as you could wish. The CSO has a hefty violin section and that, combined with Muti's sure hand and the hall's acoustics, insured that the strings were never swamped by the brasses—which were both powerful and accurate. The percussion section performed with admirable precision as well.

This was, in short, a virtuoso effort by one of America's finest orchestras.  For more information on the Chicago Symphony: cso.org.

[This is the second of two capsule reviews from Chicago, where I attended the Music Critics Association of North America annual conference.]

Chicago Capsule: Muti and the Chicago Symphony blow youth's magic horn

Who: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti with bassoon soloist David McGill
What: Music of Mozart and Schubert
When: Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17 and 18
Where: Orchestra Hall, Chicago

Franz Schubert died at age 31 and Mozart never made it to 36. So their music will always have the freshness and enthusiasm of youth.

Tuesday night's program of music by Mozart and Schubert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti had just that quality of youthful verve, along with a leisurely elegance. Schubert's "Symphony No. 1" was particularly effective, I thought, with a lovely Andante and vigorous finale. The concert opened with a more laid back Schubert 6th and a Mozart "Bassoon Concerto" flawlessly played by principal David McGill.

Chicago's Orchestra Hall has gotten some knocks for its acoustics, but it all sounded fine to me from our seats in the lower balcony.

Tonight there's a concert scheduled by the Grant Park Festival Orchestra at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park.  Look for a capsule review of that one tonight or tomorrow if it isn't rained out.

For more information on CSO concerts, see cso.org.

[This is the first of two capsule reviews from Chicago, where I attended the Music Critics Association of North America annual conference.]

Unfinished buisness

Christine Brewer

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson with soprano Christine Brewer and baritone Lucas Meachem
What: Music of Suppé, Schubert, and Zemlinsky
Where: Powell Symphony Hall
When: May 3-5, 2013

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Every now and then the most publicized event in a symphony concert turns out not to be the one that leaves the greatest impression. This weekend all the fuss was about the local premiere of Alexander Zemlinsky’s lavishly scored and slightly exotic Lyrische Symphonie (Lyric Symphony) Op. 18 (1922-23) with baritone Lucas Meachem and local favorite soprano Christine Brewer. For me, though, the real highlight of the program was Maestro David Robertson’s highly charged version of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (“Unfinished”) from a century earlier.

Don’t get me wrong. I thought the Zemlinsky was pretty compelling stuff, but it was the Schubert that was genuinely moving. From the urgent opening theme on the cellos and basses to the final, resigned sighs from the strings and winds, this was a deeply-felt “Unfinished”, filled with high drama and pathos, emotionally overwhelming, and beautifully played. The development section of the first movement was particularly intense, with Mr. Robertson (working without a score) giving it the “full body conducting” treatment, and those big organ-like chords from the winds in the second movement have never sounded better. I haven’t heard a Powell Hall performance of the “Unfinished” with this kind of power since Leonard Slatkin’s days as music director. I don’t know whether or not Mahler ever conducted the “Unfinished”, but if he did I think it might have sounded like this one.

Did Schubert really mean to leave his eighth symphony as a two-movement work? It would be unusual (not to say radical) if he did, and surviving sketches of the first part of a scherzo suggest he planned to give it the conventional four movements. Many composers have even tried to complete it for him. If the attempts I’ve heard are typical, the results have been mixed at best. As it stands, the two movements balance each other so perfectly that it’s hard to see how Schubert could have improved upon it, especially when performed with the kind of conviction I heard Sunday afternoon.

Lucas Meachem

But let’s get back to what was, for many, the Main Event. But let’s get back to what was, for many, the Main Event. Although proscribed by the Nazis and then dismissed as hopelessly old-fashioned in the years after World War II, Alexander Zemlinksy was, by all accounts, a composer of prodigious technique and imagination as well as a highly regarded conductor, especially in the opera house. As Paul Schiavo points out in his program notes, Zemlinsky described himself as “a man of the theater”, composing seven operas along with a ballet and incidental music for Shakespeare’s rarely performed Cymbeline. You can hear that in the Lyric Symphony, which consists of seven settings of poems from The Gardener by the Nobel Prize-winning Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. The songs are linked by orchestral interludes and played without pause, resulting in a dramatic progression from (to quote Mr. Schiavo again) “yearning and desire to a peak of romantic union, then on to the bittersweet inevitability of parting.”

Or, to quote an Irving Berlin lyric from just two years before Zemlinsky’s composition, “After You Get What You Want You Don’t Want It.”

Alexander Zemlinsky

This is really rather impressive music. Zemlinksy combines opulent and colorful orchestration—it calls for a typically massive, stage-filling post-Wagnerian ensemble and uses it creatively—with an almost Classical sense of organization. Each of the soloists gets a song of longing, a song of fulfillment, and a song parting, after which the baritone wraps it all up with “Friede, Mein Herz” (“Peace, My Heart”), which suggests the kind of calm resignation one hears at the end of the Schubert “Unfinished.” The orchestral interludes smoothly manage the transitions between songs, and there’s even a bit of “cyclic form” with the “yearning” motif that opens the work returning, transformed, in the instrumental postlude.

Ms. Brewer and Mr. Meachem both have substantial operatic experience, so it’s not surprise that their performances captured the full emotional range of the songs. They both worked from scores (although Mr. Meachem seemed to refer to his less often), but I never had the sense that they weren’t fully in command of their roles.

Mr. Meachem impressed me with his musical and dramatic skills the last time he sang with the symphony (in their May 2008 Carmina Burana) and he did so again Sunday. Ms. Brewer’s voice was strong and clear as usual and, like Mr. Meachem, she was fully in command of the text. Mr. Robertson held Zemlinsky’s big, complex infrastructure together nicely and the musicians performed with their customary skill. There was some exceptionally fine playing from the horns, most notably in the third song, “Du Bist die Abendwolke” (“You Are the Evening Cloud”) and a lovely violin and cello duet for Concertmaster David Halen and Principal Cello Daniel Lee leading into the fourth song.

The concert opened with an appropriately smile-inducing performance of Franz von Suppé’s overture for the 1844 farce Ein Morgen, Mittag und Abend in Wien (Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna), featuring a lovely solo from Mr. Lee. It’s part of a collection of incidental music for the play, none of which is ever heard these days.

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.

Next on the calendar: David Robertson concludes the regular concert season May 9-12 with an unusual musical mix: Bruckner’s motet Christus Factus Est, Act III of Berg’s disturbing Wozzeck, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Soloists are Susanna Phillips, soprano; Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano; Joseph Kaiser, tenor; and Corey McKern, baritone. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3. For ticket information: stlsymphony.org.

TPTBT (The Place to Be Tonight): Saturday, February 23

The Kingsbury Ensemble presents From Vienna to Prague tonight at 7:30 at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity Avenue in University City. The program features "music of Franz Schubert and his Czech colleague Jan Vaclav Voriseck, performed on a replica of Schubert's piano and period string instruments! Seth Carlin , piano, Lenora Anop, violin, Keth Boyer, tenor and Ken Kulosa, cello, offer a program of chamber and vocal music, including Schubert's great piano trio in Bb Major,opus 99, Vorisek violin sonata and songs of Schubert and Vorisek." The 560 Music Center isn't quite as intimate as the kinds venues for which this music was originally written, but it's darned close.  For more information: (314) 862-2675 or www.kingsburyensemble.org.

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The old guard, young at heart

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

Who: Violinist David Halen and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
What: Music of Weber, Mendelssohn, and Schubert
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: February 3 and 4, 2012

Big-name international soloists and new works are all well and good, but there’s still something immensely satisfying about seeing a member of the local band step to the front and deliver a fine, polished performance of a familiar standard. That’s what concertmaster David Halen did Friday night with Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, one of three comfy Romantic favorites conducted with love by Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, still going strong at age 88.

It’s likely that just about every violinist on the planet has taken a crack at the Mendelssohn at one time or another. Audiences never seem to tire of it, though, and fiddlers never fail to find something new (or at least personal) in their interpretations. Mr. Halen certainly made it his own Friday night with a mix of technical facility and intense concentration that pulled me in immediately and kept me there right through the flash of the finale. Mr. Skrowaczewski was with him all the way. There was less visual communication between the two than I might have expected, but communicate they did nevertheless.

If the Mendelssohn concerto was the big solo event on the program, the Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C Major was the major orchestral event. Originally completed in 1826 and then substantially revised two years later just before the composer’s untimely death at age 31, the 9th—usually referred to as “The Great” to distinguish it from the earlier and less expansive symphony in the same key—was never performed in its final version during Schubert’s lifetime. The premiere didn’t take place until eleven years later—under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, in fact—and even then it was widely viewed as too long and too difficult to play.

They had a point about the length. Clocking in at around 50 minutes if you take all the repeats, the 9th would have seemed gargantuan at the time, dwarfed only by Beethoven’s 9th. Still, it’s hard to hear this now and not be completely captivated by the endless flow of irresistible melodies and rhythmic drive that runs throughout. It’s one of my favorite Romantic symphonies and never fails to delight me.

Mr. Skrowaczewski’s approach to the 9th struck me as very much in the mid 20th century Germanic tradition: somewhat slow tempi and a big, modern orchestral sound. It’s the sort of thing I grew up hearing. In recent years I’ve been somewhat seduced by the “original instrument” approach to music of this period exemplified by conductors like Roger Norrington or John Eliot Gardner, but this weekend’s performance reminded me of the virtues of that older approach. This was a Schubert 9th that built in power from beginning to end, starting with a hush and ending with a bang. It was all there: the magisterial first movement, the mysterious second, the boisterous third, and that magnificent piece of musical architecture, the final Allegro vivace.

The orchestra was in top form, with fine work by every section and a lovely, burnished sound overall.

The program opened with the overture to Carl Maria von Weber’s 1826 opera Oberon. It’s a lively and tune-filled curtain raiser that opens with haunting horn solo and gallops along to a lively finish. I found Mr. Skrowaczewski’s reading a bit on the stodgy side but could hardly quibble with the quality of the playing.

Next at Powell Hall: Four concerts featuring Hubbard Street Dance Chicago February 17-19. For more information you may call 314-534-1700, visit stlsymphony.org, like the Saint Louis Symphony Facebook page, or follow @slso on Twitter.

Songs for all the seasons of your mind

Osvaldo Golijov

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ward Stare with violinist Jennifer Koh
What: Music of Schubert, Vivaldi, and Osvaldo Golijov
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: December 2 through 4, 2011

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Friday night St. Louis Symphony Resident Conductor Ward Stare had neither score nor baton but lots of panache when he stepped up to the podium to conduct an utterly captivating Schubert “Symphony No 5”. And the best was yet to come: the local premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s fascinating Sidereus and a wonderfully dramatic approach to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with irresistible solo work by Jennifer Koh. It was a night of big music for (mostly) small orchestra.

This was only my second opportunity to see Mr. Stare conduct an entire program on his own and he was, once again, impressive. With or without a baton, his communication with the orchestra was always clear and his concentration obviously intense. I have noted before that Mr. Stare is a conductor whose star is in the ascendant, and his work here did nothing to contradict that assessment.

Mr. Stare’s Schubert was a nice balance of classical discipline and romantic lyricism. Tempi were brisk but never felt rushed. The joy, drama, and sense of unfolding song were all there. The Fifth is a symphony that, while clearly in the Classical style, contains elements (particularly in the Andante con moto and Menuetto) that look forward to the more overtly Romantic sensibilities of later Schubert and his successors. Mr. Stare’s interpretation honored both worlds.

The orchestral playing was at its usual high level, with fine work from everyone — and a particular tip of the topper is due to principal flautist Mark Sparks. If you want to take the true measure of an orchestra, note the quality of the sound when they’re playing chamber music. The Schubert Fifth is essentially a chamber symphony and the musicians gave it the fine playing it demanded.

The second half of the program promised (and delivered) some first-rate Vivaldi, but first there was the local premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s 2010 mini tone poem, Sidereus. Inspired by the expanded view of the heavens that Galileo experienced with his telescope and described in his 1610 treatise Sidereus Nuncius, the work employs an interesting variety of compositional techniques and canny orchestration (including some wonderful solo and soli passages for the winds) to conjure up a sense of vast, celestial space. The language is clearly modern while still being entirely approachable.

Whenever I hear a new work, I always ask myself whether or not I’d like to hear it again. In this case, not only would I like to hear Sidereus again, I’d very much like to find out what Mr. Golijov’s other compositions sound like. If Sidereus is any indication, he has managed to synthesize academic, theatrical, and popular music elements, especially those of his native Argentina, into a unique personal style. It makes me intensely curious about his larger scale works.

Jennifer Koh

The program concluded with a very theatrical and highly entertaining Four Seasons with Jennifer Koh as the violin soloist. Ms. Koh is a veritable dynamo of a performer, shaking her head and tearing into the fast movements with ferocity and singing the slow ones. Her tone was appropriately dry overall and her ornamentation (those little melodic embellishments that are part of Baroque performance practice) sounded right to my non-expert ears.

She also worked well with the ensemble. Her exchange of birdcalls with Concertmaster David Halen in the first movement of the “Spring” concerto was particularly captivating, calling to mind the way traditional Appalachian fiddlers trade licks. There were also memorable moments with Principal Cellist Daniel Lee and harpsichordist Maryse Carlin.

Ms. Koh and Mr. Stare gave us a Four Seasons filled with dramatic contrasts. The winter ice was brittle (with fittingly chilling harmonics in the strings), the summer storms violent, and the autumnal folk dances jolly. It’s a reminder of how effective Vivaldi was in evoking strong visual images without any of the instrumental technology that contemporary composers can employ. It’s a reminder, as well, of how much room for invention there is in performing this music while staying true to the composer’s intent.

The remainder of December at Powell Hall will be taken up with special holiday events, including A Gospel Christmas with the IN UNISON chorus, a John Williams movie music program, and the annual New Year’s Eve gala. The regular subscription season resumes January 13 and 14, 2012, with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, George Crumb’s 1984 A Haunted Landscape, and Strauss’s Four Last Songs with St. Louis’s own Christine Brewer. David Robertson conducts. For more information you may call 314-534-1700, visit stlsymphony.org, like the Saint Louis Symphony Facebook page, or follow @slso on Twitter.