Rach on

Who: Pianist Stephen Hough and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Oundjian
What: Music of Glinka, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: May 4-6, 2012

Powell Hall was packed to the last row of the balcony Saturday night for a coruscating Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto with Stephen Hough (who had just performed the First Concerto the night before) earning a Purple Heart at the keyboard and a driving Beethoven 5th with Peter Oundjian at the podium. If that wasn’t the best way to end a St. Louis Symphony season then (to paraphrase the punch line of an old joke) it was way ahead of whatever’s in second place.

I’m at a loss to explain why the house was so much larger this weekend. Was it word of mouth about Mr. Hough’s impressive performances of the Rachmaninoff First and Second concerti last weekend? The presence of the Beethoven Fifth—a tried and true warhorse—on the bill? The simple fact that the last concert, like the first, is always a significant event? I don’t know the answer, but if the symphony could replicate this kind of attendance on a regular basis, all local music lovers would surely rejoice.

In any case, the capacity crowd got what they came for: an exciting evening of music making.

The Rach Third is the K2 of piano concerti. Fiercely difficult, it’s a reminder of what a prodigious pianist Rachmaninoff was. For many years after its 1909 premiere, its only real advocate was the composer himself. Even the virtuoso to whom the piece is dedicated, Josef Hofmann, never attempted to perform it in public. It wasn’t until the great Vladimir Horowitz recorded it in 1930 and began to actively promote it that it started to rise in popularity. Performances are probably more common today, but even so it’s not the sort of thing a pianist takes on lightly.

Stephen Hough, fortunately, has the combination of technique and musical sensitivity required to not only perform this remarkable piece but to make it sing as well. Sure, you need that strength and accuracy for the daunting first movement cadenza and the fireworks of the finale. But without a sense of poetry the lyrical (if not hallucinatory) flights of the second movement might, in the hands of a lesser pianist, fall flat. Despite what looked like minimal visual communication between Mr. Hough and Mr. Oundjian, it all worked beautifully Saturday night. Maybe they use telepathy.

The Third’s final movement is clearly written with an eye for the slam-bang finish, capped with the composer’s characteristic four-note signature (“Rach-man-in-OFF”), and that is certainly what we got Saturday night. The standing ovation was huge and hugely spontaneous, resulting in a lovely little encore: Federico Mompou’s "Jeunes filles au jardin" (“Young girls in the garden”) from his Scenes d’enfants.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 poses its own set of difficulties. It’s so well known and has been performed so often. What does a conductor do to put his own stamp on it and make it sound fresh? Mr. Oundjian seems to have taken a leaf from the book of Roger Norrington and the other “original instrument” folks by respecting (as far as I could tell) Beethoven’s original metronome markings and conducting with a rather light hand.

The result wasn’t so much an interpretation as a realization. I wouldn’t say it was revelatory, but it did make it easier to understand why E.T.A. Hoffmann, enthusiastically reviewing the 1808 premier in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, described it as "one of the most important works of the time." Last night’s was a performance that generated tremendous momentum and excitement, garnering yet another thoroughly deserved standing ovation.

The program opened with joyous reading of the overture to Glinka’s nationalist fantasy opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. It’s one of those pieces that used to crop up often as “filler” on classical LPs in Olden Times, and it still serves that function on classical radio stations. It’s also a standard at “pops” concerts, with a pair of irresistible melodies and a neat little solo tympani part guaranteed to please—as they did Saturday night.

Although this weekend’s performances marked the conclusion of the official symphony season, a number of special event concerts will be popping up at Powell Hall in May and June, including The Music of Led Zepplin on May 11, an appearance by Michael Feinstein on the 13th, and a pops concert featuring Rhapsody in Blue with Sarina Zhang at the keyboard and Ward Stare at the podium on May 18. For details on these and other “one of” events, you may visit stlsymphony.org.

Rach and roll, part 2

Who: Pianist Stephen Hough and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf
What: Music of Rimski-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: April 28 and 29, 2012

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[Download the complete St. Louis symphony program notes in PDF format]

Rachmaninoff’s Second may not be the best of his four piano concerti—both the revised First and (my favorite) the Third are more economical and generate more momentum—but it’s unquestionably his most popular. Saturday night’s performance by Stephen Hough and guest conductor Hans Graf demonstrated why. The flashy (and technically demanding) solo passages, soaring melodies, and showy finale make for a real crowd pleaser, especially when delivered with such intensity and conviction.

The Second is, in some ways, more of a symphony for piano and orchestra than a traditional concerto. There are no extended cadenzas and the piano is closely integrated with the orchestra. As Laurie Shulman points out in her program notes, “Rachmaninoff entrusts most of the melodies to the large ensemble, whereas the piano takes a decorative, textural role.”

That means the orchestra had better be as good as the soloist and that both should work in perfect harmony if the piece is going to really take flight—which is exactly what Saturday’s performance did. From that famous seven-chord introduction to the big tune of the finale (popularized by Frank Sinatra in 1945 as “Full Moon and Empty Arms”), this was a Rach Second that delivered all of the composer’s goods. The orchestra was pretty near flawless and if Mr. Hough looked a bit tired at the end of the evening, I couldn’t hear any indication of that in his elegant and powerful playing. As with the Rach First on Friday morning, he and Mr. Graf were clearly in tune with each other. It was all immensely satisfying.

Also on the program were Shostakovich’s dark and acerbic Symphony No. 1, as well as the local premiere of Rimski-Korsakov’s colorful Skazka (Fairy Tale). For my thoughts on those, check out my review of the Friday morning concert. For now, I’ll just add that Skazka holds up well on a second hearing, episodic and disjointed though it may be, and the Shostakovich First remains a remarkable mix of nose-thumbing comedy and anguish.

Next at Powell Hall: The “Rach Fest” continues Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 2, April 28 and 29, with the Rachmaninoff ‘s Second Piano Concerto replacing the First. The rest of the program is the same as Friday’s. The Rach Fest concludes May 4-6 with the Piano Concerto No. 1 (Friday at 8 PM) and Piano Concerto No. 3 (Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3). Stephen Hough is at the keyboard again with Peter Oundjian at the podium. The program for all three concerts includes Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. For more information you may call 314-534-1700 or visit stlsymphony.org.

Rach and roll, part 1

Who: Pianist Stephen Hough and The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf
What: Music of Rimski-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninoff
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: April 27, 2012

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[Download the complete St. Louis symphony program notes in PDF format]

Pianist Stephen Hough has both tremendous power and a delicate touch. Hans Graf is a conductor who, while he maintains a disciplined presence on the podium, can nevertheless be passionate and lyrical. Put them together and you have a killer beginning to the two-week “Rach Fest" at the Powell Hall.

Friday morning’s program featured compelling performances of Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 1” (in the 1917 revision) and Shostakovich’s dark and acerbic “Symphony No. 1”, as well as the local premiere of Rimski-Korsakov’s colorful “Skazka” (“Fairy Tale”). It was, to say the least, a tremendous success and was warmly received by a larger than usual audience.

It has been almost exactly a year since the multi-talented Mr. Hough (he’s a composer and writer on music and theology as well as a virtuoso pianist) graced the stage at Powell Hall. Last time it was a knockout reading of Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”. This time around his Rachmaninoff First was at least as impressive. Mr. Hough has done the Rach First with the symphony before—in February of 2007 under Maestro Robertson. At that time I noted that he “played with the ease and confidence that are the hallmarks of solid keyboard technique” and see no reason to change that assessment now.

Originally written while Rachmaninoff was a student at the Moscow Conservatory, the concerto was later revised substantially on the eve of the Russian Revolution in 1917, and it's not hard to hear the faint echoes of that turbulence in the sweep and drama of this remarkably concise and vigorous work. Mr. Hough has the chops to give full vent to that drama, cruising through all the flashy writing in the opening and closing movements, but he was equally convincing in the nocturnal yearning of the Andante. Mr. Graf matched him with a soulful reading that made effective use of rubato at key moments without ever losing the concerto’s sense of momentum. His tempo for the finale was brisk, but the symphony musicians handled it with ease.

Friday morning Mr. Hough acknowledged his well-deserved standing ovation with a delightful encore: his own mashup of the Russian song “Leningrad Nights” (known here in the West as both “Midnight in Moscow” and “Moscow Nights”) with motifs from Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”. It reminded me of the clever Piano Puzzlers that Bruce Adolphe provides for PRI’s “Performance Today” radio broadcast and was much appreciated.

Much as I love Rachmaninoff, the most interesting thing about these concerts to me was the presence of the rarely heard Shostakovich symphony and the even rarer Rimski-Korsakov.

Written as a Leningrad Conservatory graduation piece and first performed in 1926 (when the composer was only 19), Shostakovich’s First Symphony is a remarkable study in contrasts, with chamber music-style solo passages cheek by jowl with the full-tilt bombast of the composer’s more popular works. There are wonderful moments, for example, for the principal oboe, bassoon, flute, clarinet, and cello as well as piano part that calls to mind Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”—a piece that was very likely in the composer’s mind at the time. Perky melodies reminiscent of the stuff Shostakovich probably heard during his work as a cinema pianist pop up in the first and second movement, standing in stark juxtaposition to the brooding and sporadically anguished gloom of the third, while the final Allegro molto wraps everything up in a classic flourish of brass and percussion which manages to sound both triumphant and sarcastic at the same time.

With so many “concerto for orchestra” solo passages, the Shostakovich First is rife with opportunities for individual players to shine—which is exactly what they did Friday morning. Mr. Graf’s interpretation was, I thought, very transparent to the music, allowing Shostakovich to come through pretty much unfiltered. It was tremendously exciting stuff.

This was my first opportunity to see Mr. Graf perform live, by the way. His style, it seemed to me, was marked by equal parts of precision, warmth, and good humor. His podium presence is not overly demonstrative, but I was nevertheless left with the sense that he takes great joy in the music he conducts. That appeared to communicate itself to both the musicians and the audience.

Like the Shostakovich, Rimski-Korsakov’s brief tone poem “Skazka” (“Fairy Tale”) is also filled with lovely solo passages, particularly for clarinet, flute, oboe, and violin. Its episodic structure suggests an underlying narrative related to the work’s literary inspirations—Russian folk tales and Pushkin’s Ruslan and Lyudmila—but the composer declined to be specific, allowing the listener’s mind to conjure up whatever exotic images the colorful music suggests.

Mr. Graf’s performance made the most of the music’s many contrasting moods and the symphony musicians responded with their usual fine playing. The solo passages were beautifully realized, even if the flute had to briefly contend with cell phone accompaniment at one point.

Which brings me to the only negative aspect of Friday morning’s concert: the clueless conduct of some audience members. It’s bad enough that Mr. Graf was obliged to hold the opening downbeat for a minute or two while waiting from some folks on the house floor to stop yakking. What was really rather embarrassing was the applause that broke out during the transition between the third and fourth movements of the Shostakovich. Concert etiquette says you don’t start applauding until the conductor lowers his baton. For many composers (like, say, Shostakovich) silence is an element of composition. Conductors usually respect that. So should audiences.

Next at Powell Hall: The Rach Fest concludes May 4-6 with the “Piano Concerto No. 1” (Friday at 8 PM) and “Piano Concerto No. 3” (Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 3). Stephen Hough is at the keyboard again with Peter Oundjian at the podium. The program for all three concerts includes Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5”. For more information you may call 314-534-1700 or visit stlsymphony.org.

Seconds

Who: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with Stephen Hough, piano
What: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Scriabin’s Symphony No. 2
Where: Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis
When: April 29 and 30, 2011

It has always seemed to me that one hallmark of a great orchestra is its ability to make a persuasive case not only for the standards of the repertoire but for more obscure works as well. It’s one thing to present a polished performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (as the SLSO did last weekend); it’s quite another to deliver an equally exciting reading of the less popular Concerto No. 2 and then follow it up with a compelling Scriabin Symphony No. 2, a work the symphony hasn’t done in over forty years.

Although dwarfed in popularity by its predecessor, Tchaikovsky’s Second is a work with ample charms of its own, starting with a slam-bang opening movement featuring a grandly optimistic first theme, a charmingly contrasting second, and long virtuoso passages for the piano that verge on the excessive. On Friday night, the audience expressed their admiration for soloist Stephen Hough by breaking into spontaneous applause at the end of that movement. I suspect Tchaikovsky would have approved—you can’t generate that much excitement and then expect folks to sit on their hands.

Tchaikovsky also knew what he was about with the following Andante non troppo, which features a lyrical, quasi-operatic duet for violin and cello (beautifully rendered by David Halen and Daniel Lee). Maybe it’s just the romantic in me, but I can’t help but wonder whether the loving interaction of the two instruments wasn’t Tchaikovsky’s way of expressing his affection for his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, with whom he shared a long, intensely Platonic, and almost entirely epistolary relationship. Perhaps that’s why he was particularly fond of the movement.

Ward Stare

The final Allegro con fuoco wrapped everything up with more virtuoso fireworks, resulting in a well-deserved standing ovation for both Mr. Hough and Resident Conductor Ward Stare.

Mr. Stare is clearly a rising star in the conducting firmament. I had the pleasure of sharing the Powell Hall stage with him for Peter and the Wolf back in 2008 and he struck me then as a precise, no-nonsense but nevertheless good-humored presence on the podium who communicated effectively without undue theatrics. I saw nothing Friday night that would cause me to revise that opinion anywhere but upwards. It’s a shame he’s only doing one subscription program next season, even if it is a fascinating one combining music by Vivaldi, Schubert, and Osvaldo Golijov.

Mr. Stare really took the spotlight in the second half of the program, turning in a tremendously persuasive performance of Alexander Scriabin’s sometimes discursive but always intriguing Symphony No. 2. The work dates from 1902, when Scriabin was still to some extent finding his own way as a composer, but the lush orchestration, restless harmonies, and orgiastic excess that characterize much of his orchestral music were already present. His eccentric personal philosophy and multi-media experiments such as the Poem of Fire (which included a “color organ” of his own design) were still in the future, but it’s easy to hear their genesis in the exotic hothouse atmosphere of this work.

Laid out in either four or five movements (depending on how you count them) the Second is somewhat reminiscent of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, complete with elaborate bird calls from the flutes in the second movement, a violent thunderstorm in the third, and a blazing finale that brings back the sun in all its pantheistic glory. Scriabin’s countryside sounds considerably more exotic and erotic than Beethoven’s—this is the man who would write The Poem of Ecstasy a few years later, after all—but it’s hard not to hear some parallels.

Top-notch orchestras and conductors make the familiar seem new and the unfamiliar sound like something they’ve been doing all their lives. This weekend’s concerts clearly place both the St. Louis Symphony and Ward Stare in that category. It’s a pity that a larger crowd didn’t turn out to hear them. Work of this quality deserves a wider audience.

No doubt that wider audience will turn out for the final concerts of the season May 5 through 8, when David Robertson will conduct the orchestra and chorus in Orff’s ever-popular Carmina Burana, along with the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 3. For more information, you can call 314-534-1700, visit slso.org, or follow @slso on Twitter.