Symphony Preview: New faces of 2018

This Friday and Saturday (October 12 and 13) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra brings us new faces, both on the page and on the stage, along with a special Family Concert on Sunday.

Gustavo Gimeno
Photo by Anne Dokter

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The new faces on stage belong to Spanish-born conductor Gustavo Gimeno and his fellow countryman pianist Javier Perianes, so let's spend some pixels on them first.

Just last month, Mr. Gimeno was appointed Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (he officially takes the job on in the 2020/2021 season), where he will replace interim MD Sir Andrew Davis, who in turn replaced Peter Oundjian. Those are big shoes to fill and big batons to hold, but as John Terauds points out in an article for the Toronto Star, he comes to the job with a solid background:

He is in his early 40s, and comes with a remarkable pedigree, having been mentored by three of the classical music world's finest maestros: the late Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink and Mariss Jansons. He began his career as a percussionist at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, and has been a regular guest there since replacing Jansons at the last minute four years ago.

Görgy Ligeti in 1984
Photo by Marcel Antonisse / Anefo

Mr. Gimeno's first appearance with the TSO was this last February, where he conducted a program that includes the opening work on this weekend's concerts, the "Concert Românesc" by Hungarian composer Görgy Ligeti (1923-2006). Ligeti was widely known as an avant-garde composer who developed an aurally dense and, in my view, listener-hostile technique he called "micropolyphony," some of which can be heard in the soundtrack for "2001: A Space Odyssey," but you won't hear any of that in his engaging and very entertaining "Concert Românesc."

Written in 1951 (but not heard until two decades later), this short (around 15 minutes) suite is a tribute to the Romanian music and folklore that were an important part of the composer's childhood and in particular to the folk tunes he collected in 1949 and 1950. Here's the composer himself discussing the music at his publisher's web site:

After spending some time in Romania in 1949/50, studying at the Folklore Institute in Bucharest, I participated in several trips to record partly Romanian, partly Hungarian folk music (in Covasint near Arad and in Inaktelke near Cluj in the region of Kalotaszeg). The present four-movement concerto for orchestra (with string and wind solos) is based on a large number of Romanian folk tunes recorded by me, most of which exist on wax cylinders and records of the Bucharest Folklore Institute. In Covasint, on the other hand, I got to know the common harmonic idioms of Romanian peasant music which I have used in the Concerto in a stylised form. This orchestral composition was one of the 'camouflage pieces', used to evade (1951) the imposed dictatorship in the field of arts. Though quite conforming to the rules, the piece nevertheless turned out to be 'politically incorrect' because of some forbidden dissonances (e.g. F sharp in B major). For today's listener, it is hardly understandable that such minor tonal jokes were declared subversive. The 'Romanian Concerto' reflects my deep love of Romanian folk-music (and of Romanian-language culture absolute). The piece was banned at once and not performed until many decades later.

In fact, I think you'll find his little "tonal jokes" to be thoroughly delightful. I draw your attention, in particular, to the high-speed final movement in which, as violist and music commentator Dale Armbrust writes in his program notes, "the concertmaster will earn his paycheck on some positively Van Halen-level solos." That would be our own David (no relation to Van) Halen, who will also be the soloist in the concluding work this weekend, Rimsky-Korsakov's popular "Scheherazade," Op. 35.

Written in the summer of 1888, "Scheherazade" is one of those works that needs little in the way of introduction or explanation. The four colorful movements vividly evoke the scenes from the "One Thousand and One Nights" that served as the work's inspiration. The composer himself sets the scene in a brief introduction, written for the first performance in St. Petersburg, with Rimsky-Korsakov conducting:

The Sultan Schariar, convinced that all women are false and faithless, vowed to put to death each of his wives after the first nuptial night. But the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by entertaining her lord with fascinating tales, told seriatim, for a thousand and one nights. The Sultan, consumed with curiosity, postponed from day to day the execution of his wife, and finally repudiated his bloody vow entirely.

Aside from the virtuoso violin part, which represents the voice of Scheherazade herself, the piece is filled with brilliant orchestral writing, including some nice solo bits for the first-chair players. That's no surprise since Rimsky-Korsakov quite literally wrote the book on orchestration. His "Principles of Orchestration" was begun in 1873, completed posthumously by Maximilian Steinberg in 1912, and finally published 1922. It's still available today, in both print and digital editions, from Dover Books.

Javier Perianes
Photo by Daniel García Bruno

In between Ligeti and Rimsky-Korsakov this weekend, you will find Béla Bartók, represented by the "Piano Concerto No. 3", which he wrote in New York during 1945, the final year of his life. Unlike his first two concertos, which he wrote for himself (he was a formidable pianist), the third was composed for his second wife, Ditta. The hope, according to Geoffrey Norris in a 2016 article for The Gramophone, was "that it would give her some sort of legacy after his death, both in terms of her own profile as a pianist (though she seems never to have played it in public) and in the income she might accrue from royalties when it was taken up by others."

That was probably a good bet. Although Bartók's three concertos have never been as popular as those of Big Guns like Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninoff, they have always had their ardent supporters, including the noted Hungarian pianists András Schiff and György Sándor. And the third concerto is probably the most accessible of the three. It is, in Mr. Norris's words "altogether of a gentler, more reflective if scarcely (in the outer movements) less dynamic mien" than the first two. "András Schiff," he notes, "describes it as 'a wise man's farewell'." And so it was; when the composer died on September 26, 1945, it fell to his friend, the violinist and composer Tibor Serly, to complete the final 17 measures. The concerto was his last musical will and testament.

That's not to say it's funereal. Lively dance-like elements dominate both the opening and closing movements and the "Adagio religioso" that separates them is classic Bartók "night music", with emotionally intense chorales flanking a middle section that evokes the nocturnal sounds of nature. And all the way through, you can hear the influences of the folk music he collected during his life.

At the keyboard for the Bartók will be that other new face, Javier Perianes. Born in Nerva, Spain, in 1978, Mr. Perianes has, it seems, been nearly everywhere: Barcelona, Chicago, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Istanbul, and London. You name a country with a major orchestra and his passport will have been stamped there. The list of the conductors with whom he has played is equally impressive: Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel, and Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, just to name a few.

The range of composers whose work he has recorded is equally impressive: Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Grieg, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Blasco de Nebra (18th-century Spanish organist and composer), Federico Mompou (the 20th-century Spanish composer best known for his solo piano works), Falla, Granados and Turina. That discography includes the Bartók Concerto No. 3, recorded earlier this year with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Munich Philharmonic for Harmonia Mundi. "An excellent performance," wrote Lee Passarella for Audiophie Audition, while Edward Seckerson praised the "great warmth" of his playing in a review for The Gramophone.

Omega D. Jones

Sunday brings a complete change of tone as Lee Mills conducts orchestra and narrator Omega D. Jones in "The Composer is Dead" by Nathaniel Stookey (another new face, although he won't be physically present, as far as I know) along with music by Haydn and Falla. I'll confess to a complete lack of familiarity with that first work, which is based on the book of the same name by the popular children's author Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler), but the piece has been very popular with some high-profile orchestras since its 2006 premiere with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, so it looks like some good G-rated fun.

I am fairly well acquainted with the narrator, though. Mr. Jones is a talented local actor and singer who makes his cabaret debut this Friday at The Monocle. He played Coalhouse Walker, Jr., in Stray Dog Theatre's production of "Ragtime" (in which I also performed) and knocked out critics and audiences alike.

The essentials: Gustavo Gimeno conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and piano soloist Javier Perianes Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, October 12 and 13, in Ligeti's "Concert Românesc," Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3, and Rimski-Korsakov's "Scheherazade". Lee Mills conducts orchestra and narrator Omega D. Jones in "The Composer is Dead "by Nathaniel Stookey on Sunday, Sunday, October 14, at 3 pm. The concerts take place at Powell Hall in Grand Center.

Review: Reveling in the joy of operetta with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

L-R: Elizabeth Stanley, Justin Michael Austin, Cree Carrico,
Daniel Berryman
Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

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When I saw that the title of the special St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert on Sunday, October 7, was "A Celebration of the Muny at 100," I assumed it would be a survey of nearly a century of Broadway with maybe a few nods to operetta and an emphasis on newer shows.

Then I saw the program (which wasn't available until the day of the concert) and found I could hardly have been more wrong. And I could hardly have been happier.

"A Celebration of the Muny at 100: Its Opening Act in Song and Symphony" (the full title) was, in fact, a delightful tribute to operetta, that bridge between opera and the Broadway musical that formed the mainstay of Muny seasons for most of the company's first half-century. Yes, there were some selections by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin, but for the most part Sunday's program was dedicated to Sigmund Romberg, Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, and even Gilbert and Sullivan and John Phillip Sousa.

It's rare to see operetta performed here at all, let alone with a full symphony orchestra, chorus, and top-notch singers from the worlds of musical theatre and opera. As someone who loves this music, I found the concert to be a real treat. And judging from the audience response, I wasn't alone.

The show was assembled and conducted by Ben Whiteley, who in addition to his many other credits, has been the music director for many Muny shows--most recently this year's excellent "Singin' in the Rain." His selection was impeccable, ranging from favorites like "The Italian Street Song" from Herbert's "Naughty Marietta" and "Stouthearted Men" from Romberg's "New Moon" to rarities like "Some Girl is On Your Mind" from Kern's "Sweet Adeline" (a follow-up to the hit "Show Boat" that had the misfortune to open on the eve of the 1929 stock market crash).

Better yet, the entire affair was narrated by Muny Artistic Director and Executive Producer Mike Isaacson, who introduced each number with fascinating bits of Muny and SLSO history, illustrated with images of classic Muny programs and press materials projected on Powell Hall's big screen. Did you know, for example, that George Gershwin actually conducted the SLSO in a benefit concert on March 1st, 1936, the year before he died? The program included Gershwin's "Concerto in F" and selections from "Porgy and Bess," as you might expect, but it concluded with Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 6." I wish I had Dr. Who's T.A.R.D.I.S. for that one.

The four singers on the program represented a perfect balance of styles. Soprano Cree Carrico and baritone Justin Michael Austin have substantial operatic backgrounds. Ms. Carrico showed off her prowess in "coloratura lite" classics like "The Italian Street Song" and "Poor Wand'ring One" (from Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance"), soaring through the elaborate vocal lines with apparent ease and good humor. Mr. Austin's big, robust voice was an ideal match for the lyrical "Gypsy Love Song" from Herbert's "The Fortune Teller" as well as for the martial "Stouthearted Men."

From the world of musical theatre, we had soprano Elizabeth Stanley and tenor Daniel Berryman. Ms. Stanley sang a touching "Bill" (from "Show Boat") and a bravura "Johnny One-Note" (from Rodgers and Hart's "Babes in Arms"). Mr. Berryman gave us a beautiful "Serenade" (from Romberg's "The Student Prince") along with some great duets with Ms. Stanley and Ms. Carrico, including one of my favorites: "You're Just in Love" from Irving Berlin's "Call Me Madam."

All four singers were strong actors as well, bringing the songs to rich theatrical life. That was apparent throughout the concert, but most notably when they joined forces for the three selections from the Gershwins' 1931 operetta/political satire "Of Thee I Sing," the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. St. Louis's own Keith Boyer, Debby Lennon, and Phil Touchette also joined Mr. Austin and Mr. Berryman to create the solo quintet for "Some Girl in On Your Mind."

I'm not convinced that the singers really needed their wireless body mics, though. All four were very strong vocalists who would probably have been able to project effectively without them, and the resulting sound mix seemed to me to be distorted in a way that it never is for the orchestra's regular amplification-free concerts.

The St. Louis Symphony Chorus sounded fine as always and the orchestra had a chance to shine in the overtures to "Eileen" with its evocation of 19th-century Ireland, and Gershwin's "Girl Crazy," as well as the "El Capitan" march from the Sousa operetta of the same name.

Next at Powell Hall, Gustavo Gimeno conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and piano soloist Javier Perianes Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, October 12 and 13 in Ligeti's "Concerto Românesc," Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3, and Rimski-Korsakov's "Scheherazade." Then Lee Mills conducts orchestra and narrator Omega D. Jones in a Family Series concert featuring "Lemony Snicket's The Composer is Dead" by Nathaniel Stookey on Sunday, October 14, at 3 pm. The concerts take place at Powell Hall in Grand Center.

Review: Hi Ho, that's the Jensen way

Rick Jensen

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Although he's based in New York City, singer/songwriter/teacher Rick Jensen has been a frequent visitor to St. Louis, both as a performer and as a music director and pianist for a number of local singers. So it only seems right that he came to St. Louis to celebrate his 60th birthday on Saturday, October 6th, with a special show at the Kranzberg Center.

For the audience of cabaret lovers (including several members of the Jensen clan) it was a festive occasion indeed.

Titled "60 Years in 60 Minutes," the show is a mini-biography liberally illustrated with 14 original songs that demonstrate Mr. Jensen's wide range as both a songwriter and performer, as well as his virtuosity at the piano. "Long Cold Fall" (with its Randy Newmanesque harmonies), for example, muses poetically on autumn as both a meteorological and personal season. "Coney Island" and "Tonight New York City" are lyrical tributes to his adopted hometown that echo Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen while still being uniquely Rick Jensen. And "Amanda Sang," the more straightforward story song of the evening, includes a lyric that could serve as a mini-lesson for cabaret singers: "She could never go wrong / Because her heart was in her song".

Singer/artist Dionna Raedeke
Photo courtesy of Mariposa Artists

"Happy Birthday Boy" is a loving tribute to his mother who "didn't have a musical bone in her body" and "After All Those Love Songs" is a powerful ballad that was made even more so by the voice of St. Louis's own Dionna Raedeke (a fine singer as well as a visual artist). There were also many lighter moments in the show and one outright comedy number inspired by "certain events that took place in the Jensen household" in Minnesota, "Hi Ho, That's the Jensen Way."

That one, by the way, started out life as "Hi Ho, That's the German Way." Mr. Jensen gave it a re-write for this show, presumably because he knew he'd have family members in the audience. That could have been the musical equivalent of home movies, but Mr. Jensen is too good a songwriter for that. It was a hoot.

Linking all of them were anecdotes about his childhood in rural Minnesota and his coming of age--literally and musically--in New York City, delivered with self-deprecating wit and wisdom. Mr. Jensen is a performer who engages quickly and easily with his audience, so that his show soon felt like friendly chat.

Lina Koutrakos

The show was expertly directed by Mr. Jensen's long-time collaborator (and cabaret legend in her own right) Lina Koutrakos. Like Mr. Jensen, she has taught cabaret master classes and done many solo shows of her own, and her expertise was clearly visible in the pacing and dramatic shape of the show.

"60 Years in 60 Minutes" concluded with one of my favorite Jensen originals, "In Passing Years." I liked this meditation on the enduring value of friendship so much I learned it and performed it with him two years ago during the master class he and Ms. Koutrakos offer every fall on the island of Mykonos. But nobody does it quite like him.

Rick Jensen's show was presented by Mariposa Artists, a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Louis cabaret artist Robert Breig, who has brought many local and national artists to St. Louis stages. Upcoming Mariposa shows include "An Evening With Nina Gabinelli" on Saturday, October 20 and "Merry Keller: It's Personal" on Friday, October 26. Tickets are available via MetroTix.

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of October 8, 2018

New shows this week include a creepy musical at Stray Dog, Shakespeare with a twist at St. Louis Shakespeare, and look at which might have happened after the final curtain of Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Rep.

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The Bissell Mansion Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre presents Addams Family Affair through October 28. The Bissell Mansion is at 4426 Randall Place. For more information: bissellmansiontheatre.com.

Lindenwood University presents Arthur Miller's drama All My Sons through October 13. "During the war Joe Keller and Steve Deever ran a machine shop which made airplane parts. Deever was sent to prison because the firm turned out defective parts, causing the deaths of many men. Keller went free and made a lot of money. The twin shadows of this catastrophe and the fact that the young Keller son was reported missing during the war dominate the action. The love affair of Chris Keller and Ann Deever, the bitterness of George Deever returned from the war to find his father in prison and his father's partner free, are all set in a structure of almost unbearable power. The climax showing the reaction of a son to his guilty father is fitting conclusion to a play electrifying in its intensity. A tremendously impressive drama that received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play." Performances take place in the Emerson Black Box Theatre at the Scheiegger Center for the Arts on the Lindenwood campus in St. Charles, MO. For more information: lindenwood.edu/center.

Alpha Players present the musical Bells Are Ringing through October 14. Performances take place at The Florissant Civic Center Theater, Parker Rd. at Waterford Dr. in Florissant, MO. For more information: alphaplayers.org, call 314-921-5678.

The University of Missouri at St. Louis presents Chasing the White Rabbit Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, October 11 - 14. "15-year-old Alice, has recently lost her mother and the only thing that she feels that can save her is to go to a school far away from her hood. To go where the neighborhoods are well manicured and the school has resources and new books and good teachers. This is her dream. Is it a dream? After taking a prescription medication she falls deep into what she believes is the school she longs to go to. But all is not what it seems. Chasing the White Rabbit is a contemporary adaptation of Alice in Wonderland with a focus on the opioid epidemic that is currently ravaging our country." Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: touhill.org.

Linda Kennedy in Chef
Photo by Peter Wochniak, ProPhotoSTL

Upstream Theater presents Chef by Sabrina Mahfouz Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 7 pm (except for October 14, which is at 2 pm), through October 14. "Upstream Theater is excited to host renowned Swiss director Marianne de Pury who will stage the US premiere of the award-winning CHEF by UK/Egyptian playwright and poet Sabrina Mahfouz-the gripping story of how one woman went from being a haute-cuisine head chef to a convicted inmate running a prison kitchen. Leading us through her world of mouth-watering dishes and heart-breaking memories, Chef questions our attitudes to food, prisoners, violence, love and hope." Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, including show times: upstreamtheater.org.

CSZ St. Louis presents The ComedySportz Show on Saturday nights at 7:30 pm. The show is "action-packed, interactive and hilarious comedy played as a sport. Two teams battle it out for points and your laughs! You choose the winners the teams provide the funny!" Performances take place on the second floor of the Sugar Cubed, 917 S Main St. in St Charles, Mo. For more information: www.cszstlouis.com.

The Lemp Mansion Comedy-Mystery Dinner Theater presents Dead Like Me through November 3. The Lemp Mansion is at 3322 DeMenil Place. For more information: lempmansion.com.

A Doll's House, Part 2
Photo by Patrick Lanham

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents A Doll's House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath October 10 - November 4. "Hnath's audacious sequel, written more than 135 years after Henrik Ibsen's original, hit Broadway in 2017 like a sneak attack. Ibsen's familial drama remains a foundational piece of theatre, with a still-controversial ending in which a married woman chooses to walk out on her family. But Hnath took the themes and characters of that familiar classic and flipped them on their heads, imagining what would happen if protagonist Nora Helmer returned home 15 years after her dramatic exit." Performances take place on the mainstage at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

Clinton County Showcase presents the comedy/mystery Drop Dead Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through October 14. "An odd-ball cast of has-been actors revive their careers in 'Drop Dead!,' a potboiler murder mystery directed by 'Wonder Child of the Broadway Stage' Victor Le Pewe. At the dress rehearsal, the set falls, props break, and the producer and an actor are murdered. But the show must go on! During the opening night performance, the murders continue. The remaining thespians must save the show and their careers, solve the mystery, and stay alive for curtain call." Performances take place at the Avon Theater, 525 North 2nd Street Breese IL. For more information, visit ccshowcase.com.

The Fine and Performing Arts University Theatre at Saint Louis University presesnts Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice Thursday through Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, October 11 - 14. "This reimagining of the Orpheus myth through the eyes of its heroine.with its dark humor, plot twists and visual effects offers a contemporary look at a classic love story. Directed by Tom Martin." Performances take place at The Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square in Grand Center. For more information: metrotix.com.

Evil Dead: The Musical
Photo by Justin Been

Stray Dog Theatre presents the Evil Dead: The Musical Thursdays through Saturdays, October 11 - 27. There will also an 8 pm performance on Wednesday, October 24. "Third time's a scream (at long last)! Based on the 80s cult classic EVIL DEAD films, this hilariously campy show is bursting with more farce than a Monty Python skit. Five college kids take a trip to a remote cabin in the woods and encounter everything from ancient evil spirits to revenge-seeking Candarian demons. It's all ridiculous and wild, while the term “Fresh Blood!” takes on new meaning!" Performances take place at The Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee. For more information, visit straydogtheatre.org or call 314-865-1995.

Webster University's Conservatory of Theatre Arts presents the classic musical The Fantasticks Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through October 14. "Whimsical, poignant, and romantic, The Fantasticks is an allegorical story that focuses on two young lovers, their meddling fathers, and the journey we all must take through adolescent thrills, the growing pains of hurt and betrayal, the highs of passion, the challenges of distance, and the agonies of heartbreak to discover how to truly love. With the record for the longest American theatrical run, The Fantasticks is a gem of the American musical theatre." Performances take place in the Stage Three Auditorium on the Webster University campus. For more information, www.webster.edu/conservatory/season or call 314-968-7128.

Omega D. Jones

The Monocle presents I'ma Name My Daughter "Cabaret": A Night of Sass, Soul, and Simple Joys featuring Omega D. Jones with Colin Healy on piano, on Friday, October 12, at 8 pm. "It's been a long time coming, but Omega Jones is finally making his cabaret debut! Born & raised in St. Louis, he has been performing all of his life. Most recently, one might have seen him as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar with Stray Dog Theatre, Molto in the world premiere of The Gringo: A New Musical at St. Lou Fringe, and as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime, for which he was honored with the award for Leading Actor in a Musical at this year's St. Louis Theatre Circle Awards." The Monocle in on Manchester in the Grove. For more information: eventbrite.com.

Clayton Community Theatre presents the drama The Laramie Project Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., October 11 - 21. "Based on the true story of the death of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old victim of an anti-gay hate crime in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming, The Laramie Project unfolds through the words of people in Laramie who were interviewed by members of Tectonic Theater Company in the 18 months following Matthew Shepard's death, creating a portrait of the community and key individuals in the aftermath of the event and as the victim's killers were brought to trial and convicted." Performances take place at the Washington University South Campus Theatre. For more information, call 314-721-9228 or visit placeseveryone.org.

Mustard Seed Theatre presents The Last Days of Judas Iscariot Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm, October 10 - 28. “In this irreverent exploration of the afterlife of Judas Iscariot, will sin or grief or grace prevail? This brutal dark comedy puts love and justice on trial. Adult language and situations, not appropriate for children.” Performances take place at the Fontbonne Fine Arts Theatre, 6800 Wydown Blvd. For more information, call (314) 719-8060 or visit the web site at www.mustardseedtheatre.com.

The Little Foxes
Photo by Patrick Huber

St. Louis Actors' Studio presents Lillian Hellman's drama The Little Foxes Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm through October 14. " Lillian Hellman's legendary play about greed and ambition. Set in Alabama in 1900, The Little Foxes follows Regina Giddens and her ruthless clan, including her sister-in-law Birdie, as they clash in often brutal ways in an effort to strike the deal of their lives. Far from a sentimental look at a bygone era, the play has a surprisingly timely resonance with important issues facing our country today.". Performances take place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle. For more information call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org.

KTK Productions presents the musical Legally Blonde Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm, through October 14. "Elle Woods appears to have it all. Her life is turned upside down when her boyfriend Warner dumps her so he can attend Harvard Law. Determined to get him back, Elle geniously charms her way into the prestigious law school. While there, she struggles with peers, professors and her ex. With the support of some new friends, though, Elle quickly realizes her potential and sets out to prove herself to the world.” Performances take place at Southampton Presbyterian Church, 4716 Macklind. For more information: kurtainkall.org or call 314-351-8984.

The Robert G. Reim Theatre presents Terry Barber in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber on Saturday, October 13, at 3 and 7 pm. " Spend a memorable evening with one of the worlds most beloved musical theater composers, Andrew Lloyd Webber, interpreted by internationally acclaimed rare countertenor, Terry Barber. Barber breathes new life into hits from ten of Lloyd Webbers most beloved shows including Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera, Heaven On Their Minds from Jesus Christ Superstar, and Memory from Cats in addition to other selections from Evita, Sunset Boulevard, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Requiem, and more." The Robert G. Reim Theatre is in the Kirkwood Community Center at 111 S. Geyer Rd. in Kirkwood. For more information: terrybarber.com

The St. Louis Writers' Group presents the second round of its Playwright Slam on Monday, October 8, at 6:30 pm. "Get ready for a night of fun impromptu theater. The order of scripts to be read will be chosen at random. Actors to read will be chosen at random. Each script will be given a five minute read, and rated by a panel of judges based upon audience reaction. The judges will select several plays to move on to round two which will be ten minutes of the same script, from which a winner will be chosen." The event takes place upstairs at Big Daddy's, 1000 Sidney in Soulard. For more information: www.stlwritersgroup.com.

Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville presents Radium Girls Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, October 10 - 14. "In 1926 radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches were the latest rage - until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. Inspired by a true story and written with warmth and humor, Radium Girls is a fast-moving, highly theatrical ensemble piece that offers a wry, unflinching look at the peculiarly American obsessions with health, wealth, and the commercialization of science." 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.

Raging Skillet
Photo by Eric Woolsey

New Jewish Theater presents Raging Skillet by Jacques Lemarre Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 2 and 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm, through October 21. New Jewish Theatre serves up the opening entrée to its 21st season with a tasty adaptation of celebrity Chef Rossi's autobiographical memoir, Raging Skillet - equal parts book launch, cooking demonstration, heaping helping of comedy and a side of Jewish mother guilt. When Rossi's Jewish mother discovers the microwave, home-cooked meals become a thing of the past. What starts as a rebellion against her Orthodox parents, chauvinism in the kitchen and the pressures of conformity ends with Rossi becoming New York's #1 punk-rock, Jewish, Lesbian caterer. This hilarious and heartfelt new comedy is based on her true-life story." Performances take place in the Marvin and Harlene Wool Studio Theater at the Jewish Community Center, 2 Millstone Campus Drive in Creve Coeur. For more information: www.newjewishtheatre.org or call 314-442-3283.

St. Louis Shakespeare presents Shakespeare's The Tempest October 12 - 21. "A story of shipwreck and magic, The Tempest begins on a ship caught in a violent storm with Alonso, the king of Naples, on board. On a nearby island, the exiled Duke of Milan, Prospero, tells his daughter, Miranda, that he has caused the storm with his magical powers. Prospero had been banished twelve years earlier when Prospero's brother, Antonio-also on the doomed ship-conspired with Alonso to become the duke instead. Prospero and Miranda are served by a spirit named Ariel and by Caliban, son of the island's previous inhabitant, the witch Sycorax." Performances take place at the Ivory Theatre, 7620 Michigan in the Carondelet neighborhood. For more information, call 314-361-5664 or visit stlshakespeare.org.

Valhalla Cemetery and The Hawthorne Players present Voices Of Valhalla: A Hayride Through History through October 13. Hayrides through Valhalla Cemetery depart every fifteen minutes beginning at 6:30 each evening as members of the Hawthorne Players portray some of the noted locals buried in Valhalla. Valhalla Cemetery is located at 7600 St. Charles Rock Road. For more information, visit hawthorneplayers.com.

The Zombies of Penzance
Photo by Jill Ritter Lindberg

New Line Theatre presents the world premiere of the rock musical The Zombies of Penzance, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM through October 20. "New Line Theatre has shocked the music world by discovering a controversial, long-lost first draft by the legendary British team of librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, who together wrote fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896...In Gilbert and Sullivan's never-before seen original draft, dated December 1878 and titled The Zombies of Penzance (with the unwieldy subtitle, At Night Come the Flesh Eaters), Major-General Stanley is a retired zombie hunter, who doesn't want his daughters marrying the dreaded Zombies of Penzance, for obvious reasons." 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.

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.

Review: The natural way

Bramwell Tovey
Photo from bramwelltovey.com

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The weekend got off to a great start this morning (Friday, October 5th) as Bramwell Tovey conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a pair of big 19th-century symphonies by Beethoven and Berlioz. The onstage energy was a nice complement to the coffee and Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the foyer.

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

The concert opened with Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (the "Pastoral"), a work infused with the composer's love for nature. "How glad I am to be able to roam in wood and thicket, among the trees and flowers and rocks," he once wrote. "No one can love the country as I do." You can hear that love of the natural world everywhere in the sixth symphony: the imitation of birdsong in the second movement, the earthy peasant dance of the third, and the dramatic thunderstorm of the fourth. It's music that brims with love and good cheer.

It got a big, appealing, and beautifully thought-out performance from Mr. Tovey and the orchestra. There was just enough variety in the way individual phrases were shaped to give the music a nice sense of variety without ever engaging in exaggeration. Tempi were ideal, including (for example) a good, steady pulse in the Andante molto mosso second movement. "Andante" is often described as "at a walking pace," and it was easy to think of the composer strolling through the fields in this performance.

Mr. Tovey got outstanding performances from the musicians Friday morning. The strings sounded warm and solid and the woodwinds were at the top of their game. Thanks to Associate Principal Oboe Phil Ross, Principal Flute Mark Sparks, and clarinetists Scott Andrews and Benjamin Adler for those perky bird calls in the second movement.

Nature also plays a big role in the second work on the program, Berlioz's dramatic "Harold in Italy," Op. 16, for solo viola and orchestra. The "Harold" of the title is the protagonist in Lord Byron's epic poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," a character who is, as Thomas May points out in his program notes for the SLSO, "a melancholy young man who wanders through the Mediterranean seeking escape from his disillusionment with life." He's represented by the viola, which wanders into and out of Berlioz's vivid musical canvas without ever really becoming part of it.

Beth Guterman Chu
Photo courtesy of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

The soloist this weekend is SLSO Principal Viola Beth Guterman Chu who, according to her interview in the program, strongly identifies with the composer's depiction of Harold. "Harold is a dreamer," she observes. "He is melancholic, but also innocent. Playing the piece suits my musical temperament." I could certainly hear that sympathetic understanding of the character in her committed, virtuoso performance. While not flashy, the solo line nevertheless has significant technical challenges, which she overcame with apparent ease.

Mr. Tovey's interpretation brought out all the drama in this music. From the imposing musical mountains of the first movement to the wild abandon of the "Orgy of the Brigands" in the last, this was a performance of intense theatricality. Berlioz, an unapologetic man of the theatre himself, would undoubtedly have approved.

I think he might also have approved of Mr. Tovey's staging decisions. "Harold in Italy" isn't so much a viola concerto as a symphonic work in which the viola sometimes plays a prominent role. Rather than keep Ms. Chu on stage for the long stretches during which her instrument is silent, Mr. Tovey chose to have her enter, exit, and move across the stage according to her instrument's role in the music. The score directs the soloist to "stand in the fore-ground, near to the public and isolated from the orchestra" ("L'exeeutant doit étre place sur l'avant-scene, pres du public et isole de l'orchestre") but doesn't specify how to get there.

That could have been distracting or come across as a gimmick, but I thought it worked exceptionally well. In the first movement, for example, she was offstage until the viola's first appearance, at which point she entered stage right and, as directed in the score ("La Harpe doit étre placee pres de l' Alto solo"), stood next to harpist Allegra Lilly for their duet. In the second movement, for the sequence in which the viola plays ethereal glissandos against a plodding line in the basses (playing the role of marching pilgrims), Ms. Chu was far stage left, next to the basses. In both cases, the visual choices enhanced and clarified the music.

Besides, the composer himself was not averse to that sort of thing. The offstage string trio that accompanies the viola's final appearance in the finale, for example, was all his idea.

The Berlioz/Beethoven concert repeats Saturday night, October 6, at 8 pm, a performance which will also be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio. The on Sunday at 3 pm, Ben Whiteley conducts the orchestra, chorus, and vocal soloists in "A Celebration of Muny at 100." The concerts take place at Powell Hall in Grand Center.

St. Louis concert calendar for the week of October 8, 2018

Concerts this week include include Mozart with the American Chamber Chorale, new works by local composers, and a family concert at Powell Hall featuring the dark humor of Lemony Snicket.

American Chamber Chorale Artistic Director
Stephen Morton

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The American Chamber Chorale and the Salem St.-Louis Chamber Orchestra present A Requiem for Mozart, on Saturday, May 13, at 7:30 p.m. "The Salem Chamber Orchestra opens with Mozart's lovely Violin Concerto #3 in G Major, featuring the Orchestra's Concert Master, Leonora Anop. The Orchestra and Chorale will then combine to perform Mozart's Requiem. Shortly before his death at age 35, the very ill Mozart began composing a work that would become somewhat mysterious and controversial. It was his stunning and powerful Requiem. Mozart told his wife about strange feelings as he worked, as if perhaps the Requiem would be for him. Mozart dies before completing it." The concert takes place at Salem United Methodist Church, 1200 S. Lindbergh. For more information: americanchamberchorale.com.

The Chamber Music Society of St. Louis presents Espana on Monday and Tuesday, October 8 and 9, at 7:30 pm. The concert of music by Falla, Albeñiz, Granados, Sarsate, Halffter, and Bizet takes place at the Sheldon Ballroom, 3648 Washington in Grand Center. For more information: chambermusicstl.org.

The Chamber Project St. Louis presents Millennial on Sunday, October 14, at 7:00 pm. "Generational disruption and shifting histories, the young generation re-shapes their society. Featuring a world premiere by up and coming local composer Andrew Stock, this program showcases upstarts from today and yesterday. Enjoy a local brew and some of the best music heard in generations in a fun venue." The performance includes music by Glazunov, Mozart, and Caroline Shaw and takes place at The Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust. For more information: www.chamberprojectstl.org.

The Friends of Music at Washington University present a student concerto performance competition on Monday, October 8, starting at 4 pm. The event takes place at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City. For more information, music.wustl.edu.

Gustavo Gimeno conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and piano soloist Javier Perianes Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, October 12 and 13. The program consists Ligeti's Concerto Românesc, Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3, and Rimski-Korsakov's Scheherazade. The concerts take place at Powell Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

Omega Jones

Lee Mills conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and narrator Omega Jones in Lemony Snicket's The Compser is Dead by Nathaniel Stookey on Sunday, October 14, at 3 pm. "Celebrate Halloween with the SLSO and Lemony Snicket's murder mystery whodunit: The Composer is Dead! But where is the culprit lurking? In the strings? The low brass? The woodwinds? Young music-loving sleuths can unravel the mystery in a concert of wit, wonder and whimsy! Experience how all the instruments of the orchestra combine to bring the story to life!" The concert includes music by Haydn and Falla and takes place at Powell Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The University City Symphony Orchestra presents The Music of South America on Sunday, October 14, at 3 p.m. "The highlight of the afternoon will be the Piano Concerto in D Major by Enrique Soro (Chile), performed by Dr. Vincent Craig. Dr. Craig is Associate Professor of Piano at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, and will perform Soro's Piano Concerto approximately on the centenary of its premiere! The program will also include "Mbocapú," by a close friend of Maestro Burke's, Paraguayan composer and conductor, Luis Szaran." The takes place at the 560 Music Center, 560 Trinity in University City. For more information: ucso.org.

The Washington University Department of Music DUC Chamber Music Series presents Kelly Daniel-Decker and Todd Decker in Songs of Debussy on Tuesday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. The free event takes place in the Goldberg Formal Lounge in the Danforth Center on the Washington University campus. For more information, music.wustl.edu.

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of October 5, 2018

This week, the local premiere of a fringe festival hit, the return of a flashy magic show, and a classic indictment of greed and entitlement.

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New This Week:

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Image credit: St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Ben Whiteley conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in A Celebration of Muny at 100 on Sunday, October 7, at 3 pm. Vocal soloists ustin Michael Austin, Daniel Berryman, Keith Boyer, Cree Carrico, Debby Lennon, Elizabeth Stanley, and Phil Touchette join the orchestra and chorus in paying tribute to the Muny during their centennial with an afternoon of beautiful songs and music from its first quarter century. The concert takes place at Powell Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

My take: Strictly speaking, this isn't theatre, but it is an evening of musical theatre classics, and that's close enough for me. The SLSO promises selections from "Annie Get Your Gun" (Irving Berlin), "Girl Crazy" (George and Ira Gershwin), "Show Boat" (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II), and "The Pirates of Penzance" (Gilbert and Sullivan; huzzah!), "Eileen" (Victor Herbert), "The Desert Song" (Sigmund Romberg), "Of Thee I Sing" (George and Ira Gershwin; the first American musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama) "The Student Prince" (Romberg again), and "Sweet Adeline" (Kern and Hammerstein). What's not to like? I'll be there!

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Linda Kennedy in Chef
Photo by Peter Wochniak, ProPhotoSTL

Upstream Theater presents Chef by Sabrina Mahfouz Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 7 pm (except for October 14, which is at 2 pm), through October 14. "Upstream Theater is excited to host renowned Swiss director Marianne de Pury who will stage the US premiere of the award-winning CHEF by UK/Egyptian playwright and poet Sabrina Mahfouz-the gripping story of how one woman went from being a haute-cuisine head chef to a convicted inmate running a prison kitchen. Leading us through her world of mouth-watering dishes and heart-breaking memories, Chef questions our attitudes to food, prisoners, violence, love and hope." Performances take place at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information, including show times: upstreamtheater.org.

My take: The thing about one-character shows is that the one character had better be interesting and the one actor had better know how to capture and hold an audience's attention. There's no question that Linda Kennedy, the one actor in question, knows how to do that; as evidence, I would offer the great solo cabaret show she did back in 2015. And the play, as Richard Green notes in his rave review for Talking Broadway, "first toured fringe festivals in Scotland and Britain in 2014, scooping up multiple awards." So you can hardly go wrong, can you?

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An Ha Lim in The Illusionists
Photo by Joan Marcus

The Fox Theatre presents The Illusionists-Live From Broadway, Friday at 7:30 pm, Saturday at 2 and 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 1 pm, October 5 - 7. "Full of hilarious magic tricks, death-defying stunts and acts of breathtaking wonder, The Illusionists has shattered box office records worldwide and thrilled audiences of all ages with a mind-blowing spectacular showcasing the jaw-dropping talents of seven of the most incredible illusionists on earth." The Fox in at 527 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: fabulousfox.com.

b>My take: We caught this last month when it played Chicago and while the performance we saw was one magician short (Dan Sperry, "The Anti-Conjurer," was inexplicably absent), it was still an entertaining and sometimes amazing show. As I noted in my review for KDHX, many of the effects will be familiar to fans of stage magic, but they're all done very well, and some of the close-up effects are most impressive.

The Little Foxes
Photo by Patrick Huber

St. Louis Actors' Studio presents Lillian Hellman's drama The Little Foxes Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm through October 14. "Lillian Hellman's legendary play about greed and ambition. Set in Alabama in 1900, The Little Foxes follows Regina Giddens and her ruthless clan, including her sister-in-law Birdie, as they clash in often brutal ways in an effort to strike the deal of their lives. Far from a sentimental look at a bygone era, the play has a surprisingly timely resonance with important issues facing our country today.". Performances take place at the Gaslight Theatre, 358 North Boyle. For more information call 314-458-2978 or visit stlas.org.

My take: In a New York Times article published the day before the October 31, 1949, premiere of Regina, Mark Blitzstein's operatic treatment of Hellman's play, Leonard Bernstein observed that the principal characters were "ugly people engaged in ugly dealings with one another." That is, to say the last, an understatement. Hellman's blistering indictment of crony capitalism and unenlightened self-interest is, if anything, more relevant now than when it was written in 1939, as an appalling spectacle of shameless greed, unprincipled arrogance, moral bankruptcy, and overwhelming entitlement dominates the national political stage. The tragedy of The Little Foxes isn't just American, it's also America's.

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Oklahoma!
Photo by Peter Wochniak, ProPhotoSTL

Stages St. Louis presents the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! through October 7. "Oh, what a beautiful musical! Rodgers and Hammerstein's timeless first collaboration was, in many ways, their most innovative. And while OKLAHOMA! completely changed the face of American musical theatre over seventy years ago, it remains as fresh and vital today as it was then with its loving celebration of the American spirit. A stunning blend of drama, music, and dance, the exhilarating Rodgers and Hammerstein score contains such classics as "People Will Say We're In Love," "The Surrey With The Fringe On Top," "Kansas City," "I Cain't Say No," and the pulsating title tune, "Oklahoma!" A gold standard that set the bar for all great musicals that came after it, OKLAHOMA! is unforgettable entertainment for the entire family!" Performances take place in the Robert G. Reim Theatre at the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 South Geyer Road in Kirkwood. For more information: stagesstlouis.org.

My take: History (or at least Wikipedia) tells us that when Lorenz Hart was approached by his then-partner Richard Rodgers to work on a musical stage version of the 1931 Theatre Guild flop Green Grow the Lilacs, he declined, shrugging off the story of farmers and cowboys in turn-of-the-century Oklahoma as corny and uninteresting. He had a point there—the corn really is "as high as an elephant's eye" at times—but even so Oklahoma! was a box office smash in 1943 (a record-breaking 2,212 performances), garnered rave reviews, and has remained a favorite of audiences and critics ever since. The Stages production, which I saw last night, is broad and even borderline cartoonish in spots, but executed so flawlessly and with such precision that it's impossible not to find it vastly entertaining. Performances are top drawer and the score is, of course, irresistible.

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This Random World
Photo by John Lamb

The West End Players Guild opens its 108th season with the St. Louis premiere of the comedy This Random World by Steven Dietz Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, September 28 - October 7. "Only the audience knows that every character is connected to almost every other character is some way. Dietz's tale is one of continuous missed connections, a series of mostly funny and sometimes touching almost-interactions that would change the characters lives if they happened, which they don't." There will also be a show on Thursday, October 4, at 8 pm. Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 North Union at Enright in the Central West End. For more information, call 314-367-0025 or visit www.westendplayers.org.

My take: As I noted in my KDHX review of the world premiere of this play at the Humana Festival, one of the great pleasures of the novels of Charles Dickens is the often comical way in which he arranges for characters from very disparate walks of life to be connected, often by wildly improbable coincidences. In This Random World, veteran comic playwright Steve Dietz stands that convention on its head. In Dietz's anti-Dickensian story, characters who are already related to each other, however tangentially, repeatedly miss making connections as a result of coincidences that are as unlikely and comical as anything the great British novelist ever dreamed up. I'm on the play reading committee at West End and was a strong proponent of including this inventive farce in our season. I think you'll enjoy it.

Symphony Preview: A weekend in the country

"Beethoven's Walk in Nature" by Julius Schmid
By Michael Martin Sypniewski [Public domain]
via Wikimedia Commons

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It's a big musical weekend with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra October 5-7, with two separate concerts. Friday and Saturday the orchestra performs Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (the "Pastoral," composed in stages between 1802 and 1808) and Berlioz's dramatic "Harold in Italy" (1834), Op. 16, for solo viola and orchestra. Then Sunday the SLSO Chorus and vocal soloists join the orchestra for a 100th birthday tribute to the Muny.

There's probably not much I can tell you about the "Pastoral" that you don't already know, but I'll give it a try with a few possibly Fun Facts.

FF #1: The first performance of the Symphony No. 6 took place at a concert on December 22nd 1807 at Vienna's Theater an der Wien, with the composer as both soloist and conductor. It wasn't a huge success. The hall was freezing cold, the musicians poorly prepared, and the program was a four-hour monster, including the premieres of not only the Symphony No. 6 but also the Piano Concerto No. 4, the "Choral Fantasy" for piano, chorus, and orchestra (a work often seen as a kind of "first draft" for the finale of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9), and the Symphony No. 5. No record survives of what the lines at the toilets were like.

FF #2: As the program annotator for the City of London Philharmonia reminds us, Beethoven used the third movement to poke fun at inept rural musicians (something Mozart also does in his "Musical Joke"). "Beethoven knew the efforts of amateur country bands well and was rather amused at the way they played. In the third movement, entitled 'peasants' merrymaking', he makes the oboe come in on the wrong beat and the bassoonists contributions comically mechanical."

FF #3: Many of Beethoven's compositions have subtitles, and nearly all of them were tacked on after the fact by other people. Not so the Symphony No. 6. The full title Beethoven gave the work translates as "Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life."

There's more background on the 6th in a symphony preview article I wrote for the SLSO's last performance of it back in 2015. Rather than repeat it all here, you can just check out the original post.

Berlioz in 1832
Painting by Émile Signol

Nature plays a big part in Berlioz's "Harold in Italy" as well. The "Harold" of the title is the protagonist in Lord Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," an epic narrative poem published between 1812 and 1818. Harold is, as Thomas May points out in his program notes for the SLSO, "a melancholy young man who wanders through the Mediterranean seeking escape from his disillusionment with life," so it's not surprising that the highly romantic Berlioz found himself attracted to the character. As Peter Gutmann writes in an article for classicalnotes.net:

Berlioz must have closely identified with Byron's title character, a melancholy dreamer who visits and comments upon sites of classical antiquity in search of meaning to counter his own world-weary disillusionment. Although Berlioz desperately had sought the Prix de Rome, once he got to Rome he wrote in his Mémoires that his life there was "a continual martyrdom"...His boredom soon turned to wanderlust, as he fled his residency to wander the Italian countryside, gathering impressions, dreams and inspirations that would infuse his new work.

The structure of "Harold in Italy" is fairly straightforward, with four movements that correspond to those of the traditional 19th-century symphony. Berlioz described the work as "Symphonie en quatre parties avec un alto principal" ("Symphony in Four Parts with Viola Obbligato") rather than a concerto and, in fact, the viola isn't so much a standout soloist as a partner with the orchestra. That's why the great virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who originally asked Berlioz to write the work for him, rejected it when he got a look at a first draft and realized how often the violist wasn't playing.

Like his more popular "Symphonie Fantastique," Berlioz's "Harold in Italy" has an idée fixe--a recurring theme that's associated with Harold and which pops up repeatedly throughout the piece. In the "Symphonie Fantastique" the theme changes with the character of each movement. In "Harold," though, the theme remains (to quote Mr. Gutmann) "a fixed point of reference for the changing scenes through which the hero passes, coloring them with his poetic awareness, exuberance, introspection and anxiety."

Here's what Harold's theme looks like when we first hear it, after a long orchestral introduction:

Image from classicalnotes.net

Trivia point: yes, that's neither the familiar bass nor treble clef but rather the alto clef. Unless you have played the viola at some point in your life (which I once attempted, without much success), you've probably never seen it before. And probably never will again.

Playing that alto clef music will be SLSO Principal Viola Beth Guterman Chu. When the symphony's board polled the musicians about works they'd like to see on the 2018/2019 season, a number of them suggested both "Harold in Italy" and Ms. Chu as the soloist. I'm told she was very pleased and touched by the tribute from her fellow musicians.

Conducting Ms. Chu and the orchestra will be Bramwell Tovey, last seen here back in February when he conducted a highly theatrical version of Orff's "Carmina Burana" and a moving "Chichester Psalms" (Leonard Bernstein). A composer as well as a conductor, Mr. Tovey is the Principal Conductor of the B.B.C. Concert Orchestra and Music Director Emeritus of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra where he was formerly music director from 2000 to 2018. As of last month, he is also Artistic Advisor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

Image credit: St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

The final program for Sunday's Muny birthday party will be announced from the stage on Sunday afternoon. The SLSO press release, however, promises selections from "Annie Get Your Gun" (Irving Berlin), "Girl Crazy" (George and Ira Gershwin), "Show Boat" (Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II), and "The Pirates of Penzance" (Gilbert and Sullivan; huzzah!) as well as tunes from lesser-known musicals like "Eileen" (Victor Herbert), "The Desert Song" (Sigmund Romberg), "Of Thee I Sing" (George and Ira Gershwin; the first American musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama) "The Student Prince" (Romberg again), and "Sweet Adeline" (Kern and Hammerstein).

Yes, I know: some of these are actually operettas rather than musicals, but let's not be picky.

Joining the orchestra and chorus will be vocal soloists Justin Michael Austin, Daniel Berryman, Keith Boyer, Cree Carrico, Debby Lennon, Elizabeth Stanley, and Phil Touchette, who will perform favorites by Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, and others. Ben Whiteley conducts.

The Essentials: Bramwell Tovey conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and viola soloist Beth Guterman Chu Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 8 pm, October 5 and 6. The program consists of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 ("Pastoral") and Berlioz's "Harold in Italy." Then Ben Whiteley conducts the orchestra, chorus, and vocal soloists in "A Celebration of Muny at 100" on Sunday, October 7, at 3 pm. The concerts take place at Powell Hall in Grand Center.

Review: Wintry mix

Hannu Lintu
Photo by Veikko Kähkönen

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

Attendance at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert this past Saturday (September 29th) was rather light. Which was a shame, since it brought us a pair of impressive performances by violinist Leila Josefowicz and guest conductor Hannu Lintu.

Maestro Lintu is no stranger to the Powell Hall stage, having made several appearances here over the years, most recently in an all-Russian program this past April. He is a commanding and visually compelling figure on the podium who has a nearly ideal mixture of romantic intensity and intellectual control.

That combination of passion and precision was most obvious in the work that concluded this weekend's concerts, Dmitri Shostakovich's massive Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103, (subtitled "The Year 1905"), but you could see it in the newer works comprised the first half of the concert as well.

The evening opened with the American premiere "Flounce" by Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski (b. 1970). A commission by the BBC for its 2017 Proms concert series, Flounce, which clocks in at a brief five minutes, is something of an audio funhouse in which short phrases leap up like flying fish from (to continue the metaphor) a churning musical sea. The work opens with an exuberant orchestral outburst which soon gives way to more delicate textures that call for a wide variety of unusual techniques from the players before building again to a big and comically abrupt finish.

Among those unusual techniques, as Tim Munro observes in his program notes we see:

Brass players blow tone-less air through their instruments, producing gusts of white noise. Trumpeters slap their mouthpieces with palms, giving a popping sound, while trombonists make clacking noises with their tongue. Clarinetists clutch hard and quickly release the reed with their tongues, producing a sharp noise called a "slap tongue."

The string players get to make their share of odd noises as well by bouncing their bows, pressing them hard against the strings, playing on the "wrong" side of their bridges. "A single bass player," Mr. Munro writes, "makes a breathing sound by playing the wood below their strings (the tailpiece)."

Add a percussion section that includes a slide whistle, a Super Ball (by Wham-O, as seen on TV!), a "U-shaped vibraslap, the descendant of an instrument made from jawbones, emitting a rattle," and "a long tube filled with beans to produce the calming sound of rain" and you have a collection of noisemakers that even Spike Jones might have envied.

All this should be fairly entertaining, and it mostly is, although many of the more outré sounds were, at least in this performance, lost in the overall orchestral din. This is, I suspect, one of those works that will come across better on recordings than it does live. It's certainly easier to hear orchestral details in the BBC recording of the world premiere than it was in Powel Hall.

That said, the musicians of the SLSO did a bang-up job of it all, playing with enthusiasm and precision. Given the difficulty of the score and the quality of the performance, the response from the relatively small audience was disappointingly tepid. I can understand the lack of enthusiasm for the work itself--it's the sort of thing that doesn't much invite repeated hearing--but Mr. Lintu and the orchestra deserved longer and more enthusiastic applause for their hard work.

Leila Josefowick

Up next was the St. Louis debut of the 2009 Violin Concerto by another of Mr. Salonen's fellow countrymen, Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958). Best known as the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1992 to 2009, Mr. Salonen, like Mr. Lintu, studied conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Conservatory. This weekend's soloist, Ms. Josefowicz, worked closely with Mr. Salonen during the composition process and gave the work its world premiere.

In notes for the Violin Concerto on his publisher's web site, Mr. Salonen points out that his goal was "to cover as wide a range of expression as I could imagine over the four movements of the Concerto: from the virtuosic and flashy to the aggressive and brutal, from the meditative and static to the nostalgic and autumnal." I'd say he succeeded, although to my ears the work had an undercurrent of neurasthenic anxiety that lent an edge to even the more tranquil moments.

You can hear that nervous energy most clearly in the opening movement, titled "Mirage." Starting almost in midphrase, "as if the music had been going on for some time already" (to quote Mr. Salonen), the solo line dashes up and down in a brilliant "perpetual motion" display and while the emphasis shifts periodically to other parts of the orchestra the violin remains the focus of the movement and, indeed, the work as a whole.

Not for Mr. Salonen the alteration of solo and tutti passages of the classic concerto. Here the soloist plays more or less nonstop for the work's entire half-hour run time and employs just about every technique in the book. It's the sort of work that only a true virtuoso would attempt.

Needless to say, Leila Josefowicz is exactly that kind of virtuoso. Her technique was flawless, even in the most demanding passages (of which there are many). More importantly, though, she faithfully conveyed the wide range of moods Mr. Salonen was striving for. That included the somewhat nervous dreaminess of the second movement (titled "Pulse I"), the wild, jazzy excess of the "Pulse II" third movement ("Something very Californian in all this," writes Mr. Salonen. "Hooray for freedom of expression.") and the nostalgic sense of farewell in "Adieu," the final movement.

This time around the audience's applause was sustained and enthusiastic. Ms. Josefowicz's performance had great physical energy, virtuoso flair, and good, close communication with Mr. Lintu. She deserved every bit of the standing ovation she received. Also singled out in curtain call bows for their solo work during the concerto were Associate Principal oboe Phil Ross, Assistant Principal viola Jonathan Chu, and Principal cello Daniel Lee.

The Shostakovich symphony took up the second half of the program. Indeed, at nearly 70 minutes, it was almost twice as long as the entire first half. Written in 1957, this sprawling, cinematic work was, publicly, a memorial to the "Bloody Sunday" massacre of a group of unarmed protestors by the Imperial Guard of Tsar Nicholas II on January 9th, 1905. It was a key event in the 1905 Russian Revolution which led, in turn, to the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in 1917. Privately, though, Shostakovich apparently had a different act of political violence in mind: the bloody repression by Soviet forces of the Hungarian uprising in October of 1957. "Don't forget," he said to choreographer Igor Belsky, "that I wrote that symphony in the aftermath of the Hungarian Uprising." (cited in "Shostakovich: A Life Remembered" by Elizabeth Wilson).

When I saw Mr. Lintu conduct Shostakovich's harrowing Symphony No. 8 back in 2015, I was very taken with the way his perfectly calibrated interpretation honored the composer's every note. I heard that same degree of keen musical insight in his approach this time as well.

There is usually a mix of horror, beauty, tragedy, and triumph in Shostakovich's more mature symphonies, and the Eleventh is no exception. Despite the work's epic length, it grabs the listener's attention from the ominous, wintry string chorale and distant trumpet and horn calls of the opening and doesn't let up until the defiant finale. Yes, the graphic musical description of the massacre in the second movement is the sort of thing that apparently moved British musicologist Robert Layton to describe Shostakovich (in the 1967 Penguin Books edition of "The Symphony") somewhat dismissively as a "documentary composer," but I think Shostakovich transmuted those external experiences into something that transcended external influences.

Mr. Lintu and the musicians delivered that sound with tremendous power. There was a number of striking solos throughout the work, including Cally Banham's mournful English horn and Tzuying Huang's bass clarinet in the final movement.

That final movement, by the way, concludes with a massive G minor chord on the tubular bells, openly contradicting the orchestra's more optimistic G major chord. The combined sound of the bells and gong has a long decay time, and Mr. Lintu clearly intended that chord to slowly die away before lowering his arms and turning to accept the audience's applause. Some of the audience didn't wait for that to happen Saturday night. Mr. Lintu looked bemused. I don't blame him. The enthusiastic ovation was deserved, but giving the work a few seconds to truly end would have been more respectful.

From St. Louis, Mr. Lintu moves on to guest spots in Baltimore, Boston, Tokyo, Singapore, and Cincinnati before returning to Finland and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He currently has no return engagement scheduled with the SLSO, but given his apparent popularity with both audiences and orchestral management, I expect that we will be seeing him again before too long.

Next at Powell Hall: Bramwell Tovey conducts The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and viola soloist Beth Guterman Chu Friday at 10:30 am and Saturday at 8 pm, October 5 and 6. The program consists of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 ("Pastorale") and Berlioz's "Harold in Italy." Then Ben Whiteley conducts the orchestra, chorus, and vocal soloists in "A Celebration of Muny at 100" on Sunday, October 7, at 3 pm. The concerts take place at Powell Hall in Grand Center.