Review: Nan-Ha Chang lights up an all-Russian program

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

Han-Na Chang

Share on Google+:

In a laudatory review of Han-Na Chang's Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, with the Oslo Philharmonic earlier this year, critic Lars O. Fyldal called her "one of this generation's most exciting conductors." Having heard her interpretation of the Fifth with the St. Louis Symphony this past Friday (November 5, 2016), I'm inclined to agree.

Like the symphonies that bracket it, the Fifth deals with the composer's obsession with fate and his attempt to find happiness despite his depression and the stress of being gay in Czarist Russia. It's less structurally coherent than the sixth or (especially) the fourth symphonies, but its triumphant final pages have a power that can't be denied. Under Ms. Chang's baton, this familiar music came to vibrant and electrifying life.

Ms. Chang, who made her SLSO debut this weekend, seems to be particularly fond of the Fifth, having often performed it in the past. She conducted without a score and had clearly internalized the music so thoroughly that she was able to bring out nuances that I hadn't heard before, starting with the opening Andante statement of the "fate" motif on the clarinets, played with great sensitivity by Scott Andrews and Tina Ward. Ms. Chang had held the opening downbeat for a moment or two in order for the audience to settle in and become almost completely silent, so the melody began in a slow, reverential hush. When the allegro con anima of the movement kicked in, the marked contrast generated real excitement.

In fact, "real excitement" effectively describes the entire performance. Ms. Chang knows how to build Tchaikovsky's big climaxes effectively, making them feel more inevitable and less episodic than they sometimes do. She also allowed some of the more lyrical moments to really "breathe"—the second subject of the first movement was a good example—which heightened the sense of drama overall.

Her second movement, with the famous horn solo gracefully rendered by Thomas Jöstlein, was expertly paced. The third movement waltz was beautifully fluid. And the Allegro vivace of the finale dashed along with exhilarating speed. Tchaikovsky concludes the movement by playing "can you top this" with himself multiple times, but Ms. Chang made each big moment feel both necessary and inexorable. The standing ovation that followed the final chords was immediate and entirely justified.

If you missed her Tchaikovsky Fifth this weekend, by the way, you can catch her complete 2014 performance with the Qatar Philharmonic at the 2014 Proms on YouTube.

Jan Mrácek

The other big piece on the program this past weekend was Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, op. 19. The soloist was another newcomer to the Powell Hall stage, the young Czech violinist Jan Mrácek. Like Ms. Chang, he also made a very strong impression, with an intelligent and fiercely committed performance of this technically and artistically challenging music.

You could hear that commitment immediately in the gentle, singing tone he brought to the opening of the first movement. Marked sognando (literally "dreaming") it has the soloist playing softly over tremolo strings, and both Mr. Mrácek and Ms. Chang gave it a properly haunting feel. The Vivacissimo second movement was both fierce and controlled, and the tricky ascending trills at the very end of the piece came off flawlessly. Mr. Mrá_ek threw himself into this music with complete abandon, with very satisfying results.

The concerts opened with brisk and energizing romp through the overture to Mikhail Glinka'a 1842 fairy tale opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. The opera itself hasn't gotten much traction outside of Russia but the overture is one of those pieces that used to crop up often as “filler” on classical LPs-a function it still serves on classical radio stations today. Its alluring melodies and neat little solo tympani part are irresistible.

Ms. Chang's tempo was snappy and the orchestra's playing was clear and precise all the way through, with Shannon Wood doing the honors on the tympani. Here, as in the rest of the program, Ms. Chang's podium style was fascinating to watch, combining big gestures with precisely executed individual cues and a very neat and eloquent use of the baton.

It's always fascinating to see new performers on the Powell Hall stage and watch how the audience responds to them. If the warm response at Friday night's concert is any indication, we have not seen the last of Ms. Chang here. I certainly look forward to her return.

Next at Powell Hall: Leonard Slatkin conducts the orchestra with piano soloist Olga Kern in Barber's Piano Concerto, Copland's Billy the Kid Suite, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess: Symphonic Picture for Orchestra (arranged by Robert Russell Bennett), and Slatkin's own composition Kinah. Performances are Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., November 12 and 13. Get an in-depth look at that music in my symphony preview.

Mr. Slatkin will also conduct a performance of Wagner's Meistersinger Prelude as part of a St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra conert on Friday, November 11, at 8 p.m.

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of November 11, 2016

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

Share on Google+:

New This Week:

---

The 2015 cast of All is Calm
Photo: John Lamb

Mustard Seed Theatre presents the a cappella musical All is Calm Thursdays through Sundays, November 11-December 4. “Join us in celebrating the power of peace in this acapella musical based on the true story of soldiers during World War I who for one night, put down their arms and played soccer instead of exchanging bullets.” 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.

My take: All is Calm has become an annual winter tradition at Mustard Seed. With a script by Peter Rothstein and musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach, this story of the remarkable Christmas truce of 1914—a spontaneous outbreak of peace that occurred at multiple points along the trenches in France—combines splendid and often quite complex a cappella singing with readings of letters from soldiers and other historical documents. At a time when opportunistic politicians are pushing an agenda of hate, fear, and eternal war, this is a play that everyone needs to see. As we used to ask back in the 1960s, "what if they gave a war and nobody came?"

---

Cuddles
Photo: Joey Rumpell

Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble presents Cuddles Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., November 9 - 12. " Eve is a young vampire. Tabby is her sister. Tabby makes the rules. Eve has never left her room. All she knows about the world comes from Tabby and from Eve's storybook characters. Eve does everything a good little vampire girl should do; including drinking Tabby's blood when she has to. But one day, Tabby tires of opening her veins, her heart, and in a breath, Eve's world changes. " Performances take place at The Chapel Venue, 6238 Alexander Drive. For more information: slightlyoff.org.

My take: Ready for some things that go "bump" in the night? Slightly Askew apparently has what you're looking for in this darkly ambiguous vampire story. "As evidenced by this pensively dark, intensely nuanced and complex production of Joseph Wilde's Cuddles," writes Tina Farmer at KDHX, "Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble remains among the most artistically and intellectually stimulating theaters in the region, if not the entire Midwest. This may be reason enough for theatergoers to add the company's current production to their calendar. Add in Joe Hanrahan's viciously perceptive direction, Tibbetts and Schwetye's profoundly broken yet mesmerizing performances, and excellent stagecraft, and you get a piece of noir theater that shines with brilliance."

---

The Hawthorne Players present the comedy Driving Miss Daisy through November 13. " Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer's patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. The performances take place at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre at Parker and Waterford in Florissant, MO. For more information, call 921-5678 or visit hawthorneplayers.info.

My take: I haven't seen this production and my schedule won't give me a chance to do so, but I have loved this play ever since I played Boolie (Miss Daisy's put-upon son) in the West End Players production many years ago. And the leading actress, Nancy Crouse, is an ideal pick for the role of the cantankerous Miss Daisy. Having worked with Hawthorne Players in the past, I can also attest to the consistently high technical quality of their shows as well.

---

Judy Carmichael

The Presenters Dolan presents pianist Judy Carmichael on Friday, November 11, at 8 p.m. as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "Grammy-nominated Judy Carmichael, one of the world's leading interpreters of stride piano, is a flat-out wonderful entertainer - singing, playing or talking. Judy hosts her own weekly show "Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired" on SiriusXM, Public Radio and podcast. Count Basie nicknamed her "Stride," acknowledging the command with which she plays this technically and physically demanding jazz piano style. Judy has appeared frequently on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, and has been featured on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Entertainment Tonight and CBS' Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt and now with Charles Osgood." The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

My take: As a failed pianist, I always like it when (to quote a lyric from a Jimmy Durante classic) "a real piano player sits down at the keys." I also happen to be very fond of ragtime and its immediate descendants like stride. Ms. Carmichael has an impressive resume and the intimate space of the Gaslight should be good for this kind of show.

---

Ken Haller

The Presenters Dolan presents Ken Haller in The Medicine Show on Saturday, November 12, at 8 p.m. as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "Ken Haller's shows have been described as "touching," "hilarious," "intimate," and "tremendously entertaining." In The Medicine Show, where "miracle cures" are peddled, Ken weaves songs as diverse as "The Physician" (Cole Porter), "Someone to Fall Back on," (Jason Robert Brown), "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" (Stephen Sondheim) and more, into a narrative of how becoming a doctor is only the first step toward becoming a healer." The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

My take: "Haller is a charming and talented performer with a voice as smooth as a brandy Alexander," wrote Robert Mitchell in a KDHX review of Ken's Sondheim show back in 2011. I couldn't agree more. Ken is an immensely talented gent with impressive credentials in both the theatrical and cabaret worlds and he has been producing top-notch cabaret here in town as well as in Chicago and New York for several years now. And right now this country very much needs a show about the healing power of music.

---

Mara Bollini

The Emerald Room at the Monocle and The Presenters Dolan present singer Mara Bollini in Taking Chances on Friday, November 11, at 7 p.m. "A native of St. Louis, Mara Bollini has had the privilege of singing and dancing her way across stages throughout the area for decades. “Taking Chances,” Bollini's new cabaret show, is an artistically crafted journey blending music from across the ages as well as musical genres. Carol Schmidt is pianist and music director for the show, which is directed by Tim Schall." The performance takes place in the Emerald Room at The Monocle, 4510 Manchester in the Grove neighborhood. For more information: themonoclestl.com.

My take: We have an embarrassment of cabaret riches in St. Louis this weekend, as this show clearly indicates. Mara is a great talent and Carol Schmidt is one of our town's finest music directors. And the Emerald Room is one of the coolest music venues in town.

---

Held Over:

---

Manifest / Destiny
Photo: John Lamb

The West End Players Guild opens their 106th season with the world premiere of Manifest / Destiny by Vladimir Zelevinsky Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, November 4 - 13. There will also be a show on Thursday, November 10, at 8 PM. "In a year when America's immigration history and policies have been front-and-center in political conversations, Zelevinsky's play is especially timely and insightful. An ensemble cast playing dozens of roles offers poignant vignettes of the love and suffering, bravery and betrayal endured by four centuries-worth of immigrants fleeing the Old World for a chance to reinvent themselves in the new one. " 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: I'm on the board at West End Players as well as the play selection committee, so I'm pretty much pre-sold on this script. When we read it last year, we were all just bowled over by how well-written it was, but I don't think any of us could have anticipated just how relevant it would become in a year when mindless nativism once again spreads its poison over the land. We have been here before, and more than once. Zelevinsky's play reminds us that we are, in the words of JFK, a nation of immigrants. An excellent ensemble cast under the fluid direction of Steve Callahan reminds us forcefully of where we all came from and why we should remember how much our ancestors had to give up to get here.

---

Mothers and Sons
Photo: Peter Wochniak

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally through November 13. "Time stopped for Katharine the day her son died of AIDS. Twenty years later, she seeks out his former partner, Cal, only to discover that he has a husband and a six-year-old son. As she and Cal explore memories of someone they both loved, Katharine begins a rocky journey toward reconciliation with the side of her son that she never understood." Performances take place in the studio theater at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

My take: Like Until the Flood, the show on the Rep mainstage right now, Mothers and Sons deals with how the untimely death of a young man affects and changes the living. Unlike the characters in Until the Flood the characters in Mothers and Sons are entirely fictional. But they are also clearly inspired by playwright McNally's personal experience as a man of the theatre living through a period that brought both the triumph of marriage equality and the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It's a powerful show with top-notch performances.

Symphony Preview: E Pluribus Unum

Share on Google+:

For Election Day weekend, former music director Leonard Slatkin will conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program of works by American composers. Ironically, given the outcome of that election, the evening is a celebration of our nation's diversity, with music informed by African-American and Jewish-American culture, as well as two major works by gay composers.

You can't say Fate doesn't have a dark sense of humor.

Leonard Slatkin

The concerts open with Kinah (Hebrew for "elegy") written by Mr. Slatkin and first performed by him last December with the Detroit Symphony, where he is currently Music Director. It's a memorial to his late father Felix Slatkin, conductor of (among others) the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Slatkin's mother, Eleanor Aller, was a distinguished cellist who often played with the Warner Brothers Orchestra. In 1963, she and her husband were scheduled to present a public performance of a work they had often practiced at home but had never performed in public, the Brahms Double Concerto. That performance never happened. Between the Wednesday night rehearsal and the planned Saturday night performance, Felix Slatkin suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 47.

In prefatory remarks for the 2015 premiere, Mr. Slatkin described Kinah as "a tribute to my parents and in particular of my dad's passing because it's based on four notes that form the opening theme of the Brahms Concerto. It's heard in chords, and it's heard in fragments of melodies that occur throughout the work. It is only heard in more or less its complete form at the very end."

The scoring includes an offstage violin and cello (representing the composer's parents) that only play at the very end. They play fragments of the Brahms melody but never complete any of the phrases-a reminder that they never played the complete work. This weekend, the cello part will be played by the performer who performed at the world premiere, Mr. Slatkin's brother Frederick Zlotkin. The instrument he will be playing belonged to Mr. Slatkin's mother.

Listening to the work on line, I was struck immediately by a sense of delicate beauty, longing, and loss. If you can sit through all twelve minutes of this with a dry eye, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.

Samuel Barber, photographed by
Carl Van Vechten, 1944

Up next is a work premiered the year before the elder Slatkin's death, the first and only piano concerto by Samuel Barber (gay composer no. 1). Barber began writing the work while he was a student at Curtis Institute, gave up, and didn't try again for over three decades, when the piano firm of G. Schirmer commissioned him to write a new concerto for pianist John Browning. "Inspired by the muscular virtuosity of his chosen soloist," writes René Spencer Saller in her program notes, "Barber began working on the concerto the following spring. To reacquaint himself with the form, he pored over contemporary scores by Boulez, Copland, Webern, Berg, and Schoenberg. He finished the first two movements in 1960, but the finale remained in flux until only two weeks before the premiere, in September of 1962. Barber incorporated technical advice from both Browning and Vladimir Horowitz, who persuaded him that the third movement was unplayable at the original tempo."

Even at the designated tempo of Allegro molto, that last movement is a pretty wild ride-a fiercely energetic perpetual motion machine that requires a pianist of real skill and stamina. Olga Kern, the originally scheduled soloist, would have been a natural for this. Fortunately her substitute, Elizabeth Joy Roe, apparently knows the work well, having recorded it for Decca with the London Symphony Orchestra under Emil Tabakov.

The second half of this weekend's concerts starts with a suite drawn from the 1938 ballet Billy the Kid by our second gay composer, Aaron Copland. Composed to a scenario by Lincoln Kirsten for Ballet Caravan, Billy the Kid was the first of Copland's two "cowboy" ballets (the other one is the popular Rodeo) and the first major work to display the popular, "open" sound that would come to characterize his most often-played pieces. It was also the first time he incorporated American folk songs into his music (although he had already used Mexican tunes in El Salon Mexico two years earlier).

Aaron Copland, 1962
By CBS Television - eBay
itemphoto frontphoto back,
Public Domain

Copland's Billy the Kid is not the brutal killer of reality but rather a symbolic figure who is part outlaw and part tragic hero. In addition, as Richard Freed writes in his lines notes for the 1985 recording of the complete ballet Mr. Slatkin and the SLSO, "[o]thers have recognized in the music a symbolic representation of the various elements in the American 'frontier spirit' that made possible the westward expansion."

Certainly the music vividly evokes the vast plains of the mythic west with wide, open harmonies as well as a bustling frontier town with lively polyrhythms and a climactic gun battle with percussion outbursts. This is cinematic stuff that makes it easy to conjure up the action of the ballet in the mind's eye.

The concerts close with Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture for Orchestra by the noted composer and arranger Robert Russell Bennett. It's a work featuring African-American musical ideas translated for the stage by a Jewish-American composer and then arranged by a native Missourian who would go on to work with some of the biggest names in Broadway and Hollywood. In many ways it encapsulates our nation's rich, multi-cultural heritage.

Although Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is now widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of 20th century opera, it took (to quote one of the opera's lyrics) “a long pull to get there”.
With a book by DuBose Heyward (based on his own original novel and play) and music and lyrics by the Brothers Gershwin, the original 1935 Theatre Guild production was a financial failure, and critical reaction was mixed and, from a contemporary standpoint, clueless. New York Times drama critic Brooks Atkinson dismissed it out of hand, and the paper's music critic, Olin Downes, found the mix of vernacular musical elements and sophisticated symphonic form completely baffling (a position which he would later recant).

Despite revivals of interest in the 1940s and 1950s, Porgy and Bess remained an essentially marginal work until a 1976 production of the complete score by the Houston Grand Opera—one that restored nearly an hour of music that had been cut from earlier productions—demonstrated conclusively that Gershwin's crowning achievement was also a great work of musical art.

George Gerwhsin, 1937

Some expansions and alternations not withstanding, the 1942 Bennett arrangement sticks pretty closely to Gershwin's own orchestration and covers some of the same territory as the composer's 1936 Catfish Row suite (which the SLSO recorded with Mr. Slatkin in 1990) including the banjo solo for "I Got Plenty o' Nothing". If you're a fan of the opera, you'll find a lot to like here, including nearly all of the opera's "greatest hits." Although I have to say I miss the Act I fugue that accompanies the murder of Robbins from Gershwin's own suite.

The Essentials: Leonard Slatkin conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with piano soloist Olga Kern in Barber's Piano Concerto, Copland's Billy the Kid Suite, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess: Symphonic Picture for Orchestra, and Slatkin's own composition Kinah. Performances are Friday at 10:30 a.m., Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m., November 11 - 13, at Powell Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org. The Saturday concert will be broadcast on St. Louis Public Radio.

Mr. Slatkin will also conduct Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Overture as part of a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra on Friday at 8 p.m. Gemma New conducts the rest of the program, which includes music by Copland, Grieg, and Beethoven.

St. Louis theatre calendar for the week of November 7, 2016

Share on Google+:

First Run Theatre presents the 2016 Spectrum One-Act Play Festival Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, November 11 - 20. This year's plays are Placebo Effect and Reunion by David Hawley; The Technicians by Robert Stevenson; Most Real by Colin Percival McLaughlin; A Pride of Dummies and And They All Lived Happily Ever After Joe Wegescheide; Fartocalypse by Dan Viggers; and Fear of Mediocrity by Nathan R. Hinds. Performances take place in the Thomas Hunter Theatre at DeSmet Jesuit High School, 233 N New Ballas Road. For more information, call (314) 352-5114 or visit www.firstruntheatre.com.

The 2015 cast of All is Calm
Photo: John Lamb

Mustard Seed Theatre presents the a cappella musical All is Calm Thursdays through Sundays, November 11-December 11. “Join us in celebrating the power of peace in this acapella musical based on the true story of soldiers during World War I who for one night, put down their arms and played soccer instead of exchanging bullets.” 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 Hawthorne Players present the comedy Driving Miss Daisy through November 13. " Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer's patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. The performances take place at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre at Parker and Waterford in Florissant, MO. For more information, call 921-5678 or visit hawthorneplayers.info.

Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble presents Cuddles Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., November 9 - 12. " Eve is a young vampire. Tabby is her sister. Tabby makes the rules. Eve has never left her room. All she knows about the world comes from Tabby and from Eve's storybook characters. Eve does everything a good little vampire girl should do; including drinking Tabby's blood when she has to. But one day, Tabby tires of opening her veins, her heart, and in a breath, Eve's world changes. " Performances take place at The Chapel Venue, 6238 Alexander Drive. For more information: slightlyoff.org.

The Playhouse at Westport Plaza presents the satirical musical revue Forbidden Broadway running through November 13. "Look out Broadway, we're back! New Season - New Victims - New Laughs! Just when Broadway thought it was safe from the poison pen of funny-man Gerard Alessandrini, Forbidden Broadway returns, sharper and more hilarious than ever! This year's targets include Pippin, Kinky Boots, Les Miz, Matilda, joining favorites including Wicked and The Book of Mormon." The Playhouse at Westport Plaza is at 635 West Port Plaza. For more information: westportstl.com.

Rebel and Misfits Productions presents Hamlet: See What I See, the first project in a series called The Immersive Theatre Project, November 12 through 18. The show features an adapted script of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Performances take place at the Barnett On Washington, Grand Center. The show begins with a cocktail hour at 7:00 PM and audiences can expect direct contact with characters from the show throughout the evening as part of the immersive theatre experience. For more information: www.theimmersivetheatreproject.com.

Judy Carmichael

The Presenters Dolan presents pianist Judy Carmichael on Friday, November 11, at 8 p.m. as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "Grammy-nominated Judy Carmichael, one of the world's leading interpreters of stride piano, is a flat-out wonderful entertainer - singing, playing or talking. Judy hosts her own weekly show "Judy Carmichael's Jazz Inspired" on SiriusXM, Public Radio and podcast. Count Basie nicknamed her "Stride," acknowledging the command with which she plays this technically and physically demanding jazz piano style. Judy has appeared frequently on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, and has been featured on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Entertainment Tonight and CBS' Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt and now with Charles Osgood." The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

The West End Players Guild opens their 106th season with the world premiere of Manifest / Destiny by Vladimir Zelevinsky Thursday through Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 2 PM, November 10 - 13. "In a year when America's immigration history and policies have been front-and-center in political conversations, Zelevinsky's play is especially timely and insightful. An ensemble cast playing dozens of roles offers poignant vignettes of the love and suffering, bravery and betrayal endured by four centuries-worth of immigrants fleeing the Old World for a chance to reinvent themselves in the new one. " 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.

Ken Haller

The Presenters Dolan presents Ken Haller in The Medicine Show on Saturday, November 12, at 8 p.m. as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. " Ken Haller's shows have been described as "touching," "hilarious," "intimate," and "tremendously entertaining." In The Medicine Show, where "miracle cures" are peddled, Ken weaves songs as diverse as "The Physician" (Cole Porter), "Someone to Fall Back on," (Jason Robert Brown), "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" (Stephen Sondheim) and more, into a narrative of how becoming a doctor is only the first step toward becoming a healer." The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally through November 13. "Time stopped for Katharine the day her son died of AIDS. Twenty years later, she seeks out his former partner, Cal, only to discover that he has a husband and a six-year-old son. As she and Cal explore memories of someone they both loved, Katharine begins a rocky journey toward reconciliation with the side of her son that she never understood." Performances take place in the studio theater at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

Act Two Theatre presents Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical through November 13. "The Nunsense Christmas Musical, NUNCRACKERS, is presented as the first TV special taped in the Cable Access Studio built by Reverend Mother in the convent basement. It stars the nuns you love, plus Father Virgil, and four of Mount Saint Helen's most talented students. Featuring all new songs including Twelve Days Prior to Christmas, Santa Ain't Comin' to Our House, We Three Kings of Orient Are Us and It's Better to Give than to Receive, this show is filled with typical NUNSENSE humor, some of your favorite carols, and a “Secret Santa” audience participation. We're certain this NUNSENSE Christmas Show will make you laugh, and maybe tug at your heartstrings. It's the perfect way to ensure that your holiday season is merry and bright!" Performances take place in the St. Peters Cultural Arts Centre at 1 St Peters Centre Blvd, St. Peters, MO 63376. For more information: act2theater.com.

Kirkwood Theatre Guild presents comedy Steel Magnolias through November 13. "The celebrated Southern classic of family and friendship, this is the story of a group of strong and beautiful women who cluster around Truvy's Beauty Parlow in a small Louisiana parish. The story centers on Shelby, who moves fro wedding to childbirth to medical complications with a love of live and a willingness to face its possibilities bravely with support from steely southern sisterhood." Performances take place in the Robert G. Reim Theatre of the Kirkwood Community Center, 111 South Geyer Road. For more information, call 314-821-9956 or visit ktg-onstage.org.

Mara Bollini

The Emerald Room at the Monocle and The Presenters Dolan present singer Mara Bollini in Taking Chances on Friday, November 11, at 7 p.m. "A native of St. Louis, Mara Bollini has had the privilege of singing and dancing her way across stages throughout the area for decades. “Taking Chances,” Bollini's new cabaret show, is an artistically crafted journey blending music from across the ages as well as musical genres. Carol Schmidt is pianist and music director for the show, which is directed by Tim Schall." The performance takes place in the Emerald Room at The Monocle, 4510 Manchester in the Grove neighborhood. For more information: themonoclestl.com.

The Theatre Guild of Webster Groves presents the thriller Wait Until Dark Friday through Sunday, November 11 - 13. "A sinister con man, Roat, and two ex-convicts, Mike and Carlino, are about to meet their match. They have traced the location of a mysterious doll, which they are much interested in, to the Greenwich Village apartment of Sam Hendrix and his blind wife, Susy." Performances take place in the Guild theatre at Newport and Summit in Webster Groves, MO. For more information: theatreguildwg.org or call 314-962-0876.

St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley presents the drama The Woolgatherer through November 12. Performances take place in the Fisher Theatre on the campus at 3400 Pershall Road. For more information, www.stlcc.edu/fv or call 314-644-5522.

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.

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.

Review: Everything old is new again with Jun Märkl and the St. Louis Symphony

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

Jun Märkl
Photo: Michiharu Okubo

Share on Google+:

As the St. Louis Symphony concerts this past weekend (October 28 and 29, 2016) demonstrated, the familiar can still feel fresh and new, especially in the hands of inventive and skilled performers like conductor Jun Märkl and pianist Jeremy Denk.

The concerts opened with a work which, while probably familiar to many classical music overs, was nevertheless new to the Powell Hall stage: Liszt's symphonic poem Prometheus. Originally written as the overture for Johann Gottfried Herder's play Prometheus Unbound in 1850 and then reworked five years later as a concise orchestral essay, the piece was inspired by the Greek myth of the god who gave humanity the secret of fire and was horribly punished for it.

For Liszt, it was a story of suffering and glorious redemption-a theme that runs thorough many of Liszt's baker's dozen of symphonic poems (most famously in Les Preludes from 1854). In Prometheus the struggle plays out in an elaborate fugue, culminating in a short but triumphant coda. It's all a bit episodic, but Mr. Märkl gave it a sense of discipline that was very persuasive, and the orchestra responded beautifully. The brass section sounded especially polished when we attended on Saturday night.

Next up was Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, the tenth of a set of twelve remarkable concerti the composer premiered in Vienna between 1784 and 1786. It's a work filled with many surprising touches, including a first movement cadenza that anticipates the harmonic developments of the Romantic era and an elegiac Adagio second movement that hints at tragic depths without actually plumbing them.

In a 2013 interview for San Francisco Classical Voice, soloist Jeremy Denk observed that "a very important part of playing a Mozart concerto is the wonder of each moment." His impressively nuanced and sensitive performance certainly made the most of the work's many innovative moments while never losing sight of the concerto's structure overall. And, like last week's soloist, Orli Shaham, Mr. Denk was always fully engaged with both the both the music and with Mr. Märkl's equally thoughtful interpretation.

Jeremy Denk

His encore, the Andante second movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16, showed that same intense concentration. It's not a technically challenging piece-Mozart himself described the sonata as being "for beginners"—but Mr. Denk found real depth in it nevertheless.

The concert concluded with Arnold Schoenberg's remarkable 1937 orchestration of Brahms's 1961 Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor. Dark, dramatic, and arresting in its original form, this music becomes, in Schoenberg's radical re-imagining, a stunning symphonic essay that sounds both old and new simultaneously.

Schoenberg uses a large orchestra with instruments that Brahms would never have employed, such as the bass clarinet and a sizeable percussion battery including a xylophone, resulting in a somewhat schizophrenic feel at times. The string quartet peeks out of this great mass of sound occasionally-mostly notably in the Rondo alla zingarese ("in the Gypsy style") final movement, which also included a nice solo by concertmaster David Halen-but for the most part this is music of Wagnerian intensity. Conducting without a score, Mr. Märkl brought out all of this work's wild variety, including the drama of the first movement, the agitation of the second, and the good-humored excess of the finale.

In an interview in the program book, SLSO bassist Sarah Hogan Kaiser says that Mr. Märkl is a favorite conductor with the musicians because "he has a way of expressing his love of music through his conducting in a very sincere and humble way. Everything he does makes the music better, it's not about anything except the music." I certainly heard that dedication to score Saturday night and the symphony musicians responded with virtuoso performances all the way around.

Next at Powell Hall: Han-Na Chang conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Jan Mrácek in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., November 4 and 5.

Review: A sparkling "Merry Widow" at Winter Opera

Kathy Pyeatt and the ensemble

Share on Google+:

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

As the first catalogs of Christmas made their way to our recycle bin last, Winter Opera opened an early Christmas present for opera lovers last weekend (October 28 and 30, 2016) with a production of Franz Lehár's durable 1905 comic operetta The Merry Widow. As bubbly as champagne and as bright as a Christmas tree, this charming and entertaining show was one of the company's best.

Holly Janz and Jack Swanson

If you've never seen it either on stage or in one of its many film incarnations, know that the story of The Merry Widow revolves around Hanna, a youngish widow from the fictional Balkan nation of Pontevedro, who became a millionaire when her much older husband died on their wedding night. Living the high life in Paris, she's actively courted by young men with their eyes on the twenty million franc prize, but she secretly yearns for her first love, Count Danilo, who was forbidden to marry her many years ago by his snobbish family.

Now a minor official in the Pontevedrian embassy trying to drown his torch for Hanna in champagne and grisettes at Maxim's, Danilo is ordered by the ambassador, Baron Zeta, to woo Hanna and marry her, thereby keeping her millions from leaving the country. But, of course, Danilo's pride won't let him say those "three little words" to Hanna.

You know where this is all going, right?

There's also a subplot concerning Zeta's young wife Valencienne and her brief fling with a young Frenchman, Camille de Rosillon, as well as a recurring gag about the obsession of the embassy attache, Njegus, with the girls at Maxims. Needless to say, all ends happily with a big party.

Kathy Pyeatt and Clark Sturdevant

First and foremost among this production's many virtues is the uniform strength of its cast. Winter Opera has been somewhat uneven in this regard in previous the past, but this time around everyone is simply perfect, beginning with soprano Kathy Pyeatt, who demonstrated how to “glitter and be gay” (or quote a song title from Candide) in the crucial role of Hanna. Her voice was liquid gold all the way to the top of its range, making the popular second act aria “Vilja” a thing of beauty. She's also a fine actress, always in character even when not in focus.

Tenor Clark Sturdevant was a perfect match for Ms. Pyeatt as Danilo. The role lies a bit low for most tenors and is not infrequently sung by a baritone with a solid head voice, but Mr. Sturdevant sounded entirely comfortable with it. He, too, had solid acting chops, which gave the scenes between him and Ms. Pyeatt a convincing reality.

Among the supporting cast, mezzo Holly Janz stood out as Valencienne. The role is written for a soprano but-as both her singing here and a quick glance at her biography demonstrated-Ms. Janz is comfortable with soprano roles as well. Tenor Jack Swanson was an excellent vocal match for her as Rosillon, and their scenes together had real charm.

Baritone Gary Moss was a comically clueless Baron Zeta. I'm not sure why he was the only Pontevedrian with a vaudeville "Balkan" accent, but he certainly made it work for him. Baritone Curtis Shoemake was also a delight as the excessively enthusiastic Njegus.

The chorus is important in Merry Widow, and Chorus Master Nancy Mayo can take pride in how well her forces did their jobs, singling clearly and with impressively precise elocution. It helped that the (uncredited) English translation sounded very natural, often making the English supertitles unnecessary.

Curtis Shoemake and grisettes

Director Dean Anthony clearly has a good eye for what works well on a stage. His blocking always made sense and his pacing was unfailingly right and his choreography did an excellent job of keeping the real dancers front and center in the second act party scene while providing easily executed steps for the non-dancing singers in big ensemble numbers. The minstrel show-style tambourine number for the male principals in "Girls, Girls, Girls" was also an inspired (and well executed) bit of comedy.

Scott Schoonover did his usually fine job conducing the orchestra in a generally very well played reading of Lehár's unforgettable score. There were a few bits of sloppy brass intonation at the very beginning when I saw the show on Sunday, but otherwise the band sounded quite good. I wish Mr. Schoonover hadn't decided to cut the engaging overture, though.

Scott Loebl's sets were nothing short of beautiful, with a wonderful trompe e'loeil backdrop for the Pontevedrian embassy that looked positively three dimensional. JC Krajicek's lavish and colorful costumes added to the overall visual richness of this production.

Ultimately, the worst thing to be said about Winter Opera's Merry Widow is that there were only two performances of it. If Winter Opera is going to continue producing work of this quality, it really needs longer runs. For more information on the current season, including the annual Holidays on the Hill concerts on December 6 and 7, visit the company's web site.

St. Louis classical calendar for the week of November 7, 2016

The Chamber Project St. Louis

Share on Google+:

The Chamber Project St. Louis presents Night Music on Sunday, November 13, at 7 PM. "Night Music: The idea of a lullaby permeates this program featuring the harp, string quartet, flute and clarinet. We will present another Pulitzer prize-winning composer, Caroline Shaw, along with works from Foote and Dohynani and Francaix that evoke the evening." The performance takes place at 1900 Park at 1900 Park Avenue in Lafayette Square. For more information: www.chamberprojectstl.org.

Eliot Unitarian Chapel presents a Friends of Music concert on Sunday, November 13, at 3 PM. The program features Samuel Barber's Excursion Op. 20, no. 3 and Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata in C major, Op. 53 (“Waldstein”). The concert takes place at Eliot Unitarian Chapel is at 100 South Argonne in Kirkwood. For more information: fomcstl.org.

Jen Shyu
Photo: Steven Schreiber

New Music Circle presents Solo Rites: Seven Breaths, written and performed by Jen Shyu, on Friday, November 11, at 7:45 p.m. "Solo Rites: Seven Breaths, performed by Jen Shyu, is a musical drama and portrait of a woman living simultaneously in multiple cultures and “projecting her ancestry” through contemporary monologue - revealing a personal journey of loss and redemption made universal through the exploration of losses and complications of the modern world: loss of tradition, habitat, and public spaces. Sonic, visual, and visceral rites and reflections are discovered by pilgrimage through Taiwan, East Timor, Indonesia, Vietnam, and South Korea. The performance takes place at the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: newmusiccircle.org.

Leonard Slatkin

Leonard Slatkin conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with piano soloist Elizabeth Joy Roe in Barber's Piano Concerto, Copland's Billy the Kid Suite, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess: Symphonic Picture for Orchestra, and Slatkin's own composition Kinah. Performances are Friday at 10:30 a.m., Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m., November 11 - 13, at Powell Hall in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.

The St. Louis Wind Symphony performs its opening concert of the season on Sunday, November 13, at 3 PM. "The second concert of the regular season will be at the Keating Performing Arts Center, Kirkwood H.S., Kirkwood, MO. Our season theme, Festival of Composers, takes the audience to … Places. Bassoonist Dr. Jaqueline Wilson, South East Missouri State University, will be featured soloist - she also will be joined by the bassoonists of the Wind Symphony to form a bassoon quartet!" The performance takes place at Kirkwood High School Keating Theater, 801 West Essex in Kirkwood. For more information: stlwindsym.org.

The Women's Hope Chorale of St. Louis presents Requiem on Sunday, November 13, at 3 p.m. "Matsuura's Requiem is her outpouring of sorrow for those lost in Japan's 2011 earthquake. Evoking Duruflé and Fauré, but spoken from a woman's heart and conveyed through the tender voices of women and children, Requiem crosses cultural and gender-based di_erences to touch every heart." The performance takes place at First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood, 100 E. Adams. For more information: womenshopechorale.org.

Chuck's Choices for the weekend of November 4, 2016

As always, the choices are purely my personal opinion. Take with a grain (or a shaker) of salt.

Share on Google+:

New This Week:

---

Karen Irwin

The Presenters Dolan presents Karen Irwin in Janis, Me, and Bobby McGee: A Janis Joplin Tribute on Friday and Saturday, November 4 and 5, at 8 p.m. as part of the Gaslight Cabaret Festival. "In her magical, stunning tribute to Janis Joplin, Karen Irwin shakes us to the core." The performances take place at the Gaslight Theater, 358 North Boyle. For more information: gaslightcabaretfestival.com.

My take: Ms. Irwin's Joplin tribute has been getting praise from critics for a while now. Broadwayworld.com called her performance at The Cabaret at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis "a perfect 10" while the critic for Nuvo News Weekly descried it as "of the finest "tribute shows" I've witnessed" the previous year. Tribute shows like this can be a risky proposition for a performer, but it looks like Ms. Irwin may have found a good balance here.

---

Manifest / Destiny

The West End Players Guild opens their 106th season with the world premiere of Manifest / Destiny by Vladimir Zelevinsky Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, November 4 - 13. There will also be a show on Thursday, November 10, at 8 PM. "In a year when America's immigration history and policies have been front-and-center in political conversations, Zelevinsky's play is especially timely and insightful. An ensemble cast playing dozens of roles offers poignant vignettes of the love and suffering, bravery and betrayal endured by four centuries-worth of immigrants fleeing the Old World for a chance to reinvent themselves in the new one. " 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: I'm on the board at West End Players as well as the play selection committee, so I'm pretty much pre-sold on this script. When we read it last year, we were all just bowled over by how well-written it was, but I don't think any of us could have anticipated just how relevant it would become in a year when mindless nativism has once again spreads its poison over the land. We have been here before, and more than once. Zelevinsky's play reminds us that we are, in the words of JFK, a nation of immigrants.

---

Mothers and Sons
Photo: Peter Wochniak

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally through November 13. "Time stopped for Katharine the day her son died of AIDS. Twenty years later, she seeks out his former partner, Cal, only to discover that he has a husband and a six-year-old son. As she and Cal explore memories of someone they both loved, Katharine begins a rocky journey toward reconciliation with the side of her son that she never understood." Performances take place in the studio theater at the Loretto-Hlton Center, 130 Edgar Road in Webster Groves, MO. For more information, call 314-968-4925 or visit repstl.org.

My take: Like Until the Flood, the show on the Rep mainstage right now, Mothers and Sons deals with how the untimely death of a young man affects and changes the living. Unlike the characters in Until the Flood the characters in Mothers and Sons are entirely fictional. But they are also clearly inspired by playwright McNally's personal experience as a man of the theatre living through a period that brought both the triumph of marriage equality and the tragedy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It's a powerful show with top-notch performances.

---

Gail Payne

The Emerald Room at the Monocle and The Presenters Dolan present singer Gail Payne in Red, White and Blue Burgoo on Saturday, November 5, at 8 p.m. " Life-long Midwesterner and world traveler, Gail Payne presents a savory and sweet potluck of musical perspectives on the American dream. With a variety of ingredients from the musical gardens of Gershwin and Sondheim to Mellencamp and the Dixie Chicks, Payne cooks up a thought-provoking and entertaining evening that celebrates the complex flavors required for our increasingly nuanced American palate. Alex Rybeck is pianist and music director for the show, which is directed by Broadway star Faith Prince." The performance takes place in the Emerald Room at The Monocle, 4510 Manchester in the Grove neighborhood. For more information: buzzonstage.com/st-louis.

My take: Ms. Payne is a veteran of the St. Louis Cabaret Conference, a week-long intensive training program for musical theatre and cabaret singers. I attended last year and was very taken with her work, both in class and in the final showcase. And the Emerald Room is a very cool venue.

---

Held Over:

---

Until the Flood
Photo: Peter Wochniak

Through November 6, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis presents Until the Flood. Writer, performer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith spent a week in St. Louis interviewing people from every corner of the region about recent social unrest. From these conversations, she has crafted a play that reflects the complexity of St. Louis. Performances take place at the Loretto-Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. For more information: repstl.org.

My take: While some reviews for this remarkable one-woman show have been mixed, I'm including it because it shines theatrical light on issues that have remained too long in the darkness in American in general and here in St. Louis in particular. "Through eight sharply drawn characters and a moving spoken word closing," writes Tina Farmer in a soon-to-be-published review at KDHX, "Orlandersmith challenges easy assumptions while making the case for continued conversation. As an actor, she is thoroughly engaging, with a clear purpose and focused action. Her characters are distinct and teeming with authenticity". Having seen the show myself, I can only add that this is a beautifully written and flawlessly acted show that deals in a surprisingly even-handed m

Symphony Preview: From Russia with love

Conductor Han-Na Chang
Photo: Sheila Rock, EMI Classics

Share on Google+:

It's all Russia all the time at Powell Hall this weekend (November 4 and 5, 2016) as guest conductor Han-Na Chang makes her St. Louis Symphony debut with a program of music by three of the biggest names in Russian music of the 19th and early 20th centuries: Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Mikhail Glinka.

OK, Glinka may not have the immediate name recognition of the first two, but in his day (the first half of the 19th century) he was a major force in Russian music. Indeed, as Paul Schiavo writes in his program notes, Glinka "was Russia's first significant composer of opera and concert music and the first to impart a discernibly Russian character to his work. As such, he stood as spiritual father to Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky: all composers who gave Russian music a distinctive identity during the second half of the 19th century." He's widely regarded as the intellectual father of the "Mighty Handful" (a.k.a. the "Russian Five") of composers who were so important in the formation of the Russian nationalist school: Mily Balakirev (whose Islamey was on last week's program), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.

Mikhail Glinka in the 1840s
Portrail by Yanenko

Glinka's music, unfortunately, is rarely heard these days. The most notable exception is the piece that opens this weekend's concerts, the overture from his 1842 fairy tale opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. The opera itself hasn't gotten much traction outside of Russia but the overture is one of those pieces that used to crop up often as "filler" on classical LPs—a function it still serves on classical radio stations today. Its alluring melodies and neat little solo tympani part are irresistible.

Up next is Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, op. 19, composed in 1917 but, because of the Russian revolution, not actually performed until 1923 when Serge Koussevitzky conducted the premiere in Paris. It wasn't particularly well received—Paris audiences were more in the mood for Stravinsky's Octet for Wind Instruments, which premiered at around the same time—but a performance of a piano/violin reduction of the concerto in Moscow a few days later was a hit.

The fact that the violinist was Nathan Milstein and the pianist Vladimir Horowitz might have had something to do with that, of course.

The concerto didn't really begin to get widespread attention, though, until Joseph Szigeti performed it in Prague in 1924. "That incomparable Hungarian artist subsequently carried it all over Europe and America," writes Michael Steinberg in program notes for the San Francisco Symphony, "was the first violinist to play it with orchestra in the Soviet Union, and was politely persistent with English Columbia executives until they allowed him to make the first recording of it with Sir Thomas Beecham in 1935."

Prokofiev in New York, 1918
Photo by Bain News Service

One reason the concerto had trouble finding an immediate audience might have been the fact that it was a significant departure from the sarcastic and savage music that had first brought Prokofiev fame. Coming after wild and wooly works like the ballet The Buffoon and the Scythian Suite (which got such an electrifying performance by the SLSO back in 2012) it's overall lyricism probably felt a bit tame.

That doesn't mean that the work isn't difficult to play, though. The first movement starts out marked sognando (literally "dreaming") with the soloist playing softly over tremolo strings, but the music soon becomes agitated, with virtuoso passages using double stops. The second movement kicks the difficulty up to a whole new level with, as Peter Laki writes in program notes for the National Symphony Orchestra, "a combination of relentless rhythmic ostinatos (repeated figures), spicy harmonies, and a level of technical difficulty bordering on the impossible." And at the end of the final movement, Prokofiev has the soloist playing a chain of trills that moves higher and higher to the very top of the instrument's range, where playing in tune becomes increasingly more difficult.

Taking on the challenge of this music this weekend will be the young Czech violinist Jan Mrácek. Something of a prodigy, Mr. Mrácek began studying the violin at the age of five. In 2010 he was named the youngest laureate of the Prague Spring International Festival competition and in 2011 he became the youngest soloist in the history of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has appeared with orchestras all over the world. Like Ms. Chang, he is also making his first appearance with the SLSO.

The concerts conclude with one of Pete Tchaikovsky's Greatest Hits, the Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, from 1888. Like the symphonies that bracket it, the fifth deals with the composer's obsession with fate and his attempt to find happiness despite the stress of being gay in Czarist Russia. If you need evidence of the pernicious effects of criminalizing sexual orientation, you need look no further than the pain and torment of Tchaikovsky's life.

Tchaikovsky portrait by Nikolai Kuznetsov

Somewhat surprisingly (in light of its enduring popularity), Tchaikovsky began the symphony at a time when he thought he might be played out. "Have I written myself out?" he asked in an April 1888 letter to his brother Modest. "No ideas? No inclination? Still, I am hoping to collect materials for a symphony." He continued to question himself after the lukewarm critical reception of the piece at its November 17th, 1888, premiere in St. Petersburg (due, in part, to the composer's poor performance as a conductor). Audiences and musicians, however loved it—not only in St. Petersburg but later in Prague and Hamburg as well. Time, in any event, would vindicate him (if not necessarily during his lifetime).

"There's a monumental, an epic quality to this symphony," observed symphony Principal Horn Roger Kaza in the program notes for the SLSO's last performance of this piece in 2014, "as with all of Tchaikovsky's late symphonies, although I find this one less tragic and fatalistic than the Fourth or Sixth. The Fifth is more exuberant throughout, and it contains absolutely brilliant strokes of genius." In an essay for the 1966 Penguin collection The Symphony, the Austrian-born British music writer Hans Keller goes so far as to suggest that the Fifth "may be the most consistently outstanding" of all Tchaikovsky's symphonies in the way that the orchestration "offers original sounds at every change of texture. If this is not generally recognized, it is only because all these sonorities seem as natural and necessary as the hills."

The essentials: Han-Na Chang conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with violin soloist Jan Mrácek in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., November 4 and 5, at Powell Hall in Grand Center. The Saturday concert will be broadcast live on St. Louis Public Radio. For more information: stlsymphony.org.