November 2010 Archives

St. Louis turned cold today, so as if on cue the orchestra rehearsed holiday music for an upcoming run-out concert in Columbia, MO, December 8.

Our neighbors that reside in the exceptional early 21st-century building that is the home of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts--which stands in striking contrast to our exceptional early 20th-century building--have invited members of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus to engage with the current exhibition, Ann Hamilton's stylus. If you haven't visited stylus as yet, Thursday night will be an exceptional night to do it. stylus is an exhibition that lives according to how audiences participate, activate, and interact with it. Rather than try to imagine what this means, or for that matter, try to imagine how Symphony Chorus voices may become part of the exhibition, stop in and become part of it yourself, 6-9pm, Thursday, December 2. Click.

Blog gone until after the holiday weekend. I wish everyone a joyous Thanksgiving. And if you don't know what to do with all the relations in town, Leonard Slatkin conducting Prokofiev 5 with the St. Louis Symphony is like a homecoming celebration. All the relations will thank you for the experience.

Back again on Monday, November 29.

One of the marvelous things that Bloggers' Night shows is how the concert experience may resonate many days after the last note has hummed in the ear.

Do You Really Want To Hurt Me describes Bloggers' Night as a mini nerdfest (Click) and our Pulitzer neighbor Amy tells everyone that you've got to go to an STL Symphony show. Click.

I was not at the performance of Alexander Nevsky at Powell Friday night, but I did see a chorus member at the Majestic Saturday morning. (For you out-of-towners, the Majestic is a diner that has maintained its integrity through decades of fashion upheavals in the district known as the Central West End.)

David Robertson was gracious enough to invite me onto the stage where I got a back-row first-violins view of Alexander Nevsky rehearsal. Early in the clip you may get a glimpse of a mane of blond hair near the conductor's podium, which belongs to the astonishing mezzo-soprano Elena Manistina. You'll get some small idea of just how astonishing she is near the close of the segment, when I move out into the auditorium. St. Louis Symphony Chorus director Amy Kaiser told me she was very excited about Manistina singing Prokofiev this week--a true Russian mezzo who has sung many of the great roles of Russian opera.

Ceci of Washington University's KWUR was able to embrace Scheherazade at Saturday's Bloggers' Night. Click.

Urban Hoedown reports on Bloggers' Night, tells you one of the local bus routes, and has her eyes opened.

The poet Kenneth Koch once defined a haiku as a poem with a frog in it. Jen's haiku review of Saturday night does not include a frog, or anything acting or sounding froggily, but it does reference the Pixies! Click.

Dear Dominik gives an appreciation of the very proper St. Louis Symphony. Click.

Here is what Patrick made out of the collection of notes you read in the previous post. Click.

And hey, listen up you Bloggers' Night bloggers, hit the keyboard! Let's see some more posts.

Patrick gives us a blog post in progress. He begins by providing his notes, and will follow with those notes fleshed out soon. Read the first installment of Patrick's Music Reviews. 

Our fifth Bloggers' Night is Friday, and a great show it's going to be. Keep an eye on this blog to see the guest blog posts coming in.

On this week's video blog Principal Percussion Will James told us that he'd never played Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade in concert before, which is remarkable considering the popularity of R-K's telling of A Thousand and One Nights. But Will was totally confident since Scheherazade includes percussion parts that percussion players cut their teeth on. I don't know if it's as common an audition piece as "Ride of the Valkyries" and Bolero is for trombonists, but it's up there.

In this week's video blog I speak with Principal Percussion Will James, because I learned that he has never played Scheherazade before. As you'll see and hear, he's not having any trouble holding his own.

You'll also see some great David Robertson moves on the podium during the rehearsal footage.

Following an exacting Scheherazade rehearsal, Concertmaster David Halen taped an interview to be played during the Saturday night live broadcast on St. Louis Public Radio. Halen plays the voice of Scheherazade, the solo violin that weaves sinuously, seductively, desperately through the piece.

A good night for TV. The good folks at Channel 9/KETC-PBS, were on hand to capture rehearsal and concert footage of the Forest Park Concert in September. Tune in or set your recorder to Living St. Louis, tonight, Monday, November 8 at 7pm. There will be more St. Louis Symphony features on Living St. Louis this season.

Hannu Lintu is a tall, long- and loose-limbed conductor who bounces on his toes during the jauntier passages. Jim Carrey could play him in the movie. Lintu is an advocate for Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss, which isn't performed all that often, and it has become a signature work for the Finnish conductor.

Following rehearsal of the Brahms D minor Concerto Wednesday afternoon, guest soloist Emanuel Ax and a number of STL Symphony musicians lingered on the stage for quite a while. "Manny," as he's called by those who know him, has played with this orchestra many times, and the warmth of feeling between guest artist and St. Louis musicians is palpable. There was an ease and good humor to the gathering. "Mutual admiration" is a cliché, except when you take in its presence, the sweet camaraderie.

In the video blog I ask Principal Horn Roger Kaza why there are so many amazing musicians, composers and conductors coming out of Finland, such as this week's guest conductor, Hannu Lintu.

I hope you all noticed this at the Psycho performance last weekend: Beethoven Symphony No. 3, "Eroica."

Also, Hitchcock was the man standing outside the bank in the big hat when Marion returned to work from her tryst.

The phrase on a button pinned to the Stage Manager's office door: Use your backstage voice.