January 2012 Archives

The complete interviews with last week's guest artists, conductor Christopher Warren-Green and pianist Arnaldo Cohen, are available at St. Louis Public Radio's "Symphony Encore" link. Warren-Green was interviewed in our palatial seventh-floor broadcast suite (aka staff lunchroom) right after a day of rehearsals. Cohen's interview was part of the live broadcast, at intermission right after his bold performance of Liszt's First Piano Concerto. Click.

Monday morning there were auditions for contrabassoon. I figure these were the first such auditions in more than 40 years, as Brad Buckley has been holding that chair admirably for all that time.

Guest conductor Christopher Warren-Green and I had a brief and jolly sparring match about monarchy, George III and the colonies this week. So I had to tell him this true story in the conductor's suite before Saturday night's concert:

So when I saw this headline for Sarah Bryan Miller's review online, "Replacements deliver fine program in St. Louis Symphony concert," I thought,"The Replacements played with the Symphony! How did I miss that?" But, of course, the reference is to guest conductor Christopher Warren-Green and pianist Arnaldo Cohen, who took the weekend engagement on short notice when the previously scheduled guest artists were unable to make it.

But I can still dream of The Replacements and the St. Louis Symphony, can't I?

If there has been a theme over the last couple of days--and in the whirlwind world of working for a symphony orchestra, those are hard to find--it has been timing.

Orchestral musicians read a new conductor in the first few minutes of rehearsal, which sounds unnerving if you imagine yourself a new conductor. I asked guest conductor Christopher Warren-Green about this, who not only took this weekend's engagement very last minute, but got on stage a bit bedraggled from a late flight. What do you try to convey in those first few minutes?

This is not uncommon. Your flight is delayed. You call ahead to let those at your destination know that you're running behind schedule. You're in flight. You're near your destination. You see the same landmarks repeat themselves again and again and again. You can't call and you're later than late. Finally, you land. Everything seems to move more slowly than before. Get this plane to the gate! Delay. Delay. Delay. Bags. Everyone in front of you moves brontosaurily. You call. They're waiting. You're car is waiting. Twenty minutes and you're there. Late, but you're there. And everyone has been waiting for you and waiting for you to begin.

One of the cliches I hate is: Words cannot describe.

Rehearsals are sometimes like baseball: a lot of waiting, and then a lot of everything happening at once.

In each issue of Playbill I write an article for our "More than Music" page, which tells a story about the Symphony's Education and Community Programs. In the current issue I write about a Symphony trombone quartet that appeared at St. Agnes Home in Kirkwood over the holidays. Such concerts are part of the SymphonyCares program. To help your Symphony help your community, please vote for SymphonyCares in the St. Louis Grown Contest: http://www.monsanto.com/stlouis/Pages/grow-STL-contest-voting-form.aspx?v=131

Thank you. And here's the article:

Stockhausen is just the sort of name you want to write in all caps. It's like a directive: STOCKHAUSEN! THIS INSTANT! And with his first name, Karlheinz, what was he going to be other than a composer? But just a name doesn't make you one of the most inventive and intriguing composers of the 20th century, influencing a whole range of musical artists, including, as you probably know, the Beatles, who put his face among the iconic crowd that stands before the mock grave on the Sgt. Pepper album.

I know many people who watch sports on television while listening to the radio coverage because they may not like, or are downright annoyed, by the television commentators. Perhaps the most "watched" radio team of all time was Jack Buck and Hank Stram, who talked Monday Night Football while all sorts of madness ensued in the television booth in the days of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford.

I've already given you a couple of things to do over the long weekend: a Saturday night concert of Dvorak, George Crumb, and Strauss' Four Last Songs sung by Christine Brewer--for an audio definition of "phenomenal" you should be able to hear Brewer's voice--AND many exciting young voices singing Mozart's The Magic Flute for the Sunday afternoon Family Concert.

Saturday night the St. Louis Symphony pays honor to the memory of Richard Holmes, Principal Timpani of the orchestra for more than 40 years, who passed away in June of 2011. I've written much about Richard on the blog and in Playbill--there is a feature on him this month. He greatly loved this Symphony, and that love is still being returned, as it will be Saturday night.

Richard Holmes

Like so many in the region on Thursday morning, the musicians and staff of the St. Louis Symphony had some trouble getting to work. The first story I heard was from one of the stagehands, who said his 35 minute drive in from Alton, Illinois turned into 80 minutes, narrowly missing a truck spinning 360 degrees that would have made it much more than that. Later in the day I was hearing of three-hour commutes, with most of that time spent on highways that looked and felt more like parking lots. All this on one inch of snow. Go figure. 

Wednesday afternoon I was in a meeting with members of the department to which I proudly belong, External Affairs, or XAff as it will heretofore be referred to in the blog, and the voice came over the office speaker. "That's her," Adam Crane said. And the rest of us said, "Mmmmhmmm." Christine Brewer rehearsing Strauss' Four Last Songs with the orchestra. A friend of mine, who knows these things very well, once said that this is one of the few works that often sounds better on recording, because it calls for such vocal subtlety that few singers can perform it appropriately in a concert hall. I think he's right. I can maybe count on one hand how many singers can make it real live. Brewer is one of them.

You know I've never asked you for much. But just last week the St. Louis Symphony got the good news that the SymphonyCares was accepted as one of the programs that may receive money through the Monsanto Grow St. Louis contest.

A couple of guys standing over a deep hole. Main sewer line is down there somewhere. More digging to be done. Probably backs, hands, arms and shovels labor. What's that concrete beam? That protects all the computer lines. Don't break that. If we do, you all go home.

The first day at Powell Hall for 2012! Guys in Bobcats are digging up old sewer line in our alley. Four Last Songs feels far away.