STL Symphony Blog

May Migrations

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:07:33 -0600

Mid-May means that Circus Flora moves into the Grand Center Parking Lot directly east of Powell Hall, which means part of the Symphony week has been spent watching the big top go up and up. I checked on the progress today and supply a visual report.

Ground-level view

To Make You Want More

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:26:52 -0600

I'm very grateful to our friends at St. Louis Public Radio for giving me the opportunity to interview many of the artists who pass through here each week, as well as the artists who make up the St. Louis Symphony. And my greatest thanks goes to KWMU's Mary Edwards, who spends many hours making these interviews so listenable. She has put together my complete interviews with Hans Graf and Stephen Hough, as well as Robert Peterson's live interviews with Fred Bronstein and Peter Oundjian, as a kind of end-of-the-season package. Click

Let's do it again!

Mom's Pick

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:53:32 -0600

From the hard charge of Led Zeppelin's songs to the subtle seductions of Sinatra songs, the orchestra asked the weekend's musical question: "Suit or sweat?" Which did you choose? Or, which did Mom choose?

Classical or Metal

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:42:35 -0600

Following Music of Led Zeppelin rehearsal, I asked flutist Jennifer Nitchman about where playing the flute part to this material ranks in her career.

Today's Jeopardy Answer

Thu, 10 May 2012 19:59:37 -0600

"St. Louis has the second-oldest one of these behind the New York Philharmonic."

And the teen responded with the correct question.

Oye

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:03:31 -0600

Music has power. A boisterous audience of St. Louis schoolchildren turned into a subdued, quiet and thoughtful audience as Dvořák's famed "Going Home" melody from the "From the New World" Symphony was played by the St. Louis Symphony.

Grand Funk

Mon, 07 May 2012 20:47:26 -0600

Whoever has been spreading the rumor that the Symphony is in the process of gaining the rights to Grand Funk Railroad's classic rock hit "We're an American Band" to use as a promotional theme across Europe needs to stop. "We're coming to your town/ We're gonna party down" is not the image the St. Louis Symphony wishes to project in London, Lucerne, Berlin or Paris. Nor, for that matter, in Davis, Santa Barbara, Costa Mesa or Palm Desert on the California tour in 2013.

Thank you.

Call for Procrastinators

Fri, 04 May 2012 13:00:34 -0600

If you are, or know someone who is, a talented young musician who would like to take a shot at auditioning for the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, this is the last weekend to get in an application, which is due on Monday, May 7. All you need to know is here.

So Many Notes

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:18:16 -0600

It is one thing to perform two of Rachmaninoff's piano concertos over a single three-concert weekend, it's another thing to rehearse them both--the First and Third--on the same afternoon.

B5

Wed, 02 May 2012 14:33:26 -0600

A staff member spoke as the orchestra rehearsed a very familiar symphony, the music pouring through the office speakers: "Beethoven Five sounds really good today."

RadioLand

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:19:43 -0600

I recently put up some photos of the work-in-progress that is the new building for St. Louis Public Radio, 90.7, KWMU, our partners in delivering the Saturday night Symphony live broadcasts on the radio dial and online. But that's not the only new construction in the growing Grand Center RadioLand.

Rach Rules

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:33:48 -0600

I've run the interview trifecta with guest pianist Stephen Hough: phoner to London for Playbill, taped interview at Powell for radio broadcasts, and then live for a group of subscribers following Sunday's performance of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2. Hough is delightful, smart and witty and engaging, and I would be happy to talk with him even more. But I must say my favorite comment from him came when I asked about the over-the-top possibilities of that lush, romantic, emotionally wrought Second Piano Concerto.

Joyous Time

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:32:45 -0600

Rev. Earl Nance has been a friend to the St. Louis Symphony for many years. He is senior pastor at Greater Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, which is one of the founding members of the St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON program, which began in the mid-90s to build relationships between the Symphony and the African-American churches that are our neighors at Powell Hall.

Vroom

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:22:35 -0600

As the Friday morning all-Russian concert was humming along, I thought of something Hans Graf told me the other day: "With this orchestra, all that is needed is fine tuning."

2, 3, 1

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:19:44 -0600

It's always good to see one of our St. Louis Symphony Playbill articles picked for playbillarts.com, and especially when it is at the top of the homepage, as it was Thursday morning with my article on marathon concerto performances, in which I interviewed percussionist Colin Currie and the Symphony's Rach Fest star of the next two weeks, Stephen Hough. To read: click.