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Classical
1.
Symphony Review: The SLSO says 'bon voyage' with an evening of orchestral showpieces
It was a veritable love fest at Powell Hall last Thursday, March 16th. Stéphane Denève professed his love for pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Ólafsson declared his love for the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony ...
Created on 20 March 2023
Classical
2.
Symphony Preview: The Grand Tour
Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra are off on their annual European concert tour on March 21st. But before they leave, they’re offering a one night only “bon voyage” concert ...
Created on 15 March 2023
Classical
3.
Symphony Review: McGegan conducts a pair of dramatic hits at Powell Hall
As our little group approached Powell Hall Friday night (March 10th), a tour bus pulled up with what appeared to be a group of students who were there to take in a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert. ...
Created on 14 March 2023
Classical
4.
Symphony Preview: All Goethe, all the time
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was, as the late Philip Weller notes in the Grove Dictionary of Music, “[O]ne of the most important literary and cultural figures of his age…recognized during his ...
Created on 08 March 2023
Theatre Reviews
5.
The sands of time have not been kind to 'The Desert Song'
The 1926 operetta “The Desert Song,” with music by Sigmund Romberg and a libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, and Frank Mandel, was an unqualified hit on Broadway (471 performances) and in London ...
Created on 04 March 2023
Classical
6.
Symphony Preview: The three ages of man
This weekend, March 3 and 4, Stephanie Childress conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra  in a program of music from three different centuries written by composers at three very different stages of their ...
Created on 02 March 2023
Classical
7.
Symphony Review: Violinist Tesssa Lark comes out on top in soloist reshuffle
... of them and, judging from the response, so did the audience. Tessa Lark and Stéphane Denève Photo: Chuck Lavazzi Although Debussy never spent more than a few hours in Spain, he ...
Created on 22 February 2023
Classical
8.
Symphony Preview: French connections
“O Fortuna / velut luna / statu variabilis / semper crescis / aut decrescis” (O Fortune, / like the moon / you are changeable, / ever waxing / ever waning”). Thus opens Carl Orff’s popular “Carmina Burana,” ...
Created on 16 February 2023
Classical
9.
Symphony Preview: Darkest before the dawn
“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,” wrote Robert Burns back in 1785, “Gang aft agley.” Today I might add “and of symphony orchestras as well.” [Preview the music with my Spotify playlist.] This ...
Created on 10 February 2023
Cabaret
10.
Review: Liz Callaway and Alex Rybeck celebrate Sondheim at the Blue Strawberry
...  If I can love you, I'll pay the dirt no heed! With your love, what more do I need? Liz Callaway and Jeff Wright Photo: Chuck Lavazzi There are many more choice moments in thi ...
Created on 07 February 2023
Classical
11.
Symphony Review: Travels through time and space with the SLSO
Location, location, location. It’s the real-estate agent’s mantra. And also, as it happens, a possible theme for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday night (January 28th). [Find out ...
Created on 31 January 2023
Theatre Reviews
12.
'Six' at the Fabulous Fox remixes history as her story
When Mel Brooks made his now famous comedy “The Producers” back in 1967, the central plot device of a musical comedy based on the life of Hitler was sufficiently absurd to be a joke all by itself.  Since ...
Created on 29 January 2023
Classical
13.
Symphony Preview: Very, very old school
I’ve been listening to a lot of Great Courses audio lectures these days on world history and archeology. It’s an enlightening and humbling experience. It’s also one I highly recommend for anyone who thinks ...
Created on 26 January 2023
Theatre Reviews
14.
Opera Review: A smartly staged 'Macbeth' at Winter Opera
“Verdi adored Shakespeare,” writes Garry Wills in his invaluable “Verdi’s Shakespeare: Men of the Theater,” and goes on to note that the composer briefly considered operatic treatments of “The Tempest,” ...
Created on 24 January 2023
Classical
15.
Opera Preview: Something wicked this way comes
Friday and Sunday, January 20 and 22, Winter Opera St. Louis presents Verdi's first Shakespearean opera "Macbeth." Premiered in 1847, it was revised in 1865 for a Paris production. This is the version ...
Created on 20 January 2023
Classical
16.
Symphony Preview: Stormy weather
Sturm und drang (usually translated as "storm and stress") was an early Romantic (late 18th century) movement in German literature and music that emphasized drama and conflict. Both Haydn and Mozart wrote ...
Created on 19 January 2023
Classical
17.
Symphony Review: A romp through Ravel's candy store by Ott and Măcelaru at the SLSO
The year 1908 marked an important milestone in cinema history—the composition of the first-ever original film score. The film in question was the French historical drama “L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise” ...
Created on 17 January 2023
Classical
18.
Symphony Preview: Keeping the faith
Saturday, January 14, at Powell Hall, guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru takes the podium as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra plays a program featuring the local premiere of a piece by Camille Saint-Saëns ...
Created on 10 January 2023
Classical
19.
Symphony Review: Childress scores a palpable hit with her first New Year's Eve concert
Every Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra goes through at least two rites of passage. The first and most obvious is their first regular season concert with the band. The second is the ...
Created on 03 January 2023
Classical
20.
Symphony Review: Elegant Mozart with Dame Jane Glover and the SLSO
Musicologist Theodore E. Heger (1939–1977), has described Mozart’s five symphonies as “among the great masterpieces of symphonic literature.” The validity of that assessment was apparent from the performances ...
Created on 13 December 2022
Classical
21.
Symphony Preview: More notes, Mozart!
History tells us that Handel’s “Messiah,” which the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed last weekend (December 2–4), was written in only 24 days. This weekend (December 9–11), Dame Jane Glover ...
Created on 08 December 2022
Classical
22.
Symphony Review: Laurence Cummings' powerful 'Messiah' walks in darkness
'Tis the season for Handel's "Messiah." This past weekend (December 2-4), Laurence Cummings conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (under guest choral director Patrick Dupré Quigley) in ...
Created on 07 December 2022
Classical
23.
Symphony Preview: The 'Messiah' Mysteries
This weekend (December 2-4) British conductor and Baroque-era specialist Laurence Cumings leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Handel's popular 1742 oratorio "Messiah." In doing so at what ...
Created on 29 November 2022
Classical
24.
Symphony Review: A dynamic double debut for Thanksgiving weekend at the SLSO
It was a double debut this past weekend (Saturday and Sunday, November 26 and 27) as both conductor Xian Zhang and pianist George Li made their first appearances with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. ...
Created on 29 November 2022
Classical
25.
Symphony Preview: Thanksgiving treats
If you’re looking for something to be thankful for this weekend, look no farther than Powell Hall, where conductor Xian Zhang and pianist George Li  make their debuts with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 24 November 2022
Classical
26.
Symphony Review: To infinity and beyond with the SLSO
“To infinity and beyond!” With that wry nod to Buzz Lightyear, Music Director Stéphane Denève launched a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert last Friday night (November 18th) inspired by what Pythagoras ...
Created on 21 November 2022
Theatre Reviews
27.
Opera Review: Puccini's 'Sparrow' takes flight at Winter Opera
This weekend (Friday and Sunday, November 18 and 20) Winter Opera kicks off their season with a stylish “La Rondine” (“The Sparrow”), a Puccini work that hasn’t been seen locally since 2015. Giuseppe Adami's ...
Created on 18 November 2022
Classical
28.
Symphony Preview: Starry, starry night
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Stéphane Denève will conduct this weekend (November 18-20) will consist of music inspired by something that has fascinated human beings for, I imagine, as long ...
Created on 17 November 2022
Classical
29.
Symphony Review: John Storgårds's Beethoven Fourth warms up a chilly program
It was pleasantly warm inside Powell Hall Saturday night as John Storgårds led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and violinist Leila Josefowicz in a program of works by Sibelius, Helen Grime, and Beethoven. ...
Created on 15 November 2022
Classical
30.
Symphony Preview: A light in the darkness (over at the Lichnowsky Place)
Now that we have set our clocks back and the shades of night, to paraphrase Longfellow a bit, are falling faster, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is getting into the spirit with concerts in which musical ...
Created on 09 November 2022
Classical
31.
Symphony Review: Flash and finesse in an all-Russian program with Hough and Søndergård
Watching pianist Sir Stephen Hough and conductor Thomas Søndergård give us their nuanced and balletic take on Tchaikovsky’s venerable Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 01 November 2022
Classical
32.
Symphony Preview: From Russia, with love
The Russian government may be stinking up the place right now, but that’s no reason not to appreciate the all-Russian program Thomas Søndergård will conduct in his debut. Sir Stephen Hough will be the ...
Created on 27 October 2022
Classical
33.
Symphony Review: Music of love and sacrifice with the St. Louis Symphony and Chorus
In his comments from the podium at the start of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert on October 21, Music Director Stéphane Denève identified the non-musical theme of the evening as “love, dedication, ...
Created on 25 October 2022
Classical
34.
Symphony Preview: Acts of sacrifice
In a March 2020 interview with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève about the upcoming season (a.k.a. The Season That Never Was thanks to the pandemic) we talked about the number ...
Created on 20 October 2022
Classical
35.
Symphony Review: Big band and bigger emotions in works by Rachmaninoff and Corigliano at the SLSO
You’d think that a pair of works that had their genesis in depression and loss might make for a glum St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) program. But, as the concerts this past weekend (October 15 and ...
Created on 18 October 2022
Classical
36.
Symphony Preview: Well crafted
This weekend (Friday through Sunday, October 14-16) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra offers two separate and very different concerts. Friday night at 6:30 Norman Huynh conducts the orchestra and singer/songwriter ...
Created on 14 October 2022
Classical
37.
Symphony Preview: Hazy shades of winter
In the sky was Bellatrix Between Betelgeuse and Rigel fixed. With Kappa standing to the right Orion walks the winter night. – “Orion,” The New Golden Rocket (1991) [Preview the music with my commercial-free ...
Created on 05 October 2022
Classical
38.
Symphony Review: The SLSO and The Muny join for a Sondheim Celebration
In a 2008 New York Times interview, the late Stephen Sondheim was asked what he’d like his legacy to be. His answer: “I would just like the shows to keep getting done. Whether on Broadway or in regional ...
Created on 03 October 2022
Classical
39.
Symphony Preview: Les feuilles mortes
We’re only a week past the autumnal equinox and over a month away from the dreaded end of daylight saving time but, at least here in St. Louis, it’s finally beginning to feel like fall. Temperatures are ...
Created on 29 September 2022
Theatre Reviews
40.
You'll do anything to hear them sing: 'Ain't Too Proud' at the Fox
“Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations” arrives at The Fabulous Fox trailing clouds of glory—or at least clouds of hype. That cloud includes a dozen Tony Awards, a “Critic’s Pick” listing ...
Created on 25 September 2022
Classical
41.
Symphony Review: Nathalie Joachim's 'Fanm d'Ayiti' highlights the SLSOs season opener
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève began the second of the opening pair of concerts of the 2022/23 season on Sunday, September 18, with a hearty “bonjour,” as he usually does (“bon ...
Created on 21 September 2022
Classical
42.
Symphony Preview: The SLSO season opens with some colorful musical postcards
“Travel,” wrote Mark Twain in “Innocents Abroad,” “is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” Based on what many of our people seem ...
Created on 15 September 2022
Theatre Reviews
43.
Union Avenue Opera's 'Falstaff' finds musical perfection in an imperfect space
Now in its 28th season, Union Avenue Opera has, over the decades, presented a wide range of operas—ancient to modern, intimate to grand—with a remarkable degree of success. Despite working with a small ...
Created on 05 August 2022
Theatre Reviews
44.
Out of the closet and on to the stage: Opera Theatre re-imagines 'Harvey Milk'
To quote Walt Kelly’s Howland Owl paraphrasing Kipling, “the tumult and shouting has died.” After being postponed for two years due to the pandemic the third and leanest version of Stewart Wallace and ...
Created on 22 June 2022
Theatre Reviews
45.
Perchance to dream: Opera Theatre's 'Awakenings' puts a human face on a mysterious pandemic
Through June 24th, Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents the world premiere of “Awakenings,” based on the book of the same name by Oliver Sacks. With music by Tobias Picker and a libretto by Picker’s husband, ...
Created on 10 June 2022
Theatre Reviews
46.
Could it be magic? Opera Theatre's 'Magic Flute' pushes the envelope but keeps the enchantment
Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) has had a long and mostly happy history with Mozart’s final opera “The Magic Flute.”  The current production, which runs through June 26th, is the fifth in the company’s ...
Created on 06 June 2022
Classical
47.
Symphony Digital Review: Sunshine and shadow in a pair of quintets by SLSO musicians
Available for on-demand streaming through August 31st, the fifth of five videos in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s digital series presents two quintets by Prokofiev and Mozart. The pair are a study ...
Created on 02 June 2022
Theatre Reviews
48.
Opera Review: 'Carmen' through the looking-glass at Opera Theatre
On May 21st, Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) opened their 47th season with a polished if occasionally odd production of Bizet’s 1875 tragedy "Carmen." It’s the company’s fourth production of a work that, ...
Created on 25 May 2022
Classical
49.
Digital Symphony Review: SLSO members delight in a concert of musical recycling
Available for on-demand streaming through August 31st, the fourth of five videos in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s digital series consists of performances recorded in an audience-free Powell Hall last ...
Created on 12 May 2022
Classical
50.
Symphony Preview: Looking out for No. 1
[UPDATE: Per a press release from the SLSO these concerts have been cancelled due to positive COVID-19 diagnoses in the orchestra.] When I saw that the composer of the opening work on the St. Louis Symphony ...
Created on 05 May 2022
Tags
51.
<span class="highlight">Chuck</span> <span class="highlight">Lavazzi</span>&#160;...
Chuck Lavazzi ...
Created on 18 May 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
52.
'Anastasia' at the Fox is a fine romance
"Anastasia," the 2016 stage adaptation of the 1997 animated musical film that's playing the Fox through January 6th, has imposing credentials. With music by the talented team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn ...
Created on 28 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
53.
'Disney in Concert: Tale as Old as Time' is an entertainment powerhouse at Powell Hall
For some time now, the last weekend in December has been the time for the St. Louis Symphony to present a family-friendly concert--often with a cinematic theme--designed to pull in big audiences and contribute ...
Created on 03 January 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
54.
'E.T' in concert shows its age, and that’s a good thing
  Steven Spielberg's blockbuster E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a live concert version of which is on view at Powell Hall this weekend, is 34 years old now and beginning to show its age -- which is not ...
Created on 10 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
55.
'For me, it starts with a vision': Part 4 of a conversation with Stéphane Denève
... SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève to talk about the new season. Here's the fourth and last installment of that four-part conversation, with minor edits for clarity. CL (Chuck Lavazzi): What othe ...
Created on 31 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
56.
'Genius has no gender': Part 1 of a conversation with Stéphane Denève
...  (Chuck Lavazzi): I was looking through the season press release and the first word that came to my mind was "innovation." The SLSO has certainly been doing innovative and different programming over t ...
Created on 18 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
57.
'Gotta dance!': A strong cast delivers the goods in 'Singin' in the Rain' at The Muny
"Singin' in the Rain," the 1983 stage adaptation of the beloved 1952 movie musical, will probably never make anyone's list of Best Musicals of All Time. But the Muny's production of the 2012 London revival ...
Created on 29 June 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
58.
'Merrie melodies' at the St. Louis Symphony with 'Walt Disney Animation Studios: A Decade in Concert'
It's always nice to have a big, family-friendly event at this time of the year, and this weekend Grand Center played host to a pair of them: the musical "Anastasia" at the Fox and, just up the street at ...
Created on 30 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
59.
'Music is about passion': a chat with SLSO Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève
...  Here's a transcript of our conversation, minus some edits for clarity. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): We've been reading a lot about what will be new next season, but let's talk for a minute about what's not  ...
Created on 10 February 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
60.
'Raiders of the Lost Ark in Concert' shows the ingenuity of John Williams and the skill of the St. Louis Symphony
  John Williams, who turned 86 in February, is probably the best known and most frequently recorded film music composer of the last 100 years. He's certainly one of the most honored, with five Oscars, ...
Created on 19 March 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
61.
'Six' at the Fabulous Fox remixes history as her story
When Mel Brooks made his now famous comedy “The Producers” back in 1967, the central plot device of a musical comedy based on the life of Hitler was sufficiently absurd to be a joke all by itself.  Since ...
Created on 29 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
62.
A solid '1776' celebrates American independence at The Muny
The 1969 American Revolution musical "1776," a splendid production of which is at the Muny through July 3rd, is not so much a traditional Broadway show as it is a play with musical interludes. Fortunately ...
Created on 28 June 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
63.
‘Fun Home’ may be too small for the Fox, but it's got a big heart
  Fun Home, the musical stage adaptation of Alison Bechdel's 2006 "family tragicomic" of the same name, is something of an odd fit for the Fox Theatre, where a national tour of the show is playing through ...
Created on 21 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
64.
Al Franken finds laughs in the lava at The Sheldon
Although generally considered a satirist, Tom Lehrer once dismissed satire as leaving audiences “satisfied rather than angry, which is what they should be.” Writer, actor, and former Senator Al Franken’s ...
Created on 23 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
65.
An All-Russian program at the St. Louis Symphony features David Halen's virtuoso violin
  What with the all the hot air lately, both climatological and political, it has been difficult to really get into the holiday mood, but Friday night's St. Louis Symphony concert might just have gotten ...
Created on 05 December 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
66.
Andrey Boreyko and the St. Louis Symphony deliver a gripping performance of Shostakovich’s deathbed symphony
  "It's not where you start," runs a Dorothy Fields lyric from the 1973 musical Seesaw, "it's where you finish. It's not how you go, it's how you land." If the fifteenth and final symphony by Dmitri ...
Created on 27 January 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
67.
Ari Axelrod takes the wheel of an impressive cabaret debut at The Monocle
  As someone who, just two years ago, had a face-off with death in the form of life-saving brain surgery, Ari Axelrod has perhaps a more mature view on mortality than many other twenty-somethings. It ...
Created on 06 December 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
68.
At Actors Theatre of Louisville, the 43rd Humana Festival plays the hits
It's spring, and once again I made the annual pilgrimage to the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL), which came to a close this past Sunday (April 7, 2019). As we ...
Created on 09 April 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
69.
At Lyric Opera of Chicago, a charming 'Don Quichotte' invokes our better angels
Powerful, moving performances and a strong sense of whimsy highlight a beautiful production of Jules Massenet's last big hit, Don Quichotte, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. When Jules Massenet wrote his operatic ...
Created on 23 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
70.
At Lyric Opera of Chicago, Berlioz's masterpiece 'Les Troyens' sounds great but looks bland
  Through December 3, Lyric Opera of Chicago is presenting its first-ever production of Hector Berlioz's mammoth 1858 drama Les Troyens. For many Chicago opera lovers, that makes it a once-in-a-lifetime ...
Created on 21 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
71.
At the Humana Festival, 'Cardboard Piano' demonstrates the fragile quality of mercy
  Dramatizing contemporary political events is a risky proposition. A story "ripped from the headlines" can have immediate impact but fade quickly as the latest outrage takes center stage. Fortunately, ...
Created on 06 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
72.
At the Humana Festival, 'For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday' doesn't quite take flight
  "Having been unpopular in high school," observed Fran Lebowitz in her 1978 essay collection Metropolitan Life, "is not just cause for book publication." If she had seen Sarah Ruhl's For Peter Pan ...
Created on 07 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
73.
At the Humana Festival, 'Residence' chronicles an age of anxiety
  The poor are a frequent topic of American political discourse, receiving compassionate concern from the left and righteous hatred from the right. But our shredded social safety net has left the middle ...
Created on 07 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
74.
At the Humana Festival, 'Wondrous Strange' combines creepiness and comedy
  Every edition of the Humana Festival features a program of short one-act plays organized around a common theme and performed by the students of the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Acting Apprentice ...
Created on 07 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
75.
At the Humana Festival, ‘Wellesley Girl’ is filled with unrealized potential
  One of the great things about the Humana Festival of New American Plays is the valuable exposure it gives to new playwrights. Their work is sometimes rough around the edges or even, as is the case ...
Created on 09 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
76.
At the Humana Festival, comic coincidences abound in 'This Random World'
  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 ...
Created on 07 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
77.
At the Sheldon, everybody listened to Paula Poundstone
... appearance at The Sheldon, I’d say that might be something of an exaggeration. [Check out  my interview with Paula Poundstone on my Chuck's Culture Channel Video Blog] For over 90 minutes, we no ...
Created on 02 May 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
78.
Autumnal drama at the St. Louis Symphony with Măcelaru and Shaham
  The St. Louis Symphony gave us an appropriately autumnal concert this weekend, October 21 - 23, 2016, featuring Rachmaninoff's nocturnal Symphonic Dances in a finely nuanced interpretation by guest ...
Created on 24 October 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
79.
Bernard Labadie conducts a lively all-Bach evening
It was all Bach all the time this weekend at the St. Louis Symphony as Bernard Labadie returned to conduct all four of the composer's orchestral suites. Working without a score, Mr. Labadie gave us lively ...
Created on 07 March 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
80.
Big family-friendly fun with 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Concert'
Looking for some fine old family-friendly fun this weekend? Allow me to recommend "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Concert." It's the hit movie with the soundtrack, by Scottish composer Patrick ...
Created on 16 September 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
81.
Breaking Bad: Opera Theatre's 'Regina'
In a New York Times article published the day before the October 31, 1949, premiere of Marc Blitzstein's opera "Regina" – a truly stunning production of which is playing at Opera Theatre through June 24th ...
Created on 29 May 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
82.
Cabaret review: Christmas and all that jazz with Debby Lennon and the Carolbeth True Trio
Last December local singer/actress/educator Debby Lennon brought a delightful jazz-inflected holiday show to the Blue Strawberry. The revised version she performed at Jim Dolan’s Central West End club ...
Created on 22 December 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
83.
Cabaret Review: Marissa Mulder brings prime Prine to The Blue Strawberry
I never thought of myself as a fan of the late singer/songwriter John Prine, but Marissa Mulder’s “Souvenirs,” a Prine tribute show that played The Blue Strawberry April 21 and 22, showed that I was wrong. ...
Created on 26 April 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
84.
Charisma and the chorus: Part 3 of a conversation with Stéphane Denève
... SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève to talk about the new season. Here's part 3 of that four-part conversation, with minor edits for clarity. Nicola Benedetti CL (Chuck Lavazzi) ...
Created on 29 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
85.
Colorful tone poems and a noble piano concerto create a St. Louis Symphony concert to be thankful for
  There was a lot to be thankful for Friday night as Atlanta Symphony Music Director Robert Spano conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program that opened with a pair of late Romantic symphonic ...
Created on 27 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
86.
Could it be magic? Opera Theatre's 'Magic Flute' pushes the envelope but keeps the enchantment
Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) has had a long and mostly happy history with Mozart’s final opera “The Magic Flute.”  The current production, which runs through June 26th, is the fifth in the company’s ...
Created on 06 June 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
87.
David Robertson brings his tenure as SLSO music director to a high-energy finish with Wynton Marsalis's 'Swing Symphony'
In her program notes for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this past weekend (May 4 - 6, 2018), René Spencer Saller quotes composer and jazz trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis as describing the final, ...
Created on 09 May 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
88.
David Robertson conducts a jolly of evening of 'Music You Know'
  Since the inception of the "Music You Know" programming in November of 2014, I have become a great admirer of the St. Louis Symphony's concert series devoted mostly to relatively short works -- most ...
Created on 30 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
89.
Digging the joy of stride piano with Judy Carmichael at the Gaslight Cabaret Festival
As Al Joslon once sang to Jimmy Durante, "It's a thrill when a real piano player sits down at the keys." Last Friday, November 11, at the Gaslight Cabaret Festival, singer, songwriter, Sirius/SM radio ...
Created on 17 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
90.
Digital Concert Review: Recorded on Mother's Day weekend, Denève and the SLSO mix sentiment and sly wit
Available through September 25th, the latest digital release from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is from a series of concerts originally performed live this past Mother's Day weekend (May 7th ...
Created on 31 August 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
91.
Digital Symphony Review: Denève and the SLSO explore the heart of darkness in video of November 2021 concert
On November 5th and 6th 2021, Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) presented a concert that opened with a powerful work of personal lamentation and ended with a gripping and ultimately ...
Created on 22 April 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
92.
Digital Symphony Review: SLSO members delight in a concert of musical recycling
Available for on-demand streaming through August 31st, the fourth of five videos in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s digital series consists of performances recorded in an audience-free Powell Hall last ...
Created on 12 May 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
93.
Digital Symphony Review: The SLSOs moving tribute to Bryan Miller comes to HD video
Last November 26 and 27, Gemma New, the former Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), returned to Powell Hall to conduct the first of a special pair of concerts honoring the life ...
Created on 26 February 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
94.
Emily Skinner proves 'Broadway My Way' is the right way at the Blue Strawberry
As the risk of putting whatever reputation I might have as a critic at risk, I have a confession to make: I don't like writing negative reviews. As long as the performance justifies it, I'd rather write ...
Created on 14 January 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
95.
Everything old is new again with conductor Jun Märkl and the St. Louis Symphony
  As the St. Louis Symphony concerts this past weekend demonstrated, the familiar can still feel fresh and new, especially in the hands of inventive and skilled performers like conductor Jun Märkl ...
Created on 05 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
96.
Going digital: A conversation with The Muny's Kwofe Coleman
... Coleman about what that means for Muny staff and audiences this year. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): So, this is the first time in the Muny's 102-year history that it has had to postpone an entire season. Kwof ...
Created on 08 June 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
97.
Going Home: The SLSO makes a cautious return to Powell Hall
Powell Symphony Hall went dark in mid-March due to the rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) quickly found multiple ways to stay in touch with its audience ...
Created on 12 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
98.
Good music and good wine: Part 2 of a conversation with Stéphane Denève
... SLSO Music Director Stéphane Denève to talk about the new season. Here's part 2 of that conversation, with minor edits for clarity. CL (Chuck Lavazzi): I was looking at some of the outreach initiative ...
Created on 20 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
99.
Han-Na Chang makes an electrifying SLSO debut with an all-Russian program
  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 ...
Created on 08 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
100.
Happy Haydn highlights a concert of music old and new at Powell Hall, September 24-25
  Jolly Haydn and dramatic Beethoven were on tap this past weekend at Powell Hall, in a program made up mostly of music written around 1800. The concerts opened, appropriately, with an overture -- ...
Created on 29 September 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
101.
Humana Festival 2018: 'You Across from Me' brings a lot to the table
I've been attending the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville since 2011, and one thing I've noticed over the years is that some of the most experimental and innovative ...
Created on 26 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
102.
Humana Festival 2018: Many #Metoo moments in 'Do You Feel Anger?'
In Mara Nelson-Greenberg's wildly energetic (if ultimately exhausting) comedy "Do You Feel Anger?," the world premiere of which is on stage at the Actors Theatre of Louisville's 2018 Humana Festival through ...
Created on 27 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
103.
Humana Festival 2018: No prizes in this family feud in 'God Said This'
The prolonged illness and death of a parent can put stress on the most durable of families. When the family is as fragile as the one Leah Nanako Winkler depicts in "God Said This," which is getting its ...
Created on 24 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
104.
Humana Festival 2018: Strong emotions lie just below the surface of 'Marginal Loss'
The importance of sheer dumb luck in human affairs is something that was well understood in the ancient world. These days we seem determined to deny it, no matter how often it dope slaps us. The characters ...
Created on 25 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
105.
Humana Festival 2018: The banality (and tedium) of evil in 'Evocation to Visible Appearance'
In her essay of Mark Schultz's "Evocation to Visible Appearance," which is getting its world premiere at the Humana Festival of New American Plays through April 8th, Amy Wegner quotes the author as saying ...
Created on 25 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
106.
In 'Nonsense and Beauty,' it's hard to 'only connect'
In his program note for the Repertory Theatre's well acted and smartly directed world premiere production of "Nonsense and Beauty," playwright Scott C. Sickles recalls that the play's genesis dates from ...
Created on 09 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
107.
In a last concert before their Spanish tour, the St. Louis Symphony reminds us why we love David Robertson
  This weekend's St. Louis Symphony concerts (January 27-29) are the last regular subscription series programs before Maestro David Robertson and the orchestra leave for a tour of Spain in February. ...
Created on 30 January 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
108.
In Chicago, 'The Illusionists Live From Broadway' entertains but doesn’t entirely match the hype
The Illusionists Live From Broadway, which bills itself as the "next generation" in magic, arrived at Chicago's Oriental Theatre last week (February 21-16) trailing clouds of hype -- as magic shows have ...
Created on 01 March 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
109.
In Chicago, a bravura performance in the title role highlights Lyric Opera's 'Norma'
  We arrived in Chicago the last weekend in February just in time for the final night of Lyric Opera's splendid production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma. With a truly memorable performance by soprano ...
Created on 07 March 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
110.
In Chicago, a spectacular 'Hamilton' sings a song of diversity
Let's cut to the chase: you know all those things you've heard about how intelligent, theatrically powerful, and just generally wonderful Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit musical Hamilton is? Well, they're all ...
Created on 23 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
111.
In Chicago, all the power of 'Das Rheingold' is in the music
  It's always good to see a well-sung and expertly played production of Wagner's Ring cycle and the Lyric Opera of Chicago's mounting of Das Rheingold, which opens a four-season run through the entire ...
Created on 21 October 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
112.
In Chicago, Lyric Opera presents a moving 'Eugene Onegin'
  My wife Sherry once observed that the phrase "men behaving badly" could summarize the stories of most of opera's core repertory. Tchaikovsky's 1879 Eugene Onegin, a powerful production of which runs ...
Created on 01 March 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
113.
In her SLSO debut, Natahlie Stutzmann puts a unique and joyous stamp on familiar classics
  The St. Louis Symphony concerts this weekend (April 22-24, 2016) offered a remarkable study in contrasts, with familiar classics by Mendelssohn, Sibelius, and Dvořák getting novel, idiosyncratic, ...
Created on 25 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
114.
In the Repertory Theatre's 'Caught', everything you know is wrong
"Everything You Know is Wrong" is both a hilariously surreal 1974 album by the The Firesign Theatre and a decent summary of "Caught," Christopher Chen's ingenious puzzle box of a play at the Repertory ...
Created on 10 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
115.
In the year of COVID-19, the St. Louis Theater Circle goes virtual
... rk Bretz, Ladue News; Bob Cohn, St. Louis Jewish Light; Tina Farmer, KDHX; Michelle Kenyon, snoopstheatrethoughts.com; Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle (HEC Media); Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX and Stage Left; S ...
Created on 09 April 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
116.
It's Radical, Dude: 'Orfeo and Euridice' at Opera Theatre
When Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Orfeo and Euridice" ("Orfeo ed Euridice" in the original Italian) was first performed back in 1762, it was considered somewhat radical. Opera Theatre's lively and whimsical ...
Created on 15 June 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
117.
John Adams' 'Gospel According to the Other Mary' is a St. Louis Symphony showcase
  It was a relatively sparse crowd that witnessed the local premiere of John Adams' 2012 oratorio/theatre piece The Gospel According to the Other Mary Friday night, April 24, by the St. Louis Symphony ...
Created on 28 March 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
118.
Karen Irwin’s full tilt Janis Joplin tribute rocks the Gaslight Cabaret Festival
  As anyone who has ever seen Barb Jungr or Storm Large in action understands, there is definitely a place for rock at the cabaret table. Karen Irwin demonstrated that again last Saturday, November ...
Created on 10 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
119.
Louis Lortie and Yan Pascal Tortelier deliver musical pictures with power and precision at the St. Louis Symphony April 15 and 16
  Most folks come back from vacations with snapshots or souvenirs. The great French composer Camille Saint-Saëns came back from a winter trip to Egypt with a piano concerto, which was performed with ...
Created on 16 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
120.
Marilyn Maye proves it's better with a big band
If you're already a fan of cabaret legend Marilyn Maye, you won't be surprised to learn that she and her long-time pianist/music director Tedd Firth rocked the house last night (March 7, 2019) at Jazz ...
Created on 08 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
121.
Of Thee They Sing: The SLSO Celebrates American Voices
NOTE: "Songs of America" is an ongoing project. This review represents the available performances on July 15, 2020. Like so many other performing arts organizations, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 15 July 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
122.
Opera Preview: Opera per tutti al fresco, a conversation with Opera Theatre's Andrew Jorgensen
... with OTSL General Director Andrew Jorgensen about the coming season and how it will be both similar to and different from the OTSL experience in the past. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): I wanted to talk about what ...
Created on 14 May 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
123.
Opera Preview: Something wicked this way comes
Friday and Sunday, January 20 and 22, Winter Opera St. Louis presents Verdi's first Shakespearean opera "Macbeth." Premiered in 1847, it was revised in 1865 for a Paris production. This is the version ...
Created on 20 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
124.
Opera Review: 'Carmen' through the looking-glass at Opera Theatre
On May 21st, Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) opened their 47th season with a polished if occasionally odd production of Bizet’s 1875 tragedy "Carmen." It’s the company’s fourth production of a work that, ...
Created on 25 May 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
125.
Opera Review: A smartly staged 'Macbeth' at Winter Opera
“Verdi adored Shakespeare,” writes Garry Wills in his invaluable “Verdi’s Shakespeare: Men of the Theater,” and goes on to note that the composer briefly considered operatic treatments of “The Tempest,” ...
Created on 24 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
126.
Opera Review: An enchanted evening with 'Cendrillon' at Lyric Opera
The production of Jules Massenet's 1899 opera "Cendrillon" ("Cinderella") that opened at Lyric Opera of Chicago on December 1st, while new to Chicago, originated back in 2006 at Santa Fe Opera. It has ...
Created on 06 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
127.
Opera Review: Downsized and outdoors, Opera Theatre kicks off it season with an entertaining 'Gianni Schicchi'
Few economic sectors have been as damaged by COVID-19 as the performing arts. Entire seasons were wiped out, including that of Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL). OTSL is back in business this year, though, ...
Created on 25 May 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
128.
Opera Review: Gioia in abundance in Union Avenue's 'Barbiere'
Back in 2015 I asked Michael Shell, who was directing Opera Theatre’s production of Rossini’s "The Barber of Seville," why he thought this comic opera had remained so popular over the centuries. His answer: ...
Created on 03 August 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
129.
Opera Review: Lovely to look at, delightful to hear: 'Madama Butterfly' at Winter Opera
This Friday and Sunday March 25 and 27, Winter Opera presents a polished, musically impeccable production of the 1907 version of Puccini’s “Japanese tragedy” "Madama Butterfly." Beautifully sung and respectably ...
Created on 25 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
130.
Opera Review: Lyric Opera embraces the darkness in 'Il Trovatore'
The story line may not make much sense and the principal male characters are studies in testosterone poisoning and bad judgment, but nevertheless Verdi's 1853 tragedy "Il Trovatore" ("The Troubadour") ...
Created on 08 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
131.
Opera Review: Opera Theatre presents an overlooked gem by a black American composer
Opera Theatre (OTSL) has never been shy about introducing the audience to new or simply unfamiliar works. Often, those operas have proven to be the hits of their respective seasons. Their production ...
Created on 02 June 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
132.
Opera Review: Patricia Racette is the reason to see 'La voix humaine' at Opera Theatre
The best reason to see Opera Theatre’s production of Francis Poulenc’s 1959 one-act opera “La voix humaine” (“The Human Voice”) is soprano Patricia Racette’s bravura performance in the one and only role ...
Created on 08 June 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
133.
Opera Review: Puccini's 'Sparrow' takes flight at Winter Opera
This weekend (Friday and Sunday, November 18 and 20) Winter Opera kicks off their season with a stylish “La Rondine” (“The Sparrow”), a Puccini work that hasn’t been seen locally since 2015. Giuseppe Adami's ...
Created on 18 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
134.
Opera Review: The Center Stage showcase ends a strong season at Opera Theatre
Saturday night (June 19th) Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) offered the sixth edition of its annual "Center Stage" concert. I missed the first four and have been kicking myself ever since I discovered, ...
Created on 23 June 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
135.
Opera Review: Union Avenue's 'Les contes d'Hoffmann' tells entertaining tales in difficult circumstances
Union Avenue Opera has an enviable ability to turn out solid productions of big, traditional operas under conditions that are often less than ideal. So it’s no surprise that they managed the dauting task ...
Created on 29 July 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
136.
Opera Review: Winter Opera's 'La fanciulla del west' is a delightful surprise
There are number of remarkable things about Puccini's 1910 drama "La fanciulla del west" ("The Girl of the West"), not the least of which is the fact that the excellent production Winter Opera is presenting ...
Created on 06 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
137.
Out of the closet and on to the stage: Opera Theatre re-imagines 'Harvey Milk'
To quote Walt Kelly’s Howland Owl paraphrasing Kipling, “the tumult and shouting has died.” After being postponed for two years due to the pandemic the third and leanest version of Stewart Wallace and ...
Created on 22 June 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
138.
Perchance to dream: Opera Theatre's 'Awakenings' puts a human face on a mysterious pandemic
Through June 24th, Opera Theatre of St. Louis presents the world premiere of “Awakenings,” based on the book of the same name by Oliver Sacks. With music by Tobias Picker and a libretto by Picker’s husband, ...
Created on 10 June 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
139.
Pianist Kirill Gerstein and the St. Louis Symphony deliver a lively evening of jazz-influenced classics
There was a genuine sense of occasion at Powell Hall Friday night (April 7, 2017), and not just because conductor David Robertson and the members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra were uniformly spiffy ...
Created on 10 April 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
140.
Preview: Deep background on Union Avenue's 'Lost in the Stars'
On Wednesday, August 7th, Union Avenue Opera hosted a fascinating panel discussion about Kurt Weill's "Lost in the Stars," which the company is presenting August 17 - 25. Dr. Timothy Parsons of Washington ...
Created on 08 August 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
141.
Preview: Shirley and Donna invite you to 'Say Yes.'
... r upcoming cabaret adventure. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): You two have very different backgrounds as far as performing goes. Donna has a long career here as a stand-up comic and actress but Shirley just got t ...
Created on 28 May 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
142.
Review: 'Always...Anna Blair' is always sweet and funny
"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same." The quote is usually attributed to composer Franz Schubert, but it could just as well have been the theme for ...
Created on 20 January 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
143.
Review: 'The Nutcracker' is a tasty holiday treat at Powell Hall
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is giving audiences an early Christmas present this weekend (November 29-December 1) in the form of a thoroughly enchanting complete performance of Tchaikovsky's ...
Created on 01 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
144.
Review: A bracing contemporary musical evening with Hannu Lintu at Powell Hall
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 ...
Created on 01 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
145.
Review: A bracing program of young Romantics by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
The accent was on youth this past Sunday (February 18, 2018) as guest conductor Matthew Halls made his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut with a program of music by a trio of early 19th-century composers ...
Created on 20 February 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
146.
Review: A fantastic night with a fantastic symphony
In remarks from the podium before the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Friday night (May 10, 2019) Stéphane Denève, who takes over as Music Director in the fall, promised "a fantastic night together." ...
Created on 11 May 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
147.
Review: A festive Baroque concert with Richard Egarr and the SLSO
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) program this past Sunday (December 8th) didn't have a single piece of Christmas music on the bill but it couldn't have been more appropriate for what Charles Dickens ...
Created on 12 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
148.
Review: A happy birthday cabaret with Rick Jensen
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. ...
Created on 09 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
149.
Review: A holly jolly 'Mercy Holiday Celebration' with the St. Louis Symphony
What with the unseasonably warm weather and irrationally dumb politics, it can be hard to get into the festive spirit right now, but last night (Friday, December 21st) a Poinsettia Punch and the annual ...
Created on 23 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
150.
Review: A lively and varied French program with Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony
In his remarks from the podium before the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday night (February 3, 2018) Stéphane Denève (who was named as the SLSO's 13th Music Director last summer) said that ...
Created on 06 February 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
151.
Review: A lively mix of old and new at the SLSO chamber music festival
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) chamber music festival kicked off its second and final week on Wednesday, November 5th, with a sharply contrasting pair of works: Caroline Shaw's "Ent'racte" (first ...
Created on 05 November 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
152.
Review: A message of hope opens the St. Louis Symphony's digital season
The pandemic forced the St. Louis Symphony to cancel its regular season but for one brief shining moment last fall they were able to present chamber music concerts in Powell Hall by operating at less than ...
Created on 16 February 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
153.
Review: A passionate commitment to Mozart, Brahms, and Vaughan Williams
In an interview last week, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève observed that "nobody should ever conduct music that he or she doesn't believe in. Because music is about ...
Created on 12 February 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
154.
Review: A shot of quintessential Slatkin at with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
It's an index of the continuing popularity of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin that he got a standing ovation from the crowd as soon as he stepped on to the stage Saturday ...
Created on 06 May 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
155.
Review: A vivid evocation of London highlights a mostly British program by the SLSO
It has been a few years since my wife and I have been to London, but I feel like we took another visit there Friday night (November 23) with that wonderfully evocative performance of Vaughan Williams's ...
Created on 25 November 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
156.
Review: An enlightening journey into darkness with Karen Gomyo and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
This weekend (October 18-20) Stéphane Denève returned to conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an early 20th century program that moved from light to darkness (or at least twilight) with a ...
Created on 21 October 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
157.
Review: An impressive local debut by conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and pianist Saleem Ashkar at Powell Hall
In my experience, nothing guarantees a light turnout at a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert like an unfamiliar conductor and/or soloist. Combine that with a program that features two works not ...
Created on 04 February 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
158.
Review: An inspiring Mahler 'Resurrection' Symphony at Powell Hall
A good Mahler's Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection") should deliver the "three Ts": tragedy, terror, and triumph. The performance last Friday night (September 27, 2009) by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis ...
Created on 29 September 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
159.
Review: Anthony Marwood does it all in an evening of Beethoven and Haydn
It's a tribute to the professionalism of our St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians that they can play like a single organism even when there's not somebody waving a stick at them. [Find out more about ...
Created on 16 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
160.
Review: Auld acquaintance is not forgotten at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's New Year's Eve concert
During his tenure as Music Director, David Robertson made the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's New Year's Eve concert an evening of light, celebratory music, dashes of comedy, and surprise guest appearances. ...
Created on 02 January 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
161.
Review: Barb Jungr and John McDaniel are an ideal team in their Beatles cabaret
It has been a while since I have seen either Award-winning pianist and songwriter John McDaniel and cabaret star Barb Jungr on stage (2007 and 2010, respectively). And I had never seen them together until ...
Created on 30 January 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
162.
Review: Beer, pretzels, and opera are a winning combination at the SLSO's season closer
What’s better than having the full St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) back on stage for an evening of “Operatic Encores”? Well, how about having free beer and pretzels in the lobby beforehand, courtesy ...
Created on 27 June 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
163.
Review: Big Berlioz and Beethoven with Bramwell Tovey and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
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 ...
Created on 05 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
164.
Review: Celebrating John McDaniel home at the Blue Strawberry
John McDaniel is the prototypical example of the local boy who made good. From his days doing musical theatre at Kirkwood High School in suburban St. Louis, he has gone on to make a major name for himself ...
Created on 23 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
165.
Review: Christian Arming springs forward
Spring arrived early this year, both outdoors and inside Powell Hall, as guest conductor Christian Arming led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Friday night (March 2nd, 2018) in an inventive take on Schumann's ...
Created on 03 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
166.
Review: Cristian Macelaru conducts a powerful anti-war program at Powell Hall
War may be, as the classic songs says, good for absolutely nothing, but opposition to it has certainly inspired some great music, as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program this past weekend (March 10 ...
Created on 12 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
167.
Review: Darkness rises in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Concert'
Daniel Radcliffe and Imelda Staunton in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Photo courtesy of CineConcerts I've said it before, but it bears repeating: nothing can quite match ...
Created on 15 April 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
168.
Review: David Giuntoli delivers swinging season's greetings at the Blue Strawberry
"A Swinging Holiday Soiree," David Giuntoli's show at the Blue Strawberry this Thursday (December 19th), was exactly that: a genial gambol through a mix of holiday classics and Great American Songbook ...
Created on 21 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
169.
Review: Dazzling Mendelssohn and powerful Bruckner with Fliter, Storgårds, and the SLSO
Beginnings and endings. A young man's first big piano concerto and an old man's last symphony. Both got splendid performances last Saturday (December 1st) by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under guest ...
Created on 03 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
170.
Review: Dean Christopher brings Dean Martin to entertaining life at the Blue Strawberry
... n Christopher Photo by Chuck Lavazzi Mr. Christopher looks nothing like the late singer/actor, but he has Martin's vocal quality and loose-limbed drunk act down pat. It took very little suspens ...
Created on 07 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
171.
Review: Dean Christopher's 'Rat Pack' show is high-energy holiday fun at the Blue Strawberry
I think I found a way to lower my energy costs. I just need to figure out how to hook up my house to Dean Christopher's "A Classic-Vegas, Rat-Pack Christmas" show that played the Blue Strawberry last night ...
Created on 07 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
172.
Review: Dean Christopher's Dean Martin tribute is still a kick in the head
... back to the Strawberry last Friday (September 24th) and, after seeing it again, I’m of no mind to change that assessment. Dean Christopher as Dean Martin sings "Houston" Photo by Chuck Lavazz ...
Created on 28 September 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
173.
Review: Debby Lennon brings bubbly holiday cheer to the Blue Strawberry
The Blue Strawberry Showroom and Lounge unwrapped an early Christmas present for St. Louis audiences last night (December 5) with a jazz-inflected holiday show by local singer/actress/educator Debby Lennon ...
Created on 06 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
174.
Review: Denève's historically informed Beethoven Ninth sets a new standard for excellence
I have been known to gripe about the tendency of local St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert audiences to give a standing ovation to pretty much anything that, as the Venticelli say in Peter Shaffer's ...
Created on 08 February 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
175.
Review: Doubling your piano pleasure with Gerstein and Ohlsson at the 560 Music Center
Pianists Kirill Gerstein and Garrick Ohlsson are no strangers to the St. Louis concert scene. Gerstein, in particular, has been a frequent soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO)—most recently ...
Created on 02 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
176.
Review: Elegant Beethoven and powerful Wagner with Jun Märkl and the St. Louis Symphony
There were only two works on the program Friday night (October 19, 2018) at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. They were both from the 19th century German repertoire, and they could hardly have been more ...
Created on 20 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
177.
Review: Entertaining new music, elegant Mozart, and widescreen Strauss with Leonard Slatkin and the SLSO
The evening air was crisp and so was the playing of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO last night (Saturday, October 12) as Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin led the band in an entertaining and expertly ...
Created on 13 October 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
178.
Review: Gene Kelly's 'An American in Paris' remains a classic at Powell Hall
The movie nights that are part of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's "Powell Hall Live" series have always been a pleasure for me, back since they were largely limited to silent films like "City Lights" ...
Created on 14 May 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
179.
Review: Getting up close and personal with the St. Louis Symphony strings in the digital concert series
The pandemic forced the St. Louis Symphony to cancel its regular season but for one brief shining moment last fall they were able to present chamber music concerts in Powell Hall by operating at less than ...
Created on 01 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
180.
Review: Gilbert Varga forms a close French connection with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
This past Saturday (March 23, 2019) was the fourth time I've seen Gilbert Varga conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and, once again, I came away impressed with the combination of high drama and pinpoint ...
Created on 25 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
181.
Review: High-energy holidays with Storm Large at the Sun
Tuesday night (December 11) there were two holiday concerts in Grand Center. In Powell Hall, the Bach Society presented their annual Christmas Candlelight Concert. A half block away, at the Sun, was "Storm ...
Created on 14 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
182.
Review: John McDaniel brings hope and humor home for the holiday(s)
... at's not to say that the evening was all that solemn, on the whole. Mr. McDaniel is far too skillful a performer to present anything other than a well-balanced program, and there were plenty of chuckles t ...
Created on 27 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
183.
Review: Katie McGrath's 'Home(sick) for the Holidays' is cause for celebration and reflection
...  Rick Jensen, Katie McGrath, Bob Becherer Photo: Chuck Lavazzi That's a type of cabaret that requires real courage. Done badly, it can come across as self-indulgent or (worse yet) a public therap ...
Created on 31 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
184.
Review: Katie McGrath's new show combined country heart with urban smarts
Since she moved to the Big Apple and became a cabaret star, our own “trusty and well-beloved” Katie McGrath has been making regular pilgrimages back home to perform for local friends and fans. The pandemic ...
Created on 01 January 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
185.
Review: Ken Haller entertainingly acts his age at the Blue Strawberry
The St. Louis cabaret scene has really taken off over the last fifteen years or so, and local performers are increasingly showing up at nightspots like Davenport's in Chicago and Don't Tell Mama in New ...
Created on 23 November 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
186.
Review: Ken Haller's moving and mirthful birthday show returns to the Blue Strawberry
The pandemic has all but shut down the local cabaret scene. The one exception has been Jim Dolan's Blue Strawberry nightclub, although even there a "new normal" is very much in force with reduced capacity, ...
Created on 03 November 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
187.
Review: Leonard Slatkin and the SLSO take flight in a diverse program
No doubt about, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin got his two-week concert series off to a strong start Saturday night (April 27, 2019) with three very different and very ...
Created on 28 April 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
188.
Review: Less is more with Bernard Herrmann's music in 'North by Northwest'
I don't know whether Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller "North by Northwest" ever played Powell Hall back when it was a movie theatre. If so I doubt that Bernard Herrmann's score ever sounded as good as ...
Created on 26 February 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
189.
Review: Lisa St. Lou and Tor Hyams are a Dynamic Duo at the Blue Strawberry
There's no doubt about it, Lisa St. Lou and her music director/song-writing partner Tor Hyams are the Dynamic Duo of song performance. Ms. St. Lou has a powerful, flexible, wide-ranging voice with which ...
Created on 29 November 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
190.
Review: Live from Powell Hall, it's SLSO Sunday Afternoon (and a jolly one)
When the pandemic shut the doors at Powell Symphony Hall a year ago, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) was quick to enhance its presence on the Internet, not only with informational and educational ...
Created on 18 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
191.
Review: Lively musical postcards kick off the SLSO's chamber music festival
The COVID-19 pandemic closed Powell Hall and cancelled the rest of the 2020 season for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), but after consultation with epidemiologists at Washington U. and changes ...
Created on 31 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
192.
Review: Liz Callaway and Alex Rybeck celebrate Sondheim at the Blue Strawberry
...  If I can love you, I'll pay the dirt no heed! With your love, what more do I need? Liz Callaway and Jeff Wright Photo: Chuck Lavazzi There are many more choice moments in thi ...
Created on 07 February 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
193.
Review: Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway bring the joy of 'sibling revelry' to the Jazz Bistro
Musical sisters Liz Callaway and Ann Hampton Callaway are no strangers to St. Louis stages. Both have performed here many times in the past and both have been part of the teaching staff at the St. Louis ...
Created on 28 September 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
194.
Review: Love was in the air last Sunday at the St. Louis Symphony
In his introductory remarks at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert this Sunday (January 19th), Maestro Stéphane Denève noted that the first work on the program, Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll," ...
Created on 22 January 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
195.
Review: Lucky charms
Bob Wetzel has been a lucky guy, a fact that cropped up as a recurring theme in his solo cabaret debut "Facing the Music," which had its first public performance last Saturday (May 12, 2019) at the Kranzberg ...
Created on 15 May 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
196.
Review: Marcelo Lehninger and the SLSO show their virtuosity with music of Hindemith, Prokofiev, and Mussorgsky/Ravel
For some years now, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has been bringing younger guest conductors to town to make their local debuts on the Powell Hall stage. Every one of them has been very impressive, ...
Created on 25 November 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
197.
Review: Music for string quartet and octet bring the SLSO chamber music festival to a rousing close
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) chamber music festival concluded its second and final week on Sunday, November 8th, with a high-energy afternoon of music for string quartet and octet. The octet ...
Created on 10 November 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
198.
Review: Music of mourning and morning with Denève and the SLSO
Pre-COVID, the opening number at a symphony concert was likely to be a relatively short and dramatic "curtain raiser" like Honegger's "Pacific 231" or a popular crowd pleaser like Barber's "Adagio for ...
Created on 23 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
199.
Review: Musical espresso from the SLSOs wind quintet concert
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) chamber music festival continued its second and final week on Saturday, November 7th, at 11 am with a lively, witty, and whimsical program of music for wind quintet ...
Created on 09 November 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
200.
Review: Musical light from the darkness in the St. Louis Symphony digital series
The pandemic forced the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to halt its 2020 season last spring. Last fall they were able to resume concerts in Powell Hall by enforcing small houses and strict health measures. ...
Created on 16 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
201.
Review: Nathalie Stutzmann and the SLSO serve up Brahms's gourmet musical comfort food
If you didn't know the music, you might think last weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program (March 9 and 10, 2019), consisting of Stravinsky's "Funeral Song" and the Brahms "German Requiem," might ...
Created on 11 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
202.
Review: Nicholas McGegan brings springtime to Powell Hall
Judging from the weather forecast, spring is apparently just around the corner. Judging from the sunny and breezy St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program Sunday afternoon (March 1), it had already arrived. ...
Created on 03 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
203.
Review: Old friends come together for a charming new cabaret
"What do you say, old friend, are we or are we unique?" So runs the lyric of Sondheim's "Old Friend," the song that, in combination with Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends," served as the opening number ...
Created on 15 July 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
204.
Review: Opera Theatre's Holiday Concert offers classic seasonal cheer
It’s December. In the performing arts world, that would normally mean at least one of the following: a stage adaptation of Dickens's “A Christmas Carol” (probably with music), Handel's “Messiah,” Tchaikovsky's ...
Created on 10 December 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
205.
Review: Opera Theatre's speed date with 'The Pirates of Penzance'
The pandemic cancelled the Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL) 2020 season and will radically re-shape its 2021 season, which will take place outdoors and involve a raft of health safeguards. Meanwhile, ...
Created on 20 January 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
206.
Review: Powerful and idiosyncratic classics by Matthias Pintscher and Kirill Gerstein
The Friday night (February 1) concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was notable for a pair of powerful and somewhat idiosyncratic interpretations of music by Rachmaninoff and Mendelssohn by guest ...
Created on 02 February 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
207.
Review: Ringing in the New with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
A gratifyingly large crowd turned out for an equally gratifying opening night of the 2018/2019 St. Louis Symphony Orchestra season (Saturday, September 22), as Resident Conductor Gemma New led the orchestra ...
Created on 24 September 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
208.
Review: Rising stars shine in Opera Theatre's Center Stage concert
This past Tuesday night (June 25th, 2019) Opera Theatre offered the fifth edition of its annual "Center Stage" concert. If what I saw Tuesday was any indication, I'm pretty annoyed with myself for missing ...
Created on 28 June 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
209.
Review: Sing a song of Mozart
I'm always a bit sad when the turnout for a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert is on the light side, especially when it's a concert that deserved a bigger house. Those who showed up Friday night (March ...
Created on 17 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
210.
Review: SLSO's 'Messiah' combines a Baroque orchestra with Romantic sensibilities
Even though it was originally written for an Easter season performance, Handel's 1741 oratorio "Messiah" has become a Christmas tradition. That tradition was upheld in fine style last weekend (December ...
Created on 11 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
211.
Review: St. Louis embraces Rick Jensen and friends at the Blue Strawberry
... lways heard a hint of Randy Newman in the piano part. Rick Jensen and Dionna Raedeke Photo: Chuck Lavazzi Mr. Jensen's friends took the stage next, starting with Ms. Raedeke (a f ...
Created on 05 January 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
212.
Review: Stéphane Denève conducts a sizzling mostly-French program at Powell Hall
If St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) music director Stéphane Denève wants to make a case for the inclusion of more French music and more contemporary music in SLSO programs, he need only point to the ...
Created on 09 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
213.
Review: Stephanie Childress has a spring in her step in her SLSO conducting debut
“Spring work,” wrote famed naturalist John Muir, “is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” By that standard, there was over an hour of spring work on display at Powell Hall last weekend (April 9-11) as the ...
Created on 12 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
214.
Review: Steve Brammeier's nostalgic '68: Then and Now' returns to the Blue Strawberry
“Nostalgia,” someone once quipped, “is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense and the past perfect.” Steve Brammeier’s show “68: Then and Now” may not find the past perfect, but it certainly ...
Created on 17 November 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
215.
Review: Stunning debuts on page and stage at Powell Hall
This weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts gave us some notable local debuts, both on the stage and on the page. [Find out more about the music with my symphony preview.] On stage, Saturday ...
Created on 20 January 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
216.
Review: Superlative Mozart and Respighi from Stephanie Childress and the SLSO
One of the delights of the recent live and digital concert series at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has been the way they have focused on the SLSO string section. I have been impressed with their sound ...
Created on 19 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
217.
Review: The American way
Cristian Macelaru led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this weekend (November 16 and 17) in a program which demonstrated once again his impressive versatility as a conductor. I have been impressed in the ...
Created on 19 November 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
218.
Review: The Bach Society's virtual candlelight shines brightly
As it has every Christmas season since 1951, the Bach Society of St. Louis presented its Candlelight Concert last week (Wednesday, December 23rd). It's a local tradition grounded in fine musicianship and ...
Created on 29 December 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
219.
Review: The music of 'Star Wars' still thrills 40 years later
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an Imperial battle cruiser swooped down across the screen to the strains of a full symphony orchestra. Movies and movie music have never been quite the same since. ...
Created on 27 January 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
220.
Review: The performance outshines the music in the local premiere of a contemporary violin concerto
In an interview last year, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève, in response to my question about the kind of contemporary music he planned to program, said that it was "very important ...
Created on 20 February 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
221.
Review: The return of Emily Skinner and John Fischer to the Blue Strawberry is cause for celebration
When I reviewed Emily Skinner's last appearance at The Blue Strawberry in January 2020, I described it as "a show that did everything right and nothing wrong…it was simply nonpareil."  Having seen her ...
Created on 21 September 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
222.
Review: the SLSO celebrates a return to Powell Hall with a reduced but mighty Beethoven 'Eroica'
The mood was muted but celebratory Thursday night (October 15th) as Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) took to the Powell Hall stage for the first time in almost ...
Created on 17 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
223.
Review: The SLSO celebrates the music of John Williams
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an Imperial battle cruiser swooped down across the screen to the strains of a full symphony orchestra. Movies and movie music have never been quite the same since. ...
Created on 18 September 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
224.
Review: The SLSO goes around the world in 120 minutes for New Year's Eve
... than is sometimes heard in performances of these old warhorses. This was especially true in his "Dance of the Hours" with its hushed, delicate opening and wide emotional range. That didn't stop the aud ...
Created on 02 January 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
225.
Review: The SLSO sets sail for Chorus Director Amy Kaiser's retirement with an opulent 'Sea Symphony'
At the top of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Sunday, May 1st, SLSO CEO Marie Hélène Bernard and a representative from the office of Mayor Tishaura Jones took the stage to announce ...
Created on 03 May 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
226.
Review: The SLSO string section gets to the heart of the matter in a richly romantic digital concert
The title of the fifth concert in the on-demand video series by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), “The Heart of the Matter,” reflects not only the powerful emotional content of the four short works ...
Created on 13 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
227.
Review: The SLSO's annual 'Mercy Holiday Celebration' brings comfort and joy
No matter how much resentment, spite, and general bad behavior pollutes the Internet in general and social media in particular I always find it easier, at what Dickens calls this "kind, forgiving, charitable, ...
Created on 15 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
228.
Review: The SLSO's fourth digital concert presents a little 'Night Music'
With smaller, physically distanced audiences and other health protocols, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has returned to live concerts in Powell Hall. At the same time, they’re releasing high-quality ...
Created on 31 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
229.
Review: The St. Louis Symphony Chorus comes on strong in music by Bernstein and Orff
It was a gala festival of the human voice this past weekend (February 9 - 11) at Powell Hall as Bramwell Tovey conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Chorus in two great 20th ...
Created on 13 February 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
230.
Review: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra celebrates the Muny's first half-century
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 ...
Created on 09 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
231.
Review: Transcendent Mahler with Peter Oundjian and the St. Louis Symphony
In an increasingly ugly and paranoid culture, moments of transcendent beauty are rare, which is why I appreciate one all the more when I encounter it at a St. Louis Symphony concert, as I did this past ...
Created on 06 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
232.
Review: Widescreen 'Scheherazade' highlights a pair of promising debuts at the St. Louis Symphony
Last weekend the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra brought us new music performed by a pair of familiar faces. This week (Friday and Saturday, October 12 and 13) was the Yang to that Yin with a program of works ...
Created on 14 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
233.
Review: Works that were critical flops are big hits with Hrusa, Gomyo, and the SLSO
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this weekend (March 29-31, 2019) feature three works that critics didn't like much when they were first performed. History has proved the critics wrong, and this ...
Created on 31 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
234.
Rising to the occasion: Mahler's 'Resurrection' for Easter
Well, here it is Easter week. Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, the day Christians celebrate Jesus's entry into Jerusalem only a few days before his crucifixion. I expect that means many of you classical music ...
Created on 09 April 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
235.
Set sail for laughter with 'H.M.S. Pinafore' at Union Avenue Opera
Union Avenue Opera dropped anchor for their 24th season this past weekend with a jolly and entertaining production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore" that's a little bit of Savoyard heaven. The ...
Created on 09 July 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
236.
Slatkin celebrates musical diversity with the St. Louis Symphony
Last Saturday, November 12, former music director Leonard Slatkin conducted the St. Louis Symphony in a highly entertaining program of works by American composers. Ironically, given the outcome of our ...
Created on 17 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
237.
Spectacular singing takes center stage in Chicago Lyric’s 'Lucia di Lammermoor'
  Bel canto opera stands or falls on the strength of the singing, and by that standard Lyric Opera of Chicago's new production of Donizetti's 1835 tragedy Lucia di Lammermoor stands very tall indeed. ...
Created on 23 October 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
238.
Starved For Opera? Companies Offer An Online Feast
For lovers of live music and theatre, this has been a lean year, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.  Theatres and concert halls are high-risk environments for airborne transmission of the virus for audiences ...
Created on 04 July 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
239.
Starving artists provide a musical feast in Opera Theatre's 'La Bohème'
  By the time Puccini and his librettists got around to translating Henri Murger’s episodic 1849 novel Scènes De La Vie Bohème into the 1896 opera La Bohème, it had already enjoyed a considerable ...
Created on 23 May 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
240.
Steven Jarvi puts his personal stamp on a festive St. Louis Symphony holiday concert
  Although it's usually a heavily attended event, freezing drizzle and the resulting treacherous streets put a major dent in the turnout for the Mercy Holiday Celebration at the St. Louis Symphony Friday ...
Created on 19 December 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
241.
Strong acting and direction support a weak script in 'Constellations' at the Rep Studio
  The road not taken; where does it lead? If this or that tiny aspect of my life changed, what would the result be? That's the question at the heart of British playwright Nick Payne's ingenious but ...
Created on 23 January 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
242.
Symphony Digital Preview: A carnival atmosphere
July 15 though August 14, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues their digital video concert series with a program originally recorded April 1-3 with a live audience at Powell Hall. The emphasis ...
Created on 13 July 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
243.
Symphony Digital Preview: Mourning becomes electric
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues its digital season April 8th through May 8th with an on-demand program of four short works that showcase the SLSO string section under the direction of ...
Created on 07 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
244.
Symphony Digital Preview: Night train
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues its 2021 digital concert series March 25-April 24 with a program of "Night Music." Recorded at live concerts last October 29 and November 7, the program ...
Created on 21 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
245.
Symphony Digital Preview: The harp of the matter
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) continues its 2021 digital concert series April 22-May 22 with a program of music that's mostly French and mostly for the harp. Katherine Hoover ...
Created on 21 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
246.
Symphony Digital Review: 'Equal Play' puts three contemporary women composers in the spotlight
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's season may have ended back in June, but the orchestra's digital concert series continues at their web site. The latest addition to the series is "Equal Play," a program ...
Created on 31 July 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
247.
Symphony Digital Review: Franco-American fun with Denève and the SLSO
Through August 14th, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is offering on-demand video of a program originally performed live on April 1st through 3rd, 2021. Consisting of music by Aaron Copland, Arthur Honegger, ...
Created on 21 July 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
248.
Symphony Digital Review: Members of the SLSO deliver the intimate joys of a mostly-French chamber music concert
Mostly French and mostly featuring music for flute and harp, the latest St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) digital concert was recorded with a live audience at Powell Hall last fall. It’s available for ...
Created on 27 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
249.
Symphony Digital Review: Stephanie Childress and the SLSO strings capture scenes from childhood
“Spring work,” wrote famed naturalist John Muir, “is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” By that standard, there is over an hour of spring work on display in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) digital ...
Created on 05 June 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
250.
Symphony Digital Review: Sunshine and shadow in a pair of quintets by SLSO musicians
Available for on-demand streaming through August 31st, the fifth of five videos in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s digital series presents two quintets by Prokofiev and Mozart. The pair are a study ...
Created on 02 June 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
251.
Symphony Digital Review: The SLSO winds dance to Mozart and Richard Strauss
The live concert season of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is on hiatus until the fall, but the orchestra’s on-demand video series is still going strong. Available through September 4th, the latest ...
Created on 11 August 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
252.
Symphony News: SLSO announces its live spring concert series
Powell Symphony Hall went dark almost exactly one year ago due to the rapidly spreading SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) quickly found multiple ways to stay in touch with ...
Created on 09 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
253.
Symphony Notes, Part 1: The play's the thing
I'm writing this week's edition of "Symphony Notes" in two parts because, first of all, there were two different St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) programs originally scheduled for May 1-3, and second, ...
Created on 27 April 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
254.
Symphony Notes, Part 2: Taking flight
In my previous edition of "Symphony Notes," I talked about the music that was to have been part of Didi Balle's "Maurice Ravel: A Musical Journey", originally slotted for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 30 April 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
255.
Symphony Notes: Goin' home
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) season may have been cut short by the COVID-19 crisis, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some of the music scheduled for the next several weeks at home.  ...
Created on 21 April 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
256.
Symphony Notes: Inalienable rites of spring
In the early days of this Symphony Notes series, I had the somewhat ambitious goal of providing program notes for virtual recreations of planned (but cancelled) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) performances. ...
Created on 06 May 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
257.
Symphony Notes: The War Prayer
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's (SLSO) season may have been cut short by the COVID-19 crisis, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some of the music scheduled for the next several weeks at home, at ...
Created on 01 April 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
258.
Symphony Prevew: Tales of the unexpected
Former Music Director Leonard Slatkin, who led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) during what was possibly its period of highest international visibility (and who is now a resident of Our Fair City ...
Created on 09 October 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
259.
Symphony Preview Redux: Stand-up routine
Yesterday I looked at the way Handel's "Messiah" (which Matthew Halls and the St. Louis Symphony are performing December 7-9) started out as an Easter tradition and morphed over time to a Christmas staple. ...
Created on 04 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
260.
Symphony Preview, April 15 and 16, 2016: Saint-Saëns' symphonic selfies
My wife and I have become dedicated travelers over the last couple of decades, but we can't hold a candle to the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921). Over the course of his long and prosperous ...
Created on 12 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
261.
Symphony Preview, April 22-24, 2016: Familiar music, brand-new conductor
The St. Louis Symphony program this weekend consists entirely of well-known classics: Mendelssohn's The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) overture, Sibelius's Violin Concerto, and one of my favorites, Dvořák's ...
Created on 19 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
262.
Symphony Preview: 'I try only to do the good stuff,' a conversation with Leonard Slatkin
...  rehearsals. Here's our conversation, with some minor edits for clarity. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): Many local music lovers may not be aware that in the late 1960s you had a relationship with community rad ...
Created on 25 April 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
263.
Symphony Preview: 'I'm not afraid of going for emotion,' a conversation with composer Jeff Beal
... lso has extensive film and, more recently, concert credits. I talked with him late last week. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): I'd like to start off with a little bit about your background. I know you were a jazz  ...
Created on 30 April 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
264.
Symphony Preview: 'Man does not live by dread alone'--a conversation with Christopher Rouse
...  and tucks for the sake of clarity. Chuck Lavazzi (CL): I see that your bio talks about an early interest in both classical and popular music. Who are the rock performers that you admired? Christophe ...
Created on 13 November 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
265.
Symphony Preview: 'The Devil made me do it'
UPDATE A/O March 12th: The SLSO has cancelled this concert in response to a directive from the City of St. Louis to prohibit all gatherings of more than 1,000 people. The one and only work on the ...
Created on 12 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
266.
Symphony Preview: 'Tis the season to be jolly
Stéphane Denève kicks off his first official season as Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) this week with concerts that can only be called celebratory. The festivities start on ...
Created on 09 September 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
267.
Symphony Preview: A conversation with Nicholas McGegan and a box of Bach
... condensed transcript of that conversation. The complete video interview is available on Chuck’s Culture Channel on YouTube. [Preview the music with my commercial-free Spotify playlist.] Chuck Lavazzi ...
Created on 01 December 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
268.
Symphony Preview: A dying fall
This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, March 2 and 3) Peter Oundjian conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a pair of works that were first performed in Vienna by two composers who were both, as Tim ...
Created on 27 February 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
269.
Symphony Preview: A Few of your favorite 18th-century things
  The Cardinals may be out of town battling the Reds in Cincinnati this weekend, but nevertheless the St. Louis Symphony has a double header of its own for you, with one program on Friday night and ...
Created on 20 September 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
270.
Symphony Preview: A light in the darkness (over at the Lichnowsky Place)
Now that we have set our clocks back and the shades of night, to paraphrase Longfellow a bit, are falling faster, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is getting into the spirit with concerts in which musical ...
Created on 09 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
271.
Symphony Preview: A passion for freedom
This weekend (Friday and Saturday, April 18 and 19), Stéphane Denève leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a trio of deeply passionate works, including a local premiere that pays tribute to ...
Created on 18 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
272.
Symphony Preview: A weekend in the country
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," ...
Created on 03 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
273.
Symphony Preview: Acts of sacrifice
In a March 2020 interview with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève about the upcoming season (a.k.a. The Season That Never Was thanks to the pandemic) we talked about the number ...
Created on 20 October 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
274.
Symphony Preview: Adams family values
With COVID-19 numbers slowly trending down, some local performing arts organizations are returning to live performances, albeit with the usual vaccination and masking requirements. That includes the St. ...
Created on 26 January 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
275.
Symphony Preview: Against the fall of night
This weekend (March 26-28) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) returns to live concerts at Powell Hall in a format very similar to the one they employed last fall. Details are available at the SLSO ...
Created on 24 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
276.
Symphony Preview: All Goethe, all the time
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was, as the late Philip Weller notes in the Grove Dictionary of Music, “[O]ne of the most important literary and cultural figures of his age…recognized during his ...
Created on 08 March 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
277.
Symphony Preview: America the Musical
The title of the concerts in which Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin is conducting St.Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) this weekend (October 9 and 10) is "Made in America." And it does, in fact, consist ...
Created on 07 October 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
278.
Symphony Preview: At home abroad with Hannu Lintu
In an interview with flautist and music writer Tim Munro in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's program book, SLSO Artistic and Operations VP Erik Finley notes that the 2018/2019 season is "an in-between ...
Created on 26 September 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
279.
Symphony Preview: Beethoven's leading-edge technology
  A vast chronological gulf separates three of the pieces on the St. Louis Symphony program for this Saturday and Sunday from the fourth. The works by Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven all date from the ...
Created on 22 September 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
280.
Symphony Preview: Beyond the sea
All good things, they say, must come to an end. This weekend (April 30 and May 1) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program that pays tribute to SLS Chorus Director ...
Created on 28 April 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
281.
Symphony Preview: Ch-Ch-Changes
If you’re on the email list of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), you probably know that earlier this week there were major changes in the program for this weekend (March 4-6). Patrick Summers, the ...
Created on 04 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
282.
Symphony Preview: Chalk, cheese, and haggis
In the first half of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this weekend (February 1 and 2), guest conductor Matthias Pintscher will lead the band in a pair of works by Russian Romantic composers who, ...
Created on 29 January 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
283.
Symphony Preview: Classical favorites to be thankful for
Music lovers have a lot to be thankful for this weekend (November 24 -- 26, 2017), as Jun Märkl conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program of classical favorites. It's a real feast for the ...
Created on 21 November 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
284.
Symphony Preview: Critical failure
This weekend (March 29-31) Jakub Hrusa leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in three works by well-established composers that were nevertheless greeted with a mixture of bafflement and hostility when ...
Created on 28 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
285.
Symphony Preview: Daily double, part 1
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) offers you a chance to double your listening pleasure this weekend with two very different performances: a chamber music evening on Friday, November 5th, and a program ...
Created on 02 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
286.
Symphony Preview: Daily double, Part 2
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) offers you a chance to double your listening pleasure this weekend with two very different performances: a chamber music evening on Friday, November 5th, and a program ...
Created on 04 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
287.
Symphony Preview: Darkest before the dawn
“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,” wrote Robert Burns back in 1785, “Gang aft agley.” Today I might add “and of symphony orchestras as well.” [Preview the music with my Spotify playlist.] This ...
Created on 10 February 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
288.
Symphony Preview: Drum circle
This weekend (February 5 and 6) guest conductor Elim Chan makes her St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut with a pair of big orchestral works that have in common the year 2012 but not much else. [Preview ...
Created on 02 February 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
289.
Symphony Preview: Ex cathedra
"Stepping inside a cathedral, we are filled with awe," runs the description of the program this weekend (February 15 and 16) at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) web site. "Our breathing slows, our ...
Created on 11 February 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
290.
Symphony Preview: Exit music
The old chestnut about all good things coming to an end plays out over the next four weeks at Powell Symphony Hall as David Robertson's tenure as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's Music Director--a thing ...
Created on 10 April 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
291.
Symphony Preview: For the final 'Music You Know' concert, there's something old, something new ('Cyrillic Dreams' from Mizzou)
You might have noticed that there's no Friday, April 29, performance this weekend of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert featuring William Kraft's Timpani Concerto No. 2 and Schubert's Symphony No. ...
Created on 27 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
292.
Symphony Preview: Forever young
Youth is the theme at Powell Hall this weekend (February 17 and 18, 2018) as Matthew Halls makes his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra debut conducting Schubert's Symphony No. 3 (written when the composer was ...
Created on 14 February 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
293.
Symphony Preview: French connections
“O Fortuna / velut luna / statu variabilis / semper crescis / aut decrescis” (O Fortune, / like the moon / you are changeable, / ever waxing / ever waning”). Thus opens Carl Orff’s popular “Carmina Burana,” ...
Created on 16 February 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
294.
Symphony Preview: From Russia, with love
The Russian government may be stinking up the place right now, but that’s no reason not to appreciate the all-Russian program Thomas Søndergård will conduct in his debut. Sir Stephen Hough will be the ...
Created on 27 October 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
295.
Symphony Preview: Getting with the program
This weekend, four of the five works Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) will perform are unabashedly descriptive--what they used to refer to as "program music" in Music Appreciation ...
Created on 05 March 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
296.
Symphony Preview: Handel's party mix
After a couple of weeks of "big band" music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra downsizes this weekend (December 6-8) as guest conductor Richard Egarr leads the ...
Created on 04 December 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
297.
Symphony Preview: Hazy shades of winter
In the sky was Bellatrix Between Betelgeuse and Rigel fixed. With Kappa standing to the right Orion walks the winter night. – “Orion,” The New Golden Rocket (1991) [Preview the music with my commercial-free ...
Created on 05 October 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
298.
Symphony Preview: He cared if you listened
This weekend (February 9 - 11, 2018), the guest conductor Bramwell Tovey leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Chorus in a program of two great works for chorus and orchestra-one ...
Created on 08 February 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
299.
Symphony Preview: Heaven, I'm in Heaven
This Friday and Saturday (September 27 and 28) Stéphane Denève leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Mahler's awe-inspiring Symphony No. 2 in C minor ("Resurrection"). Running around eighty ...
Created on 26 September 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
300.
Symphony Preview: Hello, I must be going
"I am the A and the O, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," intones the bass Voice of God in Franz Schmidt's oratorio "Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln" ("The Book of the Seven Seals"). The reference ...
Created on 27 November 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
301.
Symphony Preview: Heroics and fireworks
This weekend (Thursday through Sunday, October 15-18), Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) return to Powell Hall for the first time since the SARS-Cov-19 pandemic ...
Created on 13 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
302.
Symphony Preview: Holidays in the sun
The big solo work on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program Thanksgiving weekend may be German, but the prevailing musical mood is British, with major works by Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams ...
Created on 21 November 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
303.
Symphony Preview: Homecoming weekend
... mystical element appropriate to the piece." The Vlatava from the Legions Bridge in Prague Photo by Chuck Lavazzi “Vltava” is straightforward scene painting, vividly illustrating t ...
Created on 26 October 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
304.
Symphony Preview: Insecurity complex
This weekend (Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5) the noted Dutch conductor Edo de Waart leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Elgar's Symphony No. ...
Created on 03 October 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
305.
Symphony Preview: It might as well be spring
This weekend (February 29 and March 1), the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra welcomes back early music specialist Nicholas McGegan to conduct works by Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert that all have a pretty ...
Created on 26 February 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
306.
Symphony Preview: It was a dark and stormy night
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (Friday and Saturday, January 31 and February 1) open with a pair of works by two composers who, despite significant differences in temperament ...
Created on 30 January 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
307.
Symphony Preview: Keeping the faith
Saturday, January 14, at Powell Hall, guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru takes the podium as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra plays a program featuring the local premiere of a piece by Camille Saint-Saëns ...
Created on 10 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
308.
Symphony Preview: Known unknowns
It's an all-German program this weekend (January 18 and 19, 2019) as guest conductor Karina Canellakis leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and violinist Ray Chen in an evening of music by Beethoven, ...
Created on 14 January 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
309.
Symphony Preview: Les feuilles mortes
We’re only a week past the autumnal equinox and over a month away from the dreaded end of daylight saving time but, at least here in St. Louis, it’s finally beginning to feel like fall. Temperatures are ...
Created on 29 September 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
310.
Symphony Preview: Looking out for No. 1
[UPDATE: Per a press release from the SLSO these concerts have been cancelled due to positive COVID-19 diagnoses in the orchestra.] When I saw that the composer of the opening work on the St. Louis Symphony ...
Created on 05 May 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
311.
Symphony Preview: Lydia the classical lady
"The most glorious creature under the sun / Thaïs, Garbo, DuBarry all rolled into one." That's how Groucho Marx describes "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" in the otherwise forgettable film "At the Circus." A ...
Created on 15 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
312.
Symphony Preview: Moonlight (and daylight) serenades
It has been quite an active spring for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) string section, with a series of both live and on-demand concerts showcasing what Music Director Stéphane Denève has called ...
Created on 29 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
313.
Symphony Preview: More notes, Mozart!
History tells us that Handel’s “Messiah,” which the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed last weekend (December 2–4), was written in only 24 days. This weekend (December 9–11), Dame Jane Glover ...
Created on 08 December 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
314.
Symphony Preview: My heart's in the Highlands (or maybe Edinburgh)
Prior to the pandemic, my wife and I traveled quite a bit. We plan to hit the airports again next year, but meanwhile the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (November 19 and 20) ...
Created on 18 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
315.
Symphony Preview: Myth management
My wife and I have become dedicated travelers over the last couple of decades, but we can't hold a candle to the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Over the course of his long (1835-1921) and prosperous ...
Created on 10 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
316.
Symphony Preview: New ideas for New Year's Eve at the SLSO
The annual New Year’s Eve concert by St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has been a celebratory event for many years now. It was cancelled last year because of the pandemic but it’s back again in 2021, ...
Created on 29 December 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
317.
Symphony Preview: New kids on the block
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. The new faces on stage ...
Created on 11 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
318.
Symphony Preview: New worlds to conquer
This weekend (April 8-10), Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress takes the podium of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to conduct an eclectic mix of works by Sebelius, Dvořák, and contemporary ...
Created on 08 April 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
319.
Symphony Preview: No compromises
"The Germans," observed the great violinist Joseph Joachim, "have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising, is Beethoven's." And it's the centerpiece for this weekend's performances by ...
Created on 13 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
320.
Symphony Preview: Old French wine, new bottles
A couple of weeks ago we had an all-French evening at the St. Louis Symphony. This weekend Resident Conductor Gemma New will lead the orchestra in a program of three works for which the inspiration was ...
Created on 03 April 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
321.
Symphony Preview: Old Mortality
Last weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts were dominated by Mahler's Symphony No. 9, a work that is often seen as being having its genesis in the valley of the shadow of death. The theme of ...
Created on 06 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
322.
Symphony Preview: On wings of song
"Human music making," as music blogger Darren Giddings reminds us, "has been inspired by birdsong throughout history." If you doubt that, take a look at the program Resident Conductor Gemma New and the ...
Created on 21 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
323.
Symphony Preview: Points of departure
  David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this Friday and Saturday in a program consisting of just two big works: John Adams' 1993 Violin Concerto and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in ...
Created on 29 September 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
324.
Symphony Preview: Revolution No. 9
At first glance, the two works that make up this weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert might not appear to have a lot in common. Kevin Puts's "Silent Night Elegy," based on music from his ...
Created on 06 February 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
325.
Symphony Preview: Revolution revisited
This weekend (November 12-14) Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program that pairs two certified Greatest Hits with a new work inspired by the composer of one of those ...
Created on 10 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
326.
Symphony Preview: Sailing to Byzantium
If you’re looking for things to be thankful for this week, how about our own St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO)? This Saturday and Sunday (November 26 and 27) while many of us are still working on that ...
Created on 25 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
327.
Symphony Preview: Seconding that emotion
To what extent does a composition reflect the emotional state of its composer? Judging by the three pieces Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) will perform in the third in the series ...
Created on 03 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
328.
Symphony Preview: Sex and violins
This weekend (November 10 and 11) the French conductor Stéphane Denève makes his first appearance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since being named Music Director Designate earlier this year (he ...
Created on 08 November 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
329.
Symphony Preview: Sheer harp attack
“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,” wrote Robert Burns back in 1785, “Gang aft agley.” The two major works on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (April 23 and 24) offer ...
Created on 21 April 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
330.
Symphony Preview: SLSO Principal Timpani Shannon Wood on playing above the staff and around the back
...  Principal Timpani William Kraft. SLSO Principal Timpani Shannon Wood will be the soloist. We chatted briefly via email about the music and his relationship with his instrument of choice. Chuck Lavazzi ...
Created on 26 April 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
331.
Symphony Preview: Something old, someone New
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's 18/19 season opens this weekend (Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23) with a mix of the old and the new--in more ways than one. There's the music, to begin with. ...
Created on 18 September 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
332.
Symphony Preview: Something to do with spring
This weekend (April 1-3) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) celebrates the change of the seasons with music of Copland, Honegger, and Saint-Saëns—although only one of the three works on the program ...
Created on 31 March 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
333.
Symphony Preview: Spring is coming
It's an evening of Romantic blockbusters this weekend (March 2 and 3, 2018) as Christian Arming makes his conducting debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program that includes Tchaikovsky's ...
Created on 01 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
334.
Symphony Preview: Spring songs, old and new
This weekend (April 16-18) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress returns to the podium to lead the orchestra in yet another program of springtime music, from an animated ...
Created on 15 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
335.
Symphony Preview: Springing into fall with the SLSO
“Aprils have never meant much to me,” wrote Truman Capote in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.” Anyone involved with the performing arts would have to agree. Fall ...
Created on 22 September 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
336.
Symphony Preview: Star Chamber, Part 1
Last week the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced more live concerts at Powell Hall as part of its fall season. It all starts on Wednesday, October 28, with the first of six chamber music concerts. ...
Created on 28 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
337.
Symphony Preview: Star Chamber, Part 2
Last week the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced a series of six chamber music concerts for late October and early November. Each concert will be offered twice in rotating repertory through ...
Created on 29 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
338.
Symphony Preview: Star Chamber, Part 3
Last week the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced a series of six chamber music concerts for late October and early November. Each concert will be offered twice in rotating repertory through ...
Created on 30 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
339.
Symphony Preview: Starry, starry night
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Stéphane Denève will conduct this weekend (November 18-20) will consist of music inspired by something that has fascinated human beings for, I imagine, as long ...
Created on 17 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
340.
Symphony Preview: Stéphane's serenade and Johannes's lullaby
When I first saw St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève conduct the orchestra back in the spring of 2003 I found him an impressive figure: tall and commanding without appearing ...
Created on 06 February 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
341.
Symphony Preview: Stormy weather
Sturm und drang (usually translated as "storm and stress") was an early Romantic (late 18th century) movement in German literature and music that emphasized drama and conflict. Both Haydn and Mozart wrote ...
Created on 19 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
342.
Symphony Preview: Thanksgiving treats
If you’re looking for something to be thankful for this weekend, look no farther than Powell Hall, where conductor Xian Zhang and pianist George Li  make their debuts with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 24 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
343.
Symphony Preview: The 'Messiah' Mysteries
This weekend (December 2-4) British conductor and Baroque-era specialist Laurence Cumings leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Handel's popular 1742 oratorio "Messiah." In doing so at what ...
Created on 29 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
344.
Symphony Preview: The dance of love and death
“It's very important,” said St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Music Director Stéphane Denève in a 2019 interview, “that the audience understand that the new music we will perform is music that I believe ...
Created on 12 May 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
345.
Symphony Preview: The Grand Tour
Music Director Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra are off on their annual European concert tour on March 21st. But before they leave, they’re offering a one night only “bon voyage” concert ...
Created on 15 March 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
346.
Symphony Preview: The SLSO season opens with some colorful musical postcards
“Travel,” wrote Mark Twain in “Innocents Abroad,” “is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” Based on what many of our people seem ...
Created on 15 September 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
347.
Symphony preview: The symphony season concludes with Holst’s greatest hit and Berg’s greatest miss
  Unless you've sung in a choir or played in a concert band, you probably know Gustav Holst (1874-1934) only as the composer of his popular orchestral suite The Planets, Op. 32, a performance of which ...
Created on 05 May 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
348.
Symphony Preview: The three ages of man
This weekend, March 3 and 4, Stephanie Childress conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra  in a program of music from three different centuries written by composers at three very different stages of their ...
Created on 02 March 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
349.
Symphony Preview: The times, they are a-changin'
This weekend (Friday and Saturday, October 15 and 16) John Storgårds, Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic and a frequent guest here, conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a program ...
Created on 15 October 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
350.
Symphony Preview: Theme and variations squared
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin has been a favorite of local audiences since his tenure as Music Director from 1979 to 1996. The orchestra’s international profile ...
Created on 22 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
351.
Symphony Preview: Three faces of Eve
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concludes its regular concert season this weekend (May 10-12, 2019) as Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève conducts three works inspired by exotic women. Only one ...
Created on 08 May 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
352.
Symphony Preview: Three faces of Sergei
This weekend (February 15-17) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève concludes his first 2019 appearance with the orchestra with an all-Prokofiev concert series that highlights ...
Created on 14 February 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
353.
Symphony Preview: Triple play
The concerts this weekend (October 19-21) by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra bring us some of the best-known music of Wagner and one of the least-known concertos of Beethoven. The Beethoven in question ...
Created on 16 October 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
354.
Symphony Preview: Triple play
This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, January 18 and 19), Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an evening of music by Wagner, Liszt, Richard Strauss, and contemporary (b. 1980) ...
Created on 17 January 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
355.
Symphony Preview: Try a little tenderness
"After the horrors of the First World War and the 1918 flu pandemic, composers reached into the music of the past. It may have been an escape from reality—a way to make things brighter, more hopeful.” ...
Created on 06 May 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
356.
Symphony Preview: Twilight time
This weekend (October 18-20) Stéphane Denève returns to conduct the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in an early 20th century program that moves from light to darkness (or at least twilight) with a ...
Created on 16 October 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
357.
Symphony Preview: Variations on a theme of Martin Luther
Looking over the program for the concert Stéphane Denève will conduct with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra this weekend (Friday and Saturday, February 11 and 12), it strikes me that there are three themes ...
Created on 10 February 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
358.
Symphony Preview: Very, very old school
I’ve been listening to a lot of Great Courses audio lectures these days on world history and archeology. It’s an enlightening and humbling experience. It’s also one I highly recommend for anyone who thinks ...
Created on 26 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
359.
Symphony Preview: Virtuosity
If there were a theme for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (Friday and Saturday, November 22 and 23), it would probably be "virtuosity." Guest conductor Marcelo Lehninger will ...
Created on 21 November 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
360.
Symphony Preview: Visions of sugar plums
Konstantin Ivanov's original sketch for the set of The Nutcracker (1892) Source: en.wikipedia.org If there's one thing you can count on at this time of the year, it's that someone ...
Created on 27 November 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
361.
Symphony Preview: Vive la France!
We're nearly two months away from St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève's next appearance here (May 10-12), but 19th century music from his French homeland dominates the ...
Created on 20 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
362.
Symphony Preview: Voices of spring
“When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,” quoth The Bard, “[s]weet lovers love the spring.” In that same vein, I think music lovers, sweet or otherwise, will love the essence of youthful vernal exuberance ...
Created on 08 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
363.
Symphony Preview: War, what is it good for?
That most pernicious of human inventions, organized warfare, lurks in the background of the three major works that Cristian Macelaru will conduct in this weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts. ...
Created on 07 March 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
364.
Symphony Preview: We three (Stéphane, Leonard, and me)
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts this weekend (October 1 and 2) open with an example of something that I have in common with Leonard Slatkin and Stéphane Denève—unlikely as that might seem. ...
Created on 30 September 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
365.
Symphony Preview: Well crafted
This weekend (Friday through Sunday, October 14-16) the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra offers two separate and very different concerts. Friday night at 6:30 Norman Huynh conducts the orchestra and singer/songwriter ...
Created on 14 October 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
366.
Symphony Preview: Where late the sweet birds sang
This weekend (Thursday through Saturday, October 22-24), Stèphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a concert of chamber works by Richard Strauss, contemporary Japanese composer ...
Created on 21 October 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
367.
Symphony Preview: Who's on first
This Friday and Saturday, January 7 and 8, Stéphane Denève conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a program of firsts: The first symphony of Brahms, the first published piano concerto of Beethoven, ...
Created on 06 January 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
368.
Symphony Preview: Why a 'Messiah'?
This weekend (December 7 - 9) British conductor Matthew Halls leads the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Handel's popular 1742 oratorio "Messiah." In doing so, he's following a tradition nearly ...
Created on 03 December 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
369.
Symphony Review: A dynamic double debut for Thanksgiving weekend at the SLSO
It was a double debut this past weekend (Saturday and Sunday, November 26 and 27) as both conductor Xian Zhang and pianist George Li made their first appearances with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. ...
Created on 29 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
370.
Symphony Review: A romp through Ravel's candy store by Ott and Măcelaru at the SLSO
The year 1908 marked an important milestone in cinema history—the composition of the first-ever original film score. The film in question was the French historical drama “L’Assassinat du Duc de Guise” ...
Created on 17 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
371.
Symphony Review: An evening of crowd pleasers ends the SLSOs 2021 spring season
The great violinist Joseph Joachim once described Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64 as “the heart's jewel.” That jewel got an elegant 24 karat setting last night (Thursday, May 13th) from ...
Created on 14 May 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
372.
Symphony Review: At the SLSO, the '20s then and now
The year 1921 was no picnic. Traumatized by political violence, a ruinous and ultimately pointless foreign war, and a pandemic that killed more people than the war itself, Americans were ready to celebrate. ...
Created on 04 January 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
373.
Symphony Review: Big band and bigger emotions in works by Rachmaninoff and Corigliano at the SLSO
You’d think that a pair of works that had their genesis in depression and loss might make for a glum St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) program. But, as the concerts this past weekend (October 15 and ...
Created on 18 October 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
374.
Symphony Review: Childress scores a palpable hit with her first New Year's Eve concert
Every Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra goes through at least two rites of passage. The first and most obvious is their first regular season concert with the band. The second is the ...
Created on 03 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
375.
Symphony Review: Dawn and Stéphane's musical journey with the SLSO
Last weekend (October 1 and 2), St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Music Director Stéphane Denève opened his concerts with a trio of pieces that worked remarkably well as a matched set, even though they ...
Created on 05 October 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
376.
Symphony Review: Elegant Gershwin and persuasive Rachmaninoff highlight SLSO concert
In his comments from the podium at the beginning of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday (March 19), Music Director Stéphane Denève talked about the Zoom conference he had with ...
Created on 22 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
377.
Symphony Review: Elegant Mozart with Dame Jane Glover and the SLSO
Musicologist Theodore E. Heger (1939–1977), has described Mozart’s five symphonies as “among the great masterpieces of symphonic literature.” The validity of that assessment was apparent from the performances ...
Created on 13 December 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
378.
Symphony Review: Exotic sounds impeccably sounded at the SLSO
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts last weekend (April 12 and 13) opened with a pair of local premieres—one of which no doubt came as a surprise to most of the audience as it wasn’t listed ...
Created on 16 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
379.
Symphony Review: Favorable winds in a concert of serenades by the SLSO
We had our share of rain here last weekend (April 30 – May 2), but inside Powell Symphony Hall the forecast was consistently sunny and breezy as Stéphane Denève and members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 04 May 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
380.
Symphony Review: Flash and finesse in an all-Russian program with Hough and Søndergård
Watching pianist Sir Stephen Hough and conductor Thomas Søndergård give us their nuanced and balletic take on Tchaikovsky’s venerable Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 01 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
381.
Symphony Review: Gemma New conducts a moving tribute to the late Bryan Miller
Last Saturday (November 27) Gemma New, the former Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), returned to Powell Hall to conduct the first of a special pair of concerts honoring the ...
Created on 30 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
382.
Symphony Review: John Storgårds's Beethoven Fourth warms up a chilly program
It was pleasantly warm inside Powell Hall Saturday night as John Storgårds led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and violinist Leila Josefowicz in a program of works by Sibelius, Helen Grime, and Beethoven. ...
Created on 15 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
383.
Symphony Review: Laurence Cummings' powerful 'Messiah' walks in darkness
'Tis the season for Handel's "Messiah." This past weekend (December 2-4), Laurence Cummings conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (under guest choral director Patrick Dupré Quigley) in ...
Created on 07 December 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
384.
Symphony Review: McGegan conducts a pair of dramatic hits at Powell Hall
As our little group approached Powell Hall Friday night (March 10th), a tour bus pulled up with what appeared to be a group of students who were there to take in a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert. ...
Created on 14 March 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
385.
Symphony Review: Music of love and sacrifice with the St. Louis Symphony and Chorus
In his comments from the podium at the start of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert on October 21, Music Director Stéphane Denève identified the non-musical theme of the evening as “love, dedication, ...
Created on 25 October 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
386.
Symphony Review: Nathalie Joachim's 'Fanm d'Ayiti' highlights the SLSOs season opener
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève began the second of the opening pair of concerts of the 2022/23 season on Sunday, September 18, with a hearty “bonjour,” as he usually does (“bon ...
Created on 21 September 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
387.
Symphony Review: Nicholas McGegan opens a sparkling box of Bachs
Friday night (December 3rd), Powell Hall was decked out in holiday finery as frequent guest conductor Nicholas McGegan led the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) in a trio of performances that delivered ...
Created on 09 December 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
388.
Symphony Review: Pratt and Childress conquer new worlds at Powell Hall
London Symphony violinist Hugh Bean once suggested that conducting “is the strongest evidence I’ve yet seen that telepathy, in one form or another, exists.” When I first saw St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ...
Created on 12 April 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
389.
Symphony Review: Revolutionary Beethoven and Grieg with Víkingur Ólafsson and the SLSO
If I were called upon to summarize the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday night (November 13) in one word, it would probably be something along the lines of exciting, electrifying, ...
Created on 15 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
390.
Symphony Review: Scottish snap and snappy Schubert with the SLSO
Prepandemic my wife and I traveled quite a bit. One of our favorite destinations for a time was Scotland. We haven’t been back in a while, but the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday ...
Created on 23 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
391.
Symphony Review: Slatkin and the SLSO showcase music made in America
It feels like very little carries the “made in America” label these days, when even our disinformation is largely imported. But the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concerts last weekend (October 9 ...
Created on 12 October 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
392.
Symphony Review: Springtime for Slatkin and the SLSO strings
Virtuosity both individual and collective was on display in the concert last Friday, April 23, as SLSO Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin led the orchestra in works that, as Mr. Slatkin noted in his spoken ...
Created on 26 April 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
393.
Symphony Review: Storgårds shows his wide interpretive range in music spanning 250 years
This past weekend guest conductor John Storgårds and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) offered killer performances of a quartet of works that offered surprising and unorthodox sounds and rhythms. ...
Created on 19 October 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
394.
Symphony Review: That (very) big band sound with the SLSO
It was another Big Band night at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) last Saturday (April 23) as guest conductor Kirill Karabits made his St. Louis debut with a program that emphasized large instrumental ...
Created on 27 April 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
395.
Symphony Review: The rocket's red glare: the SLSO opens the season with a bang
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) closed its 21/22 season opener last weekend (Saturday and Sunday, September 25 and 26) with a rouser of a Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 under the baton of Music Director ...
Created on 29 September 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
396.
Symphony Review: The SLSO and The Muny join for a Sondheim Celebration
In a 2008 New York Times interview, the late Stephen Sondheim was asked what he’d like his legacy to be. His answer: “I would just like the shows to keep getting done. Whether on Broadway or in regional ...
Created on 03 October 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
397.
Symphony Review: The SLSO delivers a first rate Mozart evening despite last minute changes
It’s not easy for big institutions like the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to change course abruptly but on the relatively rare occasions when necessity has demanded it, they’ve proved to be remarkably ...
Created on 07 March 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
398.
Symphony Review: The SLSO embraces the dark side with music by Sibelius, Shostakovich, and James Lee III
The concert by Stéphane Denève and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) last Saturday (November 6th) opened with a powerful work of personal lamentation and ended with a gripping and ultimately horrifying ...
Created on 09 November 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
399.
Symphony Review: The SLSO says 'bon voyage' with an evening of orchestral showpieces
It was a veritable love fest at Powell Hall last Thursday, March 16th. Stéphane Denève professed his love for pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. Ólafsson declared his love for the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony ...
Created on 20 March 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
400.
Symphony Review: The SLSO serenades your inner child
On the way home from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert this past Saturday (May 8th) my wife commented that there was a noticeable warmth to Music Director Stéphane Denève's conducting. I’d ...
Created on 11 May 2021
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
401.
Symphony Review: The SLSO spreads peace, joy, and hope with the help of Bach and Mendelssohn
Stéphane Denève opened the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert Saturday night (February 12) by declaring his hope that the evening would bring a feeling of “peace and hope and real spiritual joy” to all. ...
Created on 15 February 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
402.
Symphony Review: To infinity and beyond with the SLSO
“To infinity and beyond!” With that wry nod to Buzz Lightyear, Music Director Stéphane Denève launched a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert last Friday night (November 18th) inspired by what Pythagoras ...
Created on 21 November 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
403.
Symphony Review: Travels through time and space with the SLSO
Location, location, location. It’s the real-estate agent’s mantra. And also, as it happens, a possible theme for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday night (January 28th). [Find out ...
Created on 31 January 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
404.
Symphony Review: Violinist Tesssa Lark comes out on top in soloist reshuffle
... of them and, judging from the response, so did the audience. Tessa Lark and Stéphane Denève Photo: Chuck Lavazzi Although Debussy never spent more than a few hours in Spain, he ...
Created on 22 February 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
405.
Tales of love, death, and laughter in Opera Theatre's 2016 season
  Summer is almost upon us, which means it's time for picnics on the lawn, champagne receptions, and great musical theatre in Webster Groves. It is, in short, time for Opera Theatre's annual four-show ...
Created on 18 May 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
406.
The 'Summer Variety Hour' is just the thing for mourning Muny fans
[Updated Thursday, August 20.] If you’re a fan of The Muny and have not yet had a chance to see an episode of “The Muny 2020 Summer Variety Hour” on their YouTube channel, then, to paraphrase John Adams ...
Created on 06 August 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
407.
The Enemy Within: 'An American Soldier' at Opera Theatre
Last year, I began my review of Opera Theatre's production of Ricky Ian Gordon's "The Grapes of Wrath" by quoting a popular bumper sticker: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." It's equally ...
Created on 05 June 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
408.
The many faces of Christina Bianco light up the Gaslight Cabaret Festival
The hazard of a show like Christina Bianco's "Diva Moments" (presented November 16 and 17 at the Gaslight Theatre), with its heavy reliance on celebrity impersonations, is that when the performer drops ...
Created on 18 November 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
409.
The Muny Mines Musical Theatre Gold in 'Jerome Robbins' Broadway'
The Muny is celebrating its centennial this season, and they're kicking it off this week with a big, bright theatrical present in the form of the musical revue "Jerome Robbins' Broadway." A compilation ...
Created on 13 June 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
410.
The music of 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' enchants Hogwarts fans at Powell Hall
It was a magical afternoon this Sunday (April 8, 2018) as Powell Symphony Hall filled up with witches and wizards of all ages, many in the colors of their favorite Hogwarts Houses. They were gathered for ...
Created on 09 April 2018
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
411.
The sands of time have not been kind to 'The Desert Song'
The 1926 operetta “The Desert Song,” with music by Sigmund Romberg and a libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, and Frank Mandel, was an unqualified hit on Broadway (471 performances) and in London ...
Created on 04 March 2023
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
412.
The St. Louis Symphony’s all-American program is even better the second time around
  If this past weekend's St. Louis Symphony Orchestra program provoked a strong sense of déjà vu in the audience, it's because the orchestra presented a nearly identical program three years ago. The ...
Created on 17 January 2017
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
413.
The Symphony ends its season with a spectacular performance of Holst’s 'The Planets'
  The St. Louis Symphony brought its regular season to a spectacular close this weekend (May 6-8, 2016) with Maestro David Robertson leading a simply excellent performance of Holst's The Planets, ...
Created on 09 May 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
414.
The Voice of America: the SLSOs ongoing "Songs of America" project celebrates diversity
Like so many other performing arts organizations, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has been obliged to increase its online presence to keep its work visible during the pandemic. One of the most ...
Created on 07 September 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
415.
There's no doubt about the excellence of Union Avenue Opera's production of 'Doubt'
  Union Avenue Opera is bringing its season to an impressive close with the local premiere of Doubt, a not entirely successful musical adaptation by composer Douglas J. Cuomo and playwright John Patrick ...
Created on 22 August 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
416.
Union Avenue Opera's 'Falstaff' finds musical perfection in an imperfect space
Now in its 28th season, Union Avenue Opera has, over the decades, presented a wide range of operas—ancient to modern, intimate to grand—with a remarkable degree of success. Despite working with a small ...
Created on 05 August 2022
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
417.
Union Avenue Opera’s "The Mikado" is a sparkling gem in an odd setting
  Union Avenue Opera is kicking off its season with a sparkling production of Gilbert and Sullivan's venerable comic operetta The Mikado featuring superb singing, solid comic acting, and eye-pleasing ...
Created on 12 July 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
418.
Where is the St. Louis Symphony during the pandemic? Almost everywhere!
A quick run through the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert calendar reveals a depressing truth:  everything, including the official 20-21 season is marked “currently unavailable.” Some have been ...
Created on 11 July 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
419.
Who's zoomin' who?: 'MUTE: A Play for Zoom' is an innovative mix of creepiness and comedy
Nearly every aspect of the economy has taken a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. And while some sectors are listening to politicians rather than medical professionals and preparing to resume business as ...
Created on 22 May 2020
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
420.
Winter Opera unpacks an early Christmas present with 'The Merry Widow'
  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, with a production of Franz ...
Created on 05 November 2016
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
421.
Winter Opera's 'Norma' scales the heights
The great soprano Renata Scotto once referred to the title role of Bellini's 1831 tragedy "Norma" as "the Everest of opera...You want to climb the mountain. You know you are supposed to climb the mountain. ...
Created on 07 March 2019
Article tagged with: Chuck Lavazzi
422.
You'll do anything to hear them sing: 'Ain't Too Proud' at the Fox
“Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations” arrives at The Fabulous Fox trailing clouds of glory—or at least clouds of hype. That cloud includes a dozen Tony Awards, a “Critic’s Pick” listing ...
Created on 25 September 2022
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