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Beethoven's Pastoral · St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Concert Rebroadcasts

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Live from Powell Hall at the Jack C.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor Music Center, this is the St.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight, music director Stefan Deneve will lead the orchestra in a program that opens with George Walker's Folk Songs for Orchestra.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: The concert continues with Samuel Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915, Opus 24, featuring Soprano Julia Bullock.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: After intermission, the concert will conclude with Beethoven Symphony No.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: 6 in F major Opus 68 Pastoral.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Good evening.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rod Milam and welcome to another live broadcast of the St.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra's 2026-27 season on St.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio and simulcast on Classic 107-3.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can listen to us online, see a copy of tonight's program notes and much more at stlpr.org slash symphony.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: During the intermission, we'll have a chance to speak with Stefan Denev, SLSO concertmaster David Halen, and Julia Bullock.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Joining us right now is our commentator, Lauren Eldritch Stewart.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: A very good evening to you, Lauren.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_04: Good evening, Rod.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, Lauren, the first work on tonight's program is a suite entitled Folk Songs for Orchestra.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight's featured soloist is not due on stage yet, so there won't be any spoken or sung words.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us about what we should be listening for instead?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_04: I sure can.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_04: George Walker originally titled Folk Songs for Orchestra, Spirituals for Orchestra, so we can look to the movement titles for easy clues.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: Going to lay down my sword and shield is a line from Down by the Riverside.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: A refrain from the spiritual tells the listener they ain't gonna study war no more, but the next movement, named And They Crucify My Lord, seems to counteract that intention.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: Less a direct quotation of Were You There, this movement captures the anguish of betrayal and violence.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: The third movement, My Lord, what a morning, offers quick relief from the second.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_04: The morning depicted here is peaceful and wondrous.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_04: The spiritual from which the movement's title is drawn exclaims, My Lord, what a morning when the stars begin to fall.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: The work ends with old Peter Goringdom Bells, and it's every bit as jubilant as you might expect it to be.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: Like several black composers, George Walker drew from a wide range of lived experiences and musical genres to transform these spirituals into an orchestral arrangement that tells a familiar story.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_04: He stands alone, however, in his approach to this idea, and he wrote that his goal was to set these melodies in an interesting way in a respectful orchestral manner.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_04: They are wonderful melodies.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_04: The four spirituals are quoted intact, which is an unusual procedure for me because I am much more in the habit of using only snippets from various sources of pop tunes or folk songs.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_04: The focus is to frame these melodies in a miniaturistic fashion.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_04: They should be easy for the listener to identify.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_04: Whether or not you find it easy to identify the spirituals quoted, and I, for the record, find them to be a little elusive, this work is interesting enough to tell a story on its own.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: Walker's life was full of first and honors.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_04: Born in 1922 in Washington, D.C., he was a distinguished concert pianist who was admitted to Oberlin at age 14, would go on to study composition at the Curtis Institute, and was the first black recipient of a doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: As his performance opportunities were limited by racial prejudice, he eventually pivoted to composition and an influential teaching career, holding posts at many schools, including Dillard University and Rutgers.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_04: Four years after premiering Folk Songs for Orchestra, he would become the first black composer to win the Pillator Prize in Music for Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can see a copy of tonight's program notes at stlpr.org slash symphony.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the St.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra live from Powell Hall on St.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio and online at stlpr.org.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: This season, the SLSO has appointed five new musicians, and we talked earlier about Principal Tuba Bridget Conley.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_04: Joining the orchestra as Associate Principal Trumpet is Amri Barack, who is no stranger to the SLSO, having spent the 2023-24 season in St.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: Louis as acting second trumpet.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: Barack returns from the Kansas City Symphony, where he served as associate principal and second trumpet.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_04: Earlier in his career, he became principal trumpet of the Allentown Symphony at just 19 years old.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_04: He has also appeared as a guest musician with the Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_04: Louis Symphony Orchestra.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: An alumnus of the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, Barack studied with David Bilger, Barbara Butler, and Charles Geyer.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: Both Barack and Bridget Conley have solos in our first work.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And speaking of our first work, we're getting ready to get started today.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: The orchestra is tuned, and we now have the entrance of music director Stefan Deneve.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: As he addresses the audience, our first work tonight, George Walker's Folk Songs for Orchestra.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Bonsoir to all of you indeed.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh thank you.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, all the petitions of your St.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Louis Symphony Orchestra and I are delighted that you decided to spend your Halloween evening with us.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing too spooky, I'm afraid.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: But don't worry, he's very friendly.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: So what we can promise you for sure is lots of musical trick, from the musicians, and beautiful melody, and you don't have to tell a joke for it.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll also offer you uh hiring and walk in the natural time to uh you as a composer Beethoven.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: And okay, that's all I don't have more.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and it's a path or symphony.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe a few jumps here in the storm, but that's all we have.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what is really special with this symphony is that this is this is the only symphony of Beethoven in five movements instead of four, and also the only Beethoven symphony with uh programmatic titles uh for each movement.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, what is uh the most touching is that uh this symphony I think reveals a child like a sense of oh AWE of natural and uh uh maybe even uh genuine knife uh handoness uh of Beethoven, which is not usually a quality associated with Lutheran Beethoven.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: But you will have more of this high-like quality and handoness also in the first part of our concept, thanks to Barber Masterwork the Noxville September of 1915.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh here to sing the very poetic world of Jen A.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, figuring the the peaceful life of a six-year-old right before he will lose his father in a counter crash.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: We have actually a world-star singer who is from Saint Louisa because Julia Buller born and raised here in the Weapons of World and just uh everywhere in the world singing, recently in the Paris Opera, even.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh now to start our concept a piece by uh George Walker, who was called at first spiritual orchestra for four songs.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really know why, because you will indeed recognize uh the four spiritual quality in each movement, and somehow I think his piece connects very well with the piece of barber because they actually had the same uh composition feature Rosario Sacalero in Curtis, and they have a really a very distinctive way for both of them to use the orchestra in a beautiful American way.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: I really hope you will enjoy these pieces of four songs and also be enjoyed with orchestra, and I wish you a great evening.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: The next beast we'll hear the orchestra perform is named Knoxville Summer of 1915.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: But first, Stefan Deneve has come back out on the stage.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's grabbing the score, holding it to his chest, and asking everyone to applaud for it.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's a big move by Stefan Deneve.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: He does that frequently, doesn't he, Laura?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: Not that often, so this is a really special acknowledgement of the quality of Walker's score.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: So let's move on to our next piece that we're going to hear the orchestra perform Knoxville Summer of 1915.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: That is by Samuel Barber.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Lauren, are we to presume that the composer had a connection to this place?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: Not exactly.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_04: Knoxville, Tennessee was the hometown of James A.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: G., the author of the essay Knoxville Summer of 1915.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_04: This essay was a precursor to his autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family, which was awarded.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1958, three years after the author's sudden death.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_04: The book describes the repercussions of the death of the character representing A.J.'s father.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: But the essay, which is included in the final book as a prologue, takes the form of a prose poem that describes an idyllic yet temporary childhood and innocence.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: The composer Samuel Barber served in World War II, and when he came back home to Westchester, Pennsylvania, both his father and aunt were ill.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_04: The themes of A.J.'s essay resonated with him, as well as with Eleanor Steber, the soprano who commissioned and premiered the work.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_04: She hailed from Wheeling, West Virginia, and the poem's text, which blends observations about nature with family relationships, also appealed to her.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_04: So, the connection to Knoxville is more about the type of childhood reflection than the actual place.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: Tonight's guest soloist, Julia Bullock, has recorded Knoxville's summer of 1915 on her 2022 album Walking in the Dark.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, Barbara's work was the conceptual centerpiece of the album, a point that Bullock makes in the liner notes.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_04: She describes the programming process, writing that we were sitting in an empty airport restaurant waiting, and it had been eight months since we shared music in front of a live audience.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: Up until that point, we made music for ourselves or recorded virtual offerings from our apartment living room on our upright piano.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: So it was special for Chris John, my partner, and I to collaborate on this first concert experience with a large symphonic work like Samuel Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: But I was tense traveling.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_04: This was before the COVID-19 vaccination.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: In order to get my mind off of it, I decided to look over album ideas once again.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_04: I had been through seven drafts already and was frustrated.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_04: Chris John said, Julia, what if you anchored the album with longer orchestral pieces?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_04: I hadn't even considered the idea because during the pandemic, I was looking for ways to economize Forces Needed.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: But all the words and themes resonating through Knoxville were immediately on my mind.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_04: Dreaming, distance, history, home, searching, loss, memory.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_04: And within 15 minutes, I selected the seven tracks for this album.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see a copy of tonight's program notes, including the Texas of Knoxville Summer of 1915, at stlpr.org slash symphony.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the St.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra live from Powell Hall on St.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio and online at stlpr.org.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: We now have the entrance of our soloist, Julia Bullock, and Stefan Dev.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting ready for our second work of the evening.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Samuel Barber's knocksville summer of nineteen fifteen open twenty-four.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is St.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_07: Switching the body talking covers the child of strawberry pistol and starch in a tallest and a horseman square with clouds and huge.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_07: It's my tackle and personality.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_07: Still is in fix laughing.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_08: Like the voices of sleeping.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_07: One is an artist, he is living at home.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_07: One is a musician, she is living at home.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_07: One is who is my father who is good to me.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_04: And after the music director Stefan DeVoe, nothing after the ball.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you all so much for being here.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_05: What a wonderful and warm welcome back to St.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_05: Louis.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_05: My name is Julia, by the way.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_05: There are many traditions, different kinds of traditions that inform the fabric of American classical music.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_05: Some of that music is infonic music, two wonderful pieces that you just heard this evening.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_05: Another tradition, though, that we have in America is singing very openly about liberation and revolution.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_05: And even though I currently reside in Germany, I'm very much looking forward to voting here in St.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_05: Louis with this.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_05: I hope you are too.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_05: It could also be described as a twentieth century spiritual.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_08: This is I wish I knew how it would feel to be free with my ability to be called easy.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_08: I wish I could say all the things that I should say.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_08: For the whole wide world to hear.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_08: Remove all the bars that keep us apart, and I wish you could know what it means to be me.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_08: Then you deceive and agree every man should be free.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_08: I wish I could be like a bird up in the sky.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_08: How sweet it is.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_04: I wish I knew how it would feel to be free when I generate the hands of the retail.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_04: The luck is now exiting the stage among enthusiastic moments, not just from the audience, but also from members of the orchestra.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_03: Some are happening, some waving their things and now to the stage has members behind the door to the final and the center of the stage.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: A reminder you can follow along at home with your own program notes.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is go to stlpr.org slash symphony.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: During our intermission, we'll have a chance to speak with Stefan Denev, David Halen, and Julia Bullock.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rod Milam, and you're listening to a live broadcast of the St.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra on St.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: Live from Powell Hall at the Jack C.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor Music Center.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is the St.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rod Milam, along with Lauren Eldred Stewart.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_04: And joining us now is music director Stefan Deneuve.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_04: Good evening, Stefan.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_04: And bravo on the first half of the concert.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: Good evening.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was a great emotion, actually, to be on the stage with such a great artist.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love Julia Bullock.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_04: How transcendent.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_04: So how did you arrive on the theme of home for this concert?
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there are different ways to approach uh the unity of this program, but I thought indeed that it was inspired by her going back home to sing Julia.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, well, actually, nature was home for Beethoven, you know.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: He was very humanist, humanistic, but uh I think he was sometimes disappointed by by people, and and I can totally feel that his heart was belonging to nature.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought as well that uh the spirituals that inspired George Walker were also a way to define what home can be.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_04: I definitely get that sense of that theme, that really strong unity in the theme.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_04: But speaking of The Walker, so the Symphony hasn't programmed these folk songs since they premiered in the 90s.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_04: What led you to include that?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_04: And do we have any more George Walker works to look forward to?
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: During the COVID time, I discovered a piece because we searched for pieces for small ensemble, and so I I looked at lots of pieces for strings, and I discovered a piece called Lyric for String, which is really so beautiful, so gorgeous, and I performed it, and then I was inspired by that to look further, and I I discovered many other pieces that George Walker wrote, and this one is something that really touched my heart, so I thought, okay, I would like to program it, and I thought it was the right occasion.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_04: I'm so glad that you did.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, have you worked with Julia Bullock before?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, which is incredible, and what is even more incredible is that she's doing her debut with the Saint Louis Sippin' Orchestra.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: She sung for the opera, but not in Power Hall with the orchestra, which is really honestly insane.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: Way overdue.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh so it's great.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know Julia since many years because uh she's married to a conductor, actually, called Christian Reif, uh German conductor who was the conducting fellow at the New World Symphony.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: And therefore, I met him when he was my assistant at the New World Symphony.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: I met her as well, and finally we make music together, and I think she was so wonderful, and the way she was phrasing was so deep.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, beautiful artist.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: Now she also recorded Knoxville somewhere of 1915 and 2022.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_04: Is the way that you prepare a work in any way impacted when an artist that you're working with has recorded the work before?
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: Of course.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I listened to this recording very carefully because it's an act of love between her husband who is conducting the Philharmonia in London and her, and also because it's interesting the way she does it.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it is sung by people with singer with a lighter floating voice, and she has actually a very strong medium register, and so I was curious to see how she will deal with all the high floating notes and how to I could help her with that.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I what I did in listening to her beautiful recording, which I recommend.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, now we're about to let you go back to the stage, but before you do, what would you like the audience to take away from your performance of Beethoven 6?
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: Ah well, Beethoven 6 is a companion for life.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's really something that cleans your palate, that really helps you to remove some possible stress.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_01: And uh in a time where, you know, there is so much worries about the future and political troubles and etc, etc.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think just to reconcile with the beauty of nature is something that is everyday important.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this symphony will, if it can give people the feeling that they they just want to turn off their phone and just go for a walk in nature, I think we would have been successful.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, right, all right.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_04: Is it your favorite Beethoven?
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's very hard to say because it's too many great symphonies.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_01: I just did uh in Miami the ninth symphony just a few weeks ago, and it is also an incredible masterwork.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_01: What I know is that um there is not enough of a lifetime to enjoy Beethoven.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: I really it's uh it's incredible.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_01: And every time you do it, you're confronted with where you are in life.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is really another companion for life.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're lucky.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: We're never alone with Beethoven.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_04: We're never alone.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you so much for coming and sharing with us.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_04: We'll let you get back to it.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the pastoral symphony.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_04: After the intermission, Stefan Deneve will lead the orchestra in Beethoven Symphony No.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_04: 6 in F major, Opus 68, Pastoral.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: And joining us now is SLSO concertmaster David Halen.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the broadcast booth, David.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's great to be here as always.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: So opening the concert was George Walker's folk song for orchestra.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any particular challenge for the orchestra in playing music that was originally sung?
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, actually, I found that to be such an interesting work and that I had not done it before.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it really is kind of a very interesting take on those spirituals and those melodies, which uh some of which I I recognize.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: But he presents it in such an unique light and with sort of these twists of orchestration and color.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I found it really, really enjoyable, a a new discovery, as it were.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's it's not often recorded either.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought Stefan brought a lot to the work, and uh it's rather it was kind of definitive, this performance.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's tonight's performance, but to backtrack a little bit, every summer you participate in the Aspen Music Festival in school.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any highlights that you can share about that experience?
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm oh my god, there's so many.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, this was my 25th year of going there, so it was kind of an anniversary of sorts.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the thing I recall most is being on the stage with huge numbers of people because we have a limitation here in that we have a stage of a certain size, and also they're all professional musicians, and when we're at in Aspen, many of them are students.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: So if we do a bear leader or Rick, we can have 50 brass players, for example, and we will do that, or an eight harps.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's the the numbers are kind of unlimited.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and one piece that I did there that I just comes to mind is Schoenberg's Görleader, which I'd never played here, or never played in my entire life, because partly because it's by Schoenberg, and no one will come to the concert, right?
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's the it's uh that's less sort of a way to get people not to come, even though it's the most tonal of his works, it's very early and very, very beautiful and exciting.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_02: But also it requires large numbers of performers, and that was really probably of a lifetime uh one of the most unique experiences.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, what I like about Aspen is if you're playing Mahler's Fifth Symphony, for example, 90% of the musicians on the stage have never played it before, and so you sense the discovery.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that that's very palpable, and and it's really fun to be a part of that because you know I've played it many times, but I feel like it's new again when I'm around people that are surprised by the visceral experience.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to all of your experiences with the Aspen Music Festival for 25 years, you're also the artistic director of the Missouri River Festival of the Arts in Boonville.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that important to you?
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, because I grew up in Missouri and um in the middle part of the state, and we just celebrated our 50th anniversary of this festival, actually, and I've been doing it for over 20 years.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Leonard Slack and conducted that anniversary uh concert.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_02: We usually do three performances in Thespian Hall in this beautiful historic opera house that was built in 18 around 1850.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so unique that something like that even exists and that has survived uh the test of time.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a beautiful acoustic.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I've always been very thankful for my upbringing in the I was thinking of it actually during this Barber summer of Knoxville because uh in a way I feel like that was kind of my my life growing up in a small town in many ways.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_02: Fortunately, I didn't lose my father to a car accident, though.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's good.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're the chair of the strings at the University of Michigan, and it's obvious you value education.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: You've even spoken about it tonight.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: And tomorrow evening, the SLSO is going to perform the annual Extra Credit concert, where area music educators are going to perform with the orchestra.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: And in previous concerts, they were for instrumental teachers, but this year choral music teachers are going to perform with members of the two SLSO courses.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, from what I understand, you will be the concert master.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us why this concert was so valuable?
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, because actually the teachers that we interact with are really they're on the front lines of what is so important in helping the next generation.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel like that, you know, there's a certain point in life we reach where we need to be thinking about what kind of legacy you do you leave?
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_02: And those those individuals are so crucial to the future of this art form, which which I've been so fortunate to be a part of.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I want to support that in every way we can.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: And is there anything that you're looking forward to with the rest of the season that you can mention?
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, interestingly, it's like I'm always sort of one step ahead.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_02: I um I I've spent a good part of my day today preparing the concert for next week where we'll have uh Daniel Trifonoff play Rachmanov first piano concert.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I've played with him a few times at Aspen actually over the years, and and he's a phenomenal artist.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_02: And and um comparing that with the Tchaikovsky Apathetik Symphony is is an incredible juxtaposition.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and so I'm really, really looking forward to that one in particular.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: If if there are still seats available, I recommend you anyone try to get a ticket as quickly as possible because it may sell out.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's likely will sell out.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you need to get back to your seat on stage as quickly as possible.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: We have the second half of the concert.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: Looking forward to that as well.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us uh right now.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's David Halen, who is the SLSO concertmaster.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_04: And joining us now is tonight's featured soloist, Soprano Julia Bullock.
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome!
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_05: Bravo, your performance.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_04: So you're making your debut with the full St.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_04: Louis Symphony Orchestra.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_04: What's it like singing in your hometown?
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_05: Warm and lovely.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, of course, I I have heard this symphony over years.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_05: I think my first time uh was maybe in second or third grade while attend you know going to a class concert, um, sitting way up in the balcony.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_05: Um and it's so interesting when, you know, even though I I started my studies and got inspired to sing here, singing at the Muni most of all, and also at the Black Repertory Theater, but to, you know, take the these many, many years away, um, traveling the world and then returning um singing for family and friends actually just feels tremendous.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I was in the hall yesterday and I was sitting right in front of a lot of high school students.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_04: And the enthusiasm.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know that I've heard them that enthusiastic about a singer.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_04: You've mentioned a little bit about your earlier music training, but um also theater of St.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_04: Louis's artists and training program.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_04: You participated as a high school student.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_04: Fast forward three decades, you returned to opera theater, but this time starring in Terence Blanchard's Fire Showed Up in My Bones.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_04: Could you tell us a bit about how growing up in suburban St.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_04: Louis helped shape your future career?
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_05: Webster Groves, I guess it is no secret that it was one of the most segregated parts of St.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_05: Louis.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_05: I grew up living right on the side of the railroad tracks.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that the sort of straddling of cultures, actually, is what it felt like in a way, is something that I have sort of had to negotiate with and um grapple with for a lot of my life.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_05: But in making music, and I think also just finding the strength in my own voice and also trying to find a way to feel fully incorporated with all aspects of my identity has been a really healing process.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_05: So, yes, actually being growing up in St.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_05: Louis certainly shaped some of the music that I have chosen to sing over the years, and some of the messages also that I want to share with people across the world.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_04: Let's talk about tonight's work, um, Knoxville Summer of 1915.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_04: You performed it on your Grammy-winning debut solo recording.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_04: What drew you to this work and what makes you come back to it?
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_05: Well, this is one of the most graceful, great American classics in the symphonic repertoire, written for a soprano.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_05: The balancing of illumination along with grief is something that I find really interesting.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_05: Also, it's just one of these works that has been recorded by so many extraordinary women.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_05: Um commissioned, in fact, by an American soprano, Eleanor Stieber.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_05: So it just feels like an honor, honestly, to contribute my voice to it from time to time.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_05: And so we hate to have to let you go, but we do.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_05: But before we do, where are you headed next and where will you perform?
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_05: I'm heading to Boston and then Cleveland.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_05: I'll be singing actually Knoxville again in Boston, and then I'll be singing a work by Benjamin Britton called Les Illuminations in Cleveland.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, that sounds wonderful.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you so much for one sharing your artistry, but also coming and sharing a bit more with us in the broadcast booth.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_04: It's my pleasure.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for having me.
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_04: That was tonight's featured soloist Julia Ballock.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: Our concert tonight concludes with Ludwig van Beethoven's symphony number six in F major, Opus 68 Pastoral.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, while Beethoven worked on both the fifth and sixth symphonies at the same time, and both were premiered in the same concert, they bear little resemblance to each other.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, the fifth is intense, beginning on a dark note in C minor with a figure said to represent fate knocking at the door, while the sixth lives up to its title, Pastoral, reflecting Beethoven's love of nature.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_04: He composed much of it in the summer of 1808 when he spent time in the countryside outside of Vienna and was especially influenced by the long walks he took in the Austrian countryside.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_04: In the program, when the symphony was premiered on December 22nd, 1808 in Vienna, it was listed as a symphony entitled Recollection of Country Life in F major.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_04: But Beethoven also warned that it was more of an expression of feeling than a painting.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_04: As Stefanineve mentioned, the sixth is the only of Beethoven's nine symphonies to have five movements, and to which he prescribed a program.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_04: Each of the five movements bears a descriptive title.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_04: The Allegro Monontropo opening movement is a titled Awakening of Cheerful Feelings on Arriving in the Country and begins with a sunny phrase that is heard repeatedly throughout the movement.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_04: The Andante Moso's second movement is titled Scene by the Brook and evokes a tranquil, rustic scene.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_04: Years later, while on a walk in the countryside outside of Vienna, Beethoven told his biographer Anton Schindler, Here it was that I composed the scene by the brook, and the yellow buntings overhead, the quails, the nightingales, and the cuckoos composed with me.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_04: At its opening, the murmuring of a brook is heard in the second violins and violas.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_04: In an instrumental cadenza at the end of the movement, Beethoven actually marked the bird songs in the score.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_04: The flute is the nightingale, the oboe is the quail, and a pair of clarinets represent the cuckoo.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_04: The Allegro third movement, Merry Gathering of Country Folk, describes a festival complete with a rustic band, such as Beethoven heard at the Tavern of the Three Ravens outside of Vienna.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_04: The Allegro fourth movement, Thunder Storm, appears without warning.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_04: A tempest is created by the growling low strings, while the piccolo portrays the wind, but the storm vanishes almost as quickly as it began.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_04: The Allegretto finale, Shepherd's song, Happy and Grateful Feelings After the Storm, continues without pause.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_04: The song is first suggested by the clarinets and continues in the horns before it is taken up fully by the violins.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_04: The entire movement seems to be a joyful hymn of thanks that comes to a gentle conclusion.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_00: A reminder that you can follow along at home with your own program notes by going to stlpr.org slash symphony.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_00: There you can also find a complete listing of this season's broadcasts.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the St.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra live from Powell Hall on St.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio and online at stlpr.org.
• 1:05:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ludwig van Beethoven, born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, and died in 1827 in Vienna, Austria.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_00: The first performance of the Sixth Symphony was December 22nd, 1808.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: The composer was conducting at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_00: The first SLSO performance was December 16.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_00: The most recent performance was October.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_00: Instrumentation for the Roman has been a little bit of a nap has now taken to the podium our final word.
• 1:49:28
  SPEAKER_00: We just heard Ludwig van Beethoven's symphony number six in F major open sixty eighth pastoral.
• 1:49:34
  SPEAKER_00: This single symphony orchestra was led by Stefan Denar.
• 1:49:38
  SPEAKER_04: And after Stephen Hands and David Hill, and after Consumer and Friday.
• 1:50:03
  SPEAKER_04: And now we have the re-entry of Stefan Bonneau.
• 1:50:06
  SPEAKER_04: He's moving through the first violins and giving some acknowledgments.
• 1:50:11
  SPEAKER_04: So we have flutist, Calvin Maimon, also Principal Ovo, Elena Dirt, Principal Clarinettist, Scott Andrews, and also Principal Vassoonis, Andrew Cunio.
• 1:50:25
  SPEAKER_04: Now all of the whirlwinds are on their feet.
• 1:50:29
  SPEAKER_04: And now all of the horns, the trumpets, a little love for the trombones, and our tympanist.
• 1:50:42
  SPEAKER_04: And now he has reached out to the basses, the double basses, and had them rise.
• 1:50:48
  SPEAKER_04: And also the two principal cellists, and then now all of the cello section, the violist, some love for the second violins, and a smile.
• 1:51:02
  SPEAKER_04: And now the first violins.
• 1:51:05
  SPEAKER_04: So the entire orchestra is on their feet.
• 1:51:13
  SPEAKER_04: And he is mouthing the words thank you and taking a deep bow at the podium.
• 1:51:20
  SPEAKER_04: Music director Stefan Deneuve is now exiting the stage.
• 1:51:32
  SPEAKER_04: And those bows are moving in the orchestra.
• 1:51:38
  SPEAKER_04: And so now he has bowed once again to David Halen.
• 1:51:43
  SPEAKER_04: And has taken another bow at the podium, invited everyone to rise once more.
• 1:51:54
  SPEAKER_03: And blowing kisses.
• 1:51:55
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't often blow kisses, but he's blowing kisses tonight.
• 1:52:00
  SPEAKER_00: He seems exceptionally pleased with this performance.org.
• 1:52:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight, we had the chance to hear the following works: Beethoven Symphony No.
• 1:52:22
  SPEAKER_00: 6 in F major, Opus 68 Pastoral.
• 1:52:25
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, Samuel Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915, Opus 24, and we began the evening with George Walker's Folk Songs for Orchestra.
• 1:52:35
  SPEAKER_04: You're invited to join St.
• 1:52:36
  SPEAKER_04: Louis Public Radio for the next live broadcast of the St.
• 1:52:39
  SPEAKER_04: Louis Symphony Orchestra, one week from tonight, when Stefan Deneve will lead the orchestra in Michael Tilson Thomas's Agnogram, Sergei Rogmaninoff's piano concerto number one in F sharp minor opus one, featuring pianist Daniel Trifonov and Piotr Ilyach Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.
• 1:52:58
  SPEAKER_04: 6 in B minor, Opus 74, Patik.
• 1:53:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's the next live broadcast of the St.
• 1:53:04
  SPEAKER_04: Louis Symphony Orchestra, one week from tonight on St.
• 1:53:07
  SPEAKER_04: Louis Public Radio.
• 1:53:08
  SPEAKER_00: We invite you to share your thoughts about our live broadcasts of the St.
• 1:53:11
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra season.
• 1:53:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can find us online at stlpr.org and on social media.
• 1:53:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just search for and like the St.
• 1:53:19
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio Facebook page.
• 1:53:21
  SPEAKER_00: The St.
• 1:53:21
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra broadcast is produced by Mary Edwards with audio engineered by Kyle Pike.
• 1:53:26
  SPEAKER_00: Additional assistance is provided by Emma Playall, Paul Schiavo, Greg Monteneau, Eric Dundan, Maggie Bailey, Calvin Hinton, Gino Belasi, Madeline Peter Tala, and Alex Rice.
• 1:53:37
  SPEAKER_00: Also, a special thank you goes to all the musicians of the St.
• 1:53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra and Local 2197.
• 1:53:44
  SPEAKER_00: Live broadcasts of the St.
• 1:53:45
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Symphony Orchestra, our production of St.
• 1:53:47
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Public Radio.
• 1:53:48
  SPEAKER_04: I am Lauren OJ Stewart.
• 1:53:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Rod Mylam.
• 1:53:51
  SPEAKER_00: Please join us again next week.