“The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra doesn’t usually have full-blown classical concerts after the season officially closes in early May,” writes Sarah Bryan Miller in Thursday’s (6/20) St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri). “At this time of year, the orchestra has been divided into two splits to serve as the pit band for Opera Theatre of St. Louis.… But there they were on Tuesday night, music director David Robertson and the full orchestra … playing a serious orchestral program with a major soloist to a full house.… The occasion was the annual conference of the League of American Orchestras; most of the audience came from the member organizations. Between Robertson’s often-brilliant programming and the orchestra’s exquisite execution, the SLSO was in the spotlight…. [John Adams’s] ‘Doctor Atomic’ Symphony, co-commissioned by the SLSO and spectacularly recorded by them, has become their signature piece. With a packed stage of players, including a battery of percussion stretched across the back, they rocked the house in a spot-on performance of this modern masterpiece. The League’s only other visit here was in 1966; St. Louis has now hosted them as often as the Chicago Cubs have won the World Series. With a performance like Tuesday’s, it shouldn’t be another 47 years before they return.”
Posted June 21, 2013
