St. Louis Symphony Orchestra – David Robertson conducts Mackey and Snider, and his own …A Joyful Noise…, with pianist Orli Shaham playing Robertson’s Light forming and Leonard Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety. Broadcast live on both Classic 107.3 and on St. Louis Public Radio, and written about here from https://slso.org/plan-your-visit/explore-the-music/watch-listen/#broadcasts.

W. H. Auden (1907-73), author of The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center, North Grand Boulevard, St Louis, Missouri

Just my luck. This mouth-watering concert’s live relay clashed with the equally live Boston Symphony and Blomstedt broadcast. Now the St. Louis evening has appeared under the Listen Again banner on its website. A summary of the evening follows.

I didn’t know that David Robertson (a regular interviewee for me when he was in London for BBCSO and Proms concerts) is also a composer, an intriguing one, too, as the elegantly crafted Light forming – A Piano Concerto demonstrates: one can ‘hear’ the title at various points, as well as numerous contrasts – not least tragedy and loneliness (apologies to the composer if I am misrepresenting his intentions; that said it’s a Covid piece). Written for Orli Shaham, she gave a brilliant and sensitive account of the solo part, the piano-writing itself suggesting Shostakovich. Ending the concert (which had also been performed the previous morning) was Robertson’s …A Joyful Noise… – for the Australian Youth Orchestra – which lived up to its name. Welcoming back Robertson (SLS music director 2005-18), the orchestra (David Halen, concertmaster) played this demanding but winning repertoire with virtuosity, musicality, and commitment.

The concert had started with the likeable Turn the Key by Steven Mackey, rhythmically “gangly”, in seven, written to inaugurate a Miami concert hall, and, following intermission, was the equally listenable Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Something for the Dark, which preceded Leonard Bernstein’s great/wide-ranging/ingenious Symphony No.2 (for piano and orchestra) based on Auden’s poem The Age of Anxiety, given a compelling and penetrating reading by Shaham and Robertson, both veterans of the piece, including from her in Detroit with Leonard Slatkin (also a former SLS music director) and from him in London at the Proms. This was a Happy Families weekend: pianist and conductor are married, as are Mackey and Snider.

Listening link:

https://slso.org/plan-your-visit/explore-the-music/watch-listen

David Robertson, conductor
Orli Shaham, piano

Steven Mackey Turn the Key
David Robertson Light forming, A Piano Concerto (First SLSO performances)
Sarah Kirkland Snider Something for the Dark (First SLSO performances)
Leonard Bernstein “The Age of Anxiety,” Symphony No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra
David Robertson “…A Joyful Noise…” (First SLSO performances)

David Robertson and Orli Shaham bring joy and living composers to Powell Hall

Program

March 6-7, 2026

• David Robertson, conductor
• Orli Shaham, piano

Steven Mackey (b. 1956)

• Turn the Key

David Robertson (b. 1958)

• Light forming – a piano concerto
  • …la musique incertaine de leur voix… –
  • Anfore del cuore –
  • Rounding to Joy

Orli Shaham, piano

Intermission

Sarah Kirkland Snider (b. 1973)

• Something for the Dark
  • The Promise
  • Of Rise and Renewal

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)

• The Age of Anxiety – Symphony No. 2 for piano and orchestra
  • PART I:
  • The Prologue –
  • The Seven Ages (Variations 1–7) –
  • The Seven Stages (Variations 8–14)
  • PART II:
  • The Dirge –
  • The Masque –
  • The Epilogue

Orli Shaham, piano

David Robertson (b. 1958)

• …A Joyful Noise…
• US Premiere

https://www.classicalsource.com/concert/detroit-symphony-orchestra-winter-festival-leonard-slatkin-conducts-american-panorama-3-6-age-of-anxiety-appalachian-spring-adagios-for-strings-live-webcast

Berliner Philharmoniker – David Robertson conducts Varèse’s Arcana, Miroslav Srnka’s Superorganisms, and Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. Live Digital Concert Hall webcast.

My review of the following seems to have fallen off Classical Source, so good to know that Orli captured it…

https://orlishaham.com/press/articles/190906_Classical%20Source.html

Boston Symphony Orchestra & Tanglewood Festival Chorus: Herbert Blomstedt conducts Brahms – Schicksalslied, Nänie, Symphony No.4 – Live broadcast on Classical Radio Boston.