Saturday, April 11, 2026
Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center, North Grand Boulevard, St Louis, Missouri
But for the six-hour time difference, and me giving in to sleep, I’d have heard this concert live, so following the few days until the performances appear on the St. Louis Symphony’s website in its “Listen Again” section, here are a few words. This was the second of three presentations of this programme.
“Labels are important, and Carlos Simon’s new work carries an unusual one, almost without precedent: Double Concerto Suite. It combines the dynamic of a double concerto—two soloists interacting with each other and with the orchestra—with the multi-movement structure found in Baroque dance suites. In fact, much of this work’s lineage can be traced to the 18th century, even though Simon’s musical language is firmly in the present.“
Carlos Simon’s half-hour SLS co-commission through-the-looking-glass back a few centuries for a dance suite for two soloists, playing violin and cello, reinstated Hilary Hahn and Seth Parker Woods to their roles following mutual withdrawal from the National SO premiere, a protest against the Trumpism happening at the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), the performance(s) there falling to NSO principals (I believe). Simon’s music is attractive and fluent, lively and bristling, sometimes eloquent, certainly American – Gershwin-esque in the fourth movement(-cadenza-Finale, they could be trimmed a little) – with the soloists exemplary in their sympathetic projection and rapport, handsomely backed by a colourful and busy SLS.
SLS Music Director Stéphane Denève went on to conduct Mahler Five, impressively played, heralded by a commanding trumpet solo (ditto the third-movement horn obbligatos), quite flexible/sectional in Denève’s approach (the unpredictability keeping the listening ears on guard) , yet the five movements’ moods and motifs were made integral to the whole, vivid and volatile, rough-hewn, Denève not seeking added-on beauty, save perhaps in the strings-and-harp Adagietto (taking a long time to arrive and then unfortunately with something amiss in the opening measures presumably due to the editing process), played with lustre and intensity, also inwardness (David Halen, concertmaster). The Finale was a romp, ending joyously.
Stéphane Denève
Hilary Hahn, violin
Seth Parker Woods, cello (SLSO debut)
Carlos Simon Double Concerto Suite (First SLSO performances/SLSO Co-Commission)
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5