A concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin with pianist Olga Kern, featuring Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 and Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony.
Leonard Slatkin returns to the podium at Powell Hall on Friday, April 16, 2027, for a program titled Brahms and Vaughan Williams: Tenderness and Turmoil. He's joined by pianist Olga Kern, and the two open the night with Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1. It's a heavy lift for the soloist—the program notes describe it as demanding everything from sweet tenderness to searing intensity—and it sets a high bar for the rest of the evening.
From there, the focus shifts to the British side of the program. Slatkin leads the orchestra through two works by Ralph Vaughan Williams: the Fantasia on 'Greensleeves', a lush arrangement of the traditional English folk tune, and the Symphony No. 6. The symphony is the real anchor of the second half, and it's the piece that gives the whole concert its title. For this one, Vaughan Williams quoted Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." It's a stark contrast to the Brahms—one a German Romantic concerto, the other a mid-century British symphony—and hearing them back-to-back lets you feel the distance between them.
Slatkin, the SLSO Conductor Laureate, is the one steering the Vaughan Williams half of the bill, so the British music is his territory here. Between the concerto and the symphony, there's a good amount of ground to cover, and the Greensleeves fantasia sits right in the middle as a familiar, melodic bridge.
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There are two chances to catch it: Friday, April 16, at 7:30 PM, and Sunday, April 18, at 3:00 PM. The Friday performance runs about an hour and 50 minutes, including intermission, so it's a full evening of music. Both are at Powell Hall in St. Louis.
