The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra explores Prokofiev and Connesson with cello soloist Johannes Moser, conducted by Stéphane Denève.
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is at Powell Hall on Saturday, February 6, and Sunday, February 7, for Prokofiev and Connesson: Myth and Mischief. It's a program that pairs a few well-known names with some less-familiar territory, and it's conducted by Stéphane Denève.
The evening opens with Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse macabre, a piece that's hard to mistake: rattling bones and the devil's harmonies. From there, the focus shifts to the cello, with Johannes Moser taking the lead on Guillaume Connesson's Cello Concerto. Connesson is a contemporary French composer, and this concerto plays with innovative textures and soundscapes he says were inspired by the earth and the cosmos. It's the kind of piece that lets you hear the cello do things it doesn't usually do in the standard repertoire.
The rest of the program is a mosaic of Sergei Prokofiev's dance music. You'll hear selections from his Waltz Suite and his Scythian Suite, which together offer glimpses into Cinderella's castle, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and the evil spirits of Slavic mythology. It's a broad sweep of his work, from the courtly to the primal, all in one night.
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If you're coming on Saturday, the concert starts at 7:30 PM and runs about an hour and 50 minutes, including intermission. Sunday's performance is at 3 PM. After the show, the SLSO hosts its After Party in the lobby—a post-concert hang that doesn't require an extra ticket. It's a good excuse to stick around and talk about what you just heard before you head home.
