Beethoven's Emperor Concerto

Ludwig van Beethoven The Consecration of the House Overture

Moni (Jasmine) Guo the sound of where i came from (First SLSO performances/SLSO co-commission)

Kevin Puts Concerto for Orchestra

Intermission interviews with:

Stéphane Denève, conductor

Christopher Stark, composer and SLSO Live at the Pulitzer curator

Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Live from Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center, this is the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Tonight, music director Stefan Deneve will lead the orchestra in a program that opens with Ludwig van Beethoven's The Consecration of the House Overture Opus 124. The concert continues with Moni Gasmond Gwall's The Sound of Where I Came From and Kevin Putz's concerto for orchestra. After intermission, the concert will conclude with Beethoven's piano concerto number five in E-Flat Major Opus 73 Emperor, featuring pianist Pikinger Olafsson. Good evening. I'm Rod Milam and welcome to another live broadcast of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's 2025-26 season on St. Louis Public Radio and Simulcast on Classic 1073. You can listen to us online, see a copy of tonight's program notes, and much more at stlpr.org slash symphony. During our intermission, we'll have a chance to speak with Stefan Denev, SLSO Live at the Pulitzer curator and composer Christopher Stark, as well as Vikinger Olafson. Right now, we'll have a chance to speak with our commentator, Lauren Eldritch Stewart. Good evening, Lauren.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Good evening, Rod.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

And Lauren, why was the first work on tonight's program, Beethoven's The Consecration of the House Overture, written? Also, what was being consecrated?

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Although you might be tempted to think of a church or a cathedral as the likely candidate, the real answer was a theater. The consecration of the house was pieced together from fragments of Beethoven's prior work to celebrate the reopening of the Joseph Stadt Theater in Vienna in 1822. Beethoven had already written incidental music for a play titled The Ruins of Athens, which opened the Royal Theater in Pest, Hungary a decade earlier. However, the commissioners at Josephstadt wanted something fresh for their opening. Beethoven responded with something new that sounded much older. Stephen Lebbetter cites Anton Schindler as writing in his memoirs that Beethoven here took the opportunity to fulfill his long-cherished idea of writing an overture in the style of George Frederick Handel, who, together with Wolfgang Mozart and J. S. Bach, was high in Beethoven's pantheon. Late in his life, Beethoven was heard to describe Handel as the greatest composer that ever lived, and a 40-volume edition of Handel's works was one of his most cherished possessions. Listen here for dramatic bursts of sounds that immediately precede a dignified courtly passage. The contraponal work that follows is also a marvel, and the momentum of the piece gradually picks up in a way that brings the listener to a breathless end. The Consecration of the House also has the distinction of being one of the last works that Beethoven publicly conducted.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

He also programmed it as the opener to the 1824 Vienna Benefit concert when he premiered his Ninth Symphony.org slash Symphony. You're listening to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra live from Powell Hall on St. Louis Public Radio and online at stlpr.org.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

The St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, under the direction of its music director Sam Hollister, will perform a concert Sunday afternoon at 3 in Powell Hall. The program includes Kevin Putz's Hymn to the Sun and Gustav Holtz's The Planets. Sopranos and Altos from the St. Louis Symphony Chorus will join the orchestra for The Planets. And another note about that youth orchestra, retired St. Louis Symphony Orchestra bassoonist Felicia Folan recently donated a rare contraon to the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, expanding access to an instrument students typically cannot afford. The gift fills a long-standing gap, allowing young musicians to rehearse and perform more advanced repertoire. The instrument's journey, purchased by Folan in 1981, circulated locally, and later reacquired, reflects a full-circle moment of mentorship, ensuring future generations benefit from some of the same opportunities that shaped her career. You can read more about Felicia's story at slso.org slash stories.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Also, now on display through March 29th at the Jaxie Taylor Music Center is a collection of artwork by students throughout the region. The artwork is from the SLSO's annual Picture The Music program, which asks students to listen to a piece of orchestral music and then interpret it through visual art. You can check all of that out, and all you have to do is come to the Taxi Taylor Music Center at Powell Hall here in St. Louis. Let's talk about our composer who was coming up first, Beethoven. You may have heard of him. He was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, and died in 1827 in Vienna, Austria. The first performance of this piece was on October 3, 1822, at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. The first SLSO performance was back in 1968, Walter Suskin was conducting. Now we have the entrance of Stefan Deneve, the music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and time for our first work of the evening, Ludwig von Beethoven's The Consecration of the House Overture Opus 124. This is the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on St. Louis.

SPEAKER_06 16:04

Good evening. Bonsoir indeed. Actually, it's been more than half a year now that we are back in our beloved and improved our role at the Jacques Fellow Music Center, and I hope that like all the musicians of your centre with Symphony Orchestra and I you feel now at the home, do you? So this is indeed your musical home, your musical house. And uh when we planned this season, we thought it would be very appropriate to start a program with a rare overture by Beethoven that you just heard of the consecration of the house. And we start with Beethoven, we'll end our concert with more Beethoven, we can't have enough with the Emperor Concerto, the Viking Concerto, played by our dear friend, the one and only iconic mechanics uh Viking O'Laperson with a great friend because he also actually toured with us in Europe and has a fabulous deck on this concerto. You will see that. But uh in between these, uh if I may say kind of uh better Bettonian sound uh we'll have um uh music that will prove to you, I hope, that uh our art form uh has a future and that a lot of great pieces are written today. So pieces now by uh leading composers who actually are not only alive but actually with us uh uh tonight. And we'll start first with uh a piece of which is uh in collaboration with the Tooling Foundation Commission for Orchestral Music, um which is supporting and promoting uh women composers. And it's a piece by Moni Jasmine Guo called The Sound of Where I Came From. And I would like to welcome on stage Moni Jasmine to tell us more about this before, please. And this beautiful piece has many true motives that are very or very special to you. Can you explain about it?

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Good evening, everyone. I'm Moni Jasmine Cole. So the inspiration of this piece was home, which you can probably tell from the title. But what does home really mean? To me, it's my grandma and our most precious memories together. And for this piece, I transcribed how my grandma would call my nickname in the dialect of my hometown, Taiyuan, which is a city in northern China from the province of Shenzhen, and how I would respond also in the dialect into musical pitches. So how she would call me is and you already hear that dotted rhythm. That is little money. You will hear it a lot. And how I would respond is low, low. So you hear the greatest note motive of the and that means grandma in the dialect. Both motives are everywhere in the piece. Sometimes it's more obvious, sometimes it's hidden in a long melody. Sadly, my grandma has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's for over 10 years, so she can no longer say my name. But her voice and her memories continue to live in me, and now you get to hear it too. I hope you enjoy.

SPEAKER_06 20:26

We have some new members joining for this piece and then uh perform for you indeed the sound of Where I Came From by Money Jasmine Gua.

Moni (Jasmine) Guo's the sound of where i came from

SPEAKER_01 20:39

As Stefan Deneve has mentioned, we're about to hear our next piece of the evening, and we also heard from Jasmine Gua herself, the composer. She was born in 1993, Taiyuan Shanxi Province in China. First performance of the piece was in 2025 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The first SLSO performance. Tonight, we're going to have three flutes, three oboes, three clarinets, three bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, and more. Here's our next piece of the evening. We just heard Moni Jasmine Gwall's The Sound of Where I Came From, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was led by music director Stefan Deneff.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

And after a bit of recognition for Principals David Halen, also for Principal Cellist Danny Lee, and also Principal Realist Beth Gudeman, too. Stefan invited the entire orchestra to arrive. Composer Mona Jasmine Guo has once again attended the stage and the podium. And is taking a vow for her beautiful composition. And actually Guo and Macha Deneve are sharing a bit of applause.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Lauren, we expect to hear from Stefan Deneve and Kevin Putts, who has the work that's coming up next. But can you tell us about Kevin Putz and his relationship with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra?

SPEAKER_03 31:54

I sure can. So Kevin Putz is the SLSO's composer in residence. Earlier this season, the SLSO commission House of Tomorrow received its premiere with Joyce Di Donato. And last week, the SLSO performed Contact, his concerto for Time for Three. In the coming weeks, the SLSO will perform more music by Putz. Virlet, after Guillaume de Machau, features in the classical season finale, May 8th through 10th, and home at the Contemporary Art Museum on May 19th.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

It looks like now we have the entrance of Stefan Deneve and Kevin Putz to the stage here on St. Louis Public Radio with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

SPEAKER_06 32:32

Please welcome Kevin Futz. Composer in residence is here and writing with a lot of different technicians than the piece before, which gives us a few minutes actually to uh speak with you, which is a pleasure with the channel so many instruments over there. So I think you're composer in residence, but actually giving you actually at some point in your life, you were a resident here.

SPEAKER_04 33:11

Um definitely, and well it's the same joke as last night. I lived here till I was 10, so you can't uh ask me what high school I went to. There you go. So but uh I feel very close to this community, and my uh you know, my first uh experiences with with music, with loving orchestral music and classical music were here and my first attempts at uh you know improvising uh orchestral sounds on the piano, my grandmother's piano uh were here in St. Louis. So it's uh it's very meaningful to have had this residency with one of the great orchestras of the world this year.

SPEAKER_06 33:45

And we thank you for a fabulous piece we wore from the edge of September the House of Tomorrow, which is typically the house of today. And uh last week we played another piece which I also love from Euro Contact. I don't know if some people were here with time for three last week. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. And uh interesting, this piece starting with uh so a repeated phrase of five notes and this piece, the cross of orchestra we play now, is uh da da another five note piece. There is another piece called Da T Da Da Da Five Note, but not from you, right? Not from you. No, no, not from you. But what do we we have?

SPEAKER_04 34:36

That's by that's by your friend John Williams, who you're always bringing up and making me jealous, but because he's so great. But I don't know what it is with a five note. It's not intentional, but I will say that uh increasingly I like to think of an idea that begins a piece that is very uh simple and melodic and memorable so that the audience, hopefully you will uh hear it and remember it, so that when it returns at the piece and I play with it in different different ways, you'll know what I'm doing. So I think Beethoven had the same thought. So um that's very meaningful to have so much Beethoven on that.

SPEAKER_06 35:08

Well definitely uh what Beethoven did as well and and uh you are the same, you just use it as quick, let's say, yeah, and uh and create uh a catalog of sound just uh uh composing it, developing it all the time, which is good. So it's called a riframe, and it will come in between each movement for me a little bit like if it was uh like the picture at an expedition, you know, like this uh this riffrain that we hear wandering and so what do you want to say in between uh just uh I mean uh you know the uh for you get so tired of writing like a three-movement piece that has a fast movement and then a slow movement and then a fast movement.

SPEAKER_04 35:46

And so for this piece, I actually originally had planned like 10 or 12 movements. I didn't get that far. There are six. But uh even that is kind of a lot to ask, the journey of six movements. And so for this refrain, I sort of uh bring it back at various moments to sort of ground ground the listener and think, okay, I've been I've been there before, and now let's take another journey.

SPEAKER_06 36:08

And it is a concert of orchestra, which is uh a very special genre. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 36:13

So uh what did you want to contribute in this? What I wanted to contribute was a piece that celebrates what this orchestra can do that I've gotten to know over the years, and so uh really it's kind of DNA as a as an ensemble, which is a hard thing to articulate and to explain, but it's just a feeling that I know this orchestra, I know the energy of the various sections and the way that they combine, I know the playing of various principles. So when you hear uh solos by principal cello and uh violin and oboe and and and bassoon and clarinet and piano, they are four of these people that I've gotten to know. So it's wonderful to hear them play it, very meaningful for me. And during these pieces, uh maybe there's also uh a quote uh actually. There's a little quote. Uh I'm not sure you'll notice it. It's um in the last movement. There's a little tiny moment that is a quote from the marriage of Figaro by Mozart. It goes by very quickly, and every time it's performed, I look around the audience to see if anybody's nodding their head. No one ever does. So maybe tonight there's a hope. It was in the movie Amadeus, anyway.

SPEAKER_06 37:22

So yeah. It's very touching actually because we became dear friend, if I may, reveal uh over the years and add a reveal, reveal. Okay, let's go for it. And and and we bought it actually very early in a common test we have uh on many, many different music, um some Barop music of Ba that we love, some uh Bjork, for instance, the album of Vesper Time that I love and that you love too. And and also one particular moment in the not the figaroe that we both loved at the best moment ever. It's not this moment, but it's another moment. So uh so it's very touching that you uh included this this motorcycle quote indeed for a piece definitely written for this orchestra. So uh thank you very much for being with us, for writing this amazing music. We all love you, I love you, and enjoy indeed uh I will tune again, by the way. And uh enjoy your piece, and I hope you will love it too. Consert of orchestra bye. Kevin Putz, thank you very much. Thank you.

Kevin Puts' Concerto for Orchestra

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Kevin Putz, born right here in St. Louis in 1972. The first performance of this piece and the most recent one by the SLSO were on January 21st and 22nd of 2023. Instrumentation as the orchestra tunes, we have three flutes, including one doubling piccolo, two obes, English horn, three clarinets, three bassoons, one doubling contrabasson, also four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, a tuba, timpani, an awful lot of percussion, harp, piano, doubling chelesta, as well as strings as we just heard them tune up. We will now hear Kevin putz's concerto for orchestra as music director for the Sinkless Symphony Orchestra, Stephon Denav comes back on the stage and remounts the podium. Listening to the Signless Symphony Orchestra. You just heard Kevin putz his concerto for orchestra. The State World Symphony Orchestra was led by Stefan Dunette.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:06

And an immediate solo bow for principal keyboard is Peter Henderson. And now you've invited the entire orchestra to arrive. And I can see Stefan Lev gesturing for Composer Kevin Foot to come on stage. And composer Kevin Foot is taking a hand of the back of David Halen. I'll talk to Captain Baster Aaron Friday.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

And uh Stefan is always fond according to the score after uh a lot of composers, but he has a living composer. Two of them here tonight.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:04

Right there two. He has invited us cards once again. Also, festival keyboarders. Also, festival over the one at the door. Now five to go forward. And a lot of love for the percussion section. They've really got to work out in this. Also the trumpet section. And the trump bones and the trumpet also the form. Now and divided. How do you ban on? A lot of love for Andy Tio and the phone. And now still finally. Also the face does. Now the yellow. Love for the viola and the second violin. And now finally, after David Halen and the first violin section. And they clap and Stefanov and Kevin Futter once again out at the podium and are taking another bow. And even though he has a live composer here, Stefan Deneuve has picked up the score and is gesturing towards it to applaud the work. They are now exiting the stage.

Interview with Stéphane Denève, SLSO Music Director

SPEAKER_01 1:05:36

A reminder, you can follow along at home with your own program notes by going to stlpr.org slash symphony. During our intermission, we'll have a chance to speak with Stephon Deneve, Christopher Stark, as well as Vicinger Olafson. My name is Rod Milam along with Lauren Eldritch Stewart, and you're listening to a live broadcast of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra here on St. Louis Public Radio. Live from Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center. This is the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. My name is Rod Mylam, along with Lauren Eldrich Stewart, and along with all of us is music director for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. His name is Stefan Deneve. Good evening, Stefan, and bravo in the first half of the concert.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:16

Thank you. What a great energy you have. I hope it's thanks to the music.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:19

It's of course thanks to the music. And what you do frequently, we've noticed, or I've certainly noticed, is you point to the score after you finished a piece, and you're usually pointing to the person who wrote it. That person has long since passed, but you have two living artists, two living composers tonight. Do you have an affection for composers in general? And do you find it different getting to talk to people who are actually alive to hear their pieces perform?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:45

Yes, yes, and yes. So actually, I really, really, really love collaborating with composers that are alive because uh you can be part of this amazing process of giving birth to a piece, and that's what we did two years ago with that one. And now it was even better to come back to it and to be able to uh to dig into it and and try to find more layers, more just uh substance inside. And uh I'm always frustrated that I cannot call Beethoven or Mozart or whatever, just like hey Ludwig, actually why you you know, and here you have a chance to do that with really, really great composers of today. So uh I feel very privileged. It's certainly the most exciting part of my artistic life is collaborating with great creators.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:31

Have you been a composer yourself? Because I see that you have this affection toward. Have you what have you composed? What have you been?

SPEAKER_06 1:07:36

I composed a few songs, mainly uh to try to seduce some girls I was in love with. So what can I say? I think if you do that, it means you're sensitive, but not a composer. A composer is somebody, in love or not, who's every day feels the urge to be in front of a white page and uh with sales and actually write music on it. So it's fascinating actually. It is really something that all the great composers that I know personally have, is that they just cannot do anything but write music all their life. And uh, my very dear friend John Williams actually is doing still that every day at age 94.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:16

And how did you put this together with these living composers that you have affection for? And Beethoven, like you said, you're unable to ring them up on the phone or do a FaceTime call with them.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:26

No FaceTime with Beethoven. But uh no, I don't remember exactly in which order this program came together. What I know is that we really wanted to bring back the Conchor for Orchestras. I think that came. And then Viking O'Reillon was free, and I think at some point we thought about maybe a Brahms concerto, but then it changed to the Emperor Concerto, and then I had this idea of making a a Betoven sandwich indeed with this ouverture. That was the last on the programme, the ouverture. And I have to admit, it's the very first time I conducted the consecration of the house, and I'm absolutely falling in love with it. I think it's an amazing piece, really very special.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:03

And it's been a long time since the symphony performed it, I think goes back in 1984. But let's get to the next work that's coming up. And I actually had a chance to speak with the performer, Vikinger Olafsson. You have been able to work with him, he was on tour with the orchestra. What does he bring to the Emperor Concerto that we're going to hear after this intermission?

SPEAKER_06 1:09:22

Well, he brings really his unique vision. He belongs to um the very rare interprets that really recreate a piece. It's fascinating because can you imagine how many times this Emperor Concerto has been performed? Yet it's possible to make it fresh. And that's what he does. It's very spontaneous. I tell you, I will stay very awake because he changes things last second. He looks at me with this kind of uh demonic angel face. Like, did you like that? That was different, right? And I'm like, oh okay, I have to go with a ride. It's uh it's a real roller coaster. He is so free on stage. It's beautiful to see somebody that captures the essence of the moment. And so it's always a journey with him. I really know how it starts, but not how it ends.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:11

Well, so that you can get ready for whatever's about to happen uh with Vikinger Olafson, I'll let you go. Thank you very much for being with us. We're looking forward to the second half of the concert.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:20

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:21

Have a good night. All right, and that's Stefan Deneuve, music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:26

Aaron Ross Powell And joining us now is SLSO Live at the Pulitzer Curator and composer Christopher Stark. Good evening, Chris, and welcome to our studio.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:34

Thanks. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:35

So you're in your third season as curator of Live at the Pulitzer. How are you enjoying the role?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:40

Oh, it's a dream. I mean, to get a chance to, you know, I think about contemporary music all day, every day. It's one of my favorite things to do is listen to music and listen to sort of new contemporary classical music. And to get to sort of program chamber music for this orchestra, which is full of just absolutely fabulous world-class musicians, and to get to do it in the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, which is an incredible world-class museum or gallery, it's just an absolute dream.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:05

The final concerts of the series take place April 8th and 9th, as I understand it. And also the foundation is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The program reflects that. Could you tell us a bit about the works and how you chose them?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:18

Yeah, so in the spirit of this 25th anniversary, the sort of founder of the foundation, Emily Pulitzer, actually drew a sort of exhibition of her own work and also take drawing from things that have been exhibited at the foundation before through the 25-year history. So we thought we'd take that same approach with the programming of the music because the Live at the Pulitzer series has been going on for about 20 years, and we looked back through the years to try to find some sort of greatest hits and sort of put those together. And it's great to have such an icon like Emily Pulitzer in the community who supports this and also is just an incredible curator to get to go see her sort of take on what she calls dialogues and conversations between all this artwork that sort of spans, you know, about a hundred years, and to get to sort of think about all the great music that they've programmed through various curators at that series and try to place a sort of program that sort of weaves that together was really exciting.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:12

So speaking of great music and looking ahead to next season, you've been commissioned by the SLSO to compose a violin concerto that Associate Concertmaster Erin Schreiber will perform with the orchestra. It's titled Vesper Flights. And I understand that it's inspired by the love that both you and Erin have for nature.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:30

Yeah, so Erin I've gotten to know fairly well over the last few years. And a few years ago, she reached out to me about a project that she was doing in Forest Park with a scientist from St. Louis University, where they were sort of looking at urban and rural bird populations. And we got to talking about maybe writing a piece sort of inspired by this. And that sort of took the shape of kind of this eventual sort of idea of a concerto that could be inspired by this. The name of it, Vesper Flights, is such a musical term because it uses the title Vespers, which is sort of, you know, from Gregorian chant and sort of a long history of sort of liturgical music. And then also this idea of a swift, which is a does this thing called a vesper flight, where they sort of through various points in the day, dawn and dusk, fly, you know, 6,000, 8,000 feet up into the sky to sort of get their bearings. And so thinking about the violin being this kind of you know soaring creature in the orchestra that reflects all these different passions that we have about nature and birds, and sort of getting to score that out with the orchestra and make this piece is really exciting.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

Definitely looking forward to hearing it. It's a busy part of the semester, and you're also an associate professor of composition at Washu. I understand Kevin Putz came to campus yesterday, worked with some of your students in your studio. What was that experience like for them?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:43

Oh, incredible. I mean, you rarely get an opportunity to get to bring in somebody who's just at the very height of their game as a practitioner, as a composer, to work with your students. And they have so much information. Someone like Kevin has so much information at the tip of his brain because he's working through it all day, every day right now. You know, he's such in demand as a composer. So when a young composer, and we have actually a lot of really great young composers at Washi right now, get to show their work, he can just immediately diagnose, you know, about the orchestration or about the form or the way that the sort of the narrative unfolds or how they're using chords and harmonies and melodies, and just give them so much quick information that's so valuable, and then just those students take that and they just run. It's like they grow up like 10 years in the course of an hour.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:27

Well, the SLSO's current season contains a number of works by living composers. Do you have any favorites?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:33

Well, I mean, I love Kevin Putz. I've loved Kevin Putz's music since I was uh undergraduate at the University of Montana. You know, but there's been so many interesting pieces this year. I mean, the Berg violin concerto is not a new work, but still very contemporary. I thought that was one of the most moving performances I've seen in a really long time, a couple weeks ago at the symphony. But I'm just thrilled that they program so much contemporary music and that they have a real sort of like commitment to that, which is, you know, a lot not a lot of orchestras do. And I think that we're really lucky to have that in our community, that sort of commitment to contemporary music that this orchestra has always had, and it's invaluable for composers to have that opportunity and invaluable to our art form to sort of continue to create new things to keep it living.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:14

I couldn't agree more. Thanks for coming to chat with us, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:17

Thank you so much for having me.

Interview with Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

SPEAKER_03 1:15:18

That was SLSO Live at the Pulitzer curator and composer Chris Stark. The final live at the Pulitzer Concerts for this season take place April 8th and 9th at 7:30 p.m. at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation on Washington Avenue.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:31

Now, after a rehearsal yesterday, I had a chance to sit down with tonight's featured soloist pianist Vicinger Ole Son. I mentioned the last time he played in Powell Hall was in 2023. That was on the eve of the European tour he and the SLSO did. But I also asked him what it felt like being back in the renovated hall.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:49

It's funny, you know, it feels like yesterday that we played the Greek concerto and toured it in Europe, and it was a beautiful tour. But I guess it's three years ago. But I think it's quite remarkable to see what's happened here in just three years, or I guess it took only two years to build the extension to Powell Hall. And I have to say congratulations. Usually you hear stories in the world where, you know, something that's supposed to take two years ends up taking seven, and then another five are added, and it's like a in the end, it's like a 15-year process. And I came here, and you know, Marie Helen, the president of the orchestra, she was showing me these drawings, just we were embarking on the tour, and I thought it's so impressive. But I when she told me two years, I just thought, yeah, you're gonna say it's not gonna be two years. But she was totally right, and it was only two years, and I mean it's incredible. And I was just playing earlier this week in Carnegie Hall, and to come here to Powell Hall, it's similar feeling. It's a great hall, timeless, incredible beauty, and that's all been preserved in the hall itself, and then you have a very happy orchestra and a happy institution, you know, organization working here behind the scenes. Congratulations on your new studio where we're sitting currently, you know, everything's feeling very optimistic here.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:58

After those eight days with the SLSO where you were on tour, what did you learn about the orchestra itself and Stefan Deneve? Because it's not often that you get to play for an extended period of time like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:09

That's right. I do orchestra tours, and whenever I do those, it just strengthens the bond. And you feel differently, and you start to know your clarinetist and your flutist, and you know, all the kind of soloists inside the ensemble. Stefan, of course, I've known him for quite some time. But touring is still it brings people even closer together. But we are very, very good friends. So it was a thrilling tour. We played the Greek concerto in quite a few different places, and I remember it being exciting in every concert.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:41

Since you're playing one of the most beloved uh works that's in the entire repertoire with the orchestra, do you have a preparation that's different for something that's very well known compared to something that's new, like John Adams after the fall?

SPEAKER_05 1:17:53

Yeah, you mentioned John's concerto, he just wrote for me, there's a new piano concerto after the fall. I think you have to approach new music as if it's old music and old music as if it's new music. When you're playing a piece of music, you have to somehow get to that stage of real creation. I think that's how, in my opinion, the great performances are sculpted. You know, if you translate that into acting, like theater acting. I think there are two types of actors. There's the actor who is always a little bit outside the role, who's just acting the role and saying the right words in the right tone at the right moment, you know, in the right rhythm. And then there is that actor who becomes the role, and you cannot during the performance distinguish between that actor and the role. And you know, you see that on stage, you see it on film, those are the memorable ones. I'm drawn to musical performers and classical music who have the courage to sort of become the role. And that's a different role every night. But working with someone like John Adams or, you know, living great composers, that actually strengthens that opinion because the composer, he's written something down and you have the ink on the page and it seems very set in stone, sort of so to say. But once you're actually with the composer, the composer himself or herself, they don't always know how things are supposed to go. And it goes differently from hall to hall, orchestra to orchestra. You play a note here in Powell Hall, and you're having a conversation with so many things. You're, you know, if you're playing betafin, you're having a conversation across the ages with Betafin, the only form of time travel that I've known to work. You're certainly having a conversation with the musicians in the orchestra and the conductor, of course, of the orchestra. But you're also having a conversation with yourself and wherever you are on your path. But more than that, you're having a conversation with the structure of the building. You know, you press a note on the piano in Powell Hall and it shoots, you know, the vibrations of the strings vibrating over the soundboard of the piano. They shoot to the end of the hall, to the back of the hall, and they come back to you, and that's the feedback and that's the dialogue, and that will then inform your tempo, your colors, your petal, your everything, you know, the way everything you can do on the piano. And I'm just starting a very long list here. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:01

That was tonight's featured soloist Vikinger Olafsson. I had a chance to speak with him yesterday. Our concert continues with Beethoven's piano concerto number five in E-Flat Major Opus 73, Emperor, featuring pianist Vikinger Olafsson. So, Lauren, does this concerto actually have anything to do with an emperor or not?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:19

Rod, it does not. Now we have every reason to believe that Beethoven would not have appreciated that particular nickname for this work. Although at one point in his life he was a fan of Napoleon Bonaparte, who would have been a contemporary emperor, by the time Beethoven wrote the fifth piano concerto in 1809, Bonaparte's military moves were complicating the composer's musical moves. In fact, as early as 1804, Beethoven erased the name of the French Emperor and effectively his tribute from the Third Symphony, titling it Heroica instead of Bonaparte. There are a few reasons why this English language title may have been appended to the concerto. One tale features a French army officer listening to the premiere in Vienna. Another features the composition circulation in England. But a particularly solid reason is the geopolitical landscape of war and conflict that Beethoven composed through. Perhaps we can hear triumph in a conclusion to war in the work because it's what Beethoven would have hoped for: a resolution that would allow a return to peace and the ability to plan and progress. That resolution wouldn't allow a return to normalcy, however. Beethoven's life had already undergone irrevocable changes, changes that are reflected in this composition. This was the first piano concerto that he did not premiere himself. His deafness had progressed to a point of inhibiting public performances. As a result, this is the first of the concertos to include a fully written solo cadenza in the first movement. That change would go on to alter the ways in which concertos were composed. It shifted common practice from the expectation that soloists would create their own cadenzas to the routine provision of cadenzas by composers. It's said that Beethoven put a note in the piano score instructing the soloists to use the cadenza provided without alterations. This work has three movements Allegro, Adagio Mpocomoso, and Rondo. The first, Allegro, evokes a militaristic feel by including marches and grand gestures. The second, Adagio Mpocomoso, expresses a sense of religious devotion. The third movement, rondo, is a tension-relieving, joyful dance.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:29

You're listening to a live broadcast of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on St. Louis Public Radio or online at stlpr.org. You can see a copy of tonight's program notes and a complete listing of SLSO broadcasts by going to stlpr.org slash symphony.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:45

A few more words about our soloist. Vikinger Olofsen is one of the most celebrated classical artists of our time, a unique and visionary musician who brings his profound originality to some of the greatest works in music history. His recordings resonate with audiences worldwide, reaching over a billion streams and winning numerous awards, including the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, BBC Music Magazine Album of the Year, and twice receiving Opus Classiques Solo Recording of the Year Award. Other notable honors include the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, Rolf Schott Music Prize, Gramophone Artist of the Year, Musical America Instrumentalist of the Year, the Nordic Council Music Prize, and the Order of the Falcon, which is the highest honor awarded by the Icelandic state, as well as the Icelandic Export Award given by the President of Iceland. Olofson released his latest album, Opus 109, in November 2025, and this season he is touring the program widely, bringing it to the great concert halls throughout Europe and North America. Last year, he toured the U.S. with the Philharmonia Orchestra and returned to the Czech Philharmonic with Antonio Papano. Earlier this year, he reunited with John Adams and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for performances of After the Fall, a concerto written for him, as well as marking the Jorgi Kurtag Centenary celebrations. Following his concerts in St. Louis, he returns to the Bilern Philharmonic with Simeon Bychkov and will appear at Mopa Budapest and as artists in residence at Cal Performances in Berkeley, California. Also of note, Vikinger Olofson played a recital Thursday evening in Powell Hall, featuring solo piano music by Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert, the same works that are on his Deutsche Grammophone recording Opus 109. The title comes from Beethoven's Opus 109 sonata that concludes the recording.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:53

We now have the entrance of Stefan Deneve, who is the music director, and of our guest soloist tonight, Vikinger Olafson. We're getting ready for the last piece of the evening. Beethoven's piano concerto number five in E flat major Opus 73, Emperor, here on St. Louis Public Radio.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:26

In other words, I'm not going to be able to do that. You want to play it inside and then at the end to give it a comment to play and give it to the student. I think I take a container for the words. And I'm going to play for you a very play for you a little uh oboe converter of Martin. Hello, Alejandro Martin. Hello. I converter for the keyboard. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 2:12:11

That well and out there offered by the overstone of the box transcription of the over control and D minor uh Alexander Matero. The second movement, the value. And after much of the long and all of a sudden having exited the stage, he has now re-entered the stage. And it's sitting back down.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:22

Recall of the birds.

SPEAKER_03 2:15:39

Once again, like the second out or after that, I guess I was even getting that all the time.

Encore: Víkingur Ólafsson's arrangement of J.S. Bach's Air on the G string

SPEAKER_01 2:15:47

The audience once again very appreciative of that performance defined. Amongst the authors didn't take in that on four, that second and the first on four as well. Everyone on your feet out of the audience here at Alhaw. Stefan is now uh welcoming and beckoning for Vicky or Olafton to come back out for a third vow in front of this very appreciative audience on this Saturday evening here in State World. Uh one more because uh let uh dare want you to buy your tomato arranged to buy tonight's cannot.org. You can hear a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra tomorrow afternoon at 3 at Powell Hall. More information is available about that at slso.org. Tonight we heard the following works: Beethoven's piano concerto number five in E Flat Major, Opus 73 Emperor, featuring pianist Vikinger Olafsson. We also heard Kevin Putz's Concerto for Orchestra. Before that, Moni Jasmine Wall's The Sound of Where I Came From, and we began the evening with Beethoven's consecration of the house overture Opus 124.

SPEAKER_03 2:22:11

You're invited to join St. Louis Public Radio for the next live broadcast of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra two weeks from tonight, Saturday, April 11th. Music director Stefan Deneuve will lead the orchestra in Carlos Simon's Double Concerto, featuring violinist Hilary Hahn and cellist Seth Parker Woods, and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5. That's the next live broadcast of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Saturday, April 11th at 7 30 p.m. on St. Louis Public Radio.

SPEAKER_01 2:22:38

We invite you to share your thoughts about our live broadcast of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra season. You can find us online at stlpr.org and on social media to search for and like the St. Louis Public Radio Facebook page. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra broadcast is produced by Mary Edwards with audio engineered by Kyle Pike. Additional assistance is provided by Yvonne Frendel, Kevin Putz, Paul Schiavo, Greg Montaneux, Eric Dundan, Ida McCall, Maggie Bailey, Ethan Chapin, Dino Belasi, Madeline Painter Tala, and Alex Rice. Also, a special thank you goes to all the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Local 2197. Live broadcasts of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, our production of St. Louis Public Radio.

SPEAKER_03 2:23:19

I am Lauren O Disney George.

SPEAKER_01 2:23:21

And I'm Rod Milan. Please join us again in two weeks.