Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

St. Louis, meanwhile, has always been seen as the Seabiscuit of symphonies. With its fiercely loyal players -- some of the world's greatest among them -- the orchestra is known for its elegant sound, subtle blending and flexibility. On any given night, the SLSO stands shoulder to shoulder with the world's greats. On some nights, the St. Louisans will tell you, they surpass them.

"The kind of music-making that happens in St. Louis is one that is absolutely remarkable on a human scale," marvels incoming music director David Robertson, reached by phone in Aspen, Colorado. "There is an understanding of what human beings bring to the musical equation that you don't find in a lot of other orchestras -- and I mean worldwide. There's an openness toward the emotional content that is very special in St. Louis. Music is a communication between human beings, and that's something St. Louis does at a world-class level."

The St. Louisans' signature sound can be traced to the tip of one man's baton: Leonard Slatkin.

Brash, charismatic and undeniably American, Slatkin imprinted on the orchestra a distinctly contemporary contour. Almost from his arrival in 1979, Slatkin's high-profile public persona and impassioned conducting style endeared him to audiences locally and abroad. Under his direction the symphony recorded reams of critically acclaimed CDs, garnering six Grammy Awards.

• KBIA Classical 24--University of Missouri-Columbia
  
• KFUO FM Classic 99
  
• KOPN 89.5 FM, Columbia--Community Radio including classical music
  
• KXMS, Joplin--Public radio from Missouri Southern State College
  
• KRCU, Cape Girardeau--Public radio from Southeast Missouri State University
  
• KUMR, Rolla--Public radio from the University of Missouri, Rolla
  
• KXTR, Kansas City--the last remaining commercial classical music station in Missouri

American Analog Set’s Andrew Kenny was also attracted to the working style of both science and music. He started a graduate program in Biochemistry while playing and touring with his band. In an interview with Junkmedia he says:

“(…) you spend a lot of time by yourself and you have to keep a lot in your head, like, an experiment that takes days is a lot like recording and mixing a song over a couple of days. And, knowing at any point, if you decide to cut corners it will only end up detracting from the end result”

If you look up to the colossal rockface of the Höllengebirge, which towers hundreds of feet above the lake, you can get a sense of why Mahler found this site so inspiring . . .

From Bruno Walter's memoir of Mahler: "I arrived by steamer on a glorious July day; Mahler was there on the jetty to meet me, and despite my protests, insisted on carrying my bag until he was relieved by a porter. As on our way to his house I looked up to the Höllengebirge, whose sheer cliffs made a grim background to the charming landscape, he said: 'You don't need to look — I have composed all this away!" The rockface became the introductory theme of the Third Symphony, the unison chant for eight horns, which he dubbed in one sketch "What the rocky mountain tells me."

The Metropolitan Opera (or the "Met", as it is known to many) is perhaps the most well-known and beloved opera company in the United States, and possibly, the world. The website is a mirror onto the world of the Met's numerous opera productions, its history, and the overall portrait of this delightful melding of words, emotions, and song. Visitors will want to start by perusing the "Discover Opera" section of the site, where they can read plot synopses of Met productions and also look through a entertaining interactive exhibit that covers the Met's history from 1883 to 2004. Here they will learn when the production of Salome offended polite New York society, and continue on to learn about the tenure of Rudolf Bing. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the site is the Met Opera Database, which give users access to information on every single performance at the Met since 1883, complete with statistics, photos, and set designs.