Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

When it rains, it pours: On the one hand, you have Bruckner, Brahms, Beethoven and more; on the other, you have Hungarian music times three. The long drought has been broken for new recordings by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. . . .

The Vonk recordings are the first of eight; the remaining four will be released in the spring. Vonk, who died in August 2002 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), listened to tapes of his concerts with the orchestra in his last months, and chose the performances for this project. . . .

Meanwhile, a group of Symphony musicians rescued a fine recording with Leonard Slatkin from undeserved oblivion.

In the early 1990s, Slatkin and the St. Louisans made four or five recordings each year for RCA. In 1992-93, they made some that were never released. RCA was bought by BMG, which was bought by Sony; then the project was killed.

But the musicians recalled those recordings . . . "Some of us remembered they were fine recordings," says Marc Gordon, the orchestra's retired English horn player. "We thought it was a shame they were never released."