The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra released a new album Friday, its first since 2019 and first with Music Director Stéphane Denève. It is available for streaming and on CD from the Pentatone label, it features works by two famed American composers: John Williams’ Violin Concerto No. 1 and Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”). The soloist for both pieces is Canadian violinist James Ehnes, a frequent SLSO collaborator.
“I’m extremely excited because this orchestra has a great history of doing so many fabulous recordings that really made the name ‘St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’ world famous,” Denève says via Zoom, having just returned to St. Louis from conducting in Berlin and Amsterdam.
Ehnes, he says, “has been a great friend of the orchestra and will continue to be. He’s very well-loved and is a terrific soloist.”
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Like many albums released over the last few years, this one’s production was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The SLSO recorded the Williams concerto at Powell Hall in November 2019, but the orchestra and Ehnes didn’t manage to reunite at Powell to record the Bernstein piece until January 2023.
Denève chose the Williams concerto “because I have a very deep relationship with this amazing man,” he says. “I have to pinch myself because I can say that we are friends. It’s a piece that is very dear to my heart.”
Williams, of course, is best known for his instantly recognizable scores for films such as “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.” among many others. The violin concerto, Denève says, “explores an aspect of John Williams which is maybe a little less well-known.”
The piece was written between 1974 and ’76, soon after Williams’ wife of 18 years, actress Barbara Ruick, passed away. At the same time, Williams was beginning to achieve wide acclaim for his film scores. “This part of his life was very intense,” Denève says. “It’s a piece where he puts, I think, a lot of his personal voice.”
Denève and Ehnes performed it together for the first time with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2016.
Ehnes, Zooming in from Birmingham, England, says that, superficially, the concerto may seem uncharacteristic of Williams’ music. “But when you spend time figuring it out and understanding his orchestration and methods of construction, you begin to see more of the similarities.
“The lyrical language, the melodic language is different than his film music, but I think the emotional text underneath it is maybe more similar. Once you really get inside the music, you recognize his signatures.”
Fun fact: The SLSO premiered Williams’ Violin Concerto — but didn’t record it — in 1981. That was under the baton of Music Director Leonard Slatkin, with soloist Mark Peskanov.
Denève calls the concerto “a very meaningful piece for me, and an act of love and musical devotion to John Williams.”
Williams was actually present for the 2019 recording and worked with the orchestra during rehearsals.
He “made little tweaks here and there, trying to find a way for the music to speak more clearly to the audience,” Ehnes says.
Working with the composer was “super cool. I grew up just idolizing him. His music has sort of been the soundtrack for someone of my generation,” says Ehnes, 48. “He’s just such a revered and respected musician. And as it turns out, he’s an incredibly warm and kind and honest person.
“Because he and Stéphane are such close friends, it was a really nice thing for me to be able to step into that relationship.”
Paring the Williams piece with Bernstein’s Serenade made sense, Denève says, not only because both pieces explore various aspects of love, but also because they are both by noted American composers known for both film and concert music.
The Serenade “is absolutely perfect for the kind of smart, Harvard, bisexual character that (Bernstein) was,” Denève says. “It discusses eroticism and the relationship of love. All of that is certainly fascinating and a perfect subject for Bernstein.”
Ehnes adds, “I have often said that I feel (the Serenade) might be the most successful combination of all of those facets of Bernstein’s personality. The piece is based on this sort of high-minded intellectual idea and ends with, like, a raucous, drunken party. That sort of sums up Leonard right there.”
If you didn’t see the 2019 and 2023 Powell performances that resulted in the recording, you can catch Denève and Ehnes performing them both in the near future. But you’ll have to travel.
They will be performing Williams’ Violin Concerto with the New World Symphony in Miami, where Denève is artistic director, on May 11. And from May 29-June 1, they’ll play the Bernstein Serenade with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
As good as it is that the SLSO finally has a new recording under its belt, the even better news is that there is more to look forward to.
“The orchestra had begun to record a number of pieces, but then COVID happened,” Deneve says. But it’s very exciting for me that we do have some older pieces that will be (released). We are sitting on a pile of really important recordings of composers of today. So this is only the first one and it’s overdue. This is only the beginning.”