Review: Nice off-the-beaten-path program from St. Louis Chamber Soloists

In classical music programming, the same composers and works tend to pop up repeatedly, across all genres, from opera and symphony orchestras at the largest scale all the way down to chamber music and solo performances.  Things have evolved somewhat in recent years with classical repertoire and programming, driven in part by sociopolitical factors, where compositions by female composers and composers of color have attained an increased, if still comparatively small, presence.  But even within the standard canon of DWM classical composers, there’s much room to expand the range of concert offerings, to feature less familiar works by established names, or works by composers at the next tier of familiarity.  For their concert this past Sunday night (September 22) at Wash. U.’s 560 Music Center, in the Pillsbury Theater side space, the St. Louis Chamber Soloists nicely did both these things in a program of less-frequently heard works, with one well-established composer on the roster, and two composers on perhaps that next level of familiarity.

The well-established composer on the program was Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), whose Tenth Symphony for Strings began the concert.  Mendelssohn, quite the musical prodigy, wrote his twelve Symphonies for Strings before age 14.  The Tenth lasts about 12 minutes, falling into three sections played without pause.  Though not as melodically indelible as his much-loved and highly popular (and thus over-programmed, if understandably so) Octet, op. 20, his Tenth String Symphony is very good for a teenager under 14, and worth hearing.  Cellist Ranya Iqbal then welcomed the audience and talked about how she and the leader of the first violins, Holly Huelskamp, had the idea to form a conductor-less string orchestra in Columbia, MO back in the day.  This ensemble became the MU Chamber Soloists, which still performs today.  When Iqbal and Huelskamp reconnected in St. Louis, it seemed logical to do something similar here, which they did in 2021.

The next selection was the concert’s largest work, the "Serenade for Strings," op. 6, by the Czech composer Josef Suk (1874-1935), and thus a 150th anniversary commemoration in a year of several such classical music anniversaries (e.g. Gustav Holst, Charles Ives, Arnold Schoenberg), and one of the very few such Josef Suk commemorations by regional classical music organizations to my knowledge.  This is a very good-natured work that deserves greater popularity, with a terrific opening tune that stays in your head after hearing it once, and holds its own alongside the much more famous "Serenade for Strings" by his father-in-law, Antonín Dvořak.  One notable feature evident from experiencing the work live, as opposed to listening to a recording, is to see the use of mutes in the third movement.  Some scrappy ensemble moments were audible in the finale, given that the ensemble’s modest size of 13 players clearly left individuals more aurally exposed.  

The ensemble closed their just about hour-long program with two selections by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959).  The first was the opening movement of his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, the ‘Preludio’, which is scored for strings alone (the full work’s remaining movements include other, non-string orchestra instruments).  The players’ body language loosened very notably for this selection and their style sounded more extroverted.  This made for a good ‘upbeat’ to the second Villa-Lobos work, his Chôros No. 1, originally composed for solo guitar, but heard here in an arrangement for string orchestra by Luigi Rago.  Perhaps in homage to the original, the central section features all pizzicato (plucking).  This made for a happy closer, as something of a built-in encore.

The St. Louis Chamber Soloists did a good job throughout, keeping in mind that none of these works are standard fare.  For that very reason, this was the kind of program that classical music organizations should do more often.  One other example from the St. Louis Chamber Soloists earlier this year was this imaginative program this past April, where the audience didn’t even number a dozen people, admittedly on a sunny Sunday evening just before Tax Day.  For this most recent concert, the crowd was happily closer to 50.  Programs of less familiar works do require musicians who are willing to learn them, and audiences who are willing to go beyond knowing what they like and liking what they know.  With these kinds of programs that stretch the classical programming box a bit, the St. Louis Chamber Soloists deserve bigger audiences.