“O fortuna!” Right from its famous opening notes, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana shakes the Stifel to its foundation. Orff’s work charts the course of fate with songs of joy, love, and celebration. Stéphane crafts a first half trilogy of loss and fateful farewell. In Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, pure sounds are as if directly descended from heaven, then Lera Auerbach brings us to the heat of the sun in Icarus. In the Love-death from Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde we end with a salute to eternal love.
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Ying Fang, soprano (SLSO debut)
Sunnyboy Dladla, tenor (SLSO debut)
Thomas Lehman, baritone (SLSO debut)
St. Louis Symphony Chorus
St. Louis Children’s Choirs | Alyson Moore, artistic director
Arvo PÄRT Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Lera AUERBACH Icarus (First SLSO performances)
Richard WAGNER “Liebestod” from Tristan and Isolde
Carl ORFF Carmina Burana