SLSO conductor and Music Director Stéphane Denève
A popular holiday tradition returned to Powell Hall as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra took to the stage for their annual New Year’s Eve Celebration.
Absent from their home for two years, until the Jack C. Taylor Music Center opened last September following a $140 million renovation to Powell Hall, the orchestra continued their 146th season with a bombastic fête that rang in the new year.
The program highlighted the musical connections between France and the United States, a subject familiar to Stéphane Denève, the Joseph and Emily Rauh Pulitzer Music Director. Joining the orchestra was internationally acclaimed pianist Katie Mahan, who has previously performed with the Prague Philharmonia, Colorado Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, and the Cheyenne Symphony, among others.
Leonard Bernstein’s Candide Overture began the evening. Composed in 1956 for a comedic operetta based on Voltaire’s work, the piece opens with a fanfare before settling down into a lively melody. This bright piece was the perfect opener for the last evening of the year.
Selections from the first two suites of Bizet’s L’Arlésienne followed. It was a refined work with wonderful moments from the string section. It opened with the atmospheric Carillon, which led into a lamentful Adagietto.
The composition undulated playfully before Denève brought everything home with the bold and brassy Farandole, a showstopper that movedwith the speed of a freight train. Guiding this evocative piece, the maestro threw himself into it, resulting in a kinetic performance that left the audience dazzled.
Next came selections from Gaîté Parisienne by Jacque Offenbach. Written in 1866 as an operetta, the SLSO took a brassy and sassy musical journey through the city of lights.
Selected as the closing piece for the program’s first half, Gaîté Parisienne was a triumph. Rousing and exuberant, the symphony opened with a gallop before hitting its stride with a bouncy Polka section.
Firing on all cylinders, Denève and his musicians masterfully transitioned into the sensual Barcarolle before taking the audience on a breakneck trip that delivers them to the stomping Can-Can, which brought the sound of Montmartre nightlife to St. Louis.
The passionate bravado of the program’s first half was followed by two classical pieces that have become synonymous with America, Rhapsody in Blue and An American In Paris.
Written during the roaring ’20s, the former piece featured pianist Katie Mahan, whose debut performance with the SLSO was mesmerizing. Precise and powerful, her debut was stunning.
Mahan then surprised the audience with an unannounced solo performance of Debussy’s Clair de lune that was passionate and poignant.
Sticking with Gershwin, the orchestra then launched into An American In Paris, a piece he was inspired to write after visiting the city. While not as boisterous as its predecessors on the repertoire, the orchestra perfectly captured the essence of the work.
Boozy, bluesy, and filled with jazz seasoning, it featured outstanding work from the horn section, which worked along some gorgeous strings to bring a potent crescendo to the performance.
In a year filled with expansion, change, and excitement, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra finished out 2025 with a bang. Their annual New Year’s Celebration brought the crowd to its feet throughout the evening.
Casual yet classical, rousing and rapturous, the SLSO’s return to Powell Hall proved that there is no place like home. | Rob Levy
