ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ENCHANTS CROWD OF 1,500, EARNING STANDING OVATION

Wednesday evening's President's Concert IV marked the second appearance of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as part of this benefit series supporting KRCU-FM. After opening remarks by President Kala M. Stroup, conductor David Loebel opened the program with Johannes Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture," op. 80. Composed in 1880 in appreciation for an honorary doctorate bestowed upon him by the University of Breslau the previous year, the work includes a number of German student songs, most notably "Gaudeamus igitur" with which the work ends. The music itself is suggestive of the pomp and pageantry of the academic festival as well as of the less ceremonious aspects of student life. Loebel's interpretation emphasized the slightly mocking quality of the music.

Erno Dohnanyi is, after Liszt, Hungary's most prominent musician. The first Hungarian of any significant talent to graduate from the Budapest Academy, he is credited with reshaping his country's musical life from 1915 on after a 17-year career as teacher, composer and pianist in Germany, Austria and England. Dohnanyi's example and intervention led his friend Bela Bartok to follow the same course. The "Suite in f# minor," op. 19, is a striking example of Dohnanyi's Romantic penchant linking the structural formalism of Brahms with the motivic metamorphosis of Liszt. A relatively unknown work, the first movement is a paradigm of melodic invention and thematic variation while subsequent movements display a rich and unforced harmonic fluidity. The surprisingly good and quite dry acoustics of the Show Me Center assisted Loebel's presentation by enabling the subtleties of line and gesture to be heard clearly and distinctly. As an aside, the Show Me Center's management is becoming increasingly more adept at converting this multi-purpose facility into a fairly respectable concert hall.

Antonin Dvo~rak was a Czech composer who, along with Smetana and Janacek, is recognized as an ardent nationalist and proponent of Czech music, combining folk practices with the symphonic tradition. During his American residence, Dvo~rak was an advocate of American musicians developing their own identity and national style based upon the idiosyncrasies of their indigenous musics. As director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, a post he held from October 1892 through August 1895, Dvo~ak implemented his beliefs and influenced a number of ~American musicians to stay at home rather than to pursue formal European training in performance and composition. The influences of American folk music are most notable in his Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," op. 95 in which he introduces pentatonic melodies and syncopated rhythms reminiscent of native American music. Dvo~rak also had an affinity for the spiritual as one might infer from the famous "Largo" movement and its beautiful and haunting folk-like melody, "Going Home." Loebel and the orchestra enchanted the audience of 1,500 with an airy and sprightly rendition and were rewarded with a much-deserved standing ovation.

Loebel concluded the evening's concert with an encore, a highly charged, jaunty performance of Dvo~rak's "Slavonic Dance in g minor" from the first series of "Slavonic Dances," op. 46.

Sterling P. Cossaboom is chairman of the Department of Music at Southeast Missouri State University.