THE ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY: `THE MUSICAL EQUIVALENT OF THE CARDINALS'

David Loebel knows how not to play the piano.

"I am everybody's nightmare of someone who didn't practice piano when he was a kid, and look what happened," he wryly observes.

But as associate conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Loebel takes center stage with everything from the piano to violins, and the professional musicians that play them.

"I just love the sound of an orchestra," says Loebel. "I think the thrill for me is just being in the middle of it, especially with an orchestra of this level.

"It really is quite a way to spend one's life. It's so wonderful it should be illegal," he adds with a tone of amusement.

The orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Show Me Center. This marks President's Concert IV, one in a series of classical concerts that Southeast Missouri State University has held over the years. Proceeds will benefit KRCU, the university's National Public Radio station.

In fact, the symphony orchestra performed at the first President's Concert held at the Show Me Center on March 22, 1990.

Tickets are $50 (includes post-concert reception), $25, $20, $12 and $7.50 (with a student I.D.). Special rates apply for groups of 20 or more on $20 and $12 tickets.

Tickets are available at the Show Me Center Box Office, University Center information desk, Schnucks, Disc Jockey Records in Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Ill., and Paducah, Ky., and Capital Bank offices in Jackson, Perryville, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston. For group sales information or to charge by phone, call (314) 651-5000.

"We will be bringing the whole orchestra," says Loebel. The orchestra has just over 100 members.

This won't be Loebel's first visit to Cape Girardeau. He conducted the symphony orchestra when it performed here in February 1991 after its European tour was canceled because of security concerns linked to the Persian Gulf War.

The orchestra's home base is the ornate and acoustically correct Powell Hall. But Loebel says the orchestra has performed in many other settings.

"We don't come to Cape expecting that we will play in Carnegie Hall," he points out. "We pride ourselves on being able to adjust pretty quickly, and that includes playing in places that were not necessarily designed as concert halls."

For Loebel, there's an attraction to taking a symphony orchestra to smaller communities where such performances are "really a big event."

"The audiences are always so appreciative," explains Loebel, who is in his third year with the St. Louis Symphony. Prior to that he was with the Cincinnati Symphony for eight years.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra goes on the road about six times a year.

"We like to think of ourselves as being one of the important ambassadors nationally, not just for St. Louis but for the whole state," he points out. "We are the musical equivalent of the Cardinals," he adds.

Founded in 1880, the St. Louis Symphony is the second oldest American symphony orchestra.

It has received 45 Grammy Award nominations over the years and has been nominated for a Grammy each year since 1978.

In the 1991-92 season, the orchestra won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Performance with Orchestra for the recording of a piano concerto with soloist John Browning.

Wednesday's concert in Cape Girardeau will feature classical masterpieces by Brahms, Dohnanyi and Dvorak.

"A lot of it is just sort of practical considerations," says Loebel, explaining how the music is selected. "These are pieces which we have been playing a lot this year.

"The primary thing is we play music that we feel is worthwhile for an audience to sit through," he explains.

The music of Brahms and Dvorak is well known. That's not the case with Dohnanyi, concedes Loebel.

But he adds, "It is a very lush romantic piece and one which suits the playing style of the St. Louis Symphony very well.

"One of the things which has made our orchestra well known has been the fact that we dig into the slightly unusual corners of the repertoire and don't just play the top 10 pieces over and over."