Music Review: Nicholas McGegan Returns in Triumph
My only complaint is that he was here for, as the song goes, "one night only."
As much as I love the music of the Romantic era, there is still nothing quite like an evening of 18th-century classics performed by an appropriately sized, first-rate orchestra with someone at the podium who truly loves and understands this music. Especially when that someone is the redoubtable Nicholas McGegan.
McGegan’s latest visit to our fair city took place Monday night, February 10th, at the 560 Music Center under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis. With that combination of unbridled joy and meticulous attention to detail which has characterized his work here in the past, McGegan led a gaggle of (mostly) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians in a lively evening of music by Haydn, Albinoni, Handel, and Wolfgang’s dad Leopold Mozart.
The 1762 D major trumpet concerto by Leopold Mozart (1719–1787) kicked things off, with SLSO Principal Steven Franklin as the soloist on the piccolo trumpet. It’s not great music, but the sizeable number of high notes and rapid trills made it a nice showpiece for Franklin.
Up next was what McGegan, in droll pre-performance remarks, called “a substantial bucket load” of the “Water Music” Suite No. 1 by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759). Written for a 1717 Thames River cruise by King George I, the three suites of the “Water Music” have been popular with audiences for a good three centuries now, and with good reason. Nearly all the music is dance-based, and when it’s performed with the kind of rhythmic drive and crisp articulation it got from McGegan and company Monday night, it’s well-nigh irresistible. Virtuoso awards go to (among others) Roger Kaza and Thomas Jöstlein (Principal and Associate Principal Horns, respectively, with the SLSO) as well as oboists Philip Ross (SLSO Associate Principal) and Tamara Winston.
The Sinfonia in G major by Tomaso Albinoni (1671–1751) opened the second half, giving the strings a chance to shine, and the evening closed with the Symphony No. 85 in B-flat major by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809). McGegan described it as a “mail-order symphony” in that Claude-François-Marie Rigoley, Comte d'Ogny, who commissioned this and Haydn’s five other “Paris” symphonies, never met with the composer and the latter never visited Paris to see them performed. The symphony’s subtitle, “La Reine” (“The Queen”) refers to the fact that Queen Marie-Antoinette was particularly fond of it.
Another fun fact we learned from McGegan last night was that the concertmaster at the symphony’s 1785 Paris premiere was none other than Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745–1799), whose Violin Concerto in A major was heard here in 2022. Born a slave in Guadeloupe, he went on to become a celebrated violinist, conductor, and composer as well as a knight of the realm.
But I digress. McGegan gave Haydn’s work just the right mix of elan and good cheer, including a rambunctious reading of what he referred to as “a somewhat beery” third movement Minuet. Kudos as well for SLSO flautist Jennifer Nitchman for her elaborate solo in the second movement “Romance.”
Next at the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, jazz piano duo Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi are featured in a Black History Month concert that includes works by William Grant Still. The performance is Monday, February 24, at 7:30 pm at the 560 Music Center. Check out their web site for details.