SLSO Artists Make Their 2024/2025 Season Recommendations

By Eric Dundon

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s 2024/2025 season offers dozens of programs suited to a variety of interests, from classical to choral; contemporary to pop; chamber music to large-scale masterpieces. Musicians from the SLSO family of ensembles: the orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, and the St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus offer recommendations of their most-anticipated programs of the season. Subscriptions—both fixed and create your own—and single tickets are now on sale for all concerts this season.

Recommends Opening Weekend – September 27 & 29

“I love the Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, which I first learned in music history class in my undergraduate studies. I always so precisely wait for the moment the guillotine falls close to the end. Brahms’ Hungarian Dances is one of the most popular tunes of all time. And I love the inclusion of music from The Damnation of Faust—my absolute favorite story!”

Recommends Mozart’s Journey – November 15-16
And Lintu Conducts Schumann – March 14 & 16, 2025

“There are many programs I’m looking forward to this season. Music Director Stéphane Denève gets a beautiful and pure sound out of the SLSO for Mozart’s music, and I’m looking forward to his interpretations of these classical works in November. And, it’s always wonderful to have Hannu Lintu back on the podium. His style is unique, and his musical vision is inspiring!”

Recommends Sibelius’ Fifth: Edge of Heaven – November 22 & 24,2024

“William Grant Still’s music is superbly crafted and heartfelt, always fresh. Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 features perhaps his most dramatic and virtuosic writing for his own instrument, the piano. And Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 inspires with its majestic harmonic plateaus, energetic string parts, and the finale’s glorious “swan-call” melody in the horns. Can’t miss this one!”

Recommends IN UNISON Christmas – December 13

“INUNISON Christmas lifts our spirits up higher and higher each year. Now with Take 6 joining us, it’s going to have us all feeling like we are surrounded by love, family, and joyful memories. You don’t want to miss this!”

Recommends Stéphane Conducts Ravel – January 17 & 19, 2025

“Maurice Ravel’s music creates a huge array of sounds, colors, and rhythms that sound truly timeless. As my favorite orchestrator, Ravel can make the orchestra sound gentle or brutal in a matter of seconds. As a percussionist, I appreciate Ravel’s percussion writing, which is always challenging, dynamic, and expressive.”

Recommends Bernstein and Williams – March 21-22, 2025

“Although I love all the programs we will offer, we will perform music by a composer very dear to my heart, the greatest film composer today, John Williams, with his Suite from Seven Years in Tibet in March. We will stay in Tibet with music by Guillaume Connesson, who is also dear to my heart, and his concerto Lost Horizon, which is inspired by the book by James Hilton.”

Recommends Dvořák’s Cello Concerto – April 26-27, 2025

“I only recently have become familiar with Grażyna Bacewicz’s music. Her writing is so energetic and captivating, always full of motion; it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite composers, Prokofiev. And of course, the Dvořák Cello Concerto is certainly one of the greatest concertos, if not pieces, ever written. It’s like a symphony in its own right. I have not performed with Andrei Ioniță before so it will be fun to get to know another voice in the cello world.”

Recommends Peer Gynt – May 3-4, 2025

“I am particularly looking forward to singing Peer Gynt.  For most of my life, I have very much enjoyed listening to what is possibly Edvard Grieg’s most popular work, but it was not until I moved to St. Louis that I could listen to the choral parts on a classical music station.  I’m thrilled that I now have the chance to be part of that choral moment.”

Eric Dundon is the SLSO’s Public Relations Director.