SLSO Show #1 and Grace Meat + Three

S and I recently attended our first symphony of the season, and it was great!  For starters, it was the first time I saw the new Music Director (technically the Music Director Designate, until he actually becomes Music Director next season), and he seems like a good pick. David Robertson was so good for such a long time that he will be tough to top, but Stéphane Denève can do it if anyone can. Plus, he has a strong interest in music education and developing the talents of future musicians, and I think that's super important.

Anyway, on to the show.  It was a love-themed performance.  First up was a selection from Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette, followed by Lieberson's Neruda Songs.  The poetry portions of the Neruda piece were sung by a lovely mezzo-soprano named Kelley O'Connor.

After the intermission, two pieces were played without a break: the prelude to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde and Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy.

I enjoyed all the pieces.  They were different but somehow the theme succeeded in pulling them all together.  It was the last piece that really sold me though.  First of all, the bio in the Playbill was fascinating.  During his life, he apparently developed a strong belief in mysticism, believed he could levitate, and once tried to walk across Lake Geneva.  The piece was not my favorite musically, but it was so interesting to watch that it made up for its musical shortcomings.  It wandered from lush to delicate, soft to loud.  It ended with a huge finale, and that's something that I totally love. Plus, it called for nine -- nine -- French horns!  I don't know where they found that many French horn players in St. Louis; my guess is that they had to import a few.  But it's a beautiful instrument, and was lovely to see on the stage.

After the show, we met up with S's cousin R for dinner at Grace Meat + Three.  It was about 6:00 on Sunday, and apparently there had been a big convention in town all weekend that had made the restaurant a favorite spot.  Consequently, they were sold out of a lot.  We ended up with a Grace burger and a beef po' boy, with sides of macaroni and cheese and bourbon-whipped sweet potatoes.  The po' boy was pretty good, the mac and cheese was decent, and the burger and sweet potatoes were just okay.

To top it all off, I was super excited to hear that they still had a few can's of Urban Chestnut's limited release: the Big Shark Lemon Radler!  I ordered it, only to find out that they had sold out a few minutes before.  On the whole, it was disappointing.