CAMA Presents the St. Louis Symphony

Multiple musical storylines converge on Tuesday, January 16, when CAMA presents the St. Louis Symphony at the Granada. For maestro David Robertson, this will be his final tour as the orchestra’s musical director, a position he has held for 13 years. Under Robertson, the St. Louis Symphony has been in constant demand as a touring orchestra and in the recording studio and has partnered with the composer John Adams on several ambitious premieres. For the orchestra and for Robertson, this season is one of reflection, celebration, and transition.

For featured soloist Augustin Hadelich, it’s an opportunity to reunite with one of the many top orchestras that covet the presence of his violin. In anticipation of Hadelich’s appearance at Powell Hall in St. Louis last April, the orchestra’s first violinist Jessica Cheng wrote, “He’s probably one of my top-three violinists out there right now. I can’t wait to hear him play one of my favorite violin concerti, and what encore he’ll slay.” While encores are never guaranteed, it’s a safe bet that Hadelich, whose first solo recording for Warner Classics, Paganini Caprices, drops on January 12, might slay one for us at what will be just his second concert since the recording’s release.

The final musical storyline involves the devoted concertgoers of Santa Barbara, who know both Robertson and Hadelich well. Robertson has been a frequent visitor with the St. Louis Symphony, most recently in the spring of 2013, and has conducted the Music Academy’s Festival Orchestra several times as well. Hadelich played with the Santa Barbara Symphony in its last concert at the Arlington in 2008, and was presented by CAMA with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at the Lobero in November 2016. In October 2009, when Hadelich opened the S.B. Symphony season with a Mozart violin concerto, he also played an impromptu daytime recital in the courtyard of the Franklin School on East Mason Street. Here’s hoping that some of the students who heard him that day will be in the audience this Tuesday.