Kevin Puts: Concerto for Orchestra, Silent Night Elegy & Virelai St. Louis Symphony Orchestra & Stéphane Denève

• Kevin Puts (b. 1972): Concerto for Orchestra:
• 1 Puts: Concerto for Orchestra: I. Hymn for the Hurting 01:29
• 2 Puts: Concerto for Orchestra: II. Caccia No. 1 02:39
• 3 Puts: Concerto for Orchestra: III. Music Box with Arietta 01:37
• 4 Puts: Concerto for Orchestra: IV. Toccata 02:01
• 5 Puts: Concerto for Orchestra: V. Sicilienne 09:55
• 6 Puts: Concerto for Orchestra: VI. Ecco la Marcia? (Caccia No. 2) 05:22
• Silent Night Elegy:
• 7 Puts: Silent Night Elegy 23:42
• Virelai (After Guillaume de Machaut):
• 8 Puts: Virelai (After Guillaume de Machaut) 03:51
• Total Runtime 50:36

Info for Kevin Puts: Concerto for Orchestra, Silent Night Elegy & Virelai

Delos is thrilled to embark on a new journey with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Stéphane Denève. What better statement of intent for their first album on the label than releasing the world premiere recording of three works by native St. Louisan and Pulitzer Prize- and GRAMMY®-winning composer Kevin Puts? Dedicated to the SLSO and Stéphane, Concerto for Orchestra was written in response to the horrific school shooting that occurred in Uvalde in 2022. Silent Night Elegy is drawn from Kevin's acclaimed opera, which adapts Joyeux Noël, the award-winning film that tells the story of the spontaneous ceasefires along the Western Front on the first Christmas Eve of World War I. Inspired by Guillaume de Machaut, Virelai was commissioned for the opening concert of Stéphane's tenure as Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. This album celebrates the SLSO's dynamic partnership with Stéphane and demonstrates the orchestra's commitment to artistic excellence and inclusive musical experiences.

St. Louis Symphony
Stephane Deneve, conductor

Stéphane Denève
is the newly appointed chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and, since 2005, music cirector of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He has made regular appearances with the Scottish orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms and the Festival Présences, and at celebrated venues throughout Europe including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. He and the orchestra have made a number of acclaimed recordings together, including a survey of the works of Albert Roussel for Naxos, the first disc of which won a Diapason d’Or de l’année in 2007.

A graduate and prizewinner of the Paris Conservatoire, Stéphane Denève began his career as Sir Georg Solti’s assistant with the Orchestre de Paris and Paris National Opéra, also assisting Georges Prêtre and Seiji Ozawa during this time. In recent seasons he has appeared as a guest conductor with orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Hamburg and Maggio Musicale Florence, with return engagements with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin among others. In the field of opera he has led productions at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Opéra National de Paris, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie, the Barcelona Gran Teatro de Liceu, the Teatro Comunale Bologna and Cincinnati Opera. He has also worked with a distinguished list of solo artists including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Piotr Anderszewski, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Yo-Yo Ma, Nikolaj Znaider, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonidas Kavakos, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, Gil Shaham, Nathalie Dessay and Nina Stemme.

St. Louis Symphony
Founded in 1880, the St. Louis Symphony is the second-oldest orchestra in the United States and is widely considered one of the world’s finest. The St. Louis Symphony is one of only a handful of major American orchestras invited to perform regularly at the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Recordings by the symphony have been honoured with six GRAMMY Awards and 56 GRAMMY nominations over the years.

The orchestra has embraced technological advances in music distribution by offering recordings online. The St. Louis Symphony download initiative includes live recordings of John Adams’ Harmonielehre, Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with Christian Tetzlaff, and Scriabin’s The Poem of Ecstasy available exclusively on iTunes and Amazon.com. In 2009, the symphony’s Nonesuch recording of John Adams’ Doctor Atomic and Guide to Strange Places reached No. 2 on the Billboard rankings for classical music, and was named ‘Best CD of the Decade’ by the The Times of London.

In September 2012, the St. Louis Symphony embarked on its first European tour with music director David Robertson. The symphony visited international festivals in Berlin and Lucerne, with stops in Paris and London as well, performing works by Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, Schoenberg, Gershwin and Elliott Carter. Christian Tetzlaff joined the symphony as featured soloist.

In June 2008, the St. Louis Symphony launched Building Our Business, which takes a proactive, two-pronged approach: build audiences and re-invigorate the St. Louis brand making the symphony and Powell Hall the place to be; and build the donor base for enhanced institutional commitment and donations. This is all part of a larger strategic plan adopted in May 2009 that includes new core ideology and a ten-year strategic vision focusing on artistic and institutional excellence, doubling the existing audience, and revenue growth across all key operating areas.

Booklet for Kevin Puts: Concerto for Orchestra, Silent Night Elegy & Virelai