Photos: Korngold and Dvořák

It was a double artist debut weekend for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on November 17-19, as conductor Christian Reif and violinist Randall Goosby performed with the orchestra for the first time in a program that included music by Vítězslava Kaprálová, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Antonín Dvořák. The full audiences at UMSL's Touhill Performing Arts Center gave a warm welcome to both artist, and especially appreciated Goosby's toe-tapping encore, Louisiana Blues Strut by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.

Preceding the encore, though, was a revelatory performance of Korngold's Violin Concerto, performed 76 years after the SLSO gave the world premiere performance of the piece with legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz.

Reif and the orchestra opened the concert with the first SLSO performances of Kaprálová's Rustic Suite and closed with Dvořák's Symphony No. 7.

Photos by Virginia Harold

Violinist Randall Goosby wowed audiences with his interpretation of Korngold's Violin Concerto in his SLSO debut.

The Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis

Audiences mingle in the lobby of UMSL's Touhill Performing Arts Center.

SLSO violinists perform Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 7.

Principal Timpanist Shannon Wood

Conductor Christian Reif made his SLSO debut on this program.

Audience members mingle before the concert.

SLSO woodwind players, from left to right: Ryan Toher, Scott Andrews, Andrew Cuneo, and Julia Paine.

SLSO double bassists, from left to right: Brendan Fitzgerald, Ron Moberly, David DeRiso, and Aleck Belcher.

Randall Goosby at the conclusion of the Korngold Violin Concerto.

Christian Reif conducts during his SLSO debut.

Randall Goosby treated the audience to an encore: Louisiana Blues Strut.