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Best End of a Classical Music Era
Leonard Slatkin's Season Finale With the Nashville Symphony
After three years helping guide the Nashville Symphony through the transition after Kenneth Schermerhorn's passing, conductor Leonard Slatkin went out...well, let's not say "with a bang," but definitely in grand style. The symphony achieved a string of successes under his baton, from the gala opening of the Schermerhorn Center to the orchestra's first Grammy award. In his last concert as music advisor, Slatkin tackled an ambitious pair of works featuring full chorus, four guest soloists, and heavy-duty philosophical themes of struggle and redemption. Powerful readings of Samuel Barber's under-performed Prayers of Kierkegaard and Beethoven's ever-rousing Symphony No. 9 brought the symphony's "Slatkin Era" to a rich and satisfying conclusion. Russell Johnston
