Catch the Detroit Symphony Orchestra today as it performs its Carnegie Hall program. WRCJ 90.9 FM will broadcast the performance at 11 a.m., featuring soprano Storm Large and four outstanding male vocalists in a performance of Kurt Weill’s “Seven Deadly Sins.”

Here’s our Review of the program at The Max:

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra gave a preview of its return to New York’s Carnegie Hall Tuesday evening in Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center. Led by Maestro Leonard Slatkin, the performance was a knock-out, featuring two works by Charles Ives, America’s first great classic composer, and Kurt Weill’s “Seven Deadly Sins.”

The cabaret cycle, created as a “ballet chante” (sung ballet) for Ray Ballachine, starred soprano Storm Large singing the roles of Anna I and Anna II. Tenors Jorge Garza and Carl Moe, and baritones Anton Belov and Richard Zeller also were featured soloists in the performance. The seven sins of sloth, pride, anger, gluttony, lust, covetousness, and envy were sung in English.

Even though your reviewer’s seats were in the nosebleed section of the upper balcony, it was an awesome experience. The DSO and soloists were near-flawless. Members of the audience, which were admitted gratis courtesy of the General Motors Foundation,  were wildly enthusiastic, giving a standing ovation after Weill and then after the completion of Ives’ Third Symphony.

Maestro Slatkin has formed the DSO into a singularity of sound that is truly one of the world’s great cultural treasures. The individual sections, such as the strings and horns, do not overshadow one another in vibrancy. Nor do they simply complement each other, either. What Slatkin has done since his arrival in 2007 is create a living, breathing and dynamic unity that represents the apogee of the art that is music.

The program will be broadcast on WRCJ 90.9 FM this Saturday. Click here for information.

The spectacular program featured two distinctly American works by composer Charles Ives. His First Symphony bridged the romantic to modern period with themes that seemed revolutionary for many musical tastes at the time they were first performed a century ago. The Third Symphony, entitled “The Camp Meeting,” resounds with the imagery of a revival church services popular in America.

The music of Kurt Weill included was a fantastic vocal and orchestral tour de force. During the years before World War II, Weill and his creative collaborator, author and playwright Bertold Brecht, opposed the rise of fascism and the oppression of the individual through their art.

The piece, fully titled “The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petty Bourgeoise,” details the corruption of the individual — Anna I (a singer) and Anna II (a dancer) in a capitalist society. Anna travels the nation for seven years, sinning in cities from Philadelphia to San Francisco, to earn money to support her family in a mythical Louisiana.

The DSO and the artists will perform later this week in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, part of the third annual Spring For Music festival, celebrating six American orchestras in a week of performances May 6 to 11, 2013.

The Program

IVES Symphony No. 3, “The Camp Meeting”

WEILL THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

IVES Symphony No. 1

The Artists

Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Storm Large, vocalist

Jorge Garza, tenor

Carl Moe, tenor

Anton Belov, baritone

Richard Zeller, baritone

The image above is a still from a video at Storm Large’s Facebook page in which she talks about “Seven Deadly Sins.” Click here for details.