“Differently, for once!”
That was what Franz Hasenohrl cheekily tossed onto the title of his five-musician arrangement of Richard Strauss’ large-scale tone poem, “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.” Such could be said of everything on this weekend’s St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concerts. Three popular classical works are being performed in decidedly different guises, one stripped down, the others expanded. It’s a program on which a piece for large orchestra shrinks down to chamber size, a chamber work goes orchestral, and another chamber piece becomes, well, a larger chamber piece.
Coming after last week’s collection of symphonies and the upcoming massive undertaking that is J.S. Bach’s “St. John Passion,” these concerts feel like far more intimate affairs that should inspire audiences’ appreciation for the gifts of the SPCO’s individual musicians, not just the sum of those parts. As the autumn sun streamed into Eden Prairie’s Wooddale Church at midday Friday, I felt warmed by three spirited performances, all possessing some playfulness, each providing moments in the spotlight for multiple musicians.
First up was Hasenohrl’s quintet take on “Till Eulenspiegel,” and it proved a nice introduction to the talents of the SPCO’s new principal French horn player, Jay Ferree, who deftly delivered Strauss’ signature horn call, while the orchestra’s other new member — principal clarinetist Sang Yoon Kim — replied with the prankster title character’s giddy laughter. But it was violinist Maureen Nelson who best conveyed the work’s impish tone, engaging in lighthearted musical banter with the others before soaring into the stratosphere.
At age 28, Mozart called his Quintet for Piano and Winds, “the best thing I have written in my life.” That’s probably partly due to the composer’s love for wind instruments, which get many a delicious line in the work. Late last century, French composer Jean Francaix created a “Nonetto” that kept the wind parts in place but split the piano score up among five string instruments. Mozart desired to make his name as an opera composer above all, and he really let the winds sing on this work, with Ferree and guest oboist Elizabeth Koch Tiscione each casting spells. And the finale had the kind of madcap chase-scene feel that Mozart loved to employ in his opera overtures.
Upping the expansion ante was Richard Tognetti, head of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, who’s taken a work for violin and piano — Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata — and turned it into a piece for string orchestra. It still has a violin soloist, and the SPCO’s associate concertmaster, Ruggero Allifranchini, lent it a flamboyance seldom found in performances of the sonata.
He took full advantage of the rapidly shifting moods of the work’s theme-and-variations middle movement, employing delicacy here and a heavy heart there. It was gentler than the original, as the strings softened the piano’s percussive strokes. And the concluding Presto was a fleet, fun frolic in the spirit of the finale to Beethoven’s lone Violin Concerto, bringing a joyous end to a concert that felt like a celebration of doing things “differently.”
ST. PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
- Who: The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with violinist Ruggero Allifranchini
- What: Works by Richard Strauss, Mozart and Beethoven
- When and where: 8 p.m. Friday, Wooddale Church, 6630 Shady Oak Road, Eden Prairie; 8 p.m. Saturday, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 900 Summit Ave., St. Paul; 2 p.m. Sunday, Benson Great Hall, Bethel University, 3900 Bethel Drive, Arden Hills
- Tickets: $26-$11 (children and students free), available at 651-291-1144 or thespco.org
- Capsule: Three popular works get a refreshing spin.