Review: Cellist Abel Selaocoe performs spirited, uplifting concert with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

Abel Selaocoe might have just what you need.

If you’re feeling worn down by the state of the world, discouraged or despairing, or just want to find some joy or a sense of connection with those around you, I suggest that you attend a St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert at which they collaborate with their artistic partner, Selaocoe.

He visits once or twice a season, and they have deservedly become destination concerts. They’re surprising, spontaneous, exhilarating and brimming with marvelous musicianship. And Friday’s midday concert at St. Paul’s Ordway Concert Hall placed a big, bold underline beneath my impression that Selaocoe’s SPCO collaborations are the most exciting thing to happen on the Twin Cities classical music scene in several years.

The orchestra is calling two of the program’s three works “world premieres,” but you could say that whatever Selaocoe performs with the orchestra feels like a fresh creation, thanks to his propensity for improvisation and spur-of-the-moment singing.

In this case, the “premieres” are new SPCO-commissioned orchestrations by English composer Benjamin Woodgates, one inspired by a jazz piece from Norway’s Marius Neset, the other a 2023 cello concerto by Selaocoe called “Four Spirits.” The first was thrilling, the second profoundly uplifting, a performance capable of inspiring both smiles and tears.

While the SPCO’s curtain-raising rendition of Igor Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” was meticulously well-executed, especially an intensely aggressive take on the finale, any expectations of a conventional concert experience were cast aside when Selaocoe took the stage with bassist Yasushi Nakamura and drummer Bernhard Schimpelsberger. For Neset’s “Birds,” arranger Woodgates assigned them to be something like the concertino groups you’ll find in a baroque concerto grosso, but very much with the sound and feel of a jazz trio — or quartet, if you count Selaocoe’s cello and voice as two separate instruments.

The piece was scintillating when slithering along in the understated spirit of 1950s cool jazz, less so when Woodgates asked the orchestra to hammer out repetitive and increasingly insistent unisons.

But no such issues arose on “Four Spirits,” which was given a passionately powerful performance. If this adaptation of Selaocoe’s concerto sounded particularly immersive, it might have been because of an audio setup that I’d never before encountered at an SPCO concert: Speakers lined the apron of the stage and dangled from the ceiling in long vertical columns, creating a kind of Sensurround experience in which Selaocoe’s every breath, howl, growl and unconventional bowing technique could be heard.

The concerto’s four movements were bridged by improvisational exchanges between the cellist and drummer Schimpelsberger, the latter playing a large role in making sure that the sound never strayed too far from the traditional South African folk sound in which Selaocoe’s music is rooted. And when the cellist leaped to his feet to burst forth in song, it was invariably an adrenaline rush.

Yet the concert’s climax came on the concerto’s anthemic finale, “Simunye,” or “We are One.” It certainly seemed aptly titled when the charismatic Selaocoe led an anthemic full-house sing-along, seemingly creating a community from a collection of strangers. He has a gift for that.

With: Director and cellist Abel Selaocoe, conductor Chia-Hsuan Lin and percussionist Bernhard Schimpelsberger

What: Works by Igor Stravinsky, Marius Neset and Selaocoe

When and where: 7 p.m. Sat., Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul; 2 p.m. Sun., Ted Mann Concert Hall, 2128 S. 4th St., Mpls.

Tickets: $16-$68 (students and children free), 651-291-1144 or thespco.org

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.