Review: Conductor Richard Egarr leads SPCO musicians in fun and exciting ‘Brandenburg’ Concertos

For any Twin Cities lover of the arts, there’s usually a particular December date they make every year. For theatergoers, it might be the Guthrie’s “A Christmas Carol” or — a tradition of more recent vintage — the “Grinch” at Children’s Theatre Company. Dance enthusiasts have a host of “Nutcrackers” from which to choose. And Minnesota might rank first in the nation for how many residents have a connection to one choir or another, each presenting their own Christmas program.

When it comes to orchestras, the dominant December ensemble is the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Not only does it present the area’s consummate version of Handel’s oratorio, “Messiah,” each year, but it also takes a more secular path by performing five of J.S. Bach’s six “Brandenburg” Concertos, arguably the peak of baroque-era instrumental music.

This year’s incarnation of the “Brandenburgs” has a particular sense of occasion about it, for acting as conductor, harpsichordist and host is Richard Egarr, not only one of the world’s most respected interpreters of baroque works, but an SPCO artistic partner who’s known for tremendously enjoyable and educational explanations of the music. Egarr is ebulliently energetic in both his approach to the music and in keeping an audience engaged in the experience.

That’s one of the reasons it might be tough to get a ticket to this weekend’s presentations of the “Brandenburgs” at St. Paul’s Ordway Concert Hall. Fortunate enough to snare a seat for Friday’s midday offering, I can tell you that it might have been the most exciting and downright fun performance of Bach’s music that I’ve ever enjoyed. Simply put, this Bach was a blast.

Mind you, that’s not all Egarr’s doing, but he deserves credit for getting all the SPCO musicians on the same page as far as energy output. In his delightful between-piece monologues, he referred to rock ‘n’ roll more than once, and the concert was at its most thrilling when the musicians tapped into the sense of adrenaline-infused abandon for which that genre is known.

It was there in the concert-opening performance of the First Brandenburg, as violin soloist Eunice Kim established that the musicians — all standing save the cellos, bass and harpsichordist Egarr — would be doing a lot more moving to the music than customary. It also set the template that this would be a concert full of brisk tempos.

The rock ‘n’ roll spirit also came through clearly when Egarr went all Eddie Van Halen on us with the lengthy, several-notes-a-second harpsichord solo in the first movement of Brandenburg No. 5. And there was something analogous to the three-guitar attack of Lynyrd Skynyrd in the Third Brandenburg, the musicians bringing marvelous energy to the exchanges of lines between violins, violas and cellos.

But no soloist set their instrument closer to aflame than violinist Steven Copes, who was not only remarkably fleet of fingers on the concert-closing Brandenburg No. 4, but sawed away so rapidly on its closing movement that it’s almost astounding there was any horsehair left on his bow.

That’s not to say that Bach didn’t also bring some sorrowful beauty to these concertos, for the excellently executed slow movements of the First and Fifth were suffused with a weighty grief. But Egarr gives the sense that he wants everyone on stage and in the audience to be having as much fun as possible. And he succeeded.

What: J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos

When: 7 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. Sun.

Where: Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

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

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