SPCO opens season performing Beethoven's Seventh Symphony

"Go small or go home" may sound like unusual motivational advice, but there are times when it's the right approach.

Take this weekend's season-opening St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concerts. It's not uncommon to find Beethoven's rip-roaring Seventh Symphony or Igor Stravinsky's sprightly ballet music for "Pulcinella" on a large symphony orchestra's concert program. But I came away from Friday's SPCO concert convinced that there's a lot that you miss when a bigger ensemble plays those works.

Or at least that's the case when a smaller orchestra plays those pieces with as much energy, imagination and precision as the SPCO did on Friday at St. Paul's Ordway Concert Hall. This was a performance that delivered one epiphany after another, hidden lines and rhythmic patterns emerging from the mix, dynamics ebbing and flowing in all sorts of unexpected places. And so electrifying was the Beethoven symphony that the instantaneous and lengthy standing ovation was richly earned.

In launching the Twin Cities classical music season with such an extraordinary performance, the SPCO set a high bar for brilliant musicianship that will be difficult to top. From the lithe and lively opening of the Stravinsky suite to the volcanic adrenaline explosion that was the finale of Beethoven's Seventh, this was a masterful performance.

So how small is small? Well, the SPCO had a maximum of 35 musicians onstage Friday, whereas some symphony orchestras use upwards of 80 on a Beethoven symphony. Yet the intimacy made the music all the more involving, aided by the fact that no seat in the Ordway Concert Hall is more than 90 feet from the stage.

Not that the orchestra made a small sound. The "Pulcinella" Suite's opening Sinfonia was flamboyantly full-voiced, making the melancholy Serenata all the more affecting. Each of the suite's eight movements provided a showcase for one soloist or another within the orchestra, the dialogues between oboist Cassie Pilgrim and violinist Steven Copes particularly involving. But it was also a triumph of ensemble work, each dance a delight, from a Tarantella on the edge of frenzy to a Toccata bursting with bounciness.

The concert's only notable flaw was the short shrift given to 20^th-century American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. The SPCO chose to play only the four-minute Largo (titled "Song Form") from Perkinson's Sinfonietta No. 1, whereas playing the complete work would have taken perhaps only 10 minutes more. Yet the SPCO strings managed to briefly immerse the audience in a wistful sorrow.

That said, this concert will be best remembered for its Beethoven. Seldom will you hear the Seventh Symphony suffused with such excitement, inviting the audience to contemplate the importance of a conductor. None was present, yet one fascinating interpretive decision after another flew forth from the stage.

It was a performance full of wide-ranging dynamics, with special attention paid to building intensity to a fever pitch at key points. The Vivace movement galloped gallantly, while the intricately executed Allegretto overflowed with yearning. The Presto exploded at every opportunity, but the finale will remain in my memory longest, a rollicking roller coaster ride that few larger orchestras could match for musical thrills.

St. Paul Chamber Orchestra

What: Works by Igor Stravinsky, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Beethoven

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

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

Tickets: $12-$50 (students free), available at 651-291-1144 or thespco.org

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.