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Baroque Band, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mostly Music

Baroque Band, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mostly Music
By M.L. Rantala, Classical Music Critic
Hyde Park Herald
October 8, 2008

The University of Chicago Presents season has begun and this year it starts with a festival dedicated to Olivier Messiaen. Friday night the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra came to Mandel Hall with Pierre-Laurent Aimard as conductor as well as piano soloist for the final work on the program.
   
Tamara Stefanovich was the piano soloist for the great French composer's "Oiseaux exotiques" and brought muscularity and pointed control to the work. The orchestra offered bold colors and careful attention.
   
The highlight of the evening was Aimard's beautiful reading of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major. He's a pianist of great gifts, notably his graceful fluidity. He commands the music without ever beating up on it. The orchestra gave its very best performance yet in Hyde Park, with a cohesive, virtuosic flair that elicited whoops from the appreciative audience.
   
The concert opened with a pleasing account of Claude Debussy's "Petite Suite" in the arrangement by Henri Büsser.

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