Double dipping St. Paul: The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Opera
Double dipping St. Paul: The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota OperaBy M.L. Rantala, Classical Music Critic
Hyde Park Herald
March 25, 2009
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra returned to Mandel Hall the first Friday in March and proved yet again how much they add to the University of Chicago Presents' wide offerings of classical music. This 50-year-old ensemble is the country's only full-time professional orchestra and
they started things off by showcasing two of its own members as soloists.
Violinists Allifranchini and Dale Barltrop were front and center for Mozart's Concertone in C Major for Two Violins. They were engaging players, well supported by their ensemble members, in a gleaming performance.
They lent feistiness to Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1, with the musicians nearly fierce in their efforts to communicate the music.
Cliff Colnot's arrangement of the "Adagio" from Mahler's unfinished Symphony No. 10 is beautiful, lush music, which the SPCO gave its richest treatment under Colnot's own baton.
The most pleasant surprises of the evening were two new works by University of Chicago graduate students studying composition. Alex J. Berezowsky packed a whole lot of wallop into his two-minute "Celestial Dance," a work of stuttering energy. Jacob Bancks' "Ruach," lasting
about 12 minutes, is an intriguing work with a fascinating musical landscape stuffed with exotic and luminous melodies. It has been a very long time since I have heard such an ecstatic audience reaction to a world premiere as was given to Bancks that night.
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