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Amid the local celebrations of Mozart's 250th birthday last weekend, there was a glaring absence: hearing the best Mozart orchestra in the Twin Cities, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, perform one of his symphonies.
But the SPCO is making it up to local audiences this weekend with a program featuring not only one of Mozart's greatest symphonies, but another by his mentor, Franz Josef Haydn, and a work for bassoon and orchestra by Mozart's cousin-in-law, Carl Maria von Weber. Save for a dash of modernism courtesy of Frank Martin, it's a purely classical-era program, and each piece from that period performed at Stillwater's Trinity Lutheran Church on Thursday night showed the SPCO to be as skilled with the repertoire as it has ever been.
The orchestra's been on a Mozart mission for three seasons, offering up many a work from his ample oeuvre. But there seemed a renewed spirit in its interpretation of the "Prague" Symphony on Thursday. Under the direction of Joel Smirnoff, the SPCO poured passion aplenty into a work that, despite being among Mozart's most miliar, bore a vibrant energy it seldom bears.
It helped to have a conductor as infectiously enthusiastic as Smirnoff. He proved an animated leader throughout the concert, breathing unexpected drama into Haydn's 64th Symphony and inspiring one to second-guess the second-class status to which it's been relegated. And Weber's Andante and Hungarian Rondo proved a wonderful showcase for the skills of the orchestra's principal bassoonist, Charles Ullery.
If you go
Who: The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra What: Works by Haydn, Paul Martin, Weber and Mozart
When and where: 10:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. today, Wooddale Church, 6630 Shady Oak Road, Eden Prairie; 8 p.m. Saturday, St. Paul's United Church of Christ, 900 Summit Ave., St. Paul
Tickets: $25-$5; call 651-291-1144
Capsule: A mighty Mozart.
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