Music Reviews : Hogwood Leads St. Paul Orchestra

On paper, Christopher Hogwood’s clearly carefully considered program for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra looked quirky and insubstantial. In the event, Sunday evening at Occidental College, the agenda proved cohesive and blithe, despite causing the Thorne Hall stage to be reset for each piece.

Hogwood began with Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in F, Opus 6, No. 2, and then launched the second half with Tippett’s “Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli.” Although he assured us in his spoken introductions that hearing the original Corelli would be of little help in appreciating Tippett, the pairing made some real connections possible.

The Tippett also provided a core of multifaceted brooding for the concert, in a tautly sculpted, edgy account that made the final brightening seem a hard-won victory. Violinists Romuald Tecco and Thomas Kornacker and cellist Peter Howard served both Tippett and Corelli with vigor and finesse.

Filling out the first half of the program was Holst’s “Fugal Concerto” and “St. Paul’s Suite,” which is probably one more collection of optimistically bustling miniatures than necessary. The neo-Baroque textures of the concerto complemented the Corelli well, however, and the namesake coincidence of the orchestra and suite may have seemed irresistible.

Flutist Julia Bogorad and oboist Kathryn Greenbank--like the string soloists St. Paul principals--offered characterful sound and articulate tootling in the peppy linear exercises of the concerto, crisply backed by the first-desk strings. The complete string band produced big, bold playing in the suite, incisively focused by Hogwood.

The full orchestra had its showpiece in Haydn’s Symphony No. 77 in B-flat, with a clean, refreshing reading of great warmth and nuance. Hogwood’s elastic tempos were on the quick side, but his players found no need to compromise expression for execution.

The program was scheduled to be repeated Monday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.