Grand Chamber

St. Paul's virtuoso style

Like Doctor Dolittle's pushmi-pullyu, the chamber orchestra is a curious beast that faces in two directions at once: toward the intimacy of the string quartet and toward the richness of the symphony. It stands between both, the way a watercolor stands between an engraving and an oil painting. Or, as Conductor Dennis Russell Davies says, the way baseball stands between tennis and football: "There are just a few players, each one is a virtuoso, and all are involved in every moment of what's going on."

Davies should know. He is the music director of the only full-time chamber orchestra in the U.S., the 26-member St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Under his leadership, the St. Paul brilliantly exemplify the virtues of being middle-size. Their Baroque performances are fleet and supple yet they can muster the muscle of Beethoven and Schubert, avoiding only the more elaborately scored late-19th century works. In modern music they have a scintillating bite and precision. Throughout the repertory, their texture is so transparent that it allows for no slack playing, and there is none.

As the occasion requires, the ranks break apart like a set of Chinese boxes. In the course of two recent concerts at Manhattan's Lincoln Center--one devoted to the music of Aaron Copland, the other to works by Joseph and Michael Haydn--they subdivided into such combinations as a piano with string trio and a 13-piece mixed ensemble, besides playing at full strength.

Such flexibility is part of the fun of their performances. A palpable joy in music making pervades everything they do and even comes through on their LPs. One of their best is the Schubert Symphony No. 5 (Sound 80). It is impeccable in its details, and yet it breathes with spontaneity and ardor. Another notable release, on Nonesuch, contains pieces by William Bolcom, including Commedia, one of many works commissioned by the orchestra.

St. Paul programs pair old and new, classical and modern in order to place one in the perspective of the other. A highly successful series, for example, featured the works of John Cage in tandem with those of Haydn. Cage, Elliott Carter and Hans Werner Henze have all served residencies in St. Paul. Almost half of the orchestra's selections are from the 20th century, and the majority of those are by American composers.

Ironically, for all his cultural chauvinism, Davies, 35, has won his major recognition in Europe. He has been a guest conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bayreuth Festival, and in the fall of 1980 he will leave St. Paul to take up an appointment as music director of the Stuttgart Opera.

He is confident of leaving behind an institution that can flourish without him. Last season, the orchestra's tenth, it performed before a total of 100,000 people. Besides occasional national tours and State Department-sponsored appearances abroad, it visits campuses and towns throughout the region as a sort of floating miniconservatory, offering clinics, master classes and discussion groups in addition to its concerts. In its main subscription series at St. Paul's 1,700-seat O'Shaughnessy Auditorium, the orchestra has become all but a sellout, precisely by avoiding safe subscription fare. "A concert hall doesn't have to be a museum," says Davies. "What's exciting is if somebody starts booing and somebody else answers with a pretty loud cheer." Especially if, as in St. Paul, the cheers far outnumber the boos.

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