Though I cherish a varied and balanced classical music program, there also is delight in a deep dive, picking a vibe or a tradition and going all in. That was Nicholas McKegan’s approach Monday night at the 560 Music Center when Marc Gordon gave him the keys to the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis and its ad hoc Chamber Orchestra. As an informed audience would expect, McKegan dove deep into the Baroque, which worked for me. If I could get a musical equivalent of an IV drip, I would gladly open a vein for the Baroque.
Three of the 16 string players – nearly 20% of them – were Black, a degree of inclusion I have never seen in classical music. They played three different instruments: violin (Kyle Lombard), viola (Andrew Francois) and cello (Alvin McCall).
The program proper opened with Ouverture – Suite in B-flat Major by George Phillip Telemann. Charles Metz on harpsichord anchored a 16-piece string section in a spirited ensemble performance defined by purity of tones and seamless execution. They conjured a period European costumed drama, a vibe that would endure throughout the evening; I helplessly imagined noble dandies in powdered wigs and curtseying damsels in dresses the size of an SUV.
Though this music evokes Europeans at a moment of racial isolation, Executive and Artistic Director Marc Gordon told a different story with his choices of talent. Three of the 16 string players – nearly 20% of them – were Black, a degree of inclusion I have never seen in classical music. They played three different instruments: violin (Kyle Lombard), viola (Andrew Francois) and cello (Alvin McCall). If a Black double bassist with classical chops is reading this, then call the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, because you would have made this scene that much more hip.
Though one of these musicians (Lombard) left the stage for the next piece, J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in G-major, so did half the string players, leaving the string section following Metz’s blistering harpsichord that much Blacker, now 2/8 or 25% of the band. The group was indescribably elegant backing up Metz channeling Bach and the featured soloists, Jennifer Nitchman (flute) and Hannah Ji (violin), who performed with lockstep virtuosity playing standing up, dancing with their instruments.
After an intermission, they stowed the harpsichord and called in the woodwinds for not one but two symphonies, Mozart’s Symphony No. 33 in B-flat Major and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 87 in A major. Granted, these are speed symphonies, clocking in at under 25 minutes each, but still, that was a lot of buoyant, balanced, beautiful music to close out a show on a Monday night in March. I could not take my eyes off Alvin McCall’s eyes as he sawed his cello next to Bjorn Ranheim, looking like a man with a sweet tooth and both hands in the cookie jar.
The show stealer, however, was Philip Ross on oboe. A larger man who plays a smaller instrument is always interesting to watch, and both Mozart and his papa Haydn wrote tricky, tasty parts for the oboe. During the Haydn, I noticed horn player Thomas Jostlein (always a man of evident good will) give up on repressing his grin and all but giggle with delight as his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra colleague burned down the house with his oboe. Playing with the orchestra at Powell Hall, Jostlein would have had a view, if anything, of the back of the oboist’s head. In the smaller chamber setting, he had a three-quarter profile look, which surely contributed to his joy in watching Ross’ spirited performance.
The other sight to see, throughout the program, was McKegan, the guest conductor himself. He is a smaller, compact man. If you were casting a hobbit conductor, you would want McKegan to read for the part. He conducts with no baton and appears to improvise what he does with his two hands from moment to moment. More than anything, he looked like a child playing at being a conductor who knows he is supposed to do something with his hands so he keeps trying out different things, different secret handshakes with the empty air. When McKegan got really excited, he prance-danced. Scooby-Doo was another visual reference that came to mind. He was absolutely adorable.
None of these whimsical references applied to the actual child who opened the program, Kanon Ogura, age 11, a student at the Chamber Music Society’s Chamber Academy. She broke form by departing from the Baroque to perform the first movement of Sonata No. 2 for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe – and shattered everything else, including all expectations for what a 5th grader should be able to accomplish with a violin. I can’t say you heard it here first, since this pint-sized dynamo already has been winning competitions and establishing a YouTube presence. But you did hear it here: Kanon Ogura. Holy smokes!
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