On April 3 of this year, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra gave the regional premiere of "Become River," a work by John Luther Adams. Eleven days later, Adams won the Pulitzer Prize. A month earlier, the Chamber Orchestra announced the pianist Jeremy Denk as its latest artistic partner, and that very day, Denk received the $75,000 Avery Fisher Prize.

Are these mere coincidences or are they evidence that someone — or some thing — residing in the plush offices of the SPCO has the power to foretell the future? You decide. We should agree that someone in those offices is a good talent scout.

Actually, the 44-year-old Denk was easy to spot. Last year he won a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship and was named Musical America's Instrumentalist of the Year. He seems a good pick for the Chamber Orchestra, given his affinities in both traditional and contemporary repertoire. Under the terms of a three-year contract, he will perform several programs each season.

For his debut as artistic partner this weekend, he is playing a Mozart concerto (the stormy No. 20 in D minor) and two brief works by Ives. The entire program, heard Friday morning at Ordway Center in St. Paul, had a nice coherence, concluding as it did with Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, "Eroica." The D Minor is considered the most Beethoven-like of Mozart's concertos. Beethoven is thought to have played it, and he wrote cadenzas for it.

For the two Ives pieces, which opened the concert, Denk was joined by violinist Ruggero Allifranchini and clarinetist Richie Hawley. In the witty Largo, a tranquil mood is interrupted by undercurrents of conflict that threaten to get out of control.

The second piece, "In the Barn," from the Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, mixes ragtime and country dances. The performances were just right: snappy rhythms with just a hint of chaos.

Denk's Mozart, which he conducted from the piano, was as graceful as it was turbulent.

He punched home the work's Beethovenesque implications while maintaining an easy, fluent flow to the passagework. The big first-movement cadenza showed impressive vehemence, while the slow movement, a Romance, was cast in long lyrical lines rich in sentiment yet effortlessly elegant.

The soloist-conductor, we've always known, can successfully bring off a Mozart concerto. Mozart himself did it.

In Beethoven, however, especially in one of the big symphonies like the "Eroica," combined leadership doesn't work. Conducting from his regular chair, concertmaster Steven Copes set brisk tempos and imposed strong accents, getting restrained vibrato from the strings and precise ensemble from his colleagues. But Beethoven's rhetoric needs more than a ticking clock. The music didn't breathe. It lacked nuance and nobility, especially in the first two movements. It was Beethoven on the freeway during rush hour.

In a thoughtful touch, the concert was dedicated to the memory of Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus, who died last Sunday.

Michael Anthony writes about music.