music

Orchestral musicians are among the most accomplished artists in this town. But typically they're encountered in the aggregate, not as individuals. Lacking opportunities to present performances that manifest the depth of their musicianship and reveal something of themselves, they're prone to disaffection: job satisfaction among orchestra players, as measured by national surveys, is notoriously low. This is a loss for musicians and community alike.

There's no simple fix for this systemic frustration, but programs like the Minnesota Orchestra's "Concerti Parti," which began Wednesday evening, are part of the remedy. In the course of two weeks, "Concerti Parti" -- the music-making, fortunately, is better than the wordplay -- will bring nine members of the ensemble to the front of the stage, briefly enabling their emergence from the near-anonymity of the orchestra. The conductor (who gets his own moment in the sun) is Gilbert Varga, an adroit accompanist and elegant podium presence.

This week's concert spotlights two violinists and four horn players. Sarah Kwak and Vali Phillips, who are wife and husband, usually sit opposite one another as associate concertmaster and principal second violin, respectively. For Bach's great Double Concerto in D Minor, however, they were side by side, evincing the rapport of seasoned chamber musicians. Both were eloquent in the serenely beautiful Largo -- a piece lending credence to the view that even Bach's secular writing is sacred at heart. This music has largely disappeared from the programs of symphony orchestras, and we are the poorer for it.

For Schumann's daunting Concert Piece in F Major, the horn quartet -- Michael Gast, Brian Jensen, Ellen Dinwiddie Smith, David Kamminga -- was seated downstage. Collectively, these players have served the orchestra for some three-quarters of a century; Kamminga, who joined the ensemble in 1967, accounts for more than half that service.

Gast's edition of Schumann's score, used here, has an egalitarian thrust; redistributing the horn parts, it gives a bit less prominence to the first-chair player, a bit more to his colleagues. Wednesday's performance had its blemishes -- the horn is a fickle instrument -- but captured both the work's songfulness and its elation.

Tempos were mostly fleet in Varga's concluding account of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony. Though the music's charms may be best savored at more leisurely speeds, the vivacity and dash of the orchestra's playing were irresistible.

Larry Fuchsberg writes frequently about music.