Meet the SPCO's newest artistic partner, a baroque expert who embraces music from every era

Sometimes sparks fly in a new relationship.

Take, for example, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's March 2017 concerts with keyboard player and conductor Richard Egarr, its first ever with the British baroque specialist. "Richard made one of the most exciting SPCO debuts in recent memory," said SPCO Artistic Director Kyu-Young Kim. "He led a revelatory performance of a Mozart concerto on pianoforte, and a Haydn symphony that made the orchestra want to jump out of our seats."

The SPCO wanted more from this galvanizing musician. This week the orchestra named Egarr its newest artistic partner, beginning with the 2019-20 season.

The SPCO currently has a team of five artistic partners, musicians specially chosen for their charisma and expertise in key areas of the classical repertoire. They include baroque specialist Jonathan Cohen, pianist Jeremy Denk, clarinetist Martin Fröst, Grammy-winning violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the iconoclastic violinist Pekka Kuusisto.

Egarr lends even more experience to this crew, especially in music of the baroque period. He currently serves as music director of the Academy of Ancient Music, one of England's leading period instrument orchestras. Here in America, he has worked with the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston), Philharmonia Baroque (San Francisco) and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Egarr is back in the Twin Cities this week for an SPCO program featuring music by English baroque composers. Reached by phone in Holland, Egarr spoke about his new post and his fascination with a certain Minnesota superstar. The conversation has been lightly edited.

Q: You are often described as an "early music expert," specializing in composers like Bach and Handel. Is that accurate?

Q: Why is that?

A: Well, it doesn't seem to be fashionable to allow someone in more than one field. That seems ridiculous to me. My great conducting heroes are Leonard Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski, and they were both multisided. Particularly Bernstein — he could pretty much do anything.

Q: So how do you approach the music you perform, regardless of its period?

A: I do pretty much the same with all types of music. I go into the background of when it was written, what was going on at the time, what kind of instruments were being used, and what are the performance practice issues. Three years ago at the Edinburgh Festival I conducted Gilbert and Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore." I prepared in the same way I would a piece of unknown 17th-century music.

Q: Can we expect an "HMS Pinafore" with the SPCO?

Q: Speaking of English composers, three are featured in your program with the SCPO this week: Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke and Charles Avison. Do you think the English baroque period is underrated?

A: I think it's underrepresented. I suspect a lot of people haven't heard of Matthew Locke. And maybe not of Avison, though he was just as famous as Handel in his time. And Locke is twice as kinky as Purcell — full of saucy harmonies, very individual. This music is full of a very particular English kind of wit. And it's really skillful. People should get to know it.

Q: You've performed with the SPCO a couple of times already. What are your impressions of the orchestra?

A: When you go to a new orchestra you get a pretty fast idea of whether there's an immediate rapport or not. And I just think this is a great bunch of musicians who are searching for the new in whichever music they're playing. I love the challenging programming the SPCO does, mixing works and periods. They're hugely intelligent, flexible and passionate players. And that's absolutely the kind I love working with.

Q: Are there particular pieces that you want to do as an SPCO artistic partner?

Q: You are both a conductor and a keyboard player. How do you decide which works need a conductor and which don't?

A: There is no baroque orchestral repertoire that needs conducting. It's just deeply inappropriate, because it's basically collaborative chamber music. I get really pissed off at people who conduct Bach's "Brandenburg" Concertos. It is just nonsense, and they probably do it because they can't play anything themselves. Things start to change with Beethoven symphonies, and you begin needing a conductor to hold it all together.

Q: You have a reputation for doing a lot of talking with audiences at your concerts. Will you be doing that at the SPCO?

A: Absolutely. I think it's essential. Especially in repertoire like Matthew Locke, which is pretty "out there" music. Audiences need that barrier-breaking, where you give them a bit of information. It gives them an "in" to the music.

Q: Have you seen much of the Twin Cities on your visits so far?