For the opening concert of its 2025/2026 season, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra welcomes the return of former artistic partner Thomas Zehetmair, an Austrian violinist-turned-conductor, who in recent years has broadened his artistry to include composing.
The program traces a path from Zehetmair’s contemporary turbulence back through the romantic reconciliation of Johannes Brahms’s last orchestral work to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final symphony.
To start things off, the SPCO performs a new string orchestra arrangement of Zehetmair’s 2023 string trio, Passacaglia, Burlesque and Choral. It opens with a slurry beginning, a blurred mass of repeated tone chords built from adjacent notes on a musical scale that evoke eerie disorder.
In time, these dissonant chords start to sound more musical, even as they change in rhythm and tempo, before Zehetmair introduces a sly pizzicato and more strident accented rhythms.
After a pause, the composition takes on a searching quality, as the melody travels from one instrument to the next, including a compelling viola solo performed by principal viola Maiya Papach, eventually fading out to nothing, leaving the audience suspended in uneasy quiet.
The work’s last movement, which in his intro Zehetmair noted derives from a theme Mozart used in his “Jupiter” Symphony going back to the 12th century, takes on a cacophonous tumult, swelling, hovering, and exploring strange rhythms, and lopsided, sloppy bliss.
From Zehetmair’s searching dissonances, the SPCO moved into Brahms’ Double Concerto, performed by concertmaster Steven Copes and principal cello Julie Albers. Brahms wrote the double concerto — a rare form at the time — for his former friend, Joseph Joachim, as a way to make amends, as well as his frequent collaborator Robert Hausmann. The music allows room for each of the soloists to shine, as well as be in dialogue with the larger orchestra. It often carries a cheerful feeling, with wonderful textures.
After the orchestra launches in with a full flaring sound, the cello takes the lead on a sweet, almost pensive solo. The woodwinds dash in for a moment before the violin arrives, leaping across scales before the orchestra returns with a celebratory flair. The first movement has ample opportunity for Copes and Albers to demonstrate not only their own skill as separate musicians but also an easy camaraderie that comes from years as colleagues.
In the second movement, warmth prevails: woodwinds interject tenderly while violin and cello shadow each other in playful turns. The finale opens with a sneaky cello solo answered by a mischievous violin line. The music feels like a murder mystery caper, propelled by urgency yet never losing its lightness.
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After Brahms’s resplendent dialogue, the SPCO turned to Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter,” his last and most monumental symphony. Zehetmair breathed with the musicians as he conducted, guiding the ensemble with physical clarity rather than showmanship. The opening Allegro vacillates between punchy jabs and fluttery gaiety. The Andante cantabile offers benevolence tinged with shadow, its harmonies turning suddenly ominous.
The Menuetto: Allegretto takes the shape of a dance, its courtly pulse enlivened by fanciful woodwind slides that seem to tumble over each other. You can hear the slide-and-step pattern like footsteps on a ballroom floor. The finale arrives like crashes of thunder and lightning, shifting between forceful and delicate moments. Zehetmair’s arms fly as he leads the orchestra toward its stormy finish.
Opening weekend
Who: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
What: Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony with Thomas Zehetmair
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13; 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14
Where: The Ordway, 345 Washington St., St. Paul
Tickets: $0-$70
Accessibility: ordway.org/visit/accessibility/
Capsule: Former SPCO Artistic Partner Thomas Zehetmair returns to conduct Brahms, Beethoven, and his own work.
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