Star Tribune
December 14, 2003

Playing with passion

By Michael Anthony
Star Tribune Staff Writer

Last Sunday afternoon, just two days after the Minnesota Orchestra held its annual board meeting and declared a deficit of $2.4 million, another orchestra in the state, the St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of William Schrickel, played a concert to an enthusiastic, near-capacity audience at the Paramount, an ornate, 77-year-old movie palace in downtown St. Cloud.

The St. Cloud Symphony, founded in 1973, has no deficit, but its annual budget is small: $150,000 compared with the Minnesota Orchestra’s $29 million. But then, it also doesn’t have the extensive funding sources of a full-time professional orchestra.

The St. Cloud Symphony is a bit different from most community orchestras, of which there are about 1,000 in the United States. As in all community orchestras, the players have full-time jobs doing something else. But the 70 or so musicians in St. Cloud, some of whom live in the Twin Cities, get a small fee for their once-a-week rehearsal and for their performances: a four-concert subscription season plus children’s concerts and extensive educational activities.

“These are people who are passionate about music and about their music director. They obviously aren’t doing this to get rich,” said Sandy Nadeau, the orchestra’s executive director, after last Sunday’s concert.

She means that these musicians are “amateurs,” a positive term: It actually means doing something for the love of it rather than for monetary gain.

And that love is paying off in St. Cloud. This is a fine orchestra. The musicians play alertly and with discipline. The string sound has depth and considerable color, and the principals play with real character. There are no weak sections. Woodwinds, brass and percussion were on top of things all afternoon, and this wasn’t an easy program: a fanfare and two concert pieces by Dave Brubeck, followed by Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with John Jensen as soloist. A happy choice, the little jazz ballet “Walking the Dog,” from Gershwin’s magical score for “Shall We Dance,” opened the second half and proved the orchestra can swing.

This isn’t to suggest that this or any community orchestra can rise to the level of virtuosity of today’s full-time professional ensembles, the kind of group that plays together every day. But clearly, something has happened to community orchestras here and elsewhere. They’ve improved. It might simply be better leadership; it might also be that there are lots of well-trained musicians out there who either can’t get into a full-time orchestra or don’t want to. Playing your instrument practically every waking moment isn’t necessarily a path to greatness. Routine can kill a musician’s spirit. The feeling from the stage of the Paramount Theater last Sunday was anything but routine.

Schrickel, who has a full-time gig as assistant principal double bass of the Minnesota Orchestra, seems to be the spark plug for all this. (He also leads the remarkably improved Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in the Twin Cities.)
An enthusiastic but watchful presence at the podium, he led the orchestra clearly and knowledgeably through the intricacies of Brubeck’s five-movement “Theme and Explorations,” composed in 1997 for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

As for the “Rhapsody,” Jensen, one of the Twin Cities’ most admired pianists, gave a sturdy account that lacked something in rhythmic panache. The piano in question, Steinway’s much-touted $175,000 Rhapsody, sounded as if it’s difficult to play.

This was the full orchestra’s debut at the Paramount, which offers warm, clear, mellow sound—maybe too mellow for the brass and the woodwinds seated up-stage. A little sound enhancement back there might help.

Looking ahead, Schrickel has an inviting program planned for the orchestra’s return to the theater Feb. 4: treatments of the Romeo and Juliet story by Berlioz, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Nino Rota.