MUSIC REVIEW : Slovak Orchestra in Sites Series Opener

True matinees, actual daytime performances that really take place in the morning, are like true love: They come along very seldom.

Impresario MaryAnn Bonino, however, beginning another season of Chamber Music in Historic Sites--the peripatetic, ear-opening series sponsored by the Da Camera Society of Mount St. Mary’s College--masterminded a genuine matinee at the wondrous, old, acoustically cherishable Orpheum Theatre, downtown.

Saturday morning, to launch a sunlight exploration Bonino called “A Day on Broadway,” she presented a return visit to our city by the 14-member Slovak Chamber Orchestra. Not only did a large audience show up, dressed comfortably for its daylong downtown excursion, the Slovaks played splendidly. At 10:30 in the morning.

The Orpheum, a 66-year-old movie palace beautifully surviving into this decade, did not surprise, because Historic Sites visited here 16 months ago when the touring Vienna Chamber Orchestra, with Philippe Entremont, lit up the old place with some cherishably quiet but unforgettable Mozart. The group from Prague earned the same kind of new respect we felt at that time for the ensemble from Austria.

Twelve of the 14 players--not the cellists, obviously--stand during the Slovaks’ performances. That is not important in itself except as it symbolizes the full attention and commitment the musicians bring to their programs.

This one, led without fuss by first violinist-leader Bohdan Warchal, offered familiarity--Mozart’s K. 136 Divertimento, Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No. 10 and Grieg’s “Holberg” Suite--before intermission, more novelty, in works by Ilja Zeljenka and the first Josef Suk, afterward.

In straightforwardness, purity of sound and tight ensemble, the Slovaks have few peers. Subtleties abound in their playing, yet no preciosity appears. Soft playing is their great strength; a crescendo from this group reminds the listener how broad a dynamic spectrum good string players have at their disposal, when virtuosity and good taste are aligned.

In a morning full of happy aural events, the high point may have been Suk’s beauteous E-flat Serenade, as joyous a piece as the repertory holds, here performed with affectionate understatement.

Visually, the French Renaissance-style Orpheum itself, with its 2,200 seats and its spectacular architectural details--including handsomely lit Romanesque columns and true-blue, stained-glass soffits under the balconies--created an appropriate setting for these kinds of elegant sounds.