Saint Paul Orchestra and Watts Skim the Emotional Surface

Even in his early works, Beethoven tended to discomfort audiences by pushing at the boundaries of classical harmony, restraint and form. But conductor Hugh Wolff and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Friday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, ruffled no one’s feathers and made the composer a model of drawing-room propriety.

Long lines and even, polished surfaces characterized the account of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. The playing was clean, balanced and transparent, but very much within dynamic limits. Beethoven’s sudden accents, dissonances and distinct articulations were smoothed over. Phrases tended to be rounded off, as if to avoid ending with any undue emphasis or point.

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Wolff appreciated and observed markings of piano and pianissimo, and he ensured that the final movement emerged with breathless lightness. But the absence of any uncouth, revolutionary energy made this work a museum piece.

Joining the orchestra in a similar approach to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 was soloist Andre Watts. Certainly a fluent pianist, combining amazing speed with warmth and accuracy, Watts offered a balanced and temperate account that, again, emphasized surface more than exploring the depths.

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The program opened with the Southern California premiere of Michael Daugherty’s “Sunset Strip,” commissioned for the orchestra, which first performed it in January. The three-minute, three-movement piece is a jaunty, layered, complex and appealing evocation of the fabled Hollywood boulevard.

There were two encores--the Hoedown from Copland’s “Rodeo” and an excerpt from Rameau’s last opera, “Les Bordeades.”