In 1978, conductor Larry Hill and a group of musicians created a cooperative model for an orchestra. They called it the Pro Arte Orchestra of Boston. Before that, Hill, my colleague who for years led UMass Boston’s University Chorus, asked me if I thought that such a model would work. It was an idea worth considering. To this day, Pro Arte continues to evolve, this season presenting two series, “Ensemble” and “Salon,” eight concerts in all at different venues around town. For its Sunday program at Second Church in Newton, a symphonic movement from the emerging 19^th–century Swedish composer Elfrida Andrée and an Aaron Copland duo arranged especially for the Pro Arte by the BSO’s principal librarian D. Wilson Ochoa.

“Uncommon Gems,” no less, is the title given to a second outing in the “Ensemble” series that welcomed conductor Sarah Ioannides. The Director of Orchestral Activities at Boston University, she began her career as the first woman appointed to a full-time conducting position with the Cincinnati Symphony. She has since conducted extensively in the United States and on six continents with major orchestras.

Appearing fully absorbed in music making throughout the afternoon, Ioannides led a receptive Pro Arte with a clear-cut swiftness and economy of means. Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances spoke more of folk than of movement until the concluding “Fast Dance” which kicked into high exuberant gear. The folkish emphasis allowed for more of that inimitable Bartók picturesqueness from the chamber orchestra, quaint shepherd’s flute effects as those from the piccolo topping it all off.

We learned that Elfrida Andrée (1841−1929), an advocate for women working as telegraph operators, organists, and composers, was determined to do it all. Representing her to wider audiences these days is the Intermezzo from her first symphony. According to its editor Jonathan Spatola-Knoll this unusual choice from Pro Arte would be its first East Coast performance. But an intermezzo from fughettas to 19^th-century-styled celebratory flourishes? Pristine horns came your way right up to you in Second Church whose acoustic penchant was to make everything strikingly present. This cooperative of some of Boston’s finest musicians wholeheartedly portrayed this little gem with its warm echoes of the composer’s predecessors. Here was something new for many of us concert-goers.

Employing themes he wrote down in the ‘40s, Duo for Flute and Chamber Orchestra (1971) is Copland’s last multimovement work. It has been at the back of Wilson Ochoa’s mind for decades, ever since he first heard it played by his sister. Ochoa, who spoke about this at the church, scored the duo for strings, piano doubling celeste, and harp, following in Copland’s steps for his Clarinet Concerto. The orchestrated duo kept Copland flavors. Was it the sanctuary that may have transformed the flute-piano duo into something surprisingly bigger than its original, or was it the orchestration? Pro Arte’s principal flute Ann Bobo, well known to Boston audiences, wrapped her luxuriant sound around the ears of Sunday’s fair turnout. As Copland instructed with “Flowing Poetic,” Bobo and the small orchestra followed up with exactly that; the two other movements, “Somewhat mournful” and “Lively with bounce,” waned somewhat. Is it that Copland’s flirting with modernities around him at the time of composition that may be the reason for my not completely being convinced of the entanglements of his signature Americana.

Playing up somewhat to “impersonations” and probably as well to its audience, Francis Poulenc’s Sinfonietta delighted. With Pro Arte and Sarah Ioannides it took less of the short and simple indicated by the title by veering more toward symphonic scale. Nonetheless Nancy Dimrock expressively visited every corner of her oboe part, filled with the French composer’s scampering wit and tongue-in-cheek charm. More of the same might also have come from Ioannides had she lightened up the Sinfonietta just a bit more in a dialogue with Second Church’s space.  

What an inviting program and performance it mostly turned out to be. Pro Arte continues seeking support from its audiences. We were reminded that gifts of any size would be greatly appreciated. (www.proarte.com/donate)

David Patterson, Professor of Music and former Chair of the Performing Arts Department at UMass Boston, was recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award and the Chancellor’s Distinction in Teaching Award. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen in Paris and holds a PhD from Harvard University. He is the author of 20 Little Piano Pieces from Around the World (G. Schirmer).  www.notescape.net