High Standards at Milwaukee Symphony's Season Opener

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Photo credit: Jonathan Kirn

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra opened its new season this weekend, while the search for a new music director continues after Edo de Waart’s departure. 

The 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein is in August 2018, and to mark the occasion, the MSO has programmed his music on seven concerts this season. Bernstein’s Candide Overture is one of his most familiar pieces. This performance, led by guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru, had light grace and transparency rather than the bombast that can creep into a rendering of this piece.

Two new works followed, and the audience gave both warm responses. British composer Anna Clyne (b. 1980) was heard in her 2013 composition, Masquerade, a celebration of 18th-century promenade concerts held in London’s pleasure gardens. This attractive music is episodic, depicting courtly dances and conjuring various characters and street entertainers. It packs a lot in only five minutes.

American composer Jake Heggie (b. 1961) is best known for his operas and art songs. His opera Dead Man Walking (2000) has entered the standard repertory. Heggie created an orchestral suite from his opera Moby-Dick (2010), and Măcelaru conducted its premiere this summer at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, Calif. The music is often evocative of the sea: moody and philosophical; reflecting Herman Melville’s classic novel. A livelier section of folksy whimsy featured a stylish solo by the wonderful principal trombonist Megumi Kanda.

The MSO showed it has remained at its high level of standards. I liked most of what Măcelaru brought to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92. Sharp contrasts in volume were delightfully clear on Saturday evening. The first, third and fourth movements were persuasive, crisp and powerful. I wasn’t as taken by this account of the famous second movement; the tempo was just a bit too slow, perhaps, and the result was a little labored. A few times throughout the symphony ensemble entrances were not quite together. But I should report that the loud, prolonged cheers at the end were what one would hear at a sports victory.