Photo Credit: Jennifer Brindley
It’s always remarkable to me how, with only a couple of rehearsals, musicians come together to create a polished and even profound performance. Such was the case at the well-attended final Frankly Music concert of the season last week at Schwan Hall of Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Frank Almond has a long track record of bringing to town first-rate players for this series. He and fellow violinist Ilana Setapen of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra were joined by violists Toby Appel and Helen Callus, and cellists Nicholas Canellakis and Alexander Hersh. I had never heard Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Grande Sestetto Concertante in E-flat Major, an anonymous arrangement of the familiar Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra. Every player got a chance to shine in this well-balanced performance.
It was followed by possibly the greatest chamber work in the genre, String Sextet No. 1 by Johannes Brahms. This was a masterful, fresh-sounding account of the pieces. Each of the four movements came to life in vivid color. This performance would be treasured in any city in the world.
Later in the week, on Sunday afternoon, guest conductor Ken-David Masur led a thoroughly engaging concert, featuring two of the principal players as soloist. Violist Robert Levine played with warm and persuasive sound in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Flos Campi (Flower of the Field). I was happy to get the chance to again hear Todd Levy in Aaron Copland’s Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra.
It’s hard to imagine a better performance than Levy’s in this music, with his sensitive phrasing in the first movement, and his playful take on the rollicking second movement.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Maurice Ravel was a master of imaginative orchestration, and the Suite No. 2 from the ballet Daphnis et Chloe may show that better than any other of his pieces. This is magical music, lush but transparent, and the orchestra played it with refined elegance. The Milwaukee Symphony Chorus wordlessly joined in, as they also did in the Vaughan Williams piece. American composer Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964) was heard in the captivating Radiant Circles.
