Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra: More Cowbell!

The works on theupcoming Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert all stem from thetumultuous 20th century, descending back in time as the program progresses. In1991, Scottish composer James MacMillan (b. 1959) composed his Sinfonietta which,in MacMillan’s words, consists of a “simple arch-form (that) takes the workfrom the tranquil to the visceral and back again.” The scoring ispercussion-heavy, with triangle, vibraphone, snare drum, suspended cymbal, woodblock, glockenspiel, anvil, tubular bells andChristopher Walken, takenotecowbells!

Cellist JohannesMoser joins conductor Paul Daniel and the MSO in the Cello Concerto No. 1 inE-Flat Major, Op. 107 (1959) of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). In starkcontrast to MacMillan’s work, this is a lightly scored, fairly somber piecereflecting the repressive hangover the Soviet Unionwas in just a few years after the Stalin dictatorship.

Danish composer CarlNielsen (1865-1931) composed his Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 during World War I, andsurely his proximity to the brutality of that unprecedented conflagrationinfluenced the work (with its scoring for two sets of timpani, Nielsen allowedfor menacing, artillery barrage-like drum rolling). But this is no work of doomand gloom. He titled it The Inextinguishable, endeavoring herein toexpress “the elemental Will of Life. Music is Life,” as he explained, “and likeit is inextinguishable”sentiments that certainly must speak to us today asemphatically as they did a century ago.

At Uihlein Hall onJan. 15 and 16.