Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra was the place to be in town on Saturday night, with the great film composer John Williams as guest. The concert sold out in four hours upon announcement. It undoubtedly felt like a rare event to everyone there, including the orchestra itself. Electricity buzzed in the air, powered by a parade of inspired excerpts from Williams’ many landmark film scores.
This was not a typical MSO audience, with movie fans of every age listening intently then cheering each selection as if Williams were a rock star. Every fan there knows that Williams’ music has defined an era in film music. The remarkable thing is the depth of the music he composed for blockbuster, very commercial hits. The pieces from Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Harry Potter movies, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and others played are richly textured, imaginative, lush, emotionally charged modern classics, expertly rendered in every detail. No other music written directly for orchestra in the last 50 years has had Williams’ cultural impact. This is actually very challenging music to play and the MSO was at the top of its game.
Earlier in the week Frankly Music opened a new season at a new venue, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, allowing for a much larger audience than its previous East Side location, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. While the acoustics in the church are not ideal for discerning all the detail of chamber music, they are not bad and are generally flattering.
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The program was centered on two Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, Nos. 2 and 4. Frank Almond was joined by various musicians, including MSO players, creating lively and excellent performances. MSO president and former principal trumpet Mark Niehaus gave a sophisticated account of the piccolo trumpet part in the second concerto. Three Madrigals for violin and viola by Bohuslav Martinů has amazing textures for these instruments in combination, played with graceful style and beautiful tone by Almond and Nicholas Cords.
