The idea of a thriving contemporary music series with a devoted Milwaukee audience might have seemed unlikely 36 years ago. But Present Music―with its high artistic standards, innovations and educational outreach―has long been a pillar of our classical local scene. Founder and artistic director Kevin Stalheim cannot be given enough credit for that achievement.
The Saturday evening Present Music concert title, “Kevin’s Last Season Opener,” referred to Stalheim’s announced retirement at the end of the season. The sizable audience at the Zelazo Center at UWM heard seven pieces in excellent performances by nine musicians, with guest conductor David Bloom returning.
This year marks the eightieth birthday of Joan Tower. Her playful Petroushskates (1980) was inspired the quirky combination of Petroushka by Igor Stravinsky and figure skating. In this and the other pieces he led, Bloom’s light and elegant touch drew precision from the players. It’s always a pleasure to hear pianist Cory Smythe’s masterful playing. Michael Daugherty’s Sinatra Shag (1997) has a fun 1960s groove, featuring a showy violin solo played with panache by Eric Segnitz. Young American composer Michael Lanci (b, 1984) was heard in three movements based on music by singer-songwriter Nick Drake, Endless Colored Ways, characterized by shimmering sounds and easy gentleness.
Three pieces on the program shared the uncommon instrumentation of violin, cello, flute, clarinet, trombone, percussion, electric guitar and piano. Eve Beglarian’s Waiting for Billy Floyd, inspired by a story about a small Mississippi river town, paints a pastoral rural mood, suddenly shattered by flooding and violence, with Megumi Kanda thundering in with big, bold tones on trombone. Irish composer Emma O’Halloran’s Endless Deeps (2015) attempts to conjure the sea, which I think it only about half succeeds in doing. As arranger Bloom used this instrumentation in an imaginative rendition of Alla l’aa Ke, a traditional West African song.
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Stalheim has grown enormously as a conductor over the decades. He confidently led Kamran Ince’s Waves of Talya(1988), which was recorded on the first CD released by Present Music. One of the best of Ince’s works, it brews with exoticism, lushness and rhythmic energy.