Photo by Martin Cherry
Tracy Silverman violinist
Tracy Silverman
As resident conductor at Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Yaniv Dinur spends more time on the podium with the players than any other leader, including pops concerts, school concerts, and sometimes, classical subscription concerts. He has grown enormously as a conductor over his several years at MSO, evolving in maturity and musical authority and fluency.
Dinur led an impressive account of Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 in E minor last weekend. Conducting without score, he seemingly easily communicated his intentions to the musicians, creating more of a collaboration than imposing a willful, inflexible interpretation. This music has been compared to Tchaikovsky in some ways, particularly in the sections where the violins and cellos are playing the same melodies in octaves. Todd Levy kicked things off in a lengthy, expressive clarinet solo, with sound emerging from nowhere and gracefully tapering away to nothingness at the end of the phrase.
Don’t tell the ushers, but after intermission I moved from my seat in row N on the main floor to one high in the balcony. I recommend sitting upstairs. The blend and mix of the sound is better in Allen-Bradley Hall from there. On the main floor the balance between brass and strings―a tricky topic in this new hall―is rather dicey. The strings come through with more presence when listening from the balcony.
I’ve only recently become acquainted with African American composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004), who was named in honor of the Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (who himself was named after British poet Samuel Coleridge Taylor, no hyphen this time). None of these men were related except in kinship of the arts. Perkinson was programmed with his Sinfonietta No. 1 for Strings, a handsome three-movement piece from 1954-55.
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The music definitely has a mid-20th century American sound, which made me ponder what exactly that means. There are obvious characteristics of American classical music of the era; George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Howard Hanson immediately come to mind. Perkinson’s sound is not as distinctive but plays with counterpoint and imitation in playful and attractive ways, and spins melody with pathos in the second movement.
Dharma (OK, I had to look this up as a refresher) is the “essential quality or character,” according to dictionary.com. John Adams’s The Dharma at Big Sur attempts to capture something, in the composer’s mind, that is quintessentially about the California coast. It was written in 2003 for electric violinist Tracy Silverman, who was soloist with MSO. His electric violin has six strings, rather than the usual four, allowing for an additional low range on the instrument. He plays with a pleasing combination of flair and restraint.
This is atmospheric, almost cinematic music. Beds of undulating sounds, often mutating into various textures, underly a freely rhapsodic violin solo. It’s a slow-moving piece, hypnotic in its spell, culminating in the insistence of a steadily repeated note in various instruments that seems like the never-ending pounding of waves. A moody film by Adam Larsen, showing dancers on the shore in slow movement, was shown as the music was played. I was so fascinated with the ever-changing details of the orchestration that I admit I didn’t always pay attention to the film.
I was pleased and impressed with the warm embrace of this music by the audience. Would that have happened twenty years ago? Some music that once seemed outside-the-box and experimental to a degree has become mainstream. It buoyed my spirits with hope.
