Beethoven Gets a Nuanced Account at MSO Concert

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Photo Credit: Anthony Chang

The music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) seems everywhere in this year marking the 250th anniversary of his birth. On Sunday afternoon at the Pabst Theater, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) served up Beethoven’s Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, with Anthony Marwood as soloist and guest conductor Gemma New.

This was a sensitive, nuanced account of this famous music. Marwood’s silvery sound was sometimes daringly soft. His sensitive phrasing created a highly individual, considered interpretation, casting a spell over the audience at times with a rather free approach. I was equally fascinated with the conductor. New showed herself to be an attentive, nuanced and expressive concerto conductor. 

The first piece Igor Stravinsky completed after immigrating to the U.S. in 1939 was Danses Concertante in five movements for chamber orchestra. This is an example of Stravinsky’s neo-classical style, which some have unfairly called “Mozart with the wrong notes.” It’s far better than that. The 22 players on the stage gave a crisp, elegant performance under New’s insightful leadership.

Has anyone ever written better for the orchestra than Maurice Ravel? The concert featured his beguiling Suite of Five Pieces from Ma Mere l’Oye (Mother Goose). All throughout, the listener is aware of how a master combines instruments to create something magical. New created beautiful sounds, phrase after phrase, lovingly shaping each of the five movements. 

Before the program began, the orchestra played the second movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in tribute to the five victims of the Molson Coors shootings. The audience responded with mournful and respectful silence.