The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s two-weekend Johannes Brahms Festival concluded at Uihlein Hall on Saturday evening. The performances of the composer’s last two symphonies hit the same high level as the previous weekend, with Edo de Waart and the orchestra in peak form.
Brahms’ instrumentation is notoriously thick, with layered parts almost constantly. It’s difficult to avoid the word “clarity” in describing the results De Waart obtains with the MSO. I feel I’ve worn the word out, but it applies to what I heard in Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 4. The details of the orchestration easily emerged in a disciplined and shapely fashion. Even in this, the clearest performance imaginable, when I focused on an inner harmony part in some instrument or other, I couldn’t always pick it out. Many have called that density a major fault of Brahms’ writing. I rather think of it as the plush, characteristic nature of the music.
In a pre-concert speech, MSO president Mark Niehaus explained that a recording was taking place and asked the audience to be especially quiet. The recordings will likely be used as a patron gift, but also to simply document a major achievement of De Waart’s tenure at the MSO. That speech made a big difference. The hall wasn’t as intently silent as listening in a German or Austrian audience, but still it was probably the quietest I’ve ever experienced with the MSO. I think this was partly a conscious effort, but also because the performance so engaged the audience that its attention was to some degree effortless.
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There was a crisp precision to the conducting and playing. Late 19th-century music such as this has far more impact when sentimentality and preciousness are left out of the equation. Graceful subtleties came through in captivating, hushed stretches. I found the performance of Symphony No. 4 slightly better than Symphony No. 3, but both were at a superb level. So many players deserve mention, but I will focus on the arresting sounds coming from the trombones. They played with perfectly balanced blend—whether soft or loud—with exciting, edgy bite in the final climax.
