Courtesy of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
John Adams
John Adams
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert of last weekend was led by two different conductors. The scheduled conductor, Edo de Waart, music director laureate, was on the podium for the Friday concert. He cancelled for the Saturday performance, which was led by MSO’s new assistant conductor, Ryan Tani. The concert was of the same music both days, but there were differences in the performances.
De Waart, who was a music director of MSO from 2009 through the 2016-2017 season, was a disciplinarian in that role, and brought a tight ensemble sound to the orchestra. Now at age 82 he seemed a different presence. It was certainly a good performance on Friday. I wouldn’t have considered it any differently had I not also attended the Saturday concert.
In comparison and retrospect De Waart seemed to lack some energy on Friday. But to be fair, he may not have been at his best since he did cancel appearing on Saturday. Tani, in his first appearance on an MSO subscription concert, delivered a crisper and more vivacious performance on Saturday. The audience was rooting for him to succeed, as were the musicians.
The Chairman Dances by John Adams was commissioned by MSO and premiered here in 1986, with then music director Lukas Foss conducting. It is firmly part of contemporary orchestral repertoire. It has an obtuse relationship with Adams’ opera Nixon in China, which was premiered in 1987. Chairman Mao’s wife, Madame Mao, had been an actress, and there are lush and glamorous sections, spelling the more dominant repeated notes of most of the piece. Adams only used various references to The Chairman Dances in the eventual opera.
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De Waart has been a frequent conductor of Adams. Tani simply brought more animated energy to the piece, and the orchestra responded with alertness and precision.
Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” (Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36) is at the core of the most often performed British music. The composer never revealed the theme, thus the label “enigma.” In contrast to De Waart’s Friday performance, Tani brought not only slightly faster tempos at times, but also more expressive nuances. Susan Bambini’s cello solo was a standout, both limpid and played with almost mournful phrasing.
Pianist Joyce Yang is a familiar guest artist at MSO. De Waart first brought her here years ago to play Rachmaninoff, and she has played all that composer’s works for piano and orchestra with MSO. The concert featured the much-loved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Yang was brilliant, with subtle contrasts, tasteful and inventive phrasing, and when called for, exciting climaxes. What is most impressive about her is that despite sophisticated and dazzling playing, there is not one ounce of show off in her. The Friday performance, led by De Waart, was noticeably a bit slower than the Saturday concert, conducted by Tani.
The previous assistant conductor, Yaniv Dinur, matured over his many years at MSO into becoming quite an artist on the podium. This concert, and the last-minute challenge, made me hopeful about Tani’s future at MSO.
