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If you’re not familiar with his concert series, Frank Almond, who held the Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, begins each program with general comments about the compositions that follow. After a brief break the music begins.
For his next concert he will be joined by the Frankly Music Chamber Orchestra, featuring mostly members of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the virtuoso harpsichordist Patricia Lee. She hasperformed with him several times before and is a professor of music and director of keyboard studies at Chicago’s Saint Xavier University. She has performed with major orchestras and festivals around the world.
Almond remarked that a chamber orchestra provides opportunities for all instrumentalist to shine. “All have a part and a dialogue. And the intimate play between the musicians and the music they’re playing is always satisfying,” he said. “In particular Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is exceptionally accessible to the listener, so it’s doubly fun for all.” He added an interesting tidbit. “There are actual poems written in the score, there is reason to believe they may have been written by Vivaldi. So in a way it’s an early example of program music.”
The program opens with Bach’s Concerto for Violin in A Minor, BWV 1041. I could hear the joy in Frank’s voice, commenting, “This is a staple of the repertory and a good example of Bach’s mastery of the concerto form as it was at that time. It’s a wonderful example of Bach’s mastery of form integrating all the instruments. This is in contrast to Vivaldi, himself a virtuoso on violin, who’s music is more dramatic and showcases the virtuosity of the soloist.”
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Spirited, Not Boring!
Lee will also play selections from “Nouvelles suite de pièces de clavecin” by Jean Phillippe Rameau (1683-1764), one of the most important composers of the Baroque period. He was a violinist, organist, composer and conductor, but most of all a harpsichordist. His Traite de l'harmonie, Treatis on Music, published in 1722, established him as the most influential music theorist since the Middle Ages. Don’t worry, the music is spirited and not boring!
After the intermission the full ensemble will return for a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, a group of four violin concerti composed when Vivaldi was the court chapel master in Mantua. Frank laughed, saying that, “The Four Seasons is still one of the most played and recorded classical compositions.”
I think the Four Seasons was on the program of the first concert I heard in the many seasons of Frankly Music I’ve attended. I remember how his comments and illustrations with the orchestra were so extensive and delightful that I thought that was the whole program.
I asked Almond about his satisfaction on revisiting an old musical friend like Four Seasons. “Oh, like you suggested, in some ways it is like visiting with an old friend. But friends change as do we and there’s always different players in our ensemble. In many ways it’s more exciting—memories playing along with new discoveries. Great music is like that.”
The concert takes place 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, 325 W. Walnut St. You can meet and chat with the musicians and your fellow music lovers at a reception after the concert. And don’t forget to thank Frank for year one of the next 20 wonderful years of Frankly Music.
One final word. Mark your calendars as there are four more concerts in this series: November 19 and next year on January 27, March 24 and May 5. The last three will be in Wisconsin Lutheran College’s Schwan Hall. A special offer for Shepherd Express reader: 50% off tickets using the code SHEPEX21 when purchasing tickets through: franklymusic.org.
