Photo via Rene Izquierdo - reneizguierdoguitar.com
René Izquierdo
René Izquierdo
Milwaukee Musaik’s final concert of the 2024 -2025 season will take place at Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church on N. 80th Street. The chamber orchestra under conductor Alexander Mandl will present a program of joyful music including guitar fireworks featuring world-class guitar grandmaster René Izquierdo. A Milwaukee favorite, the world-renowned virtuoso will dazzle listeners in concertos by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Vivaldi.
Izquierdo is a passionate educator who performs worldwide. He’s deeply connected to the music and the students he mentors. His “unforgettable versatility, sensitivity and sublime musicianship” (Classical Guitar Magazine) will shine in this concert.
The Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1973 as the Milwaukee Chamber Music Society. In 2015 the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra board reorganized and adopted a new approach in which musician members became the decision makers and force behind the enterprise. The new name: Milwaukee Musaik. There is no music director, only: a conductor, Alexander Mandl, and an artistic board that is responsible for the final artistic product of the consortium. Milwaukee Musaik's model has earned critical acclaim for its programming and high-level performances. It has earned a reputation as one of southeastern Wisconsin's finest professional performing arts groups. You’ll be delighted by this evening’s concert which includes Ottorino Respighi’s exquisite musical pictorial “Trittico Botticelliano" and Jacques Ibert’s witty “Divertissement!”
The program opens with Ottorino Respighi: Trittico Botticelliano. A delicate piece composed in 1927 it was dedicated to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a wealthy American arts patron and music lover. Respighi found inspiration for these three tone poems in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, where many of Botticelli’s paintings are on display including La Primavera (Spring), Nascita di Venere (The Birth of Venus), and Adorazione dei Magi (Adoration of the Magi).
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A Little Romance?
Next will be Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Guitar and Strings in D major. Composed in 1730–1731 for lute it is now most often heard on guitar. The music is fun–you’ll smile and find yourselves tapping your toes (quietly please). The largo movement can be heard in the 1972 Western The Cowboys and can also be found in Georges Delerue's Oscar-winning score for the 1979 film A Little Romance.
After intermission will be Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Guitar Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 99. Born in Florence, Italy in 1895, he fled growing anti-Semitism in Italy with his family in 1939 aided by Toscanini, Heifetz, and the American violinist Albert Spalding. The concerto was written the year before, the first movement in collaboration with Segovia.
The concert concludes with Jacques Ibert’s Divertissement. Originally incidental music he wrote in 1929 for the stage comedy The Italian Straw Hat by Eugène Labiche, Ibert composed this six-movement suite for chamber orchestra in 1930.
The evening concert will be held 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 at Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church, 2366 N. 80th St. Advanced ticket purchase: GA $35. At the door concert day: General admission $40, Students $10 with ID.
Further information about tickets and location can be found on Milwaukee Musaik’s website: milwaukeemusaik.org.
A final thought from René Izquierdo: “Music is like breathing. Often we do not notice how essential it is.”
