Milwaukee Musaik Springtacular 2023
Milwaukee Musaik will close their season with an effervescent mix of chamber orchestra works. Led by conductor Alexander Mandl, the program includes Darius Milhaud’s witty Chamber Symphony No. 1 celebrating the arrival of spring, Béla Bartók’s lively Romanian Folk Dances as well as Igor Stravinsky’s bubbly and comical Pulcinella Suite.
Cleveland Orchestra bassoonist Barrick Stees and Musaik’s clarinetist William Helmers will join forces in a performance of Richard Strauss’ unique Duet Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon.
The program opens with Bartok’s Romanian Dances. Originally written for piano in 1915 it was orchestrated for a small string orchestra two years later. They’re delightful folk melodies that will make you wish to be out in a field, in full folk costume, twirling around under a sunny sky and warm spring breezes.
And if spring is here, Musaik reminds us that summer cannot be far offering next Arthur Honegger’s Pastorale d'été, H. 31 (Summer Pastoral). This symphonic poem for chamber orchestra was inspired while Honegger was on vacation in the Swiss alps above Bern in 1920. It is a relatively short piece reminiscent of Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun).
Strauss’s Duet Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon was composed in 1946-47 and premiered in 1948. It is the last purely instrumental work he wrote and is scored for string orchestra and harp. The tonalities are exceptional. Strauss dedicated it to his friend Professor Hugo Burghauser, who had been the principal bassoonist with the Vienna Philharmonic and wrote him, joking: “A dancing princess is alarmed by the grotesque cavorting of a bear in imitation of her. At last, she is won over to the creature and dances with it, upon which it turns into a prince. So, in the end, you too will turn into a prince and live happily ever after.”
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Stees, the featured bassoonist, noted that “Burghauser was a member of the Austrian fascist party all the while married to a Jewish wife. After Germany annexed Austria in 1938, he lost his position and was forced to leave.”Toscanini helped him get established in North America during World War II with positions in the Toronto Symphony and NBC Symphony. Burghauser played with the Metropolitan Opera Company from 1943-1965. (Small world—I stood at the MET 1956-1961!) Stees owns a bocal, the metal pipe which connects the bassoon to the reed, once used by Burghauser.
Helmers, Musaik’s clarinetist, said that this “is a wonderful way to reconnect with his old Eastman School of Music Classmate, Barry Stees.” They’ve played several times together over the past ten years when Stees was a guest principal bassoon with the MSO and also when he, himself, has been a substitute bass clarinetist in Cleveland. Helmers added, “having performed most of the Strauss operas the lyricism in the Duet Concertino is reminiscent of their beautiful vocal and wind writing.”
Brazilian Influences
This will be followed by Milhaud’s Petit Symphony No. 1. There are three movements each about a minute long. Milhaud served (1917–1919) as secretary to Paul Claudel, the French ambassador to Brazil. Claudel was also a poet and dramatist and Milhaud set many of his poems to music. You can hear Brazilian influences in much of Milhaud’s music
In 1922 Milhaud visited Harlem while on a visit to the United States where he heard jazz for the first time. It was impactful and the following year he completed La création du monde, a ballet, the sounds a testament to what he had heard.
When the Nazis came to power, being Jewish, he was forced to flee Europe. He taught at Mills College in California where Dave Brubeck was one of his students. Dave named his first son Darius!
Mandl was born in João Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil, a coastal town located on the eastern most spot of the Americas. He said that the Brazilian flavor of Milhaud’s chamber symphonies appears in many of his compositions and “polytonality is layered over the main tonal center.” This is typical of Brazilian folk music and of the light evocative choros that Milhaud heard around Rio.
The program concludes with Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite. Stravinsky reworked his original ballet score of 21 movements which included vocal solos into this suite for chamber orchestra.
Dance, fantasy, and allegory will shine in this dazzling bouquet of compositions for performers and audience alike. The concert will be held in Wisconsin Lutheran College’s delightful Schwan Auditorium.
The concert, “Springtacular,” takes place 7 p.m., April 4 at Wisconsin Lutheran College’s Center for Arts and Performance, 8815 W. Wisconsin Ave. For tickets, visit milwaukeemusaik.org.
