Milwaukee Symphony’s All-American Concert

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Photo by Jonathan Kirn via MSO - Facebook

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra: Aaron Diehl and Ken-David Masur

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra: Aaron Diehl and Ken-David Masur

In a much-welcomed echo of last season, the Milwaukee Symphony presented an all-American concert that also featured the return of pianist Aaron Diehl. It’s interesting to note that all three works on the program were composed in a 17-year window between the 1920s and 1940s.

The celebrated Rodeo ballet suite by Aaron Copland was given a very professional performance that brought out both the Old West energy and gentleness of the music. The famous Hoedown came off well, but a real highlight in this concert was the Corral Nocturne. From the beautiful strings to the woodwind solos and duets, the music sounded as perfectly constructed and inevitable as Mozart. Really quite touching.

The MSO made a great case for William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2, a piece whose stock will surely continue to rise. The strings achieving a silky sound in the opening melody, and the strong MSO woodwind section was given another chance to shine with nearly constant activity in the first movement. The hazy, romantic second movement included an excellent violin solo by Jeremy Black, the acting concertmaster in this performance. It was a joy to hear this piece by the “Dean of African-American composers”, music that programs well next to Gershwin with similar jazzy-romantic inflections and memorable, sweeping tunes.

In Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Aaron Diehl made a bold (some might say sacrilegious) choice to include some of his own mini-cadenzas in the first movement and a longer one in the second movement. The latter, with rich autumnal sonorities, was pretty cool and put a fresh perspective on the music. Maestro Masur and the orchestra turned this movement into something epic, from a nicely played trumpet solo to the chamber-music textures near the end. Across the whole piece, the orchestra lovingly played Gershwin’s big romantic tunes for maximum satisfaction. Diehl performed admirably and gave the audience a barnstorming rendition of Eubie Blake’s Charleston Rag as an encore.

Overall this was a strong, satisfying next step in the MSO season. It was uniquely special to hear American music from this period, played at this level, in a hall from the same time period in fully restored glory.