Photo via Wisconsin Philharmonic - wisphil.org
The Wisconsin Philharmonic
The Wisconsin Philharmonic
A delightful afternoon of fun music awaits those attending the opening concert of Wisconsin Philharmonic led by music director Alexander Platt. There will be classical music from the movies and as well from the orchestra halls of Europe. You’ll be thrilled hearing the violin prodigy Seohyun (Sarah) Kim perform Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in A minor. Once again, we should pause and think how wonderful it is when people and composers from all over the world come together to make and listen to music.
Many of you will recall the Wisconsin Philharmonic’s wonderful concert “Disney Spectacular” from last March. Continuing their presentation of music from the movies, the program opens with Erich Korngold’s “Introduction and March from Robin Hood.”
The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland was released by Warner Bros. in 1938. Korngold was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1897 and was a child prodigy writing music for operas and ballets from an early age. In 1935 Max Reinhardt invited him to Hollywood to adapt Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream for a movie. Korngold won his first Academy Award for his music for Anthony Adverse (1936). With Robin Hood, he began using the operatic technique of associated leitmotifs with characters. Hint: listen for the Merry Men!
Platt and Kim quickly agreed that Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto would be a perfect fit with the romantic scores written for so many Hollywood movies in the 1930s.
Championship Talent
Kim has won several international competitions including the 2023 Tibor Varga Competition (when she was just 14 years old), first-prize wins at the 2022 Thomas and Evon Cooper Violin Competition, and both the Leonid Kogan and Ysaÿe International Violin Competition in 2021. She has played with orchestras all over the world.
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“My ultimate goal is to be a happy musician who always approaches music with true sincerity and to always find joy in playing. I believe that I can achieve this someday if I continue to give my best effort,” she recently told the Cleveland Classical.
Regarding her upcoming visit to Wisconsin, she told me, “I’m so excited and honored to play one of my favorite concertos, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, with the Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Alexander Platt so soon! I can’t wait to finally share the music with the audience in Wisconsin.”
After the concerto, Kim will offer several selections for solo violin to conclude the first part of the program.
Urbane, Mature
Following the intermission the Philharmonic will play Serge Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 in A Minor. Rachmaninoff worked on this symphony in 1935–1936 while residing in his recently completed Villa Senar on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. The composer considered it one of his best compositions and there’s probably enough drama surrounding it to merit a film of its own.
His Third Symphony is Platt’s favorite for me, my very favorite of his essays in the symphonic form. If the Second Symphony is essentially about the passions of young adulthood, than the urbane Third Symphony is brimming with the wisdom and worldliness of middle age—which by the way makes it much more challenging for a conductor to bring off,” Platt says. “I always truly look forward to the privilege of interpreting this work.”
He adds, “We all have a very satisfying time together making music at the Wisconsin Philharmonic. I think it’s because we’ve all been through so much together: all of the crises in the classical music business, following 9/11, the Great Recession, then COVID-19. Through it all, we’ve survived and are better than ever: and I am so grateful to all our musicians, the way they always work so hard and bring so much talent, professionalism and class to what we do.”
The Wisconsin Philharmonic serves a six-county area in Southeast Wisconsin. Its musicians and staff provide educational programs and music clinics to schools, promoting local musicians through competitions, masterclasses and scholarships.
The Wisconsin Philharmonic’s “Classical Magic” with soloist Seohyun (Sarah) Kim on violin, 2:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 29, at the Oconomowoc Arts Center, 641 E Forest St., Oconomowoc.
For more information, visit wisphil.org.
