Photo via Facebook / Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
The virtual season of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra with a program entitled Dream Gates, which was first posted online on February 27, and remains available for viewing by subscribers, as do all the posted programs.
Five musicians spaced widely in a circle began with Quintet in G minor, Op. 39 by Sergei Prokofiev, written in 1924. Commissioned originally as the score for a touring ballet called Trapeze, though the choreography was eventually abandoned and the composer adapted it into this six-movement quintet. The combination of instruments is unusual, creating sharp contrasts as well as colorful combinations of sound. One of the best things about this out-of-necessity chamber music season at MSO is hearing individual players, some who have rarely been featured. I’m not sure we’ve had the chance to hear principal double bassist John McCullough-Benner as a soloist, here moving through his challenging part with agile grace. One of the newer members of the viola section, Samatha Rodriguez brought a lovely tone from the instrument. From the second violin section, John Bian lent ease and fluency to his part. As one might guess when the genesis of the quintet was something called Trapeze, the wind parts often are jaunty and mischievous, played with relish by Katherine Young Steele (oboe) and Todd Levy (clarinet).
Jamaican composer Eleanor Alberga (b. 1949) was represented by Shining Gate of Morpheus, inspired by Greek myth, for French horn and string quartet. Soothing music moves into the world of dreams, where sometimes surrealistic episodes occur, with the horn often in opposition to the strings. It’s a colorful and evocative piece, eventually returning to calm. Principal player Matthew Annin draws a handsome sound from the horn, whether in long and meditative phrases or in rollicking gestures. The string players melded into good ensemble, with alluring solos sometimes rising from the texture. The quartet players were Alex Ayers and Paul Hauer on violin, Nathan Hackett on viola, and Madeleine Kabat on cello.
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The concert ended with more traditional fare in a pleasing account of Johannes Brahms’ sunny Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 88, with its soulfully melodic second movement. Played by Yuka Kadota and Lijia Phang (violins), Elizabeth Breslin and Linda Numagami (violists), and Peter Szczepanek (cello), the music sounded warmly in the new concert hall (from what I could tell on video). I’m sure we are all wondering what the entire orchestra will finally sound like there, not the least of which is the orchestra itself.
