MSO & Guests Celebrate America

The summer pops concert is a staple of Americanorchestras, and as summer also means the anniversary of the founding of the United States,these concerts are almost always given a patriotic theme. With the musicalframework pretty much set due to these expectations, the challenge is to bedifferent somehow from year to year. Thankfully, the Milwaukee SymphonyOrchestra and Principal Pops Conductor Marvin Hamlisch seem to have metthat challenge, for the program of their summer concert consists of some 20pieces by a variety of composers that celebrate our country.

Leroy Anderson (1908-75) is represented by Bugler’sHoliday (1954), his exuberant gift to trumpet players everywhere thatconcludes with music reminiscent of the racetrack; and also through Anderson’s arrangement ofSeventy-Six Trombones, the signature tune from 1957’s The Music Manby Meredith Willson (1902-84). Concertgoers will get to compare this to NormanLeyden’s arrangement, also on the program.

One of the greatest Civil War era songs is WilliamSteffe’s (1830-90) Battle Hymn of the Republic, heard on this concertvia the glorious voices of the MilwaukeeSymphony Chorussinging the famed lyrics penned for the tune byJulia Ward Howe in 1861.

A more modern flag-waver came from former R&Bmusician Lee Greenwood (b. 1942) in 1984God Bless the USA. Singing thisNo. 7 country chart hit will be tenor J.Mark McVey, who has previously appeared on Broadway, at Carnegie Halland with the Boston Pops.

The Milwaukee Symphony Chorus also performs a medleyby the first great American composer of popular song, Stephen Foster (1826-64),who consistently struck the rich vernacular vein of his country in such songsas My Old Kentucky Home (1853), Oh, Susanna! (1848) and BeautifulDreamer (1864). The last of these was actually composed much earlier butdiscovered after Foster’s untimely death and, published erroneously as his“last song,” gained wide popularity (that popularity certainly well-deservedregardless of its pedigree). The full Milwaukee Symphony Chorus (and in somecases a male vocal quartet from its members) likewise performs works by GeorgeM. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Samuel A. Ward and Woody Guthrie.

America’srich musical traditions are also evinced in performances ofShay/Fisher/Goodwin’s When You’re Smiling and Turkey in the Straw,courtesy of bluegrass quartet Above theTown. The group comprises five-time Wisconsin Fiddle Champion JerryLoughney, bassist Brian Baker, guitarist Bill Brenckle and banjo player JonPeik.

And what American summer pops concert would becomplete without hearing from our beloved “March King,” John Philip Sousa(1854-1932). In the present case, it’s one of his most popular and, indeed,officially the “National March of the United States,” Stars andStripes Forever, which Sousa composed in 1896.

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, tenorJ. Mark McVey and bluegrass quartet Above the Town perform the above-mentionedand many other works at Uihlein Hall on June 11, 12 and 13.