Music Director Edo de Waart was back on the podium at Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra last Friday evening, leading the orchestra in the co-commission premiere of new work, a rarely performed concerto and a favorite Beethoven symphony.
American composer Mason Bates (b. 1977) has been a composer-in-residence at Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A co-commission from MSO, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Garages of the Valley (dedicated to De Waart) refers to the early innovators of the digital age in Silicon Valley. A motive of busyness in running notes is combined with long held harmonies. Its overall mood is friendly, optimistic concentration, with the buzz of progress.
Bates has a knack for creating color and combining instruments in unusual ways, at times conjuring quasi-electronic sounds through purely acoustic means. If it has a flaw as a composition it is a lack of rhythmic variety in the basic material relentlessly developed. The 17-minute piece began to feel a bit long a few minutes before its conclusion.
Philippe Quint (a replacement for the injured Daniel Hope) was soloist in the Concerto for Violin by Erich Korngold (1897-1957), best known as a composer of film music in Hollywood. Composed in 1945, the concerto echoes movie music of the period. The violin solo part asks for awkward and very demanding technical work as well as ripe lyricism. Quint met its challenges and then some. Among the many good things about the performance, I was bothered by his tuning, lower than the orchestra, and most exposed on long notes at the ends of phrases. The impact of his playing was lessened by overstated intensity, out of character with this concerto.
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De Waart chose to play Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”) with only four double basses and six cellos. This allowed for unusually delicate playing from violins and violas. There were spots where the string sound was absolutely exquisite. Elegance and restraint were the themes of this interpretation. De Waart’s tempos were slower than I expected, but rather than making the music feel labored and lifeless, they cast fresh and considered attention to the score.
