Photo via Facebook / Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra season was finally launched with a scaled-down, distanced virtual concert titled “Welcome Home,” which remains online for viewing by subscribers. It was a lowkey opening of the Bradley Symphony Center―a renovation of the Warner Theater along with new construction on Wisconsin Avenue.
Cameras followed MSO President and Executive Director Mark Niehaus as he walked through the completed project. Like thousands of others in the area, I long to go inside and have a look for myself at the grandly ornate hall and the sleek new addition. But more than seeing it, I am excited to hear music there. One can only discern so much about the sound and acoustics from this recorded live performance. But what I heard made me very hopeful. The hall seems to warm and round the sound of all instruments, with a natural reverb that has never existed in Uihlein Hall, the former home of MSO.
A lone oboe always begins the tuning of an orchestra, and this began with a solo oboe piece played by principal player Katherine Young Steele. Georg Philipp Telemann’s Fantasia No. 1 in A Major was played with shapeliness, consistency in sound, and energetic elegance. MSO music director Ken-David Masur spoke about this solo piece representing the isolation many of us have experienced in the last year, a poignant representation of the pandemic.
Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade’s String Quartet in F Major (“Welcome and Farewell”) is inspired by a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The composer cited lines from the poetry in sections of the score, narrating the players and listeners through this love story. Violinists Ilana Setapen and Jennifer Startt, violist Robert Levine, and cellist Susan Babini played this music, so influenced by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, with both fervor and restraint.
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African-American composer Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981) was heard in Source Code for string quartet. In a video interview with Masur the composer described the genesis of the piece as being the traditional black spiritual, but it is based on an original bluesy melody that freely spins out for the duration of the music. It was played with commitment and good effect by Jeanyi Kim (violin), Michael Giacobassi (violin), Erin Pipal (viola), and Madeleine Kabat (cello). Carl Reinecke’s Wind Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 271, showed a balance of sound, graceful phrasing, and percolating agility from the musicians: Heather Zinninger Yarmel (flute); Kevin Pearl (oboe); Todd Levy (clarinet); Rudi Heinrich (bassoon); and Darcy Hamlin and Dietrich Hemann (French horn). Hearing the horns in this hall… at least on video… gave a teaser of what a full orchestra sound might be there.
Principal MSO players Matthew Annin (French horn), Matthew Ernst (trumpet), and Megum Kanda (trombone) offered up a buoyant account of Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone. This 1922 piece was programmed as a nod to the art deco aspects of the original 1931 Warner Theater. It was good to hear these musicians showcased in playful musical dialogue between the parts.
Like all of us, I’ve watched many virtual performances over the last year. This one, more than any other, made me realize how starved I am for live, in-person concerts. The monotony and boredom of staying at home has dulled me in ways I probably don’t need to explain. I suspect hearing live music in this beautiful new hall is the tonic I need. That day cannot come too soon.
