Winter 2019 Classical Music Preview

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You could spend a lifetime exploring the vast treasure trove that comprises what is commonly (though erroneously) known as classical music. I’ve now spent about four decades doing so (having bought my first classical LP with my weekly allowance money when I was 11), and yet I continue to make new discoveries in this music that spans many centuries, continents and cultures. Perusing the offerings of the many professional classical music performance ensembles throughout the greater Milwaukee area, I pulled a few of the seemingly brightest gems from that treasure trove to share with you. We embark upon our journey thousands of years ago, in a land far, far away…

“Sacred Music, Sacred Dance”

Early Music Now brings some of the most obscure music to our area, as well as some of the oldest. Case-in-point is their hosting of the Tibetan monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery on Saturday, April 13 in the Tripoli Shrine Center. The audience will hear traditional Tibetan music, both religious and secular, dating back some 2,500 years—including, of course, the haunting sounds of those massive long trumpets known as dungchens. As a side note, the monks will be creating an intricate sand mandala at the Milwaukee City Hall throughout the week before their concert.

The Coronation of Poppea

Poppea is the lover of Roman emperor Nerone, and she’s determined to become empress, but what about Ottavia, the current occupant of that position? When the affair is uncovered, Poppea and Nerone are forced into exile. Will their love survive? This is the plot of one of the first operas to be based on historical events and people, The Coronation of Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), by Italian Renaissance composer Claudio Monteverdi, which premiered in 1643. The Florentine Opera’s production, taking place in Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall March 22-31, will set the action in Monteverdi’s time and feature harpsichordist Jory Vinikour.

A German Requiem

Johannes Brahms (1833-’97) composed one of the great masterpieces of Romantic choral music, his German Requiem (Ein Deutsches Requiem), by astutely and assiduously avoiding traditional requiem mass texts and references. His goal was to console the living in the wake of loss with comforting images and thoughts. Its significant emotional power draws from the deaths of Brahms’ mother and his friend and mentor, Robert Schumann. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and vocal soloists under conductor Eun Sun Kim perform Brahms’ masterpiece in Uihlein Hall March 29 and 30.

Carmina Burana

Even classical music has its one-hit wonders; that can be said of German composer Carl Orff and his 1937 “scenic cantata,” Carmina Burana. While undeniably “modern,” the work makes for a fascinating bridge between the Middle Ages and the 20th century—especially given its texts derived from 13th-century poetry (some of it quite raunchy). Encompassing music, song and movement, the work begs for more than a mere concert performance. Indeed, four organizations unite to reconceive this masterpiece for the intimate Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center March 15-31: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Skylight Music Theatre, Danceworks Performance Company ​and Chant Claire Chamber Choir.

“In the (Chamber) Serr”

We started this journey some 2,500 year ago; now we reach the present—Present Music, that is, and their “In The (Chamber) Serr” concert. Newly constructed, UW-Milwaukee’s Jan Serr Studio is the venue for this concert by the beloved Present Music ensemble, our local practitioners of modern classical music. They describe the location as a “flexible, technologically-integrated performance venue that will choreograph light and sound in as many unique ways as the diverse group of university and community artists it aims to serve,” and their concert will be one of the inaugural events therein. As for what you’ll hear in the Serr Studio on Feb. 21 and 22: “Music you’ve never heard before in a space you’ve never seen like this before.”