What a difference a century makes.
Separated by almost 100 years, Franz Schubert’s Eighth Symphony and Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, couldn’t be more different. But this weekend, Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra showed they were equally adept at handling the thoughtful architecture and sweeping melodies of the Schubert, and the explosive theatricality of Stravinsky iconic ballet score.
Schubert’s “Great” Symphony wasn’t performed until more than 10 years after his death, but it is certainly a symphony for the ages, filled with gorgeous melodies that unfold with grace and elegance. It’s certainly not as sonically transgressive as Le Sacre, but it does have an ample share of inventive orchestrations (some of which, some say, testify to Schubert’s weakness as a symphonist). De Waart took care to balance the instrumentation well, and to shape the architecture of each movement with a sensitive clarity. And brought out some gorgeous lyrical playing from the strings and other ensembles.
Le Sacre is a minefield of tricky meters and dynamic contrasts that taxes the ensemble of the most seasoned orchestras. De Waart and the orchestra simply sounded terrific, creating a rich soundscape filled with roller-coaster dynamic changes, thundering rhythms, and the piece’s trademark palette of distinctive sonorities.
A similar compare and contrast approach was appropriate for Sunday afternoon’s concert by the Fine Arts Quartet. The big event, however, came before the music started, when Peck School of the Arts Dean Wade Hobgood introduced the newest member of the quartet, Robert Cohen, a British cellist with an impressive pedigree. Cohen charmed the audience before he even picked up his instrument, recounting his family history of playing chamber music (his father was the concertmaster of the London Philharmonic Orchestra), and the coincidence that he received the call to “tryout” for the FAQ one year ago today, the day after his father passed away.
Cohen has been playing occasionally with the FAQ in the past year, and it showed. The ensemble was tight and balanced in two very different pieces.
Camille Saint-Saens late string quartet, in G Major, was delicate and charming, with some lovely filigree work by lead violinist Ralph Evans. The third movement, which includes a motif based on a sequence of open strings (think of an orchestra tuning up), almost makes you feel that senility had arrived for the old composer (he was 83), but the material is handled with great wit, embracing the varied styles of a long life of music making.
Renowned pianist Joseph Kalichstein joined the quartet for Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F Minor (1864), a piece on the opposite side of the sturm und drang spectrum. It was a tempestuous ride with Kalichstein leading the way. In the well-known scherzo, the musicians captured the explosive power of the movements progression of themes—the searching, slightly amorphous opening giving way to the strict dotted rhythms and finally bursting into a triumphant march.
Kalichstein bridged the mood between the two pieces with a dazzling solo performance of Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Schumann (1854). His playing was technically masterful, but most important it gave the impression of each variation being created on the spot, the spontaneous explorations of a restless mind.
Fine Arts Quartet photo from fineartsquartet.org
