Works from opposite ends of the 19th Century were on the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s agenda this weekend, and it seemed Edo de Waart and the musicians wanted to make the most of the 95-year separation.
Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto (premiered in 1803, but written mostly in 1800) is heavily influenced by Mozart’s concertos, and soloist Ronald Brautigam showed the work’s allegiance to Mozart as well as Beethoven’s innovations. Brautigam played the first movement with crystalline precision and an almost pushy drive – his phrasing seemed impatient with de Waart’s tempos. But the he gave the adagio all the lush legato it deserves, including an extended cadenza. Known for his championing of the fortepiano, there were moments when Brautigam coaxed a thinner, more harp-like sound out of the MSO Steinway. It was all in the service of classical elegance suffused with just a touch of romantic passion.
There’s nothing subtle about the passion in Richard Strauss’s programmatic symphony, Ein Heldenleben, a piece so thoroughly hero-worshipful that today it would be the subject of a Stephen Colbert mock report. De Waart and the MSO captured all the piece’s romantic sweep, starting with the opening theme, which sounded like a brass fanfare even though it is played by the strings. The woodwinds don’t get much respect here, representing the nattering nabobs of negativism plaguing the hero’s (composer’s) journey. But Concertmaster Frank Almond gets a star turn with an extended solo representing the hero’s love interest, which he played with gorgeous fluidity and understated emotion.
The concert opened with a well-balanced reading of Brahms’ multifarious variations on a theme by Franz Josef Haydn.
