Soloist John O’Conor brought drama and delicacy.
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra finished off its season with a memorable all-Beethoven concert featuring a distinctive guest soloist.
The curtain-raiser at Overture Hall on May 11 was one of a number of overtures by Beethoven that are rarely heard. He wrote it for the stage presentation King Stephen, part of an array of material he composed in 1811 for performance in Budapest. It is a posturing thing, full of fanfares, but even lesser Beethoven is fascinating stuff.
Guest soloist John O’Conor brought a distinction of his own to the proceedings. This Irish pianist is famous, among other reasons, for championing the music of fellow Irishman and Beethoven contemporary John Field.
O’Conor’s vehicle was Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 in C minor. Its key always meant intense drama for composers, and performers of the work have tended to stress the score’s stormy qualities. O’Conor certainly did justice to much of the music’s heroics, but he also approached it with a certain amount of understatement, especially in the brooding slow movement and even in the first one. I heard a good deal of delicacy that made me think of Field — and even of Chopin.
The audience was delighted by the heroics, but for me it was the thoughtful dimension that made this performance memorable.
For an encore, O’Conor played the second movement of Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata, more of delicate expression by this composer.
What more roof-raising conclusion for the program than Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, that other sensational C-minor work? Once again, Maestro Andrew Sewell bravely barged into familiar big-orchestra warhorse repertoire to show what his “chamber” orchestra can do. And they did him proud, playing with discipline and spirit that many a prestigious orchestra might envy. Sewell’s tempi were somewhat on the brisk side, but always apt. The only problem was that this work is so familiar that it is difficult for today’s listeners to fully appreciate how truly radical and revolutionary Beethoven’s music was.
In this concert, Sewell tried some experiments with orchestra placement. Above all, though, without the “usual” overwhelming string choir to fight, the winds could be heard with valuable clarity, especially the brass, and notably in the overture.
