Pier Andrea Morolli
Soloist Garrick Ohlsson delivered a magnificent performance.
Despite the April 1 opening date, there is no April foolery in the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s spring concert. Enterprise and artistry of the highest order mark their program
Maestro John DeMain, seeking to perform works of living American composers, settled on Steven Stucky, born in 1949. Stucky is greatly admired in musical circles as a kind of conservative-progressive, though little of his music has found a place in concert repertoires so far. DeMain chose Stucky’s first venture into the symphony, which Stucky composed in 2012, hoping to have the composer on hand for these Madison performances. Those hopes were dashed when Stucky died prematurely on February 14 this year.
The symphony is in four movements, played without interruption. It etches an emotional passage from calm, to outrage, to wild frenzy, to restored calm and optimism. The scheme has promise, and Stucky was an orchestrator of great skill. For all the merits, however, it seems to me that the considerable skill and calculation do not make a strong initial impression or generate much musical substance.
That said, the MSO players lavish all their talents on a rousing performance, and DeMain certainly deserves praise for allowing us to hear this new and provocative music.
Against Stucky, DeMain pits the first great symphonic poem of Richard Strauss, Don Juan, Op. 20. Composed at the mere age of 23, it is based on a poem by Nikolaus Lenau, whose Don is more than just a rake. As he seeks transcendence with the perfect woman, he is repeated disillusioned, and finally throws his life away in a duel.
In this dazzling piece of music, the MSO pours it on — a performance alone worth the price of admission.
In the second half comes the massive Piano Concerto No. 1 by Johannes Brahms. Its movements run from monumental symphonic scope, to loving tenderness (in this portrait, he confessed the secret love of his life, Clara Schumann), and finally to leisurely joviality.
It takes a lot of talent to bring all this off. No stranger here, guest soloist Garrick Ohlsson is no pretentious “star” of showy flamboyance, but an artist devoted to giving music his best. A truly magnificent performance results.
At the Friday April 1 concert Ohlsson played Brahms’ Intermezzo in E, Op. 116, No. 6 as an encore.
The program repeats on Saturday April 2 at 8:00 and on Sunday April 3 at 2:30.
