Pianists Jessica Chow Shinn, left, and Michael Shinn reprised their roles in “Double Rainbow.”
The main purpose of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s March 22 concert was to capture a live recording of Double Rainbow. In 2017, the WCO premiered the work, composed for two pianos and orchestra by Thomas Cabaniss, who is based in Charleston, South Carolina. Maestro Andrew Sewell repeated it for the recording, employing the original husband and wife soloists, Michael Shinn and Jessica Chow Shinn.
This score follows the traditional format of a concerto: two fast movements with a slow one in between. Its inspiration was a personal experience with a rainstorm followed by a spectacular double rainbow. The individual movements do not carry tempo markings but titles of their own: “Surfaces,” “Disturbances” and “Revelation.” They offer an abstract evocation of the rain and the subsequent rainbows.
The music is lively, showing some influences of jazz rhythms, and plenty of flashy keyboard dialogues. The orchestra develops more personality in the exuberant finale. The composer was on hand to take a bow. The two pianists played a four-hand duet, a familiar waltz by Brahms, as an encore.
The Cabaniss work constituted the concert’s second half. The first half involved a striking juxtaposition of one item each from the so-called Second and First Vienna School. The opener was Arnold Schoenberg’s early Verklârte Nacht (Transfigured Night). It was composed in 1899 for string sextet, but then later adapted by the composer for string orchestra. I much prefer the sextet original, which clearly projects the six-voice part writing and texture that the bigger version blurs. The players worked diligently, though. Despite some degree of nuancing, and a wide dynamic range — from quite loud to very soft — Sewell conveyed more efficiency than deep feeling.
The earlier Austrian work highlighted Sewell’s recurrent love for Haydn’s symphonies. This time, it was the cheerful Symphony No. 58 in F major, composed in 1768. The symphony is rarely heard today and, to my mind, it is nowhere as interesting as other symphonies created in what is called Haydn’s “Sturm und Drang” (Storm and Stress) period.
As he has done with earlier Haydn symphonies of this vintage, Sewell employed Trevor Stephenson (of the Madison Bach Musicians) to play harpsichord in the old “continuo” tradition. But, as with other such appearances, despite diligent listening, I could not discern any bass line coming from the harpsichord; the instrument’s sound was muffled due to its positioning on stage. Stephenson does not require prominence, but his musical contribution should be audible.
