MSO blends the familiar, fresh
There’s nothing quite like hearing and feeling the power and pulse of a live performance of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, led by guest conductor Karina Canellakis, closed Friday’s concert with a thrilling, tight, clean performance of Stravinsky’s work, which was full of expressive playing, such as principal bassoonist Catherine Chen’s soaring, opening bassoon lines.
The orchestra executed the piece’s rhythmic twists and turns with clarity, precision and biting accents, playing with a constant dynamic balance that allowed listeners to hear dramatic lines and interjections as well as the piece’s fascinating structure and harmonies.
Unfortunately, this deftly handled, engrossing performance was marred by several audience members’ ringing cellphones.
Pianist Sunwook Kim joined Canellakis and the Milwaukee Symphony for a compelling, communicative performance of Dvorak’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G Minor.
Kim gave a beautifully shaped rendition of Dvorak’s concerto, playing its melodic lines with clearly audible shape and direction, as though he was conversing with the orchestra at times, with the audience elsewhere — and perhaps musing to himself in spots as well.
He gave a gentle, fluid performance of the piece’s flowing second movement, segueing to energy and musical tension for the final movement.
The MSO program opened with the seldom-heard “D’un soir triste,” a single-movement gem of a piece by French composer Lili Boulanger, the younger sister of famous composer, conductor and teacher Nadia Boulanger.
Canellakis and the players made the unfamiliar familiar, moving easily between the piece’s delicately sculpted lines and its dense, full-voiced sounds. They made Boulanger’s musical passages sing, and carried listeners to a breathtakingly shimmering ending.
This Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra performance will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday in Uihlein Hall of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St. For ticket information, visit mso.org or call (414) 273-7206.