Show features WWI-era works

Milwaukee Musaik closed its debut season on Sunday afternoon with a sampler program of music from the World War I era, entitled “In Memoriam: Music of the First World War.”

The MM ensemble, which takes pride in having the flexibility to perform a wide repertoire of music for chamber ensembles and chamber orchestra, included violinists Jeanyi Kim and Sascha Mandl, violist Nathan Hackett, cellist Scott Tisdel, flutist Emma Koi, clarinetist William Helmers, harpist Kelsey Molinari, pianist Martha Fischer and baritone Paul Rowe.

The program opened with a lovely take on George Butterworth’s orchestral idyll “The Banks of Green Willow,” heard in a small ensemble arrangement written by William Helmers, which captured the warmth and nostalgia of the larger, orchestral version.

Rowe gave a delightful performance of James H. Rogers’ “In Memoriam,” to open the program’s second half. He created lovely, vivid vignettes with the piece’s six musical miniatures, each based on poems by Walt Whitman, Robert Louis Stevenson or Sir Edward Arnold.

His take on the eight songs of Ivor Gurney’s “The Western Playland,” while well sung, waxed a bit long for the sampler format of the program.

The program’s first half ended with a tidy, if somewhat musically tepid, performance of Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp.

Andre Caplet’s “The Masque of the Red Death” was the musical highlight of the afternoon. Based on writings of Edgar Allan Poe, it was preceded by a summary of the story upon which it was based, read by Rowe.

Kim, Mandl, Hackett, Tisdel and Molinari gave a spot on, wonderfully dramatic delivery of the piece.

Marguerite Helmers, professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, gave a preconcert lecture and read two pieces of poetry during the program, including Gurney’s “To His Love.”

The program ended with a lively, engaging performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s “Die Eiserne Brigade (The Iron Brigade)” for piano quintet.

Unlike the twelve-tone works for which Schoenberg is most remembered, this piece, written during World War I, is a lighthearted, distinctly tonal work that quotes folk and military songs and asks the musicians to give voice to sounds of barnyard animals and a hearty snore.

The players gave committed performances of both the music and the barnyard effects, eliciting chuckles and winning a standing ovation.