Milwaukee Symphony brings audience to its feet
Sunday afternoon’s Milwaukee Symphony audience got a workout, rising to stand four times during a thrilling program of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Johannes Brahms.
Led by guest conductor Ken-David Masur in the Marcus Center’s Uihlein Hall, the program opened with the audience standing for the national anthem, a tradition at MSO seasonopening concerts.
Pianist Boris Giltburg took center stage for a mesmerizing performance of Rachmaninoff ’s Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra.
Giltburg brought expressive artistry, tremendous finesse and pure muscle to the music in an interpretation that ranged from introspective, delicate sounds, and facile playing, to enormous, soaring passages.
He brought a broad range of moods and emotions to the complex first movement, moving to a beautifully soulful take on the second movement. His third movement, built of an enormous palette of sounds, colors, and textures, brought the audience to its feet.
Supporting Giltburg’s interpretive choices, Masur and the orchestra gave a beautifully crafted interpretation of their own.
Giltburg answered the ovation with gorgeous encore of Rachmaninoff ’s Etude-Tableau Op. 39, No. 2, in A minor, winning a second standing ovation.
Masur and the orchestra filled the program’s second half with a beautifully rendered performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, using perfectly placed tempos shifts, artfully layered textures, and meaningful dynamic changes to bring a fresh energy to the four movements, along with musical urgency and momentum.
First-movement phrases that blossomed gracefully into their broad, completed forms were followed by a reserved gravitas in the second movement.
The bright, buoyant opening of the third movement gave way to simmering energy, followed by a long, fourth-movement buildup to wonderful ringing sounds, musical abandon, and a another standing ovation.