Milwaukee Symphony opens season with powerhouse program of Beethoven, Bernstein

Elaine Schmidt

Special to the Journal Sentinel

For a lover of orchestral music, there’s nothing quite like a live performance of one of the great symphonies.

The Milwaukee Symphony’s season-opening performance, led by guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru, offered up thrilling performances of two well-loved great works: Beethoven’s brilliant Symphony No. 7 and Bernstein’s buoyant Overture to “Candide.”

Nested between the two powerhouse were completely engaging performances of contemporary works: Anna Clyne’s animated “Masquerade” and Jake Heggie’s evocative “Moby-Dick” Suite.

The Beethoven, which ended the program, felt like a reunion with a dear, old friend. Măcelaru and the orchestra brought grace and gravitas to the first movement, along with plenty of expressive room.

In the second movement, they took a tempo that allowed them to balance the movement’s important, heartbeat-like pulse with deeply poignant melodic lines.

A delightfully breathless, technically tight rendition of the third movement gave way to a thrillingly uninhibited final movement. Although they maintained technical control, it felt at times as though Măcelaru and the players were as swept along by the momentum of the music as the audience was.

The Bernstein that opened the program was given a colorful, almost splashy performance that sounded like the playful, comic, operetta overture that it is, rather than like a rhythmically complex, technically challenging orchestral piece, which it is as well.

Clyne’s “Masquerade,” a temperamental and harmonic match to “Candide,” followed. Constructed of brief, musical images of a party scene, to which Macelaru and the orchestra brought color and character, it was a complete delight.

Heggie’s suite is a non-narrative collection of images from his opera of the same name. Involving evocative segments, the ubiquity of the “Moby-Dick” story, and the orchestra’s beautifully layered and characterized performance made it easy to envision vivid scenes, including some uncannily realistic sounds of the giant whale’s last breaths, created by a trumpeter rushing air through the instrument.

The concert opened with the orchestra and audience joining forces in the national anthem, a tradition at the season's opening concert.

This Milwaukee Symphony will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. in the Marcus Center's Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. For ticket information, visit www.mso.org, or call (414) 273-7206.