MSO's 'Pastoral' exudes Beethoven's happiness
Posted: March 6, 2010
Along with the stormy moods for which Beethoven was infamous during his lifetime, he also felt great happiness and serenity while spending time in the countryside.
He expressed some of those feelings in his Symphony No. 6, "Pastoral," one of his few forays into program music, or music that depicts a nonmusical narrative.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and music director Edo de Waart delivered a musical equivalent of a breath of fresh air with the piece on Friday evening, capturing and sharing Beethoven's sunny frame of mind.
Although Beethoven thought that listeners should be able to conjure their own bucolic images in the music, he wrote titles for the piece's five movements to guide listeners, including: "Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country," and "Thunderstorm; Tempest."
De Waart and the players captured the moods of those titles, playing with constant attention to the lyrical melodies that flow through the piece and capturing the musical drama of sections like the fourth-movement storm.
Bringing beautifully focused sounds to the piece's softest dynamics, they moved to the piece's forte moments with what felt like reckless abandon, but was in reality still controlled, precise playing.
Guest violinist Vadim Repin performed Beethoven's "Concerto in D Major" with de Waart and the orchestra on the program's second half.
Repin gave a thrilling performance, playing with a silvery, ringing sound that was always present and focused, but never strident. His interpretation of the concerto was built of commanding musical statements, an enormous dynamic range, spectacular pyrotechnics and flawless musical nuance.
He played with heart-on-the-sleeve passion, stepping from a fiery first-movement cadenza, to pick one moment as an example, to a heartbreakingly earnest rendition of the simple lines that follow it.
De Waart and the orchestra supported Repin's colorful take on the piece with playing that ranged from a delicate, introverted delivery of parts of the piece's second movement to an exuberant, energized third movement.
The audience responded with a long, loud standing ovation. Elaine Schmidt
