A concerto among friends

On Sunday, April 17, violinist Frank Almond will appear as a special guest soloist with the Festival City Symphony. Almond will preform Max Bruch’s lyrical and profound Concerto for Violin in g minor. Monte Perkins will conduct.

At rehearsal on Wednesday night at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, Perkins said that the allure of the concerto rises from it emotional charge.

“There are some sections that have pretty tunes,” Perkins said. “Some have a certain sense of nobility, and then a certain gentleness.” He said he thought the concerto does a good job of combining all those elements into something that not only soloists enjoy playing, but that the orchestra and audience can get into as well.

Almond agreed, noting that the concerto is regaining popularity after years of being played badly and regarded as student repertoire.

“When a piece gets that sort of reputation,” Almond said, “It’s nice to pull it out and really remember what a great piece it is.”

Almond says he has always loved the concerto and that it was one of the first concerti he learned.

“It’s just a great violin concerto. It’s got lots of great tunes, it’s very well written for the violin, and it’s got all the elements of one of the great, Germanic, 19th- century violin concerti. Orchestras love to play it, and while it’s challenging for the soloist…it’s just very satisfying”.

There’s a funny connection, Almond said, between him and the concerto. Bruch dedicated the concerto to the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, who once played the 1715 “Lipinski” Stradivarius violin Almond currently plays.

“There’s a wonderful letter from Joachim…talking about what a great violin it is.” The connection via the violin to Joachim, and hence Bruch, is “mostly psychological, but it’s kind of neat.”

The collaboration between Almond and the Festival City Symphony is the brainchild of Franklyn Esenberg. A longtime friend of Almond’s, Esenberg is the chairman of the FCS board. He is also the principal clarinetist of the FCS. He approached Perkins with his idea, then called Almond and helped arrange a performance date.

The season finale concert will also include Beethoven’s heroic Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus and Mendelssohn’s rousing “Italian” Symphony. Festival City concerts are family-friendly. The concert will begin at 3 p.m. in the Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St. Jayne Perkins will lead a Children’s Program Notes session at 2:45 p.m. Tickets are $14, $8 for children, at the Pabst Theater box office, 414 286-3663.