Villa Terrace Concert Series Starts Sunday

The Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum begins a third season of Winterlude, an occasional series of chamber music concerts, this Sunday at 11 a.m., October 20th. The program continues a longer tradition of public concerts in this grand public Italian mansion and gardens on Milwaukee’s lakefront.

The current series has been curated by Yaniv Dinur, for many years as the Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Dinur has been Music Director of the New Bedford Symphony in Connecticut for eight years but has kept his residence in Milwaukee. Originally from Israel, he has also kept up a broad schedule, guest conducting around the world.

“I started as a conductor here and stayed as a pianist. It never even occurred to me that I would have this opportunity to play with these magnificent musicians, which is a completely different experience, to make music together,” he told Urban Milwaukee.

In addition to the Winterlude series, Dinur inaugurated the First Annual Milwaukee Chamber Concert Festival at the Charles Allis Art Museum this August. A full weekend set of concerts, these programs also honored the original experience of chamber concerts, intimate rooms with a small number of players, and a limited audience able to fully share in the musical experience.

Dinur participates in each of the five scheduled Winterlude concerts along with a selection of many of the best performers in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. This Sunday morning he will be joined by First Associate Concertmaster violinist Ilana Setapen and Principal Cello Chair, Susan Babini, each with extensive experience as chamber musicians as well as roles within and as soloists with symphony orchestras.

The concert features two piano trios.

The prolific Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) has been recognized as the “father” of the symphony, the string quartet, and the piano trio. As he developed the formats that would be standards for others, he was also free to break the rules. His pleasant Piano Trio no. 45, Hob XV 29 opens with a slow movement exploring variations on a theme rather than a strict sonata form. A brief second movement serves more as a long introduction to the third movement than as a separate statement.

The trio was written mid-career, as the pianoforte emerged as a more powerful alternative to the harpsichord. This allowed for a more vigorous finale – a triple-time dance in the vernacular German style with hints of gypsy fiddles and hurdy-gurdy.

Maurice Ravel‘s (1875–1937) Piano Trio in A minor mirrors the color and inventiveness of his and Debussy’s string quartets as they each developed a distinctively French “Impressionist” perspective on chamber music.

Critique Kai Christiansen chooses to focus on the slow third movement:

Ravel composed a brilliant eight-measure theme of ponderous beauty that begins low in the piano, climbs up into the cello, rises soulfully with the violin, and continues to be ceremoniously exchanged among the intimately entwined players in a long line that swells and sinks with subtle but profound intensity. Sparse and remote, the misty lament is treated to an especially poignant treatment by a string duo with ancient-sounding hollow harmonies and a final jagged contemplation in the deepest rage of the solo piano, a return to the primordial ground bass. Haunting and timeless, this is the trio’s unforgettable center of gravity.

Dinur observes that this movement reflects Ravel’s state of mind at the opening of World War I as he prepared to enlist:

You can definitely feel the echoes of war in the third movement. It’s a waltz, and it’s very much like his famous orchestra piece, La Valse. La Valse is not a happy piece, you know, although it’s a waltz, and it’s a magnificent waltz, but it’s basically a lament over the world that is collapsing, basically, of the old world.

Selections at each Winterlude concert feature often familiar chamber works, a chance to hear individual virtuoso players independent of a crowded symphony stage, and entertaining observations from a consummate communicator and educator, Dinur himself. Add coffee and pastry for a warm start to a winter Sunday weekend.

The concerts are held in the large living room of Villa Terrace, located at 2220 N. Terrace Ave. on Milwaukee’s East Side. Tickets may be purchased online or at the door for $45. Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea, and pastries along with the performance. The ticket includes admission to the Museum for the day. Discounts are available for students and museum members.

For the rest of the series, each on a Sunday morning from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Dinur will be joined by friends from his time as MSO Resident Conductor. The concerts will include smaller works, often solos, tailored to the featured instruments.

• Sunday, Nov. 10 features Johannes Brahms‘ Piano Quintet with violinists Dylana Leung and Yuka Kadota, violist Samantha Rodriguez, and cellist Peter Thomas.
• Sunday, Dec. 8 features Sergei Prokofiev‘s Sonata for Flute and Piano with flutist Jennifer Bouton.
• Sunday, Jan. 12 features Sergei Rachmaninoff – Sonata for Cello and Piano with cellist Peter Thomas.
• Sunday, March 30 features Brahms’ Viola Sonata No. 1 with violist Beth Breslin.

The complete program schedule may be found on the Villa Terrace website.

Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.