Edo De Waart Conducts Beethoven’s “Pastoral” With Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

MILWAUKEE, WIS. 12/18/2014 – The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Edo de Waart present Beethoven’s “Pastoral” on January 16-17, 2015 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. The performances feature Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral,” Mason Bates’s Garages of the Valley (an MSO co-commission), and Korngold’s Violin Concerto featuring violinist Daniel Hope.

Both concerts include Meet the Music, a free, interactive pre-concert discussion held one hour prior to concert start time in Anello Atrium.

Mason Bates’s Garages of the Valleyis a co-commission of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra that premiered with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in March 2014. Bates has emerged as one of the most innovative and prominent musical voices of the twenty-first century, combining traditional orchestration with elements of jazz, techno, and electronic music that has been performed by prominent orchestras across the globe. Bates wrote that the piece “… reflects the infectious optimism of the great inventers of our time, who conjured new worlds within the bright [Silicon] Valley’s dark garages. The piece is dedicated to Maestro Edo de Waart, who lived just north of the Valley when some of its garages were just starting to burst with energy.”

Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 35,was composed in 1937-39 and premiered in 1947 with the St. Louis Symphony. The Violin Concerto was the result of a request from the well-known Polish violinist, Bronslaw Huberman, to Korngold, and much of its influences come from the film scores that Korngold completed between 1937 and 1939. Utilizing the traditional three-movement concerto paradigm, Korngold crafted a unique journey with orchestra and violin for a maximum dramatic effect.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, Opus 68, “Pastoral,” was composed in 1807-08 and premiered in December 1808. Throughout his life, Beethoven took great solace in nature and wrote: “No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.” This love of nature served as the primary inspiration for the “Pastoral” Symphony, and ideas began flowing in his sketchbooks as early as 1803. Beethoven attached specific images to each of the five movements, something not been done previously for a symphonic work of this grand scale.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Edo de Waart enters his sixth season as the sixth music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2014.15. He also serves as chief conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and conductor laureate of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Regular guest conducting appearances include the Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras as well as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra where, as with the San Francisco Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic, he has previously held a post. At the end of the 2013.14 season, he returned to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

As an opera conductor, de Waart has enjoyed success in a large and varied repertoire in many of the world’s greatest opera houses. He has conducted at Bayreuth, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opera de Bastille, Santa Fe Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera. His most recent appearance at The Met received rave reviews for Der Rosenkavalier, and he will return to the house in future seasons. In addition to semi-staged and concert opera performances with his orchestras in the United States, he regularly conducts opera with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw’s Zaterdag Matinee series, most recently Richard Strauss’s Salome.

Edo de Waart’s extensive catalogue encompasses releases for Philips, Virgin, EMI, Telarc, and RCA. His most recent recording is with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic; Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 was released in April 2013. Future releases include Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde: Nachtgesang und Isoldes Liebestod (arr. Henk de Vlieger) with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic.

At the age of 23, de Waart won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in New York which resulted in his appointment as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic. On his return to Holland, he was appointed assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1967, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra appointed him guest conductor and, six years later, chief conductor and artistic director. Since then, he has also been music director of the San Francisco Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, chief conductor and artistic director of the Sydney Symphony, and chief conductor of De Nederlandse Opera.

British violinist Daniel Hope has toured the world as a virtuoso soloist for many years. He appears as soloist with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, directs many ensembles from the violin, and plays chamber music in a wide variety of traditional and new venues. He was also the youngest member of the Beaux Arts Trio during its final six seasons and is celebrated for his musical versatility and creativity as well as his dedication to humanitarian causes. Born in South Africa and raised and educated in England, Hope earned degrees at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with distinguished Russian pedagogue Zakhar Bron.

Hope launched the 2014.15 season by giving the world premiere of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto “1914” at the BBC Proms. This season also sees the release of Hope’s latest Deutsche Grammophon recording, Escape to Paradise, which draws on Hope’s extensive research into those European composers – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa, Hanns Eisler, and Franz Waxman among them – who, fleeing fascist persecution, relocated to Los Angeles, where they penned some of the twentieth century’s most iconic film scores. Hope plays the 1742 “ex-Lipinski” Guarneri del Gesù, placed generously at his disposal by an anonymous family from Germany.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

Beethoven’s “Pastoral”
Edo de Waart, conductor
Daniel Hope, violin
Uihlein Hall, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Friday, January 16 | 8:00 p.m.
Meet the Music, Anello Atrium | 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, January 17 | 8:00 p.m.
Meet the Music, Anello Atrium | 7:00 p.m.

Tickets range from $25-105. For more information, please call 414.291.7605 or visit mso.org. Tickets may also be purchased through the Marcus Center Box Office at 414.273.7206.

ABOUT THE MSO

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, under the dynamic leadership of Music Director Edo de Waart, is among the finest orchestras in the nation and the largest cultural institution in Wisconsin. Now in his sixth season with the MSO, Maestro de Waart has led sold-out concerts, elicited critical acclaim, and conducted a celebrated performance at Carnegie Hall on May 11, 2012. The MSO’s full-time professional musicians perform over 135 classics, pops, family, education, and community concerts each season in venues throughout the state. Since its inception in 1959, the MSO has found innovative ways to give music a home in the region, develop music appreciation and talent among area youth, and raise the national reputation of Milwaukee.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.