Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra reveals a leaner Sibelius and violin soloist Tim Kamps proves masterful in a rarely heard concerto by Alexander Glazunov

CORRECTION: The performances by the Madison Symphony Chorus that were incorrectly listed for this coming Sunday in yesterday’s post took place last Sunday. The Ear apologizes and regrets the error.

By Jacob Stockinger

Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also took the performance photos.

By John W. Barker

Under maestro Steve Kurr, the Middleton Community Orchestra (below) again showed its capacities for offering surprisingly excellent concerts with its latest one on Wednesday night at the Middleton Performing Arts Center.

The guest soloist was a fine young local violinist, Tim Kamps (below). His vehicle was an interesting venture off the beaten path. How often do we hear the Violin Concerto in A minor by Alexander Glazunov? Well, we were given a chance this time.

This is not your typical Romantic concerto. It is not long, and is essentially an entity in four sections—not distinct movements, but a steady continuity, with interconnecting thematic material. Glazunov did not always do the best by his themes, somewhat burying them in the total texture. Still, this is very listenable music, with a solo part that is full of virtuosic demands but avoids overstatements.

Kamps (below) did full justice to the florid parts, but used his sweet and suave tone to emphasize the lyrical side of the writing as much as he could. In all, he provided a worthwhile encounter with an underplayed work of individual quality. Kamps is an experienced member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, but he deserves more solo exposure like this.

The program opened with Rossini’s overture to his comic opera La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie). There is a lot of good fun in this piece, but a corrupt edition was used which reinforced the brass section to coarse effect. Moreover, Kurr gave the music a somewhat leisurely pace, rather diminishing its vitality and thrust. (You can hear the familiar Overture in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

The big work of the program was the Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius. Here again, as so often before, conductor Kurr and his players bravely took on a workhorse piece of challenging familiarity. There were a few rough moments, especially some slight slurring here and there by the violin sections.

But Kurr (below) wisely chose not to seek polished sound for its own sake. Rather, he drove the orchestra to convey constant tension and drama, with a fine ear for the frequent exchanges and dialogues between instrumental groups, notably in the long and high-powered second movement.

By such means, we were able to hear less of the Late Romantic bombast usually stressed and more of the lean textures that Sibelius was to perfect in his subsequent symphonic and orchestral writing.

The orchestra played with steady devotion, once again demonstrating what an “amateur” orchestra could work itself up to achieving.

---

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #AlexanderGlazunov, #AmericanRecordGuide, #JeanSibelius, #JohnWBarker, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonSymphonyChorus, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MedievalHistory, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #MiddletonPerformingArtsCenter, #RomanticMusic, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, Alexander Glazunov, amateur, American Record Guide, Arts, bombast, Cello, challenge, Classical music, comedy, comic, composer, concerto, continuity, correction, corrupt, dialogue, drama, Early music, edition, emeritus, error, experience, exposure, familiar, familiarity, Gioachino Rossini, group, History, instrumental, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, La Gazza Ladra, listenable, local, lyrical, lyricism, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Maestro, member, Middleton, Middleton Community Orchestra, Middleton Performing Arts Center, movement, Music, night, opera, Orchestra, orchestral, overstatement, performance, photo, Polish, professor, Radio, Romantic, Rossini, section, Sibelius, solo, soloist, Sound, suave, Sunday, sweet, symphonic, symphony, tension, texture, The Thieving Magpie, theme, tone, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, venture, Violin, virtuosic, Wednesday, workhorse, WORT, writing, young, YouTube