De Waart M3 in Milwaukee

[Roland Flessner]

Last Sunday I heard Edo De Waart conduct M3 in Milwaukee. It was as fine a performance as I ever hope to hear, a few quibbles aside. De Waart unfolded this vast landscape with a sure hand, everything sharply characterized. Orchestral execution was as good as it gets. De Waart keeps his low strings on the right, but the violin sections are antiphonally divided.

On my previous Milwaukee trips, I’ve sat near the front of the main floor, where sound was very good. This time, I sat in the Center Loge, which is the first balcony. Sound and view (I usually care only about the first of those) were excellent. I could pay a fortune to sit in the lower balcony at Orchestra Hall here in Chicago, and endure acoustics both shrill and opaque. The difference in ticket price at the MSO paid for my train fare.

This was the third MSO concert I’ve heard this season. One featured the Shostakovich 10th with Carlos Calmar. It was an excellent performance, but in the louder sections, it tended to blare. I heard De Waart lead “The Planets” as well as M3, and in both cases, even the loudest sections remained clear and musical. Like Haitink, De Waart seems to know how to scale the volume level to match the hall.

The MSO, generously enough, was giving out free CDs of the Brahms symphonies under De Waart, recorded live last season. So far I’ve listened to 1 and 2, and they are as good as any.

This was De Waart’s farewell concert as MSO music director, though he will be back as conductor laureate. MSO audience regulars have told me that he has really taken the orchestra up a couple notches.

[barryguerrero]

I had no idea that De Waart was the main conductor there. I like him and I like his Mahler. I saw De Waart numerous times with the S.F. Symphony. He's like a less dour Bernard Haitink.

When the De Waart Mahler box set came out on RCA, I wrote a very enthusiastic review of it for a Japanese magazine - the name of which I simply can't remember now. I thought I had kept a copy of it, but I can't seem to find it now. Regardless, I still think it's one of the best complete Mahler cycles out there.

[Roland Flessner]

De Waart was in Milwaukee for eight seasons. In the pre-concert discussion, a trombonist mentioned that due to turnover, De Waart has hired about 40 percent of the orchestra members.

[AZContrabassoon]

De Waart is a terrific conductor who just never seemed to get his name in headlines like others. A great musician with a deep knowledge of music. His RCA Mahler cycle is excellent, and I keep hoping that BMG will bring it out in one of those cheap budget boxes some time. They spent so much time, effort and money on the Zinman set that DeWaart's got pushed into the background. A less dour Haitink he is indeed. Milwaukee has had some fine conductors over the years. Zdenek Macal was exciting, too.