Momentum
Momentum — Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Sewell, Conductor
(CD: 71 minutes)
The title of this CD, Momentum, reflects the spirit within WCO during this exciting time of artistic growth and organizational success. In selecting repertoire for Momentum, Maestro Andrew Sewell sought to highlight and represent the variety of styles the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra regularly performs throughout the year.
The CD was recorded in Madison Area Technical College's Norman Mitby Theater under the direction of Maestro Andrew Sewell and features some of the finest repertoire written for chamber orchestra.
CD List Price: $12.00
Release Date: July 6, 2005
TRACK LISTING:
Gabriel Faure (1845-1924): Masques and Bergamasques, Op. 112
Georg Frederic Handel (1685-1759): Concerto Grosso Op. 3, No. 4 in F Major
Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928): Divertimento (1953)
Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Op. 60
REVIEW:
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra's second CD is well named
Madison Capitol Times, Jacob Stockinger
Momentum captures exactly the mood of the players, the staff and the growing audience of the WCO as it gets ready to come in from wandering through the desert for 40 years and finally find a permanent home in November in the Overture Center's renovated Capitol Theater.
It helps that the 34-player chamber ensemble is also armed with a $10 million endowment fund and that it performs some 30 concerts a year, including the well-attended Concerts on the Square, to heighten its visibility.
Like the first CD, this one includes complete works, not snippets -- a wise choice by conductor Andrew Sewell. You'll hear George Frideric Handel's Concerto Grosso, Op. 3, No. 4, in F Major; Gabriel Faure's suite Masques and Bergamasques; the 1953 Divertimento by contemporary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928); and Richard Strauss' Suite from Le Bourgois Gentilhomme.
The timing is generous at more than 71 minutes. The engineering, done by the local Audio for the Arts, stands in favorable comparison with the best of the big label productions.
Most of all, the music -- all recorded in the Mitby Theater at Madison Area Technical College's Truax campus -- is outstanding.
Personally, I would have liked to see included a Mozart overture or some Schubert dances, something short from the Classical or early Romantic period, to round out the sampler. But lamenting what isn't there in no way takes away from what is.
Sewell has chosen his repertoire well. It showcases the WCO and is unlikely to be duplicated by other local organizations such as the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The Handel is brisk with crisp articulation clearly influenced by period instruments and historical performance practices. It is a showcase for all sections, and the various sections live up to their billing.
Faure, who was the teacher of Ravel, is one of the great underperformed composers, along with his French compatriot Camille Saint-Saens. French repertoire is a specialty of Sewell, and he shows why in this sensitive interpretation that balances the Romantic and the modern elements of this turn-of-the-century composer. Faure requires a certain ironic detachment and lightness -- a certain Frenchness, in short -- and Sewell, a native New Zealander who trained at home as well as in the United States and Britain, is more than up to the task.
The Rautavaara represents another of Sewell's gifts, his devotion to finding and programming less well-known works in the repertoire. In this case, the work is at once contemporary but also accessible. Sewell has done similar path-breaking with 20th-century New Zealand music and 18th-century German music. Such adventurousness is one of the draws of the WCO.
The Strauss is late Romantic but with the right hint of silliness and comedy from the famous Moliere play in which the protagonist, a well-to-do bourgeois Monsieur Jourdain, proclaims his delight in finding out from his tutor that he speaks prose. That is the spirit of the play, and that is the spirit of the music. It is a fun piece played for the fun, and it proves a delight.
You won't find any gloom here, so summer is exactly the right time to release this upbeat album.
If the WCO can do this well in the Mitby, one can only anticipate what will be possible with the state-of-the-art acoustics and technology in the Capitol Theater.
Waiting for the third CD will be difficult, but surely worth it.
