A Chamber Music Potpourri

There are a wide variety of music styles on the next concert of the MacDowell Club, members of which hail from throughout the greater Milwaukee area. The concert, simply titled “Chamber Music,” naturally contains an obligatory quartet—in this case, a transcription of the rare Legende, Op. 55B (quartet with organ) by German composer Gerard Bunk (1888-1958). Also on the program (and decidedly on the other side of the fame scale from Herr Bunk) we find the Spring Concerto from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). Other works include Two Interludes for Flute, Violin and Piano by Jacques Ibert (1890-1962), Lorsque la Nuit M’entoure, Op. 4, No. 3 by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), and the Trio for Flute, Oboe and Clarinet, Op. 46 (1980) by American composer Michael Kibbe (b. 1945). Voice joins with piano for two lovely songs by Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Morgen (Morning) from Four Songs, Op. 27 (1894) and Zueignung (Dedication) from Eight Songs, Op. 10 (1885).

This free concert takes place at the First Congregational Church in Wauwatosa on Feb. 20.

Guest conductor Carlo Rizzi leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in the Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra by one of music’s truly epochal innovators, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). MSO Associate Concertmaster Ilana Setapen is the soloist for the beloved and lyrical Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47). Finally, the orchestra performs Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75). This concert takes place in Uihlein Hall on Feb. 18-19.