Edo de Waart is concluding his eight year tenure as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra with three final weeks, after which time he will take up the title of Conductor Laureate.
De Waart is joined by long-time collaborator pianist Ronald Brautigam for concerts on 12 and 13 May for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4, the programme also features Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overtureand Elgar’s Symphony No.1, the latter which they recorded together on the MSO Classics label. Ronald and Edo’s previous performances together include Sydney Symphony Orchestra and a tour of New Zealand with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Concerts on 19, 20 and 21 May are with the orchestra’s principal cellist Susan Babini performing Bloch’s Schelomo and Bruckner’s Symphony No.7. Closing the season and also his tenure, Edo will conduct three performances of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. When speaking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Edo gave his reason for programming Mahler’s longest symphony: “because it’s such an incredible, wonderful, great piece. I just love doing it.”
