BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 Friday, October 30, 2026 at 11:15 am Saturday, October 31, 2026 at 7:30 pm ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL Kristiina Poska, conductor Orli Shaham, piano
ÜLO KRIGUL Proteus Pulse LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Opus 15 I. Allegro con brio II. Largo III. Rondo: Allegro Orli Shaham, piano
INTERMISSION
ROBERT SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Opus 97, “Rhenish” I. Lebhaft II. Scherzo: Sehr mäßig III. Nicht schnell IV. Feierlich V. Lebhaft
The MSO Steinway was made possible through a generous gift from MICHAEL AND JEANNE SCHMITZ. The 2026.27 Classics Series is presented by the UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND. The length of this concert is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. Video or audio recording of this performance is prohibited. All programs are subject to change. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra can be heard on the Naxos, Telarc, Koss Classics, ProArte, AVIE, and Vox/Turnabout labels. MSO Classics recordings are available for digital streaming and download on Spotify, Apple Music, and more. MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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Guest Artist Biographies KRISTIINA POSKA Acclaimed for her artistry and versatility, Kristiina Poska stands among the most sought-after conductors on today’s international music scene. She has served as principal guest conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since the 2021-22 season and as music director of the French Youth Orchestra since 2025. Previously, she held the position of chief conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra from 2019 through 2025. This season, Poska makes several important debuts. In the U.S., she continues to expand her presence through performances with the Atlanta, St. Louis, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras. In Europe, she debuts with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Nuremburg State Philharmonic, Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, and Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic, and returns to the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of France, Paris Chamber Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra, and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. As music director of the French Youth Orchestra, she leads the ensemble on a Baltic tour, with performances in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, in addition to concerts in France that continue the orchestra’s mission of fostering the next generation of exceptional young musicians. Recent highlights include her debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, and Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Toronto symphony orchestras in North America, the Swedish, Norwegian, Frankfurt, and Vienna radio symphony orchestras, London, Rotterdam, and Turku philharmonic orchestras, Lucerne, Lahti, BBC, and NHK symphony orchestras, Essen and Graz philharmonics, Sinfonia Varsovia, Montpellier National Opera Orchestra, and Basque National Orchestra. She has also appeared with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, among many others. Equally prolific in the operatic repertoire, Poska’s current season features a new production of Othmar Schoeck’s Penthesilea at the Bregenz Festival alongside the Vienna Symphony. Her recent operatic engagements include her debut with Opéra de Dijon conducting Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Strauss’s Metamorphosen (directed by Dominique Pitoiset), a return to the Berlin State Opera and Norwegian National Opera for Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte in productions at both the Norwegian National Opera and Royal Danish Theatre, Puccini’s La bohème (directed by Robert Carsen) with Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Carmen with the Stuttgart State Opera, and The Abduction from the Seraglio at with the Saxon State Opera. Poska’s musical foundation was shaped at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn, where she studied choral conducting, and at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, where she honed her orchestral conducting skills. Her remarkable talent was recognized early through her finalist placements at the prestigious Donatella Flick Conducting Competition (2010) and the Malko Competition (2012), where she was also awarded the audience prize. In April 2013, she won the esteemed German Conducting Award.
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Guest Artist Biographies ORLI SHAHAM Recognized for her grace, subtlety, and brilliance, Orli Shaham is admired for her interpretations of both standard and modern repertoire. She has performed with many of the major orchestras around the world, and has appeared in recital internationally from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. Since 2007, she has been artistic director of “Café Ludwig,” the Pacific Symphony’s chamber series in California, where she is host and featured performer in each of the concerts. Performance highlights of her 2026-27 season include Light forming by David Robertson and Reena Esmail’s double concerto with Gil Shaham with the Utah Symphony, as well as appearances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Symphony, and Florida Orchestra, a recital of Clara Schumann’s music in New York, and a series of recitals and recordings with the violinist Deborah Buck. In 2026, Orli Shaham and the Pacific Symphony released an acclaimed album of American chamber music, including commissions by Margaret Brouwer and Avner Dorman, alongside works by Reena Esmail, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and others. Shaham’s discography of over a dozen titles on Deutsche Gramophone, Canary Classics, and other labels includes her complete set of sonatas by Mozart, her solo album, Brahms Inspired, John Adams’s Grand Pianola Music with pianist MarcAndré Hamelin and the San Francisco Symphony, and American Grace, featuring Steven Mackey’s Stumble to Grace, written for her, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Shaham is on faculty at The Juilliard School. She has served on the jury of numerous piano competitions, including the Van Cliburn, Honens, New York, Sydney, and Virginia Waring international piano competitions. Shaham is chair of the board of trustees of Kaufman Music Center. She is a major presence on public radio coast to coast as co-host and creative for NPR’s From the Top and was host of America’s Music Festivals and Dial-a-Musician, a radio feature series she created. She is regularly featured on the popular music education platform Tonebase. Founded in 2010, Shaham’s live interactive concert series for young children, “Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard,” has been cited as “magical” and “a terrific family event” in the press. It’s been presented by the 92nd Street Y, Aspen Music Festival, and elsewhere. In addition to her musical education at The Juilliard School, Orli Shaham holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University and pursued a master’s degree in musicology from Columbia. She is winner of the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant.
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Program notes by David Jensen ÜLO KRIGUL Born 7 November 1978; Tallinn, Estonia
Proteus Pulse
Composed: 2022 First performance: 17 March 2022; Kristiina Poska, conductor; Flanders Symphony Orchestra Last MSO performance: MSO Premiere Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling on piccolo); 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons (2nd doubling on contrabassoon); 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 2 trombones; bass trombone; timpani; percussion (small cymbals, medium suspended cymbals, suspended cymbals, 4 rototoms, tam-tam, tubular bells, vibraphone); harp; strings Approximate duration: 9 minutes The following essay was prepared by the composer and appears here with his permission. Proteus Pulse derives its name from the Greek god of waters. Among his many powers, Proteus, the son of Poseidon and Phoenice, possesses the ability to foretell the future and transform himself into different shapes and forms. Yet he promises to tell the truth only to the one who captures him. Therefore, the skill of transforming himself in order to escape his captor is also essential. The constantly changing nature of things, the slow shifts within sameness, are common to the world of sound, as well. In one way or another, water has been the subject of many of my recent compositions. Its connective energy and ever-changing states of being, its physical qualities, encompassing both ice and vapor, and its endless source of symbolism continue to inspire me. This piece is clearly divided into four parts. However, these parts are connected without any gaps between them. Moreover, they share musical material that organically evolves from one into another. Thus, we can hear a kind of foretelling of what might come next, what shape the material is about to take, and observe certain motives escaping from the score. We can follow musical material beginning as tiny drops in the background, gradually gaining power until it takes over the entire soundscape. In turn, powerful waves rule the course for a certain time before vaporizing. An orchestra possesses all the necessary characteristics to express the multiple manifestations of water. Its unified body, rooted in the individuality of each musician and instrument within the ensemble, brings forth the variety, flexibility, and sensitivity that flow through the entire vertical axis of the score. Along the horizontal axis, we are carried forward by pulsating waves unfolding through time. There have recently been many discussions about the condition of the Earth’s oceans. It does not look good at all — at least as far as our eyes can see. It seems we are reaching the limits of the credit granted to us by the gods and by nature. Of course, this is more of a problem for human beings than for the waters or the Earth itself. They would recover and cleanse themselves rather quickly (on a more universal timescale) and continue on — only without us on board. Different times, cultures, and religions all have their stories about water — both as a master of genesis and as a master of flood whenever cleansing becomes necessary. And as we know from those stories, we have not always been good at listening to the foretellings. I think we can also hear in this piece that the good old Proteus is in dire straits. He is winding his horns, crying out loudly, as befits his position. We have captured him and are keeping him in far from elegant conditions. And, as promised, he is now willing to foretell the future. Will we listen? 48
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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Born 17 December 1770; Bonn, Germany Died 26 March 1827; Vienna, Austria
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Opus 15
Composed: 1795; revised 1800 First performance: 18 December 1795; Ludwig van Beethoven, piano and conductor; Kleiner Redoutensaal, Hofburg Palace, Vienna Last MSO performance: 10 February 2024; Iván López Reynoso, conductor; Jorge Federico Osorio, piano Instrumentation: flute; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; timpani; strings Approximate duration: 36 minutes Our obsession with Beethoven’s personal life persists in large part because we see within it an unparalleled flowering of human genius taking place amid utterly impossible circumstances. Heir to a musical tradition that had reached dizzying intellectual heights, he revolutionized the genres he inherited from Haydn and Mozart: analyzing the whole of his contributions to the string quartet or the symphony, for example, we can discern his gradual metamorphosis from a gifted, self-conscious imitator to a singular visionary who shaped the course of history by sheer force of will. As an exceptionally powerful pianist endowed with an unmatched talent for improvisation, the quintet of piano concertos Beethoven left behind trace his development as an artist in constant search of the sublime. Beethoven’s independent streak is usually explained as the consequence of a particularly difficult childhood. By the time Beethoven arrived in Vienna in 1792, he had endured a traumatic musical education at the hands of his abusive father, Johann, and watched helplessly as his mother Maria succumbed to tuberculosis. As his father descended into alcoholic dysfunction in the wake of his wife’s death, he’d been forced to support the family financially, successfully petitioning to receive half his father’s pay. When Johann died just weeks after his son had relocated to Europe’s musical capital intending, in the words of his friend and patron Count Waldstein, to “receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands,” the event went unrecorded in young Ludwig’s diary. What we now refer to as the “first” of Beethoven’s piano concertos was, in fact, his third. Practically no one knows of the abandoned, unpublished concerto of 1784, and he felt so uncertain of the much-revised concerto in B-flat major that its publication was delayed until months after the present specimen first appeared in print as “No. 1.” If Beethoven spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get things right, he could hardly be blamed: the concerto, rejuvenated by Mozart’s example, had become the principal means by which composers advertised both their technical facility and the originality of their musical thought, and he needed something that would establish him as Vienna’s leading virtuoso while simultaneously endearing him to the moneyed classes that would sustain his career. Beethoven’s vision unfurls with grandeur and pomp: from the pithy, nearly militaristic motif introduced at the very outset, he constructs an opening movement of typically expansive proportions, infusing its classically informed structure with more than a few harmonic surprises. The somewhat remote setting of A-flat major, accompanied by an especially beautiful line for the clarinet, casts the inner largo in a considerably warmer light. An amusing episode concerning the glittering, fleet-fingered finale comes from the physician Franz Gerhard Wegeler, Beethoven’s friend from his years in Bonn: “Only in the afternoon of the second day before the performance … did he write the rondo, plagued by a terrible colic he suffered from so often. I helped him as best I could. Four copyists were sitting in the hallway and Beethoven handed them every single sheet.”
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ROBERT SCHUMANN 8 June 1810; Zwickau, Saxony 29 July 1856; Bonn, Prussia
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Opus 97, “Rhenish”
Composed: 2 November – 9 December 1850 First performance: 6 February 1851; Robert Schumann, conductor; Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra Last MSO performance: 30 January 2011; Edo de Waart, conductor Instrumentation: 2 flutes; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 4 horns; 2 trumpets; 3 trombones; timpani; strings Approximate duration: 33 minutes After living in Dresden for five years, Robert Schumann and his wife Clara had little to show for it. Their arrival in the city had been blighted by a precipitous decline in Robert’s mental state, and though he had managed to compose a substantial amount of music as his powers of creation ebbed and flowed, he had failed to develop a reputation worthy of the “official” musical world. Plans to move to Berlin in 1847 fell through with the deaths of their friends Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert’s inquiries after posts in Vienna and Leipzig came to nothing. In November 1849, the conductor Ferdinand Hiller invited him to take over as the municipal music director of Düsseldorf, which Schumann met with immediate suspicion. “Your suggestion is very attractive, but I have some doubts,” he replied. “I have a clear recollection of Mendelssohn’s verdict on the Düsseldorf musicians, which was bad enough. … It is rare to find good manners among members of any orchestra, and I know how to deal with merely vulgar, though not rude or malicious, players.” That the city housed an asylum was particularly worrisome: “I have to avoid very carefully any depressing associations of the kind.” Terrified at the prospect of losing his mind, Schumann had long abhorred any reminder of his difficult family history. He asked about the quality of chorus, life in the city, and whether or not Clara could find work (“You know how impossible it is for her to be idle,” he remarked), but ultimately demurred, either hoping for a better offer or that his circumstances in Dresden would improve. In the meantime, his concert tours with Clara met with mixed reviews, the premiere of his only opera, Genoveva, was repeatedly delayed (and was poorly received by the time it finally debuted, in any event), and the frantic pace of the first quarter of his year prevented him from devoting any time to composing. By Easter, he relented, and the Schumann family was warmly received in Düsseldorf that September. A new cello concerto emerged in a matter of weeks, he began conducting the city’s subscription concerts, and produced, in about a month’s time, his final symphony. The appellation “Rhenish” comes from Schumann’s concertmaster in Düsseldorf, Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, who stated in his biography of the composer that the work was inspired by the Rhineland, its river, and its “folkish” elements. Despite the auspicious introduction, Schumann’s mind soon deteriorated to such an extent that city officials were forced to remove him from his post in 1853. He was committed to the asylum at Endenich only months later, where he spent his last days in the grip of insanity. Schumann launches immediately into the first movement’s main theme, a hemiolic, rhythmically vigorous melody that continually surges across the score’s bar lines. After working through the structural components of classical sonata form, an unconventional sort of scherzo follows: its principal theme takes as its basis the ländler, a German folk dance in triple meter. The third movement, according to Wasielewski, was meant to imitate the waves of the Rhine, while the ecclesiastical overtones of the fourth, with its stately, contrapuntal chorale tune and sullen trombones, depict “a solemn ceremony” — specifically the inauguration of Cardinal Johannes von Geissel at the Cologne Cathedral during Schumann’s visit to the city in 1850. Per Wasielewski, “there is plainly a popular vein as far as was possible to Schumann” apparent in the finale, which returns to the rugged exuberance of the opening measures. 50
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Matthew Melillo, Acting Assistant Principal Laressa Winters**
Georgi Dimitrov Nathan Hackett Michael Lieberman** Erin H. Pipal CELLOS Susan Babini, Principal, 2026.27 SEASON Dorothea C. Mayer Principal Cello Chair Shinae Ra, Assistant Principal (2nd chair) Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus MUSIC DIRECTOR Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair Esther Chae Madeleine Kabat BYRON STRIPLING Peter Szczepanek Principal Pops Conductor Peter J. Thomas* Stein Family Foundation Principal Pops Adrien Zitoun Conductor Chair BASSES RYAN TANI Principal, Donald B. Abert Associate Conductor Principal Bass Chair Andrew Raciti, Acting Principal CHERYL FRAZES HILL Nash Tomey, Assistant Principal Chorus Director (3rd chair)* Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair Brittany Conrad TIMOTHY J. BENSON Nicholas De Laurentis** Assistant Chorus Director Broner McCoy Paris Myers FIRST VIOLINS Jinwoo Lee, Concertmaster, HARP Charles and Marie Caestecker Julia Coronelli, Principal, Concertmaster Chair Walter Schroeder Principal Harp Chair Ilana Setapen, First Associate FLUTES Concertmaster, Thora M. Vervoren Sonora Slocum, Principal, First Associate Concertmaster Chair Margaret and Roy Butter Jeanyi Kim, Associate Concertmaster Principal Flute Chair Alexander Ayers Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal Autumn Chodorowski Jennifer Bouton Schaub Yuka Kadota Chihiro Kakishima PICCOLO Elliot Lee Jennifer Bouton Schaub Dylana Leung OBOES Kyung Ah Oh Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Lijia Phang Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra League Yuanhui Fiona Zheng Principal Oboe Chair SECOND VIOLINS Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal Jennifer Startt, Principal, Margaret Butler Andrea and Woodrow Leung ENGLISH HORN Principal Second Violin Chair Ji-Yeon Lee, Assistant Principal (2nd chair) Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to Shannon Fitzhenry, Assistant Principal John Martin (3rd chair) Heejeon Ahn CLARINETS Lisa Johnson Fuller Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Clay Hancock Principal Clarinet Chair Paul Hauer Jay Shankar, Acting Principal, Hyewon Kim Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair Vinícius Sant’Ana** Besnik Abrashi, Acting Assistant Principal Yiran Yao Max Reese** VIOLAS Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner E-FLAT CLARINET Max Reese** Family Principal Viola Chair Kunjing Dai, Acting Principal, BASS CLARINET Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Besnik Abrashi Assistant Principal Viola Chair Samantha Rodriguez, Acting Assistant BASSOONS Principal (2nd chair) Catherine Van Handel, Principal, Alejandro Duque, Acting Assistant Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family Principal (3rd chair) Principal Bassoon Chair* Elizabeth Breslin Rudi Heinrich, Acting Principal
CONTRABASSOON Matthew Melillo HORNS Matthew Annin, Principal, Krause Family Principal French Horn Chair Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal Dietrich Hemann, Andy Nunemaker French Horn Chair Darcy Hamlin Dawson Hartman TRUMPETS Matthew Ernst, Principal, Walter L. Robb Family Principal Trumpet Chair David Cohen, Associate Principal, Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair Tim McCarthy, Fred Fuller Trumpet Chair TROMBONES Megumi Kanda, Principal, Marjorie Tiefenthaler Principal Trombone Chair Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal BASS TROMBONE John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball Bass Trombone Chair TUBA Robyn Black, Principal, John and Judith Simonitsch Principal Tuba Chair TIMPANI Dean Borghesani, Principal Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal PERCUSSION Robert Klieger, Principal Chris Riggs PIANO Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair PERSONNEL Antonio Padilla Denis, Director of Orchestra Personnel Paris Myers, Assistant Manager of Orchestra Personnel LIBRARIANS Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, James E. Van Ess Principal Librarian Chair Matthew Geise, Assistant Librarian & Media Archivist PRODUCTION Tristan Wallace, Production Manager/Live Audio Lisa Sottile, Production Stage Manager * Leave of absence during the 2026.27 season ** Acting member of the MSO for the 2026.27 season
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