The dark, cold winter has always been a good time for listening to substantial music, such as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert heard last Saturday night. Johannes Moser, a young German-Canadian, was soloist in Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 for Cello, part of major repertory written by Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten and others for Mstislav Rostropovich. This concerto, written in 1959, captures the multilayered balance�of ironic detachment and mysteriously personal statement that is the heart of Shostakovich’s embattled Soviet-era art. I’ve always thought of the poignant second movement as a Cold War lament of paranoia.

Moser’s performance was intriguing. I was interested to�hear where he was headed, even if I did not always agree with the destination. At times he played with a deep sense of phrase and drama, with crisp rhythm. He was a sincere reflection of the music at his best. At other times I wondered about the core of his tone, which seemed to vary beyond deliberate coloristic choices. Some habits were off-putting, as in a fully extended arm on phrase-ending down-bows that distorted the music, and what I would describe as needlessly-calling-attention-to-extreme-effort playing in the final movement. This kind of musical overacting rings as false as a hammy actor chewing up the scenery. Krystof Pipal on horn and Todd Levy on clarinet both played with gorgeously rich tone in featured solos�of the second movement.

Every couple of years I come to a symphony�by Danish composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) with new discovery. Each time around the music falls right out of my head by the time I encounter the composer again. Guest conductor Paul Daniel led Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4 (“The Inextinguishable”), composed during World War I as an affirmation of life. The piece does not conjure enough conflict to feel triumphant. Daniel was good at giving it long-phrased shape. I questioned a couple of transitions, although I admit that this was an odd piece to get a take on a conductor. The concert began with�the fascinating Sinfonietta by Scottish composer James MacMillan.