Erich Wolfgang Korngold was one of the stellar names in movie music during Hollywood�s Golden Age. Those were the years before producers slapped a few pop oldies onto the soundtrack and called it musical direction. In the 1930s and �40s studio orchestras, adding emotional cues to the screenplay with original arrangements and compositions, accompanied even modest movies. A prodigy compose...

The Fine Arts Quartet finished their spring season in fine form last Sunday, proving that well-known works can sound fresh and exciting when performed by master musicians. Violinists Ralph Evans & Efim Boico, violist Yuri Gandelsman and cellist Wolfgang Laufer were joined by pianist Gisele Witkowski in the Quintet in E Flat by Robert Schumann, a staple of the chamber music repertoire. This performance showed the Fine Arts at their best, with a rich sound and effortless musicality. Witkowski proved a fully expressive yet sensitive partner to the quartet, the two forces equal in technique and temperament.

The snowstorm last week forced a cancelled rehearsal of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and prevented the arrival of the guest soloist, pianist Andreas Haefliger. Conductor Andreas Delfs quickly revised the plans to something the orchestra could do with just one rehearsal. William Schuman’s Symphony No. 5, which the MSO has never before played, and a Mozart piano concerto were scrapped. Instead, the new program included the Overture to Don Giovanni and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with Frank Almond stepping in as soloist. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 was retained as originally planned.