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Reviewer's Bio
Joe Milicia
Some major influences on my musical interests (leaving out non-classical for this entry):
(1) Growing up in Cleveland. School trips to Cleveland Orchestra Young People’s Concerts, from about 5th grade on, introduced me to exciting stuff like The Pines of Rome and Les Preludes (which I already knew from the soundtrack to old Flash Gordon serials on Saturday TV). And going to college right next door to Severence Hall made it very easy to catch a weekend concert with George Szell (among many memories: an edge-of-your-seat Schubert 9th finale, and a standing ovation, rare in those days, for a John Browning-Szell Barber Piano Concerto) or Robert Shaw, the associate conductor in those years, doing Belshazzar’s Feast and Oedipus Rex.
(2) Radio. Especially the Metropolitan Opera Saturday broadcasts, though by high school I had also discovered various live concerts. The New York Philharmonic (Bernstein, but others too) introduced me to Mahler.
(3) Recordings, needless to say. A Toscanini Pines and Fountains led to his Beethoven 7th, which led to all his other Beethoven symphonies on RCA, which led to brand-recognition buying, luckily for me since those were the days of the great Munch/BSO and Reiner/CSO Living Stereo recordings.
(4) Going to graduate school in New York. There was usually time to hop on a subway for a last-minute decision to catch something at Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall, where remarkably cheap student seats were often available—or at least standing room. There were incredible nights and matinees at the Met: Nilsson as Brunnhilde and Elektra; Vickers as Peter Grimes, Otello, Siegmund, Florestan; Price in Trovatore and Aida; Rysanek in Frau Ohne Schatten with Boehm; Caballe and Tucker in Luisa Miller. Bernstein and Boulez with the Philharmonic, and Chicago/Solti at Carnegie Hall, with their stunningly powerful sound.
(5) Living in Chicago. Revelations included Giulini, then Associate Conductor, doing almost anything with the CSO, though I especially recall Mahler, Bruckner, Berlioz, Shostakovich. And listening sessions with friends who had stereo setups vastly superior to anything I ever heard in a New York apartment introduced me to splendid new recordings and reacquainted me with my old favorites.
(6) Living in Sheboygan. For some time the CSO had a Monday night series in nearby Milwaukee—but the Milwaukee SO is a truly underrated orchestra, with some glorious woodwinds in particular, and I’ve heard many wonderful performances over the years, from a Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony and a Turangalila Symphony years ago to recent performances with Andreas Delfs (latest highlights range from one end of the personnel scale, a Berlioz Requiem, to the other, the original chamber version of the Siegfried Idyll; and a richly warm and virtuoso Nielsen Violin Concerto with Vladimir Znaider). And far from least among musical pleasures is playing clarinet in our local Sheboygan Symphony: our Daphnis and Chloe Suite or Beethoven or Mahler 3rd or Organ Symphony may not show up in your CD store soon, but being a part of them is a tremendous experience.
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