Announcer: The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

[bright orchestral music]

Alexander Platt: This is such a beautiful community. It really is. This greater La Crosse community here on the banks of the Upper Mississippi, this incomparable natural beauty, and the people are just so nice, the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Eva Marie Restel: We have a rich arts culture. It attracts musicians, it attracts artists. And the musicians talk about there’s this energy that comes from the audience, and they just feel like they’re on the edge of the seat and they’re, like, right there with them. And so it makes it particularly exciting to perform here.

Alexander Platt: This is what a conductor dreams of, and that kind of cloud nine is where we’re at in La Crosse, at the symphony.

Narrator: Funding for La Crosse Symphony’s Midnight in Paris is provided by A.C.V. and Mary Elston family, Sue Anne Gelatt Foundation, John W. and Lenore L. Landry Endowment, First Supply and Gerhard’s Kitchen Bath & Lighting Store, TrustPoint, donors to the Focus Fund for the Arts, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[gentle oboe music]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[gentle bassoon music]

[gentle orchestral music]

[gentle violin solo]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. II by Johannes Brahms]

[gentle ending note]

[audience applauding]

Rachel Barton Pine: I always love soloing with orchestras in Wisconsin. It’s such a beautiful state, and I live in Chicago. I’m a lifelong Chicagoan, so I have a special patriotic feeling in my heart for anything in the Midwest. But, you know, there’s such a wonderful enthusiasm from the public of orchestras like the La Crosse Symphony. It makes it not just an artistically rewarding, but also a very personally rewarding experience for me as a touring artist.

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[bright orchestral music]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 Mvt. III by Johannes Brahms]

[bright ending notes]

[audience applauding]

Alexander Platt: I honestly enjoy everything about what I do here. I love being out and about in the community. I love meeting people. [orchestra playing] Okay, now, in these four bars, I need a shape that goes to forte and then back. But of course, the pinnacle is what we do together on this stage for three extremely intense three-hour rehearsals that culminate in what is often a magnificent performance. Can we all add a crescendo here?

Eva Marie Restel: We have 70 musicians, really talented musicians from a three-hour radius, and they really like working with Alexander. He’s able to bring out the best in all of them, and they love that. It’s a special camaraderie that he creates with the musicians. He’s fun to work with.

Alexander Platt: Mary Beth, I just, push it a little ahead here, okay? We have been able to put together such a beautiful collection of individuals from this entire region, this Coulee Region, that truly the performance is the culmination of all of that intensity of those rehearsals. And, you know, whether you’re the La Crosse Symphony or the New York Philharmonic, if you can do that regularly, it just, it just doesn’t get better as a conductor. It doesn’t get better than that. [orchestra playing] Oh, it’s already so wonderful. Simply put, I’m having the time of my life, and it’s all thanks to La Crosse. I love this place.

[Menuet antique by Maurice Ravel]

[bright orchestral music]

[Menuet antique by Maurice Ravel]

[Menuet antique by Maurice Ravel]

[Menuet antique by Maurice Ravel]

[Menuet antique by Maurice Ravel]

[Menuet antique by Maurice Ravel]

[Menuet antique by Maurice Ravel]

[bright ending note]

[audience applauding]

Alexander Platt: There is no greater gesture of thanks that I can give to you than offer you this bouquet of beautiful French music by the most French of all of the great French composers, [audience laughing] Maurice Ravel. Compared to me, I am tall compared to Maurice Ravel. He went up to about my shoulder. He was, in the French tradition, a dandy. And yet, at the age of 40, despite his diminutive stature, he insisted on enlisting for the French cause in World War I. And only Ravel There is a very famous photograph of him ready to go to the front in the winter of 1915, and he’s in one of those very World War I, you know, steel helmets, and he’s wearing a fabulous fur coat. [all laughing] Only Ravel. So, take joy and comfort in this beautiful music, for me, the greatest of all French composers. And take joy. Take joy in these extraordinary people with whom I have the privilege of collaborating, our glorious La Crosse Symphony Orchestra. [audience applauding and cheering]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[rousing orchestral music]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[gentle orchestral music]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[bright orchestral music]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[gentle orchestral music]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[bright orchestral music]

[gentle orchestral music]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel]

[gentle ending notes]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[steady orchestral music]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[bright orchestral music]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[La valse by Maurice Ravel]

[bright ending notes]

[audience applauding and cheering]

Alexander Platt: When we get to the end of Ravel’s La valse in all of its magnificence and grandeur, that’s what we’re here to do, that’s the goal, to bring the world to La Crosse, but also to show the world what a beautiful community La Crosse really is. [applause continues]

Narrator: Funding for La Crosse Symphony’s Midnight in Paris is provided by A.C.V. and Mary Elston family, Sue Anne Gelatt Foundation, John W. and Lenore L. Landry Endowment, First Supply and Gerhard’s Kitchen Bath & Lighting Store, TrustPoint, donors to the Focus Fund for the Arts, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.