By Daniel Buckwalter
If you were able to navigate the fierce and gushing atmospheric river rain currents over the weekend — especially on Saturday — and make it to The Shedd Institute, you were in for a soft and charming performance by microphilharmonic.
Led by Michael Anderson, its artistic director, microphilharmonic made its 2025-26 debut on Oct. 25 and 26 in the Jaqua Concert Hall with depth and an emotional program. It included Harmoniemusik, a collection of overtures and vignettes from four of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s operas, as well as a more dramatic Mozart piece, plus works by Franz Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven.
It was the ideal haven from the storm.
The concert opened with Haydn’s four-movement Divertimento Field-parthie No. 3, and instantly, concert-goers were transformed from the outside deluge to the gentle breeze that was the music from the nine-member — and mostly wind players — microphilharmonic ensemble.
It continued with Beethoven’s Rondino in E-Flat major, though this time there was a lovely French horn duet featuring Margarite Waddell and Michael Hettwer. They were perfectly in sync while taking mutes in and out of their instruments. It was a treat to hear.
Then followed the one dramatic piece of the concert — Mozart’s Serenade in C minor. The four-movement piece, composed in the early 1780s, is intricate and somber, especially compared to the Mozart works microphilharmonic played in the second half of the program.
Those overtures and vignettes came from the operas: The Marriage of Figaro; Don Giovanni; All Women Are Like That; Women’s Fidelity; and The Magic Flute.
My favorite was the famous “Queen of the Night” aria, the concert’s final piece, arranged by Anderson and whose iconic soprano was performed by oboist Tom Nugent. The oboe is the perfect instrument for this aria, and Nugent was flawless throughout.
Harmoniemusik was the perfect antidote for the weather outside.
