The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical Music: Wisconsin Public Radio’s music app is first-rate and gets five stars. The Ear has it, and so should you. Plus, a viola duo performs a FREE concert of music by Bach, Bartok and Stamitz on Friday.
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ALERT: This Friday from 12:15 to 1 p.m., the weekly FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society, 900 University Drive, Alexis Carreon (below top, the personnel manager of the Madison Symphony Orchestra who also plays viola with the MSO) and Marie Pauls (below bottom), with pianist Stacy Fehr Regehr, play duets for viola by J.S. Bach (Brandenburg Concerto No. 6), Bela Bartok and Carl Stamitz.
By Jacob Stockinger
Increasingly Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) is one of the few remaining public radio stations in the U.S that still highly values classical music and devotes many, many hours per day to it.
And now if you have smart phone or an iPod Touch, you can take WPR with you.
True, you need wi-fi -– not just regular FM or AM radio reception. But wi-fi is increasingly prevalent and popular in both public and private places.
This app (below) helps solve the problem that I have always had with Apple and its FM radio capability, which for some odd reason, Apple includes only on the iPod Nano right now, not on the more expensive and fancier iPhone or iPod Touch, even though the hardware and software required for FM reception can’t be that big or difficult to include. (And how about getting a photo card slot on the smaller Airbook? Seems to The Ear like a bad and short-sighted decision on Apple’s part.)
Anyway, now if you have to interrupt a broadcast to go grocery shopping or do some other task, you can take WPR with you.
I have spent some time experimenting with the app.
It is generally clear and easy to use, although the “program” screen didn’t list titles at one point, and then did.
The “Live” screen is, I find the most useful. It features the regular channel for classical music and news; the Ideas channel for talk and call-ins; and the 24-hours a day digital music channel. It has a pause, store and catch-up function. And the app also allows you to explore WPR schedules, state news stories and archives.
I used it while waiting in a dentist’s office. Also, recently I used it on a bus to Chicago and then once I was in Chicago when I couldn’t find something else I wanted. It worked great for not only music but also for “The Midday” stories, quizzes and guests with Norman Gilliland as well as “To the Best of Our Knowledge” and Michael Feldman. It also worked for bringing me syndicated programs from National Public Radio: “Morning Edition,” “Weekend Edition” and “All Things Considered,” to say nothing of ‘The Writer’s Almanac” with Garrison Keillor; “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross; “Exploring Music” with Bill McGlaughlin (below); and “From the Top” with Christopher O’Riley.
You can download the WPR app for FREE at the iTunes stores for MAC-based devices and at Google Play for Android-based smart phones.
Go ahead, give it a try. You can always delete it you don’t like or it doesn’t meet your expectations.
But I am betting that you will like it and that it will surpass your expectations. The Ear gives the app five stars out of five. If you use it, let me know what you think of the results.
Oh, and there are other radio apps I have that I used to stream classical music over the Internet.
One is the famed WQXR station in New York City. It features live broadcasts from Carnegie Hall that you can also access visa NPR’s blog “Deceptive Cadence.”
Closer to home, you can also try the app for WFMT in Chicago, the home base of Bill McGlaughlin.
Other public radio stations have specialized programs for vocal music, opera, piano music, music history and so on. You can check them out at the various app stores.
Are there radio apps you especially recommend?
The Ear wants to hear – and so, I suspect, do many of his readers.
Let all of us know in the Comments section.
Tags: All Things Considered, Apple, Bill McGlaughlin, FM broadcasting, Garrison Keillor, Google, iPhone, IPod, iPod Touch, iTunes, ITunes Store, Jacob Stockinger, Madison Symphony Orchestra, New York City, Norman Gilliland, NPR, Public broadcasting, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, wisconsin public radio
Classical music: Would you like to buy Beethoven for a Buck? Try the complete piano sonatas by HJ Lim and the compete symphonies by Daniel Barenboim.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Do you like Beethoven (below)?
Do you like the 9 symphonies? The Ear does.
Do you like the 32 piano sonatas? The Ear likes many of them, although I prefer all five of the piano concertos to most of the symphonies and most of the sonatas.
But a deal’s a deal.
Would you like to buy Beethoven for a Buck?
Try the digital download of the complete 32 piano sonatas by HJ Lim and the compete 9 symphonies by Daniel Barenboim.
Barenboim (below), the child prodigy pianist and former artistic director and conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is a well-known name.
Pianist HJ Lim (below), however, is a new name and has chosen an ambitious way to become known to the public.
She has recorded and released on EMI all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas. It is a monumental feat that was rare once, but is becoming more and more common.
Here is a link to an excellent story about the new Beethoven releases that appeared on NPR’s “Deceptive Cadence” blog. By chance, it seems perfectly timed for the just announced new generation of Apple’s iPods and iPhone as well as the update on iTunes that is coming in October.
Be sure to read the reader comments at the bottom of the blog posting.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/07/16/156843391/beethoven-for-a-buck
Tags: Apple, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, EMI, iPhone, IPod, iTunes, Ludwig van Beethoven
Classical music: Wisconsin Public Radio will broadcast the “Open Goldberg Variations” of J.S. Bach on this Sunday afternoon. You can listen and follow the score at the same time.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Wisconsin Public Radio, which has historically been deeply devoted to building a broad audience for classical music, has a special mixed media treat in store for listeners this weekend.
The public radio network will broadcast the “Open Goldberg Variations” project this Sunday afternoon from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (WERN 88.7 FM in the Madison area). It features a piano performance plus a “public domain” score so you can follow along on the Internet as the music is played.
The performance is by Kimiko Ishizaka (below), and has been turned into an app.
It is ironic the mammoth theme-and-variations work by Johann Sebastian Bach (below) has become so popular and iconic. And there is something deeply moving about the aria that opens and closes the work.
Back in 1955, when the legendary and eccentric Canadian pianist Glenn Gould (below top) was 25, he used the Goldbergs for his Columbia Records debut. But many company executives and critics doubted that he would succeed with such an inaccessible and difficult work.
Yet his energetic and ear-opening version of the Goldbergs, with its dizzying finger work and infectious rhythmic drive, became a big bestselling landmark that launched an unforgettable career. Gould went on to record just about all keyboard works of Bach; and later in life (below bottom) he started a re-recording project of the same works that began in 1981 with, but never got beyond, a second and completely different version of the Goldbergs. Then he died of a stroke at 50 in 1982.
And since then, many pianists have chosen the Goldbergs to make their mark, including Simone Dinnerstein who made a bestselling version of them to launch how now burgeoning concert and recording career.
Here is a link to a Wisconsin Public Radio website with details of the Sunday afternoon broadcast:
And here is a link to more background about the project:
http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/
And if you still aren’t convinced, here is a link to a composer’s very positive review of the Open Goldberg project:
http://crazycomposer.blogspot.com/2012/05/open-goldberg-variations-recording.html
And here are two more links to many – as in thousands — very positive reviews, many of which stress the vicarious quality of the performance, of the iTunes, iPhone and iPad app:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/open-goldberg-variations/id529060306?mt=8
http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/reviews
Classical music news: GRAND OPERA on a SMALL SCREEN? How well does Apple’s new iPad 3 and the Metropolitan Opera’s new mobile subscription archive app work? Here are the results of a test run.
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By Jacob Stockinger
I stopped by the nearby Apple store of Friday. It’s always a fun place to go. I love the gadgets and I love the service.
This time I just wanted to check out some slick laptop bags for an upcoming trip – which it turns out, they don’t carry anymore. Just my luck.
But even early in the day the place was packed with people lined up and even sitting down outside and waiting.
“Are you looking for an iPad,” I was asked as I entered the store.
“Not yet,” I said, and went about my business.
But clearly Apple – which took such a ribbing, a real drubbing, about the name when the first iPad was announced – is having the last laugh
And it is a big, hearty and very profitable last laugh — now that it is already on there third model of the device, iPad 3 (below), which is supposed to have super-sharp screen resolution as well as many more features.
Everybody wants in on the fun, it seems.
And that includes the Metropolitan Opera, which has revamped it mobile subscription app to work with iPads.
So, just how does GRAND opera look and sound on a SMALL screen and SMALL sound system?
You can check out a convincing an detailed test run by the perceptive and creative blogger extraordinaire Anastasia Tsioulcas (below), of NPR’s “Delayed Cadence” blog, via this link:
But I would like to know and hear your thoughts on the matter.
Have any Well-Tempered Ears – and Eyes — out there tried the new Met app on an iPad?
How did it work?
What do you think?
Does the model of the iPad matter?
The Ear wants to hear.
And so, I suspect, do the Met and Apple.
Tags: App Store, Apple, Apple Store, Articles, Hardware, IOS, IPad, iPad 3, iPhone, IPhone 4, IPod, MacBook, Macintosh, Metropolitan Opera
Classical music news: The New York Times prints the full story of The Music Lover and The Ringing Cellphone that halted Alan Gilbert’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the New York Philharmonic.
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you want to know why so many people respect The New York Times – despite the all the pietistic carping on the right about how liberal and biased it is – just check out the fairness, accuracy and thoroughness the newspaper brought to one small story.
This past Tuesday night, conductor Alan Gilbert (below) halted a performance of Mahler’s moving Symphony No. 9, Mahler’s last completed symphony, with the New York Philharmonic in Avery Fisher Hall, because a loud cellphone went off during a particularly quiet and moving section of the music. He put down his baton and announced he would wait to resume until the phone was turned off.
Many news outlets, including NBC TV’s nightly newscast, reported on the incident, which had the other audience members cheering Gilbert and his admonishment to turn off the annoying and persistent marimba ring-tone of the phone before continuing .
But the Times went a step further.
It found out who was the person with the ringing cellphone, how the whole incident happened, and then reported on the reaction of the user of the offending iPhone (below) to the incident and what the follow-up story was. Knowing all the facts actually makes you at least somewhat sympathetic to the offender.
And then it published the story in the news section, rather than the arts section.
The coverage makes you respect both Gilbert and the offending cellphone owner, as well as the editors and reporters at the Times. It should also make you wary of alarms and other pre-set features of sophisticated smart phones.
Here is a link to the story:
Here is the clever video that mixes Mahler’s Ninth (under Leonard Bernstein) and the marimba ring-tone:
Classical music news: For today, Monday, Dec. 26, the web site medici.tv is offering a full day of free viewing.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Christmas may be over, but there are still important holiday gifts and special deals involving classical music to be had. Here is one as described in a recent press release The Ear received;
“The go-to site for experiencing world-class classical performances on the Web – medici.tv – will be offering all music lovers in the U.S. an unlimited free day of viewing on Monday, Dec. 26 of the myriad programs in the site’s pay-per-view library. (A sample is below.)
Much of the live programming on medici.tv is available free throughout the year, but on the day after Christmas, the pay-for-view archival programs will be free, too – as a gift to the site’s fans and new friends.
What’s available on medici.tv now includes more opera than ever before – including acclaimed productions from the UK and Paris with such top stars as Jonas Kaufmann (below), Natalie Dessay and Gerald Finley.
There are also live Webcasts of top-tier orchestral concerts, vocal performances, and chamber recitals, along with vintage documentaries and music films – including the much-lauded Christopher Nupen catalog.
More and more praise accrues to medici.tv with each passing month.
New Yorker magazine writer Alex Ross (below) said on his blog, “The Rest Is Noise,” that “the hits keep coming at medici.tv.” Offering “treasures aplenty” was how Gramophone editor-in-chief James Jolly put it, designating medici.tv as one of the Web’s leading classical experiences.
The medici.tv app for iPads, iPhones, and other digital devices – available for free at the Apple app store – was named one of the top five apps for classical music by WQXR, the classical music station of New York City.
In addition to its live webcasts, medici.tv also offers an extensive library of video-on-demand programs, available via subscription. These performances, documentaries and archival features spotlight leading musical institutions and world-class artists – from golden-age legends to today’s top stars.
The 30-plus Christopher Nupen films available at medici.tv include not only the priceless du Pré documents (complete with Elgar’s Cello Concerto and a number of all-star chamber performances) but also films of Evgeny Kissin, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Nathan Milstein. All 32 Beethoven piano sonatas recorded by Daniel Barenboim (below) in 1983-84 will be available by the year’s end.
About medici.tv: Since its official launch in May 2008, medici.tv has gained international recognition, bringing together a community of music and arts lovers from 182 countries – online viewers who have watched over 12 million videos to date. The site currently averages more than 80,000 individual visitors each month.
In addition to offering live concert hall events that music lovers can experience on their computers and entertainment systems, medici.tv now offers a free application (available at the Apple App Store) that makes it possible to experience world-class artistry on iPads and iPhones.
Building on the success of webcasts from the Verbier Festival (below) in 2007, medici.tv has offered high-definition webcasts from many other leading festivals, including Aix-en-Provence, Saint-Denis, Aspen, Glyndebourne, Salzburg, and Lucerne; from such Parisian venues as the Opéra National de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Cité de la Musique, and Salle Pleyel; and from Milan’s famed La Scala.
Many operas and concerts performed by the world’s top artists and orchestras have been webcast as live events and later as video-on-demand (VOD) – all available for free. The list of artists presented at medici.tv is a “who’s who” of today’s stars, including Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Plácido Domingo, John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti (below), Anna Netrebko, Maurizio Pollini, Thomas Quasthoff and Simon Rattle.
Among the featured orchestras are such renowned ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw (below), Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
In addition to webcasts of more than 80 live concerts each year, medici.tv has partnered with the world’s top artists and music institutions to offer subscriptions, giving music-lovers the opportunity to watch more than 700 Video On Demand programs – growing to 1,000 programs over the next two years.
They include concerts, operas, recitals, documentaries, master classes, artist portraits, and archival material. Featured artists include such legendary musicians as Leonard Bernstein, Maria Callas, Glenn Gould, Herbert von Karajan, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arthur Rubinstein (below), Georg Solti and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as well as such leading film directors as Bruno Monsaingeon, Paul Smaczny and Frank Scheffer.
You can watch medici.tv concerts on iPhone with the free medici.tv App.
You can also:
Tags: Alex Ross, Anna Netrebko, Christmas, Christopher Nupen, Daniel Barenboim, IPad, iPhone, La Scala, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Milan, New York City, New Yorker, Orchestra, Paris
