The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Take a Veterans Day poll and Conductor James Smith discusses music education and performance with young people
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A poll: Today, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day. What is the best piece — and why — of classical music to honor veterans? The Ear wants to hear — and see if anyone also loves Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” (especially in the original piano version) in which each movement is an homage dedicated to a friend who died in World War I.
By Jacob Stockinger
A former professional clarinetist who will play Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino for Clarinet with the UW Band Concert on Nov. 23 (at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall), James Smith (below, in a photo by Jack Burns) teaches conducting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he conducts the UW Symphony Orchestra and the UW Chamber Orchestra.
Smith, who is the music director of University Opera, also serves as the music director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, seen below conducting a Dvorak symphony during WYSO’s last Winterfest concerts.
This weekend will see more than 300 talented young musicians kick off WYSO’s 45th season with the Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concert — three concerts honoring southern Wisconsin’s private music instructors and school music teachers.
WYSO’s string orchestra, Sinfonietta, conducted by Mark Leiser, will open the concert series at 1:30 p.m. with selections including Britten’s “Salley Gardens,” and Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida,” followed by the Concert Orchestra, under Christine Mata Eckel (below), playing Curnow’s “Phoenix Overture” and Stephens’s “Danse de Espana.”
At 4 p.m., the Percussion Ensemble, led by Vicki Peterson Jenks in her 30th year with WYSO, will enliven the crowd with a spirited rendition of Jared Spears’s Windstone Suite. The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Tom Buchhauser, will follow, performing “Hoe Down,” and “Saturday Night Waltz,” from Aaron Copland‘s Rodeo, an audience favorite.
On Sunday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m., WYSO’s top level performing group, the Youth Orchestra, under conductor James Smith, will perform John Harbison’s “Mary Lou,” in honor of the centennial year of Mary Lou Williams, the “First Lady of Jazz.” Youth Orchestra will also play Massenet’s “Le Cid,” and two movements of Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1.
The WYSO press release adds: “Each of the concerts honors music teachers in the southern Wisconsin region, recognizing their incredible educational work and thanking them for their partnership with WYSO. What they do everyday is irreplaceable in the lives of students.”
The Steenbock Concerts will be held in Mills Concert Hall in the UW Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St. in Madison. WYSO concerts are generally about an hour to an hour and a half in length, providing a great orchestral concert opportunity for families.
Tickets are available at the door. Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for children under 18 years of age.
WYSO was founded in 1966 and has served nearly 5,000 young musicians from more than 100 communities in southern Wisconsin.
Smith (below) recently took time from his many duties to talk to The Ear for the following Q&A:
How would you compare the music education of young people – middle school, high school and college – now compared to, say, 10 or 20 years ago? Why is music education important? How do the skill levels or achievements of students then and now compare?
I hesitate to offer an opinion. I have not walked in their shoes. After leaving orchestral performance, I have only taught in college. I can write that it thrills me when a bright, eager and talented student from WYSO chooses music education as their career-path.
I can write that there are some outstanding programs that are surviving in spite of the budget cuts in arts education. This is because there are some great teachers working for the students.
The UW students are indeed better, particularly in the string area. The talent pool auditioning for the orchestras fluctuates a bit from year to year, but we have a great team of studio teachers who attract very well trained young musicians.
When you put together concert programs, do you make concessions to the skill level of students? How do you decide what pieces they will study and eventually perform?
Of course, one must understand the performance level of the students, and offer them challenges that are appropriate to their skills and patiently structure a realistic learning curve.
I have a formula that goes something like this: 75% of the orchestra can play 80% of a specific composition with confidence, and the remaining 25% can significantly close the gap.
Some compositions are not appropriate. For example, Shostakovich’s Symphonies No. 6 and No. 9 work for WYSO when we have the appropriate solo voices, but Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 would not be a wise choice.
How does performing inform teaching and vice-versa?
If you are an active performer, you have a better understanding of the musical and technical challenges faced by the students with whom you work. Therefore, you can more easily relate to their successes and their failures – rejoice in the former, forgive the latter. You face the same challenges everyday. You know how hard it is to get a phrase honed to near perfection.
Was there a turning point in your life – a performer or a piece of music or a teacher – who changed your life and made you aware that you wanted to become a professional musician and then a music educator?
I have had a wonderful life in music, so there have been several turning points, almost all because of demanding, insightful, caring teachers.
At the tender age of 14, I my clarinet teacher recommended that I continue my studies with Oakley Pittman, the professor at the local college. If I had not studied with Mr. Pittman, “Chief” as he was call by his students, I am certain I would not have chosen music as a career. After Chief, each mentor came along at just the right time to set my head straight. That took real talent and immeasurable patience.
Are there special projects for WYSO or UW that you have planned that people should know about?
Each concert and opera is a special project. There are some exciting ideas in the wind, but it is too soon to mention them. The weather may change.
Are there other things you would like to say?
I am not sure what your readers would find interesting. Besides, I need to go study scores for next week’s rehearsals.
Do you have a message for Smith or about his devotion to music education?
The Ear wants to hear.
Classical music datebook: Best bets for Nov. 10-16 include contemporary chamber music with The JACK Quartet; cellist Alisa Weilerstein in Dvorak’s concerto; music by local composers John Harbison and Laura Schwendinger; and local student musicians taking a two-day spotlight
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By Jacob Stockinger
It’s another big and busy week in the high season of classical music in Madison. There is something worthwhile every night of the week, and sometimes more than one event.
Are we lucky or what? But good luck in choosing.
Like me, you may just have to resign yourself to missing some events and letting a few jewels slip through your fingers.
TODAY
At 11 a.m. today in Mills Hall, The JACK Quartet gives readings (working performances) of works by School of Music composition students.
Admission is free and unticketed.
At 7:30 p.m. tonight in Mills Hall, the UW Guest Artist Series presents the acclaimed JACK Quartet (below) performing contemporary works for string quartet.
The program includes “Dig Deep” by Julia Wolfe; “String Quartet No. 7” by Salvatore Sciarrino; “String Quartet” by Laura Schwendinger (below), professor of composition at the UW School of Music; and “String Quartet No. 2, ‘Reigen seliger Geister’” by Helmut Lachenmann.
The JACK Quartet’s members first played together as students at the Eastman School of Music in 2003. They have garnered laudatory reviews in the media for performances and recordings, including appearances at the Library of Congress, Miller Theatre, Morgan Library, Kimmel Center and festivals and music centers in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, the United Kingdom and Mexico.
The quartet’s recording of Iannis Xenakis’s complete string quartets appeared on “Best of 2009” lists in “The Los Angeles Times,” “The Boston Globe,” “The New Yorker,” NPR and “Time Out New York.”
Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards and cellist Kevin McFarland, the quartet is focused on the commissioning and performance of new works and to working closely with composers.
In a feature article in “The New York Times” on Sept. 5, 2010, music critic Anthony Tommasini wrote, “In the last two years the quartet has grabbed the attention of critics and audiences internationally.”
Especially if you are a fan of contemporary classical music, this is MUST-HEAR concert.
For further information, visit http://www.jackquartet.com.
Also tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Middleton Performing Arts Center (below) at Middleton High School, the Middleton Community Orchestra (below) makes its public debut.
The program includes Dvorak’’s “My Home” Overture; Ponchielli’s “The Dance of the Hours”; Still’s “Danzas de Panama”; Borodin’s “In the Steppes of Central Asia”; and the Finale from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2
Admission is $10 for adults, free for students with valid ID.
For more information, visit: http://www.middletoncommunityorchestra.org/
THURSDAY
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall: UW Wind Ensemble’s Chamber Winds, featuring sub-groups from within the ensemble, will perform works by Richard Strauss, Antonin Dvorak and Astor Piazzolla. Scott Teeple (below) and Paul Bhasin are the conductors. Admission is free and open to the public.
FRIDAY
This weekend the Madison Symphony Orchestra, under its maestro John DeMain, will perform its second subscription concert of the season.
The eclectic and accessible program includes the “Suite from ‘The Great Gatsby,’” by John Harbison (below). Harbison, an acclaimed composer who also co-directs the nearby Token Creek Chamber Music Festival each summer, recently completely this suite, made from his 199 opera commissioned by and performed at the Met, at the suggestion of David Zinman. It has a lot of local interest. This will be only the third public performance of the new work.
But for many listeners the highpoint will be the appearance of guest cellist Alisa Weilerstein (below), 26, who has been called their heir apparent to Yo-Yo ma and who will make her MSO debut in Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. When she played with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and then did a recital at the Wisconsin Union Theater, she drew standing ovations. (The Ear’s interview with Weilerstein appeared this past Monday.)
Richard Strauss’ sprightly tone poem “Til Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks” rounds out the program.
Performances in Overture Hall are Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15.50-$75.50. Call (608) 258-4141 or visit: http://ev12.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3AOVERTURE%3A10MSO%3AOH1112%3A&linkID=overture&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode
For more program notes, visit:
http://facstaff.uww.edu/allsenj/MSO/NOTES/1011/2.Nov10.html
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/weilerstein
Also on Friday, the First Unitarian Society’s weekly Friday Noon Musicale, from 12:15 to 1 p.m., will feature Kangwon Kim (below top) on baroque violin and Steuart Pincombe (below bottom)on viola da gamba.
The two will perform Biber’s Sonata No. 1 in A minor for solo violin; J.S. Bach’s Suite No.1 in G Major for Solo Cello, Zoltan Kodaly’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7, and Mark O’Conner’s “F.C.’s Jig for Violin and Cello.
Admission is free and coffee is provided. You can bring a lunch.
The concert is in the Landmark Auditorium, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, at the Unitarian Society Meeting House, 900 University Bay Drive. For information, call (608) 233-9774.
The same program will be repeated on Monday at 7 p.m. at Oakwood Village West Auditorium, 6209 Mineral Point Road, also for free.
SATURDAY
After the election, The Ear suspects even more school budget cuts loom, and that means even more cutbacks in arts and music education.
All the more reason we have, then, to support the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras.
This weekend will see more than 300 talented young musicians kick off WYSO’s 45th season with the Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concert — three concerts honoring southern Wisconsin’s private music instructors and school music teachers.
WYSO’s string orchestra, Sinfonietta, conducted by Mark Leiser, will open the concert series at 1:30 p.m. with selections including Britten’s “Salley Gardens,” and Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida,” followed by the Concert Orchestra, under Christine Mata Eckel (below), playing Curnow’s “Phoenix Overture” and Stephens’s “Danse de Espana.”
At 4 p.m., the Percussion Ensemble, led by Vicki Peterson Jenks (below) in her 30th year with WYSO, will enliven the crowd with a spirited rendition of Jared Spears’s Windstone Suite. The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Tom Buchhauser, will follow, performing “Hoe Down,” and “Saturday Night Waltz,” from Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, an audience favorite.
On Sunday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m., WYSO’s top level performing group, the Youth Orchestra, under conductor James Smith (below), will perform John Harbison’s “Mary Lou,” in honor of the centennial year of Mary Lou Williams, the “First Lady of Jazz.” Youth Orchestra will also play Massenet’s “Le Cid,” and two movements of Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1.
The WYSO press release adds: “Each of the concerts honors music teachers in the southern Wisconsin region, recognizing their incredible educational work and thanking them for their partnership with WYSO. What they do everyday is irreplaceable in the lives of students.”
The Steenbock Concerts will be held in Mills Concert Hall in the UW Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St. in Madison. WYSO concerts are generally about an hour to an hour and a half in length, providing a great orchestral concert opportunity for families.
Tickets are available at the door. Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for children under 18 years of age.
WYSO was founded in 1966 and has served nearly 5,000 young musicians from more than 100 communities in southern Wisconsin.
Let us now praise sponsors: These WYSO concerts are supported by the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, and the Overture Foundation. This project is also supported by the Alliant Energy Foundation and in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information, visit http://wyso.music.wisc.edu/
Also on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Chorale will perform under Bruce Gladstone (below in a photo by Katrin Talbot).
The concert entitled “With the Earth” features texts that focus on nature and care of the earth, including poems by Wendell Berry and W. S. Merwin. “Leafsongs” by Steve Heitzig and “In the Red Mountains” by Scott Lindroth feature choir, piano and percussion. Other works by Antonin Dvorak, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Joan Szymko, David Brunner and Alberto Grau.
Admission is free and open to the public.
SUNDAY
“Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen” features UW cellist Parry Karp at 12:30-2 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery III at the Chazen Museum of Art. He will be accompanied by his father and mother, Howard and Frances Karp, on piano. The program will feature music from Brahms’ Sonata in A Major for Piano and Violin, Op. 100; Hans Huber’s Romance in A-Flat Major for Cello and Piano, Op. 30; Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 6; and Chopin’s Sonata in G Minor for Piano and Cello, Op. 65.
The concert will be broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Radio (WERN 88.7 FM in the Madison area.)
Karp (below) is Professor of Chamber Music and Cello at the University of Wisconsin Madison and has played with Pro Arte since 1976. Howard and Frances Karp have each performed as soloists with symphony orchestras in the United States and Europe and frequently appear in solo recitals or together in chamber music concerts.
Members of the Chazen Museum of Art or Wisconsin Public Radio can call ahead and reserve seats for “Sunday Afternoon Live” performances. Seating is limited. All reservations must be made Monday through Friday before the concert and claimed by 12:20 p.m. on the day of the performance. For more information or to learn how to become a museum member, contact the Chazen Museum at (608) 263-2246.
At 2:30 p.m., the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra with conductor Blake Walter and guitar soloist Nathan Wysock (below), will perform in Edgewood College’s St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive in Madison.
The program features Villa-Lobos’ Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra as well as works by Felix Mendelssohn and W.A. Mozart.
Nathan Wysock began playing guitar at the age of nine and started classical studies at fifteen. Wysock is an active soloist and chamber musician and has performed in both national and international competitions.
He has been a featured performer on Wisconsin Public Radio’s ‘Live at the Chazen’ and ‘Higher Ground.’ He has performed with the Lawrence University Chamber players, the Festival City Orchestra, the Lawrence University Wind Ensemble, and L’ensemble Portique. A native of Wisconsin, Wysock is currently on the faculty of Lawrence University in Appleton and Edgewood College in Madison.
Admission is $5, free with Edgewood ID.
At 6:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble
John Stevens (below right), director, with Stephanie Frye and Matthew Mireles as guest conductors, will perform works by Stevens, Mozart, Bateson, Morley, Tomkins, Nelhybel, Grainger, Forte, Barnes, Scheidt and Gabrieli.
Admission is free and open to the public.
At 7 p.m., violinist Kangwon Lee Kim and viola da gambist Steuart Pincombe at Oakwood Village West, 6209 Mineral Point Road. See Friday’s listing.
At 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall, the UW Faculty Concert Series offers bassoonist Marc Vallon (below) in an all-French program. Other performers include Diana Shapiro, piano; Dawn Lawler, flute; Karen Beth Atz, harp; and Sally Chisholm, viola.
The program includes “Pastorales de Noel” for flute, bassoon and harp by André Jolivet; “Sonata for bassoon and piano” by Camille Saint-Saens; “Duo Sephardim” for viola and bassoon by Philippe Hersant; and “Five French Folk Songs” arranged for flute, bassoon and piano by Marc Vallon.
Admission is free and open to the public.
TUESDAY
At 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Overture Concert Organ Series continues with its second of three programs, “Too Hot to Handel.” The all-Handel concert features three Madison organists (below).
Bruce Bengtson (left) is Director of Music and Organist at Luther Memorial Church; Samuel Hutchison (middle) is the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Organist and Curator of the Overture Concert Organ; and Gary Lewis (right) is Director of Music and Organist at Bethel Lutheran Church.
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/three
Also on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Faculty Concert Series presents Mark Hetzler (below in a photo by Katrin Talbot), trombone, with pianists Martha Fischer and Jessica Johnson and percussionist Todd Hammes. “Night Set” by Robert Suderburg, “Leda and Zeus” by Michael Torke and “Three Views of Infinity” by Mark Hetzler.
Admission is free and open to the public.
Classical music review: Mozart’s “Figaro” opens Madison Opera’s 50th anniversary season on a high note
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By Jacob Stockinger
Leave it to Mozart to get the Madison Opera’s 50th anniversary season off to a great start with a big sparkling toast to the marriage of like minds, hearts and voices.
Indeed, Mozart’s music is exactly like the great champagne used in a festive toast – fine ingredients and great skill go into making it, but it goes down so easily and smoothly and leaves you feeling oh so good.
At least that is what happened at the Madison Opera’s outstanding production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” (below) this past weekend.
I’m not the only one who thought so, apparently. Friday’s night performance sold out Overture Hall and Sunday afternoon’s performance had a 93 percent house, according to general director Allan Naplan.
And if you care to compare critics, here are two other positive reviews.
First, John W. Barker’s for Isthmus:
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=31168&sid=33c771bbadd53e43e0a405d681db0220
And second, Greg Hettmansberger’s review for Local Sounds Magazine:
So what did I like and what did I not like?
Here’s a summary:
WHAT I LIKED
I liked conductor John DeMain’s upbeat performance of the deservedly famous Overture, which showed we were going to get a Mozart that moved and lived and wasn’t brittle.
I liked – OK, loved — the music. Who else but Mozart (below) can turn simple strings of notes into a necklace of perfectly matched pearls? Is there anything better or more moving than the Countess’ pathos-filled aria at the begging of Act 2, or the letter duet, or the Forgiveness aria at the finale at the end of Act 4? They are heart-stoppingly and otherworldly beautiful. They are, in short, perfect music.
I liked how terrific the singing was overall, although I give a slight advantage to the female leads over the male leads. All the soloists’ voices were strong and clear with fine tone and excellent articulation. The singers also seemed particularly well cast and well matched as couples -– Figaro (Jason Hardy) and Susanna (Anya Matanvic, below), and the Count Almaviva (Jeff Matsey) and Countess Alamaviva (Melody Morre). Clearly, Team Naplan-DeMain knows how to find great affordable voices and place them in the right roles.
I liked conductor DeMain’s ability to maintain an ideal balance between the soloists and the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Opera Chorus. The singing never seemed too loud or too weak. DeMain (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) once again proved the ideal accompanist or collaborator: He always took us back to the music, so you could hear the individual parts, whether they were singers or strings or woodwinds. Clarity and precision are the hallmarks of great Mozart playing, and they were present in abundance.
I liked the staging by director A. Scott Parry (below). It emphasized the comic elements with simplicity and cleverness, and didn’t overreach — very Mozartean. His onstage playfulness reminded me of the sophisticated lustiness and class-conscious comedy of plays by Marivaux and of novels by Henry Fielding (the movie version of his classic novel “Tom Jones” with Albert Finney comes to mind). This was intelligent direction that is not overly ambitious or conspicuous, but rather sensible, restrained and subtle.
I liked the harpsichord continuo by UW alum and composer Scott Gendel (below). It’s hard to do that non-stop. Yet at all times it was fluid and crisp, but never tedious. And it never intruded on the music.
I liked the relatively simple set (below) from the Glimmerglass Opera with all its hidden doors. It proved a good, practical setting for all the playful deception going on and reminded one of slapstick Hollywood movies. (Stan and Ollie would have been right at home.) There was a big room with a smaller room and a garden – that’s it. So the chair scene, the closet scene and the garden scene worked all the more simply, smoothly and effectively.
I liked the acting, which again seemed believably human and yet never undercut the music or became a parody of the serious side of 18th-century farce. Some go to the opera for the story; I go for the music and think that’s what the acting should serve. Here it did just that.
I liked most of the secondary characters a lot, especially the Marcellina of Melissa Parks and the Dr. Bartolo of Jeffrey Michael Gallup. They bring to mind Stanislavski’s dictum: “There are no small roles, only small actors.”
I liked that the opera was done in period costumes (from the Utah Opera) and didn’t stretch to become “relevant” is some visually modern or contemporary way. Love and jealously, loss and reunion, are always relevant. And so is beauty.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
I hate it when this happens, and it did repeatedly: The surtitle screen goes blank, and you don’t know if it’s because of a mistake or a technical glitch, or because the lyrics are being repeated (not that that matters since if you didn’t understand the Italian the first time, why would you get it the second time?) Whenever words are coming out of the characters’ mouths, words should be up on the screen. End of sermon.
I thought Cherubino was very well sung by Emily Lorini, but her voice had a bit too much vibrato for my taste. Still, I very much liked her acting and her way of projecting the androgyny of a female singing a male character disguised as a female. Bending gender is not just a pomo (postmodern) phenomenon.
Oh, that Wolfie!
Classical music: Cellist Alisa Weilerstein talks about The Obama White House, Dvorak’s concerto, music education and life with diabetes
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By Jacob Stockinger
This coming weekend the Madison Symphony Orchestra will perform its second concert of the season.
Performances in Overture Hall are Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15.50-$75.50. Call (608) 258-4141 or visit: http://ev12.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3AOVERTURE%3A10MSO%3AOH1112%3A&linkID=overture&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode
The eclectic and accessible MUST-HEAR program includes the “Suite from ‘The Great Gatsby,’” by John Harbison. Harbison (below), an acclaimed and award-winning composer who also co-directs the nearby Token Creek Chamber Music Festival each summer, recently completely this suite, made from his 2000 opera commissioned by and performed at the Met, at the suggestion of conductor David Zinman. It has a lot of local interest.
For more program notes, visit:
http://facstaff.uww.edu/allsenj/MSO/NOTES/1011/2.Nov10.html
The program also includes Richard Strauss’ “Til Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks,” a raucous late Romantic work.
But for many listeners the highpoint will be the appearance of guest cellist Alisa Weilerstein, 26, who has been called their heir apparent to Yo-Yo ma and who will make her MSO debut in Dvorak’s popular and tuneful Cello Concerto. When she played with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and then did a recital at the Wisconsin Union Theater, she drew standing ovations.
Weilerstein (below), who just returned from a tour of Europe, recently did an e-mail interview with The Ear:
How do you place or rank the Dvorak Cello Concerto in the cello concerto repertoire (including the Elgar Concerto you just released on DVD) and among your favorites to perform? You are touring with the Dvorak Concerto. Why do you think the public loves it so much?
As a piece, I think the Dvorak Concerto is probably the most “perfect” music we have in the cello repertoire. I also happen to think it ranks among the best works for any instrument by Dvorak (below). It has everything one could want–perfect structure, incredible melodies, pathos, humor, virtuosity, tragedy, and ecstasy. It runs the gamut of human emotion. I think that’s why it’s one of the most beloved works ever written.
You played at the White House for the Obamas. What can you tell us about how classical music in appreciated there and by the President, The First Lady and the First Family?
The fact that a Classical Music Day was even organized at the White House demonstrates a commitment to the arts I had never seen before. Mrs. Obama demonstrated such passion for, and a commitment to, arts education throughout the day. Performing for the First Family was a combination of terrifying and exhilarating!
President Obama had a humorous anecdote about how John F. Kennedy used to have a member of his staff give him a signal to let him know when to applaud. He then said he was relying on Michelle to tell him.
I certainly hope the First Family enjoyed the performances and I felt the whole experience was extraordinary in placing classical music on a very public stage. I have certainly never seen so much press coverage for a classical music event.
What was that White House experience like? Can you pass along some specifics including what you played and how people reacted to you and other classical music performers?
Needless to say, the whole day really was the experience of a lifetime and I felt incredibly lucky to be a part of it. For the workshop, I had a kind of unusual set up: there were about 25 middle school and high school cello students who all brought their instruments with them. I wanted to find a way to include all of them, so I set up a mini-orchestra for us to read through the slow movement of Villa Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras” No. 1.
We started out by talking about music, and the state of classical music in the US and around the world, and then we had a mini rehearsal together. Nearly all of the students had very interesting thoughts to contribute, and we had a great time rehearsing.
The workshop ended with a concert for the First Lady and the students, and was followed by the evening concert for the President Obama and the entire First Family, and about 200 guests.
It was incredibly gratifying to see so much interest in classical music from new places–in addition to being an incredibly moving experience in so many ways I think it was a really fantastic opportunity for us to show that classical music isn’t at all an antiquated art form, but is rather something that ought to be so exciting and current.
You have performed in Madison with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and in a recital at the Wisconsin Union Theater. Now you will perform with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Do you have an impression of Madison and how it receives classical music?
I have indeed been to Madison twice and each time was a wonderful experience. Lovely city, nice people and great food! The audience there is fantastic — really attentive and warm. I’m looking forward to going back.
How do you suggest getting young people interested in classical music and in attending classical concerts?
I grew up in a musical family – my father is a violinist and my mother is a pianist — so classical music has always been a part of my life. I didn’t have to leave my house to attend performances — they were happening right there in my living room!
I cannot remember a time when I was not interested in classical music. It has been a life-long love, but I am aware that this is not the case for everyone. This is something I actually discussed with the students in the White House workshop. The first question I asked them was: “How can we show that classical music really is accessible and interesting, and ought to be a part of contemporary life?”
We all seemed to agree that exposure is most important — arts programs all over the US are being cut left and right, and the state of the economy is accelerating that process.
I strongly feel that all professional classical musicians have an obligation to reach out to schools, perhaps especially those that don’t have arts programs. I personally try to do that as much as I can, and I have found without exception that students truly appreciate the music and become fascinated by it, which is incredibly rewarding to see.
What plans do you have for recordings (solo, chamber or concertos), TV or other appearances or projects?
I do have recording plans, which will be announced very soon and about which I am very excited. I also have another extremely busy concert season ahead with around 140 concerts this season.
One of the projects I am excited about is a contemporary music project that I have been working on with singer/songwriter and pianist — and very good friend! — Gabriel Kahane (below). We will be performing a new song cycle Gabe has written for piano, cello and voice.
I am also thrilled to be touring with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic next year to major cities throughout the U.S. performing Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, including Carnegie Hall on my birthday.
Was there a turning point — a particular composer or production or work (maybe even the Dvorak Concerto?) when you knew you wanted to devote your life to the cello?
As strange as it may seem, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know I wanted to be a musician. It was something I always knew instinctively and I’ve never felt the need to question it.
As for the Dvorak Concerto, I listened to it from the time I was a toddler and always loved it. In fact, when I first started the cello — when I was around 4 years old — I desperately wanted to learn it. Of course this was impossible since I barely knew what I was doing as a beginner, but it was my life’s ambition at that age to play the Dvorak Concerto with different orchestras. I even remember having dreams about doing that.
Is there anything else you would like to add or wish I had asked?
I am very proud to be a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and November is Diabetes Awareness Month. Diabetes has never restrained my work as a musician, and that’s the message I’m trying to spread through my work with JDRF.
I’ve had Type 1 diabetes for nearly 19 years, and while of course it is a hassle and a burden sometimes, it’s something that I manage and it has never hindered any of my activities in any way.
All of us who work for JDRF also want to spread the message that insulin is a treatment, not a cure, and that we need to be vigilant about finding a real cure for diabetes.
For more information, people should visit: http://wwww.jdrf.org
Here, to whet your appetite — just listen to the cheers of excitement — is Weilerstein performing the opening of the beautiful beyond words Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra under phenom conductor Gustavo Dudamel:
Classical music review: Concert programs should feature more dualities, contrasts and comparisons
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By Jacob Stockinger
There were so many pleasures to be had at the last concert by the University of Wisconsin’s Pro Arte String Quartet (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot).
You could easily savor the difficult Shostakovich Quartet No. 5 in B-Flat, Major, Op. 92, which received such a masterful reading, though I generally prefer the quartets he wrote after Stalin died in 1953, when he was freer to express himself.
But I was particularly drawn to how the Pro Arte programmed both Beethoven (below top) and Schubert (below bottom) — the Shostakovich came in between them – because they are two composers of the late Classical and early Romantic era who are often lumped together.
I like that kind of programming.
It educates listeners about what composers — like Beethoven (1770-1827) and Schubert (1797-1828) — who are often linked together or who are closely identified with each other have in common and how they differ.
In this case, I take for points of comparison two slow movements that are both exquisite.
The first is slow movement, with its glorious theme and variations, comes from Beethoven’s Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 5.
The second is the comparable slow movement from Schubert’s “Rosamunde” Quartet, D. 804.
True, the Beethoven is early Beethoven (1798-1800) while the Schubert is late Schubert (1824). Still, they are representative.
But listen to the Beethoven. Notice how inventive and supremely well crafted it is, but also how structural and somewhat impersonal, albeit lovely.
Then listen to the Schubert slow movement with a melodic songfulness and harmonic invention rather than structural innovation. It is much more intimate and warmth, even though it sometimes seems to meander and repeat.
It was hard not to come away from the Pro Arte performances with a better appreciation of both Beethoven and Schubert.
I like this kind of programming and wish more performers – soloists, chamber players and orchestras — would do more of it.
Then the general public might come to understand not only larger distinctions between, say, the Baroque and the Classical styles, or the Romantic and the Modern eras.
The public might also come to appreciate more deeply the differences between other closely identified composers: Bach and Handel, Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, Verdi and Puccini, Mahler and Bruckner, Debussy and Ravel, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Small differences can add up to a big difference. And in any art appreciating small differences and contrasts as well as similarities is a path to connoisseurship.
Classical music news clips: UW piano student wins Chopin prize; China lags in Baroque music; classical fans hurt classical music; and Barenboim signs with DG-Decca
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By Jacob Stockinger
Readers seem to like my weekly weekend news roundup, so here goes a fourth week.
Let me know what you think.
Do you have stories (and links to them) to suggest for next week or for coming weeks?
ITEM:
University of Wisconsin doctoral student Chaoyin Cai (below) takes top Chopin Prize from Polish Cultural Institute (not to be confused with the big Chopin International Competition, held by the Chopin Institute of Warsaw, which was won controversially a couple of weeks ago by Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva:
http://music.wisc.edu/media/PR_20101027_CaiChopinWinner.pdf
ITEM:
What do minor thirds convey in both speech and music?
ITEM:
Early music legend Christopher Hogwood (Below) goes to China and see it is much less proficient at performing Baroque music than the music of other eras, especially big Romantic works:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/arts/28iht-baroque.html?_r=1
ITEM:
Brit Nigel Rogers (below) wins a piano in YouTube Chopin e-competition:
http://www.hertsad.co.uk/what-s-on/st_albans_pianist_s_youtube_performance_leads_to_victory_1_708354
You can also hear other contexts if you got o YouTube and plug in: “Kemble Piano Competition”
It is clear from this news and last week’s news of another YouTube Symphony that that the Internet and YouTube are playing a bigger and bigger role in the growth of classical music. I guess I like that, especially the populist angle of having amateurs perform. But I worry about live performance giving way to on-line performance. Does anyone else share that concern? Or is it silly?
And: Are Americans eligible?
ITEM:
Decca-DG signs Daniel Barenboim (below) for conducting and piano playing:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/barenboim-joins-deutsche-grammophon-and-decca-cla
He says the labels share his values for fostering classical music in the future:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101103/music_nm/us_classical_barenboim
ITEM:
Classical music fans and defenders may be hurting it more than its detractors and competitors, says a critic in The New Republic:
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/books-the-musical-mystique
Here’s a summary:
http://blogs.wsj.com/informedreader/2007/10/25/classical-music-fans-are-killing-classical-music/
Classical music preview: Chopin’s piano concertos as piano quintets clarify the music, says Spanish pianist Daniel del Pino
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By Jacob Stockinger
One of the more unusual and intriguing celebrations of the Chopin Year – 2010 is the 200th birthday of the composer – will take place this Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6533 Seybold Road, on Madison‘s far west side, near West Towne.
That’s when Spanish pianist Daniel del Pino (below) will join the Iberia String Quartet to play both Chopin piano concertos in chamber music transcriptions or arrangements.
Such versions have been resurrected and revived in recent years. The Token Creek Chamber Music Festival has featured pianist Robert Levin in Mozart and Beethoven concertos in such arrangements.
The Chopin arrangements are particularly interesting because many critics and musicologists think Chopin’s original orchestrations leave much to be desired.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for seniors and students with ID. A reception follows the concert. You can reserve tickets with a credit card by calling 271-2626. You can also purchase tickets at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, Madison or Orange Tree Imports on Monroe Street.
For more information, visit: http://www.farleyspianos.com/pages/events_main.html
Del Pino recently took time out from touring to answer some questions that The Ear asked about the upcoming concert:
You will be playing both Chopin concertos, which come early in his short career (below is a portrait of the young Chopin in a painting by the famous Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix), back-to-back on the same night. What would you like listeners to hear in terms of the development or evolution from the F minor (No. 2, but composed first) to the E minor (No. 1 but published second)? What do you see as the strong and weak points of each and of the set of two?
Even though both concertos are in a minor key, the E minor one seems a much more dramatic concerto. The F minor is a more lyrical one with its writing closer somehow to the one of Weber with its mixture of light and fast passages with extremely lyrical passages).
One of the main differences is also the length of the concertos, the E-minor concerto has a very long first movement with a long introductory tutti and very clearly differentiated A and B section, it adds also a virtuoso coda to the end. In the F minor one can feel that it was not Chopin’s wish to develop so much the orchestral textures and the tuttis, but instead to just give a nice entrance to the piano. He seemed to have considered a major construction for the E-minor, stretching as much as possible the sonata form of the first movement.
The slow movement of the F minor concerto is almost like an improvisation with the declamatory central section with a harmony sustained by the orchestra tremolos. In the slow movement of the E-minor, however, the orchestra takes a much more present role, at least melodically.
The last movements are somehow similar in their display of virtuosity but the F minor stays in the more “galant” type of playing, more of a salon virtuosity. The E minor goes for a more monumental display of virtuosity.
How would you compare this chamber music arrangement for piano plus string quartet (piano quintet) with the usual orchestral versions, which many view as inferior? Who made these arrangements and why? What aspects of the works do they help or hurt? Does the piano part stay the same in each version?
As with any arrangement, there are good and bad aspects.
With the arrangement for piano and string quartet, one loses the power of an orchestra, especially in the tuttis. On the other hand one gets bigger clarity of all the lines.
Often times when one hears a Chopin concerto with orchestra, one only hears the piano with a soft harmony underneath. With the string quartet version, you suddenly hear all the four voices. Also the interaction between the orchestra part and the piano is more direct, there is no conductor and less people to coordinate.
Chopin (below, in a photo from 1849, the year he died) used to play those sort of arrangements in some private events at houses of the aristocracy. Chopin’s playing was more suited for the smaller halls (salon type), instead of the big halls. That’s why also he probably preferred this type of version.
There is no arrangement made by Chopin himself for these concerto versions. As sources, we used an arrangement by Kominek and added material from the Kalkbrenner version for piano and string quintet (the first concerto is dedicated to Kalbrenner) that was probably the version Chopin would be using), and the original orchestral score.
In order to compensate for some of the lack of grandiosity of the string quartet in comparison to the orchestra version, I’m reinforcing at the piano some of the bass passages and chords of the forte passages in the orchestra, in the style of baroque continuo. Otherwise, the piano part is exactly the same as in the original piano and orchestra.
All those reasons are why it’s so great to be able to hear the concertos in a small hall like the one at Farley’s House of Pianos. Those were probably the type of size halls that Chopin performed most of the time, and for sure the ones that he liked best.
Sometimes Mr. Farley tunes the piano with the original tuning that was used at that time, making it very interesting for the listener (and the performer) because one realizes how much the different types of tuning can affect the music and in a way be much closer to what Chopin was probably hearing when playing it on his pianos.
This is you third performance in Madison. Do you have general impressions of the audiences in Madison and of the city?
Every time I played in Madison, it was at the Farley’s House of Pianos (below) where they have a great audience. Every time I play there, I feel that people are extremely appreciative. The type of concert also makes it extremely important for the participation of the audience. The audience is very close to the performers and then the concert becomes a real interaction.
When you play in a really big hall the audience is very far away and you feel it distant from you. In this type of salon setting the audience can reach you very easily. You feel everything from them, and probably they feel everything from you. It’s therefore very important to have a great public.
I’m also always pleased of how many people afterwards (below) come to me and remember a piece that I played a year ago. That is always very pleasant to hear. It’s really a great audience.
Classical music review: UW Opera’s Puccini one-acts excel for student singers and instrumentalists
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A correction: The workshop by the JACK Quartet at the will be TUESDAY at 2 p.m. — NOT Monday — in Room 2531 of the UW’s Mosse Humanities Building..
Today’s posting is a review by guest critic John W. Barker. Barker is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide.
By John W. Barker
Local lovers of lyric theater might easily fall into thinking that the offerings of Madison Opera, fine as they have become, are all there is in town. But consideration should also be given to the productions of the University Opera, which have worked their way up into a level of professional quality.
That point was made this past weekend by the campus company’s latest production, a Puccini double bill, in Old Music Hall (below).
Actually, it was two-thirds of a triptych. In his later years, Puccini (below) conceived the idea of creating a set of three distinct one-act operas. It was something no other important conductor had done, and none since. He called it “It Trittico” and gave it to the Metropolitan Opera for its premiere in 1918.
The UW production chose to omit the first of the three, “Il tabrarro” (“The Cloak”) a gutsy verismo picture of love, jealousy and revenge on a Parisian canal barge in the 19th century.
The other two items, both with librettos by Giovacchino Forzano, are perfect contrasts to each other.
“Suor Angelica” (“Sister Angelica”) is about a nun of noble family, sent to a convent to do penance for bearing a child out of wedlock. When finally told by her cold aunt that her child had died, she commits suicide, in the process realizing that she is thereby guilty of a mortal sin. Puccini had a sister who became a nun and abbess, from whom he gained much insight into convent life.
The other opera is Puccini’s only comedy, “Gianni Schicchi,” a knock-off from Dante about the greedy family of a newly deceased rich man, foiled by a clever trickster, the title character, who, when brought in to forge a will, turns the tables on them to his own opportunistic advantage.
Just as Puccini’s “Tosca” was a tribute to actual scenes in Rome, “Schicchi” was a hymn to the rich history and culture of pre-Renaissance Florence.
Each opera offers challenges, and some strains were evident.
Company director William Farlow (below), and stage director for both of these operas, played “Angelica” quite straight — almost too much so. There was little movement to suggest the routines of the convent, as the nuns were made to stand about statically in a semi-circle most of the time. I think Farlow went too far in having the old Principessa break down in her confrontation with her niece, Angelica.
As for the finale, when the dying Angelica has a vision of redemption, most productions follow the stage directions and present redeeming apparitions of the Virgin Mary. There is something to be said for Farlow’s decision, instead, to have the vision seen only by Angelica; but then that could have been clarified by a better lighting effect on her.
For “Schicchi,” however, Farlow went in the other direction. First, with his propensity for re-setting operas, he placed this one in the 1950s. He pulled this trick in his recent production of Handel’s “Alcina,” transferring the sorceress’ island to 1950s Hollywood, with needless references to such movies as “Sunset Boulevard” and especially “All About Eve.”
In both that case and this, the transfer served to make no point whatsoever. Indeed, here it constantly rubbed up against the libretto’s references to details of Florentine life in the year 1299, references that hung up there on the surtitles. (There was even the needless change of the notary’s two witnesses from a cobbler and a dyer to a milkman and a butcher!)
About the only justification that might be made for this irrelevant transfer could be that it saved money on costumes (not all of which, by the way, were authentic to the 1950s).
Farlow continues, however, to have the good fortune of a wonderful crop of student singers at his disposal, and for operas each of which has a large cast: 16 in the one (all women), and 15 in the other, all different singers (save in one case).
Not one of them was weak, and many were really superb. The role of Angelica was double-cast. Lindsay Sessing, whom I saw in the final of three performances on Tuesday night, was magnificent, with a lovely, clear soprano voice and acting that make her great monologue truly moving. But I am told that Celeste Fraser, who sang the middle of the three performances on Sunday was splendid in her own way.
“Schicchi” is even more of an ensemble opera. There were occasional rough moments in group coordination. And, while Farlow worked out a lot of clever movements and comic bits, there was just a bit too much of a dip into excessive slapstick for balanced lyric comedy.
Still, the mix of good singing, well-defined characters and a lot of just plain fun, made this overall an enjoyable show. In the title role, John Arnold showed himself a born comedian, as well as a sturdy singer. Local veteran Kathleen Otterson (below) was outstanding as the domineering auntie, Zita, among the relatives.
Playing also the other auntie, the old Principessa in “Angelica,” Otterson proved that, more than ever, she has become Madison’s counterpart to Stephanie Blythe.
But the “unsung” hero of the production was surely conductor James Smith (below). He has a reputation for working miracles with student musicians, and he was able to draw out of his pit force of a mere 54 musicians (from the UW’s Symphony Orchestra) a genuinely Puccinian sonority and color.
Those who want further demonstrations of the UW School of Music’s abundant vocal talent, should try catching the Opera Workshop performances on Nov. 23 and on March 8. And the company’s spring production, of Giancarlo Menotti’s “The Consul,” is particularly something to anticipate.
Classical music datebook: Week of Nov. 2-9 is big on operas and choral music as well as celebrations of Chopin and Schumann
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By Jacob Stockinger
Is it high season yet?
Well, what else can it be when there is at least one major event or concert almost each night, and several major events or concerts on several different nights.
Opera and choral music seem to predominate this week. But there is plenty in the way of instrumental music too, from early music to contemporary music.
The bicentennial celebrations of the births of Chopin and Schumann especially loom large.
Anyway, just take a look at Saturday night. The choices are astounding and varied, even while big events bookend that night with many other worthy choices.
It’s all more proof that classical music has the fans and the performers to thrive in Madison.
And thriving it is.
TONIGHT
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Symphony Strings will be led by David Grandis, graduate assistant conductor. The program features “Rumanian Folk Dances” by Bartok; “Intermezzo,” Op. 8, by Franz Schreker; “Danse sacrée et danse profane” by Debussy; and “Serenade for strings,” Op. 22 by Dvorak. Admission is free and open to the public.
THURSDAY
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Chamber Orchestra (below), conducted by James Smith and David Grandis, will perform “Le festin de l’araignée” by Roussel; “Much Ado About Nothing” by Korngold; and “Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major,” D. 125, by Schubert. Admission is free and open to the public.
FRIDAY
On Friday at 8 p.m. in Overture Hall, the Madison Opera opens its 50th anniversary season with Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” (A repeat performance is on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall.)
The production features an internationally acclaimed cast, with A. Scott Parry directing. On Monday and Tuesday, this blog posted a two-part interview with Parry.
Maestro John DeMain will conduct the orchestra.
“It was important for us to start this milestone season with a perennial favorite to really excite the community,” said General Director Allan Naplan.
There is a historical component as well: almost 50 years ago, a group of local singers known as the Madison Opera Workshop presented scenes from “The Marriage of Figaro” for the company’s second outing.
Today, Madison Opera’s production will feature a professional cast with credentials at leading U.S. and international opera houses, performing on the Overture Hall stage with a striking set design most recently seen at Glimmerglass Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera.
“It just shows how much we’ve grown,” Naplan added.
Indeed, the cast, the sets, the costumes and of course the work itself all point to a MUST-HEAR event.
Tickets are currently available online at http://www.madisonopera.org, by phone at (608) 258-4141, and at the Overture Center Box Office (201 State St., Madison.
Prices range from $16 to $114, with student and group discounts available.
Also on Friday at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Faculty Concert Series features Parry Karp, cello (below), and Howard and Frances Karp, piano. The program includes “Sonata in A major for piano and violin,” Op. 100 by Brahms, transcribed for cello by Parry Karp; “Sonata for cello and piano,” Op. 6 by Barber; “Two Romances” for cello and piano, Op. 30 by Hans Huber; and Sonata in G minor for piano and cello, Op. 65, by Chopin. Admission is free and open to the public.
SATURDAY
At 7:30 p.m., Spanish pianist Daniel Del Pino (below) and the Iberia String Quartet will appear in a salon concert at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne. (An Q&A with Del Pino will be posted here Friday.)
The unusual program marking the Chopin Year – 2010 is Chopin’s 200th birthday — includes Chopin’s Piano concerto No. 1, Opus 11, in E minor, and Piano Concerto No. 2, Opus 21, in F minor in chamber music settings.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for seniors and students with ID. A reception follows the concert. You can reserve tickets with a credit card by calling 271-2626. You can also purchase tickets at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, Madison or Orange Tree Imports on Monroe Street.
At 8 p.m. in Morphy Hall, the UW Faculty Concert Series offers Tyrone Greive (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), violin, Ellen Burmeister, piano, and Janet Greive, cello. The program celebrates significant birth year anniversaries of three important Polish composers in 2010: Chopin (200 years), Wieniawski (175 years) and Paderewski (150 years). The program includes Piccole Sonate (Little Sonata) No. 14 in G major for violin and cello by Giuseppe Tartini; Sonata for solo violin, Op. 10 by Vincent Persichetti; Three solo piano pieces by Chopin arranged for violin and piano by Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler and Pablo de Sarasate; Legende, Op. 17 by Henryk Wieniawski; and Sonata in A minor, Op. 13 for violin and piano by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Admission is free and open to the public.
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Concert Choir, conducted by Beverly Taylor (below) will perform “Spem in alium,” by Thomas Tallis; “Super flumina Babylonis,” by Orlando Lassus; “Quomodo cantabimus” by William Byrd; “When David Heard,” by Norman Dinerstein; “Santa Fe Vespers,” by Robert Kyr; “The Making of a Drum,” by Robert Chilcott and arrangements of folk songs and spirituals by David Johnson, Moses Hogan, William Dawson and Astor Piazzolla.. Admission is free and open to the public.
At 7 p.m., at his home at 5729 Forsythia Place, early music specialist Trevor Stephenson (below) will perform and give a talk on Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations. He will play the concert on a two-manual harpsichord completed recently by Norman Sheppard in Madison. The instrument is modeled on an early 18th-century double keyboard harpsichord by Michael Mietke of Berlin, the same model that Bach traveled to Berlin around 1719 to purchase from Mietke.
Seating for this house concert is limited to around 30. To make a reservation, reply by e-mail trevor@trevorstephenson.com or call (238-6092).
A 8 p.m. in the Promenade Hall of the Overture Center, Nathaniel Bartlett (below) using marimba and computers, will perform: He describes it so: “A seamless meld of five-octave acoustic marimba with electronics, a powerful custom computer, and an eight-channel cube of loudspeakers, with the audience positioned in the center of the loudspeaker array, totally immerses the listeners. The positioning and movement of sounds in physical space, resulting in kinetic audio sculptures, is a central musical parameter. The three-dimensional sound field is enriched by the use of high-definition audio, all of which makes for a performance of sonic nuance.”
This concert is a “Musicians for WORT” event, with profit going to support Madison’s community radio 89.9 FM WORT (http://www.wort-fm.org).
Admission is $16, $10 for students and seniors. Call (608) 258-4141.
For more information, visit http://www.nathanielbartlett.com/
SUNDAY
“Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen” will feature pianist Tim Schorr (below) from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery III at the Chazen Museum of Art. It will be broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Radio (88.7 FM in the Madison area.)
Schorr will be playing Clara Wieck-Schumann’s Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann, Op. 20, as well as the Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 and Carnaval, Op. 9, both by Robert Schumann. 2010 =is the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann’s birth.
Schorr is currently Associate Professor of Music at Viterbo University.
Members of the Chazen Museum of Art or Wisconsin Public Radio can call ahead and reserve seats for Sunday Afternoon Live performances. Seating is limited. All reservations must be made Monday through Friday before the concert and claimed by 12:20 p.m. on the day of the performance. For more information or to learn how to become a museum member, contact the Chazen Museum at (608) 263-2246.
A reception follows the performance, with refreshments generously donated by Fresh Madison Market, Coffee Bytes and Fair Trade Coffee House. A free docent-led tour in the Chazen galleries begins every Sunday at 2 p.m.
At 2:30 p.m., the Madison Opera repeats its performance of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” See Friday above.
At 2 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Horn Choir, directed by Douglas Hill (below), will perform original compositions by Hill and by UW composer John Stevens; arrangements of works by Bach and Beethoven; and Matthew Beecher’s arrangement of themes from “Star Trek.” Admission is free and open to the public.
At 7:30 p.m., Mills Hall, the Madison Early Music Festival and the School of Music present Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, celebrating the work’s 400th anniversary. Bruce Gladstone (below) conducts the Madrigal Singers with an orchestra of period instruments. The vocal soloists are soprano Chelsie Propst, mezzo-soprano Jennifer D’Agostino Sams, tenors William Bouvel and Jeremiah Cawley, baritone Paul Rowe and bass Jerry Hui. John W. Barker, professor emeritus of history, will give a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. The free concert is supported by a generous bequest to the Madison Early Music Festival from Jane N. Graff, who was an emerita professor in the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology.
Admission is free and open to the public.
TUESDAY
At 2 p.m. in Room 2531 of the Mosse Humanities Building, The JACK Quartet (below) — the nationally acclaimed group that performs contemporary chamber music and that will give a concert here Wednesday night — gives a workshop on the music of German composer Helmut Lachenmann (b. 1935). The quartet’s free concert on Wednesday — at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall — includes Lachenmann’s String Quartet No. 2, “Reigen seliger Geister.”
Admission is free and open to the public.
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, pianist Jeffrey Siegel (below) returns with another Keyboard Conversation about “The Romantic Music of Robert Schumann: Fantasies Forbidden and Fulfilled.” The program includes the “Fantasy Pieces,” Op. 12 and “Symphonic Etudes,” Op. 13, among others. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Schumann.
Tickets are $34; UW-Madison students get in for free. Call (608) 262-2201. Youth tickets are only $14 with purchase of adult tickets with a limit of two youth tickets per each adult ticket. Youth tickets must be purchased at the same time as the adult tickets and are valid for youths 6-18 years old. Age verified at door. For tickets, call the Campus Arts Ticketing Office at (608) 265-ARTS, visit arts.wisc.edu or purchase them in the lobby beginning one hour before concert.
Classical music interview: Mozart’s “Figaro” is still a radical comic opera about power — Part 2 of 2
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By Jacob Stockinger
This week, the big musical event in Madison is opera.
Specifically, Madison Opera opens its 50th anniversary season with two performances of Mozart’s classic comedy “The Marriage of Figaro” on Friday, Nov. 5, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 7, at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall.
The production features an internationally acclaimed cast, with A. Scott Parry directing and Maestro John DeMain (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, conducting the orchestra.
“It was important for us to start this milestone season with a perennial favorite to really excite the community,” says General Director Allan Naplan, in a prepared press release.
There is a historical component as well: almost 50 years ago, a group of local singers known as the Madison Opera Workshop presented scenes from “The Marriage of Figaro” for the company’s second outing.
Today, the Madison Opera’s full production will feature a professional cast with credentials at leading U.S. and international opera houses, performing on the Overture Hall stage with a striking set design most recently seen at Glimmerglass Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Pittsburgh Opera.
“It just shows how much we’ve grown,” Naplan (below) adds.
Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte based “The Marriage of Figaro” on Beaumarchais’ play of the same title, and it premiered in Vienna on May 1, 1786.
Set in Seville, the opera follows the servants Figaro and Susanna on what is supposed to be their wedding day. But they work in the Count’s household, and he, too, has eyes for Susanna, triggering a series of events full of laughs, heartache, and ultimately, reconciliation.
Starring as the charming Figaro is bass Jason Hardy. A leading American interpreter of the role, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote that he “turns in a Figaro of charismatic allure, with an elegant bass.” Soprano Anya Matanovic returns to Madison as Susanna, having triumphed this summer at Opera in the Park. Soprano Melody Moore stars as Countess Almaviva, arriving in Madison directly from London, where the Daily Telegraph recently praised her “thrillingly red-blooded singing” in a new production of Faust at the English National Opera. Metropolitan Opera baritone Jeff Mattsey sings the role of Count Almaviva, and the young mezzo-soprano Emily Lorini, recently seen at the Santa Fe Opera, sings Cherubino. Michael Gallup and Melissa Parks are featured as Dr. Bartolo and Marcellina.
Madison-based artists Emily Birsan (below top), James Doing (below bottom) and Justin Niehoff Smith complete the ensemble as Barbarina, Don Basilio and Antonio, respectively.
Prices range from $16 to $114, with student and group discounts available.
Tickets are currently available online at www.madisonopera.org, by phone at (608) 258-4141, and at the Overture Center Box Office (201 State St. in Madison).
Director A. Scott Parry (below) recently spoke to The Ear about the upcoming production. This is the second of two parts:
Is there anything special audiences should know about your production – setting, costumes, lighting, overall approach?
“Figaro” is a favorite piece of mine, which I’ve worked on a number of times. I have also staged Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” a many times, which is the precedent to “The Marriage of Figaro,” and have in turn also adapted the third Figaro play, called “The Guilty Mother,” into an opera libretto that is currently being set to music. And so I approach this Mozart with a somewhat expanded view of these characters.
To me, they each have a very colorful past and a dynamic future. Thinking along these lines gives a depth to the presentation of their current situation. Their relationships with each other have the weight of history carried with them as well as hindsight on certain events.
In this way, I strive to help the cast perform a very realistic story, however comedic their situations become through the many extensive plot twists and turns. I am also a composer, and so approach the musical aspects with a respect and understanding that is not solely theatrical. I think this aspect shows in my direction style.
As to the production itself, it is pretty much a unit set (bel0w) that originated at Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New York. There are variations within it to provide for four distinct locations, one per act, but it is a more or less a conceptualized idea of a palatial estate.
The costumes are fairly traditional period pieces (circa 1780s) from Utah Opera. Madison has invested in building and procuring some additional items that I have requested to help put this production more specifically in line with Allan Naplan’s and my thoughts about the piece. I am grateful for Allan’s support in allowing me leeway to take this rented production and add further elements to be able to present more clearly my own aesthetic viewpoint.
Lighting the show will be Jeff Harris, who I’ve worked with a number of times before. It will undoubtedly be a gorgeous evening visually in the theater. (Below is the final scene, courtesy of David Bachman of the Pittsburgh Opera.)
You have directed around the country at some major opera venues and this is your Madison debut. Do you have any impressions yet to share of the Madison Opera and the Madison audience as well as of the cast?
The cast is truly amazing. Utterly brilliant and talented individuals, but also warm and giving human beings. It was been a pleasure working with such a group of invested people and working in such an artistically supportive environment as Madison.
I have enjoyed every minute of my being here in this city and each minute of my involvement in this production.
Was there a turning point — a particular composer or production or work (maybe even “Figaro”) — when you knew you wanted to devote your life to opera?
In truth, I kind of fell into opera. As a kid, my mom would occasionally listen to opera on the radio, and I blanched every time I heard it. “What are all those people screaming about?” I’d ask.
I, the precocious child that I was, found my interest in “pure” music. I began piano lessons at the age of 7 and before I had turned 9, I quit because I wasn’t playing Beethoven sonatas and Mozart concertos. I found that I didn’t have the patience of practice or the focus for technique.
And so I began to compose my own music at the piano for myself. I also began playing saxophone in junior high school band, then moved on to singing in choir, then added performing in plays and musicals to my list.
But what I decided I really wanted to do was conduct! The mature masses and liturgical works of the great masters most especially filled me with the inspirational fire to wave the baton.
I began college with the intent of being a conductor, but was somehow convinced to audition for a Gilbert and Sullivan show (“The Pirates of Penzance”) and fell in love, finally, with performing onstage. I performed in a number of operettas and musicals while edging ever so slightly into operatic repertoire.
Simultaneously, I found I had an interest in the technical workings of theater and started to pursue those elements as well. I hung lights and programmed lightboards, ran follow spotlights, built sets, began learning how to sew costumes, assisted stage managers to see how to technically run a show, started stage managing myself — especially working in ballet — and eventually found myself being asked to assist directors.
I found that all my various interests merged together in Direction, and so, as people seemed to respond more enthusiastically to my direction than to my singing and acting, I pursued stage direction at Indiana University in Bloomington.
IU is a sort of opera mill, and so, instinctually the world of opera opened itself to me and with some slight trepidation, I walked in. And really, I’ve not looked back since. Perhaps the moment I finally knew that this was the path for me was during my time at IU, where in my second year as a Master’s student, I directed my first “Figaro.”
The singer playing Figaro was a student of the wonderful baritone Giorgio Tozzi (below), who I had idolized while initially pursuing singing.
Giorgio came to be at the end of the show and said, “Scott, I have been in and seen many productions of this piece which is quite dear to me. This is the first time I actually saw the music on the stage.”
That single comment from such a storied performer brought the evidence home for me.
I realized I had found my profession.
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