The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music datebook: New music, fusion music, chamber music and the Met’s “Nixon in China” top the bill for Feb. 9-15

By Jacob Stockinger

There will be a lot of music performed this week. But curiously, there is nothing scheduled for Valentine’s Day or with the theme of Valentine’s Day.

Wouldn’t you think a program of love songs or Romances would draw a crowd? Maybe not.

But there will be moments of romance in much of this music, you can be sure.

WEDNESDAY

At 7:30 p.m. in Mills, UW guitarist Javier Calderon (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) performs. The program features “Dances on Themes by Gaspar Sanz” by Abel Carlevaro; “Prelude and Fugue” by J. S. Bach; “Three Short Pieces” by Henry Purcell; “Suite in the Style of S. L. Weiss” by Manuel Ponce; “Variations on a Mozart Theme” by Fernando Sor; “Four Pieces” by Francisco Tarrega; “Tonada Argentina” by Eduardo Falu; “Torre Bermeja” by Isaac Albeniz; and “Aire Andino” by Eduardo Caba.

Admission is free and open to the public.

THURSDAY

At 4 p.m. in Room 1641 of the Mosse Humanities Building, the Colloquium Series presents Geoffrey Burgess (below). Burgess has played baroque oboe around the globe for close to 30 years. His book, “The Oboe,” written in collaboration with Bruce Haynes, won the 2007 Bessaraboff Prize from the American Musical Instrument Society. Dr. Burgess has taught at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin College, and on the musicology faculties of Stony Brook, Case Western, Duke and Columbia universities.

Admission is free and open to the public.

FRIDAY

The free Friday Noon Musicale, from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Meeting House, 900 University Bay Drive, features

Katherine Peck, soprano, and Dorothy Hui, piano. They will play music of Samuel Barber, Robert Schumann and Kurt Weill. For information, call (608) 233-9774.

From 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of its February MMoCA Night, will present music by NEW MUSE, a Madison trio (below, from left, UW graduate students Jerry Hui, Jonathan Kuuskoski and Paola Savvidou) that specializes in contemporary classical music.

The music and reception will begin in the glass foyer known as the “Icon,” and proceed up to the 2/F main gallery at 7 p.m., when members of the UW First Wave Spoken Word and Hip Hop Arts Learning Community will perform among the installation art of artist Shinique Smith.

Music will continue afterwards in the gallery until just after 8 p.m. — performers will be “installed” among Smith’s visual art pieces — and then in lobby until 9 p.m.

This event is free for MMoCA members, $5 (at the door) for the general public.

On Friday at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Guest Artist Series presents percussionist Steven Schick. Schick (below) is distinguished professor of music at the University of California, San Diego, and a consulting artist in percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. He is founder and artistic director of the percussion group “red fish blue fish,” music director and conductor of the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus and principal guest conductor of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

The program is devoted to one work, “The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies,” written in 2002 by John Luther Adams.

Admission is free and open to the public.

SATURDAY

At noon, John Adams’ opera “Nixon in China” (see bottom for my favorite aria) will be featured in the “Met Live in Hi-Def” at the Point and Eastgate cinemas. It starts at noon and lasts about 4 hours and 15 minutes. This is the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere production of the now classic opera.

Tickets are $24 with discounts for seniors and children. For more information, visit:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/news/pb_template.aspx?id=14622

At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Faculty Concert Series presents the Pro Arte Quartet. The program includes the String Quartet in D minor (“Quinten”), Op. 76, No. 2, by Haydn; Three Novelettes for String Quartet, Op. 15 (selections to be announced) by Glazunov; and the Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet in B minor, Op. 115 by Brahms, with Linda Bartley, UW clarinetist (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot).

Admission is free and open to the public.

Also at 8 p.m., in Overture Hall, the German-born American violinist David Garrett (below) will perform, fusing classical and pop music. Mozart and Metallica. Tickets are $20-$42. Call (608) 258-4141.

At eight, Garrett played as soloist in front of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and the Russian National Orchestra. At 12, he performed alongside the legendary Yehudi Menuhin and at 13, signed with classical
mega-label Deutsche Grammophon.

Now 27, the former wunderkind has fused his classical training with pop and rock to create a powerhouse sound that pays as much homage to Metallica as to Mozart. His CD has been in the Amazon.com Top 100 just under two years running and has gotten great  user ratings.

This will be his Madison debut.

SUNDAY

From 12:30 to 2 p.m., “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” features the Pro Arte String Quartet (below). See Saturday’s listings for the program that will be broadcast live by Wisconsin Public Radio.

At 3 p.m. at 5729 Forsythia Drive on Madison’s west side, Trevor Stephenson will present another house concert: A recital of piano works Chopin and Schubert.

The featured instruments will be the Victorian English Parlor Grand and a beloved English Cottage Upright  (“Fred,” below).

He will play and discuss selections from Chopin’s Nocturnes Nos. 2 and 3 from Op. 9, and some of the Mazurkas and Preludes. Thew Schubert works include the Three Piano Pieces (D. 946), and selections from the Impromptus and Moment Musicaux.

He will also talk about the historical tunings used on these pianos, forms of Well Temperament, and how temperament is related to key color.

Tickets are $35 and include light refreshments. Reservations, limited to 40, are required. Call (608) 238-6092.

At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Chamber Orchestra (below) will perform with bassist Andrew Raciti under the baton of Jim Smith.

Featuring Symphony No. 100 “Military” by Franz Joseph Haydn; “Concerto for String Bass” by Zivojin Glisic and “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,” Op. 60 by Richard Strauss.

Admission is free and open to the public.

MONDAY

At 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, the UW presents the Cambini Quintet specializes in the performance of 18th and 19th century woodwind quintet repertoire on period instruments.

Members of the quintet (below) are Dawn Lawler, flute; Geoffrey Burgess, oboe; Owen Watkins, clarinet; Marc Vallon, bassoon; and Todd Williams, horn.

The program includes Quintet No. 3 in F major by Giuseppe Cambini (below); Quartet No. 6 in F major by Gioacchino Rossini; Variations over “La ci darem la mano” by Ludwig van Beethoven; and Quintet Op. 67, No. 2 in E minor by Franz Danzi.

Admission is free and open to the public.

TUESDAY

At noon in Morphy Hall, the Cambini Woodwind Quintet will present a free master class that is open to the public.

---

Classical music review: “Threepenny Opera” takes us from Weimar Germany to Walker’s Wisconsin with style and verve

By Jacob Stockinger

Are Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican lackeys opening Wisconsin for business? Or giving Wisconsin the business?

That question struck me as I sat though Madison Opera’s thoroughly engaging and stylishly energetic production of “The Threepenny Opera,” which concludes its sold-out run of seven performances next weekend. (Some cancelled seats may be available. Call (608) 238-8085.)

Based on a 1728 British play by John Gay, the 1928 cabaret-style satire by playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill (below right) keeps posing questions about moral hypocrisy, social relevance and economic hard times that pertain not only to the depression of Weimar Germany between the two world wars but also to today’s Great Recession.

How, this masterpiece of musical theater piece bitingly asks, do the poor continue to get exploited and accept it? How come the better off keep getting better off? Questions of social justice are never far from the personal stories of beggars, thieves and prostitutes as entrepreneurs.

This is a more complex show to stage than it might seem. And all the various creators did their parts fine.

Madison Symphony Orchestra maestro and Madison Opera’s artistic director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) did a fine job of leading the eight-piece cabaret band (which included acclaimed UW saxophonist Les Thimmig) from the back of the stage. DeMain, a pianist before he turned conductor, conducted from the keyboard while playing. Overall, he did a terrific job in conveying the period-feel of the music, though I found the occasionally the balance was off and the music drowned out the words of the songs.

The sets, designed by Peter Harrison for the Opera Omaha production, were clever and inventive. Ordinary metal scaffolding (below, in a photo by Andy Manis for the Madison Opera)) served many purposes, from a jail cell to a gallows to a brothel. The atmospherics of scarcity were palpable.

The costumes, by Karen Brown-Larimore of Madison, caught the tawdry side of poverty blended with even the set curtain was made of rag-like pants and shirts.

And under the guidance of veteran Broadway stage director Dorothy Danner (below), the 2-1/2 hour, 3-act opera moved smoothly and convincingly.

Even the lighting by John Frautschy, also of Madison, proved effective in bringing the down-and-out characters in and out of the shadows – literally as well as figuratively.

Overall, the casting seems pretty even and very good. But there were, for me, a few standouts. Jenny Diver (Tracy Michelle Arnold of American Players Theatre in Spring Green, below with Jim DeVita in a photo by Andy Manis) displayed a strong voice, great articulation and diction, and the kind of racy costuming and enticing moves that embodied the seamy and torchy side of the era. She completely inhabited the part.

Edward Marion (the former judge and prominent lawyer from Madison) played the street singer narrator (as well as a pastor and constable) with aplomb. I could swear that his headset amplification sometimes went out, but when you could hear him he did a fine job of holding the showing together and giving it unity.

And Mr. J.J. Peachum, the king of the beggars, who exploits the exploited even to providing interchangeable limb stumps, was convincingly portrayed by David Barron. Scams and scamps are everywhere, high and low, in the delightfully sardonic work.

Surprisingly, Jim DeVita (below, with Alicia Berneche as Polly Peachum in a photo by Andy Manis) of American Players Theatre, acquitted himself well, but didn’t seem to have the forceful voice that I expected from someone used to performing outdoors. His acting movements were smooth enough and he did a fine job of playing Macheath (Mack the Knife), who is surrounded by adoring and competing prostitutes.

But clearly, singing – even in a work that calls for rough rather than polished singing — is not his strong suit. I think his performance could have, indeed should have, been a bit looser and more ragged in keeping with the spirit of the work itself, which has an improvised and unfinished feel to it.

Also to be enjoyed are the video screens that allow you to see that titles of the various songs – titles that are unusual and inventive and color. They provide Brecht’s famous “alienation affect” meant to remind you that you are watching a play and not reality – but it did so without the pomp that the theory makes sound inescapable.

I had expected to be disappointed that the work was sung in English rather than German. But actually it worked out quite well. Still, the one big production flaw to my mind was the use of British Cockney accents, director Danner’s choice. American composer and political leftist Marc Blitzstein penned the idiomatic translation. (The Wisconsin Historical Society, by the way, has his papers at its Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater.)

I think the audience can accept that the scene is Victorian London without having a mishmash of accents, which often seems to interfere with a clear articulation of the words. Besides, the acerbic lyrics by Bertolt Brecht are not to be missed. I would opt for forgetting about British accents and instead using the props, costume and staging to set the scene (below, from Opera Omaha).

Surely American English in London can’t be any more unrealistic than Weimar German in London, which is what happened with the original production of this often produced and widely admired award-winning show.

I don’t want to give away surprises, so all I will say is that you don’t have to reach for parallels to today’s economic straits. The production helps you.

And so do the state and its friendly business lobbyists: After all, what kind of economic development subsidies do ordinary folks get? What regulations and laws will we be freed from? When will legislators and Capitol executives themselves go without government health care?

One final thought: This thoroughly enjoyable and deliciously dark production – both a commercial and artistic success — marks the departure of Madison Opera’s general director Allan Naplan (below). He leaves on a high note to head the Minnesota Opera beginning March. 1. (He leaves town Feb. 15.)

How can you argue with his string of sellouts and almost sellouts, an uninterrupted record of successful productions. It is particularly noteworthy that he has used smaller spaces in Overture to mount Copland’s “Tender Land,” Britten’s “Turn of the Screw” and now Weill’s “Threepenny Opera,” all of which sold out all their performances.

That is a legacy one expects — that one hopes -– will continue.

Want to see what other writers and critics think of the productions?

Here are some links to other summaries of other previews and reviews:

http://madisonopera.blogspot.com/2011/02/mack-knife-storms-press.html

http://madisonopera.blogspot.com/2011/02/reviews-are-in-threepennys-hit.html

Here is John W. Barker’s review for Isthmus:

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32152

Here is William Wineke’s review for Channel 3000:

http://www.channel3000.com/entertainment/26759448/detail.html

Here is Greg Hettmansberger’s for local sounds magazine:

http://magazine.localsounds.org/2011/02/05/4740/

Here is Lindsay Christians for 77 Square and The Wisconsin State Journal:

http://host.madison.com/entertainment/arts_and_theatre/article_2c759ffd-0671-5727-aebf-8e13ba7ddfac.html

And here is Mike and Jean Muckian’s for Brava magazine:

http://culturosity.wordpress.com/

What did you think of “The Threepenny Opera”?

The Ear wants to hear.

---

Classical music review: Eliza’s Toyes ventures into early Spanish music with professionalism and artistry

By Jacob Stockinger

Here is a special post that reviews a concert. It is by a frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker . Barker (below) 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. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.

By John W. Barker

On Sunday afternoon, most of Madison was fussing over some big sports game — football, I think. But I, and some thirty or so other Madisonians, were enjoying an example of what makes our city’s cultural life so lively.

At the historic Gates of Heaven synagogue (below) on East Gorham Street, in James Madison Park, we heard a delightful concert given by the vocal consort Eliza’s Toyes. (Its name is an allusion to the tributes made musically to Queen Elizabeth I of England.)

Mustered for the occasion were eight singers — the majority of them UW students, and mostly in voice three of whom also played instruments (recorders and dulcian). They were joined, too, by Douglas Towne, an established freelance master of lute and Baroque guitar.

The concert was preceded by a short but valuable slide lecture by Prof. Steven Hutchinson of the UW’s Spanish & Portuguese Department, on the history and culture of Seville, the city with which the music to follow was closely identified.

The program proper, entitled “The Treasures of Seville”, contained a generous array of 22 selections by composers of the “Golden Age” (El Siglo d’oro) of Spanish music, from the late 15^th century through the 16^th. There was a balanced mix of sacred and secular pieces, in ensemble, solo and instrumental renditions.

The ambience naturally suggested either a small chapel or a salon, and the singers were handsomely matched and balanced — with one or two of them per part in the larger scorings. There was a high level of professionalism and artistry in evidence, thanks in no small measure to the group’s founder and organizer, Jerry Hui.

Hui is one of those human dynamos, distinguished as much for versatility as for energy. Currently a UW graduate student in composition, he is ferociously skillful in a wide range of music, from “early” to contemporary avant-garde. He can sing in almost any voice range, he plays a mean recorder, and he is an efficient ringmaster and coordinator for the group.

Eliza’s Toyes (below, Jerry Hui in bright red shirt at left of the front row) is very much an outgrowth of the Madison Early Music Festival. It was in the course of the 2007 festival that Hui began to draw young singers around him for what he called “ad hoc readings” of old vocal music, gatherings that soon lead to the idea of a formal performing group.

Their repertoire has concentrated on madrigals and vocal consort music, ranging in language traditions beyond English to French, Italian and also Latin material.

This latest concert was their first full venture into Spanish literature. It was a pity that snow that morning, and sports distractions, limited the audience turnout. A small group like this tends to be kept “under the radar,” with too little access to the promotion and publicity it deserves.

Be it noted, therefore, that the group’s next concert will be presented, also at the Gates of Heaven, on Sunday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m., concentrating on English madrigals but adding Italian ones, especially some brought to England.

Just what will be the future of Eliza’s Toyes after the departure of Hui, and others, as studies end, is uncertain for now. But there is hope that a successor can emerge to carry on his leadership. Their spirit is too vital to be extinguished, and they perform a precious service in presenting live performances of literature not otherwise regularly heard.

And, moreover, they are a reminder of how much the Madison Early Music Festival has sparked the expansion of growing access to, and continuing enjoyment of, the vast literature of music dating from before the “standard” repertoire.

---

Can music predict the Super Bowl winner? And how do we fix classical music – if it needs fixing? Performers and the public respond

EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s a tip for Super Bowl Day, which is today (kick-off time is 5:30 CST on FOX): Can music predict the winner of today’s Super Bowl games between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers? Give a listen to this analysis on NPR: www.npr.org/2011/02/04/133474167/can-music-predict-the-super-bowl-winner

By Jacob Stockinger

Perhaps the most the common theme of classical music today – at least in North American and Europe, although not so much in Asia – seems to be: How do fix classical music?

That of course assumes that classical music is broken.

And to many observers it is broken – judging by concert attendance, by record and CD sales, by the lack of young audiences.

So NPR’s classical music blog “Deceptive Cadence,” under the able leadership and inventive leadership of classical music producer Tom Huizenga (below), recently posed the question to important performers as well as the general public.

The answers range from having less formal concert settings, such as bars and coffee houses, and using less formal concert dress to playing more basic works or more contemporary music to changing the name “classical.”

Here are some links:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/01/28/133278615/how-do-we-fix-classical-music-heres-what-you-told-us#more

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/01/24/133178094/classical-resolutions-david-langs-new-name-for-classical-music

NPR also used some Classical Resolutions (for the new year) to discuss the issue:

Here is one from Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes (below):

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/01/19/133030640/classical-resolutions-leif-ove-andsnes-comfort-

And another from American pianist Christopher O’Riley:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/01/25/133208524/classical-resolutions-christopher-oriley-and-the-art-of-listening

And another from Baltimore Symphony conductor Marin Alsop:

And one from a favorite pianist of mine, young Jonathan Biss:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/01/20/133087631/classical-resolutions-jonathan-biss-challenges-new-and-old

And one from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, who concerto “4 for 3” will be performed by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra on Friday, March 4:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/01/19/133052910/classical-resolutions-jennifer-higdon-makes-mu

And there are many more from many kinds of musicians:

http://www.npr.org/search/index.php?searchinput=classical+resolutions

What do you think of what they say and the solutions they propose?

Do you have your own ideas about fixing classical music?

The Ear wants to hear.

---

Classical music news clips: Dudamel extends contract with LA Phil. Why Chopin hallucinated. Composer Milton Babbitt dies. Vintage record companies face big changes. New World Symphony premieres in Frank Gehry HQ in Miami. And Holocaust violins get saved.

By Jacob Stockinger

Here are some usual and unusual items for The Ear’s weekly news round-up:

ITEM: Young superstar maestro Gustavo Dudamel (below) has extended his contract with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Gee, are you as surprised as The Ear is?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/02/gustavo-dudamel-extends-contract-with-la-philharmonic-through-2018-19-season.html

ITEM: Chopin (below) suffered from epilepsy as well as tuberculosis and that could explain his hallucinations:

http://news.discovery.com/history/frederic-chopin-epilepsy-110124.html

ITEM: Composer Milton Babbitt (below), the first classical composer to use a synthesizer, dies at 94:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/arts/music/30babbitt.html

ITEM: Decca is relaunched as Decca Classics:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/decca-label-relaunches-as-decca-classics

ITEM: EMI taken over by bank:

http://www.classicalmusic.org.uk/2011/02/emi-changes-hands.html

ITEM: New World Symphony score a triumph in new Frank Gehry building (below):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/arts/music/28new.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/arts/design/24gehry.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/arts/music/28new.html?ref=anthonytommasin

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/arts/music/31park.html?_r=1&ref=anthonytommasini

ITEM: Israeli saves Holocaust violins:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/01/27/israel.holocaust.violins/index.html

---

Classical music review: Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes shines in late Rachmaninoff concertos — and again proves he is a pianist for all seasons

By Jacob Stockinger

You might expect a Norwegian pianist to produce a cooler Nordic vision of Romantic music. After all, “bonbons filled with snow” is how Debussy once described the frosty sensuality of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s music.

And maybe just the right amount of Nordic irony and emotional remove accounts for the outstanding success in Leif Ove Andsnes’ recent EMI recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concertos No. 3 and 4.

It is simply the best recording I have heard of these pieces – one (the legendary third) so well known and the other (the fourth) so unjustly ignored — in many decades. It is nothing shorty of thrilling.

Now, I have to admit my own bias up front. For my taste, the most exciting and overall best recording ever made of the “Rach 3” is still the live performance by Van Cliburn and conductor Kiril Kondrashin in Carnegie Hall shortly after Cliburn’s 1958 Cold War victory at the first international Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

The worst to my ears is the recording by Australian pianist David Helfgott whose troubled life and career inspired the film “Shine.” A legendary recording by Vladimir Horowitz has its electrifying moments, but overall loses a sense of proportion and displays an uneven technique plus a sometimes appalling sense of ensemble playing.

Some other very good and sympathetic complete sets have been recorded. Vladimir Ashkenazy has done a couple, and the British pianist Stephen Hough has received critical acclaim and terrific sales for set of live recordings he did a couple years ago.

The virtues of Andsnes’ set, a follow up to his release of the equally admirable first and second concertos (below) with the same conductor and orchestra, are many.

The recorded balance is terrific. The sound of the individual parts is clear and close-up, but the piano is never drowned out. One of great excitements is hearing how masterfully Rachmaninoff used counterpoint and classical techniques in his emotionally effusive writing.

Andsnes, for his part, has impeccable technique. lt is not showy, but he plays all the notes without apparent strain – no small feat in music that the composer himself once said was written for elephants so big are the chords and so noted-filled in the score – and, best of all, he knows when to become prominent and when to blend.

His rubato never seems excessive or exaggerated, and his playing exudes a directness. His tempi changes always make sense within the context, and Andsnes never seems to force the music into being other than what it is. It all seems so natural and so good, you end up wondering why we don’t hear a neglected work like the Concerto No. 4 performed more often?

How does Andsnes (below) do it? I think largely by getting out of the way and letting the lush, dramatic and soulful music speak for itself – much the way Rachmaninoff himself played. For this is better music than many critics gave it credit for, although pianists and the public seem to know better. Rachmaninoff was a master, a crafter who was also inspired and knew how to reach people.

Andsnes—who doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously judging from publicity photos (look at him below, nude in a fjord and at the keyboard on a mountain top – steps aside for the composer (see Rachmaninoff, below).

Finally, I just don’t think you can find better accompaniment than the one provided by conductor Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra. It is hard to hear a weak section or flubbed passage. I certainly didn’t. Both soloist and conductor seem to have carefully thought out and then executed their parts.

The set almost wraps up a complete Rachmaninoff cycle for Andsnes. He has recorded the third concerto before along with some preludes. Now I want to hear him in the “Paganini” Rhapsody, coupled perhaps to the underperformed and under-recorded “Corelli” Variations for solo piano. And Andsnes shows such an affinity for Rachmaninoff, I would love EMI to record him in a complete set of the Preludes and Etudes-Tableaux.

Andsnes (below) knows how to find the greater music, the superior beauty, in Rachmaninoff’s scores, which is a more difficult trick than it sounds since even badly played Rachmaninoff usually gets a standing ovation.

But when such lushly sentimental and emotional music also exudes clarity, transparency and other classical values, it is a rare and remarkable event.

Let me finally remark on what a remarkable and gifted musician Ansdnes is.

He is at thoroughly at home in Haydn sonatas and concertos; Mozart concertos and Schubert sonatas; Nordic miniatures by Grieg, Nielsen and other composers; Chopin’s sonatas, etudes and mazurkas; Brahms concertos and intermezzi; major and minor solo works by Liszt, Schumann and Mussorgsky; Bartok concertos; and contemporary solo works.

He is also a wonderful chamber musician, as you can hear in the piano quintets by Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak and in Bartok violin sonatas. And he is a terrific accompanist as you can hear in his Schubert song cycles done with British tenor Ian Bostridge (below). I would like to hear him in Bach and Beethoven, but maybe recordings of those composers are still to come.

Well rounded, hard-working and refreshingly free of neurosis, Andsnes seems to me a pianist for all seasons, perhaps the closest figure we have today to an Arthur Rubinstein or even a Sviatoslav Richter.

What do you think of Andsnes?

Do you have a favorite recording?

What is he like in live performance?

The Ear wants to hear.

---

What classical music goes with a blizzard?

By Jacob Stockinger

Well – all the dire predictions came true: We in the Midwest finally got walloped with The Winter Storm.

Some described as  “colossal” or a “monster,”  and say it is the biggest winter storm in a decade.

But I have also heard that the blizzard, complete with freezing rain, really cold temperatures and howling wind, is the biggest ever on record, affecting more than 100 million people in the US.

Anyway, I found myself thinking: What would be good music for a storm of such proportions and such hardship?

I don’t think Handel ever wrote “Blizzard Musick” to go along with the “Water Musick” and “Fireworks Musick.”

Some obvious choices come to mind.

One is the Winter section of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, though it seems tame for this storm.

Another piece is Debussy’s “Snowflakes Are Dancing” from “The Children’s Corner Suite.” But that piece sees too charming and gentle, almost a mockery of serious, life-threatening weather.

A bit more ferocious is Liszt’s “Chasse-Neige” or Snow Storm.

But I am sure there are many more.

Maybe a song by Schubert, from “Winterreise” (Winter Journey), or someone else?

Maybe a Renaissance motet?

Richard Strauss‘ “Alpine Symphony“?

Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Dreams” Symphony?

Maybe something by a Nordic composers like Grieg, Nielsen or Sibelius?

Right now, I think Chopin‘s turbulent “Winter Wind” Etude most closely matches both the weather and my mood.

Can you help me out?

Is there a piece of classical music you think captures a blizzard or treacherous snowy weather?

Write a Comment and send a link to a performance on YouTube.

The Ear wants to hear.

---

Super Bowl weekend is super-packed with classical music in tune with a country in recession and at war. The music includes opera, early music, chamber music and rarely heard art songs related to the UW.

By Jacob Stockinger

This is Super Bowl weekend, a special time for fans of the Green Bay Packers.

But it just so happens that this weekend is also super-packed with events that even the hardiest fans may not make it to everything.

Still, the national  football championship has even caused at least one event to move its performance time up so as not to conflict or lose audience members. But with a kickoff time of 5:30 p.m. (on FOX), there should be time to take in both great music and great football.

The BIG event this week in the opening of the Madison Opera’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s and Kurt Weill’s 1928 “The Threepenny Opera.” The production – sung in English — opens this Friday at 8 p.m. and runs through Feb. 13 in The Playhouse of the Overture Center.

It marks not only the second of the 50^th anniversary productions of the Madison Opera, but also the departing production for general director Allan Naplan, who leaves Madison on Feb. 15 to take up duties as the new head of the Minneapolis Opera.

To The Ear, this production seems an inspired choice to do during The Great Recession. (See the interview I did with John DeMain that ran yesterday.)

With music deeply rooted in jazz and Viennese operetta, “The Threepenny Opera” follows the notorious criminal Macheath as he navigates a corrupt world of beggars, thieves and prostitutes in Victorian London. The 2-1/2 hour work has been hailed by Newsweek as “the greatest musical of all time,” and the work contains several numbers that have achieved popularity beyond the stage, including the iconic “Mack the Knife.”

The Madison Opera’s production (which uses a set, below, from the Omaha Opera) of “The Threepenny Opera,” which is based on John Gay’s “ 1728 play “The Beggar’s Operas, is directed by Dorothy Danner, a highly acclaimed stage director of musical theater and opera, with music direction by John DeMain, the Artistic Director of Madison Opera.

The production will also showcase American Players Theatre favorites James DeVita (below center)and Tracy Michelle Arnold (below right).  DeVita, an accomplished actor, author and playwright, takes on the role of the infamous Macheath, and Arnold, described as a “natural charismatic force” by The Chicago Tribune, stars as Jenny Diver.

In her Madison Opera debut, Alicia Berneche (above left) reprises her role as Polly Peachum alongside veteran Broadway performer David Barron as J.J. Peachum. Madison-based artists Amy Welk, Richard Henslin, Liz Cassarino, and Edward Marion complete the cast as Mrs. Peachum, Tiger Brown, Lucy Brown, and the Street Singer, respectively.

Free Pre-Opera talks will be offered one hour before performances on Feb. 4, 6, 11, and 13 in the Rotunda Studio at Overture. (There is no Pre-Opera Talk at Saturday evening performances.)

Performances are this Friday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 5, at 8 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 6, at 2:30 p.m.; and next Friday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 12, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets run $20-$64. Call (608) 258-4141, (608) 258-4141 or visit www.madisonopera.org

Noted for her inventive staging, guest director Dorothy Danner (below) has directed nearly 200 productions of operettas, musicals and plays throughout the United States, Canada and Belgium, including operas for the companies of Glimmerglass, Houston, Philadelphia, Miami, Cleveland, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Portland, Kansas City, Virginia and for San Francisco’s Merola Program.

Her production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in New York for the Juilliard School garnered wide critical acclaim, as did her PBS Tribute to Gilbert and Sullivan for the Boston Pops and her television staging of Richard Wargo’s opera, Ballymore. A dedicated and inspiring teacher, she was co-founder of the Glimmerglass Opera Young American Artist Program, has served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute of Music and the Chautauqua Institution.

But the Madison Opera’s “Threepenny Opera” isn’t the only thing happening on Friday.

The First Unitarian Society’s free Noon Musicale from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at 900 University Bay Drive, will feature the Kendalwood String Quartet (below) in music of Haydn and Debussy. For information, call (608) 233-9774.

SATURDAY

At 7:30 p.m. in Oakwood Village West’s Auditorium, 6209 Mineral Point Road, the Oakwood Chamber Players will perform “Lullaby Lane.” The concert will be repeated Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at the UW Arboretum Visitors Center.

The program includes Gershwin’s Lullaby arranged for string quartet; Saint-Saens’ Piano Quartet; and Arthur Foote’s Nocturne and Scherzo for flute and strings.

For more information and ticket reservations ($20 general admission, $15 for seniors, $5 for students) visit:

http://www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com/index.htm

At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW baritone Paul Rowe (below top) and UW pianist Martha Fischer (below bottom) will perform an unusual and arresting program of songs composed between 1888 and 1924, a period most significantly defined by World War I.

Selections include six songs from “A Shropshire Lad” by George Butterworth, to poetry by A. E. Housman; three songs by Charles Ives, including “In Flanders Fields”; two songs by Maurice Ravel; “Harfenspieler” I, II and III by Hugo Wolf; and “A Cycle of Love Lyrics,” Op. 73 by Louis Adolphe Coerne, settings of poems by William Ellery Leonard. (Coerne was director of the School of Music from 1910 to 1914 and Leonard was professor of English from 1906 to 1944.)

Admission is free and open to the public.

SUNDAY

On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. – moved earlier because of the Packer in the Super Bowl – at the historic Gates of Heaven Synagogue (below), 302 East Gorham Street in James Madison Park – the early music group Eliza’s Toyes will perform.

The program “Treasures of Seville” features music from the late 14th century through late 16th century, composed by Sevillanos such as Morales, Vasquez, de la Torre, Alonso, Achieta, Escobar, Pedro and Fracisco Guerrero and more.

Eliza’s Toyes (below) is a small group of musicians who began as a vocal group in the Madison Early Music Festival, and has grown to include instruments as well: Arielle Basil, soprano; Katherine Peck, soprano; Sandy Erickson, alto/recorders; Theresa Koenig, alto/dulcian; Steve Johnson, tenor; Ben Li, baritone; Jerry Hui, bass/recorders; and Doug Towne, lute.

Prof. Steven Hutchinson, from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the UW-Madison, will give a pre-concert lecture at 1 p.m. on Seville’s history, and its significance in both the development of Spain as well as music history in general.

Admission is free, but a free-will donation will be accepted

For more information, including performer biographies, recordings and photos, visit:

http://www.toyes.info

Earlier on Sunday, “Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen” features the Lawrence Chamber Players (below) from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery III at the Chazen Museum of Art. It will be broadcast live by Wisconsin Public Radio.

The program of classics includes Beethoven’s Duo in E-flat for Viola and Violoncello and Brahms’ Trio No. 1 in B Major for Piano, Violin, and Violoncello, Op. 8.

The Lawrence Chamber Players include Lawrence University faculty Wen Lei Gu, Samantha George, Matthew Michelic, Mark Urness, Janet Anthony and Howard Niblock.  John Eckstein, visiting cello professor from the University of Utah, who will be playing for Janet Anthony who is on sabbatical.

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 Step & Brew. A free docent-led tour in the Chazen galleries begins every Sunday at 2 p.m.

---

Classical music preview: “The Threepenny Opera” links the Great Recession of today to the depression of the Weimar Republic in Germany in 1928

By Jacob Stockinger

This weekend, the Madison Opera opens its almost sold-out, English-language production of “The Threepenny Opera” by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (below, right) that runs in The Playhouse of the Overture Center from this Friday through Feb. 13.

It also marks the farewell production of the company’s general director Allan Naplan (below), who is leaving to become the head of the Minneapolis Opera on Feb. 15.

For information about performances and tickets, visit:

http://www.madisonopera.org/performances/threepenny_opera/

The acclaimed cabaret work, which runs about 2-1/2 hours, debuted in 1928 and has since had countless revivals in more than a dozen languages. It is especially famous for the song “Mack the Knife.”

For a history and synopsis, visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Threepenny_Opera

Maestro John DeMain (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), an accomplished pianist who is the artistic director of the Madison Opera as well as the music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra — will conduct the production from the keyboard.

I like DeMain’s thoughtfulness and intelligence as a musician. Music is about more than the notes for him, and he makes good sense of a work. So I was very pleased that he recently took time from his busy rehearsal schedule to talk to The Ear about the work and its production:

By Jacob Stockinger

What is the artistic context of “Threepenny” as a crossover within the history of opera and, say, cabaret or musical theater? Was Kurt Weill the Stephen Sondheim of his day?

I think that on the whole it is a musical theater piece, so your comparison to Sondheim is dead on. But the work appeals to opera people because some of the parts require trained voices. Whenever you have a trained and sophisticated composer like Leonard Bernstein or Stephen Sondheim writing a musical theater, you get music exists on two levels.

You have these wonderful melodies and tunes that stick in your head. But they are given this acerbic, biting sound that makes them satirical. That kind of quality raises the work so it has an appeal to sophisticated music listeners as well as to musical theater people. That’s what makes it crossover.

Right in the opening overture you are dealing with a fugue, and the final chorale recalls Bach. The cabaret environment lends itself to all these kind of serious musical references. That’s what gives this work its crossover appeal.

What is the historical or social context of the “Threepenny Opera” and is it relevant today?

Sure, it’s eternally relevant. It’s basically pitting the rich against the poor, the top strata of society against the common man. It deals with human rights versus the economic and political situation.

This production highlights the connections between then and now. Then is the Weimar Republic (below) when Germany was decimated after World War I. This piece is setting the stage for a political and economic upheaval that sett he stage for the rise of National Socialism and Hitler.

When we look at the current recession, we can also see the Tea Party as a reaction, but not that is sinister or has any connection to what happened in Germany. But the action absolutely mirrors what was going on in Germany back in 1928. Hopefully, we won’t come to the same dire consequences.

What should people who know only the song “Mack the Knife” know about the opera and the production?

When you hear that song in its original setting, a singer accompanied by a street organ or grinder, you have to adjust your expectations. You’re not hearing Bobby Darin (below) or Frank Sinatra or The Rat Pack jazzing it up and doing a hit. In its original setting, the song has a darker edge to it.

The piece is filled with lowlifes and characters drawn from entrepreneurial business to beggardom. There are wonderful moments musically. “Mack the Knife” is the narrator’s song and it links the pieces together. It’s a bridge. The ditty becomes a very strong motif and imprints itself on your brain.

There’s a lot of great music in the show, including a parody of opera. It’s difficult because it is clever. It has all these high-brow references in a low-brow setting. That juxtaposition adds to its crossover appeal.

Why has “Threepenny” lasted so long and been so popular? The quality of the music? The characters? The plot and story? The concerns with social justice?

People connect to all of the above. You immediately relate to the little guy bucking the establishment and trying to get ahead. There’s also a lot of humor. The elements we are dealing with – crime, robbery and prostitution – don’t go away. They’re part of the human condition and society.

They are treated quasi-seriously and entertaining at the same time. It has a solid story with a solid musical score – so these kinds of pieces live a long time, whether in the opera world or the musical theater world.

What do you want to briefly say about the direction and the cast?

Director Dorothy Danner (below) is terrific and one of everybody’s favorite people in the opera world. Dottie is terrific in opera as well operetta and musical theater. She did my all-time favorite production of “The Merry Widow.” We also did “Carmen” together years ago. So this is a wonderful reunion for us after quite a few years. There is good chemistry between the two of us.

The cast of this production with two exceptions is a musical theater cast. This is not a feast of glorious singing. That wouldn’t make sense for how rough the characters are. Hopefully, it will sound as authentic as the original recording with very gruff voices. There is a lot of license you can take.

It is very well cast. Jim DeVita (below), from American Players Theatre in Spring Green, is such a marvelous actor as Macheath. He’s new to singing, but is doing a great job. He’s an actor who sings as opposed to a singer who acts. Everybody will be surprised at how wonderful he is.

I think everybody will enjoy this show and have a marvelous time. I think the audience will have a lot of fun and so will the cast.

What else would you like to add?

Just that I am so pleased we have these alternate spaces for the Madison Opera to perform in. I can’t tell you have many opera companies would love to do these chamber-size pieces in the proper environment. It’s the right scale.

This is the third or fourth one we have done. That’s part of why they’re successful. These kinds of works belong in this kind of space. And they are successful because they are still in Overture Hall, so people know where it is, what it is like, where to park and how to get around. Having a space like this is one of the things that makes the Overture Center (below) world-class.

---