The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society’s concert of Couperin, Schubert and Haydn at the Stoughton Opera House to air Monday night and Sunday night on Wisconsin Public Television.

By Jacob Stockinger

Well, it’s final.

Here are the two dates — both are this week, starting tonight — that Wisconsin Public Television will broadcast a one-hour edited version of the terrific “Kir Royale” concert last month that the Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society performed at the restored historic Stoughton Opera House (below).

TONIGHT, MONDAY, JULY 23, at 9 p.m.

THIS COMING SUNDAY, JULY 29, at 9:30 p.m.

The concert, which featured a rarely played dance suite by Couperin; a rarely performed chamber version (below) of Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 (“La Reine” or The Queen, named after French queen Marie-Antoinette, who really liked the work); Schubert’s sublimely beautiful Cello Quintet; and, for the first time in all 21 seasons of BDDS, co-fonder and co-artistic director pianist Jeffrey Sykes performing solo, in Haydn’s Piano Sonata, No. 49 in E-flat. (Flutist Stephanie Jutt is the other co-founder and co-artistic director.)

I am not sure which pieces will be shown in whole or in part, though it seems as if Syke’s playing of the Haydn sonata (below) is included.

The program is part of the summer’s “Jewel Box” concert series on WPT, which takes viewers to various historic venues for concerts for different kinds of music, from jazz, swing and pop to classical. It is part of WPT bills as its “Summer of the Arts” programming. Here is a link to a description of the series of four concerts:

http://wpt.org/pressroom/index.cfm?&id=111

For a review of the full Stoughton concert, done for this blog by guest critic John W. Barker of Isthmus, with concert photos by The Ear, visit:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/classical-music-madisons-bach-dancing-and-dynamite-societys-superb-concert-of-couperin-haydn-and-schubert-in-the-stoughton-opera-house-will-air-in-late-july-on-wisconsin-public-tel/

Bravo, The Ear says while giving a Shout-Out not only to BDDS for 21 years of great music-making, but also to Wisconsin Public Television for bringing this kind of local arts coverage — and not just national shows such as  “Great Performances” or “Live From Lincoln Center” — to the state’s tax-paying public.

Let WPT know what you think: Leave a remark in the COMMENT section here or send them an e-mail at comments@wpt.org