The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: In a FREE recital Monday night, two University of Wisconsin faculty members perform music for cello and piano by Beethoven, Debussy, Shostakovich and the contemporary Russian prodigy Lera Auerbach.

By Jacob Stockinger

The second semester concert schedule at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is just getting started, but it already deserves notice – and attendance.

Parry Karp is the cellist for the Pro Arte String Quartet and has taught for decades at the University of Wisconsin School of Music in Madison.

Eli Kalman studied piano at the UW-Madison School of Music and now teaches at the UW-Oshkosh.

The two (below, with Parry Karp on the left and Eli Kalman on the right) often collaborate in performance and, in fact, will perform a two-concert complete cycle of Beethoven’s cello music in April at Farley’s House of Pianos in Madison.

But you can hear the two together in joint and solo pieces this coming Monday night, Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m. in a FREE recital in Morphy Recital Hall on the UW campus.

The program is a rich and interesting and eclectic blend, united by tone and the rhythm of alternating between established composers and a contemporary one.

The program includes the Sonata in F Major for Cello and Piano that Beethoven himself (below) transcribed from his own Horn Sonata.

Then Lera Auerbach’s “Ten Dreams” (1999) will be performed. The composer (below), born in 1973, is a prodigy and polymath who performs virtuoso piano music and prolifically writes published poetry and prose as well as composes distinctive music that is also accessible and performed more often than a lot of new music.

Here is a link to her website: http://www.leraauerbach.com

And here is a link to her entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lera_Auerbach

Then comes the fabulously beautiful late Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915) by Claude Debussy (below).

Another work by Lera Auerbach punctuates the concert, this time the “12 Images From Childhood” (2000).

That is followed by another modern standard classic  the wondrous Sonata in D Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 40, by Dmitri Shostakovich (below).

In addition there will be the 12^th Prelude from 24 Preludes(1999) for piano and cello by Lera Auerbach and some solo piano works that have not yet been announced.