The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Native son trumpeter Andrew Balio returns to Wisconsin and Madison this Saturday night with organist Felix Hell; and the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra performs Sunday afternoon.

By Jacob Stockinger

Two noteworthy concerts will take place this weekend.

On Saturday might at 7:30 p.m. — NOT 8 p.m. — in Overture Hall, the organist Felix Hell and trumpeter Andrew Balio  will perform a recital concert sponsored by the Madison Symphony Orchestra. 

The recital by acclaimed German organist Felix Hell (below) and trumpeter Andrew Balio, a Wisconsin native and principal trumpet of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will feature a century-spanning program that concludes with multiple works by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is presenting The Hell/Balio Duo as part of its Overture Concert Organ (below) Series.

To see the full program and see other information, use this link:

http://www.madisonsymphony.org/hell

And here is a sample video from YouTube of Felix Hell playing an organ transcription of Samuel Barber’s famous “Adagio for Strings”:

Tickets are $19.50 and are available through the Overture Center Box Office at (608) 258-4141 or online at madisonsymphony.org.

The concert career of Felix Hell (below) began at the age of nine and has included more than 700 recitals worldwide. He has received global recognition for his performances of the entire organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach in three full cycles as well as the complete organ works of Felix Mendelssohn. A frequent guest of American orchestras, Hell gave his debut performance in Boston’s famous Symphony Hall in 2004.

Wisconsin native Andrew Balio (below) was appointed as principal trumpet of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2001. He was previously the principal trumpet of the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico. His solo debut, at age fifteen, was with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, performing the Haydn trumpet concerto.

Here is a link to his official and impressive biography:

http://www.bsomusic.org/main.taf?p=4,4,1,1&id=AndrewBalio

And here is a sample of Andrew Balio’s playing in a YouTube video:

Then on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel at Edgewood College, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra, under Edgewood professor and conductor Blake Walter (below, in a photo by John Maniaci),

The Edgewood Chamber Orchestra will perform works include Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” Overture; Beethoven’s Symphony Number 2 in D (at bottom in a YouTube video with Christian Thielemann conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the first movement); and Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” narrated by guest performer John Fields, interim Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Edgewood College.

Admission is $5; free with Edgewood College I.D.