The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: As the newly retired Pope Benedict XVI faces his new life, he looks forward to playing the piano and to hearing classical music, especially Mozart and Beethoven. Plus, UW clarinetist Les Thimmig performs music by Schubert, Verdi and others for FREE on Sunday afternoon.

ALERT: An apology is in order. Somehow, in Thursday’s round-up of FREE chamber music events at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this weekend, I left out the performance on the Faculty Concert Series on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall by The Thimming-Johnson Duo. UW clarinetist Les Thimmig (seen below with a saxophone) and UW pianist Jessica Johnson will perform the Sonatine in G minor, D. 406, by Franz Schubert; “Rhapsodie Dobrogeana” by Paul Jelescu; and two arias from Giuseppe Verdi‘s “Il Trovatore,” among other works. The duo will be joined by UW percussionist Anthony DiSanza on marimba.

By Jacob Stockinger

He plays the piano well.

He adores Mozart above all (see the YouTube video at bottom), followed closely by Beethoven.

He attends a lot of live performances and is a discerning listener.

He has a brother, who was a professional church choir conductor and a composer.

And now he is a retired ex-Pope or “pope emeritus,” as the Vatican has baptized Pope Benedict XVI, seen below at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with conductor Daniel Barenboim at La Scala in Milan.)

The outstanding classical music blog, “Deceptive Cadence,” which you can fin don the website of National Public Radio, has a terrific and very detailed story about the retired pope and classical music.

Here is a link:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/02/27/172718489/benedict-and-beethoven-the-outgoing-popes-musical-life