The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: It is “Early Music Weekend” as the Madison Bach Musicians open their 10th anniversary season with concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon of music by J.S. Bach, Telemann, Handel, Leclair, Pachelbel and Vivaldi. Plus, Ensemble SDG performs Bach, Corelli, Pisendel and Handel on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen.”

ALERT: Two early music friends who perform together as the Ensemble SDG, baroque violinist Edith Hines and UW harpsichordist and organist John Chappell Stowe, write to The Ear: “Ensemble SDG (below) is pleased to invite the public to our FREE upcoming performance on Wisconsin Public Radio‘s “Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen.” The recital will be this Sunday, October 6, from 12:30-2 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery III at the Chazen Museum of Art (750 University Avenue, Madison). It will be broadcast live on WPR’s News and Classical Music network (in the Madison area, 88.7 WERN) and streamed online here.

By Jacob Stockinger

This weekend will witness a landmark: It marks the opening of the 10th anniversary season of the Madison Bach Musicians.

In only a decade, the accomplished baroque ensemble (below) has risen to the fore of the many early music group in the area.

The MBM, under director and founder Trevor Stephenson will give two performances – on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon of a concert that features the acclaimed guest baroque violinist Marilyn McDonald (below), who tours widely and also teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Stephenson is a masterful and humorous explainer and will also give a pre-concert lecture at each performance. Other MBM musicians include: Marilyn McDonald, Kangwon Kim, Brandi Berry, Mary Perkinson on baroque violins; 
Nathan Giglierano on baroque viola; 
Anton TenWolde on baroque cello’ and
Trevor Stephenson on harpsichord. (You can hear MBM musicians play and talk in a News 3/Channel 3000  YouTube video from 2011 at the bottom.)

The program features: Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto in G major for Four Violins; George Frideric 
Handel’s Violin Sonata in G minor, HWV 364, and Trio Sonata in E major, Op. 2, No. 9, HWV 394; Jean-Marie 
Leclair’s Violin Duo in G minor; 
Johann Pachelbel Canon and Gigue in D major; J.S. 
Bach’s Contrapunctus 19 from The Art of Fugue (with B-A-C-H Fugue);
 and Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor for Two Violins, RV 522.

Performances are on Saturday, October 5, with a
 7:15 p.m. lecture and 8 p.m. concert at the 
First Unitarian Society’s crisp Atrium Auditorium
 (below, in a photo by Zane Williams) at 900 University Bay Drive on Madison’s near west side; and on
 
Sunday, October 6, with 
2:45 p.m. lecture and 3:30 p.m. concert
in Blessing Room of Madison’s Christian Community Church, 7118 Old Sauk Road on the far west side of Madison.

Advance tickets, cash or check only, are discounted and run $20 for general admission, $15 for students and seniors 65 and over; and are available at A Room of One’s Own; Farley’s House of Pianos; the east and west locations of the Willy Street Co-op; Orange Tree Imports; and Ward-Brodt Music Mall.

At the door, tickets are $25 for general admission and $20 for students and seniors.

For more information, call (608) 238-6092 or visit  www.madisonbachmusicians.org

MORE ABOUT THE GUEST SOLOIST

Marilyn McDonald, a founding member of the Smithson Quartet and the Castle Trio, currently plays in the Axelrod Quartet in residence at the Smithsonian Institution; the Axelrod Quartet is named in honor of the donor of the decorated Stradivarius instruments on which the quartet performs.

She has toured world-wide as a chamber musician playing repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, appearing at Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, the Frick Gallery, the Caramoor, Utrecht and Mostly Mozart Festivals, Wigmore Hall, Disney Hall, Ravinia and the Concertgebouw, as well as appearing as soloist with the Milwaukee and Omaha Symphonies. Concertmaster positions include Boston Baroque and the Peninsula Music Festival.

She has been artist in residence at Boston University and has held visiting professorships at the Eastman School of Music and at Indiana University. She teaches each summer at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and has been honored with the “Excellence in Teaching” award at Oberlin, where she is professor of violin.  McDonald’s recordings are heard on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Virgin Classics, Decca, Gasparo, Smithsonian and Telarc labels.

REST OF THE ANNIVERSARY SEASON

The Madison Bach Musicians’ 10th anniversary season also includes:

On December 14, the third annual Baroque Holiday Music program at the First Congregational Church.

On April 18 and 19, the season will conclude with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor, conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison bassoonist Marc Vallon (below). The MBM will collaborate on this venture with the Madison Choral Project under Edgewood College choral director Albert Pinsonneault.