The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: The second half of the concert season starts with a conflicting wealth of great music and promising performances this weekend and especially on Sunday

By Jacob Stockinger

The second half of the current concert season is getting off to a terrific, if crowded and competitive, start.

Take this weekend.

At least five individuals and groups are playing very appealing concerts. In some cases, there is time to get from one to another.

But there is also a good chance you will have to pick and choose, then be disappointed at what you miss as well as pleased with what you go to.

Here is a roundup:

SATURDAY

From 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m., the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will hold the 54th annual Wisconsin Day of Percussion. It features workshops, clinics, presentations and concerts for percussionists and fans of percussion at all levels.

All-day admission is $15 and is available at the door. For more information about attending and participating, go to:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/2016/11/10/wisconsin-day-of-percussion/

World Percussion Ensemble

At 1:30 p.m. in the relaxed and cozy venue of A Place to Be, 911 Williamson Street, the Willy Street Chamber Players (below) will offer a 90-minute program of string quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn (String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4), Felix Mendelssohn Four Pieces for String Quartet), Astor Piazzolla (Four for Tango) and Daniel Bernard Roumain String Quartet No. 5 “Rosa Parks”) as a prelude to the group’s third summer season this July. Admission is $20.

You may recall that last month The Ear named the Willys as Musicians of the Year for 2016. That post had details about the  program and the group’s history. Here is a link:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2016/12/30/classical-music-the-ear-names-the-willy-street-chamber-players-as-musicians-of-the-year-for-2016/

For more information about this quartet concert (below is a photo of last year’s concert in the same place), go to:

http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org/calendar.html

And here is a link to the group’s home website with more specifics:

http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org

Finally, one of the Willys assures The Ear that the Sunday performance will be over early enough to allow audience members to go watch the Green Bay Packers championship football game.

At 7 p.m. the Oakwood Chamber Players will give an adventurous  concert of unusual works by Maurice Ravel,  Arnold Schoenberg, Byron Adams, Gabriel Jackson and Francis Poulenc at the Oakwood Village West Auditorium, 6002 Mineral Point Road on Madison far west side.

Here is a link to a story with more details about the program and how it fits into the yearlong series of concerts:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/classical-music-oakwood-chamber-players-perform-looking-within-can-we-see-within-ourselves-those-who-have-gone-before-this-coming-saturday-night-and-sunday-afternoon/

SUNDAY

At 1:30 p.m., the Willy Street Chamber Players repeat their Saturday concert. See the information above for Saturday.

Also at 1:30 p.m., the Oakwood Chamber Players repeat their concert. See the information above for Saturday.

At 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW-Madison faculty members violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino (below top) and pianist Christopher Taylor (below bottom) will give a recital of two violin sonatas: Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13, by Gabriel Faure and the prize-winning 1963 Sonata for Violin and Piano by the contemporary American composer John Corigliano. (You can hear the lovely slow movement of the Corigliano sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Admission is $15, $5 for children and non-UW School of Music students.

Here is a link with more information:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/violinist-soh-hyun-altino-and-pianist-christopher-taylor/

Tickets can be bought at the door or by visit this site:

https://union.wisc.edu/visit/wisconsin-union-theater/theater-tickets/

Also at 4 p.m., pianist Catherine Kautsky (below) will perform a Schubert-themed program on the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522, Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne.

Her program includes the Sonata in D major and Twelve German Dances by Schubert; the Schubert-inspired “Valses nobles et sentimentales” (Noble and Sentimental Waltzes) by Maurice Ravel; Prelude and Fugue in E Major, from Book 2 of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” by Johann Sebastian Bach; and “Idyll and Abyss: Six Schubert Reminiscences” (20213) by the German composer Jeorg Widmann.

Admission is $45.

Kautsky has concertized on five continents. You may recall, she came to teach for several years at the UW-Madison from Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, and then returned to Lawrence where she heads the keyboard department and this year received an Excellence in Teaching award.

Call more information and tickets, call (608) 271-2626.

You can also go to this link to get more information about this concert and forthcoming concerts in the Salon Piano Series:

http://salonpianoseries.org/concerts.html