The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society announces its upcoming summer season of “Alphabet Soup” this June | March 18, 2017
By Jacob Stockinger
The time for announcing new seasons has arrived.
Pretty soon, over the next several weeks and months, The Ear will hear from larger and smaller presenters and ensembles in the Madison area, and post their new seasons.
First out of the gate is the critically acclaimed and popular summer group, the Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. (You can see a short promo video about BDDS on the YouTube video at the bottom.)
It has just announced its upcoming summer season this June, and sent out brochures with the season’s details.
This will be the 26th annual summer season and it has the theme of “Alphabet Soup.”
The concept is explained online and in a brochure newsletter (also online) in an editorial essay by BDDS co-founder and co-artistic director flutist Stephanie Jutt (seen below with co-founder and co-director pianist Jeffrey Sykes).
By the way, Jutt is retiring from the UW-Madison this spring but will continue to play principal flute with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and to work and perform with BDDS.
In many ways it will be a typical season of the eclectic group. It will feature local and imported artists. Many of both are favorites of The Ear.
His local favorites include UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor; violist Sally Chisholm of the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet; UW violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino (below top, in a photo by Caroline Bittencourt); and Pro Arte cellist Parry Karp (below bottom).
Among The Ear’s favorite guest artists are violinist Carmit Zori, clarinetist Alan Kay, the San Francisco Piano Trio (below top); UW alumna soprano Emily Birsan; pianist Randall Hodgkinson; and baritone Timothy Jones (below bottom).
As usual, the season features 12 concerts of six programs over three weeks (June 9-25) in three venues – the Playhouse in the Overture Center (below top), the Hillside Theater (below middle) at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green and the Stoughton Opera House (below bottom).
In addition, there is a FREE family concert in the Overture Playhouse on June 10.
What does seem somewhat new is the number of unknown composers and an edgier, more adventurous choice of pieces, including more new music and more neglected composers.
Oh, there will be classics by such composers as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Luigi Boccherini, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Peter Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Bela Bartok, Arnold Schoenberg, Benjamin Britten and others. These are the ABC’s of the alphabet soup, according to BDDS.
But also represented are composers such as Philippe Gaubert, Czech Holocaust victim Gideon Klein (below), Guillaume Conneson, Carl Czerny, Paul Moravec and Franz Doppler. These are the XYZ’s of the alphabet soup.
In between come others. Contemporary American composer, and Pulitzer Prize winner, Kevin Puts (below) is a BDDS favorite and is well represented. You will also find less performed works by Ned Rorem, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Gerald Finzi.
For the complete programs and schedules as well as the list of performers, some YouTube videos and ticket prices, both for season tickets ($109.50, $146, $182 and $219) and for individual concerts ($43), and other information, go to:
http://bachdancinganddynamite.org/concerts/festival-concerts/
Tags: ABC, Alan Kay, alphabet soup, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, baritone, Bartok, BDDS, Benjamin Britten, Boccherini, Carl Czerny, Carmit Zori, Cello, Chamber music, Christopher Taylor, clarinet, Classical music, composer, Czech, Emily Birsan, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Doppler, Gerald Finzi, Gideon Klein, Guillaume Conneson, Haydn, Hillside Theater, Holocaust, Jacob Stockinger, Jeffrey Sykes, Johannes Brahms, Kevin Puts, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Music, Ned Rorem, New Music, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, Parry Karp, Paul Moravec, Philippe Gaubert, Piano, Piano Trio, Pro Arte Quartet, Pulitzer Prize, Randall Hodgkinson, Ravel, Sally Chisholm, San Francisco Piano Trio, San Francisco Trio, Schubert, Season, Sergei Prokofiev, Soh-Hyun Park Altino, Sonata, soprano, soup, Spring Green, Stephanie Jutt, Stoughton Opera House, summer, symphony, Taliesin, Tchaikovsky, Timothy Jones, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, victim, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, XYZ, YouTube
1 Comment »
The Well-Tempered Ear 
It’s really a nice selection of music, from the very traditional (Mozart) to the almost unknown (Gideon Klein). I’m not sure that the alphabet soup designation helps much.
I like this much better (from their newsletter):
“At BDDS, we explore not just the standard chamber music masterpieces, but neglected gems of
the repertoire and new music hot off the press. In our first week, we pair two feel-good favorites––
Tchaikovsky’s
Souvenir de Florence
and the Brahms A Major Piano Quartet––with Britten’s Cello
Sonata, Prokofiev’s F Minor Violin Sonata, and Gideon Klein’s String Trio––gut-wrenching pieces
that, though much less familiar, will still rock your world. In our second week, not just beautiful
piano trios of Brahms and Mozart, but a thrilling, accessible new work by Kevin Puts (you might
recall that we premiered Kevin’s extraordinary song cycle
In At The Eye
last year). In our third week,
not just the epic Brahms Piano Quintet, but Paul Moravec’s jazzy
Cool Fire
for flute, piano, and
strings, and a virtuosic sonata for piano four-hands by Carl Czerny.”
Drop the Haydn and it would be perfect.
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Comment by FFlambeau — March 18, 2017 @ 3:36 am