The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Tickets are now on sale for the Wisconsin Union Theater’s impressive 2017-18 season
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By Jacob Stockinger
Historically, for almost a century, the Wisconsin Union Theater has been the Carnegie Hall of Madison.
And despite so much competition from other newer presenters and groups these days, the WUT continues to put on impressive seasons in its renovated Shannon Hall (below).
Plus, nine years ago the Wisconsin Union Theater inaugurated and continues to sponsor The Well-Tempered Ear blog.
For that reason, The Ear is listing the complete 98th concert season. Follow the links for more information about the performers, the programs and ticket prices.
BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOUR CLASSICAL CONCERTS ARE MARKED WITH AN ASTERISK AND A PHOTO.
You can also check out more, including biographies and sound clips, by going to: https://union.wisc.edu/visit/wisconsin-union-theater/seasonevents/concert-series/
Here is the complete press release:
Tickets for the Wisconsin Union Theater’s 2017-2018 season became available as of this week. They may be purchased at the Campus Arts Ticketing Box Office in Memorial Union, online, or by phone at 608-265-ARTS (2787).
A few shows have been added to the season, including the most popular Egyptian TV personality of all time, Bassem Youssef, also known as “The Egyptian Jon Stewart,” a free performance by the Quebecois Le Vent du Nord, and Madison Celtic Festival.
Again this season, UW-Madison student tickets for most performances are only $10 or less.
See the season video here. Listen to the Spotify list here.
The full season – classical concerts have an asterisk –includes:
Madison World Music Festival-FREE!
September 15-16, 2017, Memorial Union Terrace and Willy St. Fest
Saturday, September 23, 2017, 8 PM, Shannon Hall
Black Music Ensemble. Free!
Thursday, September 28, November 30, 2017, and February 15, 2018, 8:30 PM, Fredric March Play Circle
The Re:Generation Tour
Thursday, October 5, 2017, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
InDIGenous Jazz Series: Johannes Wallmann – Love Wins. Free!
Friday, October 6, 2017, 7:00 PM; Fredric March Play Circle
With WUD Music
Friday, October 6, 2017, The Sett
“Retribution”
Saturday, October 7, 2017, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
Thursday, October 12, 2017, 2017, 8 PM ; Fredric March Play Circle
InDIGenous Jazz Series: Dave Stoler Quartet. Free!
Friday, October 20, 2017, 7:30 PM; Fredric March Play Circle
Inti Illimani- 50th Anniversary Tour!
Sunday, October, 22, 2017, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
InDIGenous Jazz Series: Nestle and Lovely Socialite. Free!
Friday, November 3, 2017, 7:30 PM; Fredric March Play Circle
* Richard Goode photo by Steve Risking (He discusses repertoire and plays his favorite Beethoven sonata, which he will perform here, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Saturday, November 4, 2017, 7:30 PM ; Shannon Hall
Chasing Rainbows: A World Tour and Historic Look at Travel Films
Travel Adventure Film Series
Monday, November 6, 2017, 7:30 PM ; Shannon Hall
Thursday, November 9, 2017, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
InDIGenous Jazz Series: Paul Dietrich Big Band. Free!
Friday, November 17, 2017, 7:30 PM; Fredric March Play Circle
Saturday, December 2, 2017, 8 PM; Fredric March Play Circle
* Takács String Quartet w/ Garrick Ohlsson
Sunday, December 3, 2017, 7:30 PM; Shannon Hall
Free lecture by Wisconsin Public Radio’s Norman Gilliland, 6:30 pm, Festival Room
Thursday, December 7, 2017, 8 PM; Fredric March Play Circle
“Stepping Out”
Friday, February 2, 2018, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas
Thursday, February 8, 2018, 8 PM ; Fredric March Play Circle
Saturday, February 9, 2018, 8 PM ; Shannon Hall
Wednesday, February 14, 2018, 8 PM ; Fredric March Play Circle
Saturday, March 3, 2018, 7:30 PM; Shannon Hall
Free lecture by Randal Swiggum, 6:30 pm, Play Circle
How to Travel the World for Free
Travel Adventure Film Series
Monday, March 5, 2018, 7:30 PM; Shannon Hall
Marcia Legere Student Play Festival-FREE!
March 15-17, 2018 ; Fredric March Play Circle
Thursday, March 8, 2018, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
Saturday, March 17, 2018, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
Saturday, March 10, 2018; Memorial Union
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Sunday, April 8, 2018, 8 PM; Shannon Hall
China: Beyond the Great Wall (World Premiere by Karin Muller)
Monday, April 9, 2018, 7:30 PM; Shannon Hall
Saturday, April 14, 2018, 7:30 PM; Shannon Hall
Le Vent du Nord. Free!
Saturday, May 5, 2018, 8:00 PM; Terrace
This season is presented by the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Performing Arts Committee.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Brahms, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, eighth blackbird, Garrick Ohlsson, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, King's Singers, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mozart, Music, Norman Gilliland, Randal Swiggum, Richard Goode, Takacs Quartet, vocal music, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Union Theater
Classical music: You can hear Schubert’s last songs at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival TONIGHT at 7:30
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been informed that seats still remain for tonight’s all-Schubert concert at the popular Token Creek Chamber Music Festival.
Half of the concert will be piano music, including the six Moments Musicaux and a work for piano, four-hands, a genre that Schubert often composed in and performed with friends. Ya-Fei Chuang (below) is the featured piano soloist.
Also on the program is “Swan Song” – sung by tenor Charles Blandy (below top) with pianist Alison D’Amato (below bottom) of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Buffalo.
Here are program notes by the festival’s co-artistic director and prize-winning composer John Harbison about the work:
Schwanengesang is not a planned cycle. Instead it is a collection of Schubert’s last songs, as serious and searching as the two great cycles Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.
Thematically and musically, the songs have much in common and, taken together, they are unequalled in plumbing the emotional depths of the soul, heart-wrenching and heartwarming.
We can’t be certain whether Schubert (below) ever intended them to be performed as a unity.
When they were published early in 1829, after his death at 31, it was the first publisher, Tobias Haslinger, who named the collection Schwanengesang (Swan Song), presumably to emphasize that these were the last fruits of the composer’s genius.
The sequence consists of settings of seven poems by Rellstab, six by Heine and, as an encore, Seidl’s “Taubenpost,” quite likely the very last song Schubert ever wrote. (You can hear “Taubenpost,” sung by the famed German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more information about the festival, the remaining concerts and tickets, visit www.tokencreekfestival.org
Tags: Alison d'Amato, Arts, baritone, Chamber music, Charles Blandy, Chinese composers, Classical music, composer, cycle, Die Schoene Muellerin, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Eastman School of Music, emotion, emotional, encore, four-hands, Franz Schubert, fruit, genius, heart-wrenching, heartwarming, Jacob Stockinger, John Harbison, last, Madison, Moments Musicaux, Music, notes, Piano, Poetry, prize, program, publisher, singer, soloist, Sonata, song, soul, Swan Song, Taubenpost, tenor, theme, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, United States, unity, university, University of Buffalo, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, winner, Winterreise, Wisconsin, Ya-Fei Chuang, YouTube
Classical music education: Here are 10 reasons why students should be allowed to major in music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Many, maybe most, of the college and university students are back by now.
And a week from tomorrow, classes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will begin.
K-12 classes in public schools and private schools will also start, if they haven’t already, as will another year of music lessons.
And so will the new concert season.
Coincidentally, The Ear came across a post from Forbes magazine that deals with whether students should be allowed to major in music (below, in a photo by Shutterstock).
Many parents, and many politicians too, feel that more practical, higher paying fields are better investments of energy, time and especially money.
The same logic applies these days to the arts and humanities versus the so-called STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Anyway, the advice columnist Liz Ryan answered the question with 10 reasons why it is a good idea to let a student major in music.
The Ear –- who is an avid defender of the liberal arts and of college years not as a trade school but as a chance to explore and experiment — thought that whether you are a student, parent or teacher, you might be interested in reading the reasons why a music major makes sense.
Here is a link:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2017/06/04/ten-reasons-to-let-your-kid-major-in-music/
Tags: advice, Arts, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, classes, Classical music, college, column, Early music, engineering, experiment, explore, field, Forbes, humanities, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, K-12, lesson, lessons, liberal arts, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, magazine, major, mathematics, Mozart, Music, Music education, music major, opera, Orchestra, Parent, pay, Piano, politician, Politics, practical, private, private school, public, public school, school, school year, science, STEM, Student, symphony, talent, Teacher, technology, trade, trade school, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Classical music: Famed pianist Byron Janis reached out for Chopin. Did Chopin return the favor from beyond the grave?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Recently, The Ear posted a story by pianist Jeremy Denk that, to his mind, did the best job ever of explaining why the music of Frederic Chopin appeals so universally.
Here is a link:
Then more recently The Ear heard another story that involved the famed pianist Byron Janis (below), who studied with Vladimir Horowitz when he was a teenager.
He then went on to a spectacular virtuosic career before his hands were partially crippled by severe psoriatic arthritis. (You can hear him play less virtuosic music very poetically in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Through his piano playing and his library searches, Janis has reached out to Chopin, with some impressive results, including discovering lost manuscripts of famous waltzes.
But more surprising is Janis’ claim that, through a death mask, Chopin has returned the favor from beyond the grave and reached out to him in a paranormal or supernatural way.
The story was broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). It aired on the Saturday version of Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, and then was posted on the blog Deceptive Cadence.
Here is a link:
What do you think?
Do you believe Byron Janis’ story and explanation?
What do you think of his Chopin playing?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: arthritis, Arts, blog, Byron Janis, career, Chopin, Classical music, Compact Disc, cripple, death, death mask, Deceptive Cadence, grave, hand, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, lost, Madison, manuscript, mask, Morning Edition, Music, National Public Radio, New York City, nocturne, NPR, paranormal, Piano, poetic, psoriatic arthritis, Radio, Scott Simon, Sonata, story, supernatural, teenage, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, virtuoso, Vladimir Horowitz, Waltz, Weekend Edition, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Art and politics continue to clash as Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro cancels the U.S. tour by that country’s youth orchestra with superstar maestro Gustavo Dudamel
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By Jacob Stockinger
In the Age of Trump, art and politics continue to increasingly mix and do battle.
One of the latest developments is the decision by President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump not to attend the Kennedy Center Honors – in order, they say, not to disrupt the awards ceremony with politics.
The move came after several recipients protested Trump and his policies.
But Trump’s America isn’t the only place such conflicts between art and politics are happening.
Take the case of superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel (below, rehearsing the youth orchestra in a photo by Getty Images).
Dudamel was trained in the El Sistema program for youth music education and eventually led the Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra of his native country Venezuela before becoming the acclaimed music director and conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he still pioneers music education for poor youth.
For a while, Dudamel’s critics protested his unwillingness go speak out about serious problems in his native country. (Below, you can hear Dudamel and the orchestra opening last season at Carnegie Hall.)
But recently Dudamel spoke out against the abuses of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who, amid many crises, has taken steps to consolidate his power as a dictator.
As retaliation, Maduro (below) cancelled a four-city tour of the U.S. by Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, although some of Maduro’s defenders cite the country’s dire financial situation.
Here is the story that appeared on the Deceptive Cadence blog by National Public Radio (NPR):
Tags: abuse, America, Art, awards, blog, boycott, Carnegie Hall, ceremony, clash, conductor, conflict, country, critics, Deceptive Cadence, dictator, Donald Trump, El Sistema, finances, financial, First Lady, First Lady Melania Trump, Getty Images, Gustavo Dudamel, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center, Kennedy Center Honors, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Maduro, Music director, Music education, National Public Radio, National Youth Orchestra, Nicolas Maduro, NPR, pioneer, Politics, poor, poverty, power, President, President Donald Trump, President Maduro, President of the United States, retaliation, Season, Simon Boliver Symphony Orchestra, superstar, tour, U.S., United States, Venezuela, White House, Youth, Youth Orchestra
Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra introduces its new organist at this Saturday’s FREE Farmers’ Market concert at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall
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By Jacob Stockinger
Greg Zelek (below) is the new organist for the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Zelek will make his official debut at the FREE Farmers’ Market organ recital this Saturday morning at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, the home of the MSO Concert Organ built by Klaisorgelbau of Germany.
Zelek is succeeding Samuel Hutchison, who has retired.
Here is a link to a previous blog post with more details about Zelek, a graduate of the Julliard School in New York City, and his impressive background:
His virtuosic program this Saturday morning includes music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy, American church composers Powell Weaver and Leo Sowerby, and Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona. (Sorry, no word about specific pieces. But you can hear Zelek playing Lecuona’s well-known “Malagueña” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The program will last about 45 minutes.
No tickets or reservation are needed, and all ages are welcome.
For more information, visit:
https://www.madisonsymphony.org/farmers
Tags: America, American, Arts, Bach, Baroque, blog, church, Classical music, Cuba, Dane County Farmers' Market, Debussy, Early music, Ernesto Lecuoña, Farmer's Market, Germany, Greg Zelek, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Juilliard School, Klais Orgelbau, Leo Sowerby, Liszt, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Malagueña, Music, New York City, organ, Overture Center, Paul Jacobs, post, Powell Weaver, program, reservation, Samuel Hutchison, Student, symphony, ticket, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: When you need a quick shot of music, go to “60 Seconds of Classical” on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
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By Jacob Stockinger
Sometimes a minute is all the time you have.
Or all you want or need.
But a quick moment of classical music can still provide the perfect mini-break or pick-me-up or shot-in-the-arm.
Kind of like those Daily Affirmations some people use.
Thanks to gentle nudging by a friend, The Ear has discovered just how to get that mini-fix of music.
It is a site on the social media site Instagram (below).
And the site is called 60secondsofclassical (below), which you can also find in somewhat different formats on Facebook and YouTube
It has terrific diversity and variety, top-quality performers, great music and excellent editing.
It is, in short, a lot of fun.
Almost like a game.
You can subscribe to it and also let the site know what entries you really like or even love.
Don’t read the caption at first.
See if you can identify the performer.
See if you can identify the composer.
See if you can identify the piece.
And see if you know what comes before and after the one-minute snippet.
Anyway there is a full menu of great music, great performers and great performances.
So take a minute — or two or three — and try it.
Check it out.
Then let us know what you think.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: 60 seconds of classical, 60secondsofclassical, affirmation, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Baroque music, Beethoven, brass, caption, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, conductor, daily, daily affirmation, diversity, Early music, Facebook, fix, format, Franz Schubert, game, George Frideric Handel, great, Instagram, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, like, Love, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, mini, minute, Mozart, Music, need, opera, Orchestra, People, percussion, performance, performer, Piano, piece, snippet, social media, Sonata, strings, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, use, variety, Viola, Violin, vocal music, want, winds, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, woodwinds, YouTube
Classical music: Voces Aestatis — Summer Voices — will perform early and Baroque vocal music this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following information to post from Ben Luedcke, the artistic director of the choral group Voces Aestatis (Summer Voices, below).
Luedcke writes:
Voces Aestatis (Summer Voices) will present its third annual summer concert this Friday night, Aug. 25, at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below top and below bottom), 1833 Regent Street in Madison.
Tickets are $20 and available at the door. (Cash and check only; sorry, no credit or debit card sales.)
Artistic Director Ben Luedcke (below) and Assistant Director Ena Foshay have carefully selected singers with a pure blend to perform in this intimate concert venue.
Voces Aestatis is Madison’s only professional choir that specializes in early music.
The group will maintain its tradition of favoring a cappella repertoire of the 16th century, but new this year will be a collaboration with Saint Andrew Episcopal’s music director, Ken Stancer (below).
Stancer will accompany the choir on organ in four 17th-century pieces, including works by Heinrich Schütz, Giovanni Gabrieli, Henry Purcell and Marc-Antione Charpentier.
While the Purcell is the familiar, powerful and climactic “Hear My Prayer,” Gabrieli’s “O Jesu mi dulcissime” and Charpentier’s “Te Deum,” H.147, are rarely performed and are not to be missed.
The Gabrieli setting is for double-choir. But rather than two equal choirs, there are separate low-voice and high-voice choirs that provide a unique and sonorous texture of men and women. Additionally, the Charpentier is full of variety, including solos and quartets within the larger 10-minute piece.
Other a cappella works round out the program, including music by Tomás Luis de Victoria and William Byrd (below).
Most noteworthy will be the group’s fresh look at the double-choir motet “Super flumina babylonis,” by Phillipe de Monte (below). Although the work is typically performed rather slowly and lamentingly, the group will bring a decisively different interpretation with a quicker tempo and active articulations. (You can hear a traditional performance in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Also of note on the first half are pieces by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (below top) and Orlando di Lasso (below bottom), with texts from the “Song of Solomon” — a collection of bible passages that allege to describe the love between Christ and the Church, though they are in fact favorites of choral composers as they are known for their rather erotic descriptive passages.
Finally, Jacob Obrecht’s “Salve Regina” for six voices is likely to stun listeners not only for its beauty, but also because it was written almost 100 years earlier than anything else on the program.
It features a noticeably different and almost austere harmonic palette with overlapping thick textures, as well as many complicated rhythms and chants in between major sections.
Please visit VocesAestatis.org for more information or to support the organization. The group relies on individual donations, so we thank you in advance for supporting the arts in Madison.
Tags: "Song of Solomon", a cappella, articulation, Artistic director, Arts, assistant, Baroque, Ben Luedcke, Bible, blend, Byrd, chant, Charpentier, Choir, choral, choral music, chorus, Christ, church, Classical music, collaboration, collection, composer, Concert, description, descriptive, donation, Early music, Ena Foshay, Episcopal, erotic, familiar, Friday, Gabrieli, harmony, Heinrich Schütz, interpretation, intimate, Jacob Obrecht, Jacob Stockinger, Jesu, Ken Stancer, lament, Lasso, Love, Madison, men, motet, Music, Music director, night, organ, organization, Orlando di Lasso, Palestrina, passage, performance, Philippe de Monte, powerful, prayer, professional, Purcell, Quartet, repertoire, rhythm, singer, solo, Solomon, song, sonorous, St. Andrew, summer, support, Te Deum, Tempo, text, texture, Tomas Luis de Victoria, tradition, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, variety, venue, vocal music, Voces Aestatis, voice, voices, Wisconsin, women, YouTube
Classical music: Listen to live “eclipse music” during today’s solar eclipse
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the day a lot of people have been waiting for for a long time.
The United States will experience a solar eclipse (below).
By now you’ve heard enough about not looking directly at the sun because of the severe damage you risk doing to your eyes.
But indirectly you can watch and also hear it unfold from about 11:15 a.m. CDT for three hours. And you can see it and hear about through any number of media, including television, radio and the Internet. Just Google it and take your choice.
What you may not know is that the entire eclipse in the U.S, will be accompanied by the famed and always adventurous Kronos Quartet (below top) playing an ingenious score – which uses the energy from the sun during the eclipse to create notes — written especially for this occasion by the contemporary San Francisco composer Wayne Grim (below bottom) especially for this occasion.
You can hear a sample of Grim’s music for another scientific project at the Exploratorium in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Here are links to the stories on National Public Radio (NPR) and the web, which feature a link to the live-streamed performance from the Exploratorium in San Francisco:
https://www.space.com/37845-kronos-quartet-serenades-total-solar-eclipse.html
And for good measure, here is a link to a story about the first photograph ever taken of a solar eclipse – the one that appears above. The daguerreotype dates from July 28, 1851 and was taken by Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2017/08/20/behold-the-first-photograph-of-a-solar-eclipse/
Tags: airship, America, Arts, Berkowski, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, contemporary music, create, Creation, daguerrotype, damage, day, eclipse, energy, Exploratorium, eye, eyes, float, Google, Internet, Jacob Stockinger, Kronos Quartet, live-stream, Madison, NASA, National Public Radio, note, notes, NPR, photograph, Radio, San Francisco, science, scientific, score, solar, solar eclipse, String quartet, sun, Television, time, today, TV, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, wait, Wayne Grim, Wisconsin, Zeppelin
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Composer-performer John Harbison explains why the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival is revisiting “The Musical Offering” by Johann Sebastian Bach for a third time
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you have ever attended a concert at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival (below), which opens this Saturday night at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m., you know how insightful the short commentaries by John Harbison invariably are.
Perhaps that should come as no surprise. Harbison (below), the co-founder and co-artistic director with his violinist wife Rose Mary Harbison, has been awarded a MacArthur ‘genius grant” and won a Pulitzer Prize, all while teaching at MIT.
The concerts this weekend focus on Johann Sebastian Bach’s incredible “Musical Offering,” part of which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Here is a program note by composer-pianist Harbison, which will probably be complemented by some additional remarks:
”Every musician has the experience of understanding a piece better after they have performed it. A few have careers which welcome (sometimes to a fault) chances to re-perform, hopefully with greater insight, a piece they wish to carry with them and continue to share with colleagues and listeners.
“We have performed two complete Musical Offerings by Bach (below) at Token Creek. Why are we going back to its Trio Sonata? Because it has become necessary, for the fullness of our encounter, to present what is a revision, a reconsideration, a reinforcement of vows, regarding a masterpiece whose carrot remains forever on the stick.
“Such could be said about other elements on this program. One of the subtexts is about the fascinating issue of continuo realization — the piano or harpsichord part — the strange language in which harmonic structure is described to the player in cipher.
“In pieces by Bach this language is strained to the breaking point in works such as The Musical Offering and the E minor sonata for violin and continuo; it is in fact about to disappear, replaced by the explicit writing out, in pitches, all the musical information. Living in the world before and after this decision was taken is one of the preoccupations of this concert.
“In a concert dominated by Bach, the requirement of the other pieces (by Haydn and Harbison) is really sufficient originality and integrity not to be dwarfed or rendered ephemeral by his authority, a high bar, considered carefully by the management.”
For more information about the five concerts of three different programs, including ticket information, go to: http://tokencreekfestival.org
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