The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Madison Opera stages Bizet’s “Carmen” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Opera will perform Georges Bizet’s “Carmen” this Friday night, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Nov. 5, at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall at the Overture Center, 201 State Street. (Below is the set from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City that is being used for the production.)
Tickets are $18-$130. (See below for details.)
With some of the most famous music in opera, Bizet’s passionate work is a vivid story of love, jealousy and betrayal.
Set in 19th-century Seville, Spain, the opera follows a gypsy determined to live life on her own terms – whatever her fate may be.
On a break from her shift at the cigarette factory, Carmen tosses a flower at a corporal named Don José, who ignores her advances. Only after Carmen is arrested and placed in José’s custody does he begin to fall for her, breaking the law and abandoning his hometown sweetheart.
What follows is a torrid love affair of passion, agonizing rage, and fanatical desire that will change their lives forever.
“Carmen is the reason I run an opera company,” says Kathryn Smith, Madison Opera’s general director (below, in a photo by James Gill). “I fell in love with opera as a teenager in the children’s chorus of a ‘Carmen’ production, as its incredible score and intense story hooked me immediately – not to mention the sheer excitement of having principal artists, chorus, children’s chorus, dancers, and orchestra all come together to create this astonishing world. I am so delighted to produce ‘Carmen’ in Madison, with this spectacular cast and production team.”
At the premiere of “Carmen” in Paris on March 3, 1875, audiences were shocked at its characters’ apparent lack of morality and virtue, and critics derided Bizet’s music. (You can hear the ever-popular Toreador Song in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Three months after the opera’s premiere, Bizet died of heart disease. He was only 36 years old and would never know that his “flop” of an opera would become a global sensation over the next two centuries.
“Carmen was the first opera I saw as a young teenager,” remembers Madison Opera’s artistic director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad). “It should be everyone’s first opera. It is the perfect blend of musical theater and grand opera, with thrilling choruses, great tunes from start to finish, and a compelling story of ill-fated love. And then there is Carmen herself, one of the most alluring characters of all time. I love conducting this great opera, which is so gorgeously orchestrated.”
Madison Opera’s cast features both returning artists and debuts. Making her debut in the title role is Aleks Romano (below), a rising young singer whom Opera News recently praised for her “attractively smoky mezzo-soprano.”
Acclaimed tenor Sean Panikkar (below) makes his role debut as Don José. He debuted with Madison Opera at Opera in the Park 2014, but this is his first mainstage appearance with the company.
Also returning to Madison Opera are Cecilia Violetta López (below top) as José’s hometown sweetheart Micaëla and Corey Crider (below bottom) as the toreador Escamillo. López debuted at this past summer’s Opera in the Park; Crider sang the title role in “Sweeney Todd” with Madison Opera in 2015.
Thomas Forde (below), who most recently sang Luther/Crespel in Madison Opera’s “The Tales of Hoffman,” returns to play José’s commanding officer, Zuniga.
Studio artists Anna Polum and Megan Le Romero play Carmen’s friends Frasquita and Mercedes. Studio Artist Benjamin Liupaogo and Wisconsin native Erik Earl Larson play the smugglers, Remendado and Dancaïre. Rounding out the cast is Charles Eaton in his debut as Morales. (Many have ties to the opera program at the UW-Madison.)
Directing this traditional staging is E. Loren Meeker (below) in her first production for Madison Opera. Meeker has directed at opera companies around the United States, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival and Wolf Trap Opera.
“A piece like Carmen captures our imagination and begs to be re-told over the centuries because the characters speak to the deepest and most honest parts of human nature,” says Meeker. “Today we grapple with love, lust, jealousy, morality, honor, and freedom just as much as people did when this opera premiered in 1875.
“At Madison Opera we have a brilliant cast who is willing to unravel the mystery of these characters with me scene by scene – making each choice onstage new, fresh, and true to the characters and arch of the story.
“Bringing this vivid world to life set to some of the most rich and well known music in the operatic canon, plus the fun of working with dancers, a fight director, the Madison Youth Choir, and a large adult chorus challenges me and inspires me all at the same time. The energy created in the performance, the brilliant music sung by such amazing artists, makes this classic opera worth seeing again and again and again.”
Carmen is a truly grand opera and features the Madison Opera Chorus, led by chorusmaster Anthony Cao (below); members of the Madison Youth Choirs; the Madison Symphony Orchestra; and dancers from Tania Tandias Flamenco and Spanish Dance.
For more information about the cast, go to:
http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2017-2018/carmen/cast/
For informative and entertaining Q&As with the cast members, go to the Madison Opera’s Blogspot:
http://madisonopera.blogspot.com
For tickets, call the Overture Center box office at (608) 258-4141 or go to:
http://www.overture.org/events/madison-opera
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Classical music: The UW Pro Arte Quartet and Wingra Wind Quintet prove exceptional partners in a joint all-Schubert concert
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
On Saturday night, in Mills Hall on the campus, two ensembles from the Mead Witter School of Music at the UW-Madison joined forces in an all-Schubert program.
The two groups were the Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) and the Wingra Wind Quintet (no group photo is available).
The music of Schubert (below) will, of course, guarantee a delightful evening, and that was certainly the case this time.
As a prologue, there was the set of variations for flute and piano, D. 802, on Schubert’s own song, Trockne Blumen from his Die schöne Müllerin song cycle. This was played with real flair by Timothy Hagen with pianist Daniel Fung (both are below). Hagen preceded the performance by explaining the relationship of the variations to the whole cycle. (You can hear the original song sung by the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
That choice of an opener had its point because the variations were composed just weeks before the major work on the program, Schubert’s Octet in F, D. 803.
There is much individuality in this Octet, scored for a combination of strings and winds. It is true that Schubert’s elder contemporary, Louis Spohr, had written such an octet, if with slightly different scoring, in 1817, while Schubert’s was composed in 1824. Still, Schubert’s hour-long score is more expansive, a work remarkable at its time and hardly equaled since.
In this broad, symphonically scaled six-movement work, Schubert just poured out one feast of melodic invention after another. One does not often have a chance to hear this work in concert, but this performance was a particularly memorable one.
The performers (below) were clarinetist Alicia Lee, bassoonist Mark Vallon, and hornist Joanna Schulz, along with bassist David Scholl, plus the usual four members of the Pro Arte Quartet.
Ah, but that last element gave the evening special meaning, for it involved the return to performing by cellist Parry Karp (below). A recent accident had damaged two fingers on his left hand; but here he was, all fingers flying with the spirited efficiency.
It proved a welcome moment in the quartet’s current life, and itself added a significant dimension to this concert.
Tags: accident, American, American Record Guide, Arts, bass, blog, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, contemporary, cycle, Daniel Fung, delight, Die Schöne Müllerin, Die Schoene Muellerin, Early music, elder, emeritus, Finger, flute, Franz Schubert, guide, History, Horn, hour, injury, invention, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Louis Spohr, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, Medieval, melodic, melody, movement, Music, Octet, Orchestra, Parry Karp, partner, photo, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, professor, Radio, record, review, score, song, symphony, theme and variations, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wingra Wind Quintet, Wingra Woodwind Quintet, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: University Opera stages a compelling and fully engaging cabaret of Kurt Weill songs
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear’s friend and colleague, The Opera Guy, has filed the following review.
By Larry Wells
I attended a nearly full-house opening of University Opera’s “A Kurt Weill Cabaret” Friday night in Music Hall on Bascom Hill.
The 90-minute show was comprised of about 20 numbers from the body of works by Weill (below, in a photo from the German Federal Archive. The ensembles, solos and duets were arranged into three sections with a loose narrative structure linking the pieces.
Throughout the evening I was unaware of the passage of time, which is one of my acid tests for a good performance. Likewise, I felt fully engaged.
Many of the numbers will be familiar to Weill’s fans. The well-known “Whiskey Bar/Alabama Song” was the opening solo for Sarah Kendall, who performed it more as a Puccini aria than as the world-weary, boozy Jenny. It was a novel and strangely compelling interpretation.
(Kendall performing “Whiskey Bar” with the company, is below in a photo by Michael R. Anderson, who took all the performance photographs)
More convincingly conveyed was “I’m a Stranger Here Myself” performed by the sprightly and clear-voiced Emily Weaver. “My Ship” sung by Miranda Kettlewell (below right, singing the Ice Cream Sextet with Alec Brown) was perfectly enunciated and movingly sung.
Since there were no supertitles, clear enunciation was a problem in a couple of the performances.
Likewise, mention should be made of Emily Vandenberg’s haunting rendition of “Surabaya Johnny.” (You can hear the legendary Weill interpreter Lotte Lenya sing “Surabaya Johnny” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
My favorite performances of the evening included “‘Youkali” by Talia Engstrom. My notes simply said “Perfection.” And my perennial favorite Courtney Kayser (below) did not disappoint with “J’attends un navire” and “Denn wie man sich bettet.” She is an excellent actress, possesses outstanding musicianship, and commands a clearly focused voice.
The women singers seriously overshadowed the men’s solo performances. I was wondering why that might have been. One possibility is that the men, who are trained operatically, find that they need to scale back their vocal projection for lighter vocal fare and in doing so sound constrained.
(Below, from back to front and left to right, are: Alec Brown, Jeff Larson, Jake Elfner, Sarah Kendall, Talia Engstrom, Matt Chastain in the “Benares Song.”)
Having said that, I thought Matt Chastain’s “Oh the Rio Grande” from the not well-known “Johnny Johnson” was both well sung and amusing to watch.
My companion admired the voice and acting of Alec Brown, and we both believed that Tim Emery is a dead ringer for a young Jimmy Stewart.
Some of the most compelling moments were the ensembles from Weill’s heavier works. “The Benares Song” highlighted Weill’s gravitas as a composer as did “Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen” from “Das Berliner Requiem.”
The cast members’ acting and vocal skills came to the forefront in these ensembles. (Below is “Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen” with Matt Chastain, Miranda Kettlewell, Alec Brown, Tim Emery, Emily Weaver, Eliav Goldman and Jeffrey Larson in the foreground).
Daniel Fung (below top) heroically provided the piano accompaniment without slacking for even a moment. Kudos to him. He was joined by a string bass and drum all conducted by Chad Hutchinson (below bottom) with unflaggingly appropriate tempi and dynamics.
This was the seventh production by David Ronis (below in a photo by Luke Delallio) for University Opera at the UW-Madison, and his consistently novel approach to the productions has made each one a joy. His commitment to quality and novelty is admirable.
I am eager to see what Ronis has in store for us this coming spring with “La Bohème” to be staged at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
I highly recommend attending “A Kurt Weill Cabaret,” which will be repeated this afternoon at 3 p.m. and Tuesday evening (Halloween night) at 7:30 p.m. Admission for the general public is $25; $20 for seniors; and $10 for UW students.
For more background and information about getting tickets, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2017/09/27/university-opera-presents-a-kurt-weill-cabaret/
Tags: accompaniment, actress, admission, Alabama Song, archive, aria, Arts, bass, Benares, Berlin, Berliner Requiem, booze, cabaret, Chad Hutchinson, choral music, Classical music, commitment, composer, conductor, David Ronis, double bass, drum, duet, dynamics, ensemble, enunciation, fan, favorite, federal, Friday, German, German Americans, Germany, heroic, ice cream, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, James Stewart, Jimmy Stewart, kudos, Kurt Weill, La bohème, Lotte Lenya, Madison, men, Music, Musician, musicianship, narrative, night, note, novelty, opera, Orchestra, perennial, perfection, performance, photo, photograph, Piano, piece, Potsdam, production, Puccini, quality, Requiem, Rio Grande, senior, sextet, sing, singer, skill, solo, song, Spring, stranger, string, structure, Student, supertitle, Surabaya Johnny, tempi, Tempo, ticket, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, vocal music, voice, weary, Whiskey Bar, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, women, world, world-weary, YouTube
Classical music: Should the Madison Symphony Orchestra return to a traditional Opening Gala concert with a guest soloist and big pieces, and move the all-orchestra concert to a later date?
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By Jacob Stockinger
You can’t blame longtime music director and conductor John DeMain (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) for wanting to put the spotlight on the players of the Madison Symphony Orchestra that he has built up over nearly 25 years.
After all, the orchestra members play well and respond superbly to DeMain’s direction, no matter what you might think of his programming and interpretations. He is proud of them with good reason.
So The Ear can easily understand why for the past few years DeMain has chosen to use an all-orchestra concert, with its principals taking the place of guest soloists, to open the season.
Yet DeMain also likes to emphasize the challenges he faces in selling tickets, filling seats and keeping the MSO a commercially successful orchestra.
The Ear noticed that this year, the all-orchestra opening concert of works by Bach-Stokowski, Mendelssohn and Berlioz, with principal violist Christopher Dozoryst as soloist, seemed to draw a smaller and less enthusiastic audience than the second concert did last weekend.
That second concert included the “Mother Goose” Suite by Ravel, the surefire “New World” Symphony by Dvorak and the Piano Concerto by Samuel Barber with guest pianist Olga Kern (below). The audience wildly cheered her and her flashy, virtuosic playing until it received an encore (the Prokofiev etude heard in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
So the question came to The Ear:
Should the MSO return to a traditional Gala Opening, with a surefire program and a high-profile guest soloist, and leave the all-orchestra concert until the second concert of the season?
The Ear checked out what other orchestras do.
This year, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra opened with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. The Los Angeles Philharmonic opened with a gala program that featured pianists Yuja Wang and Jean-Yves Thibaudet teaming up in an all-Mozart program. The San Francisco Orchestra featured superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
The Philadelphia Orchestra programmed pianist Emanuel Ax and the music of Beethoven, Brahms and Leonard Bernstein, whose centennial is being celebrated this season. The Boston Symphony Orchestra opened with Frederica von Stade, plus other singers, in an all-Bernstein program.
True, the Sheboygan Symphony also used the all-orchestra opener, and The Ear is sure there are many other orchestras, including some prominent ones, that do the same.
But it got The Ear to wondering. So he asked some other loyal MSO fans what they thought about returning to a traditional Gala Opening – one that announces to potential subscribers that great soloists will be featured during the season – and then moving the all-orchestra concert to a different date.
All the people he spoke to agreed that such a move would probably draw bigger audiences and capture the public’s attention better. One loyal patron even said that by going to the all-orchestra opening, the MSO (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) was “just being cheap.”
Plans are probably already being made for next season, so it is likely too late to make any changes that soon.
But what about the 2018-19 season?
What do you think?
Should the Madison Symphony Orchestra return to a traditional Gala Opening that features big-name soloists and well-known pieces?
Should it move the all-orchestra concert with principal soloists to, say, the second concert of the season?
Or should things stay the way they are?
Which way do you think would be more commercially successful and sell more seats for that concert and for the rest of the season?
And which way would be more artistically satisfying?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Anne-Sophie Mutter, Arts, audience, Baroque, Beethoven, Berlioz, Bernstein, Brahms, centennial, Chamber music, cheap, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Classical music, commercially, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, date, Dvorak, Emanuel Ax, encore, energy, etude, flashy, Frederica von Stade, gala, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John DeMain, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn, Mother Goose, Mozart, Music, Music director, New World Symphony, Olga Kern, opening, Orchestra, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Orchestra, Piano, Piano concerto, pride, principal, program, programming, Prokofiev, Samuel Barber, San Francisco Symphony, Season, seat, Sheboygan, Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, soloist, Stokowski, subscriber, Suite, symphony, Tchaikovsky, ticket, tradition, traditional, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Violin concerto, virtuosic, vocal music, weekend, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube, Yuja Wang
Classical music: Piano sensation Daniil Trifonov plays the “Fantaisie-Impromptu” by Chopin and makes it his own
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By Jacob Stockinger
Take a world-class young pianist who is a global sensation and on his way to being a superstar who specializes in Chopin – Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov (below).
Add in one of the best-known, most popular works by Frederic Chopin – his “Fantaisie-Impromptu.”
Blend in a warehouse loft and a ghostly, pop-like video with a dance-like narrative, all designed to promote Trifonov’s new CD – a budget double-disc set called “Chopin Evocations” (below).
The recording also features both piano concertos with some new orchestral touches by Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev as well as Chopin-influenced solo pieces by Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg, Samuel Barber, Peter Tchaikovsky and Federico Mompou.
The result may well be the most original, individual and persuasive versions of the famous piece you have ever heard of the almost clichéd piece.
Here is a link to the performance with the video, along with some fine background material from Tom Huizenga who writes the “Deceptive Cadence” blog for NPR (National Public Radio):
What do you think of Trifonov’s playing in this and other works?
And what do you think about the video, which The Ear finds a bit over-the-top, both precious and schmaltzy, not at all in keeping with Chopin’s more austere and classical kind of Romanticism.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, background, ballet, best-known, blog, budget, Chopin, Chopin Evocations, Classical, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, conductor, dance, Daniil Trifonov, Deceptive Cadence, Deutsche Grammophon, DG, disc, evocation, famous, Fantaisie-Impromptu, fantasy, ghost, ghost-like, global, globe, Grieg, impromptu, individual, Jacob Stockinger, loft, Madison, material, Mikhail Pletnev, Mompou, Music, narrative, NPR, Orchestra, original, persuasive, Piano, pieces, playing, Pletnev, pop, pop music, popular, precious, promote, Romantic, Romanticism, Russia, Russian, Samuel Barber, schmaltz, Schumann, solo, spirit, superstar, Tchaikovsky, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, warehouse, world, world-class
Classical music: You can mix beer and cello duets this Saturday afternoon for free
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement — with news of two composers he has never heard of — to post from The Malt House tavern (below) on the eastside of Madison at the corner of East Washington Avenue and Milwaukee Street:
This Saturday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 5 p.m., cellist Taralie Peterson (below top) joins frequent Malt House performer Karl von Huene (below bottom) to play some cello duets.
I’ve been told the duo will play works by composers Johann Sebastian Bach (below top), Friedrich August Kummer (below middle) and Jacques Féréol Mazas (below bottom).
You can hear Kummer’s Cello Duet No. 1 in the YouTube video at the bottom.
There is no charge.
Cheers,
Bill Rogers, The Malt House
For more information about The Malt House, go to:
Tags: Arts, avenue, Bach, bar, Baroque, Beer, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, duet, duo, Friedrich August Kummer, Jacob Stockinger, Jacques Féréol Mazas, Johann Sebastian Bach, Karl von Huene, Madison, malt, Malt House, Milwaukee, Music, performer, street, Taralie Peterson, tavern, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Washington, Wisconsin, work, YouTube
Classical music: The UW’s Pro Arte Quartet and Wingra Wind Quintet join forces this Saturday night in a FREE performance of the famous Octet by Franz Schubert. You can also hear a free concert of music by Brouwer, Nazareth and Rodrigo this Friday at noon.
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ALERT: This Friday’s FREE Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature guitarist Christopher Allen, violist Shannon Farley and flutist Iva Ugrcic. The program includes music by Leo Brouwer, Ernesto Nazareth and Joaquin Rodrigo. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
It is one of the towering masterpieces of chamber music composed in the 19th century.
And the lyrical, dance-like and upbeat Octet for strings and winds by Franz Schubert (below top) will be performed in a FREE concert this Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall. (The opening page of the autograph manuscript is below bottom.)
The program also features the “Introduction and Variations for flute and piano,” D. 802, by Schubert, with flutist Timothy Hagen (below top) and pianist Daniel Fung (below bottom).
Then comes the one-hour Octet in F Major, D. 803. (You can hear some of it in the YouTube video at the bottom.) For more about the Octet, which is Schubert’s largest chamber work and uses themes from a song and other vocal music by him, go to the Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(Schubert)
Performers for the entire concert come from the combined UW faculty forces of the Pro Arte String Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) and the Wingra Wind Quintet.
In the Octet, the performers are: David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violin; Sally Chisholm, viola; Parry Karp, cello; Alicia Lee, clarinet (below top); Joanna Schulz, horn (below middle); Marc Vallon, bassoon (below bottom, in a photo by James Gill); and David Scholl, double bass.
For information about the Pro Arte Quartet, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/pro-arte-quartet/
For information about the Wingra Wind Quintet, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/wingra-woodwind-quintet/
Tags: Arts, audience, autograph, bass, Bassoon, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, Concert, dance, double bass, First Unitarian Society of Madison, flute, Franz Schubert, free, Friday, friend, guitar, Horn, introduction, Jacob Stockinger, Leo Brouwer, listener, lyrical, Madison, manuscript, Marc Vallon, masterpiece, Music, musicale, Nazareth, noon, Octet, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, Rodrigo, Saturday, Schubert, singer, song, String quartet, theme and variations, Unitarian, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wikipedia, Wind, Wind quintet, winds, Wingra Wind Quintet, Wingra Woodwind Quintet, Wisconsin, woodwind, YouTube
Classical music: Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble to bring ‘Music of the Reformation’ to four Wisconsin cities, including Madison, Oct. 27–29
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble (below) will perform a late-October series of FREE public concerts in four Wisconsin cities featuring music by composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn and others in a centuries-spanning program titled “Music of the Reformation.”
Performances will take place Friday, Oct. 27, in Appleton; Saturday, Oct. 28, in Delafield and Watertown; and Sunday, Oct. 29, in Madison.
“The hour-long concert program commemorates the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany in 1517,” said Rodney Holmes, founder and artistic director of the Gargoyle ensemble. “Audiences will hear works embracing the most famous melodies written by Reformation leader Martin Luther (below), who was a composer as well as a religious figure.”
The program includes James Curnow’s contemporary “Rejouissance: Fantasia on ‘Ein feste Burg’ (A Mighty Fortress)” for organ; Heinrich Schütz’s “Three Becker Psalms,” Op. 5, a Baroque work for brass quartet; Bach’s Canonic Variations on “Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her” (“From Heaven above to Earth I come”), BWV 769, for organ; and Otto Nicolai’s early Romantic “Ecclesiastical Festival Overture on the chorale ‘Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,’” Op. 31, arranged for brass and organ by Craig Garner.
Also on the program are: Max Reger’s late Romantic “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott,” Op. 27, for organ; Randall E. Faust’s contemporary “Fantasy” on the hymn “Von Himmel hoch,” for horn and organ; and Garner’s brass and organ arrangement, “Introduction and Finale,” from Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, “Reformation,” Op. 107.
Performers will include Madison-based organist Jared Stellmacher (below), an award-winning musician heard on the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble’s critically acclaimed 2015 debut CD “Flourishes, Tales and Symphonies.” He holds a master’s degree in music from Yale University.
Gargoyle brass players will include trumpeters Lev Garbar and Andrew Hunter, horn player Kathryn Swope, trombonist Karen Mari, and artistic director Holmes on tuba.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
Here are the dates, times, and locations of the Gargoyle ensemble’s “Music of the Reformation” concerts, with local contact information. No tickets or reservations are required for these FREE events:
*Friday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church, 912 North Oneida Street, in Appleton, Wis., 54911. www.zionappleton.com/home
Contact: Matthew Walsh, 920-739-3104
*Saturday, Oct. 28, at 3 p.m. at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1600 North Genesee Street, in Delafield, WI 53018
Contact: Mark Gould, 262-646-2343
*Saturday, Oct. 28, at 6:30 p.m. at Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, 204 North Tenth Street, Watertown, WI 53094
Contact: Janis Shackley, 920-261-1663
*Sunday, Oct. 29, at 2 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, Madison, WI 53711
Contact: Jared Stellmacher, 608-271-6633
Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble
“The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble plays with warmth, elegance, and panache,” said U.S. music magazine Fanfare in a review of the ensemble’s debut CD. “[They] are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment.”
The group takes its whimsical name from the stone figures atop gothic buildings at the University of Chicago, where the now-professional ensemble got its start in 1992 as a brass quintet of faculty and students. (You can hear a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Under its founder and artistic director Rodney Holmes, it has evolved over the decades into an independent organization of classically trained musicians that focuses on commissioning and performing groundbreaking new works and arrangements for brass and pipe organ. You can find more information at gargoylebrass.com.
Tags: A Mighty Fortress, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, Appleton, Artistic director, Arts, award, Bach, Baroque, brass, Brass quintet, Canon, canonic, CD, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble, choral music, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, Classical music, Compact Disc, Concert, Delafield, Earth, ecclesiastical, Ein feste Burg, Fantasia, fortress, free, gargoyle, Germany, God, Gothic, heaven, Heinrich Schütz, Horn, hymn, Jacob Stockinger, James Curnow, Jared Stellmacher, Johann Sebastian Bach, King, Lutheran, Lutheranism, Martin Luther, Max Reger, melody, Mendelssohn, mighty, Music, Orchestra, organ, Otto Nicolai, program, Protestant, Protestant Reformation, psalm, public, Quartet, quintet, Randall E. Faust, Reformation, Religion, symphony, Trombone, Trumpet, United States, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, variations, Watertown, write, Yale University
Classical music: The University Opera performs an unusual and original Kurt Weill cabaret this coming Friday night and Sunday afternoon and next Tuesday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This fall, University Opera is taking a short break from strictly operatic offerings – in the spring it will stage Puccini’s “La Bohème” — as it turns to the music of Kurt Weill (1900-1950).
No ordinary medley, A KURT WEILL CABARET is an organized pastiche of 21 solos and ensembles from many diverse works by Kurt Weill (below, in a photo from the German Federal Archive), and will be presented at Music Hall on the UW-Madison campus at the foot of Bascom Hill.
(One of the most famous and popular Kurt Weill songs to be performed, “Alabama Song,” once covered by the rock band The Doors in the 1960s, can be heard performed by Lotte Lenya in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Performances are this Friday, Oct. 27, at 7:30 p.m.; this coming Sunday, Oct. 29, at 3 p.m.; and next Tuesday night, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m.
University Opera director David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke Delalio) will direct the show.
Chad Hutchinson (below), adjunct professor of orchestras, will conduct.
Musical preparation will be by UW-Madison collaborative pianist and vocal coach, Daniel Fung (below bottom).
Tickets are $25 for the general public; $20 for seniors; and $10 for UW students.
Here is a link to a full-length press release from the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It has information about the performers and the program as well as historical background about Kurt Weill and how to purchase tickets.
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2017/09/27/university-opera-presents-a-kurt-weill-cabaret/
For more information in general about University Opera, got to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/opera/
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Does anyone else feel put off by the amount of requests for money from music organizations?
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By Jacob Stockinger
It happened again this weekend.
The Ear got two more mailings from local music groups.
And both solicited money – again.
It seems like all communications these days include a plea for money, more money.
Up to a point, The Ear understands why charities and non-profits seek donations and he doesn’t mind it.
But it is beginning to happen so often and to feel so off-putting that it is taking the focus away from the music.
It reminds The Ear of when he used to contribute to such worthwhile groups as Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and the ACLU.
A generous yearly donation never seemed enough.
Every month some new “emergency” arose and they came back for more. After a while, you started to feel like a sucker, or at least a bottomless well in their eyes.
The only solution was to end the annual donation and get off the mailing list.
Now, much of the music business is starting to feel just that – too much business and too little music.
The commercialism is starting to feel overwhelming and alienating, especially when one already pays hefty prices for some tickets.
Is The Ear alone?
Should he feel differently?
Or do others feel the same way?
Leave your thoughts in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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