The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: The chamber music group Con Vivo opens its 16th season this Saturday night and the free Unitarian Society’s Friday Noon Musicales resume this week

By Jacob Stockinger

The new concert season continues to get underway with two more openings this weekend.

FRIDAY

This Friday, the FREE Friday Noon Musicales at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will resume.

The weekly concerts, planned by FUS music director Dan Broner, run from 12:15 to 1 p.m.

This week’s program features flutist Iva Ugrcic (below) and pianist Satoko Hayami in music by Nikolai Kapustin, Carl Vine, Andre Jolivet and Minoru Miki. (Sorry, no specific pieces were named.)

SATURDAY

On Saturday night, the Madison-based chamber music ensemble Con Vivo (Music With Life, below) opens its 16th season.

The concert is entitled “Three’s Company” and takes place this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave. across from Camp Randall.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at Orange Tree Imports: 1721 Monroe St., or at the door for $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.

The group opens its season with music for piano duet, Libertango, by Argentinean tango master Astor Piazzolla. (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom. It is performed by the husband-and-wife piano duo of Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, who recently played together in Madison at Farley’s House of Pianos.)

The Terzetto for string trio by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak will also be performed.

The evening will close with the beautiful Trio for clarinet, cello and piano by Austrian composer Carl Fruhling (below).

Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception where they can discuss the concert with the musicians.

In remarking about the concert, artistic director Robert Taylor says: “We are delighted and thrilled to begin our ‘Sweet Sixteen’ season with music that will surely entertain, enliven and energize our audience. We are sure this will once again be a concert to remember.”

Con Vivo is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.