The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Easter is a perfect time to ask: How religious was Johann Sebastian Bach?
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday is Easter 2018.
It seems a perfect time ask: How religious was the great Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach (below)?
It also seems a perfect time to listen to Bach.
After all, has any composer written more Easter music or greater Easter music than Bach did in his passions, oratorios and cantatas?
According to the new book “Bach and God” by Michael Marissen, Bach — who was composing prolifically in the early days of the Protestant Reformation and Lutheranism — was far more religious than many Bach specialists, especially modern ones, have believed.
Here is a long and highly informative book review from The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/arts/music/bach-religion-music.html
And while you are reading the book review, you can listen to Bach’s “Easter Oratorio,” BWV 249. Here it is in a YouTube video that features the Bach specialist and scholar John Eliot Gardiner conducting singers and instrumentals — for soloists plus the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists — in a wonderful period-instrument performance, with historically informed performance practices.
Tags: #BachAndGod, #BaroqueMusic, #BookReview, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianReligion, #EasterOratorio, #EnglishBaroqueSoloists, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #JesusChrist, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnEliotGardiner, #MartinLuther, #MichaelMarissen, #MonteverdiChoir, #PeriodInstruments, #ProtestantReformation, #ReligiousMusic, #TheNewYorkTImes, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, Arts, Bach, Bach and God, Baroque, Book, Cantata, Cello, Choir, choral music, chorus, Christ, Christian symbolism, Christianity, Classical music, composer, Early music, earlymusic, Easter, English Baroque Soloists, God, historically informed performance practices, holy, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Eliot Gardiner, Luther, Lutheranism, Madison, Monteverdi Choir, Music, New York Times, oratorio, Orchestra, Passion, period-instrument, Protestant, Reformation, Religion, religious, review, Sunday, The New York Times, time, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Today is both Good Friday and Passover. Here is music to mark both religious holidays
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Good Friday, 2018.
Today is Passover, 2018.
Today is both religious holidays.
So it is a good time to recall that the original Last Supper that led to Easter WAS a Seder where Jesus Christ and his Disciples celebrated Passover, as depicted in the famous Renaissance painting “The Last Supper” (below) by Leonard da Vinci.
So today The Ear offers Jewish music that is an homage to both Christianity and Judaism.
If you go to YouTube, you can find a lot of music celebrating each event from Johann Sebastian Bach, and before, to the notorious anti-Semite Richard Wagner.
But in the YouTube video at the bottom, The Ear is offering a moving performance of Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo: A Hebrew Rhapsody” as played by cellist Leonard Rose with the Cleveland Orchestra under conductor Lorin Maazel.
The mood of the music feels right for both Passover and Good Friday.
The Ear hopes you agree.
Tags: #AntiSemitism, #CelloConcerto, #CelloMusic, #ChristianReligion, #ClevelandOrchestra, #ErnestBloch, #GoodFriday, #JesusChrist, #JewishReligion, #JohannSebastianBach, #LeonardodaVinci, #LeonardRose, #LorinMaazel, #ReligiousHoliday, #RichardWagner, #Seder, #TheLastSupper, anti-Semitic, anti-Semitism, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Bloch, Cello, Christian, Christianity, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Disciples, Easter, Easter Vigil, God, Good Friday, Hebrew, Holiday, Holy Week, homage, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Jewish, Johann Sebastian Bach, Judaism, Leonard Rose, Leonardo Da Vinci, Madison, Music, Orchestra, painting, Passover, Passover Seder, Religion, religious, Renaissance, rhapsody, The Last Supper, United States, Wagner, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Here is how Chopin’s famous “Fantaisie-Impromptu” sounds – and looks
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By Jacob Stockinger
One of the most popular pieces in the piano repertoire is the “Fantaisie-Impromptu” in C-sharp minor, Op. 66, by Frederic Chopin (below).
Chances are good that you already know how it sounds.
But it case you don’t, here is one popular interpretation – with almost 9 million views – thanks to a YouTube video by the Chinese pianist Yundi Li (now known simply as Yundi). In 2000, at the age of 18, he became the youngest person ever to win the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition.
And here is how it looks in an arresting, artistic and ingenious graphic display that might help you to understand the work structurally, rhythmically, melodically and harmonically:
Do you have any reactions to the playing and the seeing?
Do you want to see more of such graphic interpretations? Of what specific pieces?
Leave your thoughts in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #FredericChopin, #InternationalChopinPianoCompetition, #LiYundi, #PianoMusic, #Yundi, #YundiLI, arrest, arresting, artistic, Arts, China, Chinese, Chopin, Chopin International Piano Competition, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, display, famous, graphic, harmony, hear, International;= Chopin Piano Competition, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, melodically, melody, person, Piano, popular, repertoire, rhythm, rhythmically, see, structurally, structure, thought, understand, United States, video, win, young, YouTube
Classical music: Visionary Venezuelan music educator José Antonio Abreu is dead at 78
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ALERT: Because of Good Friday and Easter, there is no Friday Noon Musicale this week at the First Unitarian Society of Madison. The free concerts, from 12:15 to 1 p.m., will resume next week.
By Jacob Stockinger
By any measure José Antonio Abreu (below), who died on March 24 at age 78, was a titan — but a beloved and accessible titan.
He invented and nurtured the famous El Sistema program of music education for all students – especially poor students – in his native Venezuela.
First he worked hard to make the program grow and succeed throughout his homeland.
Then in recent years, he helped to spread his inspired model around the world.
A tireless educator, Abreu has altered how we think about music education and how we do it. As a result, many countries and cities as well as music schools and professional music organizations have adopted El Sistema.
If you have heard of him before, it is likely because of his most famous pupil, the superstar conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel (below right).
Here are two excellent obituaries, with a lot of background and details about El Sistema in Venezuela and around the world, including the United States, about Abreu:
From The New York Times:
From The Washington Post:
You can find many tributes to Abreu, including an 18-minute TED Talk by Abreu himself, on YouTube. Many of them are in Spanish and many offer a lot of music.
Here is something shorter and simpler to remember him by: the beautiful and stately “Pavane for a Dead Princess” by Maurice Ravel accompanying Abreu’s own words and those of others.
Tags: #BrassMusic, #ElSistema, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #GoodFriday, #GustavoDudamel, #JoséAntonioAbreu, #LosAngelesPhilharmonic, #MauriceRavel, #MusicEducation, #PercussionMusic, #StringMusic, #TheNewYorkTImes, #TheWashingtonPost, #UnitedStates, #WindMusic, accessible, America, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, beloved, brass, Cello, Chamber music, city, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, country, death, Easter, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, Gustavo Dudamel, inspiration, inspired, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, José Antonio Abreu, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, model, Mozart, Music, Music education, music school, musicale, obituary, Orchestra, organization, pavane, Pavane for a Dead Princess, Pavane pour une infante défunte, percussion, professional, resume, Spanish, stately, strings, superstar, symphony, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Titan, United States, Venezuela, Viola, Violin, week, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, words, YouTube
Classical music: A new blog about the future of classical music has been launched in Madison by Lydia Sewell. It is called “A View From the Stage” and features interviews with prominent musicians
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
As the classical music industry continues to shift and adapt to changing cultural patterns, many performers, administrators, educators, journalists, and music enthusiasts are tracking these changes and exploring best practices to keep the institution alive.
In December 2017, Madison native Lydia Sewell (below) – an accomplished violinist and daughter of Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra artistic director Andrew Sewell — launched a blog that seeks to address those issues in a comprehensive, timely fashion.
“A View From the Stage” features the voices of world-renowned classical musicians, educators and arts administrators and their thoughts on the future of classical music and symphony orchestras.
The blog arose out of Sewell’s research on the strike by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2016.
Says Sewell: “As a graduate student at Duquesne University prepping for auditions, I was trying to answer the question, ‘If orchestras like the PSO are struggling to survive, what does that mean for regional orchestras who don’t have the donor bases that the majors rely on?”
“A View from the Stage” currently features interviews with musicians including Noah Bendix-Balgely, concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic; Scott Pingel, principal bass of the San Francisco Symphony; David Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra who performed this fall at the UW-Madison; and Eric Nowlin, principal viola of the Detroit Symphony, as well as administrators including Paul Hogle, Dean of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and critic and composer Gregory Sandow.
With more than 30 interviews to roll out in the coming months, Sewell plans to continue interviewing classical thinkers and document their perspectives in “A View From the Stage,” in hopes to initiate further conversations surrounding 21st-century musicianship, concert reinvention and the sustainability of symphony orchestras.
Here are links to featured interviews, with photos below the link:
Noah Bendix-Balgely: https://www.lydiasewell.com/aviewfromthestage/2017/8/4/noah-bendix-balgely
Scott Pingel: https://www.lydiasewell.com/aviewfromthestage/2017/8/4/scott-pingel
David Kim (photo by Ryan Donnell): https://www.lydiasewell.com/aviewfromthestage/2017/10/26/david-kim
Eric Nowlin:
Paul Hogle:
https://www.lydiasewell.com/aviewfromthestage/2017/10/27/paul-hogle
Gregory Sandow: https://www.lydiasewell.com/aviewfromthestage/2017/8/21/gregory-sandow
Mike Block:
https://www.lydiasewell.com/aviewfromthestage/2017/8/4/mike-block
Upcoming interviews include:
Steve Hackman (conductor, composer, arranger)
Rachel Barton Pine (violin soloist)
Tracy Silverman (electric violin soloist)
Kate Sheeran (Dean, Provost of San Francisco Conservatory)
Philip Setzer (Emerson String Quartet)
Aaron Dworkin (Founder of Sphinx, Detroit)
Stanford Thompson (Founder Play on Philly!)
Tags: #AndrewSewell, #AViewFromtheStage, #BerlinPhilharmonic, #ClevelandInstituteofMusic, #DetroitSymphony, #DuquesneUniversity, #EmersonStringQuartet, #LydiaSewell, #MadisonWisconsin, #MusicEducation, #PhiladelphiaOrchestra, #PittsburghSymphony, #PlayOnPhilly!, #RachelBartonPine, #SanFrancisco, #SanFranciscoConservatory, #SanFranciscoSymphony, #Sphinx, #TracySilverman, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, arranger, Arts, Arts Administration, Bach, Baroque, bass, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, classicalmusic, Compact Disc, composer, concertmaster, concerto, conductor, critic, culture, dean, Detroit, Education, electric, electric violin, Emerson String Quartet, Franz Schubert, graduate, graduate student, interview, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, journalism, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mozart, Music, Music education, Orchestra, pattern, performer, Philip Setzer, provost, regional, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, soloist, strike, struggle, Student, survival, symphony, think, thinker, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Classical music: The 17th annual Percussion Extravaganza by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will be held this Saturday afternoon. It features many guest artists including Chinese dancers and steel pan player Liam Teague
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
Drum roll, please!
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) Percussion Ensemble will host its 17th annual Percussion Extravaganza on this Saturday, March 24, at 1:30 p.m. in Mills Concert Hall of the UW-Madison Humanities Building.
The concert is scheduled to last 90 minutes.
General admission is $10; $5 for 18 and under. Tickets are available at the door and at the website: https://www.wysomusic.org/event-registration/?ee=11
The WYSO Percussion Ensemble, which consists of 14 student musicians from local communities, will host this signature percussion benefit to help others.
For the second consecutive year, Ronald McDonald House Charities will partner with WYSO in the collection of tangible items needed for the Ronald McDonald House in Madison.
Nearly 60 performers, including Liam Teague (below), one of the world’s greatest steel pan virtuosos, will present eclectic, global music dedicated to “Healing the Nations.” (Sorry, no word on specific composers or pieces on the program. But you can see and hear a sample of last year’s concert in the YouTube video below.)
Other Percussion Extravaganza artists include Drum Power; UW Chinese Dance Department; flamenco dancer Tania Tandias (below top); Zhong Yi Kung Fu Association; UW-Madison World Percussion Ensemble; and the WYSO Brass Choir (below bottom).
For more information, visit www.wysomusic.org or contact the WYSO office at (608) 263-3320.
Parking is available at State Street Campus, Helen C. White, and Grainger Hall parking facilities.
Tags: #BrassMusic, #ChineseDance, #DrumMusic, #FlamencoDancing, #KungFu, #MadisonWisconsin, #MusicEducation, #PercussionMusic, #RonaldMcDonaldHouseCharities, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, Arts, Asia, asian, benefit, brass, brass choir, charity, China, Chinese, Choir, Classical music, community, composer, dance, dancer, dancing, drum roll, heal, healing, hear, item, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, McDonald's, Mosse Humanities Building, Music, Music education, Musician, nation, nations, percussion, program, Ronald McDonald House Charities, see, Spain, Spanish, Student, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, world, World Percussion Ensemble, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: Brazilian pianist Alexandre Dossin makes his Madison debut Friday night with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in an overlooked masterpiece of American Romanticism. Plus, the amateur Madison Community Symphony Orchestra performs a FREE all-Russian program on Friday night at MATC
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ALERT 1: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features violinist Wendy Adams and pianist Ann Aschbacher in music by Schubert, Brahms and Hovhaness.
ALERT 2: The amateur Madison Community Symphony Orchestra will perform a FREE concert Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Norman Mitty Theater, 1701 Wright Street on the Madison Area Technical College campus on the east side. The all-Russian program, under the baton of Blake Walter of Edgewood College, features works by Glazunov, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Balakirev. For more information and the complete program, go to: http://www.madisoncommunityorchestra.org/pages/concerts.htm
By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below top), under music director Andrew Sewell (below bottom), always puts together memorable programs, often with new and exciting soloists plus neglected or little known repertoire.
That is once again the promise of the WCO concert this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 201 State St.
Tickets are $15-$80. See below.
First, the program offers the Madison debut of Alexandre Dossin (below), the 2003 winner of the Martha Argerich International Piano Competition.
Trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Dossin seems a power player. Little wonder that he has recorded music by Liszt, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky and Leonard Bernstein for Naxos Records as well as by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky for G. Schirmer Music. You can also hear and see a lot of his performances on YouTube.
Moreover, Dossin, who has taught at the UW-Eau Claire and the University of Louisiana and who now teaches at the University of Oregon, will be playing a relatively neglected masterpiece of American Romantic music: the Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 23, by Edward MacDowell (below).
MacDowell’s work is a dark, dramatic and virtuosic work that was once championed by Van Cliburn. (You can hear Cliburn with the third movement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the late Walter Hendl in the YouTube video at the bottom.).
For most listeners, that will be the discovery of the evening.
Rounding out the program are two more widely known masterpieces: the Orchestral Suite No. 4 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” by Robert Schumann.
The Ear is especially pleased that the WCO is doing Bach.
Too often modern instrument groups defer to period-instrument ensembles for Bach – which means that audiences don’t hear as much Bach (below) as they should and as previous generations did, as the prize-winning composer John Harbison has often lamented in public.
Of course, it is safe to bet that the WCO will borrow some of the faster tempi and historically informed performance techniques from the early music movement. Still, The Ear says Bravo to the programming of Bach by a group that uses modern instruments. We can always use more Bach.
The symphony by Robert Schumann (below) will also have an unusual, if subtle, aspect to its performance.
It is usually played by larger symphony orchestras. But using a chamber orchestra creates a certain intimacy and lends a transparency that reveals structure and themes in an engaging way. Yannick Nézet-Séguin – the highly acclaimed music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and music director-designate of the Metropolitan Opera — recently proved that with his outstanding recording of the four symphonies by Robert Schumann (below) with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
For more background and information about tickets, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-iii-3/
For more information about Alexandre Dossin, go to his two websites:
http://www.dossin.net/alexandredossin/Welcome.html
https://music.uoregon.edu/people/faculty/adossin
Tags: #AlanHovhaness, #AlexanderGlazunov, #AlexandreDossin, #AndrewSewell, #AramKhachaturian, #BaroqueMusic, #CapitolTheater, #ChamberOrchestraofEurope, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #EdgewoodCollege, #EdwardMacDowell, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FranzLiszt, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #InstrumentalMusic, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnHarbison, #LeonardBernstein, #MadisonCommunitySymphonyOrchestra, #MarthaArgerich, #MetropolitanOpera, #MilyBalakirev, #NaxosRecords, #OvertureCenter, #PeriodInstruments, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PhiladelphiaOrchestra, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #RobertSchumann, #RussianMusic, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #TheMet, #UnitarianSociety, #UniversityofLouisiana, #UniversityofOregon, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Eau Claire, #VanCliburn, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #YannickNezet-Seguin, Alan Hovhaness, amateur, America, American, Arts, Bach, Balakirev, Baroque, Bernstein, Blake Walter, Brazil, Capitol Theater, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Chicago, Classical music, Compact Disc, Competition, composer, concerto, dark, dramatic, Early music, earlymusic, easy music, Edgewood College, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Franz Schubert, G. Schirmer, hear, historically informed performance practices, Hovhaness, instrument, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Harbison, Kabalevsky, Leonard Bernstein, Liszt, Madison, Martha Argerich, masterpiece, memorable, Met, Metropolitan Opera, modern, Moscow, Music, Music director, Naxos Records, Orchestra, Oregon, Overture Center, performance, period instruments, period-instrument, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Philadelphia Orchestra, Piano, program, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, repertoire, Rhenish, Rhine River, Romantic, Romanticism, Schirmer, Schumann, see, soloist, symphony, Tchaikovsky, tempi, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Van Cliburn, Violin, web site, Website, winner, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, YouTube
Classical music: Today is the first day of Spring. What piece of music best suits the season? Then take a quiz to see what composer and which spring music best suits you
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the Vernal Equinox – the first of day of Spring 2018.
It arrives at 11:15 a.m. CDT.
A lot of classical composers have written works inspired by Spring, which often appears in the title.
Here is a link to a YouTube video with almost two hours of Spring music – including works by Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Grieg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfe3MUMdWKQ
But recently a close friend reminded The Ear that spring-like music doesn’t have to allude specifically to spring. And the friend said that the “Trout” Quintet by Franz Schubert fits the bill perfectly.
So the Request Line is open, and here, for The Ear’s good friend, is the “Trout” Quintet, with pianist Yuja Wang, in the YouTube video at the bottom. It does indeed seem ideally Spring-like with its freshness, liveliness and bubbliness.
What music do you think best celebrates the coming of Spring?
Leave the composer, the work’s title and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance, in the COMMENT section.
Why do you like it?
Moreover, did you choose correctly?
Here is a fun quiz, from the famed radio station WQXR in New York City, that can help you determine which composer’s piece of music about spring best fits you and your personality:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/quiz-which-spring-themed-classical-music-piece-are-you/
Tags: #AntonioVivaldi, #EdvardGrieg, #FranzSchubert, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohannStrauss, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #NewYorkCity, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #TroutQuintet, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YujaWang, Arts, Bach, Baroque, bass, Beethoven, bubbly, celebrate, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, double bass, Early music, equinox, Franz Schubert, fresh, fun, Grieg, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, link, lively, Madison, Mozart, Music, New York City, Orchestra, past, personality, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Piano, quintet, quiz, Radio, Sonata, Spring, station, Strauss, symphony, title, Trout Quintet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vernal equinox, Viola, Violin, Vivaldi, Waltz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, WQXR, WQXR-FM, you, YouTube, Yuja Wang
Classical music: This week the UW-Madison will put the spotlight on vocal music reclaimed from the Nazis and contemporary theater music inspired by Samuel Beckett
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By Jacob Stockinger
Coming just before the Spring Break, this week will be a busy one at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.
Here are the highlights that include a lecture and a concert about vocal music resurrected from the Nazis as well as an evening of contemporary works inspired by the 20th-century playwright Samuel Beckett.
But other important events, including some graduate student recitals, are also on the Events Calendar at https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/.
All events listed here are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
TODAY
Tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, guest trumpeter Richard Illman (below) with present a multimedia video concert with UW trombonist Mark Hetzler and UW trumpeter Alex Noppe.
Sorry, no word on composers or works on the program.
For more information, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-artist-richard-illman-trumpet-special-multi-media-concert/
At 7 p.m. in 2411 Humanities Building, a FREE lecture will be given by the guest award-winning singer Kristina Bachrach and UW pianist Daniel Fung on the “Rediscovered Voices Initiative.” The project seeks to reclaim musicians and musical works that were killed or suppressed by the Nazis during World War II. (This lecture was originally scheduled for March 9.)
The duo will also give a performance Tuesday night. For details, see below.
For more information, go to:
TUESDAY
At 7 p.m. in Music Hall, at the foot of Bascom Hill, guest singer Kristina Bachrach and UW pianist Daniel Fung (below) will give a concert for the “Recovered Voices Initiative” that rediscovers and revives music and musicians lost to the Nazis in World War II. (The concert was originally scheduled for March 10.)
For more information about the performers, the project and the complete program, go to:
WEDNESDAY
At 7:30 p.m. In Mills Hall, a FREE concert will be given by the UW Concert Band (below top) under Mike Leckrone (below bottom). Sorry, no word on the program.
FRIDAY
At 1:30 p.m. in Music Hall, the Decoda Chamber Ensemble (below in a photo by Matt Dine) from New York City will give a FREE and PUBLIC master class and workshop for student chamber ensembles. The focus is on interactive performance and audience engagement.
No word on composer or pieces. But for more information, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/master-class-decoda-chamber-ensemble/
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, “Sounding Beckett” will be presented. The concert features the intersection of music and drama as inspired by the Nobel-Prize winning playwright Samuel Beckett (below).
The performers feature guest group Cygnus Ensemble (below), which will play six short musical works based on three of Beckett’s one-act plays (“Footfalls,” “Ohio Impromptu” and “Catastrophe”).
The two works for each play include compositions by UW-Madison alumnus Chester Biscardi (below top) and current UW composer Laura Schwendinger (below bottom). You can hear Biscardi’s music for “Ohio Impromptu” in the YouTube video at the bottom.
There will also be instrumental master classes, a lecture and panel discussion with UW drama professor Patricia Boyette as well as Laura Schwendinger.
NOTE: A master class will also be held but the date, time and place have not yet been announced.
For an excellent longer story with more background and details, go to:
Tags: #ChamberMusic, #ChesterBiscardi, #CygnusEnsemble, #DecodaChamberEnsemble, #LauraSchwendinger, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MikeLeckrone, #NewMusic, #NobelPrize, #RecoveredVoiceInitiative, #SamuelBeckett, #TromboneMusic, #TrumpetMusic, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VocalMusic, #WorldWarII, alumni, alumnus, Arts, audience, award, award-winning, band, Cello, Chamber music, Chester Biscardi, Classical music, composer, Concert, Concert Band, Cygnus, Decoda, drama, faculty, free, Jacob Stockinger, Laura Schwendinger, lecture, Madison, master class, Mead Witter School of Music, Mike Leckrone, multimedia, Music, Nazi, Nazism, New Music, New York City, one-act, panel discussion, Piano, play, playwright, program'work, public, rediscover, rediscovery, resurrect, Resurrection, revival, revive, Richard Illman, Samuel Beckett, singer, Singing, song, Student, students, theater, theatre, Trombone, Trumpet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, vocal music, voice, voices, win, Wisconsin, works, World War II, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: You Must Hear This: Violinist Hilary Hahn plays “Mercy” by Max Richter
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By Jacob Stockinger
One of the gems in the 27 encores that violinist Hilary Hahn commissioned from 27 different composers a couple of years ago is “Mercy” by the German-born British composer Max Richter.
Hahn has played here several times, mostly at the Wisconsin Union Theater but also with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Although Max Richter’s Minimalist music has not been played in Madison as far as The Ear remembers, you might already know his name from the popular recording of his take on Vivaldi in “The Four Seasons Recomposed” or his more ambitious and most current project “Sleep,” which provides music for eight and a half hours of sleeping.
But The Ear confesses he had not heard this moving miniature called “Mercy” until recently, even though Hahn recorded it along with the other 26 encores with pianist Cory Smithe.
He likes it.
And so apparently do a lot of other listeners.
So it is something that is well worth using five minutes of your time to sample.
Write your comments, positive or negative, below.
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
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Tags: #AntonioVivaldi, #CorySmythe, #GreatBritain, #HilaryHahn, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MaxRichter, #TheFourSeasons, #UnitedKingdom, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinMusic, #WisconsinUnionTheater, ambitious, Arts, British, Chamber music, Classical music, comment, commission, commissions, composer, Cory Smythe, current, encore, gem, German, Germany, Hilary Hahn, Jacob Stockinger, listener, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Max Richter, mercy, miniature, minimalism, Music, name, negative, Orchestra, Pianist, Piano, positive, project, recording, sample, Sleep, sleeping, The Four Seasons, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, YouTube