The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Con Vivo ends its 16th season this Saturday night with chamber music by Bartok, Beethoven, Dvorak and Brahms
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, Con Vivo — or music with life (below) — concludes its 16th season with music of Bartok, Dvorak, Beethoven and Brahms.
The chamber music concert, entitled “Spring Romance,” includes Duets for Viola and Cello by Bela Bartok; the Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 11, by Antonin Dvorak; the Romance, Op. 50, for violin and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven; and the supremely beautiful Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Op. 115, by Johannes Brahms. (You can hear the opening movement of the Brahms, played by clarinetist David Shifrin and the Guarneri String Quartet, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert takes place on this coming Saturday night, June 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave. across from Camp Randall Stadium.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception to discuss the concert.
New to this concert: Con Vivo will perform in the Chapel at First Congregational Church, creating a more intimate chamber music experience for the audience.
In remarking about the concert, artistic director Robert Taylor says: “We finish our 16th season with music evocative of spring romances. The wonderful Romances for violin and piano by Dvorak and Beethoven are contrasted by miniatures for viola and cello by Bartok that highlight our members in a soloist role. The evening is capped off with the beautiful Clarinet Quintet by Johannes Brahms. What could be a better way to spend a spring evening?”
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.
Tags: #AntoninDvorak, #Beautifulmusic, #BelaBartok, #CampRandallStadium, #ClarinetMusic, #ClarinetQuintet, #ConVivo, #DavidShifrin, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #GuarneriStringQuartet, #JohannesBrahms, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #SpringRomance, #StringQuartet, #ViolaMusic, #ViolinMusic, Antonín Dvořák, Arts, audience, Beautiful music, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, Con Vivo, Concert, duet, F major, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Piano, professional, reception, Romance, Spring, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, weekend, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
Classical Music: Today is Memorial Day 2018. What music would you play to honor those who died in service to their country?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Memorial Day 2018, when those soldiers who died in war and military service to their country — in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or whatever other branch — are honored. (Below is an Associated Press photo of Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.)
Many blogs, newspapers and radio stations list classical music that is appropriate for the occasion.
But one of the very best overviews and compilations that The Ear has seen comes this year from Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, California.
Here is a link:
http://www.capradio.org/music/classical/2018/05/25/classical-selections-in-honor-of-memorial-day/
Another very good selection dates from last year and comes from Nashville Public Radio.
Perhaps that makes sense because Nashville is such a musical city.
Perhaps it has to do with other reasons.
Whatever the cause, this playlist gives you modern and contemporary composers and music (John Adams, Joseph Bertolozzi and Jeffrey Ames) as well as tried-and-true classics (Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar— the famous and moving “Nimrod” Variation that you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom — Franz Joseph Haydn and Frederic Chopin).
It even features some music that The Ear is sure you don’t know.
Take a look and many listens:
Finally, you can also hear some appropriate music for today on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Do you agree with the choices?
Do you like them or at least some of them? Which ones?
Which music would you choose or add to mark today’s holiday?
Leave a title and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Here is an NPR interview with British cellist sensation Sheku Kanneh-Mason and an encore presentation of his performance at the Royal Wedding last weekend
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By Jacob Stockinger
So far, at least in the United States, the 19-year-old British sensation Sheku Kanneh-Mason (below) has been more talked about than talked to.
But on Saturday afternoon, NPR interviewed him for “All Things Considered.”
Some interesting facts about him and his blossoming career and his inaugural recording for Decca Records (below) came out of the six–minute discussion and questions by host Michel Martin.
Especially impressive was how all the children in his family are accomplished classical musicians. Here is a video of them playing music by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev together:
And in case you missed it the first around, also included is an encore presentation of the three pieces he played last Saturday at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and American Meghan Markle, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Here is a link to the interview and the encore performance:
And here is a YouTube video of Sheku Kanneh-Mason playing his own cello transcription of a the song “No Woman No Cry” by reggae legend Bob Marley, who was a mentor and inspiration to the young musician:
Tags: #AllThingsConsidered, #BBCYoungMusicianoftheYear, #BobMarley, #DeccaRecords, #DmitriShostakovich, #DukeandDuchessofSussex, #GabrielFaure, #GreatBritain, #MeghanMarkle, #MichelMartin, #NationalPublicRadio, #NoWomanNoCry, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PeterTchaikovsky, #PrinceHarry, #ReggaeMusic, #RomeoandJuliet, #RoyalWedding, #SergeiProkofiev, #ShekuKanneh-Mason, #SwanLake, #UnitedKingdom, #UnitedStates, 1812 Overture, @1812Overture, afternoon, America, American, Arts, BBC, BBC Young Musician of the Year, Bob Marley and the Wailers, British, career, Cello, Chamber music, children, Classical music, classicalmusic, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, discussion, facts, Family, Faure, Franz Schubert, host, inspiration, interview, Jacob Stockinger, legend, link, Madison, mentor, Music, Musician, National Public Radio, NPR, Orchestra, Prokofiev, question, Romeo and Juliet, Saturday, sensaton, Swan Lake, talk, transcription, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Website, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra ends its eighth season this coming THURSDAY night with an ambitious program featuring the piano concerto by Schumann and the Symphony No. 1 by Brahms
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By Jacob Stockinger
You have to hand it to the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (below): They keep testing and pushing themselves towards bigger achievements and more difficult music.
This coming Thursday night, May 31 – NOT the usual Wednesday night performance time — the MCP will close out its eighth season with an ambitious program.
As The Ear has said many times before, both in reviews and when he named the MCO “Musician of the Year” for 2014, there is so much to praise and enjoy about the MCO:
The all-Romantic, all-masterpiece program this time features a familiar soloist, pianist Thomas Kasdorf (below) in the supremely lyrical Piano Concerto in A Minor by Robert Schumann. (You can hear the poignant slow movement played by Maurizio Pollini and conductor Claudio Abbado in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Kasdorf graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison‘s-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, where he is now doing graduate work in piano.
In addition, the MCO will close with the formidable Symphony No. 1 by Johannes Brahms. Sometimes called “Beethoven’s 10th,” it will be conducted by Steve Kurr (below), the usual and very able conductor of the MCO.
The concert is on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Middleton Performing Arts Center (below), which is attached to Middleton High School at 2100 Bristol Street. It is a comfortable venue, and a good shelter from the hot weather and humidity that are predicted to overtake us for the next week or so.
The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and the auditorium doors open at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $15, but students are admitted free of charge — a deal that is hard to beat.
Advance tickets can also be purchased at the Willy Street Coop West.
As always, there will be an informal meet-and-greet reception after the concert for the music-makers and the audience to mingle – the perfect way to end a season.
If you want to find out more about the MCO season or about how to join it or support it, go to: http://middletoncommunityorchestra.org
Tags: #ClaudioAbbado, #HotWeather, #JohannesBrahms, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MaurizioPollini, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #MiddletonHighSchool, #MiddletonPerformingArtsCenter, #MiddletonWisconsin, #OrchestraConductor, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #RobertSchumann, #RomanticComposers, #RomanticMusic, #RomanticPeriod, #SteveKurr, #SymphonyNo.1, #ThomasKasdorf, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, Arts, Beethoven, Cello, Classical music, Claudio Abbado, composer, concerto, conductor, heat, humidity, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, join, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, masterpiece, Maurizio Pollini, Middleton, Middleton High School, Music, Orchestra, Piano, shelter, support, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, web site, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: You must hear this – how Debussy provided a soft way to end a season
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By Jacob Stockinger
It seems perfectly normal and natural that big groups like to close their season with a big ending.
So the Madison Symphony Orchestra closed this past season with the “Glagolitic Mass” by Leos Janacek, which used a lot of brass and a large choir.
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra went for an all-Beethoven program that featured the Piano Concerto No. 3, with soloist John O’Conor, and the forceful, driven Fifth Symphony.
Yet there was something particularly soothing and reassuring about the way the Ancora String Quartet (below) closed its 17th season last Friday night. (Member, below from left, are Wes Luke and Robin Ryan, violins; Benjamin Whitcomb, cello; and Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola.
The group opened with a welcome rarity: the fourth and final string quartet by Danish composer Carl Nielsen. It proved a fine offering, especially noteworthy for the hymn-like slow movement that brought to mind the open harmonies of Aaron Copland.
But the concert ended ever so quietly and warmly with the only String Quartet, Op. 10, written by French composer Claude Debussy (below).
The poet T.S. Eliot said the world ends not with a bang but a whimper.
But this ending was neither bang nor whimper.
The Ear would call it a sigh, a long and sensual sound bath that left you leaving the performance less with admiration or wonder than with gratitude for the group and for the music.
Plus, it was all the more affecting for the way that violinist Wes Luke (below) clearly explained how the main themes of all movements grow out of one motif and cohere.
The Debussy string quartet, he explained, is one of the most performed and recorded of the entire string quartet repertory. Yet its sensuality always makes it seems so fresh and so French.
The highlight was, as always, the third movement, the slow movement. And as the spring season completes winding down and the summer seasons starts to pick up, here it is for your enjoyment in a YouTube video of the Juilliard String Quartet.
What did you think about the season-closing concerts this spring? Did you have a favorite?
What do you think of the Debussy string quartet?
If you know of a better slow movement from a string quartet, please leave a COMMENT and a link, if possible, to a YouTube performance.
Tags: #AaronCopland, #AncoraStringQuartet, #BrassMusic, #CarlNielsen, #ClaudeDebussy, #FifthSymphony, #FrenchMusic, #GlagoliticMass, #JohnO'Conor, #JuilliardSchool, #JuilliardStringQuartet, #LeosJanacek, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyChorus, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #PianoConcerto, #StringQuartet, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, admiration, Arts, bang, Beethoven, big, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Claude Debussy, close, cohere, composer, end, ending, French, gratitude, harmony, hymn, Jacob Stockinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, motif, movement, Music, Orchestra, poet, Poetry, quiet, Season, sensual, sensuality, slow, T.S. Eliot, theme, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, whimper, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wonder, YouTube
Classical music: Is Royal Wedding cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason the next Yo-Yo Ma?
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you watched the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and American Meghan Markle – who are now known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – you were probably impressed by many things.
Not the least of them was the performance by the young Afro-British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who performed three pieces: “After a Dream” by Gabriel Faure; “Ave Maria” by Franz Schubert; and “Sicilienne” (an ancient dance step) by Maria Theresia von Paradis.
The young player acquitted himself just fine, despite the pressure of the event, with its avid public interest in the United Kingdom and a worldwide TV viewership of 2 billion.
But that is to be expected. He is no ordinary teenage cellist. Now 19, he was named BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016 — the first black musician of African background to be awarded the honor since it started in 1938. A native of Nottingham, even as he pursues a busy concert and recording schedule, he continues his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
So it was with great anticipation that The Ear listened to “Inspiration,” Kanneh-Mason’s new recording from Decca Records, which is already a bestseller on Amazon.com and elsewhere, and has topped the U.S. pop charts. (There are also many performances by him on YouTube.)
Unfortunately, The Ear was disappointed by the mixed results.
The cellist’s playing is certainly impressive for its technique and tone. But in every piece, he is joined by the City of Birmingham Orchestra or its cello section. The collaboration works exceptionally well with the Cello Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
However, so many of the other works seem too orchestrated and overly arranged. So much of the music becomes thick and muddy, just too stringy. The Ear wanted to hear more of the young cellist and less of the backup band.
One also has to wonder if the recording benefits from being a mixed album with a program so full of crossovers, perhaps for commercial reasons and perhaps to reach a young audience. There is a klezmer piece, “Evening of the Roses” as well as a reggae piece, “No Woman, No Cry” by Bob Marley and the famous song “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen.
In addition, there are the familiar “The Swan” from “The Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saens and two pieces by the inspiring cellist referred to in the title of the recording, Pablo (or Pau in Catalan) Casals (below).
A great humanist and champion of democracy who spent most of his career in exile from dictator Franco’s Spain, Casals used the solo “The Birds” as a signature encore. Played solo, it is a poignant piece — just as Yo-Yo Ma played it as an encore at the BBC Proms, which is also on YouTube). But here it simply loses its simplicity and seems overwhelmed.
Clearly, Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a musician of great accomplishment and even greater promise who couldn’t have wished for better publicity to launch a big career than he received from the royal wedding. He handles celebrity well and seems a star in the making, possibly even the next Yo-Yo Ma, who has also done his share of film scores and pop transcriptions
But when it comes to the recording studio, a smaller scale would be better. Sometimes less is more, and this is one of those times. (Listen to his beautiful solo playing and his comments in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
To take the full measure of his musicianship, The Ear is anxious to hear Kanneh-Mason in solo suites by Johann Sebastian Bach and concertos by Antonio Vivaldi; in sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms; in concertos by Antonin Dvorak and Edward Elgar; and in much more standard repertory that allows comparison and is less gimmicky.
Did you hear Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s live performance at the royal wedding? What did you think?
And if you have heard his latest recording, what do you think of that?
Do you think Sheku Kanne-Mason is the next Yo-Yo Ma?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: A FREE recital by the Del Sol string quartet on Monday night honors pioneering composer Ben Johnston
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been asked to post the following announcement:
The San Francisco-based ensemble the Del Sol Quartet will give a FREE public recital on Monday night, May 21, in Madison in honor of pioneer composer, teacher and mentor Ben Johnston (below).
For more information about the composer, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Johnston_(composer)
The recital is on the occasion of Johnston’s upcoming induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters: https://artsandletters.org/pressrelease/2018-newly-elected-members/
This FREE performance will be held in the new Atrium Auditorium (below, in a photo by Zane Williams) of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, on Monday night at 7 p.m.
The program will feature Johnston’s two most popular string quartets: the Fourth Quartet (based on the beloved theme “Amazing Grace”); and the Tenth Quartet (also based on a popular folk melody). In addition there will be works by some of Johnston’s contemporaries. (You can hear the Fourth Quartet of Ben Johnston in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Johnston, 92, has made his home in the Madison area for the past 11 years, where he continues to advance the field of microtonal music composition and performance, most notably initiated in the U.S. by music legend Harry Partch, with whom Johnston studied for several years. Partch’s seminal work, “Genesis of Music,” was first published in Madison by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1949.
Winner of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, Johnston spent most of his career at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He had a significant role in some of the Contemporary Arts Festivals, which were annual events in the 1960s. His service, as composition teacher and mentor there, led to an honorary doctorate from that institution. He is also the author of “Maximum Clarity,” published by the University of Illinois Press.
Hailed by New York Times critic Mark Swed as “probably [America‘s] most subversive composer …able to make both radical thinking and avant-garde techniques sound invariably gracious,”Johnston’s diligent dedication recently resulted in the release of the third CD by the Milwaukee-based Kepler Quartet https://www.keplerquartet.com/ on the New World Music label https://www.newworldmusic.com/
The three CD series encompasses all of Johnston’s string quartets and took 14 years of painstaking collaboration to bring to fruition, receiving high acclaim internationally. Johnston has been well-known in experimental music circles since his second quartet came out on Nonesuch Records in 1969.
Hailed by Gramophone as “masters of all musical things they survey” and two-time winner of the top Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the Del Sol String Quartet shares living music with an ever-growing community of adventurous listeners.
Del Sol (below) was founded in 1992 at Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and is recognized as a “vigorous champion of living composers,” focusing on music that reflects the cultural diversity of the community, advocating works by both world-renowned and emerging composers, and collaborating across disciplines. Del Sol has commissioned and premiered over 100 works by a diverse range of composers.
The Quartet has performed on prominent concert series nationwide, including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, Symphony Space, Cabrillo Festival, Other Minds Festival, and Santa Fe Opera.
The quartet conducts an active educational program in the San Francisco Bay Area, in addition to regular residencies at universities and music schools across the country.”
For more information, go to: http://delsolquartet.com/
Tags: #AmazingGrace, #AmericanAcademyofArtsandLetters, #AmericanMusic, #ASCAPaward, #BanffCanada, #BanffCentrefortheArts, #BenJohnston, #CabrilloFestival, #CommissionedMusic, #ContemporaryArtsFestivals, #CulturalDiversity, #DeemsTaylorAward, #DelSolQuartet, #EmergingComposers, #ExperimentalMusic, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FolkMelody, #GuggenheimFellowship, #HarryPartch, #HymnMusic, #KennedyCenter, #KeplerQuartet, #LibraryofCongress, #LivingComposer, #LivingComposers, #MadisonWisconsin, #MicroTonalMusic, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MusicCommission, #NationalGalleryofArt, #NewMusic, #NewWorldMusic, #NonesuchRecords, #OtherMindsFestival, #RenownedComposers, #SanFrancisco, #SantaFeOpera, #SymphonySpace, #TheNewYorkTImes, #UniversityofIllinois-Champaign-Urbana, #UniversityofIllinoisPress, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsinPress, #WorldPremiere, adventurous, Amazing Grace, America, American, American Academy of Arts and Letters, annual, Art, Arts, ASCAP, Banff Center for the Arts, Ben Johnston, Canada, Cello, Chamber music, champion, Classical music, collaboration, commission, Compact Disc, composer, contemporaries, cultural, dedication, Deems Taylor, diligent, diversity, doctorate, event, experimental, festival, First Unitarian Society of Madison, folk melody, Folk music, free, Genesis, Guggenheim Fellowship, Harry Partch, honorary, hymn, induction, Jacob Stockinger, Kennedy Center, Kepler Quartet, Library of Congress, living, Madison, mentor, microtonal, Milwaukee, Monday night, Music, National Gallery of Art, New Music, New York Times, Nonesuch Records, pioneer, pioneering, popular, premiere, programming, recital, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, seminal, service, subversive, Teacher, theme, U.S., United States, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, University of Illinois Press, University of Wisconsin Press, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, YouTube
Music education: Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras present their spring concerts and concerto winners this Saturday and Sunday afternoons
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will present its third and final concert series of the season, the Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Spring Concerts, on this Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20.
The concerts will take place in Mills Concert Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, 455 North Park Street, in Madison.
Programed pieces include works from Felix Mendelssohn, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Arturo Marquez, Aaron Copland, Jacques Offenbach, and more.
For a complete repertoire list, go to:https://www.wysomusic.org/eugenie-mayer-bolz-family-spring-concerts-repertoire/
The concert weekend features four concerto performances from the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Youth Orchestra members, and the final concert by Mark Leiser (below), who will rertire as conductor of WYSO’s Sinfonietta orchestra after 25 seasons.
Each year, WYSO hosts a concerto competition for members of the Youth Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Concerto competition winners performing during the spring concerts this year are Ellen Zhou, a seventh-grader at E.G. Kromrey Middle School in Middleton, and a member of Philharmonia Orchestra; Ava Kenney, a seventh-grader at Saint Maria Goretti School, and a member of Philharmonia Orchestra; Morty Lee, a junior at James Madison Memorial High School, and a member of Youth Orchestra; and Isabelle Krier, a junior at Oregon High School, and a member of Youth Orchestra.
Ellen Zhou (below top) will perform Zigeunerweisen by Pablo de Sarasate, and Ava Kenney (below bottom) will perform the first movement of the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn with Philharmonia Orchestra on Saturday.
Morty Lee (below top) will perform the first Cello Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich; and Isabelle Krier (below bottom) will perform the third movement of the Violin Concerto in D Major by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky with the Youth Orchestra on Sunday.
Sinfonietta conductor Mark Leiser (below, conducting) will give his final concert on May 19. Leiser has been the sole conductor of Sinfonietta since its inception 25 years ago. His son Kenny Leiser, a WYSO alumnus, will sit in with the orchestra during their performance of Astor Piazzolla’s “new tango” piece Oblivion.
WYSO students travel from communities throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois each weekend throughout the concert season to rehearse on the UW-Madison campus.
Each orchestra performs three concerts per season, with additional performance opportunities available to students, including ensembles and chamber music groups.
Concert admission is $10 for adults, and $5 for youth 18 and under, with tickets available 45 minutes before each performance at the door on the day of the concerts.
For a full concert repertoire, and to learn more about WYSO, visit https://www.wysomusic.org
Here is a schedule of events:
Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Spring Concerts
SATURDAY
1:00 p.m. – Harp Ensemble (below top), Concert Orchestra, Sinfonietta
4:00 p.m. – Percussion Ensemble (below bottom) and Philharmonia Orchestra
SUNDAY
2:00 p.m. – Opus One and Youth Orchestra
Tags: #AaronCopland, #ArturoMarquez, #AstorPiazzolla, #CelloConcerto, #DmitriShostakovich, #FatherandSon, #FelixMendelssohn, #HarpMusic, #HighSchool, #JacquesOffenbach, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddleSchool, #MiddletonWisconsin, #PablodeSarasate, #PercussionEnsemble, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #SaintMariaGoretti, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolinConcerto, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #YouthOrchestra, afternoon, Argentine tango, Arts, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, community, Competition, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, Dmitri Shostakovich, event, father, harp, high school, ILLINOIS, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Mendelssohn, Middle school, Music, new, Orchestra, percussion, performance, repertoire, retire, Retirement, Sarasate, Saturday, schedule, Season, Shostakovich, Sinfonietta, son, Spring, Sunday, symphony, tango, Tchaikovsky, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola
Classical music: Two performances of a FREE family concert for young children of “Beethoven Lives Next Door” take place this Saturday morning at the Goodman Community Center
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Saturday, young children and their families can experience the world of classical music through the eyes and ears of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Beethoven will be portrayed by Whitney Derendinger (below) of the UW-Madison Department of Theatre and Drama.
Two performances of the FREE concert will combine music, storytelling and learning for the whole family as Beethoven and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, with help from students from the University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music, bring to life the compositional journey of the infamous theme and first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – heard in the YouTube video at the bottom that has more than 53 million views — which closed the WCO season last weekend.
Here are the details:
WHERE: Goodman Community Center, 149 Waubesa Street, on Madison’s east side
WHEN: Saturday, May 19, 2018
CONCERT 1
9:00 a.m. | Preconcert Activities
9:30 a.m. | Performance #1 (40 minutes)
CLICK HERE to get tickets to Concert 1
CONCERT 2
10:45 a.m. | Preconcert Activities
11:15 a.m. | Performance #2 (40 minutes)
CLICK HERE to get tickets to Concert 2
The WCO’s Family Community Concert Series is a new, free-of-charge but ticketed educational program for children ages 4-10 and their families.
A unique format will encourage audience members of all ages to interact with classical music and each other like they never have before and serve as a new way for parents to introduce their children to classical music.
WCO will use music to inspire connections within families and communities and to foster a love for music that spans generations.
Families can also help prepare children for the experience. For more information and a preparatory study guide, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/education/wco-connect-family-concerts/concert-experience
The event is sponsored by CUNA Mutual and Findorff Construction.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Here is what happened when the late American writer Philip Roth heard fugues by Bach and Beethoven. What do you think of his reactions?
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
The late, great and award-winning American novelist Philip Roth (below) – who died of congestive heart failure in a Manhattan hospital on May 22 at age 85 – spent the last half-dozen years of his life retired and not writing.
Instead he liked to visit friends and attend concerts.
Roth was an avid fan of classical music.
So the following story about a chamber music concert by the Emerson String Quartet (below) – one of his favorite chamber music ensembles — of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Dmitri Shostakovich is especially amusing and perhaps telling to read.
What seems especially Rothian are his different reactions to fugues by Bach (below top is an unfinished manuscript page from Bach’s “The Art of Fugue”) and by Beethoven (below bottom is a manuscript page from the “Grosse Fuge”).
Here is a link to the story as recounted on the blog by the famous New York City classical music radio station WQXR-FM — and be sure to read the comments by other readers:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/what-roth-thought-bach
You can hear the Emerson Quartet playing the opening fugal theme that Bach chose to permute for almost 90 minutes, followed by Fugue No. 9, in the YouTube videos at the bottom.
What do you think of Roth’s reactions and comments to fugues by Bach and Beethoven?
Do you agree or disagree with him?
The Ear wants to hear.
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