The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: This afternoon is your last chance to hear rave-winning performances by pianist Joyce Yang and the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Here’s a review to read | November 10, 2019

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By Jacob Stockinger

This afternoon — Sunday, Nov. 10 — at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall is your last chance to hear South Korean pianist Joyce Yang and the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) under the baton of music director John DeMain.

The program features the exciting, popular and beautiful Piano Concerto No. 3 by the Russian modernist composer Sergei Prokofiev as well as “Newly Drawn Sky” by contemporary American composer and Yale School of Music professor Aaron Jay Kernis (below) and the Symphony No. 2 by the German Romantic master Robert Schumann.

For more information about the performers, the program and tickets, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/11/04/classical-music-this-weekend-prize-winning-pianist-joyce-yang-solos-in-prokofievs-most-popular-piano-concerto-with-the-madison-symphony-orchestra-works-by-schumann-and-aaron-jay-kernis-are/

The prize-winning Yang (below), who  at 19 won the silver medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, rewarded a standing ovation with the late Earl Wild’s virtuosic arrangement of George Gershwin’s song “The Man I Love,” which you can hear Yang play in the YouTube video at the bottom.

The reviews that have appeared so far agreed: It is a rave-winning concert with special attention going to Yang, who is making her MSO debut after performing a solo recital several years ago at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

The Ear cannot find a link to the rave review by Bill Wineke for Channel 3000.

But here is the rapturous review that Michael Muckian wrote for Isthmus:

https://isthmus.com/music/joyce-yang-triumphs-with-prokofiev/

But you be the critic.

What did you think of Joyce Yang and the MSO?

The Ear wants to hear.

 


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5 Comments »

  1. Evidence? There’s definitely a huge Hamilton effect of higher ticket sales for the Broadway series (data, from a 9/14/19 Cap Times article, below) and I know of at least one family on a budget who canceled their Symphony subscriptions to subscribe to B’way so they could get Hamilton tickets. That’s only one data point, I know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were representative of others.

    “So far, the “Hamilton” bump in Madison looks like this:

    A 49% increase in full Broadway packages between 2017-18 and 2018-19. That’s the “pre-‘Hamilton’” season that just concluded. People were encouraged to purchase season tickets to get first crack at this season (and therefore, “Hamilton”).

    There was a 29% increase in season ticket purchases on top of that between 2018-19 and 2019-20.”

    Like

    Comment by Marika Fischer Hoyt — November 11, 2019 @ 12:23 am

  2. From the cited review: “As it turns out, the explanation proved wise for an audience filling just half of Overture Hall.”

    This despite many ticket price reductions. One half of the hall empty isn’t going to do it and the MSO under its aged and unexciting maestro is becoming the Moribund Symphony Orchestra.

    Like

    Comment by fflambeau — November 10, 2019 @ 12:12 am

    • As I understand it, all shows at the Overture Center have lower-than-usual subscriptions, because of the Hamilton effect. It’ll be interesting to see, next season, if subscribers go back to their former allegiances, or stay with the Broadway series.

      Like

      Comment by Marika Fischer Hoyt — November 10, 2019 @ 12:21 am

      • Or, I should have said, all non-Broadway series shows have lower subscriptions…

        Like

        Comment by Marika Fischer Hoyt — November 10, 2019 @ 12:22 am

      • Your evidence for that assertion?

        I think instead it is the DeMain effect.

        Like

        Comment by fflambeau — November 10, 2019 @ 5:38 pm


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