The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Salon Piano Series again postpones two final concerts for 2019-20. Programs for Spring 2021 will be announced soon
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By Jacob Stockinger
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post from the directors of the Salon Piano Series:
Although it likely will come as no surprise, we are saddened to announce that Salon Piano Series — like so many of our concert colleagues everywhere — must take a pause in our recital series.
We delayed our last two concerts of the 2019-20 season until late summer. It’s clear now that even late summer is too soon to re-open the doors of our intimate performance hall. The safety of our artists, audience, supporters, and staff is our first concern.
These are uncertain times, but we want to assure you that we are looking ahead to reschedule classical pianist Drew Petersen (below top) and jazz pianist Bill Charlap (below bottom), and we plan to announce the exciting performers we’ve scheduled for spring 2021 events very soon. (Editor’s Note: in the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Drew Petersen play Chopin’s Ballade No. 4.)
Until then, we hope that you continue to support the mission of the Salon Piano Series as we weather this storm.
We ask you to keep your Petersen and Charlap tickets and we will honor them when we are able to resume the series. If that won’t work please consider donating them (which is tax-deductible) to Salon Piano Series. However, if you need a ticket refund, please check below for instructions on how to proceed.
Salon Piano Series is dedicated to preserving the intimacy and intensity of the recital experience. We bring you world-class artists performing on superbly restored instruments, offering some of the greatest piano repertoire in the world, from timeless classics to lesser-known works.
We eagerly await the day when we can safely gather together and bring back these masterful concerts. Contributions are welcome at any time, and will help ensure the vitality of our organization.
In the meantime, we extend our best wishes for your health and safety, and look forward to seeing you again as soon as it’s possible.
With appreciation,
SPS Board of Directors
Refunds
If you would like a refund immediately, please follow the instructions below and specify which concerts you are requesting a refund for. For refunds issued through Salon Piano Series, please allow several business days for processing.
Paper Tickets
Please take a photo of your ticket and email the photo to cristofori@salonpianoseries.org explaining that you would like a refund.
Online Tickets
If the ticket is not part of a season ticket, email Brown Paper Tickets at refunds@brownpapertickets.com. Please be sure to include your order confirmation number. Brown Paper Tickets’ refund processing is significantly delayed; however, all refunds will be honored in full.
If your ticket is part of a season ticket, contact Salon Piano Series at 608-271-2626. Refunds for season ticket holders will be issued through Salon Piano Series by check, not through Brown Paper Tickets.
Tickets Ordered by Phone
If you purchased a ticket by phone, contact Salon Piano Series at 608-271-2626 to request a refund.
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Classical music: Trevor Stephenson announces the new season of the Madison Bach Musicians on YouTube. It features smaller concerts and familiar comfort music
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By Jacob Stockinger
At a time when so many concerts are being canceled, it is especially welcome when a local ensemble announces plans for the 2020-21 season.
To announce the 17th season of the Madison Bach Musicians — a period-instrument group that uses historically informed performance practices — the founder and artistic director Trevor Stephenson (below), who also plays the harpsichord, fortepiano and piano, has made and posted a 13-1/2 minute YouTube video.
The season will also be posted on the MBM website in early June, and will also be announced with more details about times and ticket prices via email and postal mailings.
In the video, Stephenson plays the harpsichord. He opens the video with the familiar Aria from the “Goldberg” Variations and closes with two contrasting Gavottes from the English Suite in G minor.
As usual, Stephenson offers insights in the programs that feature some very well-known and appealing works that are sure to attract audiences anxious to once again experience the comfort of hearing familiar music performed live.
One thing Stephenson does not say is that there seems to be fewer ambitious programs and fewer imported guest artists. It’s only a guess, but The Ear suspects that that is because it is less expensive to stage smaller concerts and it also allows for easier cancellation, should that be required by a continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
If the speculation proves true, such an adaptive move is smart and makes great sense artistically, financially and socially given the coronavirus public health crisis.
After all, this past spring the MBM had to cancel a much anticipated, expensive and very ambitious production, with many out-of-town guests artists, of the “Vespers of 1610” by Claudio Monteverdi. Nonetheless, MBM tried to pay as much as it could afford to the musicians, who are unsalaried “gig” workers who usually don’t qualify for unemployment payments.
“Hope and Joy” is a timely, welcome and much-needed theme of the new season.
The new season starts on Saturday night, Oct. 3, at Grace Episcopal Church downtown on the Capitol Square, and then Sunday afternoon, Oct. 4, at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton.
The program is Haydn and Mozart: songs composed in English and German by Haydn plus songs by Mozart; the great violin sonata in E minor by Mozart; and two keyboard trios, one in C major by Haydn and one in G major by Mozart.
Only four players will be required. They include: Stephenson on the fortepiano; concertmaster Kangwon Kim on baroque violin; James Waldo on a Classical-era cello; and soprano Morgan Balfour (below), who won the 2019 Handel Aria Competition in Madison.
On Saturday night, Dec. 12, in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, near Camp Randall Stadium, MBM will perform its 10th annual holiday concert of seasonal music.
The program includes several selections from the “Christmas Oratorio” by Johann Sebastian Bach; a Vivaldi concerto for bassoon with UW-Madison professor Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill) as soloist; and the popular “Christmas Concerto” by Arcangelo Corelli.
On Saturday night, April 24, at Grace Episcopal Church and Sunday afternoon, April 25, at Holy Wisdom Monastery, the MBM will perform a concert of German Baroque masterworks with the internationally renowned baroque violinist Marc Destrubé (below).
The program features Handel and Bach but also composers who are not often played today but who were well known to and respected by Bach and his contemporaries.
Specifically, there will be a suite by Christoph Graupner (below top) and a work by Carl Heinrich Graun (below bottom).
There will also be a concerto grosso by George Frideric Handel and two very well-known concertos by Bach – the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and the Concerto for Two Violins.
Here is the complete video:
What do you think of the Madison Bach Musicians’ new season?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra cancels and postpones its last two Masterworks concerts of the season in April and May. Here is information about ticket exchanges and refunds
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO, below in a photo by Mike Gorski) about canceling the rest of its Masterworks season due to the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
Dear Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Concert Ticket Holders:
We continue to remain committed to serving you and keeping you safe during the current health crisis.
Given the Overture Center’s closing, we have postponed two concerts: Masterworks IV, scheduled for April 24; and Masterworks V, scheduled for May 8.
We thank you for your patience as we work through the details to reschedule these fantastic performances featuring our guest artists, violinist Eric Silberger (Masterworks IV, below) and trumpeter and Madison native Andrew Balio (Masterworks V in Madison and Brookfield, below).
(Editor’s Note: The WCO has also said that the cancelled Masterworks III performance in late March by harpist Yolanda Kondonassis (below) will probably be rescheduled for next season, which will be announced later this month.)
We hope you will consider exchanging or donating the cost of your ticket back to the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
As an arts nonprofit, the WCO sees your support as vital to our organization during this challenging time as we navigate the significant ongoing economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are deeply grateful for your generosity and continued support.
The following ticket options are available for you:
- Exchange your ticket(s) for a future Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra performance. All exchange fees will be waived in this situation. You can also apply the value of the cancelled ticket to a subscription ticket for next season.
- Donate your ticket(s) and receive a tax deduction for the total ticket value.
- Receive a refund for the value of the ticket(s).
Please respond by email, letting us know your ticket decision, along with your full name, to wco@wcoconcerts.org.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us at (608) 257-0638 or email us at wco@wcoconcerts.org.
We will continue to keep you informed of the status of all our upcoming performances as we continue to monitor the situation closely over the coming days and weeks.
We look forward to continuing to enrich your life through music.
Thank you,
Joe Loehnis, CEO
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Classical music: The Festival Choir of Madison performs Yiddish music Saturday night. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra performs the child-friendly “Beethoven Lives Next Door” for FREE twice on Saturday morning
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ALERT: Do you have children or grandchildren you want to introduce to classical music? This Saturday morning, March 14, at 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. in the Goodman Community Center, at 149 Waubesa Street on Madison’s near east side, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will give two FREE public performances of “Beethoven Lives Next Door.” The interactive, multi-media event includes live music and story-telling, and is designed for children age 4-10 and their families. Because space is limited, advance registration is strongly recommended. You can register for one of the performances by going to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances
By Jacob Stockinger
The Festival Choir of Madison will present its second concert of the season, “Ner Tamid: Eternal Flame,” on this Saturday night, March 14, at 8 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society of Madison at 900 University Bay Drive.
The choir (below), under the artistic direction of Edgewood College professor Sergei Pavlov (below, front right) will perform songs drawing on Yiddish folklore, Klezmer innovations, the pain and cultural fusion of the diaspora, and the poignancy of love in the Holocaust.
Spanning geography and time, this array of Sephardic folk songs, Middle Eastern melodies, the high European tradition of the late 19th century, and contemporary settings of ancient texts paints a rich picture of the breadth of Jewish musical tradition.
The performance includes works by Gustav Mahler, Jacob Weinberg (below top) and Alberto Guidobaldi (below bottom) for classical composers, as well as Paul Ben Haim and Josef Hadar, who are more contemporary Israeli and Jewish composers, respectively.
The Festival Choir of Madison (FCM) is an auditioned, mixed-voice volunteer choir of over 50 experienced singers. FCM performs thematic concerts of artistically challenging choral music from around the world for listeners who enjoy traditional, modern, and eclectic works, and for singers who enjoy developing their talents with others.
The choir performs three thematic concerts annually in November, March and May. It also serves as the core choir for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s annual “Messiah” concert. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the Festival Choir of Madison perform “The West Lake” by Chinese composer Chen Yi in 2019.)
Concert admission — general seating — is $10 for students, $15 for senior citizens, and $20 for adults, with tickets available at the door the day of the concert. Tickets can also be purchased online at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4383496
To learn more about the choir and see details about its May 16 performance of Mozart’s Requiem, visit: www.festivalchoirmadison.org
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Classical music: In 2019 who died? What recordings won prizes? What music had its premiere? Here is a comprehensive and detailed worldwide retrospective from Wikipedia
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By Jacob Stockinger
A new year is always a good time to do a review and take a look backward to assess the previous year.
Many local publications – newspapers and magazines — do Best of the Year round-ups.
But The Ear has never seen a more comprehensive list with major news and almost daily entries around the world than he found in Wikipedia, which has retrospectives going back to 2009 and looking forward to 2029.
In short, all the reviws are well worth exploring for the reminders they hold that, as the proverb goes, “Ars longa, vita brevis” or “Art is long, life is short.” (It is usually quoted in Latin translation from the original ancient Greek that was written by Hippocrates.)
There are seven different categories to click on, each with long entries. If you hover the cursor over the names or words that are spelled in blue, you will see more text and often a photograph. The categories are:
EVENTS
NEW WORKS
NEW OPERAS
ALBUMS
DEATHS
MAJOR AWARDS
REFERENCES
There are so many details that you may want to check out just one or two categories at a time over several days.
Here is a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_in_classical_music
Do you know of someone or something – especially of local importance, such as the death in October of longtime Madison music critic John W. Barker (below, in a photo by Mark Golbach) – that did not make the list? Please leave word in the Comment section.
And here’s hoping that 2020 brings us even more important and memorable new and old music, but less loss.
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Classical music: Famed radio station WQXR names the best 100 recordings of 2019. Listen to samples of them here
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By Jacob Stockinger
Did you get a gift card for the holidays?
Are you looking how to spend it by either purchasing CDs or subscribing to a streaming service?
Help and guidance are available.
Few names in the airing of classical music carry more prestige than the famed radio station WQXR in New York City.
To check out the radio station’s choice of the best recordings of 2019 is also to see where the worlds of recording and concertizing are heading.
Such trends include rediscovering neglected composers and championing new music as well as women composers, such as Clara Schumann, and composers of color, such as the American composer Florence Price (below), who has often been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio this past year.
But you will also find noteworthy recordings of such classics as Johann Sebastian Bach – and two of his rarely heard cousins instead of his sons – and well as outstanding recordings of symphonies and piano sonatas (below, the set by Igor Levit) for the upcoming Beethoven Year to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the composer.
And you will also find names of outstanding performers you may not have heard of — such as the exceptional Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang (below), a Van Cliburn Competition gold medalist whom The Ear would like to see perform here.
Here is a link to 25 picks with commentaries– plus another 75 titles and samples, without commentary, to round out a Top 100.
Happy listening!
https://www.wqxr.org/story/best-classical-recordings-2019/
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Classical music: Madison Opera’s Opera in the Park has been CANCELLED for tonight and RESCHEDULED for tomorrow at 8 p.m.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This news is just in from Instagram and other social media:
The Madison Opera has cancelled Opera in the Park tonight and rescheduled it for tomorrow, Sunday night, July 21, at 8 p.m. in Garner Park.
Here is a statement from Madison Opera: “For the safety and health of everyone involved, based on the current forecast and dangerously unstable weather patterns, we are postponing Opera in the Park to tomorrow, Sunday, July 21, in Garner Park. Tomorrow’s forecast is cooler and much more pleasant, so we look forward to seeing everyone in the park!”
For more details about the concert and other issues relevant to the event, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/07/15/classical-music-madison-operas-annual-free-opera-in-the-park-returns-this-saturday-night-july-20-in-garner-park-and-celebrates-18-years-in-madison-plus-a-glimpse-of-the-upcoming-season/
Pass the word on!
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Classical music: The seventh annual Make Music Madison is on Friday, June 21, and features 17 different FREE classical concerts as well as dozens of performances of jazz, folk, blues, hip-hop, swing and other genres
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REMINDER: TODAY, Saturday, June 15, at noon in Grace Episcopal Church, 116 West Washington Avenue, on the Capitol Square, the Ancora String Quartet will give a FREE performance as part of “Grace Presents.” The one-hour program includes the String Quartet in A Major, Op. 13, by Felix Mendelssohn; the String Quartet in B-flat Major, “La Malinconia” (Melancholy), Op. 18, No. 6, by Ludwig van Beethoven; and “Entr’acte” by the contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. The Ear heard an earlier performance of the same program by the Ancora, and highly recommends it.
By Jacob Stockinger
This coming Friday, June 21, is the Summer Solstice, which arrives at 10:54 a.m. CDT.
That means not only the first day of summer, but also the seventh annual Make Music Madison – a day-long FREE mostly outdoor festival of live performances.
The event, which is organized and staffed by volunteers and costs about $45,000, will take place from easy morning until midnight. Madison will be joining more than 80 cities in the United States and more than 1,000 cities around the world for the global event. The estimated audience worldwide is in the tens of millions.
The local lineup is impressive.
More than 400 concerts at more than 100 venues will take place all around the Madison area.
Many genres of music besides classical will be featured: jazz, folk, ethnic, rock, blues, hip-hop, reggae, gospel, swing and more. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a compilation of different music and assessments from Make Music Madison participants in 2014.)
And many forms of music, both instrumental and vocal, will be featured. (Below is the Madison Flute Club performing during last year’s event.)
Performers include professionals and amateurs, young people and adults, students and teachers, individuals and ensembles.
Some events will be more formal, while others will be jam sessions. Some events will have an open mic.
The Ear counts 17 different venues for classical music, including a public piano in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Alumni Park, between the Memorial Union and the Red Gym. Also featured there is opera singer Prenicia Clifton (below).
You will also find classical music at Metcalfe’s market in the Hilldale Mall; the First Congregational United Church of Christ near Camp Randall Stadium; branches of the Madison Public Library; and other places. You can hear the Suzuki Strings as well as violin, viola, cello, brass, winds, piano and guitar ensembles.
Unfortunately, though, specific programs and works are not listed, which might cut into the attendance at some performances.
To whet your appetite, here is a link to the Make Music Madison home website, with lots of background, some fine photos, a complete listing of events and the names of major funding sources, which include the Madison Arts Commission, Isthmus, Dane Arts, WORT FM 89.9, Wisconsin Public Radio. WSUM-FM 91.7 (the student radio at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and La Voz de Latinoamerica Desde Wisconsin as well as individual private donors.
To help classical fans decide what to attend and what works in their weekday schedule, here is a map of concerts. Just click on “Classical” in “Filter Map,” which is first tab on the top right, to see classical events listed by genre, location and name:
http://www.makemusicmadison.org/listings/
Have you ever attended Make Music Madison?
What did you think of it? Did you have a good time? Did you hear good music and fine performances?
Do you have any words of advice, tips or recommendations for organizers, performers and listeners?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Next season the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will expand to two performances of its winter Masterworks concerts by adding a Saturday night concert in Brookfield, near Milwaukee
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By Jacob Stockinger
Next season will mark the 20th anniversary of Andrew Sewell (below top) coming to Madison to serve as the music director and principal conductor of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below bottom).
It is hard to imagine a better Bravo! or anniversary gift for the maestro – who has said he wants the WCO to become a chamber orchestra, as its name implies, for the entire state of Wisconsin — than what will in fact take place: the WCO will expand its winter Masterworks concerts to two performances by adding a Saturday night performance at 7:30 p.m. in the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts (below) in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee. (Sewell is also the music director of the San Luis Obispo Symphony in California.)
Madison performances of Masterworks will continue to take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
You can find out more about the Masterworks programs for next season by going to the WCO home website:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performance-listing/category/masterworks
There you will find the usual eclectic mix of new guest artists and new or neglected composers and repertoire that has marked Sewell’s tenure and brought him critical acclaim.
Pianist Orion Weiss will perform the popular Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 – “Elvira Madigan” – by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; violinists Giora Schmidt and Eric Silberger will perform concertos by Dmitri Kabalevsky and Niccolo Paganini, respectively; harpist Yolanda Kondonassis will perform a concerto by Argentinian Alberto Ginastera; and Andrew Balio (below), principal trumpet of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will return to Madison where he grew up and perform a 1948 trumpet concerto by Italian composer Andre Tomasi.
Early music and new music to be featured includes works by: Donald Fraser (an acclaimed English conductor, composer and arranger, below) who now lives in Illinois, and often comes to Madison); Joseph Martin Kraus, known as the “Swedish Mozart”; Norwegian composer Johann Svensen; and three English composers (always favorites of Sewell who was born and educated in New Zealand) who are John Marsh, James Macmillan and York Bowen. (In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear the English Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Woods — a native Madisonian who will return next season to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra — recording the Scherzo movement from Donald Fraser’s “Sinfonietta,” the same work that the WCO will perform.)
Works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn and Sergei Prokofiev also figure prominently, including Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” in honor of the composer’s 250th birthday in 2020.
Also on the website, you will find the upcoming season of Wednesday night Concerts on the Square for this summer (June 26-July 31) plus the dates and themes – although no guest artists or works — for 2020 (June 24-July 29).
Go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances
You can also find information for next season about the WCO performing George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah,” Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” with the Madison Ballet; the Young Artist Concerto Competition; the free Family Series; and the community Super Strings program for elementary students.
To receive a brochure with information about all these events and about how to get tickets — an “early bird” discount on subscription tickets runs through May 31– call (608) 257-0638 or go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: What concerts or performances in 2019 did you most like, and do you most remember and want to praise?
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The concert season’s winter intermission will soon draw to a close.
So this is a good time to recall favorite concerts and performances of last year.
But let’s be clear.
This is a not a request to name “The Best Concerts of 2019.”
Calling them the most memorable concerts doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best.
Perfection or “the best” sounds so objective, but can really be quite personal and subjective. So much can depend not only on the music and the performers, but also on your own mood and your taste or preferences.
So please share the concerts or performances that you most liked and enjoyed, the one that most still linger in your mind. And, if you can pin it down, tell us why you liked them so much and why they linger for you.
There are so many excellent groups and concerts, so much fine classical music, in the Madison area that there should be lots of candidates.
Here are several performances or complete concerts that The Ear remembers with special fondness.
The MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) held a season-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of John DeMain’s tenure as its music director and conductor. The big event came at the end: Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 8 – the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand” – that brought together the MSO and the MSO Chorus as well as the Madison Youth Choirs and the UW-Madison Choral Union.
It proved an impressive, overwhelming and moving display of coordination and musicianship, a testament to how far DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) has brought the orchestra.
(Also memorable on the MSO season were pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin in Ravel’s jazzy Piano Concerto in G Major and UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor in the Leonard Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” symphony during the MSO tribute to Bernstein, with whom DeMain worked closely.)
The WISCONSIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (below, in a photo by Mike Gorski), under its veteran music director Andrew Sewell, continues to test its own limits and surpass them. Particularly impressive was the last concert of the winter season with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 featuring two outstanding soloists: soprano Mary Mackenzie and bass Timothy Jones.
The playing of the difficult score was precise but moving, and the singing blended beautifully. It made one understand why during this season – when the orchestra marks 60 years and maestro Sewell (below, in a photo by Alex Cruz) marks his 20th season — the WCO has deservingly graduated to two performances of each Masterwork concert (one here on Friday nights followed by one in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield on Saturday night).
Also memorable was an impressive concert by the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed MIDDLETON COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA. The Ear likes amateur musicians, and for their 10th anniversary concert they really delivered the goods in Dvorak’s famous Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” and, with fabulous guest soloist J.J. Koh (below — principal clarinet of the Madison Symphony Orchestra — in Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto.
But it wasn’t only large-scale works that The Ear remembers.
Three chamber music concerts continue to stand out.
During the summer, the WILLY STREET CHAMBER PLAYERS and guest UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor (both below) delivered a performance of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major that would be hard for any group to match, let alone surpass, for its tightness and energy, its lyricism and drama.
The same goes for the veteran PRO ARTE QUARTET at the UW-Madison, which this fall started its complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets in the new Hamel Music Center to celebrate the Beethoven Year in 2020 when we mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
The quartet played early, middle and late quartets with complete mastery and subtlety. Treat yourself. Don’t miss the remaining five concerts, which resume in February and take place over the next year at the Hamel center and also at the Chazen Museum of Art, from where they will also be live-streamed.
Finally, The Ear will always remember the wholly unexpected and thoroughly captivating virtuoso accordion playing he heard last summer by Milwaukeean Stas Venglevski (below) at a concert by the BACH DANCING AND DYNAMITE SOCIETY. Venglevski performed music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Igor Stravinsky and Astor Piazzolla in a new and enthralling way.
Unfortunately, for various reasons The Ear missed many other concerts – by the Madison Opera and the University Opera among others – that promised to be memorable performances.
But perhaps you can fill him in as we start 2020 concerts next weekend.
What concerts in 2019 did you like most and do you most remember and praise? Why?
The Ear wants to hear.
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