The Well-Tempered Ear
The Willy Street Chamber Players give a virtual concert in November plus personalized live “micro-concerts” with tickets that go on sale this Wednesday. Plus, the Madison Symphony Orchestra organ concerts start TONIGHT with a FREE online recital by Greg Zelek
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ALERT: Tonight, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. CDT, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will open its concert organ series with a FREE streamed virtual online concert MSO virtual concert live from Overture Hall. The performer is MSO organist Greg Zelek (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) and the program includes music by Debussy, Franck, Durufle and Satie among others. For more information and to register, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/greg-zelek-2020-streamed/
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following note that once again cements the reputation that the Willy Street Chamber Players have for inventive, innovative and ingenious programming, even during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Willy Street Chamber Players (below) have announced a reimagined 2020 season titled 1NTERLUDE. The project includes two unique events designed with safety in mind and aims to provide meaningful artistic experiences during the pandemic.
BEYOND THE SCREEN
BEYOND THE SCREEN is a virtual concert that will air online on Sunday, Nov. 15, at noon CST. The program will explore two colorful works for violin and cello by Kodaly (below top) and Ravel (below bottom) as well as other unique works. (You can hear Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
While viewing, audience members will be encouraged to submit questions and insights via an online form.
After the performance, members of the group will host a virtual “reception” on ZOOM where they’ll answer submitted questions and lead a discussion.
MICRO-CONCERTS
The chamber music group is also announcing an entirely new way to experience live music during coronavirus pandemic: 1-on-1 “micro-concerts”that will start on Saturday, Nov. 2, and occur on a variety of dates this fall.
Tickets go on sale beginning this Wednesday, Oct. 14. Up to two guests from the same household can sign up for a 10-minute slot at the location of their choice to view a “living, breathing musical art exhibit.”
Locations include the new Arts + Literature Laboratory (below top), Garver Feed Mill and A Place To Be (below bottom), all on Madison’s east side.
Ticket prices will operate on a “pay what you can” structure. The group has suggested a $20 donation per concert.
“When you enter the room and sit down, two members of the Willy Street Chamber Players will curate a personalized concert just for you, says Willy Street co-founder and violinist Eleanor Bartsch (below). “The musicians will choose from a wide variety of solo and duo works in the moment. Micro-concerts are solely about the music. You enter the room as you are, in silence and with an open mind.”
Adds violinist Paran Amirinazari (below), who is the artistic director and co-founder of the Willys: “We encourage you to make your concert what you need it to be in this time: 10 minutes of meditation, healing, escape, positivity, relaxation or simply beautiful music.”
For more information, including safety guidelines such as masks and social distancing, go to: www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
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Classical music: UW-Madison piano students will perform a FREE concert of all 24 preludes by Debussy on Saturday night. On Sunday night, the Willy Street Chamber Players perform their summer preview concert
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is a busy weekend, especially if you are a fan of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. But two more events deserve notice:
SATURDAY
This year is the centennial of the death of the pioneering French composer Claude Debussy (below). The event will be celebrated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music all day this Saturday.
That’s when the annual “Keyboard Day” will take place, with a focus on French music and general matters of technique and interpretation. It is called “Debussy and the French Style” and covers everything from the French baroque keyboard masters to modern music, including how to use songs and poetry as keys to a composer’s mind.
All events are FREE and OPEN to the public.
But the really appealing part for many promises to be a concert at 7 p.m. in Mills Hall. That’s when UW students, both undergraduate and graduate, perform the complete 24 preludes by Debussy, which are landmark works of the piano repertoire. (You can hear Lang Lang play the famous and popular “Girl with the Flaxen Hair” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
It should be very memorable. The Ear remembers enjoying a similar event when students played all the mazurkas by Chopin and all the sonatas by Mozart.
Here is a link to the outstanding schedule of the events, workshops and master classes by faculty members, invited high school students and guest pianist Marina Lomazov (below), that start in the morning at 9 a.m. in Mills Hall:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/keyboard-day-with-marina-lomazov-and-mead-witter-faculty/
SUNDAY
On Sunday night, the critically acclaimed Willy Street Chamber Players (below) will give their usual preview concert – a sampler of sorts — of their upcoming summer season.
The concert will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in A Place to Be (below), a cozy and intimately exotic venue, at 911 Williamson Street on Madison’s near east side.
The program is To Be Announced, but the Willys have a great knack for combining older classics with new music.
Tickets are $20.
For information about the group and the concert, and to obtain tickets, go to:
http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org/calendar.html
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Classical music: The Willy Street Chamber Players mix classical and contemporary string quartets and again show off their exceptional artistry and adventurousness
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also provided the performance photo.
By John W. Barker
A Place to Be, at 911 Williamson Street, is a former store converted into a kind of near East Side clubhouse. Amid the chaos and entanglements of this weekend, it has been, indeed, the place to be for lovers of chamber music.
Just as last year, the Willy Street Chamber Players gave a concert in this intimate “chamber” on last Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
The string quartet fielded from the larger group consisted of violinists Paran Amirinazari and Eleanor Bartsch (who alternated recurrently in the first and second chairs), violist Beth Larson and cellist Mark Bridges.
Their program mixed music of two traditional classical composers with that of two contemporaries.
Opening the program was the String Quartet in D, Op. 20, No. 2 (1772), by Franz Joseph Haydn, which was played with delightful elegance and spirit.
Later came Felix Mendelssohn’s “Four Pieces for String Quartet,” dating from 1843 to 1847 and published as a set designated Op. 81. These called for a richer playing style, which the Willys managed easily, and with strong feeling for the extensive fugal writing in two of the movements.
For more recent material, the group offered a tango tidbit by the Argentinian Astor Piazzolla, and a recent work (2005) by Hawaiian-American, Harlem-based, crossover composer, string player and band leader Daniel Bernard Roumain.
The piece by Piazzolla (below), Four for Tango (1988, presumably scored for him by somebody else), is a kind of anti-quartet venture, requiring defiant employment of unconventional string sounds.
Even more unconventional is the three-movement String Quartet No. 5 (2005) by Roumain (below). Given the subtitle of “Rosa Parks,” it pays tribute to the heroic African-American civil rights leader who sparked the desegregation of buses in Montgomery, Alabama.
Roumain is a classically trained musician who draws upon a range of Black music styles in his compositions. He too asks the players to break norms by using hand-clapping and foot-stomping as well as exaggerated bowings.
His musical ideas are interesting but few, and developed only in constant, almost minimalist, repetition. I was impressed, however, by his command of quartet texture, and by how the instruments really could work both together and in oppositions, especially in the long first movement. (You can hear the String Quartet No. 5 “Rosa Parks” by Daniel Bernard Roumain in the YouTube video at the bottom. It is performed by the Lark Quartet, for which it was composed.)
The four Willys dug into this novel repertoire with zest and careful control. In the entire program, indeed, they displayed an utter joy in making music together. Their artistry and their exploratory adventurism mark the group, more than ever, as Madison cultural treasures, richly deserving of their designation by The Ear as “Musicians of the Year for 2016.”
They will be giving FREE and PUBLIC performances at: Edgewood High School’s Fine Arts Fest (Feb. 14); the Northside Community Connect Series at the Warner Park Community Center (Feb. 19); the Marquette Waterfront Fest (June 11); and at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green (June 12). And we await impatiently their announcement of plans for their third series of Friday concerts this July.
For more information about concerts and about the group, go to: http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
Then click on concerts or events.
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Classical music: The second half of the concert season starts with a conflicting wealth of great music and promising performances this weekend and especially on Sunday
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By Jacob Stockinger
The second half of the current concert season is getting off to a terrific, if crowded and competitive, start.
Take this weekend.
At least five individuals and groups are playing very appealing concerts. In some cases, there is time to get from one to another.
But there is also a good chance you will have to pick and choose, then be disappointed at what you miss as well as pleased with what you go to.
Here is a roundup:
SATURDAY
From 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m., the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will hold the 54th annual Wisconsin Day of Percussion. It features workshops, clinics, presentations and concerts for percussionists and fans of percussion at all levels.
All-day admission is $15 and is available at the door. For more information about attending and participating, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2016/11/10/wisconsin-day-of-percussion/
World Percussion Ensemble
At 1:30 p.m. in the relaxed and cozy venue of A Place to Be, 911 Williamson Street, the Willy Street Chamber Players (below) will offer a 90-minute program of string quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn (String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4), Felix Mendelssohn Four Pieces for String Quartet), Astor Piazzolla (Four for Tango) and Daniel Bernard Roumain String Quartet No. 5 “Rosa Parks”) as a prelude to the group’s third summer season this July. Admission is $20.
You may recall that last month The Ear named the Willys as Musicians of the Year for 2016. That post had details about the program and the group’s history. Here is a link:
For more information about this quartet concert (below is a photo of last year’s concert in the same place), go to:
http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org/calendar.html
And here is a link to the group’s home website with more specifics:
http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
Finally, one of the Willys assures The Ear that the Sunday performance will be over early enough to allow audience members to go watch the Green Bay Packers championship football game.
At 7 p.m. the Oakwood Chamber Players will give an adventurous concert of unusual works by Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Byron Adams, Gabriel Jackson and Francis Poulenc at the Oakwood Village West Auditorium, 6002 Mineral Point Road on Madison far west side.
Here is a link to a story with more details about the program and how it fits into the yearlong series of concerts:
SUNDAY
At 1:30 p.m., the Willy Street Chamber Players repeat their Saturday concert. See the information above for Saturday.
Also at 1:30 p.m., the Oakwood Chamber Players repeat their concert. See the information above for Saturday.
At 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW-Madison faculty members violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino (below top) and pianist Christopher Taylor (below bottom) will give a recital of two violin sonatas: Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13, by Gabriel Faure and the prize-winning 1963 Sonata for Violin and Piano by the contemporary American composer John Corigliano. (You can hear the lovely slow movement of the Corigliano sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Admission is $15, $5 for children and non-UW School of Music students.
Here is a link with more information:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/violinist-soh-hyun-altino-and-pianist-christopher-taylor/
Tickets can be bought at the door or by visit this site:
https://union.wisc.edu/visit/wisconsin-union-theater/theater-tickets/
Also at 4 p.m., pianist Catherine Kautsky (below) will perform a Schubert-themed program on the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522, Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne.
Her program includes the Sonata in D major and Twelve German Dances by Schubert; the Schubert-inspired “Valses nobles et sentimentales” (Noble and Sentimental Waltzes) by Maurice Ravel; Prelude and Fugue in E Major, from Book 2 of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” by Johann Sebastian Bach; and “Idyll and Abyss: Six Schubert Reminiscences” (20213) by the German composer Jeorg Widmann.
Admission is $45.
Kautsky has concertized on five continents. You may recall, she came to teach for several years at the UW-Madison from Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, and then returned to Lawrence where she heads the keyboard department and this year received an Excellence in Teaching award.
Call more information and tickets, call (608) 271-2626.
You can also go to this link to get more information about this concert and forthcoming concerts in the Salon Piano Series:
http://salonpianoseries.org/concerts.html
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Classical music: The Willy Street Chamber Players offer an appetizing preview of its second summer season with masterful performances of string quartets by Mozart, Webern, Shostakovich and Philip Glass. Plus, the Pro Arte Quartet concert on Feb. 3 has been CANCELLED
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ALERT: The concert on next Wednesday night, Feb. 3, by the University of Wisconsin-Madison‘s Pro Arte Quartet has been CANCELLED due to an injury of one of its players.
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who for 12 years hosted an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also took the performance photo.
By John W. Barker
The Willy Street Chamber Players have already awakened us to Madison’s East Side as a promising new locale of our musical life. And in presenting their program in A Place to Be, the old store converted into a conversation haven at 911 Williamson Street, they have given us further reminder of that area’s lively community life and activities.
On last Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the Willys offered an hour-long program, admission-free but by reservation. (I attended the Saturday performance.)
The small space was certainly the kind of intimate venue ideal for music by string quartet: indeed, it made for virtually an in-your-face confrontation.
Four members (below) of the Willys’ core ensemble were on hand. Violinists Eleanor Bartsch and Paran Amirinazari (alternating in second and first chairs), violist Beth Larson and cellist Mark Bridges made up a well-balanced string quartet.
Their program of four works displayed anew the level of enthusiastic music-making these players have set for themselves, but also of their wide-ranging mix of repertoire.
The opening piece was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved Serenade, Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music). As first violinist, Bartsch – who won honors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music — set an exuberant tone for what became a newly fresh masterpiece.
The second work, Anton Webern’s early Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement), can sometimes seem too extended for its 9-minute length. But these players imparted a forward-moving pulse to its heavily Late Romantic character that made it a lovely experience. And I must say that Larson made me aware for the first time of just how significant a role the viola part has in holding together the dense texture.
The contemporary American composer Philip Glass (below) is inevitably typecast as the arch-exponent of minimalist repetition. His 9-minute String Quartet No. 2 “Company” certainly reflects such techniques, but its four short movements allow a dispersion of their effects without making them unwelcome.
I found myself impressed, too, at least by Glass’s awareness of the characters of the four instruments—their different ranges and potentials for interaction. (You can hear Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 2 performed by Brooklyn Rider in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Finally, Dmitri Shostakovich’s 15-minute, four-movement String Quartet No. 1, dating from 1938, revealed a composer enjoying energy and affirmation, with only traces of the deeper, darker, more introverted writing that would come about in his subsequent 13 quartets. Particularly striking was the nostalgic second movement, largely dominated by the viola, the role of which Larson brought off to eloquent perfection.
These two concerts served as mid-season reminders of the projected second summer season by the ensemble (below), to come in July. Full announcement of its program details and other news will come in a week or so. But the teasing hints about the repertoire ahead sounded fascinating. I, for one, found my mouth watering at many of them.
So you are all on notice, then, that this exciting ensemble, bursting with youthful talent, will once again bring special novelty and artistry to another summer’s musical life.
Tags: A Place to Be, American music, American Record Guide, Arts, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Rider, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, Early music, emeritus, injury, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, Langsamer Satz, Langsammer Satz, Late Romantic, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Medieval history, minimalism, minimalist music, Mozart, Music, Philip Glass, Pro Arte Quartet, professor, Romantic, Shostakovich, Slow movement, store, String quartet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, Webern, Williamson Street, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 