The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra and violinist Naha Greenholtz perform this Wednesday night in the new Hamel Music Center at the UW-Madison. At noon, the FREE Just Bach concert celebrates Christmas
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ALERT 1: This Wednesday, Dec. 18, at noon in Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, Just Bach wraps up its FREE one-hour period-instrument concerts for this semester. The program features “joyous selections” from the Christmas Oratorio, the Magnificat, and the Advent Cantata 36. For more information about the program and the performers, go to: https://justbach.org
ALERT 2: The Madison Symphony Orchestra, which just gave three sold-out performances of its Christmas concert, is holding its annual holiday ticket sale. It started Monday and runs through Dec. 31. You can save up to 50 percent on tickets to the remaining concerts of the season. For more information and to order, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/holidaysale/
By Jacob Stockinger
Looking for a break from holiday music?
This Wednesday night, Dec. 18, the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (below) will perform in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the new Hamel Music Center at the UW-Madison – NOT at its usual venue, the Middleton Performing Arts Center that is attached to Middleton High School.
The appealing program under guest conductor Kyle Knox starts at 7:30 p.m. It features the dramatic Overture to “Die Meistersinger” (The Master Singers) by Richard Wagner (you can hear the Overture in the YouTube video at the bottom); the popular and virtuosic Symphonie Espagnole (Spanish Symphony) by French composer Edouard Lalo, with violin soloist Naha Greenholtz; and the lovely Suite from the opera “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss.
There will be a post-concert reception in the lobby.
Admission is $15; free for students. Tickets are available at the door – student tickets are available at the door only — and at the Willy Street Coop West. The hall is at 740 University Avenue with parking in the nearby Lake Street Ramp. The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and doors to the hall open at 7 p.m.
The Ear asked the co-founders and co-directors of the group – Mindy Taranto and Larry Bevic — why they chose to play in the Hamel Music Center this time. He recieved the following reply:
“We decided to rent the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall (below top, in photo by Bryce Richter for University Communications) in the Hamel Music Center (below bottom) for several reasons.
“This is our 10th anniversary season and we wanted to give our musicians a really special experience. Many of us are curious about the new hall and are really excited to be playing there.
“Also, Kyle Knox (below) – a UW-Madison graduate and the music director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras — is a phenomenal conductor and this program is exceptionally difficult and beautiful.
“It is an honor to get to perform at the UW-Madison with Kyle conducting such a beautiful program. He has brought this orchestra along so far, and for that we are incredibly grateful. He is a brilliant musician and our work with him has improved the orchestra so remarkably over the eight years he has been regularly working with us.
“We also thought that so many of our patrons enjoy our concerts when violinist Naha Greenholtz (below, in a photo by Chris Hynes) – the concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra — is our soloist, and with the MSO connection, holding the concert at Hamel will hopefully boost attendance at the concert.
Naha sounds amazing and if you could see how much our musicians enjoy her annual appearance with MCO, you’d know why we want to play with her every year.
“As we conclude the first half of our 10th season, we are grateful to the musicians in MCO and to the community that supports us.
“We are probably one of the few organizations on the Madison arts scene that puts literally every dollar into music. As the two co-founders, we run the organization on a volunteer basis and we don’t spend any money on advertising.
“All of our resources go to hiring astonishing local musicians, renting performance space, and buying music to provide meaningful musical experiences for our musicians and our patrons.”
For information about how to join the orchestra, how to support it and what its remaining concerts are this season, go online to: http://middletoncommunityorchestra.org or call 608-212-8690.
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Classical music: Did she know or didn’t she? Here is the factual background about a flawed diva if you go to see the movies “Florence Foster Jenkins” or “Marguerite”
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By Jacob Stockinger
This week, The Ear saw the movie “Florence Foster Jenkins,” a story about the amateur singer Florence Foster Jenkins (below, in the 1920s in a photo from Getty Images), who was famous in the early- to mid-20th-century for singing terribly, painfully and laughably off-key but who nonetheless pursued performing in public and sold a lot of records.
During the Wisconsin Film Festival, The Ear also saw a French movie, “Marguerite,” with a similar story line and main character.
Of the two, he much preferred “Florence Foster Jenkins.” Meryl Streep (below) plays the flawed diva with total commitment. The Ear suspects it will garner Streep, who did her own bad singing to perfection, her 20th Academy Award nomination, even if she doesn’t win a fourth Oscar.
British actor Hugh Grant might also be nominated for his supporting role as the British out-of-work actor who becomes her protector, promoter and caring love partner St. Clair Bayfield.
In additon, her piano accompanist Cosmé McMoon, played by Simon Helberg, who could also receive an Oscar nomination, develops into a memorable secondary character.
The English script — directed by the talented Stephen Frears –seemed more tightly written with better characters and dialogue than the French one, which dragged on too long and seemed forced in its ending, although both movies share similarities in their endings.
But to be honest, with both of the films The Ear had a major problem with suspending disbelief.
He just can’t believe that Jenkins didn’t know how badly she sang.
You can hear her butcher the famous and difficult “Queen of the Night” aria from “The Magic Flute” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Anyway, the Deceptive Cadence blog for NPR, or National Public Radio, has provided an excellent background piece, a very factual biography of Jenkins, that also asks famous singers whether it is possible for Jenkins not to have known how flawed her singing was.
All The Ear knows is that if he played the piano that badly, he sure wouldn’t go perform a recital in Carnegie Hall.
Here is a link to the blog piece by Tom Huizenga:
Now if you go to either or both movies, here is what The Ear wants to know:
Which film about Florence Foster Jenkins did you prefer, and why?
And do you think it is possible to sing as badly as Jenkins did without knowing it?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Academy Award, accompanist, accompany, advertising, amateur, American, aria, Arts, blog, Carnegie Hall, characters, choral music, Classical music, Davenport, dialogue, film, Florence Foster Jenkins, French, Hugh Grant, Jacob Stockinger, Magic Flute, Marguerite, Meryl Streep, movie, Mozart, Music, National Public Radio, New York, New York City, opera, Oscar, Piano, Queen of the Night, Stephen Frears, supporting actor, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Film Festival, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Which political campaigns have used classical music?
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By Jacob Stockinger
In the past, the music that political campaigns used was often jingles that reminded one of Madison Avenue advertising, even when they were composed by Broadway song master Irving Berlin.
These days, it seems to The Ear that most political campaigns use rock, pop or country music.
Sometimes folk music.
Never jazz.
And, one supposes, you will never hear the blues since that would be a pretty downbeat message for politicians.
But leave it to our friends at WQXR-FM, the famed classical music radio station in New York City, to offer some samples of political campaign music, including some that used classical music.
Donald Trump (below), the current Republican nominee for president, has tried to use the famous opera aria “Nessum dorma” (None Shall Sleep) from “Turandot” by Giacomo Puccini.
Fittingly, in the opera the moving and beautiful aria is sung by a prince to woo a Chinese tyrant or despot.
The Ear especially loved the way it was used so appropriately during the carpet bombing of Cambodia by the U.S. in the movie “The Killing Fields.”
Trump used one of the best versions available – sung by Luciano Pavarotti, one of which has 38 million hits and which you can hear in a YouTube video at the bottom.
But the Pavarotti estate refused to grant him permission to use it and asked him to cease and desist. Good for them.
Now Trump uses something in the public domain: the Overture to the opera “The Thieving Magpie” by Giachino Rossini.
Anyway, here is a link to the story:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/6-us-political-campaigns-set-to-classical-music/
Tags: advertising, American, Arts, blues, bombing, Broadway, Cambodia, campaign, China, choral music, Classical music, country, Donald Trump, folk, Folk music, Irving Berlin, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Luciano Pavarotti, Madison Avenue, Music, Nessun Dorma, New York City, nominee, opera, Orchestra, Overture, Pavarotti, political, Politics, pop, President, Puccini, Radio, Republican, Rock, Rossini, singer, song, The Killing Fields, Thieving Magpie, Turandot, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, vocal music, WQXR-FM, YouTube
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