The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Longtime NPR host Robert Siegel brought his love of classical music to “All Things Considered.” Here are 10 interviews and some background to mark his recent retirement
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you are a fan of “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio – and The Ear certainly is – you probably already know not to listen for veteran host Robert Siegel (below) on this afternoon’s broadcast.
Or any other ATC broadcast in the future.
That is because last Friday afternoon Siegel had his last sign-off. He retired after spending 41 years with NPR – the first 10 as a reporter, including as a London correspondent, and the last 31 as a host of the prize-winning afternoon news and features magazine “All Things Considered,” which, by the way, was created by Jack Mitchell, who later came to teach Mass Communications at the UW-Madison.
There will be much to miss about Siegel. His qualities included a calming voice, a ready laugh, fairness and objectivity, a convivial studio presence and sharp but respectful interviewing skills.
One of the things that The Ear hopes will survive Siegel’s departure is the much-needed public attention he brought to classical music, which he loved and which the other media today so often ignore.
The mark his retirement, NPR classical music blogger Tom Huizenga compiled a list of 10 important interviews that Siegel conducted over the years. Then he put links to those interviews on an NPR blog.
Huizenga also got Siegel to open up about the formative influences that sparked his love for classical music. They included his young love for the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven — the so-called “Emperor” Concerto, which you can hear played by Alfred Brendel in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Siegel went on to cover big stars like superstar soprano Renee Fleming; medium stars like violinist Gil Shaham (below), who performs with the Madison Symphony Orchestra this month; and smaller and new stars like the iconoclast harpsichord virtuoso Mahan Esfahani.
He also covered a U.S. Army rifleman who performed a violin recital for Churchill and Truman, and the role that music by Beethoven played in Communist China.
And there are many, many more, for which classical music and we listeners owe a debt to Siegel.
Check it out and enjoy! Here is a link to that posting on the Deceptive Cadence blog:
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Classical music: Today is the winter solstice. What music best captures or celebrates winter?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the Winter Solstice.
Winter arrives at 10:28 a.m. Central Standard Time.
That means we are turning the corner. Starting today, nights will get shorter and days will get longer.
But there is still plenty of the year’s most blustery and bone-chilling weather ahead of us.
Lots of classical music celebrates winter.
Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is a popular choice.
So is the “Winter Dreams” symphony by Tchaikovsky.
Here are links to two compilations of winter music, lasting for a total of more than two hours, on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNMIgZAx2gQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2jAweLVLRk
But no music is more wintry than the celebrated song cycle “Winterreise” or “Winter Journey” by Franz Schubert (below).
Every year, The Ear uses the solstice and the coming of winter to listen once again to this deeply moving and surprisingly modern song cycle.
Many excellent recordings exist. Famed German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (below left, with pianist Gerald Moore) made multiple recordings over many years.
In recent years Matthias Goerner, Thomas Quasthoff, Mark Padmore, Jonas Kaufmann and many others have already made acclaimed recordings, always with distinguished pianists including Gerald Moore, Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Daniel Barenboim and Paul Lewis.
Yet I always find the most satisfying version to be the one made by English tenor Ian Bostridge with Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andnes.
Bostridge’s tenor voice lends a lightness that has a certain clarity and almost speech-like quality to it.
And Bostridge, who wrote the excellent book “Schubert Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession” – a song-by-song analysis of the cycle — knows the texts and contexts of the songs inside and out. His are well-informed and thoroughly thought-out interpretations.
The whole cycle takes about 70 minutes to listen to.
This year The Ear might do one of the 24 songs in the cycle each day and then the entire cycle in one sitting at the end.
The different approach might yield some new insights and new pleasure.
Anyway, choose your own artists and your own way of listening.
But it is a great and timely choice.
Here is “Good Night,” the first song of “Winterreise”:
And here is “The Organ Grinder,” the last song and a favorite of writer Samuel Beckett who found a shared sensibility in the lean austerity of the music of the music and the text:
What winter music would you listen to or recommend to mark the solstice and the coming of winter?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: accompanist, Alfred Brendel, analysis, anatomy, Arts, austere, Bach, baritone, Baroque, Beethoven, Book, British, Cello, central, Chamber music, choice, choral music, Classical music, cold weather, Compact Disc, compilation, composer, concerto, context, cycle, Daniel Barenboim, day, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, dream, Early music, Four Seasons, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, Gerald, Gerald Moore, German, good, good night, Ian Bostridge, insight, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Jonas Kaufmann, journey, lean, Leif Ove Andsnes, listen, long, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mark Padmore, Matthias Goerner, modern, moving, Mozart, Murray Perahia, Music, night, Norwegian, obsession, opera, Orchestra, organ, Paul, Paul Lewis, Piano, pleasure, popular, Samuel Beckett, Season, short, singer, solstice, Sonata, song, standard, symphony, Tchaikovsky, tenor, text, Thomas Quasthoff, time, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Vivaldi, vocal music, weather, winter, Winterreise, wintry, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Writer, YouTube
Classical music: Who are the best pianists of all time? And which ones do you think were left off the list by Classic FM?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The British radio station and website Classic FM recently published its list of the 25 greatest pianists of all time.
Plus, the website also included samples of the playing where possible.
It is an impressive list, if pretty predictable — and heavily weighted towards modern or contemporary pianists. You might expect that a list of “all-time greats” would have more historical figures — and more women as well as more non-Western Europeans and non-Americans, especially Asians these days.
Here is a link:
http://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/best-pianists-ever/
So The Ear started what turned out to be a long list of others who should at least be considered and maybe even included.
Here, then, is the question for this weekend: What do you think of the list? Which pianists do not belong on the list? And which are your favorite pianists who are not included in the compilation?
Leave your candidate or candidates in the COMMENT section with a link to a YouTube link of a favorite performance, wherever possible.
Happy listening!
Tags: Alfred Brendel, America, American, Argerich, Arrau, Arthur Rubinstein, Arts, Artur Rubinstein, Ashkenazy, asian, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Chamber music, Clara Schumann, Classic FM, Classical music, Claudio Arrau, concerto, contemporary, Daniel Barenboim, England, Europe, European, Franz Schubert, Glenn Gould, great, Great Britain, histiry', historical, Horowitz, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Ogdon, Lang Lang, Leif Ove Andsnes, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Maria Joao Pires, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, modern, Mozart, Murray Perahia, Music, Myra Hess, Orchestra, Pianist, Piano, Radio, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninov, Sexism, sexist, Sonata, Stephen Hough, Sviatoslav Richter, time, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Western Europe, Western European, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, women, YouTube
Classical music: Remembering The Modest Maestro. English conductor Sir Neville Marriner died this past week at 92
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By Jacob Stockinger
He played in a string quartet and a symphony orchestra before founding and directing a chamber orchestra that rose to the top ranks of the music world. Then he became a world-famous conductor of larger ensembles, including the Minnesota Orchestra.
He was Sir Neville Marriner (below, in old age), and he died at 92 on Oct. 2.
Perhaps because Marriner, who pioneered period practices on modern instruments when playing music of the Baroque and Classical eras, was famous for recording the soundtrack to the Academy Award-winning film “Amadeus,” his death was announced the same day on radio news programs – something that doesn’t happen often and speaks to his popularity and influence.
By all accounts, in the world of many egotistical maestros, Marriner remained modest. For this friendly titan, music mattered most and he was busy conducting right up until the end. Apparently, Marriner was a wonderful man to know and to work with.
Chances are good that by now you have already heard about Marriner’s death. So The Ear is offering some homages that repeat the details of his career and his passing. (Below is a photo of the young Neville Marriner.)
First are two moving testimonies from Marriner’s friend, the British critic Norman Lebrecht, published on Lebrecht’s blog Slipped Disc:
http://slippedisc.com/2016/10/sad-news-neville-marriner-is-gone-at-92/
http://slippedisc.com/2016/10/the-unforgettable-neville-marriner/
Here is the announcement of his death from the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (heard playing the Adagio by Tomaso Albinoni in the YouTube video at the bottom), which Marriner founded and led for many years:
http://www.asmf.org/sir-neville-marriner/
Here is an exhaustive obituary from The New York Times:
And here is another obituary from The Washington Post:
Here is a good overview with some audio-visual samples, from the Deceptive Cadence blog on NPR or National Public Radio:
And here is a good summary from famed radio station WQXR-FM in New York City:
Sir Neville Marriner was a prolific recording artist, with more than 500 recordings to his credit. The Ear fondly remembers an LP that had the Serenades for Strings by the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak and the “Holberg” Suite by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, which has been reissued as a “Legends” CD by Decca. The playing was warmly heart-felt and superb.
The Ear also loved his complete set of piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, done with pianist Alfred Brendel.
What are your favorite Marriner recordings?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: "Amadeus", Academy Award, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Albinoni, Alfred Brendel, Arts, Baroque, Beethoven, CD, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, Classical era, Classical music, concerto, conductor, death, Decca, Dvorak, Grieg, Historically informed performance, homage, instruments, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Madison, Maestro, Minnesota Orchestra, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Times, news, Norman Lebrecht, Norway, NPR, Orchestra, Piano, Radio, recording, Sir Neville Marriner, Slipped Disc, String quartet, symphony, symphony orchestra, The Washington Post, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WQXR-FM, YouTube
Classical music: String music and a piano for small hands, wind music and band music — This week brings varied FREE concerts at the UW-Madison
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By Jacob Stockinger
It will be a busy week in Madison and especially at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. Here is a list to help you decide what you want to attend.
TUESDAY
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison Chamber Orchestra will give a FREE concert under its music director James Smith.
The program is: Rumanian Folk Dances by Béla Bartók; the “Holberg” Suite by Edvard Grieg; and Symphony for Strings, Opus 118a, by Dmitri Shostakovich (arranged by Russian violist Rudolf Barshai and based on Shostakovich’s well known String Quartet No. 8.)
FRIDAY
UW-Madison professor of chamber music and cellist Parry Karp, who performs in the Pro Arte Quartet, is a newly elected member of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
On Friday night at 8 p.m. he will give a FREE recital in Mills Hall.
The program features: the Partita in A Minor for Solo Flute, BWV 1013 (1723?) by Johann Sebastian Bach, as transcribed for solo cello in C Minor by Parry Karp.
Sonata No. 1 in D Major Piano and Violin, Op. 12 No. 1 (1798) by Ludwig van Beethoven, as transcribed for piano and cello by Parry Karp. He will perform with pianist mother Frances Karp.
“Märchenbilder” (Fairy Tales) for Piano and Viola, Op. 113 (1851) by Robert Schumann, as transcribed for piano and cello by Robert Hausmann. With pianist Frances Karp.
Sonata in A Minor for Piano and Cello, D. 821, “Arpeggione,” (1824) by Franz Schubert. Pianist Bill Lutes will perform with Karp.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND NIGHT
Attention all pianists and especially those with smaller hands!
UW pianist and pedagogue Jessica Johnson (below) will give an afternoon workshop and evening concert on “The Joy of Downsizing.”
All events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC and take place in Morphy Recital Hall.
WORKSHOP — 2:30-3:45: “All Hands on Keys: Strategies for Teaching Students with Small Hands”
MASTERCLASS — 4:15-5:45 p.m.
TRY THE PIANO — 5:45-6:45 p.m.
FACULTY CONCERT — 8 p.m. Performed on a Steinbuhler DS 5.5™ (“7/8”) Size Piano; Tentative program includes: Thee Piano Pieces, D. 946, by Franz Schubert (played by Alfred Brendel in a YouTube video at the bottom); Ballad, Op. 6, by Amy Beach; Concert sans Orchestre in f minor, Op. 14, by Robert Schumann.
Here is a statement about the workshops and concert from Jessica Johnson:
“The hands of great pianists come in all shapes and sizes. Spending literally thousands of hours at the piano, we develop time-tested, proven strategies for learning repertoire in a way that suits our unique physiology. We know best that which we have experienced within our own bodies.
“How does this impact our ability to work with students with different hand sizes than our own?
“As a small-handed pianist, I have spent my entire professional career seeking creative strategies to adapt to playing conventional-sized piano keyboards.
“I have become a guru of innovative fingerings and have learned how to employ ergonomic movements and compensatory gestures in order to perform technically challenging repertoire on the conventional piano.
“Since the life-changing moment when I started practicing on an alternatively sized keyboard, I have experienced a whole new level of artistic and technical freedom.
“Research related to the use of Ergonomically-Scaled Piano Keyboards (ESPKs) suggests similar benefits for small-handed pianists, including less pain and injury, greater technical facility and accuracy, and ease of learning.
“Using a Steinbuhler DS 5.5TM (7/8) Size Piano Keyboard insert, manufactured by Steinbuhler & Company, that was custom-made for a Steinway B piano, this workshop will demonstrate effective strategies for teaching students with small hands and ways to exploit musical and technical choices that maximize artistry and biomechanical ease.”
“I’ve spent most of my life thinking that I could not play with a big sound and that I was never going to be comfortable with large chords and octaves. Now I simply believe that I’ve been playing the wrong size piano keyboard.”
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
The University of Wisconsin-Madison clarinet studio will host a Clarinet Day on Saturday, Feb. 20, starting at 1:30 p.m. and running to 6 p.m. in Mills Hall at the School of Music.
Wesley Warnhoff (below), visiting assistant professor of clarinet, and the UW-Madison Clarinet studio have invited all high school clarinetists to attend.
The day includes concerts, master classes, chamber music, student performances and dinner with the UW-Madison clarinetists. It must be a popular idea because registration is now CLOSED.
But at 7:30 P.M. the group will end the day by attending a FREE concert – which is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC — by the UW Wind Ensemble (below top), conducted by Professor Scott Teeple (below bottom).
The program includes: “Spin Cycle” by Scott Lindroth; “Colonial Song” by Percy Grainger/Rogers; “Heavy Weather” by Jess Turner, featuring Tom Curry, adjunct professor of tuba; the Symphonies of Wind Instruments by Igor Stravinsky; and “Apollo Unleashed” by Frank Ticheli.
SUNDAY
The UW-Madison Concert Band will give two FREE concerts in Mills Hall at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. under band director Mike Leckrone (below), best known for leading the acclaimed UW Marching Band. Sorry, no word about program.
Tags: Alfred Brendel, Amy Beach, Arts, Bach, band, Baroque, Bartok, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, fairy tales, flute, folk dance, Grieg, hands, Holberg, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Johnson, Johann Sebastian Bach, Keyboard, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, marching band, Mike Leckrone, Music, Orchestra, Parry Karp, partita, Percy Grainger, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, Romania, Rudolf Barshai, Rumania, Schubert, Schumann, Shostakovich, small hands, Sonata, Steinway, Stravinsky, String quartet, strings, Suite, Ticheli, transcription, Tuba, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, winds, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Today is the Winter Solstice. So The Ear offers you Schubert’s “Winterreise.”
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By Jacob Stockinger
Tonight we turn the corner.
At 10:48 p.m. CST we will experience the Winter Solstice.
That means that from now until late June, the days will start getting longer and the nights shorter.
True, so far we have not had much cold or snow, thanks to El Nino.
But we still have the coldest months of the season – January and February – to look forward to.
One of The Ear’s winter rituals is to listen to the song cycle “Winterreise” – winter journey – by Franz Schubert (below) on or around the first day of winter.
It is such a unique and astonishing work, so modern in so many ways.
And there are so many outstanding recorded versions of it that The Ear likes: Mark Padmore with pianist Paul Lewis; Matthias Goerner with Christoph Eschenbach; Thomas Quasthoff with Charles Spencer; Peter Schreier with Sviatolsav Richter; Hermann Prey and Karl Engel; and of course the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore, Joerg Demus and later with Alfred Brendel.
More locally, he also likes the version, complete with black-and-white photographs by Katrin Talbot that was done by UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe with UW-Madison pianist Martha Fischer. (It is published by the University of Wisconsin Press.)
But probably The Ear’s favorite version of the amazing cycle so far is the one done by British tenor Ian Bostridge with Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. The Ear prefers the higher tenor range to the baritone range. He also likes not only Bostridge’s transparent sound and outstanding diction, but also his kind of singing speech style — Sprachstimme – that adds to the storytelling of the cycle.
The complete 70-minute cycle is available from YouTube but only by going through the 24 different videos, one per song in the cycle.
And there is a preface that features both Bostridge and Andsnes talking about the work and about performing it.
By the way, an excellent companion to the cycle is the book and e-book that Bostridge has published –- a doctoral thesis called “Schubert’s Winter Journey” Anatomy of an Obsession” (Knopf).
It is a comprehensive look at the aesthetic, historical, cultural and the literary aspects of the astonishing work and analyzes each of the 24 songs in the cycle. The Ear has read it and highly recommends this definitive study by someone who knows the famous song cycle inside and out after performing it more than 100 times.
Here is a set-up piece with pianist Jeremy Denk interviewing Ian Bostridge about his book:
And here are Bostridge and Andsnes talking about the cycle:
And “Gute Nacht” (Good Night) here is the opening song of “Winterreise”:
And “Der Leiermann,” the closing song of “Winterreise”:
The Ear urges you to sample many more, in order or out of order.
Let The Ear and other readers know which performers you prefer and which songs in the cycle are your favorite?
Tags: Alfred Brendel, Arts, baritone, Britain, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, El Nino, England, Franz Schubert, Gerald Moore, Hermann Prey, Ian Bostridge, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, Jorg Demus, Madison, Mark Padmore, Music, Norway, Paul Lewis, Peter Schreier, Piano, solstice, song cycle, Sviatoslav Richter, tenor, Thomas Quasthoff, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, winter, Winterreise, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Can young performers do justice to great and mature masterpieces of music?
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By Jacob Stockinger
There are so many gifted young professional musicians on the concert stage today.
And yet many of them have doubts about performing mature and late masterpieces by such great and profound composers as Ludwig van Beethoven (below top) and Franz Schubert (below bottom and at the bottom in a YouTube video of Alfred Brendel playing his last piano sonata).
Do young performers really have to wait longer or suffer more in order to enhance their understanding of profound music that derives from maturity and the composer’s own suffering?
That was the topic of a recent story by critic Vivien Schweitzer in The New York Times. The story had a great headline: “Wait, you have to suffer some more.”
It was an interesting question that was put to some of the great young performers today, including pianists Jeremy Denk (below top, in a photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times), Leif-Ove Andsnes (below middle, in a photo by Tina Feinberg for The New York Times) and Yuja Wang (below bottom, in a photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times).
But it also covered string players, including the legendary cellist Pablo Casals (below) and Beethoven’s late string quartets as well his late piano sonatas and the “Diabelli” Variations as well as the bigger instrumental works, like the “Goldberg” Variations and solo cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach.
And one performer, pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, made the case that Frederic Chopin (below) was the most difficult composer to play well, even harder than Beethoven. Curiously, no mention was made of the often knotty late piano music by Johannes Brahms. And conductors were not mentioned.
Here is a link to the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/arts/music/musicians-grapple-with-beethoven.html?_r=0
The Ear thinks it all depends on the performer. Some young performers are deeply capable of profundity. And yet there is no denying that age, maturity and experience often bring new points of view or perspective on great art.
But some older performers also remain pretty superficial.
What do you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Alfred Brendel, Arts, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, concerto, Diabelli Variations, Franz Schubert, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Jonathan Biss, Leif Ove Andsnes, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Music, Pablo Casals, Piano, Piano sonata, Schubert, Sonata, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, YouTube, Yuja Wang
Classical music: Can you sing? Famed diva Jessye Norman thinks you can -– and should try. She says it is good for your physical health and mental health.
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By Jacob Stockinger
We have just come through Christmas and the holiday season where the instrument of choice – quite appropriately – is the human voice, both solo and in choruses.
Do you sing?
Can you sing?
The famous Grammy Award-winning soprano diva Jessye Norman (below) thinks you can -– and should, or at least try to.
In an interview with the Deceptive Cadence blog for NPR (National Public Radio), Norman explains why all people can sing.
She also explains why you should: Singing, she says, is healthy for your body and mind.
She may be 69, but Norman, who was born in Georgia but now lives in France, is not retiring from singing, even if she is cutting down on professional appearances. She is following her own advice and so continues to sing, as she recently did on The David Letterman Show in New York City.
The interview traces her career from her earliest years in Augusta, Georgia, through training at the famed Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It has samples of her fabulous voice, and also her remembrances of great voices she has admired in others, such as the great history-making African American contralto Marian Anderson (below, during her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial).
She also names some favorite orchestral music and instrumental music, including a prelude from the opera “Lohengrin” by Richard Wagner, as conducted by James Levine (below top) of the Metropolitan Opera; a cello sonata by Johann Sebastian Bach performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma (below middle); and a Beethoven piano concertos performed by pianist Alfred Brendel (below bottom) and the conductor Simon Rattle along with the Berlin Philharmonic.
Norman also singles out American jazz composer Duke Ellington (below) for praise.
And the NPR interview includes some fine music audio samples.
Here is a link:
And here is one of my favorite and landmark or legendary performances by Jessye Norman: “Im Abendrot.” It is one of the “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss that was recently used in the movie “The Trip to Italy” to such great and repeated effect:
Tags: African American, Alfred Brendel, America, American music, Ann Arbor, Arts, Augusta, Bach, Baltimore, Baroque, Beethoven, Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic, CBS, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, chorus, Christmas, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, conductor, contralto, David Letterman, David Letterman Show, Duke Ellington, film, Four Last Songs, France, Georgia, Grammy Award, holiday music, Im Abendrot, Jacob Stockinger, James Levine, Jazz, Jessye Norman, Johann Sebastian Bach, Lincoln, Lohengrin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Metropolitan Opera, Michigan, movie, Music, New York City, NPR, opera, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Piano, Piano concerto, Prelude, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Simon Rattle, sing, Singing, solo, soloist, Sonata, song, soprano, the Met, The Trip to Italy, U.S., University of Michigan, US, vocal music, Wagner, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
Classical music: Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and composer Franz Liszt work well together. Both are haunting creators. Here is a chance to hear how as you read.
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By Jacob Stockinger
As longtime readers of this blog know, The Ear is a loyal fan of the Japanese writer and novelist Haruki Murakami (below).
I have had a longstanding bet with friends that the prolific Murakami will win the Nobel Prize “this” year. But so far, a decade or more later, I am still waiting — as, I suspect, he is since he has won other major prizes.
So The Ear says: Let’s get on it, members of the Nobel Prize committee in Oslo. What are you waiting for?
Longtime fans also know that I am NOT a big fan of Franz Liszt (below). He wrote some great music that I like a lot. But he also wrote a lot of second-rate music that I don’t like a lot. What is good, I find, is very good; and the rest too often strikes me as melodramatic pieces full of self-exhibitionistic pyrotechnical keyboard tricks and gimmicks.
But recently the contemporary Japanese novelist got me to appreciate one piece by the 19th-century Romantic Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso.
The work is called “Le mal du pays,” or, roughly translated, “Homesickness,” and comes from the first of three books, and the first year of three, of Liszt’s generally subdued “Years of Pilgrimage: Book I — Switzerland.”
Not surprisingly it is featured, referred to and analyzed repeatedly in Murakami’s new novel the “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (below, published by Knopf), in which the meanings of home and belonging are explored in many different ways. The piano music is a kind of thematic summary of the plot, the setting and the characters.
The Liszt work, which runs about six or so minutes, is a curious piece, less showy than many and full of the kind of strangeness, disjointedness and mysteriousness that Murakami treasures and so effectively conveys in his writings.
The piano piece perfectly matches the novel, its plot and characters and tones, in the music’s eerie chromaticism, in its insistent repetition, in its austerity and lack of sensuality, even in its identification with what is empty or missing and its plain old weirdness.
The haunting music embodies the book and may have been inspired it in part. Not for nothing is Murakami known as The Japanese Kafka, and the Liszt music is worthy of that equivalency.
The two works of art deserve each other, as I am increasingly finding out, and work well together.
I am now about fourth-fifths of the way through the novel, which has been No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list for hardback fiction for several weeks. It certainly has me enchanted and under its spell.
Murakami often refers to Western culture, classical and pop, and especially to classical music and jazz. (He once ran a jazz bar in Tokyo.)
In other works such as “Kafka on the Shore,” Murakami even seems something of a connoisseur of Western classical music who has compared works and various recordings of them, by Franz Schubert, Johann Sebastian Bach and others. In fact, Murakami himself could be said to have spent his own years of pilgrimage journeying through Western culture as well as fiction writing.
This time Murakami, who has excellent taste and deep knowledge or familiarity, favors a performance by the late Russian pianist Lazar Berman (below).
Other fans of both Murakami and Liszt have set up a website where you can listen to a YouTube recording of Berman’s playing ‘Le mal du pays.” (You can also find quite a few other recordings of it, including one by Alfred Brendel (below), on YouTube, which is also featured in a secondary role in Murakami’s new novel.)
And I have also found a Hyperion recording by British pianist and MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant-winner Stephen Hough that I like a lot:
Here is a link to the Lazar Berman version, a second one that was set up by a Murakami fan:
Have fun listening and happy reading.
And please let us know what you think of the Liszt piece, Murakami’s newest novel and your favorite Murakami novel.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Alfred Brendel, Années de pèlerinage, Arts, bestseller, books, Classical music, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki, fiction, Franz Kafka, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, genius grant, Haruki Murakami, Homesickness, Hungrary, Jacob Stockinger, Japan, Japanese, Kafka on the Shore, Lazar Berman, List of Romantic-era composers, Liszt, MacArthur Foundation, Mal du Pays, Murakami, Music, New York Times, Nobel Prize, novel, Oslo, Piano, Romantic, Schubert, Stephen Hough, Switzerland, Years of Pilgrimage, YouTube
Classical music: The Ear praises British pianist Imogen Cooper and suggests you get to know her playing and recordings, including a debut on Chandos Records with music by Brahms and Schumann. Plus, check in on Day 9 of WYSO’s tour to Argentina.
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ALERT: The Youth Orchestra, under the baton of University of Wisconsin-Madison conductor James Smith (below) and belonging to the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO), is into Day 9 of its 10-day tour to Argentina. Here is a link to the live real-time blog about the tour:
By Jacob Stockinger
There are a lot of talented women pianists playing out there right now.
Names that get mentioned frequently are usually the younger ones, the sexier and more glamorous and, therefore, more salable ones.
The glamorous, gifted and Grammy-nominated Yuja Wang –- she of the micro-skirts and stiletto heels and fabulously fast fingers — is right at the top of the heap.
But then there is Van Cliburn Competition laureate Joyce Yang (below), Khatia Buniatishvili and Lola Astanova, all of whom draw headlines and turn in memorable performances. And there are many others I am sure I am leaving out.
But today The Ear wants to sing the praises of a mature woman and a seasoned musician who deserves far more public attention than she gets.
Why? Because she is simply one of the best pianists around.
I am talking about the Englishwoman Imogen Cooper (below).
Cooper, who turns 65 on August 28, has been on the concert scene a long time. I first got to know her through her superb 3-volume set of late Schubert (sonatas and impromptus) on the Avie label. I have also heard a live recital of Ludwig Van Beethoven (Sonata Op. 101), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Sonata in A Minor) and Maurice Ravel (“Miroirs” or Mirrors) and she did on the Wigmore Hall Live series, and it is nothing short of miraculous.
I have not heard her critically acclaimed art song or lieder recitals with Wolfgang Holzmair or her recordings of Mozart piano concertos. But I hope to do so soon. And I would like to hear her in music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, Franz Joseph Haydn and Frederic Chopin.
But recently she also made her debut on Chandos records with a solo recital I have listened to over and over again, always with great pleasure and, since I am an avid amateur pianist, great envy. The Ear would sure like to hear her perform live in Madison.
I would say that The New York Times critic senior Anthony Tommasini got right to the heart of Cooper’s magisterial playing when, in his review of a live performance, he emphasized “virtuosity without dazzle” and talked about how her sensitive performances of Franz Joseph Haydn, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and Thomas Ades were more thoughtfully impressive than performances of more overtly flashy and superficially difficult works by, say, Franz Liszt.
Here is a link to Tommasini’s review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/arts/music/11coop.html?_r=0
The new CD, which has terrific sonic engineering, includes the seven “Fantasy Pieces” and the “Kreisleriana” of Robert Schumann as well as the too rarely heard piano version of the Theme and Variations from the String Sextet No. 1 by Johannes Brahms. (You can hear a mesmerizing live performance of the Brahms work at Hamline University in Minneapolis in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Cooper studied at the Paris Conservatory and then with Alfred Brendel, with whom she partnered on a recording of Mozart dual concertos, and the depth of her preparation shows.
Cooper possesses beautiful tone, brilliant technique and a keen musical mind that creates beautifully songful phrases and, at the same time, makes penetrating sense of the music.
I have tried to find out what her next release will be –- and when it will appear –- but to no avail. (Below, in a photo by Jennifer Taylor of The New York Times, Cooper is seen playing her recital at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York City.)
Here is a link to her website:
It is a great website to visit.
It has a lot of video and audio samples of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Janacek and Chopin. It has a lot of photos, although curiously none at the piano. It has lots of interviews and reviews. It includes her favorite historic recordings by other pianists and musicians. It has a biography and a list of appearances.
Read it and you will be impressed.
How does a talent like Cooper’s fly under the radar and remain relatively unknown? That is one of the mysteries of marketing. But clearly youth sells in Youth Culture.
That said, you should listen to this debut album and follow her career.
Are there any other Imogen Cooper fans out there?
What recordings of hers do you prefer?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Alfred Brendel, art song, Arts, Avie Records, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Brendel, British, Carnegie Hall, Chamber music, Chandos Records, Chopin, Classical music, English, Fantasy Pieces, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Grammy, Grammy Award, Haydn, Imogen Cooper, impromptu, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Joyce Yang, Khatia Buniatishvili, Kreisleriana, lieder, Lola Astanova, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Maurice Ravel, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Times, Paris Conservatory, Piano, Ravel, recital, Robert Schumann, Scarlatti, Schubert, Schumann, Sonata, theme and variations, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wigmore Hall, Wigmore Live, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Holzmaier, Wolfgang Holzmair, YouTube, Yuja Wang, Zankel Hall
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