The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players open their new “Vignettes” season with concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
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A CORRECTION: The Ear wants to apologize for and correct an error he made in yesterday’s blog post. The correct time and address for the all-Schubert concert by the Mosaic Chamber Players is on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Oakwood Chamber Players (below) will begin their 2018-2019 season series “Vignettes” with concerts on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 16, at 2 p.m.
The concerts will both be held at the Oakwood Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors 62 and over; and $5 students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com or call (608) 230-4316 for more information for individual and season tickets.
Once again, the group will explore largely new or unknown composers and neglected music.
Each program of the 2018-19 series will focus on how composers create specific themes to tell stories, and represent emotions, places or characteristics to enhance the listening experience.
Central to the program is poetry and narration paired with music that will feature Boston-based guest soprano Mary Mackenzie (below). She has been described by The New York Times as “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration,” and the Boston Globe as “sensational.”
Mackenzie is a passionate performer of contemporary vocal music, and has appeared with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Collage New Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and The Knights.
American composer Byron Adams (below) was commissioned by renowned American clarinetist Yehuda Weiner to set Nightingales, a poem by British Victorian poet Robert Bridges, as a memorial to his brother. The composer chose a quartet of soprano, clarinet, cello and piano to evoke the breathtaking beauty of the natural world that is overlaid with a sense of loss and longing.
By contrast, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon (below, in a photo by Candace DiCarlo) set four poems that have titles that reference roses by James Whitcomb Riley for the combination of flute, soprano and piano.
Bentley Roses was written as a surprise tribute for the retirement of her former music teacher, Judith Bentley. The settings are sunny and accessible, the music weaves around the words with swirling energy, coy interactions, and graceful interplay.
The yearning Vocalise by conductor, composer and pianist Andre Previn conveys emotion using the voice without words as a chamber instrument. The combination of soprano, cello and piano carries the shifting harmonies and sinuous melodic line through a series of subtle yet powerful transformations. (You can hear Previn’s beautiful “Vocalise,” with soprano Barbara Bonney and the the composer at the piano, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A second piece by Previn (below) piece puts the cello and soprano in conversation with his setting of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison’s poem Stones.
American film composer and bassoonist Charles Fernandez (below) wrote Quatuor Parisienne (Parisian Quartet) for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. It consists of three movements: a tongue-in-cheek march; a gracefully flowing reflection: and a farcical musical conversation with a dash of merriment.
Budapest-based clarinetist and composer Endre Szervanszky (below) wrote his Quintet No. 1 in 1953. Audiences will hear some characteristics similar to the writing of Kodaly and Bartok. It is a pleasing four-movement work that shows his strong understanding of each of the instruments, demanding both melodic expressiveness and technical panache.
The program concludes with poetry by British writer Roald Dahl, known for his darkly humorous children’s stories. Composer Martin Butler (below, in a photo by Katie Vandyck) incorporated The Pig, The Tummy Beast, and The Crocodile into his piece Dirty Beasts for narrator, piano and woodwind quintet. Butler mirrors the acerbic wit of the text with clever effects, closing out the program with some unexpected twists and turns.
Guest performers are soprano Mary Mackenzie, pianist Joseph Ross (below top) and oboist Laura Medisky (below bottom).
They join Oakwood Chamber Players members Marilyn Chohaney, flute; Nancy Mackenzie, clarinet; Amanda Szczys, bassoon; Anne Aley, horn; and Maggie Darby Townsend, cello.
This is the first of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players’ 2018-19 season series entitled Vignettes. Remaining concerts will take place on Nov. 24 and 25; Jan. 12 and 13; March 2 and 3; and May 18 and 19. For more information about the Oakwood Chamber Players and their new season, go to: https://www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who play with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and have rehearsed and performed at Oakwood Village for over 30 years.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble proudly supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation.
Tags: #AmericanComposer, #AndrePrevin, #BarbaraBonney, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BostonGlobe, #BritishPoet, #BudapestHungary, #ByronAdams, #CampRandallStadium, #ChamberMusic, #ChameleonArtsEnsemble, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #CollageNewMusic, #ContemporaryComposer, #ContemporaryMusic, #DaCapoChamberPlayers, #EndreServanszky, #FilmComposer, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #FranzSchubert, #FulcrumPointNewMusicProject, #JamesWhitcombRiley, #JenniferHigdon, #JesusChrist, #LivingComposer, #LutheranReligion, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MartinButler, #MaryMackenzie, #MosaicChamberPlayers, #MusicTeacher, #NaturalWorld, #NewMusic, #OakwoodCenterforArtsandEducation, #OakwoodChamberPlayers, #OakwoodVillage, #OakwoodVillageWest, #OperaMusic, #PianoQuintet, #PulitzerPrize, #RoaldDahl, #RobertBridges, #TheKnights, #TheNewYorkTImes, #ToniMorrison, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VictorianAge, #VictorianPoet, #WestTowneMall, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WoodwindQuintet, #YehudaWeiner, #YouTubevideo, #ZoltanKodaly, accessible, American, Andre Previn, Arts, audience, Barbara Bonney, Bartok, Bassoon, bassoonist, beast, beauty, blog, Boston, Boston Globe, British, Budapest, Byron Adams, Camp Randall Stadium, Cello, Chamber music, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, chapel, children, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical music, Collage New Music, composer, conductor, conversation, coy, crocodile, Da Capo Chamber Players, emotion, Endre Servanszky, energy, England, ensemble, experience, expression, expressive, film, film composer, First Congregational United Church of Christ, flute, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, harmony, Horn, Humor, Hungary, Jacob Stockinger, James Whitcomb Riley, Jennifer Higdon, Jesus Christ, Kodaly, listening, longing, loss, Lutheran, Lutheran religion, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, march, Martin Butler, melodic, melody, Mosaic Chamber Players, movement, movie, music teacher, Musician, narrator, natural world, nature, New Music, Oakwood Center for Arts and Education, Oakwood Chamber Players, Oakwood Village, Oakwood Village West, Oboe, opera, panache, Paris, Parisian, Passion, passionate, performer, Pianist, Piano, pig, poem, Poetry, post, professional, project, Pulitzer Prize, Quartet, quintet, reflection, Retirement, Roald Dahl, Robert Bridges, Schubert, singer, soprano, stories, story, Teacher, techique, technical, text, The Knights, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Victorian, Violin, vocal music, vocalise, West Towne Mall, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wit, woodwind, Writer, Yehuda Weiner, YouTube
Classical music: Pianist Ingrid Fliter talks about sexism in the concert world and discusses the difficulty of playing the music of Chopin, which she specializes in and will perform this coming weekend with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
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By Jacob Stockinger
It is hard to imagine a more fitting program for Valentine’s Day weekend than the one that the Madison Symphony Orchestra will perform.
The program, to be performed under the baton of MSO music director John DeMain, includes the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Frederic Chopin with the prestigious Gilmore Prize-winning pianist Ingrid Fliter (below); the Symphony No. 4 by Robert Schumann, an arch-Romantic; and the Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge by British composer Benjamin Britten, who was a student of Bridge.
Performances are in Overture Hall in the Overture Center. Times are Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $12-$84.
But until midnight this Tuesday, there is a special Valentine’s Day deal of two tickets for the price of one going on. For details, got to http://www.overturecenter.org/events/fliter-plays-chopin or call the Overture Center Box Office at (608) 258-4141.
Fliter recently agreed to an email Q&A with The Ear:
Can you briefly introduce yourself to readers who may not know you? What are your current and future plans and projects?
I’m an Argentinian pianist. I live in Italy in Lake Como for many years now. I consider myself an art lover. I do believe art can be life-changing to people. And that’s what I concentrate on doing when I perform: To bring happiness and inspiration to audiences.
Do you think the professional concert world treats women differently? Or has the sexism of past eras improved in your experience?
I do believe sexism in art still exists among presenters, conductors, agents, people in general, etc. The phrase “She plays like a man!” is heard more often than wanted. And it is amazing to see that even women can be sexists towards other women as well by accepting certain prejudices imposed by obsolete cultural traditions.
However I do believe women have the power to keep changing that mentality by showing the world and, more importantly themselves that they can do as well (or better) as anyone else.
You known especially as a specialist in Chopin (below), whose music you will play here. What makes Chopin so unique and so popular?
Chopin is a composer who speaks directly to the heart of people. Like a dear friend who shares with us his deepest secrets of life, his music is intimate and personal. He doesn’t describe landscapes or tell stories. He speaks about human feelings and people feel represented and touched by the beauty he creates. He enhances harmony and enriches people’s life.
Recently, Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes said Chopin is more difficult to play successfully than Beethoven. What are the elements of great Chopin playing that make his music so challenging to the performer?
I can agree with this. Chopin is one of the most difficult composers to play. His Romanticism is not obvious and it is very important — and hard — to find a right balance between his Romantic soul and his Classical expression.
Also, the importance of making the piano sing as a singer would do is deeply challenging because it means fighting against the nature of the piano, which is a percussive instrument.
But more importantly, Chopin (below) requires from us all our senses completely in balance and in harmony with nature. We cannot allow our body to be tensed or our heart to be arid when we play Chopin. His music will always be a mirror of our soul and will reflect our inner world, totally naked.
You will perform Piano Concerto No. 2 over Valentine’s Day weekend. It seems a perfect choice for the occasion. What would you like the audience to know about the Piano Concerto No. 2, especially as compared to No. 1, which was composed later?
This concerto is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. The poetry, the beauty, the perfection of form and level of maturity reached by this 18-year-old teenager are simply astonishing and revealing.
This music is irresistible and seductive. Let yourself be embraced by the perfumes and textures he creates and you’ll be taken into a wonderful world, a world you would never want to come back from. Special attention goes to the marvelous second movement with its beautiful melodic lines, which might bring a little tear to your eyes. (You can hear the second movement, performed by pianist Arthur Rubinstein with the London Philharmonic under conductor-composer Andre Previn in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
You have performed in Madison before in a recital at the Wisconsin Union Theater. Do you have an opinion about Madison and its audiences?
I have the best memories from Madison and its public, and I’m looking forward to our next encounter!
Was there an Aha Moment! – a piece or performance or performer – when you knew you wanted to be a professional concert pianist?
I was 16 years old and playing the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven for the first time with the orchestra at the Teatro Colon (below) in Buenos Aires. The hall was packed and the atmosphere was febrile. I remember my feeling of total joy knowing I was about to perform that concerto for all those people. I felt in the right moment in the right place.
How do you think can we get more young people interested in classical music?
Education, education, education. We must show young people classical music is theirs as well, not something old that belongs to museums.
Music is a vehicle of human expression and this is what we, as educators, parents, need to inculcate since the very beginning. So, parents have to be educated as well.
Music in school shouldn’t be the “free time” classroom, but should be taken as a moment of spiritual joy and recreation. Parents should listen to classical music at home, and share their feelings that music brings with their children.
Also, we should bring classical music into more deconstructed environments outside concert halls, in houses, bars, airports, parks. (Below is the Madison chapter of Classical Revolution performing chamber music in a bar.)
Tags: Andre Previn, Argentina, Arthur Rubinstein, Arts, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, Classical music, Classical Revolution, Compact Disc, concerto, Frank Bridge, German Romanticism, Gilmore, Gina Bachauer, Ingrid Fliter, Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Lake Como, Leif Ove Andsnes, London, London Symphony Orchestra, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Norway, Orchestra, Overture Center, Piano, Piano concerto, Schumann, Sexism, Wisconsin Union Theater, YouTube
Classical music: Today is Valentine’s Day. What piece of music best celebrates love? Here are Limelight Magazine’s Top 10 Sexiest Moments in Classical Music. Leave some music and words for your Valentine right here. Plus, the University of Wisconsin School of Music has successfully reinvented the annual Concerto Competition Winners’ concert -– to loud approval and multiple standing ovations from a packed house.
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READER SURVEY: Today is Valentine’s Day. What is the best piece of romantic music you know of to listen to or to send to someone to celebrate this day? You can even leave a link to a YouTube video and a dedication in the COMMENT section. Here is a link to Limelight Magazine’s Top 10 Sexiest Moments in Classical Music:
http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/371934,the-10-sexiest-moments-in-classical-music.aspx
By Jacob Stockinger
Little things can add up to a big difference.
Take the annual concert given by the winners (below) of this year’s concerto competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
Here are links to background of the event and the performers in the preview story that was posted on this blog and and a link to the performers’ biographies that appeared on “Fanfare,” the outstanding bog of the UW School of Music:
http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/symphony-showcase2013-14/
Someone at the SOM (as the School of Music is referred to by insiders) rightly decided that the event deserved a higher public profile. (Except where noted, performance photos are by The Ear.)
So they made a few adjustments.
They booked Mills Hall for a Saturday night – last Saturday night, in fact — the best night of the week for entertainment events.
Then they rechristened the event the Symphonic Showcase, since the UW Symphony Orchestra (below with graduate student and assistant conductor Kyle Knox) is the common denominator and accompanies all the concerto winners and also premieres the winning piece by a student composer. The Ear likes that emphasis on collective or collaborative music-making.
They started the concert early, at 7 p.m.
That was because they also added a small and informal dessert reception from 9 to 11 p.m. — with all the proceeds of a $10 ticket going to a student scholarship fund — at the nearby Tripp Commons in the UW Memorial Union.
And what were the results?
Nothing short of a spectacular success.
Mills Hall was packed just about full (see the photo below by Michael R. Anderson).
And the big, enthusiastic audience greeted each performer with cheers and a standing ovation. And they deserved that. All of the winners played well and all chose great works to perform.
Here a rundown by contestant.
If you weren’t there -– well, you probably should regret it, You missed out on a lot of fun and a lot of beautiful music-making by a very impressive group of talented students. Maybe some state legislators were in the audience and will stop clowning around trying to micro-manage and ruin the UW while they say they’re really trying to fix it.
The evening started out with an orchestral showpiece, a kind of Romantic tone poem-concerto grosso that highlighted each section. That might be expected since the “Russian Easter” Overture came from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a master orchestrator who taught Igor Stravinsky the craft of scoring music.
Graduate student Kyle Knox (below) conducted and did a fine job of bouncing the music around to various sections and keeping a clear line.
Violinist Madlen Breckbill (below) confidently commanded the stage with an appropriately lyrical and heart-breaking reading of the first movement of Samuel Barber’s masterful Violin Concerto. It was a thoroughly convincing rebuff to those people and critics who say you need to hear a new piece of music several times to know it is great. This kind of greatness you get from the first notes.
Saxophonist Erika Anderson (below left) played and projected with absorbing conviction the new “Poema” (2014) by student composer 24-year-old Russian-born composer Daria Tennikova (below right), who writes in an impressively accessible yet thoroughly modern idiom.
Clarinetist Kai-Ju Ho (below top) brought both lyricism and swing to Aaron Copland’s underperformed Clarinet Concerto, pleasing conductor James Smith (below bottom right), himself a very accomplished clarinetist who performed the same concerto five times under the composer.
SeungWha Baek (below top, playing; below bottom by Michael R. Anderson) brought out the sizzle and virtuosity in the dazzling first movement of Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with its ingenious Hanon-like five-finger exercise motif – except that this is no work for beginners, as you can see and hear at the bottom in a YouTube video with pianist Martha Argerich and conductor Andre Previn.
Flutist Mi-Li Chang brought beautiful tone and playfulness, even Gallic charm, to the Concerto for Flute by Jacques Ibert.
And pianist Sung-Ho Yang brought the show to a close with a surprising subtle reading of Franz Liszt’s flashy and bombastic Piano Concerto No 1. The whole work is like one long cadenza – not one of the Ear’s favorites — so it was refreshing to hear Yang emphasize the quiet passages and subtlety, all the while bringing out the dialoguing back and forth between the piano and the orchestra.
And after the music, we went to a quiet but friendly reception that featured coffee and tea as well as chocolate cake and pumpkin bars (below), set out much like a Wayne Thiebaud painting. It was a chance to meet the musicians and thank them for a splendid evening.
Bravo to all.
The Ear is betting and hoping that next year will find the new format repeated.
Tinkering with failure is one thing.
But why tinker with success?
Tags: Aaron Copland, Andre Previn, Arts, Barber, blog, clarinet concerto, Classical music, composer, Fanfare, flute, flute concerto, Franz Liszt, Igor Stravinsky, Jacques Ibert, Kyle Knox, Limelight magazine, Liszt, Martha Argerich, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Orchestra, Overture, Piano, Piano concerto, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Romantic music, Russia, Russian Easter Overture, Samuel Barber, Saturday, Saxophone, Sergei Prokofiev, sex, sexy, Stravinsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Valentine, Valentine's Day, Wayne Thiebaud, YouTube
Classical music: From farm accident to international violin virtuoso: Augustin Hadelich will solo with the Madison Symphony Orchestra this weekend.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear thinks that discovering and then booking young up-and-coming violinists is among the biggest success stories that the Madison Symphony Orchestra and its music director and conductor John DeMain have had over the last 20 years, ever since DeMain arrived in Madison.
One example is the Austrian violinist Augustin Hadelich, below.
Another is the Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud, below.
Both Hadelich and Kraggerud seem totally natural and complete artists who do exactly what a world-class virtuoso should do: Make the difficult seem effortless without sacrificing musicality.
Hadelich — who also has a compelling personal back story that involves overcoming adversity — will solo again this weekend with the MSO.
Here is the informative press release from the orchestra:
“How does one goes from a farm accident of severe burns to becoming a violin virtuoso, who enchants millions all over the world?
“Augustin Hadelich (pronounced HOD-uh-lick), a child prodigy with a violin in rural Tuscany, was told he might never play a violin again after he barely survived a farm accident that burned his home and him, including his bow arm at age 15.
From those challenging days, he has emerged as a violinist of international renown, who will return to Madison again to join John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra for three performances this weekend in Overture Hall.
Hadelich will take the stage in the first half to perform Edouard Lalo’s exotic Symphonie Espagnole, a virtuosic concerto with a lush Spanish flavor that he performed in his 2012 debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
The concert will open with the wild and spontaneous Too Hot Toccata, by American composer Aaron Kernis.
The Symphony No. 2, by Sergei Rachmaninoff, is a monumental late Romantic work. It is a lush, unmistakably Russian work, and it will close the program. (The melody-rich work’s third movement — the slow Adagio that can be heard at the bottom in a popular YouTube video with conductor Andre Previn and the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo, part of the public broadcasting system in Japan — more than “inspired” the bestselling pop song “Never Gonna Love Again.” Carmen also “borrowed” from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 for his bestselling song “All By Myself.”)
The concerts are in the Overture Center’s Overture Hall on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, 201 State Street.
A free prelude discussion by UW-Madison musicology professor Charles Dill (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot for the UW School of Music) will take place one hour before each performance.
For more information, including a link to Augustin Hadelich’s website, critics’ reviews and audio/video samples, visit:
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/hadelich
Here is a link to program by notes by MSO trombonist J. Michael Allsen (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot for the Madison Symphony Orchestra) who teaches at UW-Whitewater:
ttp://facstaff.uww.edu/allsenj/MSO/NOTES/1314/3.Nov13.htm
“Symphonie Espagnole” remains Lalo’s most popular work. He composed it during a period when French composers were fascinated with Spanish music, and Lalo (below) tastefully incorporates this culture’s melodic and dance figures into the work. The soaring violin parts require both technical precision and immense musicianship.
Hadelich is often noted in the media for his “gorgeous tone,” “poetic communication” and “fast-fingered brilliance.” The New York Times wrote, “[Hadelich] has become one of the most distinctive violinists of his generation…he plays with dazzling technique, a gorgeous tone, and penetrating, spontaneous musicality.”
Kernis (below) describes his “Too Hot Toccata” as predominantly “high energy” and “out of control.” Composed in 1996, the piece excitedly works through a series of furious, oddly-metered and sometimes jazzy ideas. Multiple players in the ensemble are featured with virtuosic solos, including violin, clarinet, piccolo, trumpet and percussion.
In his Symphony No. 2, Rachmaninoff (below) achieves an unending and beautiful flow of melody, citing a motto from the opening bars throughout the piece. This is especially impressive given the size of the composition. The 320-page, carefully detailed score rivals the largest of Anton Bruckner’s or Gustav Mahler’s scores in length and breadth. The piece also promises some orchestral fireworks during an hour-long sonic experience.
Tickets are $16.50 to $82.50 each, available at www.madisonsymphony.org/singletickets and through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street or call the Box Office at (608) 258-4141.
New subscribers can receive up to a 50% discount. For more information and to subscribe, visit: www.madisonsymphony.org/newsub or call (608) 257-3734.
Groups of 15 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information visit, www.madisonsymphony.org/groups
Student rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Box Office at 201 State Street. Full-time students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two $12 or $15 tickets. More information is at: www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush On advance ticket purchases, students can receive 20% savings on seats in select areas of the hall.
Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra is marking its 88th concert season in 2013-2014 by celebrating John DeMain’s 20th anniversary as music director. The Symphony engages audiences of all ages and backgrounds in live classical music through a full season of concerts with established and emerging soloists of international renown, an organ series that includes free concerts, and widely respected education and community engagement programs. Find more information at www.madisonsymphony.org.
Major funding for this concert is provided by the Steinhauer Charitable Trust, UW Health Burn Center and UW-Madison Department of Surgery, and Rosemarie Blancke with additional funds from DeEtte Beilfuss-Eager and Leonard P. Eager, Jr., and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Tags: Aaron Kernis, All By Myself, Andre Previn, Anton Bruckner, Augustin Hadelich, Eric Carmen, Gustav Mahler, Henning Kraggerud, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Times, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Overture Center, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Symphonie Espagnole, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Wisconsin–Madison, YouTube
Classical music: Third Coast Percussion offers a FREE concert of new music tonight and a FREE master class on Thursday at the University of Wisconsin. Also, settings by American composers of poems by American poet Emily Dickinson songs will be featured at the FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society.
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ALERT: On this Friday from 12:15 to 1 p.m., the FREE Friday Noon Musicale in the Landmark Auditorium of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive, soprano Julia Foster and pianist Susan Gaeddert will perform songs by Francesco Santoliquido and Francis Poulenc, plus settings of poems by the great American poet Emily Dickinson (below, in a photograph) by various American composers (Ernst Bacon, Daniel Crozier, John Duke, Henry Mollicone and Andre Previn).
By Jacob Stockinger
Tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the acclaimed group Third Coast Percussion (below, in a photo of Saveria Truglia) will perform a program of modern and contemporary percussion music.
The program includes: “Fractalia” by Owen Clayton Condon (at bottom in a YouTube video); “Mallet Quartet” by Steve Reich; “Third Construction” by John Cage; and “Resounding Earth” (commissioned work) by Augusta Read Thomas (below), former composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Then on Thursday, from 12:15 to 2:15 p.m. in Room 1321 of the George Mosse Humanities Building, the percussion ensemble will give a public master class.
Hailed by The New Yorker magazine as “vibrant” and “superb,” Third Coast Percussion explores and expands the extraordinary sonic possibilities of the percussion repertoire, delivering exciting performances for audiences of all kinds.
Since its formation in 2005, Third Coast Percussion has gained national attention with concerts and recordings that meld the energy of rock music with the precision and nuance of classical chamber works. Third Coast Percussion is the Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Notre Dame.
For more information about Third Coast Percussion, visit the group’s website:
http://www.thirdcoastpercussion.com
You can also read the preview blog post by Kathy Esposito on the UW School of Music’s terrific new blog “Fanfare:
http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/third_coast/
Tags: Andre Previn, Augusta Read Thomas, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Crozier, Emily Dickinson, Ernst Bacon, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Francesco Santoliquido, Francis Poulenc, Frank Lloyd Wright, George Mosse, Henry Mollicone, Jacob Stockinger, John Cage, Mallet Quartet, New Music, New Yorker, percussion, Percussion Ensemble, Steve Reich, The New Yorker, third coast, Third Coast Percussion, Unitarianism, University of Notre Dame, University of Wisconsin–Madison, YouTube
Classical music: SUNDAY afternoon Edgewood College mezzo-soprano Kathleen Otterson will perform a recital of songs by Schubert, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Berlioz, Rossini, Gershwin, Alec Wilder, Andre Previn and others. Plus, Ilona Kombrink memorial is set for Oct. 20.
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ALERT: Edgewood College teacher and mezzo-soprano Kathleen Otterson, a loyal reader and friend of The Ear, writes: “There will be a memorial concert for the UW-Madison soprano and voice professor Ilona Kombrink (below), who died last month and with whom I was privileged to study, on Sunday, October 20, at 3 p.m., at the Capitol Lakes Retirement Community’s Grand Hall. We are very early in the planning stages, but we hope that former students and colleagues will perform or speak on the program. More information will follow soon.”
By Jacob Stockinger
Edgewood College mezzo-soprano and voice professor Kathleen Otterson will perform a song recital this coming Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive. Admission is $7 to benefit the music scholarship fund at Edgewood.
Otterson writes:
“I am dedicating this concert to my former teacher, the UW-Madison soprano Ilona Kombrink who died last month. But the program is a collage of things I performed on two concerts in Bayfield this summer — hence its title: “What I Did With My Summer Vacation.”
The pianist is Edgewood College coach and accompanist Susan Goeres (below top, on the right with Otterson on the left) . Flutist Elizabeth Marshall (below bottom), who performs in the Black Marigold wind quintet, teaches at Edgewood College, UW-Platteville and Madison Area Technical College and who is the second flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, will also participate.
Describing the major works to be performed, Otterson continues: “Of particular interest, I think, is the Andre Previn piece: “Two Remembrances,” written for Sylvia McNair and first performed by her at the Tanglewood Festival in 1995. The intermingling of the alto flute and the voice is really remarkable, with the flute providing the second voice in the evocative dialogue.
“Ilona had a special fondness for the “Rueckert-lieder” of Gustav Mahler (below top), and I was fortunate to work on these wonderful songs with her for my graduate recital.
“The poems of Friedrich Rueckert held deep personal meaning for Mahler, and these songs are very much more intimate than the better-known “Wunderhorn Songs.””Ich atmet einen Lindenduft” is included in the program, paired with a song by Alma Schindler Mahler (below bottom) composed at around the same time: “Laue Sommernacht” (performed in a YouTube video at the bottom with some good listener comments.)
“Rossini’s song cycle “La Regatta Veneziana” tells the story of the historical Venetian Regatta, which takes place each year on the waters of the Grand Canal (below) at the beginning of September (this year it was on Sunday, September 1).
“Along with a spectacular procession of elaborately carved boats and costumed participants, there is a race – the subject of the song cycle, as the young girl Anzoletta watches anxiously for her lover Momolo, offering scorn if he fails to win and kisses if he succeeds.
“Three songs from the beautiful “Nuits d’été” (Summer Nights) by Hector Berlioz (below) round out the program. They are not specifically about “summer” but instead seem to be summertime musings, both sweet and bitter, settings of texts by Théophile Gautier. Musically, they are everything from playful to melancholy in character.
“Parking at Edgewood is free and the Chapel is accessible to all.”
Tags: Alec Wilder, Alma Mahler, Andre Previn, Edgewood College, Franz Schubert, George Gershwin, Grand Canal, Gustav Mahler, Hector Berlioz, Madison, Madison Area Technical College, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Rückert-Lieder, Rossini, Sunday, Sylvia McNair, Tanglewood Festival, Théophile Gautier, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Venice, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 