The Well-Tempered Ear
The new Apple Music Classical app is now available for Android users
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By Jacob Stockinger
The new Apple Music Classical app (logo is below) — before now available exclusively for Apple Music subscribers and the Apple OS operating system — is now available for Android operating systems and PCs through the Google Play store.
The streaming app, which costs about $10 a month (you need just a subscription to one of the music apps to get both), has been generally praised and highly rated by both professional critics and ordinary consumers. Most point out the wide variety of repertoire, performers and recordings, both current and historic or out-of-print; the quality of the sound; and the use of background documents about the music, the composers and the performers.
Here are links to two stories about Apple Music Classical for Android.
The first one, from TechCrunch, is the more general and comprehensive article.
The second story, briefer and written more for audiophiles, is from The Verge and contains more specific background information and technical specifications.
The Ear uses both Apple Music and Apple Music Classical, and will share his reactions to them in a future posting.
In the meantime, he wants to know:
Do you subscribe to Apple Music or Apple Music Classical?
Do you like it?
Dislike it?
Why?
Would you recommend Apple Music Classical or Apple Music to other listeners?
What do you think of other classical music apps such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, Idagio, Presto — if you use them?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Real-time online playlists return to Wisconsin Public Radio
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By Jacob Stockinger
Good news!
Really good news!
Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) has finally returned to posting real-time playlists on both its online website and its mobile app.
Now you can see and identify what has been played and what is being played (below, displayed in yellow) — AS it is being played as well as after it has been played.
The only recent exception was Saturday when there was nothing posted until later in the day when all-day programming was listed at the same time. No reason has been given for the suspension or tardiness.
The playlists are especially good given the many unknown composers and compositions that are increasingly being aired.
The Ear also finds the playlists helpful to see what is playing and who is performing — along with the record label and catalogue number when you click “More” — when he hears part of a piece and is interested but didn’t hear the introductory information or can’t complete listening to it.
Please leave kudos and congratulate WPR for serving its listeners and supporters.
Try it and see.
Will you find the online real-time playlists helpful and use them?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: This Friday at noon, technology meets Beethoven when UW-Madison pianist Kangwoo Jin plays a FREE concerto performance
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By Jacob Stockinger
This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale — tomorrow, March 6 — at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features an unusual concert in which classical music meets high technology.
Kangwoo Jin (below, in a photo by Steve Apps for the Wisconsin State Journal), a gifted and prize-winning pianist from South Korea, will perform the second and third movements of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58.
But instead of a second piano or a full orchestra, Jin will be accompanied by a newly developed interactive app that adjusts to Jin and allows him to play his solo part flexibly with a real orchestra accompaniment that has been recorded minus the piano part.
Jin is studying for his doctorate with UW Professors Christopher Taylor and Jessica Johnson. He will graduate this May.
Next week Jin — who has won the UW-Madison Concerto and Beethoven Competitions and who teaches at Farley’s House of Pianos, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and the UW Continuing Education program– will open and close the UW-River Falls Piano Festival with two performances of the same Beethoven concerto with the St. Croix Valley Symphony Orchestra
Jin suffers from hemophilia and has to be careful about injuring himself from over-practicing and over-playing. He has a fascinating and inspiring personal story to tell. Here is a link to a story about him in the Wisconsin State Journal: https://madison.com/wsj/entertainment/uw-pianist-shares-musical-gift-despite-health-challenge/article_fdba6f0f-9245-5816-a97c-c4f3a6e2d0ed.html
You can follow his Facebook page. And here is a link to Jin’s own website, which has more biographical information and videos: https://www.pianistkangwoojin.com
Jin says that, in addition to the two concerto movements, he will also play several short pieces: “Clair de Lune” (Moonlight) by Claude Debussy; the “Raindrop” Prelude by Chopin; and two song transcriptions by Franz Liszt — Schubert’s “Litany” and Schumann’s “Widmung” (Dedication).
The orchestral accompaniment for the Beethoven concerto is performed by MusAcc — an iPad app. It is an app that can customize and manipulate the audio, much like an actual instrument, in real time. Think of it as an orchestra in a box that you can use anywhere.
Jin explains the reasons for his FUS concert, which starts at NOON (not 12:15 p.m., as it used to be) and goes to about 1 p.m.:
“Playing a concerto is not possible in that venue, so I am using a recorded file for the orchestra part,” Jin says. “My friend Yupeng Gu, who developed this audio controlling device, will conduct and control the pacing of the recording so that the sound synchronizes with my playing. It is quite incredible and will be a very interesting concert.”
“I hope this breaks the barrier of having to have a big venue and other difficulties for performing concertos, and lets local people enjoy a more accessible and diverse repertoire,” he says. “If people like it, I would like to play the whole concerto and maybe more concertos — hopefully, all five Beethoven piano concertos — this way. This is something I have not tried before, so I am excited about it.”
“People have much easier access to solo performances, but not to concertos due to many limitations,” Jin adds. “So I expect them to have a novel experience with this concert.”
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a similar performance, done with the same device, featuring a different pianist playing the first movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #Clairdelune, #ClaudeDebussy, #ContinuingEducation, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Farley'sHouseofPianos, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FranzLiszt, #FredericChopin, #FridayNoonMusicale, #FullOrchestra, #HighTechnology, #HomePage, #HomeWebsite, #HumanInterest, #InteractiveApp, #JacobS, #JessicaJohnson, #KangwooJin, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicEducation, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #PianoConcerto, #PianoConcertoNo.4, #PianoFestival, #PianoTranscription, #Prize-Winning, #RaindropPrelude, #RealTime, #RiverFalls, #RobertSchumann, #SouthKorea, #SouthKorean, #St.CroixValleySymphonyOrchestra, #SteveApps, #TheEar, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UW-RiverFalls, #WisconsinConservatoryofMusic, #WisconsinStateJournal, #YouTubevideo, #YupengGu, accompany, accomplished, acocmpaniment, app, Arts, audience, Audio, Beethoven, biography, blog, Chopin, Clair de Lune, Classical music, Claude Debussy, close, Competition, composer, Concert, concerto competition, concertos, conduct, Continuing Education, control, customize, Debussy, dedication, develop, device, different, doctoral, doctorate, drop, event, Facebook, Farley's House of Pianos, festival, file, first, First Unitarian Society of Madison, flexible, flexibly, forward, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, free, Friday Noon Musicale, friend, gifted, graduate, Gu, hemophilia, home website, human, human interest, information, injure, instrument, interactive, interesting, intuitive, invent, IPad, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Johnson, Kangaroo Jin, Korea, like, link, litany, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, manipulate, Mead Witter School of Music, meet, minus, moonlight, movement, MusAcc, Music, Music education, open, Orchestra, orchestral accompaniment, pace, pacing, part, perform, performer, personal, Pianist, Piano, Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven), piano festival, playing, possible, post, posting, practicing, Prelude, rain, raindrop, Raindrop Prelude, real, real time, recorded, rehearse, relative, River Falls, Robert Schumann, sample, Schumann, second, share, small, society, solo, South Korea, South Korean, St. Croix Valley Symphony Orchestra, Steve Apps, story, Student, symphony, synchronize, tag, teach, technology, Tempo, The Ear, third, time, transcription, Unitarian, United States, University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unusual, use, UW, UW-Madison, UW-River Falls, venue, Website, win, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Wisconsin State Journal, YouTube, Yupeng, Yupeng Gu
Classical music: Happy New Year! The annual New Year’s Day concert in Vienna, popular around the world, airs on Wisconsin public radio and TV this morning and tonight
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ALERT 1: What piece of music do you like most to celebrate the New Year? Leave the name and a YouTube link, if possible, in the Comment section.
By Jacob Stockinger
For many music fans, today just wouldn’t be New Year’s Day without the annual concert (below) by the Vienna Philharmonic with a famous guest conductor in Vienna, Austria, that is broadcast nationwide both on radio and television by PBS and NPR. (The concert also goes out to more than 90 countries around the world.)
In Wisconsin, the first hearing comes this morning from 10 a.m. to noon CST on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Then tonight from 8 to 9:30 CST, Wisconsin Public Television – recently rebranded as PBS Wisconsin – will feature a longer version with host Hugh Bonneville (below) of “Downton Abbey” and with choreographed dance interpretations by the Vienna State Ballet that take place in various historical sites in Vienna.
The broadcast will be available to stream tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 2, on pbs.org/gperf and the PBS Video app.
Here is an overview with a biography of the critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning conductor Andris Nelsons (below), along with some background about the various orchestras he directs – including the Boston Symphony — and the spectacular floral arrangements in the Golden Hall:
https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/new-years-concert/new-years-concert-main
And here is a playlist of the waltzes, polkas and marches by the Strauss family and many other composers, including Beethoven since 2020 is the Beethoven Year and will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth:
https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/concerts/concert-detail/event-id/10034
As always, the performance will conclude with the Radetzky March (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom) with the audience clapping along.
If you are a fan of the event, you might also be pleased to learn the Sony Classical will again be releasing the live recording (below) and DVD very shortly. Every year Sony rushes to get it out and on the market – something made easier, one suspects, by streaming.
Tags: #AndrisNelsons, #BalletMusic, #BeethovenYear, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BostonSymphony, #CompactDisc, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DowntonAbbey, #FacebookPost, #GoldenHall, #GrammyAward, #GreatPerformances, #HappyNewYear, #HomeWebsite, #HughBonnevillle, #LiveattheChazen, #LiveRecording, #LiveStreaming, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #NationalPublicRadio, #NewYear, #NewYear'sDay, #NewYear'sDayFromVienna, #PBSWisconsin, #PublicBroadcastingSystem, #RadetzkyMarch, #SonyClassical, #TheEar, #ViennaAustria, #ViennaMusikverein, #ViennaPhilharmonic, #ViennaStateBallet, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #YouTubevideo, a.m., air, Andris Nelsons, annual, app, arrangement, Arts, audience, Austria, background, ballet, Beethoven, Beethoven Year, biography, birth, blog, Boston Symphony, Broadcast, CD, choreography, Classical music, classicalmusic, Compact Disc, Concert, conductor, countries, country, critically acclaimed, dance, direct, Downton Abbey, DVD, evening, Facebook, famous, fan, floral, flowers, forward, Golden Hall, Grammy, Grammy Award, Great Performances, Happy New Year, hearing, historical, History, home website, Hugh Bonneville, interpretation, like, link, live, Live Recording, live streaming, Ludwig van Beethoven, march, market, morning, Music, musical, National Public Radio, nationwide, New Year, New Year's Day From Vienna, night, noon, NPR, online, Orchestra, overview, p.m., PBS, PBS Wisconsin, performer, playlist, polka, post, posting, Public Broadcasting System, Radetzky March, Radio, recording, share, site, SONY, Sony Classical, spectacular, Strauss, streaming, tag, Television, today, TV, version, video, Vienna, Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Ballet, Waltz, Website, win, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, works, world, YouTube
Classical music: Opera in the Park takes place TONIGHT!!! Start your week – and every day – with John Zeck’s “Composers Datebook.” Should Wisconsin Public Radio air it?
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ALERT: Because of weather and storms, the Madison Opera’s 15th annual FREE “Opera in the Park” has been postponed from last night to TONIGHT. Here is a link with more details about the event:
By Jacob Stockinger
You might recall that last Sunday—at the start on a new week, just like today — The Ear suggested a FREE app for iPhones, iPads and iPods that offers a daily briefing on classical music.
It is called “Composer of the Day” and is put together by the music department at Wittenberg University.
Here is a link to that post and that app:
But there is another FREE classical musical datebook that a loyal and knowledgeable reader of this blog suggested. The reader specifically praised the fact that it works on many different platforms.
It is “Composers Datebook” with host John Zeck (below), and it is done for Minnesota Public Radio and then distributed through American Public Media.
It seems similar to the format of “The Writer’s Almanac” with Garrison Keillor that, unfortunately, Wisconsin Public Radio no longer carries. But maybe WPR would consider including the “Composers Datebook” in its “Morning Classics” lineup? It certainly would be an educational addition, something just right for an alternative to commercial radio.
The two-minute daily diary streams nicely. It has many more details and examples about composers and includes sound clips of their work. It also does more than one entry for each day.
Turns out that the Ear already wrote about it in 2010. But it is worth a repeat visit to remind readers about this fine resource.
Here is a link, which you can bookmark or subscribe to, that post:
And here is a direct link to “Composers Datebook.”
http://www.yourclassical.org/programs/composers-datebook/episodes
Try it.
See what you think.
And decide whether Wisconsin Public Radio should air it.
Then tell The Ear and his readers what you think.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: American Public Media, app, Arts, blog, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, composer, Composers Datebook, Composers of the Day, concerto, Early music, Garrison Keillor, IPad, iPhone, IPod, Jacob Stockinger, John Zeck, Madison Opera, Minnesota Public Radio, Mozart, Music, National Public Radio, NPR, opera, Opera in the Park, Orchestra, podcast, storm, weather, Website, wisconsin public radio, Wittenberg University
Classical music: Composer of the Day app is a great way to start a new week
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By Jacob Stockinger
Which composer was born today?
What is he or she best known for?
And what does his or her music sound like in FREE samples?
Finding out is a great way to start a new week.
And start every day.
So here is a website you might want to look at and check every day. It has one-sentence mini-biographies of 366 composers (yep – one for Leap Year) and links to music samples.
It also allows you to search backwards, although not forward beyond “today” – one improvement it could make that would also making planning for blogs and listening a lot easier. The Ear bets that would give it a 5 rating.
It is called Composer of the Day and it is compiled by Wittenberg University. Here is what it looks like:
It is a FREE app that is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. You can find it in the iTunes stores.
The Ear has it and likes it and uses it.
So does WQXR. That is the famous classical music radio station in New York City and the most listened-to classical music station in the U.S. And WQXR named it among the Top Five classical music apps for iPhones.
So do others, who give it a 4+ rating.
So you might like it too.Try and see.
Here are links:
http://www.wittenberg.edu/academics/music/apps.html
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/composer-of-the-day/id336077559?mt=8
Enjoy!
And use the COMMENT section tell us what you think.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: app, App Store, Baroque, Beethoven, Cello, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, Early music, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, IPad, iPhone, IPod, iTunes, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart, Music, opera, Orchestra, Piano, Radio, rating, Sonata, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wittenberg University, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WQXR
Classical music education: Can apps and MOOCs help save classical music? Pianist Jonathan Biss will teach Beethoven’s piano sonatas to 30,000 “students” and pianist Stephen Hough has created a fascinating Liszt app.
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By Jacob Stockinger
After Labor Day, the school year, for both K-12 and high education, will officially start.
Imagine walking into a classroom or lecture hall with more than 30,000 students.
That is what the acclaimed young pianist Jonathan Biss (below) who teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia – the most selective higher educational institution in the country, according to one report – faces when he tackles his first course on the 32 piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven. (Several seasons ago, Jonathan Biss turned in a superb performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467, with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.)
That Biss will reach so many clasiscal music fans is thanks to a MOOC – a “Massive Open Online Course.”
Using the firm Coursera, Biss’ course on the Beethoven sonatas will start this Tuesday, Sept. 3. There is still time to register as you can see below.
(Biss is recording all 32 of the Beethoven piano sonatas for Onyx Classics, which will release volume 3 this fall. The Ear finds his performances extraordinary and convincing. You can hear Biss in an interview on the PBS “Newshour” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Then there is another great pianist, Stephen Hough, the MacArthur “genius grant” winner from the United Kingdom, who has done a special app on Franz Liszt’s legendary Sonata in B minor. That too will allow him to reach many thousands of listeners and new audiences who can follow his playing with the score and his own annotations as well as view his finger playing the virtuosic work. (Hough has performed in Madison in both solo recitals at the Wisconsin Union Theater and in concertos with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and gave a terrific masterclass at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.)
So The Ear wonders: Will MOOCs and APPs come to the rescue of classical music, which seems increasingly to be losing relevance and popularity?
It could happen.
The possibilities have certainly been treated in the media lately.
Here, for example, is a great story, with a lot of specifics and details, about Jonathan Biss’ Beethoven course and the Stephen Hough’ Liszt app, that was published by The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/arts/music/hey-ludwig-theres-an-app-for-you.html?pagewanted=all
And here is a similar story that appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323585604579009041451441648.html
Over 30,000 people have enrolled in the Beethoven course to date: seven times the total number of students who have attended Curtis since the school opened its doors in October 1924.
The five-week course starts this coming Tuesday, September 3, 2013–the first day of Curtis classes–and is aptly named “Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas.” Biss has posted recommended reading and listening materials here.
In the course description, Biss writes, “It is not necessary to have studied an instrument or to have any knowledge of music theory to take the course. Rather, it is designed for students of all backgrounds who have a desire to learn more about Beethoven and his world.”
Coursera offers classes that are free of charge and are designed to help the student master the material. A key factor in the design of the Coursera system is the extensive use of interactive exercises. Within videos, there are multiple opportunities for interactions: the video frequently stops, and students are asked to answer a simple question to test whether they are tracking the material.
There will also be stand-alone homework that is not part of video lectures. Students can watch Biss’s lectures at their leisure, but the classes are structured with regular deadlines. Each student who completes the course will receive a statement of accomplishment at the end of the series.
Curtis will a launch a second Coursera class in October titled “From the Repertoire: Western Music History through Performance.” Taught by Jonathan Coopersmith, chair of Musical Studies, and David Ludwig (’01), the Gie and Lisa Liem Artistic Chair of Performance Studies and a member of the composition faculty, the course illuminates Western music history through explorations of seminal works over the past six centuries.
As for the Beethoven course by Biss, here is a preview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y134F2WvAGo
And here is a way to sign up for it:
https://www.coursera.org/course/beethovensonatas
You can find Stephen Hough’s Liszt app in the app store of Apple and Google’s Play.
Tags: app, Apple, Beethoven, Classical music, Coursera, Curtis Institute of Music, Franz Liszt, Google, Jacob Stockinger, Jonathan Biss, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Massive Open Online Course, New York Times, Stephen Hough, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Union Theater, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 