The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: This Tuesday night, May 21, at 7:30 the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras perform an impressive Side-by-Side concert that is FREE and UNTICKETED in Overture Hall
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By Jacob Stockinger
This coming Tuesday night, May 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, 201 State Street, is another event that can’t help but build audiences and generate good will for classical music.
That is when, once again, the professional musicians of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the student musicians of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras will play side-by-side (below, in a rehearsal), under the baton of WCO music director Andrew Sewell, in an inspiring example of apprenticeship and cooperation.
The Ear has been to the concert before, and loved the experience, which he found moving and excellent. He highly recommends it.
The ensemble repertoire to be played is ambitious and impressive.
In addition, soloists on the program are winners of the WYSO Concerto Competition: flutist Brian Liebau and violinist Benjamin Davies Hudson (below).
Says the WCO website: “Supporting young musicians in our community is essential to the future of music and the arts in Madison. We welcome all in the community to join us at this FREE concert.”
TICKETS
There is no charge for this concert, and no ticket is necessary to enter. Seating is general admission. Doors open at 6:45 p.m., and the concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
REPERTOIRE
Antonin Dvorak, “Slavonic Dances,” Op. 46, Nos. 1, 3 and 8 (1878)
Hamilton Harty, “In Ireland,” a fantasy for flute, harp and orchestra (1935)
Camille Saint-Saens, “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso,” Op. 28 (1863), for violin and orchestra. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you hear the catchy, tuneful and virtuosic work performed by violinist Itzhak Perlman.)
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1877-78), movements 3 and 4
Modest Mussorgsky, selections from “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1874; arranged by Maurice Ravel in 1922)
Tags: #AndrewSewell, #AntoninDvorak, #Benjamin Davies Hudson, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrianLiebau, #CamilleSaint-Saens, #ClassiclaMusic, #ConcertoCompetition, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #HamiltonHarty, #HarpMusic, #HomeWebsite, #IntroductionandRondoCapriccioso, #ItzhakPerlman, #MauriceRavel, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #ModestMussorgsky, #MusicDirector, #MusicEducation, #OrchestralMusic, #OttorinoRespighi, #OvertureCenter, #OvertureHall, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PicturesatanExhibition, #ProfessionalMusician, #RomeItaly, #SidebySide, #SlavonicDances, #StudentMusicians, #SymphonicRepertoire, #TheEar, #ThePInesofRome, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolinConcerto, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #YouTubevideo, Andrew Sewell, Antonín Dvořák, apprentice, apprenticeship, arranged, Arts, audience, baton, blog, Brian Liebau, build, Camille Saint-Saëns, catchy, Classical music, community, composer, Concert, concerto, concerto competition, conductor, cooperation, dance, door, ensemble, event, experience, Facebook, fantasy, flute, flutist, forward, free, future, good will, goodwill, Hamilton Harty, harp, home website, inspiration, inspiring, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Ireland, Italy, Itzhak Perlman, Jacob Stockinger, like, link, Love, Madison, Maurice Ravel, Mead Witter School of Music, member, Modest Mussorgsky, Music, Music director, Music education, open, Orchestra, Ottorino Respighi, Overture Center, Overture Hall, performer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, professional, recommend, repertoire, Rome, share, Side by Side, Slavonic, Slavonic Dances, Student, symphony, tag, The Ear, The Pines of Rome, tuneful, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unticketed, UW-Madison, Violin, Violin concerto, violinist, virtuosic, virtuoso, Website, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music education: The all-student Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) performs music by Mozart and Aaron Copland this coming Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
This coming weekend, the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO, below in a photo by Steve Rankin) performs “Interplay,” featuring music by Mozart, Copland and Grieg.
There will be two performances.
The first is on Saturday, Aug. 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church (below), 203 Wisconsin Avenue, off the Capitol Square.
Then on Sunday, Aug. 5, MAYCO will perform at 12:30 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery 3 at the UW-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art as part of the monthly “Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen” series, which can be STREAMED LIVE by going to: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen-8-5-18/
Admission for the Saturday performance is $10 at the door; students by donation. The Sunday performance is FREE, and reservations can be made by going to the above link.
For more information, visit www.mayco.org or www.facebook.com/madisonchamberorchestra.
ABOUT THE ORCHESTRA
MAYCO is a free summer festival ensemble dedicated to providing an intensive small orchestra experience for advanced high school and college musicians.
Founded in 2010 by music director Mikko Rankin Utevsky, the orchestra prepares a full program over the course of each one-week summer session, culminating in a public concert (below is a photo by Dennis Gotowksi of the concert this past June).
For The Ear, Utevsky (below top) and his general manager and concertmaster-wife Thalia Coombs (below bottom) answered some questions about the concerts:
WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PROGRAM?
The orchestra will be joined by guest soloist Trevor Stephenson (below), who is the artistic director and keyboard player of the Madison Bach Musicians. On fortepiano, he will solo in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271, sometimes nicknamed the “Jeunehomme” Concerto. (You can hear the lively, tuneful and infectious last movement of the Mozart concerto in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Stephenson has led workshops on historical performance practices with the orchestra in past seasons, and we’re delighted to work with him to bring one of Mozart’s weirdest and wildest youthful masterpieces to life.
The ballet suite from “Appalachian Spring” by Aaron Copland (below) is one of the defining works of his classic American sound, juxtaposing the pastoral beauty of the countryside with his trademark rhythmic vitality. We are performing the original chamber version, in which the clarity of texture illuminates the intricate internal structure of the piece.
Two high school students from our Conducting Apprenticeship Program will lead Grieg’s affecting miniature, “Last Spring,” for string orchestra. Cellist Elizabeth Strauss and violinist Monona Suzuki (below, in 2013) are this year’s Apprentices.
WHY IS THE CONCERT CALLED “INTERPLAY”?
We wanted to highlight the sense of conversation and interaction present in the two major works on this program.
The Mozart concerto is remarkable for the degree of interplay between soloist and orchestra. From the opening bars they are constantly interrupting each other, finishing each other’s sentences. It’s what gives the piece its unique sense of drama.
There’s a truism that Mozart made everything he wrote into an opera, and it’s certainly evident here: the melodies could have been lifted straight out of “The Marriage of Figaro.”
In the Copland work, it’s more about the intricacy of texture and the sense of playfulness in the way the various parts interact.
This project is funded in part by a grant from the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board; and by Dane Arts, with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.
Tags: #AaronCopland, #AppalachianSpring, #CapitolSquare, #ChamberOrchestra, #ChazenMuseumofArt, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #Classicalera, #CollegeStudent, #DaneArts, #EdvardGrieg, #EndresMfg.Company, #EvjueFoundation, #FirstUnitedMethodistChurch, #HighSchool, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #JeunehommeConcerto, #JohannSebastianBach, #LiveStreaming, #MadisonAreaYouthChamberOrchestra, #MadisonArtsCommission, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MarriageofFigaro, #MethodistReligion, #MikkoRankinUtevsky, #MikkoUtevsky, #MusicEducation, #OperaAria, #PeriodInstrument, #PianoConcerto, #PleasantT.Rowland, #PublicConcert, #SaturdayNight, #Sundayafternoon, #SundayAfternoonLiveattheChazen, #TheCapitalTimes, #TheMarriageofFigaro, #TrevorStephenson, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #W.JeromeFrautschi, #WisconsinArtsBoard, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YoungPeople, #YouTubevideo, Aaron Copland, afternoon, American, Appalachia, Appalachian Spring, apprentice, Arts, Bach, beauty, Capitol Square, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, charitable, Chazen Museum of Art, Christian church, Christian religion, Classical era, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, conversation, countryside, Dane Arts, donation, Edvard Grieg, Endres Mfg. Company, ensemble, festival, fortepiano, foundation, high school, historically informed performance practices, Jacob Stockinger, Jeunehomme, Johann Sebastian Bach, link, live, live streaming, Madison, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, Madison Arts Commission, Madison Bach Musicians, masterpiece, MAYCO, MBM, melody, Methodist, Methodist Religion, Mikko Utevsky, Mozart, Music, Music education, night, opera, Orchestra, pastoral, performance, period-instrument, Piano, Piano concerto, Pleasant T. Rowland, public, reservation, rhythm, Saturday, Season, solo, soloist, Spring, streaming, structure, Student, summer, Sunday, Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen, symphony, texture, The Marriage of Figaro, Trevor Stephenson, truism, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, violinist, vitality, W. Jerome Frautschi, Website, weird, wild, Wisconsin Arts Board, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, young people, youthful, YouTube
Classical music: This weekend kicks off the 27th annual summer season of Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society concerts with the theme of musical works as toys to be “played” with for serious fun
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By Jacob Stockinger
Four performances on this coming Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon and Sunday night will open the 27th annual summer concert series of the critically acclaimed but always informal and light-hearted Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom).
There will be six programs in 12 concerts performed in three venues over the next three weekends.
The venues are: The Playhouse in the Overture Center (below top) at 7:30 p.m.; the Stoughton Opera House (below middle) at 7:30 p.m.; and the Hillside Theater (below bottom) at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright compound in Spring Green, at 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.
Ticket prices are $43, or $48 if you want a prime seat at the Overture Center. For more information, go to: http://bachdancing.org/tickets/season-tickets/
This opening weekend features a lot of flute music and a lot of string music plus some unusual arrangements or transcription and music by unknown women composers.
As usual, BDDS has lined up a series of impressive local talent as well as favorite guest performers, including the critically acclaimed soprano Emily Birsan (below top) and bass-baritone Timothy Jones (below bottom).
Also on the schedule is a Madison-based hip-hop dancer and choreographer, Blake Washington (below), for two pieces during the second weekend: Igor Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” and Francis Poulenc’s “The Masked Ball.” In addition, four players from the BDDS Dynamite Factory – the apprentice school of BDDS for emerging performers – will take part.
Again, as always, there is a unifying theme to the season. This year it is “Toy Stories,” playing off the idea of “playing” pieces of chamber music.
Here is a background and overview story that appeared this week in The Wisconsin State Journal: http://host.madison.com/wsj/entertainment/music/bach-dancing-and-dynamite-gets-playful-with-toy-stories/article_918d38c4-1eba-5196-822e-2b2616eddb75.html
Here is an explanation from UW-Madison graduate and San Francisco-based teacher and pianist Jeffrey Sykes (below left), who co-founded, co-directs and performs in the series with retired UW-Madison and Madison Symphony Orchestra principal flutist Stephanie Jutt (below right):
“When we were kids, we would ride our hobby horses around the back yard pretending to be knights on a quest. We’d race our Slinkies down the stairs, cheering their contorted yet gymnastic moves. We made crazy cyborgs with our Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads. The cyborgs would fight for world domination, and then they’d sit down to tea with our dolls. We cuddled our stuffed animals as we prepared for bed, confessing our deepest dreams and aspirations to them. How easily those toys sparked our imaginations and transported us to fantastic realms!
“I’m a grownup now, sort of, and while I might get a short-lived bang out of newfangled tech toys, I’ve mostly left behind the dolls, bears and rubber ducks (below) of my childhood. The “toys” that really light my fire are incredible pieces of chamber music that have their own personalities; that delight me, surprise me, cry with me, and laugh with me.
CHAMBER
“Performing chamber music is called “playing” for a good reason. Ask any artist who joins BDDS for our festival: chamber music is a magical way to recapture the spirit of imaginative play that came to us so easily as kids.
“We cherish favorite old toys — the great chamber works of Bach, Mozart, and Brahms, for example. Yet we can also delight in the new toys that come our way — the music of Gabriela Lena Frank (below top), Paul Wiancko (below middle) and Kevin Puts (below bottom).
“Whether these new playthings become favorite old friends, who’s to say? One thing’s for sure, we’ll never know unless we play with them.
“BDDS’s 27th season theme is TOY STORIES, and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt and I have organized each of our programs around a quirky take on iconic toys.
“To celebrate the festival’s age, we’ve also scattered various “27s” across our programs. In the spirit of imaginative play, rather than spell ing everything out, here are some clues to what you’ll hear this June.
TEDDY TALKS. Just change the motto “ideas worth spreading” to “music worth hearing” and you have our modus operandi. In this case, we have all sorts of Teddies talking to us through their music: I wonder what they’ll say.
AMERICAN GIRLS. Proud and multi-ethnic, they have been coming on strong as composers for a hundred years, and here’s the proof!
PLAY DO(H). C Major is the most malleable of keys.
GI JOE. War is no game, but it has inspired some seriously imaginative music.
RUBBER DUCKY, YOU’RE THE ONE. Sesame Street’s beloved Ernie adored his bath toy: see who else jumps into the tub.
TRANSFORMERS. I’m amazed how a couple of twists and turns can transform a few unassuming blocks into something breathtakingly complex.
“Join us June 8-24 for TOY STORIES in Madison, Stoughton, and Spring Green. We’ll play together with some irresistible toys and have ourselves some serious fun.
“With a bang!”
For the schedule of performances, with times and places, go to: http://bachdancing.org
For the full programs, including the many new or neglected composers and works to be performed, go to: http://bachdancing.org/concerts/festival-concerts/
For a complete list of performing and helping personnel, go to:
http://bachdancing.org/concerts/cast-crew/
And for a complete and impressive list of BDDS repertoire throughout the years, listed in alphabetical order by the composer’s last name, go to:
http://bachdancing.org/about/repertoire-through-the-seasons/
Tags: #AlbertEinstein, #AlphabeticalOrder, #AmericanGirl, #AmyBeach, #ArtisticDirector, #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BassoonMusic, #BlakeWashington, #BohuslavMartinu, #CamilleSaint-Saens, #CarlPhilippEmanuelBach, #ChamberMusic, #ChenYi, #ClarinetMusic, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DoubleBass, #EmilyBirsan, #FluteConcerto, #FluteMusic, #FrancisPoulenc, #FrankLloydWright, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GabrielaLenaFrank, #GabrielPierné, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GIJoe, #HillsideTheater, #Hip-HopDance, #IgorStravinsky, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannPeterSalomon, #JohannSebastianBach, #KevinPuts, #LivingComposers, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MaskedBall, #MauriceRavel, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #NewMusic, #OboeMusic, #OperaHouse, #OperaSinger, #OvertureCenter, #PauWiancko, #PercussionMusic, #PianoConcerto, #PianoQuintet, #PIanoTeacher, #PianoTrio, #PlayDoh, #RebeccaClarke, #RichardStrauss, #RobertSchumann, #RubberDucky, #SamuelBarber, #SanFrancisco, #SergeiProkofiev, #SirEugeneGoossens, #Slinky, #SpringGreen, #StoughtonOperaHouse, #StoughtonWisconsin, #StringMusic, #StringSextet, #Taliesincompound, #TeddyBear, #TheodoreDubois, #ThePlayhouse, #TheSoldier'sTale, #TimothyJones, #ToyStories, #ToyStory, #TrioSonata, #TrumpetMusic, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WaterFowl, #WisconsinStateJournal, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WomenComposers, #YouTubevideo, 27, acclaimed, Albert Einstein, alphabet, Amy Beach, annual, apprentice, arrangement, Artistic director, Arts, Bach, Barber, baritone, Baroque, bass-baritone, Bassoon, BDDS, Beethoven, C.P.E. Bach, Cello, Chamber music, Chen Yi, choreographer, choreography, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, continuo, critically, cyborg, dance, dancer, do, double bass, dynamite, Einstein, factory, festival, founder, Friday, Gabriel Pierne, guest, Haydn, hip-hop, House, informal, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Kevin Puts, local, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Martinu, Mozart, Mr.PotatoHead, Music, narrator, New Music, opera, order, Paul Wiancko, percussion, performance, performer, Piano, poem, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Ravel, Rebecca Clarke, repertoire, repertory, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Romance, Saint-Saens, Salomon, Samuel Barber, Saturday, Season, seat, series, sextet, sketch, Sonata, song, soprano, summer, Sunday, symphony, talent, Taliesin, Teddy bear, Telemann, theme, toys, transcription, Trumpet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unknown, Viola, Violin, Virgil, vocal music, weekend, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: The 150th anniversary of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s birth will be celebrated with two concerts on this coming Sunday afternoon and Monday night in Spring Green. They feature the world premiere of a work commissioned from Madison-based composer Scott Gendel.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Effi Casey, the director of music at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright compound in Spring Green, writes:
“I am writing to you to let you know about special concerts at Taliesin on Sunday, Aug. 6, at 2:30 p.m. and Monday, Aug. 7, at 7:30 p.m., which I will direct in the Hillside Theater at Taliesin.
“The concerts are a collaboration of Taliesin Preservation and Rural Musicians Forum as part of the year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (below).
“I commissioned UW-Madison prize-winning graduate Scott Gendel to write “That Which Is Near,” a piece for choir, string quartet and piano, and we have enjoyed working on it. (NOTE: Gendel will discuss his work in more detail in tomorrow’s posting on this blog.) It will receive its world premiere at these two concerts.
“Other works to be performed include: “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copland; “Past Life Melodies” by Sarah Hopkins; the spiritual “Ev’ry Time I Feel de Spirit”; “Hymn to Nature” (from the Wright-inspired opera “Shining Brow,” which is the English translation of the Welsh word “Taliesin” and stands for the hillside location) by UW-Madison graduate Daron Hagen; “Song of Peace” by Jean Sibelius”; and the “Sanctus” and “Dona Nobis Pacem” from the Mass in B Minor) by Johann Sebastian Bach and spoken words.
“The participation and enthusiasm of the singers of the greater Spring Green community are most rewarding already.
TICKETS
“Tickets are available on-line at RuralMusiciansForum.org. Please see the “Purchase Tickets Here” link to Brown Paper Tickets on the right-hand side of the RMF home page.
“Alternatively, tickets can be purchased at the Arcadia Bookstore in downtown Spring Green.
“Ticket prices range from $15 to $30. The $30 tickets for the Sunday Aug. 6 concert include concert admission and a festive champagne post-concert reception with composer Scott Gendel, the musicians and the chorus.
“Tickets for the concert only on Aug. 6 or 7 are $20 or $15 for seniors and students. Children 12 and under are free, but please pick up a free ticket for them to be sure they get a seat at the concert.” (Below is the Hillside Theater.)
WRIGHT AND MUSIC
To The Ear, a special concert seems the perfect way to mark the Wright sesquicentennial.
Just take a look, thanks to research by Effi Casey (below), at what Wright himself said and thought about music:
“… Never miss the idea that architecture and music belong together. They are practically one.” (FLW)
“While Wright claimed architecture as the “mother art,” his experience in music was early, visceral, and eternal. Of his childhood he wrote: “…father taught him (the boy) to play (the piano). His knuckles were rapped by the lead pencil in the impatient hand that would sometimes force his hand into position at practice time on the Steinway Square in the sitting room. But he felt proud of his father too. Everybody listened and seemed happy when father talked on Sundays when he preached, the small son dressed in his home-made Sunday best, looked up at him, absorbed in something of his own making that would have surprised the father and the mother more than a little if they could have known.”(FLW’s Autobiography).
“In his later years, Wright himself preached musical integration in his own Sunday talks to the Fellowship:
“Of all the fine arts, (Wright exclaimed in a Sunday morning talk to his apprentices) music it was that I could not live without – as taught by my father. (I) found in it (a) sympathetic parallel to architecture. Beethoven and Bach were princely architects in my spiritual realm…”
“But more than words, it was in practice where he conveyed music to those in his sphere, from a piano designed into a client’s home (for someone who may or may not have been able to play it!), to his own score of concert grand pianos at the two Taliesins (he claimed “the piano plays me!”).
“In a gesture of delight and exuberance, as it is told by those who experienced it, Wright had a gramophone player installed at the top of his Romeo and Juliet tower (below is the rebuilt tower) at Taliesin to have Bach’s Mass in B Minor resound over the verdant hills and valleys.
Adds Casey: “Architecture is indeed a musical parallel of composition, rhythm, pattern, texture, and color. As Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is an “edifice of sound” (FLW) built upon the famous first eight notes, so Wright’s overture of verse expresses a singular IDEA, played in stone, wood, and concrete, from superstructure to matching porcelain cup.”
video
Tags: Aaron Copland, anniversary, apprentice, Arcadia, Arcadia Bookstore, architect, architecture, Arts, autobiography, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, birth, bookstore, Cello, Chamber music, champagne, choral music, Classical music, client, color, common, community, Composition, Concert, concrete, cup, Daron Hagen, Dona Nobis Pacem, early, Early music, eternal, Fanfare, Fanfare for the Common Man, fellowship, festive, Fifth Symphony, Frank Lloyd Wright, hills, hymn, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, man, Mass in B Minor, melody, Music, nature, notes, on-line, opera, Orchestra, parallel, pattern, peace, Piano, porcelain, premiere, preservation, prize, reception, rhythm, Romeo and Juliet, Rural Musicians Forum, Sanctus, Sarah Hopkins, Scott Gendel, sesquicentennial, Shakespeare, Sibelius, singer, song, Song of Peace, spiritual, spoken, Spring Green, Steinway, stone, sympathetic, symphony, Taliesin, Taliesin Fellowship, texture, ticket, tower, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, valleys, verdant, Viola, Violin, visceral, vocal music, Wisconsin, wood, words, world, world premiere, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra leaves listeners wanting more after impressive performances of Corelli, Britten and Mozart
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music radio show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
For six seasons past, the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (below top), founded and led by Mikko Rankin Utevsky, has enriched our summers.
It seemed that last year’s offerings were to be their final one. But they returned in an “Encore!” concert on last Friday night at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, giving hope that this wonderful ensemble of talented young musicians will yet continue to be with us.
The program was a brave and challenging one.
It opened with the Concerto Grosso in D major, Op. 6, No. 4, by Arcangelo Corelli. The wonderful concertos of the Op. 6 are well known from recordings, but are not that often heard in concert.
Corelli’s richly satisfying string sound was beautifully realized by MAYCO’s 22 players. The concertino was nicely set out in front of the full-ensemble tutti, and the performance was led by concertmaster (and Utevsky’s wife) Thalia Coombs — who, to my ears, worked in some lively embellishments of her own.
Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings is one of the musical masterpieces of the 20th century, composed for horn virtuoso Dennis Brain and Britten’s partner, tenor Peter Pears, as well as the Boyd Neel Orchestra. It takes its point from the Italian word sera, meaning either “evening” or “night.” The six English poems Britten set to music deal with aspects of night, the horn adding comments to the tenor’s singing, all framed by a horn solo.
Utevsky led a strongly disciplined string ensemble, while horn soloist Joanna Schulz coped confidently with her terribly difficult part.
The weak link, unfortunately, was tenor Dennis Gotkowski, whose voice is neither attractive nor precise, and whose diction generally failed to project the important words clearly.
Still, in all, it proved a brave delivery of a demanding and absorbing work. (You can hear it performed in its entirety by the artists for whom it was composed, hornist Dennis Brain and tenor Peter Pears, in the historic YouTube video at the bottom.)
Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, is certainly a familiar and often performed concert work. But I have to say that this student ensemble, under the baton of Utevsky, gave it a remarkably exciting performance.
This was not a performance that floated in a dark, but passively tragic gentleness. This was a performance that grabbed you by the lapels, looked you straight in the eye, and gave you a good shaking.
Its pungency was aided, of course, by the altering of the wind parts, nine of them – sitting apart (below) — against the string band that was far smaller than most orchestras muster these days.
One really could hear the different ways in which the winds spice or dialogue with the strings. But the exuberant playing that Utevsky drew from his orchestra made this a truly memorable rendition. (As a graceful gesture, Utevsky allowed his conducting apprentice and assistant, violist Brett Petrykowski, to preface the full Mozart performance by conducting just the exposition of the first movement.)
The audience was a modest one, perhaps diminished by concerns about the weather or by the limited promotion the event was given. But those present clearly enjoyed the concert, which makes many of us anticipate that MAYCO will really continue.
Tags: American Record Guide, apprentice, Arts, Baroque, Britten, Cello, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, Classical music, Concert, concertmaster, concerto, Concerto Grosso, Corelli, critic, criticism, Dennis Brain, Early music, emeritus, English, First Unitarian Society of Madison, historic, Horn, Horn and Strings, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, Kochel, lecture, Madison, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, Madison Early Music Festival, MAYCO, Medieval, Mozart, Music, Music education, Orchestra, Peter Pears, poem, Poetry, professor, Radio, Serenade, Serenade for Tenor, strings, symphony, Symphony No. 40 (Mozart), tenor, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, weather, winds, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music education: Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra performs an “encore” concert of music by Corelli, Mozart and Britten this Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
“The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO, below) is a summer training orchestra dedicated to providing an intensive chamber orchestra experience for advanced high school and college musicians, ages 12-35.
“MAYCO was founded in 2011 by music director Mikko Rankin Utevsky (below). The ensemble prepares a full program over the course of each of its one-week summer sessions, culminating in a public concert.
“We had planned for last summer’s “Finale!” concert to be MAYCO’s last, but at the urging of disappointed students, we decided to stage a comeback. Student response has been incredible, and we hope to keep the program alive into the future.
“This summer, we will present a single concert, “Encore!”, featuring works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Benjamin Britten and Arcangelo Corelli.
“The program of bewitching atmosphere and stark contrasts will be performed this Friday night, July 21, at 7:30 p.m. in the Atrium Auditorium (below in a photo by Zane Williams) of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive.
“The program opens with Corelli’s vivacious Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 4 in D major. Corelli’s Baroque concerti grossi all feature a solo group (“concertino”) of two violins and cello opposed by the full string band (the “ripieno”).
“Our performance will feature MAYCO concertmaster Thalia Coombs (below), principal cellist (and former conducting apprentice) Majestica Lor, and violinist Glen Kuenzi (a returning high school player now entering the UW School of Music, selected by audition).
“Benjamin Britten’s nocturnal Serenade, written for his partner, tenor Peter Pears, and virtuoso hornist Dennis Brain, sets an enchanting array of English poetry, including texts by William Blake, John Keats and Ben Jonson.
“Set in seven movements bookended by a Prologue and Epilogue for unaccompanied horn, the work traverses a wide range of emotions and orchestral colors. Joining the orchestra will be tenor Dennis Gotkowski, a recent doctoral graduate of the UW) and hornist Joanna Schulz (below, a current DMA candidate), who plays with the Wingra Wind Quintet.
“The concert will conclude with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, the so-called “Great” G minor. Long beloved for its tempestuous character and affective power, it captivates players and audiences alike with its intense chromaticism and unrelenting darkness. It is a tremendously compelling piece, and we are excited to perform it this week. (You can hear the famous opening depicted with an unusual bar graph in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Tickets are $10 cash at the door; by donation for students.
“More information about the MAYCO and its programming can be found on our website, http://mayco.org
Tags: apprentice, Arts, audition, band, bar, Baroque, Ben Jonson, British, Britten, Cello, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, chromaticism, Classical music, college, color, Concert, concertmaster, Concerto Grosso, conductor, Corelli, Dennis Brain, English, epilogue, famous, graduate student, graph, high school, Horn, Jacob Stockinger, John Keats, Madison, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, MAYCO, Mikko Rankin Utevsky, Mozart, Music, Music education, night, nocturnal, Orchestra, Peter Pears, piece, poem, Poetry, power, principal, prologue, public, quintet, Serenade, solo, strings, Student, summer, symphony, Symphony No. 40 (Mozart), tempestuous, tenor, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, virtuoso, vocal music, William Blake, Wind quintet, winds, wingra, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Youth, YouTube, YUK
Classical music: This Thursday morning, WORT will broadcast a live performance of Gideon Klein’s String Trio, composed in a concentration camp, by three up-and-coming musicians from the Dynamite Factory of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following note from blog fan and local live music documentarian Rich Samuels, who hosts his radio show “Anything Goes” on Thursday morning on WORT–FM 88.9. It concerns an unusual performance of Holocaust music by a kind of apprenticeship program that The Ear really likes as a way for to provide continuity between different generations of musicians:
“At 7:26 a.m. on this Thursday morning, June 15, on my WORT broadcast I’ll be playing a performance of Gideon Klein‘s 1944 String Trio by violinist Misha Vayman, violist Jeremy Kienbaum and cellist Trace Johnson (below, from left, in a photo by Samantha Crownover).
“They are the three members of the “Dynamite Factory,” the three emerging musicians who have joined the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society for its 2017 season.
“I recorded this performance — thanks to co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt and executive director Samantha Crownover — last Thursday at an event at the Central Library of the Madison Public Library system.
Trace and Jeremy are Madison natives and alumni of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO); Misha comes to Madison from the Russian Republic by way of southern California.
“I think it’s a compelling performance of a remarkable piece. It was the last work Klein (below) composed before he was transported from the Theresienstadt concentration camp to Auschwitz where, in a coal mining sub-camp, he died in early 1945.”
Tags: Adolf Hitler, alumni, apprentice, Artistic director, Arts, Auschwitz, Auschwitz concentration camp, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Baroque, blog, California, camp, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, coal, coal mine, concentration camp, continuity, documentarian, documentary, dynamite, emerging, Executive director, Extermination camp, factory, fan, generation, Gideon Klein, Holocaust, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Kienbaum, Jews, library, live, Madison, mining, Misha Vayman, Music, native, performance, public library, republic, Rich Samuels, Russia, southern California, Stephanie Jutt, string, string trio, system, The Holocaust, Theresienstadt, Trace Johnson, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, World War II, WORT-FM 89.9, WYSO
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) will give two FREE afternoon performances this Saturday and Sunday with the world premiere of a socially relevant piece by local composer Lawren Brianna Ware
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IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO, below) will present its ninth season this weekend, performing two free afternoon concerts.
Co-directed by the husband-and-wife team of conductor Mikko Rankin Utevsky (below left) and concertmaster Thalia Coombs (below back), the orchestra will perform music of Haydn, Wagner and Grieg, plus a commissioned work from local composer Lawren Brianna Ware.
Performances are Saturday, Aug. 3, at noon on the “Grace Presents” concert series at Grace Episcopal Church, located downtown at 116 West Washington Avenue on the Capitol Square; and on Sunday, Aug. 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the Mead Witter Lobby of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, as part of “Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen.”
(Please note that Sunday’s concert is NOT in the Brittingham Gallery III due to space constraints.) Sunday’s performance will be live-streamed on the Chazen website. Here is a link to the portal for streaming: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen7/
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Utevsky and Coombs offer the following comments about the program:
We’re excited to be working with Lawren Brianna Ware (below) on a new work she composed for us, Un sueño aplazado (A Dream Deferred – a quote from the African-American poet Langston Hughes), which chronicles the emotional trajectory of a migrant’s journey from Central America to the United States.
Our two high school Conducting Apprentices, Luke Whittingham (below top) and Quinn Wilson (below bottom) will each conduct one performance of a movement from Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite. Whittingham conducts on Saturday and Wilson does so on Sunday.
Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is a luxurious tone poem for small orchestra that he composed as a love letter to his wife Cosima, first performed on the staircase of their villa in Switzerland on her birthday. Often chamber orchestras don’t get the chance to dig into the great German Romantic repertoire, but this gem is a notable — and unforgettably beautiful — exception. (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We conclude our program with Franz Joseph Haydn’s final symphony, No. 104. Nicknamed the “London,” it is one of 12 symphonies he wrote for performances there late in his career, and it remains one of his finest essays in symphonic form.
MAYCO is made possible by a grant from the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
For more information about the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, go to www.mayco.org or call (608) 514-5537.
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