The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: A busy Sunday at the UW is highlighted by a FREE band concert and a public reception to mark the retirement of legendary band master Mike Leckrone
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ALERT: The Madison-based Avanti Piano Trio will give two FREE public concerts this weekend. The first one is TONIGHT at 7 p.m. at Capitol Lakes Retirement Community, 333 West Main Street, off the Capitol Square; the second one is on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 302 Wisconsin Avenue. Members of the trio are violinist Wes Luke, cellist Hannah Wolkstein and pianist Joseph Ross. The program includes works by Leon Kirchner, Ernest Bloch, Claude Debussy and Johannes Brahms.
By Jacob Stockinger
As the semester and academic year come to a close, concerts usually get packed into the schedule.
This coming Sunday, April 28, is no different – except that one event is clearly the headliner.
Mike Leckrone (below, in a photo by UW Communications) – the legendary and much honored director of bands and athletic bands at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – is retiring after 50 years.
Sunday marks a last appearance. He will conduct the UW Concert Band one last time and then be honored with a public reception.
The athletes and athletic fans love him. The students and band members love him. The alumni love him.
And, yes, the School of Music loves him. After all, not many band directors do what he did when he asked the late UW-Madison violin virtuoso Vartan Manoogian to perform the popular Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn with a band instead of an orchestra. But Manoogian agreed — and said he loved the experience.
Also, not many band directors could start an annual spring concert in Mills Hall with an audience of some 300 and then saw it grow decades later into a three-night extravaganza that packs the Kohl Center with some 50,000 people and gets seen statewide on Wisconsin Public Television.
One time years ago, The Ear — who was then working as a journalist for The Capital Times — interviewed Leckrone. It was a busy year when he and the Marching Band were going with the football and basketball teams to the Rose Bowl and the March Madness tournament.
Mike Leckrone was charming and humorous, open and candid. The interview was so good, so full of information and human interest, that it was picked up by the Associated Press and distributed statewide and nationally.
That’s how big Mike Leckrone’s fan base is. Other schools and bands envied him.
All honor, then, to this man of action and distinction who was also creative and innovative.
Here is more information – but, alas, no program — about the FREE band concert on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-concert-band-spring-concert-2/
For really detailed biographical background about Mike Leckrone and his achievements, go to:
https://news.wisc.edu/mike-leckrone-a-legendary-career/
And here is a statement by Leckrone himself about his approach to teaching and performing as well as his plans for retirement. (You can hear an interview Leckrone did with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
http://ls.wisc.edu/news/hitting-the-high-notes
Now you may think Leckrone can’t be followed.
But just this past week, the UW-Madison announced that Corey Pompey (below) is Leckrone’s successor. Here is a link to the official announcement, with lots of background about Pompey:
https://news.wisc.edu/new-marching-band-director-to-take-the-baton/
What else is there to say except: Thank you, Mike!
On, Wisconsin!
As for other events at the UW on Sunday:
At 4 p.m., in Mills Hall, University Bands will perform a FREE concert. Darin Olsen, O’Shae Best and Cole Hairston will conduct. No program is listed.
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Madrigal Singers (below top) will perform a FREE concert. Bruce Gladstone (below bottom, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) will conduct. No word on that program either.
Tags: #AcademicYear, #AssociatedPress, #AvantiPianoTrio, #BadgerBasketball, #BadgerFootball, #BadgerSports, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BruceGladstone, #BuckyBadger, #CapitolLakes, #CapitolSquare, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #ClaudeDebussy, #CollegeStudent, #ConcertBand, #CoreyPompey, #ErnestBloch, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FirstUnitedMethodistChurch, #HannahWolkstein, #HumanInterest, #JohannesBrahms, #JosephRoss, #KohlCenter, #LeonKirchner, #MadrigalSingers, #MarchingBand, #MarchMadness, #MikeLeckrone, #MilwaukeeJournal-Sentinel, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #OnWisconsin, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #PianoTrio, #RoseBowl, #ThankYou, #TheCapitalTmes, #TheMusicMan, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWMarchingBand, #VartanManoogian, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinVirtuoso, #WesLuke, #WisconsinPublicTelevision, academic year, action, alert, announcement, Associated Press, athlete, athletic fans, audience, Avanti Piano Trio, Badgers, band, base, basketball, big, biography, blog, Bruce Gladstone, Bucky Badger, Capitol Lakes, Capitol Square, cellist, Cello, choral music, Christianity, church, Claude Debussy, Concert Band, concerto, conduct, Corey Pompey, creative, director, distinction, envy, Ernest Bloch, event, Facebook, fan, fans, Felix Mendelssohn, First United Methodist Church, football, forward, free, Hannah Wolkstein, human interest, innovation, innovative, interview, Johannes Brahms, Joseph Ross, Kohl Center, Leon Kirchner, like, link, Madison, Madrigal Singers, March Madness, marching band, member, Methodist, Mike Leckrone, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Milwaukee Wisconsin, nation, nationally, NCAA, NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, official, On, On Wiscosnin, Orchestra, performer, performing, Pianist, Piano, Piano Trio, public, reception, Religion, retire, Retirement, retiring, Rose Bowl, semester, share, sing, singer, Sports, Spring, statement, statewide, Student, Sunday, tag, teaching, thank you, The Capital Times, The Music Man, time, Trombone, University of Wisconsin, UW Marching Band, Vartan Manoogian, Violin, Violin concerto, violinist, virtuoso, Wes Luke, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Television, work, WPT
Classical music: Ken-David Masur, son of famed conductor Kurt Masur, is the new music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
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By Jacob Stockinger
Ken-David Masur (below), a critically acclaimed associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and son of the late German conductor Kurt Masur, has been named the new music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Masur, who was chosen after a 36-month international search to find the successor to Edo de Waart, will start his duties next season and expand the number of concerts he conducts the following season. His contract runs through the 2022-23 season.
Masur, who also performs new music, sounds appealing and accomplished. It makes The Ear hope that the Masur brings the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to perform at the Wisconsin Union Theater, as has been done in the past.
Here are some links to stories and web sites with more information about appointment of the Grammy Award-nominated Masur (below, in a photo by Beth Ross Buckley), which was announced Monday. (You can hear him conducting the dramatic opening of the “Romeo and Juliet” ballet suite by Sergei Prokofiev in the YouTube video at the bottom. His work is well represented on YouTube.)
Here is a long and very informative story, with a lot of detail and background, from the Associated Press: https://www.apnews.com/61dace4d8fe346cba3c36c9c25cd62ca
Here is a link to the online story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, along with spoken introductions he gave to performances in Milwaukee of the Symphony No. 2 by Johannes Brahms and the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff: https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/arts/2018/11/12/milwaukee-symphony-names-ken-david-masur-its-new-music-director/1963446002/
And here is a link to his own web site: http://ken-davidmasur.com
Tags: #AssociateConductor, #AssociatedPress, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BostonSymphony, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #EdodeWaart, #FacebookPost, #GrammyAward, #JohannesBrahms, #Ken-DavidMasur, #KurtMasur, #MilwaukeeJournal-Sentinel, #MilwaukeeSymphonyOrchestra, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MusicDirector, #NewMusic, #PianoConcerto, #RomeoandJuliet, #SergeiProkofiev, #TheEar, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #YouTubevideo, acclaimed, accomplished, appealing, Arts, associate, Associated Press, audience, Bach, ballet, Baroque, Beethoven, blog, Boston, Boston Symphony, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, contract, critic, drama, dramatic, Edo de Waart, Facebook, German, Germany, Grammy, Grammy Award, introduction, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Ken-David Masur, Kurt Masur, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Music, Music director, New Music, online, Orchestra, performance, Piano, Piano concerto, post, posting, Romeo and Juliet, Season, Sergei Prokofiev, sing, singer, son, stories, story, Suite, symphony, The Ear, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, vocal music, web site, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, YouTube
Classical Music: Today is Memorial Day 2018. What music would you play to honor those who died in service to their country?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Memorial Day 2018, when those soldiers who died in war and military service to their country — in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or whatever other branch — are honored. (Below is an Associated Press photo of Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.)
Many blogs, newspapers and radio stations list classical music that is appropriate for the occasion.
But one of the very best overviews and compilations that The Ear has seen comes this year from Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, California.
Here is a link:
http://www.capradio.org/music/classical/2018/05/25/classical-selections-in-honor-of-memorial-day/
Another very good selection dates from last year and comes from Nashville Public Radio.
Perhaps that makes sense because Nashville is such a musical city.
Perhaps it has to do with other reasons.
Whatever the cause, this playlist gives you modern and contemporary composers and music (John Adams, Joseph Bertolozzi and Jeffrey Ames) as well as tried-and-true classics (Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar— the famous and moving “Nimrod” Variation that you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom — Franz Joseph Haydn and Frederic Chopin).
It even features some music that The Ear is sure you don’t know.
Take a look and many listens:
Finally, you can also hear some appropriate music for today on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Do you agree with the choices?
Do you like them or at least some of them? Which ones?
Which music would you choose or add to mark today’s holiday?
Leave a title and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AmericanPatriotism, #ArlingtonNationalCemetery, #ArmedForces, #AssociatedPress, #BlogPost, #CaliforniaPublicRadio, #CapitalPublicRadio, #ContemporaryComposer, #ContemporaryMusic, #EdwardElgar, #EnigmaVariations, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FredericChopin, #HenryPurcell, #JeffreyAmes, #JohnAdams, #JosephBertolozzi, #MemorialDay, #MilitaryService, #ModernComposers, #ModernMusic, #NashvillePublicRadio, #NashvilleTennessee, #NationalPublicRadio, #NewMusic, #NimrodVariation, #PublicRadio, #RadioStation, #SacramentoCalifornia, #UnitedStates, #USAirForce, #USArmy, #USCoastGuard, #USMarines, #USMilitary, #USNavy, #WashingtonD.C., #WisconsinPublicRadio, Air Force, America, American, Armed Services, Army, Arts, Associated Press, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, blog, California, Cello, Chamber music, Chopin, choral music, Classical music, classics, Coast Guard, composer, country, D.C., death, died, Early music, Haydn, Holiday, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Marines, Memorial Day, military, modern, Mozart, Music, navy, Newspaper, Nimrod, Orchestra, patriot, patriotic, patriotism, performance, Piano, Purcell, Radio, Sacramento, service, soldier, Sonata, symphony, title, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US Military, Viola, Violin, vocal music, war, Washington, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Acclaimed conductor Charles Dutoit cancels concerts and loses orchestra affiliations amid allegations of sexual assault
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By Jacob Stockinger
The scandal of sexual misconduct — ranging from discomfort and harassment to abuse and rape – keeps mushrooming.
Now Swiss-born conductor Charles Dutoit (below), who won multiple Grammy awards and led the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra for many years, has been accused of sexual assault by three opera singers and one musician.
One of the accusers is soprano Sylvia McNair (below), who has performed in Madison with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. The other three have remained anonymous.
So far, Dutoit has not responded to the allegations. But as a result, the 81-year-old has seen the cancellation of concerts later this winter and spring with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.
In addition, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, where he is artistic director and principal conductor, have also severed ties with Dutoit.
Here is a link to the story from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42452715
And here is a story from The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/arts/music/charles-dutoit-sexual-misconduct.html
And here is a link to the original story by the Associated Press:
https://apnews.com/278275ccc09442d98a794487a78a67d4
In classical music, longtime Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine was the first big name to be caught up in the current sexual misconduct allegations. Levine was accused of sexually abusing teenage boys who were apprentices.
And here is a link to the story in The New York Times about Metropolitan Opera artistic director and conductor James Levine:
Given the egotistical reputation of so many conductors and the patriarchal, authoritarian nature of the “maestro culture” of many performers and teachers, The Ear is sure that other names of important figures will soon emerge.
Who will be next?
Tags: "Scandal", abuse, allegation, anonymous, Artistic director, Arts, Associated Press, authoritarian, authority, BBC, Beethoven, Boston, Boston Symphony Orchestra, cancellation, Charles Dutoit, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, choral music, Classical music, Cleveland, Cleveland Orchestra, Compact Disc, conductor, culture, ego, egotistical, Grammy, harassment, Harvey Weinstein, Jacob Stockinger, James Levine, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Maestro, Metropolitan Opera, Montreal, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, mushroom, Music, Musician, New York City, New York Times, opera, Orchestra, patriarchal, patriarchy, performer, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Orchestra, royal, Royal Philharmonic, San Francisco, San Francisco Symphony, sex, sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, singer, soprano, Spring, story, Swiss, Switzerland, Sylvia McNair, symphony, Teacher, the Met, The New York Times, United States, winter, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
Classical music: Here is music to mark Memorial Day. What pieces would you choose?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Memorial Day 2017, when those soldiers who died in war and service to their country are honored. (Below is an Associated Press photo of the National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.)
Many blogs, newspapers and radio stations list classical music that is appropriate for the occasion.
But one of the very best compilations that The Ear has seen comes this year from Nashville Public Radio.
Perhaps that makes sense because Nashville is such a musical city.
Perhaps it has to do with other reasons.
Whatever the cause, this list gives you modern and contemporary composers and music (John Adams, Joseph Bertolozzi and Jeffrey Ames) as well as tried-and-true classics (Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar, Franz Joseph Haydn and Frederic Chopin).
It even features some music that The Ear is sure you don’t know.
Take a look and many listens:
Do you agree with the choices?
Do you like them or at least some of them?
Which ones?
Which music would you choose to mark today?
Leave a name and, if possible, a link to YouTube in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: AP, Arlington National Cemetery, Arts, Associated Press, Baroque, blog, casualty, Cello, cemetery, Chamber music, choral music, civilian, classic, Classical music, compilation, composer, contemporary, country, dead, death, Elgar, Holiday, Jacob Stockinger, Jeffrey Ames, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Adams, Joseph Bertolozzi, loss, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Memorial Day, memory, military, modern, Mozart, Music, Nashville, national, National Public Radio, Newspaper, NPR, opera, Orchestra, peace, photo, Purcell, Radio, remembrance, service, soldier, Sonata, symphony, Tennessee, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Veteran, veterans, vocal music, war, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Conservative Republican presidential candidate and Evangelical Christian Ted Cruz wants to ban the tritone – or Devil’s chord – from classical music. NOT. Then again, maybe he does
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the first day when you can vote early via absentee ballot for the presidential primary election in Wisconsin on Tuesday, April 5, when you can also vote to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court.
And tomorrow, Tuesday, brings more presidential primaries for both Republicans and Democrats in the Western states of Arizona and Utah. Plus, there will also be Democratic caucuses in Idaho.
So the following political piece — a pseudo-news report — seems timely and appropriate, especially given the drive by establishment Republicans to rally and choose the ultra-conservative U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas (below) as a way to stop New York City businessman Donald Trump.
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the Defending the American Dream summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
Sure, it’s a satire.
But it is a very well done satire — about something that was indeed banned in the Renaissance and Baroque eras by the Roman Catholic Church.
But like so much satire, it is fun that also cuts close to the bone and contains more than a grain of truth about Cruz and about his many “first day on the job” promises if he gets elected president.
Cruz, the son of an evangelical minister, is such a devout and intolerant Christian fundamentalist, it is almost as if he is waging his own jihad, much like the Islamic terrorist state ISIS, on any culture he considers unChristian and heretical to his personal faith and what he considers to be the inerrant and literal truth of the Bible.
Hmm. Does that qualify him as an extremist or radical?
To The Ear, what is really and truly scary is Cruz — not the music.
And it is hard to say who is more threatening as a potential president: Donald Trump or Ted Cruz?
Well, make up your own mind, fellow music-lovers.
Here is the satire from submediant.com. It’s a good read with lots of details, specific composers and food for thought.
http://www.submediant.com/2016/03/15/citing-evangelical-faith-ted-cruz-calls-to-ban-satanic-tritone/
And here is a YouTube lesson in music theory that offers an explanation with examples of the Satanic tritone:
Tags: absentee, AP, Arizona, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Associated Press, Bach, ballot, ban, Baroque, Bible, Business, caucus, Christian, Christianity, church, Classical music, conservative, culture, Democratic Party, Democrats, Devil, Donald Trump, Election, evangelical, extremist, fundamentalist, heresy, Idaho, ISIS, Islam, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, jihad, Johann Joseph Fux, Leonard Bernstein, Liszt, Madison, Maria, minister, Music, music theory, New York City, news, Orchestra, Piano, President, presidential, primary, radical, Renaissance, report, Republican Party United States, Roman Catholic, Satanic, satire, senator, Supreme Court, Ted Cruz, terror, terrorist, Texas, tonal, tritone, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Utah, West Side Story, Western, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: UW-Madison Professor Marc Vallon offers a personal appreciation of the pioneering French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez who has died at 90. Plus, this Sunday afternoon Wisconsin Public Radio starts a 13-week series of concerts by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra
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ALERT: This Sunday at 2 p.m., Wisconsin Public Radio (WERN-FM 88.7 in the Madison area) will start a new weekly two-hour broadcast series. It features 13 weeks of live recorded concerts given by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. This Sunday’s music, conducted by MSO music director Edo de Waart, includes three outstanding works: the Four Sea Interludes from the opera “Peter Grimes” by Benjamin Britten; the beautiful Cello Concerto by Sir Edward Elgar with soloist Alisa Weilerstein; and the lyrical Symphony No. 8 in G Major by Antonin Dvorak.
For more information about the series and performers, visit:
http://www.wpr.org/programs/milwaukee-symphony-orchestra
By Jacob Stockinger
This past Tuesday, avant-garde French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (below) died at his home in Baden Baden, Germany. He was 90. No cause of death was given.
Just last year saw celebrations of Boulez, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, around the world.
That included one here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music by bassoonist and Professor Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill) who studied and worked with Boulez and the famous Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris.
Professor Vallon generously agreed to write a personal reminiscence and appreciation of Pierre Boulez for The Ear.
Here it is:
![Marc Vallon 2011 James Gill (baroque & modern)[2]](https://welltempered.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/marc-vallon-2011-james-gill-baroque-modern2.jpg)
By Marc Vallon
I had the privilege to work with Pierre Boulez in the early 1980s, a couple of years after he founded the Ensemble Intercontemporain (below) in Paris, the first-ever fully salaried ensemble devoted to contemporary music.
Boulez was a very demanding conductor (below) and everyone would come to the rehearsals very prepared. If you were not, you would likely take the sting of his sarcastic humor.
I remember a situation when the flutist kept fumbling on a tricky passage in Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony for Wind Instruments. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, he made the mistake of saying, “I don’t understand, it worked perfectly at home,” to which Boulez replied, “Well then, perhaps we should play the concert in your living room.”
Conductor and composer Pierre Boulez from France conducts the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra during a concert at the Lucerne Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Keystone, Sigi Tischler)
I was involved in the first performance of the work often considered as Boulez’s masterpiece, Répons for orchestra and live electronics (heard at bottom in a YouTube video). It was a fascinating window into Boulez’s compositional process.
During the two-week rehearsal period, the parts would be collected after each session and would come back on our music stands the next day with numerous additions of grace notes and changed rhythms and dynamics. The longer we worked, the more intricate and multi-layered the piece became.
This is not surprising if one remembers Boulez’s definition of good music: It is complex and can be looked at from so many different angles that it ultimately resists full analysis.
Another important contribution that Boulez brought to the French musical scene, and the artistic world in general, was the often explosive radicalism of his ideas.
From “Schoenberg is dead” to “We have to blow up the opera houses,” who else would proclaim the end of serialism or attack the conservatism of established opera houses in such provocative terms?
Boulez’s public aversion to any artistic conservatism was, in the 1970s, a much-needed antidote to an international musical scene that was often too easily tempted to fill concert halls by programming symphonies by Tchaikovsky again and again.
It is still needed today. “Boulez est mort,” but his fight for the endless renewing of musical creation should go on.
For more obituaries and appreciations of Pierre Boulez, who served as music director of the New York Philharmonic and was a major guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, here are four sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/arts/music/pierre-boulez-french-composer-dies-90.html?_r=0
National Public Radio or NPR:
ABC-TV NEWS:
And here is a terrific and insightful personal appreciation of Pierre Boulez, with a link to current issues and events in classical music, by Anthony Tommasini, the senior classical music critic for The New York Times:
Tags: 12-tone, Alisa Weilerstein, Anthony Tommasini, Arnold Schoenberg, Art, Arts, Associated Press, atonal, avant-garde, Bassoon, Benjamin Britten, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Classical music, composer, concerto, Conducting, conductor, conservatism, Dvorak, Elgar, Ensemble InterContemporain, Humor, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marc Vallon, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, modernism, modernist, Music, Music director, New Music, New York Philharmonic, New York Times, NPR, opera, Opera house, Paris, Peter Grimes, Pierre Boulez, Schoenberg, Sea Interludes, serial music, serialism, Stravinsky, symphony, Tchaikovsky, The New York Times, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, WERN-FM 88.7, winds, wisconsin public radio, YouTube
Classical music: These are tough times for piano sellers who are hearing sour notes. Read why. Plus, hear a FREE concert of string music by Bach and Bartok Friday at noon.
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ALERT: The week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, to be held in the Landmark Auditorium from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature violist Jeremy Kienbaum and pianist Vincent Fuh in music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Bela Bartok.
By Jacob Stockinger
For most of my life, having a piano at home and taking piano lessons seemed one of the cultural givens. It was a gateway to classical music, and to playing other instruments and even to singing as well as to becoming a lifelong appreciative listener.
But times are changing.
And they are not changing for the better -– at least not from my point of view.
Across the nation, sales of acoustic pianos are down — way down.
Here is a story from The Associated Press that localizes a piano store in Iowa to show the general situation.
Tags: Arts, Associated Press, Bach, Bartok, Béla Bartók, Bettendorf, Classical music, Electronic keyboard, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Iowa, Jacob Stockinger, Music, Music education, Piano, piano lessons, string music, strings, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola
Classical music: Avery Fisher Hall will be renamed. Is there no end to the shameless egos of Big Money and the desperation of those who pursue it? What’s next? The Walmart States of America? Plus, this afternoon is your last chance to see the Madison Opera’s production of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” which gets rave reviews.
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ALERT: Today at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center is your last chance to see the Madison Opera‘s production of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s only opera “Fidelio.” The production has drawn high praise from local critics. (Below, in a photo by James Gill, are the lead singers tenor Clay Hilley as the imprisoned Florestan and soprano Alexandra LoBianco as his wife Leonore.) For tickets, call the Overture Center box office at (608) 258-4141.
Here is a review by John W. Barker for Isthmus:
http://www.isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=44067&sid=39e0add1db8c192442a2b8defe5ff286
And here is a review by Greg Hettmansberger for Madison Magazine’s blog “Classically Speaking”:
http://www.madisonmagazine.com/Blogs/Classically-Speaking/November-2014/Fidelio-Rings-True/
By Jacob Stockinger
It reads like something right out of a novel by Charles Dickens or Honore de Balzac or Emile Zola.
Did you hear about Avery Fisher Hall (below)? They want to rename it!!!!
It needs major work and expensive upgrading.
The stakes only get higher and more expensive, of course. But Big Money is no doubt up to the challenge.
Some you may remember the comments I recently posted about the renaming of the Wisconsin Union Theater as Shannon Hall (below) because of generous donations. A plaque would have sufficed, like at Camp Randall Stadium.
It shouldn’t be too hard for Big Money to follow the more modest and more respectable examples of local philanthropists Jerry Frautschi and Pleasant Rowland, who funded the Overture Center for the Arts without plastering their names all over it.
But no! The rich need to splash their names all over the buildings so that we honor wealth more than public service or history.
Well, now I see that a renovation of famed Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City is seeking some deep pockets by offering naming rights.
Or should I say “re-naming rights.”
Officials will even pay the Fisher family millions of dollars to allow the renaming of the legendary hall where so many great careers have started and been put on display for the public.
That’s tacky, and even outdoes the University of Wisconsin-Madison when it asked the Elvehjem (pronounced LVM) family if it could rename the Elvehjem Museum of Art to the Chazen Museum of Art.
The Ear didn’t like that, either. But at least the UW-Madison didn’t pay for the family’s permission, didn’t buy back the honor and then turn around and give it to someone else.
Maybe that is the reality of financing projects in today’s income disparity and wealth gap plus lower taxes on the rich that Trickle-Downers want to lower even more.
But it is nonetheless shameful.
What’s next? Avery Fisher Hall becomes David H. Koch Hall?
When do we become the Wal-Mart States of America?
Here is the story that appeared in The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/arts/music/lincoln-center-to-rename-avery-fisher-hall.html?_r=0
Tell us what you think of it.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, Associated Press, Avery Fisher, Avery Fisher Hall, Balzac, Beethoven, Chamber music, Chazen Museum of Art, Classical music, David H. Koch, David H. Koch Theater, Dickens, Fidelio, Income Disparity, Jacob Stockinger, Koch brothers, Koch family, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, List of concert halls, Madison, Madison Opera, money, Music, naming rights, New York City, novels, Orchestra, Overture Center, Renovation, Republican Party United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Walmart, Wealth Gap, Wisconsin Union Theater, Zola
Classical music: The Minnesota Orchestra will try performing shorter and more informal concerts next season. What do you think? Should that be tried here in Madison and elsewhere?
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By Jacob Stockinger
You may remember that at the beginning of November, The Ear posted a series of 10 suggestions to improve orchestral concerts (below bottom) intended to draw in bigger, newer and younger audiences.
The suggestions were made by conductor Baldur Bronniman (below).
I added two suggestions of my own: Make concerts shorter and make tickets cheaper.
The post drew a lot of strong responses, mostly con but some pro, from readers. You should check them out.
Here is a link:
Now I see that, with the help of a grant, the Minnesota Orchestra will try putting on some shorter and more informal concerts. The orchestra recently returned from the brink of bankruptcy and disaster under Finnish Grammy-winning music director Osmo Vanska, who took the same percentage pay cut at his players. (He is below and at bottom in a YouTube video conducting symphonies by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius),
While The Ear proposed 90-minute concerts without intermission, it seems the Minnesota Orchestra will try out the 60-minute formula in three concerts between this coming January and June. The programs look pretty good.
(Thanks for directing me to the story goes to Steve Kurr, below, the Middleton High School music teacher and conductor of the Middleton Community Orchestra, which generally follows a short and more informal programs for its concerts.)
I will be anxious to see the results. So will a lot of other orchestra maestros and administrators, I suspect.
Just maybe we are beginning to see the start of a trend in bringing concert hall practices up to – or down to? — the standards of a high-tech and very busy society that is both timed-deprived and driven by a shorter attention span.
Here is a link to the story:
http://m.startribune.com/entertainment/music/280257972.html
What do you think of the ideas in general and the experiments in Minnesota?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, Associated Press, Baldur Bronniman, Classical music, Grammy, Grammy Award, Jacob Stockinger, Jean Sibelius, Kevin Smith, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Middleton Community Orchestra, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Music, Music director, New York Times, Orchestra, Osmo Vanska, Steve Kurr, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
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