The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Band and choral music is on tap this Sunday at the UW-Madison and Edgewood College
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By Jacob Stockinger
It has been a busy weekend for music, and tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 16, it continues.
For fans of band and choral music, a lot of choices are on tap at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and Edgewood College.
Here is the lineup:
At 1 p.m. in Mills Hall, the University Bands (below top) at the UW-Madison will perform under conductors Darin Olson (below bottom), Nathan Froebe, Justin Lindgre. Sorry, no word on the program.
At 2:30 p.m. St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood College Concert Band presents its Fall concert.
Admission is FREE with a free will offering to benefit the Luke House Community Meal Program.
The program, under the direction of Walter Rich (below, in a photo by Edgewood College) will perform music by John Williams, Leonard Bernstein and Richard Strauss.
The program combines those three legendary names with a selection of new music by three young composers: Brian Balmages, Sean O’Loughlin and the emerging American star Daniel Elder.
The Edgewood College Concert Band provides students and Madison-area community musicians with the opportunity to perform outstanding wind literature. The band has performed a variety of works, ranging from classic British band literature of the early 20th century to transcriptions, marches, and modern compositions.
The group charges no admission for concerts, but often collects a freewill offering for Luke House, a local community meal program. The group rehearses on Wednesday evenings from 7-9 p.m.
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will host the FREE Choral Collage Concert (its logo is below).
The concert features many groups: the Concert Choir (below top), Chorale, Madrigal Singers, Women’s Choir (below bottom), University Chorus and Master Singers.
The program, drawn from the Baroque, Classical and Modern eras, includes music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (the beautiful “Ave Verum Corpus,” which you can hear with Leonard Bernstein conducting, in the YouTube video at the bottom), Benjamin Britten, Johann Schein, Arvo Part (below), Orlando di Lasso and others.
For more information and a link to the complete program, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-choral-collage/
Tags: Arts, Arvo Part, Ave Verum Corpus, band, Baroque, Benjamin Britten, brass, Brian Balmages, British, choral music, Chorale, Classical, Classical music, Concert Band, Concert Choir, conductor, Daniel Elder, Edgewood College, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Schein, John Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Luke House, Madison, madrigal, Madrigal Singers, march, marches, Master Singers, modern, Mozart, Music, New Music, Orlando di Lasso, Richard Strauss, Sean O'Loughlin, singer, transcriptions, United States, University Chorus, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Walter Rich, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, women, women;s choir, YouTube
Classical music: New York Polyphony opens the 17th annual Madison Early Music Festival with a perfectly rendered composite portrait of Elizabethan sacred music. Plus, the winners of the fourth annual Handel Aria Competition are announced
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ALERT: In case you haven’t yet heard, the winners (below) of the fourth annual Handel Aria Competition, held on Friday night in Mills Hall and accompanied by the Madison Bach Musicians, have been announced.
Eric Jurenas (center), countertenor, won First Prize; Christina Kay (right), soprano, won Second Prize; and Nola Richardson (left), soprano, won Third Prize and Audience Favorite.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear left the concert hall thinking: Well, this will be an easy review to write.
Just give it an A-plus.
An easy A-plus.
On Saturday night, the acclaimed a cappella quartet New York Polyphony (below) opened the 17th annual Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) with a flawless performance.
This year, the MEMF is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of poet and playwright William Shakespeare (below top) and the 45-year reign of Queen Elizabeth I (below bottom), who oversaw the English Renaissance.
And the program – performed before a large house of perhaps 450 or 500 enthusiastic listeners — was perfectly in keeping with the festival’s theme. It used sacred music rather than stage music or secular music, which will be featured later in this week of concerts, workshops and pre-concert lectures.
In fact, the program of New York Polyphony was based on two of the group’s best-selling CDs for BIS Records and AVIE Records: “Tudor City” and “Times Goes by Turns.” It was roughly divided into two masses, one on each half. (You can hear a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Adding to the variety was that each Anglican or Roman Catholic-based mass was a composite, with various sections made up like movements written by different composers. Thrown in for good measure were two separate short pieces, the “Ave Maria Mater Dei” by William Cornysh and the “Ave verum corpus” of William Byrd.
The Mass on the first half featured music by Byrd, John Dunstable, Walter Lambe and Thomas Tallis. The second half featured works music by Tallis, John Pyamour, John Plummer and excerpts from the Worcester Fragments. The section were typical: the Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.
There was nothing fancy about this concert, which marked the Wisconsin debut of New York Polyphony and which spotlighted superbly quiet virtuosity. The four dark-suited men, who occasionally split up, just stood on stage and opened their mouths and sang flawlessly with unerring pitch and superb diction.
A cappella or unaccompanied singing is hard work, but the four men made it seem easy. The countertenor, tenor, baritone and bass each showed confidence and talent plus the ability to project clarity while not overshadowing each other. This was first-class singing.
The beautiful polyphony of the lines was wondrous to behold even, if like The Ear, sacred music from this era – with its chant-like rather than melodic qualities – is not your favorite fare.
New York Polyphony provided a good harbinger of the treats that will come this week at the MEMF from groups like the Newberry Consort of Chicago with soprano Ellen Hargis (below top) and the Baltimore Consort (below bottom) as well as from the faculty and workshop participants. On Friday night is an appealing program that focuses on Shakespeare’s sonnets and music.
And on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., with a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m., will be the All-Festival concert. That is always a must-hear great sampler of what you perhaps couldn’t get to earlier in the week. This year, it will feature the music as used in a typical Elizabethan day.
Here is a link to the MEMF website:
https://artsinstitute.wisc.edu/memf/
And here is a link the website of New York Polyphony if you want to hear more:
http://www.newyorkpolyphony.com
Tags: a cappella, Agnus Bei, Anglican, Anglicanism, aria, Arts, Ave, Ave Maria, Ave Verum Corpus, Avie Records, Baltimore Consort, baritone, Baroque, bass, Benedictus, BIS Records, Catholic, Cello, Chamber music, chant, choral music, Classical music, comedy, Compact Disc, Concert, countertenor, Credo, diction, drama, dramatic, Early music, Elizabethan, Ellen Hargis, England, English Renaissance, festival Madison Early Music Festival, George Frideric Handel, Gloria, Great Britain, Handel Aria Competition, History, Jacob Stockinger, John Dunstable, John Plummer, John Pyamour, Kyrie, lecture, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, mass, Music, New York City, New York Polyphony, Newberry Consort, Orchestra, pitch, play, playwright, poet, Poetry, polyphonic, polyphony, prize, Quartet, queen, Queen Elizabeth I, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Romance, sacred, Sanctus, secular, sonnet, soprano, tenor, theatrical, Thomas Tallis, tragedy, UK, United Kingdom, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Walter Lambe, William Byrd, William Cornysh, William Shakespeare, Wisconsin, Worcester Fragments, workshop, YouTube
Classical music: The Ear recommends hearing the July performances by the new east-side group, The Willy Street Chamber Players. The next concert is tomorrow at noon.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Consider it the musical equivalent of being a “locavore.”
Last Friday evening -– at the early concert time of 6 p.m. – the new ensemble The Willy Street Chamber Players (below is its great logo) made its debut.
Its home venue is the Immanuel Lutheran Church at 1021 Spaight Street.
The Ear went to see how the eastsiders, who drew a large and enthusiastic inaugural crowd, would perform.
He is happy to report that it is well worth the trip and the admission fee is low ($12 for adults, $8 for seniors and students.)
The hour-long program last weekend was: an instrumental version of the sublime “Ave Verum Corpus” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the Passacaglia of Georg Frideric Handel as arranged for violin and viola by Johan Halvorsen; and the String Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, by Johannes Brahms, with guest violinist Suzanne Beia of the Pro Arte Quartet.
It proved to be a memorable and impressive concert. True, one missed the heavenly singing in the Mozart (below). But the all-string version was nonetheless a brief but terrific curtain-raiser.
In the Handel-Halvorsen “Passacaglia,” it was engaging to follow the theme as it moved virtuosically back and forth between the violin (below right) and viola (below left).
The Brahms sextet (below) especially felt driven and well-rehearsed, carefully worked out and controlled to sound more transparent in its lines and structure, less muddy or thick in its texture.
Here is a link to the website with members of the group and news of the remaining concerts in July. (There will NOT be any concerts in August.)
http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org/index.html
And here is a link to the initial post by The Ear with the group’s background:
PLEASE NOTE: The concert this Friday – tomorrow — is at NOON and it’s designed to be a family event for children with parents. It will feature music by Antonin Dvorak, Eugene Ysaye and Ludwig van Beethoven. (Sorry, no word on specific pieces to be performed.)
The concert the following Fridays return to the 6 p.m. time.
Parking can seem hard to find, but the church (below, exterior and interior) has generous parking lot space. It also has terrific acoustics.
And there is a reception after the concert with some light snacks to carry to you into the rest of the evening.
The new group — made up of graduates of the UW-Madison School of Music who also play professionally in the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and other ensembles — offers yet more proof of the vitality and ingenuity of the classical music scene in Madison.
You would be wise not to miss its concerts.
Tags: Arts, Ave Verum Corpus, Baroque, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Dvorak, Eugene Ysaye, George Frideric Handel, Jacob Stockinger, Johan Halvorsen, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Music, Orchestra, passacaglia, Pro Arte Quartet, sextet, String quartet, strings, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Choral music, wind music and brass music add to the season-ending events this super-busy weekend.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend brings more season-closers. The groups concluding their concert seasons include the First Unitarian Society of Madison’s FREE Friday Noon Musicales; the Festival Choir of Madison; the UW Chamber Orchestra; and Edgewood College.
Here is a round-up of yet another busy weekend.
FRIDAY
On Friday afternoon, from 12:15 to 1 p.m., the last FREE Friday Noon Musicale of the season at the first Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature Driftless Winds, a University of Wisconsin-Platteville Faculty Reed Trio.
Members are Laura Medisky, oboe; Corey Mackey, clarinet; and Jacqueline Wilson, bassoon.
The program, performed in the historic Landmark Auditorium designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, includes music by Wolfgang Amadeus, Jacques Ibert, Erwin Schulhoff and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Bring your lunch; coffee and tea are provided.
On Friday night, the Madison Chamber Choir will perform at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Presbyterian Church (http://www.madisonchamberchoir.com) . It will be directed by Adam Kluck.
On Friday night, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, the University of Wisconsin-Stout Choirs come to Madison on a mini-tour, with a program titled “An Ode To The Bard: Shakespeare in Music.”
The concert will feature musical settings of Shakespeare’s words, popular music of his time (including tunes that are referenced in his plays), and works inspired by the legacy of William Shakespeare (below).
Performers include the Stout Symphonic Singers (an open-seat choir of about 30 singers) and the Stout Chamber Choir (an auditioned choir of 20 singers), both directed by composer-conductor Jerry Hui (below), with pianist Michaela Gifford.
Admission is free with a free-will donation welcomed.
SATURDAY
On Saturday at 11 a.m. at Oakwood Village West, 6209 Mineral Road, on Madison’s far west side, the UW-Stout Choirs will give a second performance of their Friday night program. See directly above.
On Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, the All-University String Orchestra will perform a FREE concert under conductor Janet Jensen (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot). Sorry, no word on a specific program.
On Saturday, May 3, at 7 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel at 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble will perform under the direction of Walter Rich and Daniel Wallach. Included will be works by Paul Dukas, Jenkins, Williams, Van der Roost and Franz von Suppe.
Admission is $7 to benefit music scholarships at the college.
On Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., the FESTIVAL CHOIR OF MADISON (below) will conclude its 40th season in the First Baptist Church, 518 North Franklin Avenue, in Madison. It will perform with the Pecatonica String Quartet and winds, and under the baton of artistic director Bryson Mortensen, who is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Rock County.
The program is entitled “Gloria” and features two Glorias: the well-known one by Antonio Vivaldi and a rarely heard one by Luigi Boccherini. A pre-concert lecture, begins at 6:30 p.m. The Ear hears there will also be an encore performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s “Ave Verum Corpus.”
Tickets are $18 general public, $14 for seniors and $8 for students if bought in advance – call (608) 274-7089; the day of the concert, tickets are $20, $15 and $10, respectively.
For more information, visit the link: http://festivalchoirmadison.org/index.htm
On Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Women’s Chorus and the University Chorus will perform a FREE concert under the direction of Anna Volodarskaya and Adam Kluck (below), respectively. Sorry, no word yet on a specific program.
SUNDAY
On “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from 12:30 to 2 p.m., members of the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire will perform the second-to–last concert of that series this season. As always it will be broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Radio. The concert itself is FREE in the Brittingham Gallery No. 3. Sorry, no word on a program.
On Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., in Mills Hall, the UW Concert Band will perform a FREE concert under director Mike Leckrone (below). Sorry, no word on the program.
On Sunday, May 4, at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Chamber Singers, Men’s Choir, Women’s Choir and Campus-Community Choir.
Kathleen Otterson (below) will conduct the Women’s Choir, while Albert Pinsonneault will lead the Chamber Singers, Campus-Community Choir, and Men’s Choir.
Pinsonneault (below) will also conduct the combined choirs and the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Te Deum.”
Admission is $7 to benefit music scholarships at Edgewood.
On Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. in Music Hall, at the foot of Bascom Hill, the Lincoln Chamber Brass of Chicago will perform a FREE concert, just a week before they compete at the prestigious Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
All of them are members of Civic Orchestra of Chicago; at 21, the horn player already substitutes for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Four are students at Northwestern University, the fifth at DePaul. Four of the five, including Ansel Norris, who was born in Madison and in high school studied with UW-Madison trumpeter John Aley, will attend the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival this summer.
Musicians of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. The program includes Victor Ewald’s Brass Quintet No. 3; David Sampson’s “Morning Music”; Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria” (arranged by Barker); and Giles Farnaby’s Suite of Dances.
Members (below, from left) are Ansel Norris and William Cooper, trumpets; Kevin Haseltine, horn; Joseph Peterson, trombone; and Scott Hartman, bass trombone.
For more information, visit: http://lincolnchamberbrass.wordpress.com/home/
At 7:30 in Mills Hall, the UW Chamber Orchestra (below) will perform its last concert of the season and its last concert before being either mothballed or terminated.
The performance is FREE and will be under the baton of director James Smith.
The program includes: Jacques Ibert’s “Hommage to Mozart”; Richard Strauss’ “Dance Suite After Francois Couperin”; and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E Fat Major. (In a YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the first movement performed by the legendary conductor Karl Bohm and the Vienna Philharmonic.)
For more about the news significance of the event, here is a link to yesterday’s blog post:
Tags: Antonio Vivladi, Arts, Ave Verum Corpus, band, Beethoven, Boccherini, Boston Symphony Orchestra, brass, Chamber choir, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Choir, choral music, Classical music, Concert Band, DePaul University, Dukas, Early music, Edgewood College, encore, Erwin Schulhoff, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Joseph Haydn, Friday, Gloria, Horn, Jacob Stockinger, Jacques Ibert, Karl Böhm, Lincoln Chamber Brass, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Boccherini, Madison, Mozart, Music, Northwestern University, Paul Dukas, Piano, reed, Richard Strauss, Saturday, Schulhoff, Shakespare, Symphony No. 39 in E Flat Major, Tanglewood, Te Deum, trio, Trumpet, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Platteville, UW-Rock County, UW-Stout, Vienna Philharmonic, von Suppe, William Shakespeare, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music Q&A: Pianist Stewart Goodyear talks about the emotional appeal of Beethoven and the eclectic style of his own Piano Concerto, both of which he will perform tonight with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. On Saturday night, you can hear Bach’s “St. John Passion” performed by the UW Concert Choir and UW Chamber Orchestra under Beverly Taylor.
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ALERT: On Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, Beverly Taylor will conduct the University of Wisconsin-Madison Concert Choir (below) and the UW Chamber Orchestra with guest soloists in Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion.” (Tickets are $15 for the public and $8 for senior citizens and students.)
By Jacob Stockinger
It is daunting for any pianist to play all 32 of the piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, usually over several days or weeks.
But then Stewart Goodyear (below) is not just any pianist.
He performs all the Beethoven sonatas in a single day, much like a marathon.
Moreover, Goodyear, who hails from Toronto, Canada, is also a composer who has written his own Piano Concerto.
Tonight at 8 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, Stewart Goodyear will perform both Beethoven and his own work.
With the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under music director and conductor Andrew Sewell, Goodyear will perform Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” and his own Piano Concerto.
For the Beethoven, the choral part will be sung by the WCO Choir that is made up of the University of Wisconsin Madrigal Singers and the Festival Choir of Madison (below). The choir will also perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s sublime “Ave Verum Corpus,” which should complement some of the tone of Goodyeas’s piano concerto.
The closing the program will be Beethoven’s famed Symphony No. 3, the “Eroica,” which radically changed the course of the modern symphony.
Tickets are $15 to $67. Call the Overture Center box office at (608) 258-4141. For more information, you can also visit:
http://wcoconcerts.org/performances/masterworks/72/event-info/
Goodyear (below) agreed to an email Q&A that for various reasons got delayed. But good sport that he is, he answered the questions after a strenuous rehearsal. Clearly this is a intense artist who approaches both music and writing in an articulate and athletic way.
You have performed — in marathon one-day sessions — and recorded all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and I believe you play all the concertos. What is it about Beethoven’s works that attracts you so deeply, and what is your view of how to best play him?
I was three years old when I first heard the music of Beethoven. It was that moment when I knew I wanted to be a musician. Beethoven’s music spoke to me as a child more profoundly than any other artist.
Even now, I feel that Beethoven expresses the complete human experience: the passion, the rage, the humor, the vulnerability, the courtship, the love, the defiance, and, finally, the spiritual awakening. I lived with Beethoven’s music my whole life, but I only felt ready to perform his music when I finally experienced every aspect of the human experience. It was at that point where I had a profound thirst to perform Beethoven’s music.
I was 32 when I first performed the complete 32 sonatas, and I knew that my first solo recording had to be those masterpieces. The sonatas, to me, are a very intimate diary communicated with the listener.
I think the best way to play Beethoven (below) is from a very personal place in one’s heart. Like a great actor, one has to live every moment, feel every emotion deeply, and play every note like it was a last opportunity. The audience must be seized at every second. Rage must be raging; pain must be painful. Raw emotion cannot be tamed.
How do you place the Choral Fantasy among his works –- just a sketch for the Ninth Symphony or a work in its own right?
The “Choral Fantasy” is quite an interesting piece. The last time I performed this piece was with Yannick Nezet-Seguin and Orchestra Metropolitan, on a program that re-enacted the historic 1808 concert that saw the premiere of the Fifth Symphony and Sixth (“Pastoral”) Symphony, the Piano Concerto No. 4, and the “Choral Fantasy,” among other works.
I see this work as the perfect finale for this program, first showcasing Beethoven’s improvising skills, then showcasing different members of the orchestra, and after variations of the hymn, showcasing the vocalists and chorus who participated in the mammoth 1808 program.
This piece was written specifically for that concert as a showstopper, but I firmly believe that this powerful, moving work is a masterpiece in its own right.
How and when did your own Piano Concerto come about? How would you describe it to the general public? Is it tonal and accessible, or melodic and appealingly harmonic? Rhythm-wise, does it have unusual aspects? How many tines have you performed it, and how has it been received before by the general public?
My piano concerto was commissioned by the Peninsula Music Festival (below) in Wisconsin’s Door County and premiered there in 2010. The architecture of this work is very much inspired by the Mozartian concerto, but it is also inspired by my own ethnic musical background: Classical, calypso and English folk music. (Goodyear talks about his own concerto in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The piano writing is lyrical but intensely rhythmic, and the harmonies are tonal and accessible with spicy dissonances.
I was delighted by the warm response of my concerto at the world premiere, and I hope the audience in Madison enjoys it. This will be my second performance of the concerto., but the world premiere of a revised version of it I did specifically for chamber orchestra.
Is there anything you would like to say about performing for a third time with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below top) and conductor Andrew Sewell (below bottom) before a Madison audience?
It is always a great pleasure to work with Andrew Sewell and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. I look very much forward to tonight’s concert.
Tags: Andrew Sewell, Arts, Ave Verum Corpus, Beethoven, calypso, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, English folk music, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mozart, Overture Center, Piano, Piano concerto, St. John Passion, Stewart Goodyear, symphony, Toronto, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: What would be a good April Fool’s joke about classical music? But it is no joke that April will bring a lot of major choral music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Faure and Rachmaninoff among others.
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READER SURVEY: Today is April Fool’s Day! So in keeping with tradition, here is what The Ear wants to know: What would be a really good April Fool’s joke about classical music? Discovering a 10th symphony or sixth piano concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven? Finding one of the many lost cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach? Unearthing a letter from Arnold Schoenberg disavowing his own 12-tone or atonal music as a dry and boring experiment? Use the COMMENT section to leave your April Fools treat. Be creative, original and unexpected, and have some fun.
Here is a link to one year’s entries:
By Jacob Stockinger
April is the “choralist month,” to paraphrase — with a badly twisted pun — a famous opening line from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland.”
Is it because of Easter? The end of the semester at the University of Wisconsin-Madison? Or maybe the arrival of spring? Or perhaps the closing on some current seasons?
All play a role, The Ear suspects, but so does coincidence. Besides, after such a hard winter, singing out seems healthy and almost normal.
During this April, local audiences will have the chance to hear more than half a dozen major choral works –- and that doesn’t even include the Russian and Baltic concert performed this past weekend by the Wisconsin Chamber Choir.
Many of the events will have more detailed postings on this blog. But here is a summary roundup to help you fill in your datebooks and make plans.
It will kick off this weekend with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Symphony Chorus (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) and guest soloists when they perform the famously storied Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Concerts are in Overture Hall on Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Guest conductor Julian Wachner will be substituting for the MSO music director John DeMain, and the program also includes guest organ soloist Nathan Laube in Jongen’s “Sinfonia Concertante.” For more information, including program notes and ticket information, visit: http://www.madisonsymphony.org/laube
On Friday, April 11, at 8 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra with guest pianist Stewart Goodyear and the Festival Choir (below), under WCO music director Andrew Sewell, will perform Mozart’s late, short and sublime “Ave Verum Corpus” (heard at the bottom with conductor Leonard Bernstein in a popular YouTube video that has over 2 million hits) and Beethoven’s rarely heard “Choral Fantasy,” which is a sketch with solo piano of the famous last chiral movement, with the famous “Ode to Joy,” of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Stewart Goodyear’s own Piano Concerto is on the program, as is Beethoven’s epic Symphony No. 3 “Eroica.” For details, visit: http://wcoconcerts.org/performances/masterworks/72/event-info/
On Saturday, April 12, at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will see a FREE performance on Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. John Passion” performed by the Concert Choir (below) and the UW Chamber Orchestra).
The next day Sunday, April 13 is Palm Sunday. It will see two performances (10 a.m. and 3 p.m.) of the gorgeously calm and reassuring Requiem by Gabriel Faure (below) at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, performed in the old historic Landmark Auditorium, where the organ is. FUS music director Dan Broner will conduct. Free-will offerings will be accepted.
Then on Good Friday, April 18, in the First Congregational Church and on Saturday, April 19, in the Atrium auditorium of the First Unitarian Society, J.S. Bach’s landmark Mass in B Minor will receive two performances (both at 7:30 p.m. with a pre-concert lecture at 6:45 p.m.) from the Madison Bach Musicians, and guest soloists and the Madison Choral Project under conductor and UW bassoonist Marc Vallon.
On Saturday, April 19, at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall is also a FREE concert by the UW Madrigal Singers under conductor Bruce Gladstone (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot). Sorry, no word on the program yet.
On Saturday, April 26, at 8 pm. in Mills Hall the University of Wisconsin-Madison Choral Union (below) will perform the lovely and rarely performed Russian Orthodox, a cappella “Vespers” of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Beverly Taylor, who heads the UW-Madison choral program, will conduct the one-time only performance -– normally the UW Choral Union gives two performances. Tickets can be purchased for the concerts. Admission is $10 for adults and the general public; free for students and seniors. Remaining tickets will be at the door. Call (608) 265-ARTS (2787) for ticket info.
As an added bonus to April, and to wind up the spring semester, on Saturday, May 3, at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall is the FREE concert by the UW Women’s Chorus and University Chorus. On Monday. May 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall the UW Master Singers will perform a FREE concert.
I’m betting there are some others I am missing, especially at Edgewood College, which I haven’t heard from yet. Perhaps readers will leave word in a COMMENT. But even from what I have listed, you see that listeners are in store for a lot of choral treats.
Tags: 12-tone, Adolphus Hailstork, April Fool, Arts, atonal, Ave Verum Corpus, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, chamber orchestra, Choir, Choral Fantasy, choral music, Classical music, Early music, Easter, Edgewood College, Eroica Symphony, Faure, Festival Choir, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Gabriel Fauré, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John DeMain, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Choral Project, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mass in B Minor, Mozart, Music, Nathan Laube, Ninth Symhony, Ode to Joy, Orchestra, organ, Overture Center, Rachmaninoff, Requiem, Saturday, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninov, Spring, Stewart Goodyear, Sunday, Symphony No. 9, T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Chamber Orchestra, UW Choral Union, vespers, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Bach Musicians serve up a superb concert of “holiday” baroque music that goes beyond the holidays and shows the group has a new local tradition in the making.
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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 show every other Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
On Saturday night, the Madison Bach Musicians presented their third annual Baroque Holiday Concert at the First Congregational Church. That the event has taken solid hold was attested to by a record audience of over 300 people.
The idea is to avoid all the seasonal fluff and music mandated for hearing just because of its Christmas associations, and instead to present a program of excellent Baroque music, performed on period instruments, with stylistic skill and artistic vitality — material to be cherished any time of the year, not because the calendar tells us so.
The performers were, in effect, a vocal quartet and a string quartet (plus harpsichord and a bassoon for good measure). The guest singers were soprano Chelsea Morris, alto Sarah Leuwerke, tenor Peter Gruett, and bass Joseph Hubbard; the string players were Kangwon Kim and Brandi Berry, violins, Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola, and Martha Vallon, cello, with director Trevor Stephenson on harpsichord, and UW-Madison bassoonist Marc Vallon lurking in the wings.
The program contained, in fact, almost no pieces with any Christmas connections.
The a cappella vocal quartet (below) launched the proceedings with a late Renaissance piece, to be sure: William Byrd’s beloved motet, “Ave verum corpus.” That is a work usually identified with choral repertoire, but Byrd composed it for more-or-less underground Catholic liturgies in Protestant England, probably to be sung by no more than one singer per part. It sounded very beautiful in this form, with the singers expertly balanced.
Next, Morris sang the first half of George Frideric Handel’s setting of the Gloria segment of the Mass Ordinary, composed in Italy as a cantata for soprano, strings, and continuo. Only recently discovered, this is not great Handel, but any Handel is good to have, and the bright and confident voice of soprano Chelsea Morris (below left) carried the segments beautifully.
Marc Vallon (below) then joined in for one of Antonio Vivaldi’s many bassoon concertos, this one in A minor. A bouncy but also thoughtful piece, it allowed appreciation of the very rich sounds of the Baroque bassoon.
Vivaldi also served to round out the first half of the program with his Trio Sonata, Op. 2, No. 12, a set of variations on the “La Folia” formula. That idea was first carried out by Corelli in the last of his 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 5. But Vivaldi showed that he could beat Corelli at his own game with a line of spectacularly varied variations. Kim and Berry (below left and right, respectively) brought off the virtuosic violin parts with precision and flair, a real rouser!
The second half was devoted in large part to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata 153, “Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind” about resisting the destructive temptations or “enemies” of the world in the coming year. The work calls for three soloists and a choir, with strings and continuo. In this case, the four singers constituted a “chorus” for the three chorale treatments, while the string players were one to a part. (The group is below.)
I fear I do an injustice to the other singers, but I have long admired the work of alto Sarah Leuwerke (below bottom, left) , and her singing this time was pure joy.
Almost as an afterthought came three scant excerpts from — you guessed it — Handel’s Messiah. Hubbard gave sturdy renditions of the “darkness” recitative and aria from Part I, and then the four singers and the players (Vallon jumping in on bass line) joined in the chorus “For unto us a child is born”: it was fascinating to hear the almost madrigal-like qualities this familiar music took on in such a minimalist rendition.
As an encore, we were given the final chorus from Bach’s cantata 172, which is an elaboration of the Christmas chorale “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” (How brightly shines the morning star). (You can hear a different setting of the well-known tune from Bach’s Cantata No. 1 in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
It should be noted, too, that Stephenson (below) prefaced the concert with one of his witty and personable but exceedingly informative lectures.
The event was a totally delightful concert, proving ideal and much-appreciated musical respite from all the dunning of seasonal rituals. This is a tradition that Stephenson and his MBM should surely continue in years ahead. Meanwhile, though, watch for their all-stops-out presentation of Bach’s great Mass in B Minor, this coming April 18 and 19.
Tags: alto, American Record Guide, Antonio Vivaldi, Ave Verum Corpus, Baroque, Baroque music, bass, Bassoon, Cantata, Christmas, concerto, Congregational Church, Early music, George Frideric Handel, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John W. Barker, Madison Bach Musicians, soprano, tenor, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, Violin, Vivaldi, William Byrd, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Bach Musicians will perform a concert of Baroque holiday music by Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, Handel and William Byrd this Saturday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Except perhaps for centuries-old hymns and carols, Baroque music remains the gold standard when it comes to the holiday season.
The Ear suspects it has something to do with the easy melding of the sacred and the secular that took place during the Baroque era, and with the transparent appeal and accessibility of the music itself.
All the major composers – Vivaldi (below top), Handel (below middle) and Bach (below bottom) took the religion of the day, whether Catholic or Protestant, seriously. But they also created music that stands just fine on its own in a more secular age.
Little wonder, then, that with such popular music to draw on, the Madison Bach Musicians (below) will perform its third annual Baroque Holiday Concert on this coming Saturday evening, December 14, at 8 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 1609 University Ave.
The repertoire for the concert features: William Byrd’s celestial a cappella Ave Verum Corpus (heard at the bottom in a popular YouTube video by The Tallis Scholars); Antonio Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto in A minor, with UW-Madison bassoonist Marc Vallon as soloist; Vivaldi’s fiery “La Folia” variations; George Frideric Handel’s gorgeous sacred cantata “Gloria” for soprano and strings; Johann Sebastian Bach’s probing and magnificent Cantata BWV 153 “Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind” (See, Dear God, How My Enemies); and selections from Handel’s well-known oratorio “Messiah.”
Trevor Stephenson (below), founder and keyboard artist of the Madison Bach Musicians and a master at giving entertaining explanations of music, will give a free pre-concert lecture at 7:15 p.m.
For more information, visit: www.madisonbachmusicians.org and www.trevorstephenson.com
Advance ticket prices: $20 General, $15 Students/Seniors (over 65) Tickets at the door: $25 general admission, $20 for students and seniors. Visit www.madisonbachmusicians.org or call 608 238-6092.
Performers include the critically acclaimed guest singers Chelsea Morris – soprano; Sarah Leuwerke – alto; Peter Gruett – tenor; and Joseph Hubbard – bass.
Other performers are Kangwon Kim and guest artist Brandi Berry (below top), baroque violins; Marika Fischer Hoyt, baroque viola; Martha Vallon, baroque cello; Marc Vallon (below bottom), baroque bassoon; and Trevor Stephenson, harpsichord.
Tags: Antonio Vivaldi, Ave Verum Corpus, Bach, Baroque, Baroque music, Congregational Church, George Frideric Handel, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Music, The Tallis Scholars, Trevor Stephenson, University of Wisconsin–Madison, William Byrd, YouTube
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