The Well-Tempered Ear

New York Times music critics pick 10 MUST-HEAR online virtual classical concerts to stream for October

October 3, 2020
Leave a Comment

PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, 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.

ALERT: Tonight’s concert by the choral group Roomful of Teeth for the Wisconsin Union Theater at the UW-Madison’s Hamel Music Center has been canceled and postponed indefinitely.

By Jacob Stockinger

Increasingly the coronavirus pandemic seems surging out of control. So it comes as no surprise that also more and more concerts of classical music are taking place virtually and online.

Coronavirus image CDC

There are many ways to choose among local, regional, national and international concerts.

But one good guide was published this last week and featured the choice of must-hear classical concerts by critics for The New York Times.

It is an interesting and varied selection, and includes times, links and brief descriptions.

It features concerts that emphasize Black composers such as Florence Price (below top) and women composers. It covers many genres from a solo piano recital by Jeremy Denk (below bottom) – who is supposed to perform here on Dec. 11 at the Wisconsin Union Theater – to chamber music, vocal music, orchestral concerts and operas.

Florence Price head shot University of Arkansas Libraries

Jeremy Denk playing CR Hiroyuki Ito NYTImes

Curiously, there is quite bit of new music but little early music, either Renaissance or Baroque. Perhaps more will appear around the holiday times, when that music is part of the traditional holiday celebrations.

You will find contemporary composers but also lots of certified, tried-and-true classics and masterworks.

Some are one-day only events but many run from a week through a month.

Here is a link to the story. PLEASE NOTE THAT TIMES ARE ALL EASTERN: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/arts/music/classical-music-stream.html

Please let The Ear know if you like this kind of listing and find it useful.

And please feel free to leave in the comment section other guides or events that the public should know about.


Posted in Classical music
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Classical music: Next season the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will expand to two performances of its winter Masterworks concerts by adding a Saturday night concert in Brookfield, near Milwaukee

May 21, 2019
7 Comments

IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.

By Jacob Stockinger

Next season will mark the 20th anniversary of Andrew Sewell (below top) coming to Madison to serve as the music director and principal conductor of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below bottom).

It is hard to imagine a better Bravo! or anniversary gift for the maestro – who has said he wants the WCO to become a chamber orchestra, as its name implies, for the entire state of Wisconsin — than what will in fact take place: the WCO will expand its winter Masterworks concerts to two performances by adding a Saturday night performance at 7:30 p.m. in the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts (below) in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee. (Sewell is also the music director of the San Luis Obispo Symphony in California.)

Madison performances of Masterworks will continue to take place at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.

You can find out more about the Masterworks programs for next season by going to the WCO home website:

https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performance-listing/category/masterworks

There you will find the usual eclectic mix of new guest artists and new or neglected composers and repertoire that has marked Sewell’s tenure and brought him critical acclaim.

Pianist Orion Weiss will perform the popular  Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 – “Elvira Madigan” – by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; violinists Giora Schmidt and Eric Silberger will perform concertos by Dmitri Kabalevsky and Niccolo Paganini, respectively; harpist Yolanda Kondonassis will perform a concerto by Argentinian Alberto Ginastera; and Andrew Balio (below), principal trumpet of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will return to Madison where he grew up and perform a 1948 trumpet concerto by Italian composer Andre Tomasi.

Early music and new music to be featured includes works by: Donald Fraser (an acclaimed English conductor, composer and arranger, below) who now lives in Illinois, and often comes to Madison); Joseph Martin Kraus, known as the “Swedish Mozart”; Norwegian composer Johann Svensen; and three English composers (always favorites of Sewell who was born and educated in New Zealand) who are John Marsh, James Macmillan and York Bowen. (In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear the English Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Woods — a native Madisonian who will return next season to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra — recording the Scherzo movement from Donald Fraser’s “Sinfonietta,” the same work that the WCO will perform.) 

Works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn and Sergei Prokofiev also figure prominently, including Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” in honor of the composer’s 250th birthday in 2020.

Also on the website, you will find the upcoming season of Wednesday night Concerts on the Square for this summer (June 26-July 31) plus the dates and themes – although no guest artists or works — for 2020 (June 24-July 29).

Go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances

You can also find information for next season about the WCO performing George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah,” Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” with the Madison Ballet; the Young Artist Concerto Competition; the free Family Series; and the community Super Strings program for elementary students.

To receive a brochure with information about all these events and about how to get tickets — an “early bird” discount on subscription tickets runs through May 31– call (608) 257-0638 or go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org


Posted in Classical music
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Classical music: The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble performs a concert of music by Handel, Strozzi, Sammartini and rarely heard other composers this Friday night at 7:30

November 21, 2018
Leave a Comment

IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.

By Jacob Stockinger

The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below bottom) will perform a concert of baroque chamber music on this coming Friday night, Nov. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below top), 1833 Regent Street, on Madison’s near west side.

Tickets are at the door ONLY: $20 for adults, $10 for students.

Members of the ensemble are: Eric Miller, viola da gamba; Sigrun Paust, recorder; Chelsie Propst, soprano; Charlie Rasmussen, baroque cello and viola da gamba; Consuelo Sañudo, mezzo-soprano; Monica Steger, traverso, harpsichord and recorder; Anton TenWolde, baroque cello; and Max Yount, harpsichord.

The program is:

Giulio Ruvo – Sonata for cello and basso continuo in A minor (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom played by cellist Charlie Rasmussen and harpsichordist Max Yount of the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble)

Andreas Lidl – Trio for flute, viola and cello

George Frideric Handel – Cantata “Dite, mie piante” (Say, My Plants)

Unico Wilhelm Count Van Wassenaer – Sonata No. 1 for recorder and basso continuo

INTERMISSION

Barbara Strozzi (below): “L’amante segreto” (The Secret Lover) from Opus II (1651)

Giuseppe Tommaso Giovanni Giordani – Duo No. 2 for two cellos, Op.18

Giuseppe Sammartini – Trio Sonata No.  5 for two flutes and basso continuo (1727)

Handel – “Tanti Strali” (Many Rays) HWV 197

Michel Corrette – Concert “Le Phénix”

For more information: (608) 238-5126, email: info@wisconsinbaroque.org, or got to: www.wisconsinbaroque.org


Classical music: The veteran Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble opens its new season this Saturday night with a program of rarely heard works and composers

October 10, 2018
1 Comment

IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR SHARE IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement from one of the pioneering groups in Madison for playing Baroque music with period instruments and historically informed performance practices:

The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below) invites you to a concert of baroque chamber music.

The concert is this coming Saturday night, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street on Madison’s near west side.

Tickets at the door only: $20 general admission and $10 students

Members of the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble are: UW-Madison professor Mimmi Fulmer, soprano; Nathan Giglierano, baroque violin; Eric Miller, viola da gamba; Sigrun Paust, recorder; Charlie Rasmussen, baroque cello and viola da gamba; Consuelo Sañudo, mezzo-soprano; Monica Steger, traverso, harpsichord and recorder; Anton TenWolde, baroque cello and viola da gamba; and Max Yount, harpsichord.

The program includes:

  1. Giovanni Bononcini/Johann Jakob Greber – “Fuori di sua capanna” (Outside in Front of Her Hut) – Cantata for mezzo-soprano, alto recorder and basso continuo
  2. August Kuehnel  – Sonate ò Partite for viola da gamba, Aria Solo “Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut” (Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Greatest Good)
  3. Claudio Monteverdi – Madrigals, Book 3

O Rossignol (O Nightingale)

Rimanti in Pace (Remain in Peace)

Ond’ei di Morte (Whereupon Death Marked on His Face)

  1. John Playford – Divisions for the violin, “Paul’s Steeple”
  2. Georg Philipp Telemann – Trio sonata for violin, recorder and basso continuo TWV 42:a4

INTERMISSION

  1. Francesco Alborea – Sonata in G Major for cello and basso continuo
  2. Joseph de Bodin Boismortier – Motet for the Holy Virgin, Op. 23
  3. Giuseppe Tommaso Giovanni Giordani – Duo No. 1 for Two Cellos, Op. 18 (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
  4. Boismortier – Ballet de Village No. 4, Op. 52

For more information: 608 238-5126, email: info@wisconsinbaroque.org or visit www.wisconsinbaroque.org

A post-concert reception will be held on the second floor at 2422 Kendall Avenue.


Posted in Classical music
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 1,233 other subscribers

    Blog Stats

    • 2,493,303 hits
    May 2024
    M T W T F S S
     12345
    6789101112
    13141516171819
    20212223242526
    2728293031