The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The 18th annual Madison Early Music Festival concludes its look at the Spanish Renaissance with another outstanding “concept concert” featuring all participants
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By Jacob Stockinger
Nobody here does “concept concerts” better than the Madison Early Music Festival.
Proof came again last Saturday night in Mills Hall when the large forces of professional faculty members and workshop student participants (both below) joined to present a comprehensive overview of Renaissance music in Spain.
The program featured various combinations, including a quartet (below) as well as choral music and instrumental music. It offered sacred and secular fare, courtly music and folk music, Latin and vernacular Spanish.
Once again, the impressive program was assembled and conducted by Grant Herreid (below top) of the internationally acclaimed Renaissance band Piffaro (below bottom), a popular and regular guest at MEMF. (You can hear Piffaro perform music from the Spanish Renaissance in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
As in past years, history, biography, literature, religion and music get layered on top of each other and interwoven among each other. As a formula, from year to year the concept keeps getting refined and keeps succeeding.
In this case, the narration and story line centered on the surprisingly adventurous life of Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (below), who wrote the first important novel, “Don Quixote.”
Last year, the festival celebrated the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare; this year, it was the 400th anniversary of the death of Cervantes.
The Ear really likes the format. The All-Festival concert ran 75 minutes and was done without intermission. Even if you are not a big fan of such early music, the concert was varied enough and short enough to hold your attention.
Unity was provided by excerpts from various texts of Cervantes, including “Don Quixote” as well as less well-known works. Some of his words were even substituted for other texts in songs and choruses.
The chorus and soloists sounded very well rehearsed, and the large instrumental section – with all those unusual-looking early instruments like sackbuts and shawms – was exceptional.
Herreid kept an outstanding sonic balance between the vocal and instrumental forces throughout the event.
There were quite a few narrators (below) who presented the short texts by Cervantes. And they proved the only weak point. Some people just don’t seem as up to the task as others do.
Perhaps in future years, the festival could pick, say, one man and one woman to alternate in the readings. The audience would have a better sense of their identities, and the effect would be better if the narrators were chosen for their ability to project dramatically and enunciate clearly but with expression – something that proved uneven with so many different narrators taking turns.
The Ear didn’t go to a lot of the festival events. He confesses that he is more a Baroque than a Renaissance person who looks forward to next year’s theme of “A Journey to Lübeck,” with German Renaissance and even Baroque music, especially music by Dietrich Buxtehude. (The 19th annual festival will be held July 7-14, 2018.)
But this final wrap-up concert is proof that even if very early music is not your thing, you shouldn’t miss the final event.
The All-Festival concert really is a MUST-HEAR.
You learn a lot.
And you enjoy even more.
Certainly the audience seemed to agree.
Were you there?
What did you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: adventure, Arts, audience, balance, band, Baroque, Baroque violin, biography, Cello, Cervantes, Chamber music, choral music, chorus, Classical music, concept, Dietrich Buxtehude, Don Quixote, duo, Early music, enunciate, expression, faculty, formula, German, Germany, Golden Age, Grant Herreid, History, instrument, instrumental, Jacob Stockinger, Latin, literature, Lubeck, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, MEMF, Music, narrator, novel, opera, Orchestra, Piffaro, professional, project, projection, Quartet, reading, Religion, Renaissance, sackbut, sacred, secular, Shakespeare, shawm, solo, solos, song, sonic, Spain, Spanish, Student, symphony, text, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vernacular, Viol, viol da gamba, Viola, Violin, vocal, vocal music, Wisconsin, workshop, Writer, YouTube
Classical music: Madison Opera’s festive and fun 16th annual Opera in the Park is this Saturday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
It serves as a preview of the indoor winter opera season.
But one of the summer’s major events in Madison is primarily a fun time unto itself — with outdoors picnicking and socializing, and lots of outdoor music making, some of it with the audience helping to “conduct” with glow-in-the-dark light sticks.
The Madison Opera’s annual FREE Opera in the Park concert will take place this coming Saturday night starting at 8 p.m. in Garner Park, on Madison’s west side near the junction of Mineral Point Road and Rosa Road. (You can get a taste of the event in the YouTube video from 2010 at the bottom.)
The park opens at 7 a.m. Blankets, chairs, food and beverages are allowed. The rain date is the next day — Sunday, July 23.
Here is what Kathryn Smith (below, in a photo by James Gill), the general director of Madison Opera, has to say about the event:
“Opera in the Park has become a Madison summer tradition since the first concert in 2002. When the weather is good, we have over 15,000 people in the audience, which is the highest per-capita attendance of any such opera event in the U.S.
“I think there are many reasons for its success, from the beautiful music to the beautiful park, and the fact that our community enjoys spending time together outside in the summer.
“We don’t make massive changes each year, but it is of course a new set of singers and a new program, so it’s a fresh musical experience.
“This year, for example, we have two arias from zarzuelas or traditional Spanish musical comedies,, including the zarzuela version of “The Barber of Seville” – which will be complemented by an aria from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” naturally.
“Audience members might also choose to vary the contents of their picnic basket each year – perhaps with Bizet’s “Carmen” and “The Barber of Seville” on the concert, they might want to include Spanish foods.
“I try to invite principal artists from our upcoming season when possible, so that audiences can get to know singers they can then hear in full roles later in the year.
“This summer our singers include soprano Cecilia Violetta López (below), who will be in “Carmen” in November;
tenor David Walton (below), who will be in Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio” in February;
and mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala (below), who will be in Daniel Catan‘s “Florencia en el Amazonas” in April.
“Baritone Will Liverman (below) is not in the upcoming season, but he has had major success here as “The Barber of Seville” and in last season’s “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird,” so I’m delighted he is able to join us this summer in the park.
“Putting on Opera in the Park is a complex production, from renting the generators and the stage to coordinating with the City Parks Department and the Madison Police.
“Full Compass Systems and Bag End donate the sound system and their services to run it every year, and there are hundreds of people involved, from our production team to our volunteers, from the IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) stage crew to the Madison Opera Chorus and Madison Symphony Orchestra.
“I often say that Opera in the Park is the most important thing Madison Opera does, and I think everyone involved believes that as well.
Now if only the weather will cooperate …”
For more information about Opera in the Park, including the times; the complete concert program that includes selections from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” on the occasion of the composer’s centennial; detailed biographies of the soloists and the guest conductor Joseph Mechavich (below); reservations for the supporters’ Prelude Dinner at 6:30 p.m.; rules about reserving seating in the park; and how to become a volunteer, go to:
http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2016-2017/park/
Tags: Abduction From the Seraglio, Adriana Zabala, aria, artist, Arts, audience, Barber of Seville, baritone, beverage, biography, Bizet, blanket, Carmen, Cecilia Violetta Lopez, Cello, centennial, chair, Charlie Parker's Yardbird, choral music, chorus, city, Classical music, comic opera, community, conductor, Daniel Catan, David Walton, dinner, Florencia en el Amazonas, food, Garner Park, Gioachino Rossini, guest, IATSE, indoor, Jacob Stockinger, Joseph Mechavich, Kathryn Smith, Leonard Bernstein, light stick, logistics, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Opera Chorus, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mezzo-soprano, Mozart, Music, musical comedy, opera, Opera in the Park, Orchestra, outdoor, outdoors, parks, police, Prelude, rain, role, Rossini, Season, singers, soloist, song, soprano, sound system, Spain, Spanish, stage crew, summer, symphony, tenor, The Barber of Seville, tradition, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, volunteer, weather, West Side Story, Will Liverman, winter, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube, zarzuela
Classical music: Listening etiquette should be the same outdoors as in concert halls
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By Jacob Stockinger
This posting is a favor to a loyal friend of The Ear.
And just maybe to many others too.
This friend, who sponsors local classical music and attends many indoor concerts, likes to go to the FREE Concerts on the Square (below) given by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
The third one of this summer is tonight at 7 p.m. on the King Street corner of the Capitol Square.
The guest artist is classically trained Robert Bonfiglio (below), the “Paganini of the harmonica,” who will perform several serious works including two by George Gershwin and one by Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin. (You can hear Bonfiglio perform the second movement of Tcherepnin’s Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more information about the concert and what happens at it, including food and other activities as well as a biography of the soloist, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/concerts-on-the-square-3-2/
However, what disturbs The Ear’s friend, who will be there tonight, is the rudeness or thoughtlessness that often interferes with appreciating the music.
“Maybe,” the Friend said, “you can post something about it and that might help.”
True, the summer event is designed for socializing and eating and drinking and having fun. And there is plenty of time for all those things.
But when the music starts, it is only fair to pay respect to the musicians who work so hard to perform it and to other listeners who want to hear it.
That means silence.
People should stop chatting, talking or laughing during the music.
They should avoid making unnecessary noise and movements and help allow other audience members to concentrate and focus on the music.
In short, the rules or etiquette for listening to music should be the same outdoors as they are indoors in the concert hall.
And that goes not only for Concerts on the Square, but also for the Concert on the Green by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the upcoming Opera in the Park (below) by the Madison Opera on July 22 and the outdoor Concert in the Park performance on Aug. 9 by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras.
Anyway that is what The Ear and his Friend think.
What do you think?
And how do you generally find listening to music at Concerts on the Square and other outdoor performances?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, biography, Capitol Square, Cello, Classical music, Compact Disc, concert hall, concerto, Concerts on the Square, etiquette, Gershwin, harmonica, indoors, Jacob Stockinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, movement, Mozart, Music, Musician, noise, opera, Orchestra, outdoors, Paganini, respect, Robert Bonfiglio, soloist, symphony, Tcherepnin, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: What are the best recordings by Arturo Toscanini and why did critics turn against him?
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By Jacob Stockinger
This past weekend, The Ear posted a story about the massive new biography of the legendary Italian maestro Arturo Toscanini (below).
In case you missed it, here is a link that will also take you to the terrific book review by Robert Gottlieb of the fascinating new biography by Harvey Sachs that appeared in The New York Times:
Turns out that The New Yorker magazine also featured two stories that relate to the new biography, which appears on the 150th anniversary of Toscanini’s birth.
The first story by David Denby focuses on the best recordings by Toscanini. They include the new and impressively re-mastered ones, and most can be found for FREE listening on YouTube.
Here is a link to that critique of the great Toscanini recordings that proved so influential in the history of classical music in the modern era.
It includes what famed Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine considers the most perfect orchestral recording ever made — which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom (be sure to read the comments):
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/toscaninis-greatest-recorded-performances
And here is a follow-up story by Denby about why critics turned against the famous and revered Italian conductor:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/10/the-toscanini-wars
Tags: Arts, Beethoven, biography, Cello, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, critic, David Denby, Harvey Sachs, Jacob Stockinger, James Levine, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Met, Metropolitan Opera, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Times, New Yorker, opera, Orchestra, perfect, recording, symphony, The New York Times, Toscanini, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Verdi, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: New biography explains the professional importance and personal quirks of famed maestro Arturo Toscanini
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By Jacob Stockinger
You know how sometimes a movie preview or trailer gives so much away of the story that it leaves you feeling you don’t really need to see the movie.
That’s how The Ear felt when he read a recent review in The New York Times of a new and exhaustive biography by Harvey Sachs of the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini (below).
Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867 – 1957) conducts the NBC Symphony Orchestra in a televised recording of Verdi‘s ‘Hymn of the Nations‘, 1944. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
This is the second time that Sachs has written about the maestro. This time, however, he had access to recently released private papers.
And boy, are there some surprises.
In his lengthy review, Robert Gottlieb gives The Ear just about all he wants to know or needs to know about the Italian master from his youth (below, ca. 1890) to old age — and then some. (In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear and see Toscanini conducting “The Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner in 1948.)
The Ear knew Toscanini was important. But he was never really quite sure why.
Now he knows.
Here is a link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/books/review/toscanini-biography-harvey-sachs.html
Read the review and see if you agree.
And tell us what you make of Toscanini the musician and Toscanini the man.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, Arturo Toscanini, Beethoven, biography, Book, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, critic, Franz Schubert, Getty Images, Harvey Sachs, hear, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, man, movie, Mozart, Music, Musician, NBC, New York Times, opera, Orchestra, personal, preview, professional, quirk, review, Ride of the Valkyries, see, story, symphony, The New York Times, Toscanini, trailer, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Verdi, video, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Tonight is that start of six weekly Concerts on the Square with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and guest artists under conductor Andrew Sewell. Here’s what you need to know
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By Jacob Stockinger
Tonight marks the first of this summer’s Concerts on the Square, performed by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) and guest artists under the baton of music director Andrew Sewell.
The FREE community event was first proposed by famed “American Girl” dolls creator, businesswoman and philanthropist Pleasant Rowland decades ago when she worked downtown and lamented how abandoned the Capitol Square got after dark. This is the 34th season of the popular Concerts on the Square. Each concert now draws tens of thousands of listeners.
The concerts will take place on the King Street corner of the Capitol Square. They run from 7 to 9 p.m. on six consecutive Wednesdays (rain dates are Thursdays). But of course people gather hours earlier to socialize and picnic.
Although pop,rock, folk and film music is often featured, tonight’s program is mostly classical – composers are Leonard Bernstein, Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Otto Nicolai — and performing will be this year’s winner of the WCO teenage concerto competition. She is violinist Emily Hauer (below) and she hails from Appleton, Wisconsin, where she has studied at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music.
Here is a link to all you need to know about tonight, from the programs and a performer’s detailed biography to vendor menus, the way to volunteer and the ground rules for concert etiquette:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/concerts-on-the-square-1-2/
You can see and hear a sampler of Concerts on the Square in the YouTube video at the bottom.
For future planning, here is a link to all six concerts with similar information:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performance-listing/category/concerts-on-the-square
Should you want to know more about WCO maestro Andrew Sewell (below), music director since 2000 — and who has also just been named the music director of the San Luis Obispo Symphony in California — here are some profiles and interviews that make for good reading while you wait for the music to start.
Here is an excellent profile done by Sandy Tabachnik in 2014 for Isthmus:
http://isthmus.com/music/andrew-sewell-the-malleable-maestro-of-the-wisconsin-chamber-orchestra/
And here is some background about the New Zealand-born Sewell, who became an American citizen 10 years ago, along with links to other news stories about his latest appointment:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/tag/sewell/
And from the “Only Strings” blog of Paul Baker, who hosts a show of the same name on WSUM 91.7 FM, the student-run radio station at the UW-Madison, here is an interview with ever-gracious Sewell:
https://onlystringswsum.wordpress.com/author/pbaker/page/3/
Tags: American, American Girl, American Girls, Andrew Sewell, Appleton, Arts, Baroque, Beethoven, Bernstein, biography, Business, California, Capitol Square, Cello, Chamber music, citizen, Classical music, Compact Disc, competititon, concerto, Concerts on the Square, creator, decade, dolls, etiquette, film, folk, ground rules, interview, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Lawrence University, Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Maestro, menu, Mozart, Music, Music director, New Zealand, news, Only Strings, opera, Orchestra, Otto Nicolai, Paul Baker, performer, philanthropy, philantropist, Piano, Pleasant Rowland, pop, pops, profile, program, Rock, San Luis Obispo Symphony, Student, symphony, teenage, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vendor, Viola, Violin, vocal music, volunteer, winner, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, woman, WSUM 91.7 FM, YouTube
Classical music: Here are the winners of the fifth annual Handel Aria Competition
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By Jacob Stockinger
This posting should have appeared earlier, but The Ear regrets that other news, reviews and previews preempted it and apologizes for the tardiness.
In any case, in case you haven’t already heard, the fifth annual Handel Aria Competition took place a week ago Friday night, and was well attended.
The seven finalists were chosen from an international field of 107 applicants. For the third year in a row, they were accompanied by harpsichordist Trevor Stephenson, who conducted the Madison Bach Musicians.
In five years, the competition has certainly blossomed into a respected global event, and it shows all the signs of continuing to grow. The Ear is unaware of other competitions devoted to the prolific vocal music of George Frideric Handel, who is so often overshadowed by his Baroque contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach.
First prize went to mezzo-soprano Nian Wang (below center in the photo by David Peterson) from Nanjing, China; second prize and audience favorite to tenor Gene Stenger (below left) from New Haven, Connecticut; and third prize to mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski (below right) from Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.
The competition judges for this year were Paul Rowe, Craig Trompeter and Alessandra Visconti.
You can’t yet find an audio video clip of Wang’s performances on YouTube. But contestants from previous years are there, and no doubt soon there will be a YouTube video of Wang singing.
Here are more photos of Nian Wang performing and receiving the first prize flanked by other contestants and the founders of the competition, Orange and Dean Schroeder:
For more information about the winners, identities and biographies of the seven finalists (below), and the competition itself – including previous years and winners — go to:
https://handelariacompetition.com
and
https://handelariacompetition.com/2017-handelariacompetition-finalists/
Tags: Alessandra Visconti, applicants, aria, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, biography, Cello, Chamber music, China, Classical music, Connecticut, Craig Trompeter, Early music, finalists, George Frideric Handel, Handel, Handel Aria Competition, harpsichord, identity, international, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, judge, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Mezzo-soprano, Minnesota, Music, Nanjing, news, Paul Rowe, photo, preview, prize, review, sing, Singing, song, tenor, Trevor Stephenson, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The fifth annual Handel Aria Competition is this Friday night – and the event has grown into a major event with broad cross-cultural appeal
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By Jacob Stockinger
In a short time, it has become one of the year’s MUST-HEAR local events for fans of Baroque music, fine singing, and the music of composer George Frideric Handel.
This Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the fifth annual Handel Aria Competition will take place.
Handel Aria Competition tickets are $15 for general admission, and will be available at the door.
For the third year, the Madison Bach Musicians, led by the keyboardist founder and artistic director Trevor Stephenson, will accompany the seven finalists who were selected from over 100 applicants from China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and 26 states including Hawaii.
Finalists in the 2017 Handel Aria Competition are pictured below (left to right): Gene Stenger, Clara Osowski, Nicole Heinen (who studied at the UW-Madison), Brian Giebler, Nian Wang, Andrew Rader and Johanna Bronk.
In addition to the professional judging for first, second and third prize, there will be a cash prize for Audience Favorite.
The Handel Aria Competition is an annual event held in Madison, Wisconsin to promote the performance of Handel’s extensive vocal repertoire.
Once connected to the Madison Early Music Festival in July, it has evolved into a separate event due to logistics and staffing.
Founders Dean and Orange Schroeder (below) are enthusiasts of George Frideric Handel’s music and lifelong supporters of the arts.
They write:
“In the spring of 2013, we started the Handel Aria Competition with no real experience, using only the Handel Singing Competition in London – the world’s only, at that time – as a model. We were inspired by the recent groundswell of interest in Handel’s operas and oratorios, most of which have been rarely performed for some 300 years!”
Since then, the competition has grown from 50 to 105 applicants and features orchestral accompaniment as well as large, enthusiastic and often partisan audiences.
You can follow the competition, with news and background stories on the Facebook page for the Handel Aria Competition at https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=handel%20aria%20competition
For more information, including extensive biographies of the finalists and the results of past competitions as well as advice about how to apply for the competition and how to support it, go to the website HandelAriaCompetition.com
Countertenor Eric Jurenas, winner of the 2016 competition, can be heard in the YouTube video below:
Tags: alto, aria, Arts, Baroque, biography, Canada, Cello, Chamber music, China, Classical music, Competition, countertenor, cross-cultural, Early music, Facebook, George Frideric Handel, Handel Aria Competition, Hawaii, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Early Music Festival, MEMF, Mexico, Mezzo-soprano, Music, opera, oratorio, Orchestra, Puerto Rico, soprano, state, tenor, Trevor Stephenson, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Next week, the Ancora String Quartet closes its 16th season with three concerts that contrast the German Romanticism of Beethoven and the French Impressionism of Saint-Saëns. This Saturday night, the Festival Choir of Madison sings about astrology and signs of the Zodiac
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ALERT: On this Saturday night, May 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society of Madison 900 University Bay Drive, the Festival Choir of Madison will perform a spring program of choral music linked to signs of the Zodiac and astrology, Sorry, no word on the specific program. Tickets are $15, $12 for seniors and $6 for students. For more information go to: http://festivalchoirmadison.org/concerts/a-musical-zodiac
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear received the following note to post from the Ancorans, who are among his favorite musicians:
You are invited to join the Ancora String Quartet (ASQ), below in a photo by Barry Lewis) for the closing concert program of our 16th season.
The performance takes place next Saturday night, May 13, at 7:30 p.m., at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below), 1833 regent Street. A champagne reception will follow.
French Impressionism and German Romanticism – Vive la difference! Whether you prefer Bordeaux or Riesling wine, you’ll enjoy our spring program.
On the program are the Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 153, by Camille Saint-Saëns (below top) and the Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major, Op. 127, by Ludwig van Beethoven (below bottom).
Saint-Saëns’ second quartet reveals the lyricism and witty invention that earned him the nickname “the French Mendelssohn.” (You can hear the quartet’s beautiful slow movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We follow this up with the first of Beethoven’s late quartets, written shortly after he finished his Ninth Symphony. From its wistfully dreamy first movement to the ethereally mysterious coda in the last, Beethoven charts a new course.
Tickets will be available at the door, and are for general seating. Ticket prices are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and students, and $6 for children under 12.
Other performances of this program will take place earlier.:
The first is on Monday, May 8, at 3 p.m. at the Stoughton Opera House (below) in Stoughton. Admission is a free-will donation.
The other performance is on Friday, May 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the MacDowell Music Club in Janesville. The concert is FREE and open to the public.
Members of the quartet (below, from left, in a photo by Barry Lewis) are Wes Luke and Robin Ryan, violins; Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola; and Benjamin Whitcomb, cello. They represent professional experience playing with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Madison Bach Musicians and many other groups plus teaching privately and in the University of Wisconsin System.
For more information, including individual biographies and concert schedules, go to:
Tags: Ancora Quartet, Ancora String Quartet, Arts, astrology, beautiful, beauty, Beethoven, biography, Bordeaux, Camille Saint-Saëns, Cello, Chamber music, champagne, Classical music, club, cod, Concert, dream, Episcopal, Episcopal Church, ethereal, Festival Choir of Madison, French, French Impressionism, Friday, German Romanticism, Impressionism, invention, Jacob Stockinger, Janesville, late quartet, Ludwig van Beethoven, lyricism, MacDowell, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn, Monday, movement, Music, music club, Musician, mysterious, mystery, nickname, night, Ninth Symphony, opera, opus, Opus number, program, reception, Riesling, Romanticism, Saint-Saës, Saint-Saens, Saturday, schedule, Season, slow, Slow movement, Spring, St. Andrew's, Stoughton, Stoughton Opera House, String quartet, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin System, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, Wine, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wit, YouTube, Zodiac
Classical music: Are the rules of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Bolz Young Artist Competition fair? Or do they need to be changed?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Everyone The Ear has spoken to agrees: The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s concerto competition that took place last Wednesday night — and which was broadcast live over Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) and Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) — was an extraordinary and inspiring artistic event.
All of those people had nothing but the highest praise for all four teenage finalists – (below, from left) violinist Julian Rhee, harpist Naomi Sutherland, pianist Michael Wu and violinist Yaoyao Chen — who performed under the baton of MSO music director John DeMain.
The Ear can only endorse the fantastic review of the event by local music critic Greg Hettmansberger:
https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com
And you can find out more about at the contestants at this past posting, which has links to biographies and biographical YouTube videos about them and also lists the REBROADCAST TIMES ON TODAY AND SUNDAY:
But several people The Ear knows also raised a difficult question that the MSO, WPR, WPT and seems to have avoided:
Is it fair that the impressively talented 16-year-old violinist Julian Rhee, from Brookfield, got to win the first prize for a second time?
Curiously, there was no mention of his previous win in 2015 – a younger Rhee is seen below — when he played the first movement of the Violin Concerto by Brahms. That win went unspoken during this year’s live broadcast, and even in the pre-event publicity or in the post-event publicity.
It almost seems as if the organizers recognized that pointing it out would sound funny, awkward or questionable.
Also, no mention was made that the gifted Rhee also won a competition with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and then played at Concerts on the Square; or that just a month ago, Rhee appeared on the regular season of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, playing the complete Brahms concerto under WCO music director Andrew Sewell.
Such experience probably qualified Rhee – a maturing prodigy — as a professional or at least a semi-professional, assuming he got paid for the WCO appearance, rather than an amateur.
Let’s be clear: This year, Rhee played the opening movement of the Violin Concerto by Tchaikovsky stupendously well. It is hard to argue with the decision of the three judges to award him first prize.
In short, Rhee did nothing wrong and everything right. His winning was not in any way tainted. He won fair and square. He played brilliantly, beautifully and engagingly.
What some people are questioning is not Rhee’s victory, but whether the rules themselves are unfair by allowing a previous first prize-winner to compete a second time. It certainly appears to put the other young competitors with less experience at a disadvantage.
Now, the rules do allow for a performer to win multiple first prizes. Historically, a couple of contestants have indeed won again, performing on different instruments for each appearance.
And no one seems to object that a second-, third- or fourth-prize winner gets a chance to try again to do better and win.
True, the eligibility rules do require that one year passes before a first-prize winner can compete again.
But the question seems to be: Are the rules fair? Or should they be modified, so that the playing field is more even for all the young participants?
Should first-prize winners be excluded from competing again?
That is the question that is being raised, however it is answered.
So The Ear and others want to know:
What do you think?
Are the rules fair or unfair?
Should first-prize winners be allowed to compete again?
Should the rules be changed or stay the same?
Leave your point of view in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Andrew Sewell, Arts, biography, Brahms, Classical music, concerto, critic, Final Forte, Greg Hettmansberger, harp, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, John DeMain, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Music director, Orchestra, Piano, Ravel, review, Saint-Saens, symphony, Tchaikovsky, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Violin, Violin concerto, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, WPR, WPT, YouTube
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