The Well-Tempered Ear
The Pro Arte Quartet plays the fourth installment of its FREE Beethoven string quartet cycle online TONIGHT at 7:30 CDT
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.
By Jacob Stockinger
The historic Pro Arte Quartet, in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, will perform the fourth installment of its FREE Beethoven string quartet cycle TONIGHT — Friday, Oct. 23 — at 7:30 p.m. CDT. (It should be posted for about a day, but will not be archived due to copyright considerations.)
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the live concert will take place online and will be live-streamed without an audience from the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the new Hamel Music Center.
You can stream it live from https://youtu.be/IhmNRNiI3RM
The whole series of concerts are part of the Pro Arte Quartet’s yearlong retrospective to celebrate the Beethoven Year. This December marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the composer (below).
Members of the Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) are: David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violins; Sally Chisholm, viola; and Parry Karp, cello.
A pre-concert lecture by UW-Madison musicology Professor Charles Dill (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) starts at 7:30 p.m. CDT.
The program consists of one early and one late quartet: the string Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18 No. 4 (1798-1800), and you can hear the first movement played by the Dover Quartet in the YouTube video at the bottom; and the String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 127 (1825).
The Pro Arte Quartet is one of the world’s most distinguished string quartets. Founded by conservatory students in Brussels in 1912, it became one of the most celebrated ensembles in Europe in the first half of the 20th century and was named Court Quartet to the Queen of Belgium.
Its world reputation blossomed in 1919 when the quartet (below, in 1928) began the first of many tours that enticed notable composers such as Bartok, Barber, Milhaud, Honegger, Martin and Casella to write new works for the ensemble.
The Pro Arte Quartet performs throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia and continues to champion both standard repertoire and new music.
Since being stranded in the U.S. when Belgium was invaded by Hitler and the Nazis in World War II, the group is an ensemble-in-residence at the Mead Witter School of Music and resident quartet of the Chazen Museum of Art.
The quartet, the longest active string quartet in the history of music, has performed at the White House and, during the centennial celebration, played for the King’s Counselor in Belgium.
Recent projects include the complete quartets of Bartok and Shostakovich and, in collaboration with the Orion and Emerson String Quartets, the complete quartets of Beethoven.
Regular chamber music collaborators that perform with Pro Arte include Samuel Rhodes and Nobuko Imai, viola; Bonnie Hampton, cello; and the late Leon Fleischer and Christopher Taylor, piano.
Together since 1995, the quartet has recorded works of Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Rhodes, Shapey, Sessions, Fennelly, Diesendruck, Lehrdahl and the centennial commissions.
For more information and background, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/pro-arte-quartet-beethoven-string-quartet-cycle-program-iv/
For more about the challenges and modifications – including wearing masks and social distancing — of doing the Beethoven cycle for the virtual online performances and about the other dates and programs in the cycle, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/09/29/classical-music-uw-madisons-pro-arte-quartet-to-resume-its-free-beethoven-cycle-virtual-and-online-this-friday-night-with-two-other-programs-this-semester/
Tags: #20thCentury, #AdolfHitler, #AlfredoCasella, #AntoninDvorak, #ArthurHonegger, #Artists-in-Residence, #BeethovenYear, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BonnieHampton, #BrusselsBelgium, #CentralDaylightTime, #ChamberMusic, #CharlesDill, #ChazenMuseumofArt, #ChristopherTaylor, #ClassicalMusician, #CommissionedMusic, #CompactDisc, #CompleteCycle, #ConcertProgram, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DariusMilhaud, #DavidPerry, #DoverQuartet, #EmersonStringQuartet, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FrankMartin, #FredLehrdahl, #GuestArtist, #HamelMusicCenter, #HistoricalContext, #HomeWebsite, #JacobStockinger, #JuilliardSchool, #JuilliardStringQuartet, #LeonFleisher, #LiveMusic, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicalStyle, #MusicProfessor, #Nazi-occupied, #NaziGermany, #NewMusic, #NobukoImai, #OnlineConcert, #OrionStringQuartet, #ParryKarp, #Pre-concertLecture, #ProArteQuartet, #RalphShapey, #RecordedMusic, #RogerSessions, #RoyalConservatory, #SallyChisholm, #SamuelBarber, #SamuelRhodes, #SocialDistancing, #StringQuartet, #SuzanneBeia, #TheEar, #TheU.S., #TheUSA, #TheUW, #TheWhiteHouse, #TokyoJapan, #UnitedStates, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VirtualConcert, #WhiteHouse, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WorldWarII, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, Alfredo Casella, anniversary, Antonín Dvořák, archive, Arthur Honegger, Arts, Asia, audience, background, Barber, Bartok, Béla Bartók, Beethoven, Beethoven Year, birth, blog, blossom, Bonnie Hampton, Brussels, Casella, CDs, CDT, celebrated, cellist, Cello, centennial, Central Daylight Time, challenges, Chamber music, Charles Dill, Chazen Museum of Art, China, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, classicalmusic, collaborator, commission, commissioned, Compact Disc, composer, Concert, conservatory, consideration, copyright, coronavirus, counselor, court, cycle, Darius Milhaud, date, David Perry, day, Diesendruck, distinguished, Dover Quartet, Dvorak, early, Emerson String Quartet, ensemble, Europe, exile, Facebook, Felix Mendelssohn, Fennelly, first, forward, founded, Frank Martin, Fred Lehrdahl, free, guest artist, Hamel Music Center, historic, Hitler, Honegger, information, invaded, invasion, Jacob Stockinger, Japan, Juilliard String Quartet, Julliard School, King, late, lecture, Lehrdahl, Leon Fleisher, like, link, live, live music, live-stream, live-streamed, livestream, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, mark, Martin, mask, masks, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, modification, movement, muisicians, Music, musical style, Musician, musicology, Nazi, New Music, Nobuko Imai, online, Orion String Quartet, pandemic, Parry Karp, Pianist, Piano, post, posting, Pro Ate Quartet, professor, program, queen, Ralph Shapey, record, recorded music, repertoire, repertory, reputation, residence, retrospective, Rhodes, Roger Sessions, Royal Conservatory, Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Sally Chisholm, Samuel Barber, Samuel Rhodes, series, Sessions, Shapey, share, social distancing, standard, stranded, String quartet, Suzanne Beia, tag, The Ear, The White House, Tokyo, tonight, tour, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US, USA, UW, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, violoncello, virtual, Website, White House, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, works, world, World War II, yearlong, YouTube
Classical music: This Friday night, Nov. 22, the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet begins its 14-month complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets. Here are programs and information about the six concerts
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.
By Jacob Stockinger
As you might have already heard, 2020 is a Beethoven Year. Musicians are already marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827, below).
One of the big local events – unfolding over the next 14 months — is that the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s acclaimed Pro Arte Quartet will perform a complete, six-concert cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets, which are considered to be a monumental milestone in chamber music and in the development of the genre.
They encompass the styles of Beethoven’s early, middle and late periods, and often served as an experimental laboratory for musical ideas he used on other works. Each of the Pro Arte’s programs wisely features works from different periods, which makes comparisons and differences easier to understand. (You can hear Beethoven biographer Jan Stafford discuss the late quartets in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more about Beethoven’s string quartets, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:String_quartets_by_Ludwig_van_Beethoven
A Beethoven cycle is also what originally brought the Pro Arte Quartet from Belgium — where it was founded by students at the Royal Conservatory in 1912 — to Madison, where they performed it at the Wisconsin Union Theater in 1940. In fact, they were in the process of performing the cycle when they heard that their homeland of Belgium has been invaded by Hitler and the Nazis, and they could not go home.
Stranded here by World War II, they were offered a chance to be artists-in-residence at the UW-Madison. They accepted — and the quartet has remained here since, becoming the longest performing quartet in music history.
For more about the history of the Pro Arte (below, in 1928), go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/pro-arte-quartet/
Current members of the Pro Arte Quartet (below from left, in a photo by Rick Langer) are: David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violins; Sally Chisholm, viola; and Parry Karp, cello.
PROGRAM I: Friday, Nov. 22, 8 p.m. in Collins Recital Hall
String Quartet in G Major, Op. 18, No. 2 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95 “Serioso” (1810)
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 130 (1825-6)
PROGRAM II: Friday, Feb. 28, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp” (1809)
String Quartet in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (1826)
PROGRAM III: Thursday, April 16 (NOT April 23, as was mistakenly listed in a press release), 7:30 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (1806)
String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 127 (1825)
PROGRAM IV: Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132 (1825)
PROGRAM V: Friday, Nov. 20, 2020, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6 (1798-1800)
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135 (1826)
String Quartet in C Major, Op. 59, No. 3 (1806)
PROGRAM VI: Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021, 8 p.m., Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1 (1806)
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 130 with the Great Fugue Finale, Op. 133 (1825)
Tags: #AdolfHitler, #Artists-in-Residence, #BeethovenYear, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrusselsBelgium, #ChamberMusic, #CollinsRecitalHall, #ConcertHall, #DavidPerry, #EarlyQuartet, #EarlyStyle, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #JanSwafford, #LateQuartet, #LateStyle, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddleQuartet, #MiddleStyle, #MusicSchool, #NaziGermany, #ParryKarp, #ProArteQuartet, #RoyalConservatory, #SallyChisholm, #SchoolofMusic, #StringQuartet, #SuzanneBeia, #TheEar, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #Wikipediaentry, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WorldWarII, anniversary, audience, Beethoven Year, Belgium, big, birth, blog, Brussels, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, chance, Collins Recital Hall, comparison, complete, concert hall, conservatory, current, cycle, David Perry, development, difference, discuss, early, early style, event, Facebook, fact, forward, genre, Germany, harp, History, Hitler, Home, homeland, idea, invasion, Jan Swafford, Laboratory, late, late style, like, link, local, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, middle, middle style, milestone, moumental, music history, music school, Musician, Nazi, opus, Opus number, Parry Karp, performer, post, posting, Pro Arte Quartet, Quartet, royal, Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Sally Chisholm, School of Music, share, stranded, String quartet, Student, Suzanne Beia, tag, The Ear, understand, University of Wisconsin–Madison, use, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, Wikipedia, Wild War II, Wisconsin Union Theater, wise
Classical music: Let us now praise afternoon concerts. The Ear looks forward to two this weekend – by the Perlman Piano Trio and the Pro Arte String Quartet. Plus, wind music and harpsichord music are featured this week at the First Unitarian Society of Madison
Leave a Comment
ALERTS: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in the Landmark Auditorium of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Meeting House of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, features the Mad Reeds Trio. The group’s members are: Laura Medisky, oboe; Bethany Schultz, clarinet; and Cindy Cameron-Fix, bassoon. They will perform music by Georges Auric, Alexander Tansman and Damian Montano.
Then on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., in the same venue, a recital by harpsichordist Mark Shuldiner. April 9, 7:30 p.m. will feature works by Jean-Henri D’Anglebert, Louis Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Bernardo Storace and Girolamo Frescobaldi.
It is a free concert, but donations will be accepted to benefit Madison Music Makers, which helps underserved children study music.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has always found the weekend afternoons are good times for concerts. One is usually both relaxed and attentive. And indeed, both the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and Edgewood College often schedule appealing concerts at an afternoon time.
They are not alone. As an aside, The Ear recalls that Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. was the preferred time for famed piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz, who felt that then both he and the audience were at their optimum.
Anyway, this weekend there are two FREE chamber music concerts that The Ear wants to draw your attention to.
SATURDAY
On Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, the Perlman Piano Trio (below) will perform its only concert of the season.
The program, all masterpieces, features the Piano Trio in E Major, K. 542, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44, by Robert Schumann; and the Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101, by Johannes Brahms.
The trio of scholarship winners, funded by retired chemist Dr. Kato Perlman, consists of Adam Dorn, violin (below left); SeungWha Baek, piano (below center); and Micah Cheng, cello. For the quintet, the trio will be joined by Keisuke Yamamoto on the violin and Luke Carmichael Valmadrid on the viola.
Here is a link with more information:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/the-perlman-piano-trio/
And here is more background from A Tempo, the music blog at the UW-Madison compiled and written by concert manager and publicity director Katherine Esposito:
“It’s my first piano trio,” says violinist Adam Dorn, a Minneapolis native. “It’s very high-caliber playing, very different from anything I’ve ever done. And being given a scholarship to do something that you love is amazing.”
The trio is coached by Martha Fischer, UW-Madison professor of collaborative piano, and Parry Karp, UW-Madison cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet.
A reception will follow the concert.
SUNDAY
Then on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) will give a FREE concert of some interesting rarities.
The program features UW-Madison guest soprano Elizabeth Hagedorn (below top), in a work by Ottorino Respighi plus another Respighi work, the Doric Quartet, and the String Quartet No. 3 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (below bottom), the Viennese-Czech Jewish composer and child prodigy who was exiled in Hollywood when he fled Hitler, the Nazis and World War II and who made his name and livelihood by composing popular film scores and compositions that won Oscar and Grammy awards.
You can hear the lovely slow movement of Korngold’s String Quartet No. 3 in the YouTube video at the bottom.
To The Ear, the Korngold work seems an especially fitting choice for the Pro Arte Quartet, which was founded in Brussels, Belgium, and itself was exiled in Wisconsin when Hitler invaded its homeland.
The quartet, which had come to play in the Wisconsin Union Theater the complete cycle of string quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven, was then offered a job as artists-in-residence at the UW-Madison — the first such appointment anywhere for a musical group — and it has remained here ever since. It is now more than 100 years old, making the Pro Arte Quartet the oldest string quartet in history.
Here is a link with more information:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/pro-arte-quartet-3/
Tags: Academy Award, Arts, Auric, Bassoon, Beethoven, Belgium, Brussels, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, D'Anglebert, Damian Montano, Doric, Early music, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frescobaldi, Grammy, harpsichord, Hitler, Hollywood, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Phillip Rameau, Johannes Brahms, Korngold, Louis Couperin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Music Makers, Mozart, Music, Nazi, Oboe, Oscar, Piano, Piano Trio, Piano Trio in D, Pro Arte Quartet, quintet, Respighi, Schumann, Storace, String quartet, Tansman, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Vladimir Horowitz, Wind, winds, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, World War II, YouTube
Classical music: Violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky performs Samuel Barber’s beautiful and popular Violin Concerto this Friday night with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, which also celebrates spring with works by Beethoven and other composers. Plus, University Opera’s production of “Transformations,’ which ends Tuesday night, gets a rave review from Isthmus
Leave a Comment
ALERT: University Opera’s production of “Transformations,” with dark and adult takes on fairy tales by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Anne Sexton and music by Conrad Susa, gets a rave review from critic Jay Rath writing for Isthmus. It calls the production breath-taking and an astonishing success. It also gives you tasty morsels of the show to whet your appetite. The last performance is this Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m in Music Hall. Here is a link:
http://isthmus.com/arts/stage/university-opera-transformations/
And here is a link to the A Tempo blog, with more information, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music:
https://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com
By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) will perform a captivating concert this Friday night at 8 p.m. in Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
As usual, longtime music director and conductor Andrew Sewell (below) has pulled together an arresting program of both well-known and rarely heard works.
Indeed, Sewell seems to have an endless knack for finding modern music that is not well-known but nonetheless appeals on first hearing.
Not that he neglects tried-and-true masterpieces.
Take the famous Violin Concerto by American composer Samuel Barber — most famous for his “Adagio for Strings” – which will feature the return of the young European prize-winning soloist Alexander Sitkovetsky (below).
The Ear always finds the work by Barber (below) absolutely riveting. It takes all of about 10 seconds before you realize you are hearing a beautiful masterpiece that will endure. And then it just gets better. (You can hear the slow second movement — performed by James Ehnes who has played with the Madison Symphony Orchestra — in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert opens with a work by Irish composer, Joan Trimble (below), specifically her ethereal Suite for Strings from 1955.
That work proves a perfect complement to the popular Pastorale by Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson (below).
The Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, by Ludwig van Beethoven (below) is like his Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” in that it celebrates the joy, fullness and robust qualities of life. The slow movement has an other-worldly beauty. With its driving finale, the symphony packs a punch.
Yet wedged in between the three of Beethoven’s most famous symphonies – Nos. 3 “Eroica,” 5 and 6 “Pastoral” – the Symphony No. 4 often gets overlooked. Sewell’s mastery of the Classical style should bring it to life in a memorable performance.
Tickets are $15-$80 with student rush tickets for $10, available on the day of the performance. For tickets, call the Overture Center box office at 608 258-4141 or visit www.wcoconcerts.org
ABOUT ALEXANDER SITKOVETSKY
Alexander Sitkovetsky, 32, was born in Moscow into a family with an established musical tradition and made his concerto debut at the age of eight. That same year he went to study at the Menuhin School in England.
Lord Yehudi Menuhin (below) was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions, including the Double Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach and Duos for Two Violins by Bela Bartok at the St. James Palace, and he played the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn under Menuhin’s baton.
Since then, Sitkovetsky has gone on to perform with the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Brussels Philharmonic, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, Malmo Symphony Orchestra, Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony, Welsh National Opera and the BBC Concert Orchestra among many others.
This season, Alexander Sitkovetsky will make his debut in Brussels, Poznan, Santa Cruz in Bolivia and St. Petersburg and will go on two nationwide tours of the UK with the Brussels Philharmonic and St. Petersburg Symphony. He will also tour Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Sitkovetsky will return to the Kuhmo and Cheltenham Festivals and make debuts at the Verbier and Lockenhaus Festivals
Sitkovetsky, an avid chamber musician, has recorded for Angel/EMI, Decca, Orfeo, Onyx, BIS and Avanti Classics including the Bach Double Concerto with Julia Fischer.
Tags: Anne Sexton, Arts, Australia, Bach, Baroque, Bartok, BBC, Beethoven, Berlin, blog, Bolivia, Brussels, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, concerto, Conrad Susa, England, fairy tale, Jacob Stockinger, Joan Trimble, Lars-Erik Larsson, London, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn, Music, Music director, Netherlands, Orchestra, Overture Center, pastoral, Pastorale, poem, Poetry, Pulitzer Prize, Russia, Santa Cruz, St. Petersburg, Stuttgart, Sweden, Transformations, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University Opera, Viola, Violin, Wales, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin, YouTube
Classical music: The University of Wisconsin Pro Arte Quartet in Belgium — Day 6: The quartet plays its final concert -– a midday concert in an old converted farm barn on a new campus in an old country. A reception and dinner follow. Then the quartet splits up, one member traveling on and the others departing for back home and braving U.S. customs.
4 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Editor’s note: The Well-Tempered Ear has asked people on tour with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) to file whatever dispatches. updates and photos are possible — from iPads, computers, cameras and smart phones — so that they can to keep the fans back here at home current with what is happening on the concert stage and off.
By now it has become apparent that the Pro Arte Quartet’s week-long tour of Belgium is as big an event to the Belgians and to local residents there as it is to Madisonians, Wisconsinites and alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
All week long, Sarah Schaffer, who manages the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte String Quartet, sent text and photo essays.
Current members are violinists David Perry and Suzanne Beia; violist Sally Chisholm; and cellist Parry Karp.
Today’s Part 6 covers the final concert and events at the Belgian campus of Louvain-La-Neuve (LLN) and the return to the U.S.
Once again, ones sees that a concert tour keeps a frenetic pace loaded with hard work. A concert tour is no vacation!
If you want background or need to catch up, here links:
To Day 1:
To Day 2:
To Day 3:
To Day 4, Part 1:
To Day 4, Part 2:
To Day 5:
DAY 6: Sarah Schaffer (below) writes about the Last Day:
Disembarking the train from Bruxelles Centrale we were once again greeted by paparazzi on the platform — the inveterate translator Alain Boucart (below right holding camera, with tour organizer Anne van Malderen on the left) is always on hand, camera at the ready!
The university at Louvain-la-Neuve or LLN (below) was created from scratch, out of nothing, in 1976, a consequence of the language/culture split, Flemish-Walloon, in 1968.
The Dutch campus of this Catholic college remains in Louven, the new French campus here in Louvain. There are about 15,000 students, and a town of about 40,000 has grown up around it, all brand new, hence “neuve,” and something of a dissonance where everything else “belgique” has been “tres ancien.”
The campus was built literally out in the fields around the remains of four abandoned farms, at last explaining the curious name of the concert hall: La Ferme du Biereau.
It’s an old grange or barn, beautiful old timbers exposed in the renovation that transformed it into a concert hall with a surprisingly attractive acoustic; warm and forthcoming; invitingly beautiful and comfortable as well.
One of the students in audio engineering, Thomas Vanelstlande (below, with his assistant Marine Haitt), will be recording the concert as his final exam for the reception. The recording set-up is below bottom.
The concert is one on the afternoon series sponsored by LLN , under the guidance of Guillaume Wunsch. Programs are offered every couple of weeks.
Again, the capacity audience brought an impressive attentiveness and concentration to Belgian composer Benoit Mernier’s new work, String Quartet No. 3, which was commissioned by the Pro Arte Quartet for its historic centennial and which asks a lot on a first hearing.
It is such a pleasure to be in the company of such intentional engagement. We’d thought the famous Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber a strange closer, coming after the Mernier, but it turns out to be in fact a rather appropriate coda.
Happy for a chance to meet Benoit’s wife Helene (below with her husband beside her and his father in the background). She reminds us she’s heard the piece once already, when it was streamed live from Wisconsin Public Radio on its “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” broadcast on March 2, at its Madison world premiere, and we once again mourn the loss — announced two weeks ago — of that distinguished statewide concert series.
We were alerted that a reception would follow the concert, and assumed the champagne in the lobby was it, appropriate for 2:30 in the afternoon.
What we were UN-prepared for was the formal lunch, for us and about 20 guests, that ensued. It was a beautiful buffet, quite elaborate, with very nice wines. Many interesting conversations, many new friends, many promises to follow up and stay in touch.
And after THIS, we are ferried to Waterloo in cars, for a more private supper with Alain and Anne and the Prevost brothers (below, Michael Arthur on the left, Jean Marie on the right). Helene and Benoit Mernier, still not feeling well, and in fact now feverish, have to decline. It is, in all, a very sweet closing to our time in Belgium.
Many toasts and congratulations, but most thanks and special tribute to Anne, who put together this special week. “I em veery ‘appy!” she tells me quietly.
Alain has purchased our train tickets, and Michel Arthur Prevost accompanies us to Brussels Centrale. He has ambitious ideas for a return trip.
A CODA
It is over.
Parry went on to the UK for a couple of weeks of concerts. “Having a wonderful time in England,” he emails.
The rest of us parted company at the Brussels airport — three quartet members on United Airlines to Chicago, John and I went through Amsterdam.
BUT — and this is the coda to the dispatches:
Sally exited Belgium and returned to the US without incident.
The “fish” lady (the agent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that enforces the CITES law about protecting endangered species) was waiting for her at O’Hare, whisked her through in 4 minutes, and even got her a shortcut through the lines and out to Van Galder. (She’d made appointment the required 48 hours ahead).
Below are her instrument “passport,” her CITES documentation. It is readily accepted this time, unlike on our arrival in Belgium.
All goes smoothly.
Sally is so relieved.
I’ll see Sally today — we’re writing up the experience to be ready for an article and other inquiries — and will learn if she’s heard about Parry’s England entry. I’m guessing she has info. I guessing he was fine, with the “EU” stamp received in Belgium.
Thanks for keeping up with us while we zoomed around Belgium. It was extraordinary to be there with these musicians, and to feel the gravitas and all the promise of the incredible legacy they continue to carry on.
Tags: Amsterdam, Arte, Arts, Belgian, Belgium, Benoit Mernier, Brussels, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago, CITES, Classical music, David Perry, IPad, Jacob Stockinger, Louvain-La-Neuve, Madison, Mozart, Music, O'Hare airport, Pro Arte Quartet, U.S., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, UK, United Airlines, United Kingdom, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin
Classical music: The UW Pro Arte Quartet in Belgium -– Day 5. The Belgian premiere of a Belgian composition at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels draws a big enough crowd to run out of programs and bring three curtain calls. A visit to the Royal Conservatory Library reveals the notebooks of Mozart’s wife Constanza and takes the quartet back to its roots for a performance. Plus, the Pro Arte gets recorded by Belgian TV and radio.
3 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Editor’s note: The Well-Tempered Ear has asked people on tour with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) to file whatever dispatches. updates and photos are possible — from iPads, computers, cameras and smart phones — so that they can to keep the fans back here at home current with what is happening on the concert stage and off.
By now it has become apparent that the Pro Arte Quartet’s tour of Belgium is as big an event to the Belgians and to local residents there as it has been to Madisonians, Wisconsinites and alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
Just before taking a day’s rest, Sarah Schaffer (below), who manages the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte String Quartet, sent this text and this photo essay. They cover the return to Brussels from Dolhain Limbourg, the hometown of founding violinist Alphonse Onnou. Then the members of the quartet visited the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels where they toured the archives and library and also performed, including a rehearsal that was recorded for the national radio network.
Current members are violinists David Perry and Suzanne Beia; violist Sally Chisholm; and cellist Parry Karp.
Today’s Part 5 covers the extensive events at the Royal Conservatory of Music, where the frenetic pace just kept gathering speed. A concert tour is hard work, no glamorous vacation!
If you want background or need to catch up, here are links:
To Day 1:
To Day 2:
To Day 3:
To Day 4, Part 1:
To Day 4, Part 2:
Sarah Schaffer writes:
Today brought the Belgian premiere of Belgian composer Benoît Mernier’s Quartet No. 3, commissioned by Pro Arte Quartet for its centennial, a special commission harking back to its Belgian origins, in the very hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music where the founding quartet played countless times, both as students and after.
Engineers from musiq3, the French-speaking Belgian national radio, set up equipment and record the concert rehearsal for later broadcast. TV and newspapers have also covered the quartet.
It was so perfectly appropriate, and so very moving: this hall, this city, this composer, this work, this audience of mainly students, all at the ages now that the original Pro Arte Quartet members (below) Onnou, Halleux, Prevost and Maas would have been back then.
There were so many concert attendees that the printed programs (below) ran out.
The short program included — after remarks from Anne van Malderen (below top) on the history of the quartet and an introduction of his work, with examples played by PAQ, by Messieur Mernier (below bottom): Mernier’s Third Quartet, the Adagio and Fugue, K. 546, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, American composer Randall Thompson‘s “Wind in the Willows” and the famous Adagio for Strings from the String Quartet No. 1 by American composer Samuel Barber.
Applause called the PAQ back to the stage three times.
Our visit to the Conservatoire began earlier in the day with a tour by librarian Olivia Wahnon (below).
This distinguished archival collection contains the most manuscript holdings among all Belgian libraries, and she had prepared for our benefit some beautiful displays of rare materials.
Some of what we saw was related to the Pro Arte and string quartets. There were many manuscript scores and parts, particularly from the collection of second violinist Laurent Halleaux, and many concert programs.
But not everything was about PAQ! We see a Medieval handbook manuscript of chant:
We also had a glimpse of Constanze Mozart’s diary (below, in a photo by Sally Chisholm, you can see it is multilingual, and contains many beautiful drawings and paintings), a page of manuscript by Franz Liszt, and the teensiest, tiniest bound volume of Medieval manuscripts. Such treasures! Constanza wrote about her husband Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Husband genius. Still poor.”
For us, the division of the institution into two nationalities—Flemish and Walloon—seems somewhat incomprehensible and impossible to manage and navigate. Yet it is so much the history and culture of the whole country, especially evident after yesterday’s elections, it is simply taken in stride.
Although the whole infrastructure (below are photos of the conservatory’s exterior) is in a state of dilapidation—built in the mid-19th century, with a major renovation planned beginning in 2015 — it was in its way more touching and meaningful to see it now, while we can more easily imagine how it looked and felt when the first Quatuor Pro Arte (QPA) inhabited its halls and spaces a century ago.
Composer Benoit Mernier (below top, applauding the Pro Arte Quartet, and below bottom) reports he is well pleased with the progress that he hears in the playing of his piece, from its world premiere March 1 in Madison to now, just 2-1/2 months later. He hears the players inhabiting the work more: details are more precise; at the same time they bring more fluidity; and the overall arc and shape are now more convincingly presented.
One more chance to improve even more at the final concert tomorrow at the university in Louvain-la-Neuve.
Tomorrow: Our last day and final concert, at Louvain-la-Neuve. The week has sped by.
Tags: archives, Arte, Arts, Belgian, Belgium, Benoit Mernier, Brussels, Cello, Chamber music, chant, Classical music, Constanza Mozart, David Perry, IPad, Jacob Stockinger, library, Louvin-la-Neuve, Madison, manuscripts, Medieval, Mozart, Music, Pro Arte Quartet, Radio, Randall Thompson, royal, Royal Conservatory, Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Royal Conservatory of Music, Royal Library, String quartet, Television, TV, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Classical music: The Pro Arte Quartet in Belgium –- Day 4, Part 2. The quartet performs in the town of Dolhain-Limbourg.
9 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Editor’s note: The Well-Tempered Ear has asked people on tour with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) to file whatever dispatches. updates and photos are possible — from iPads, computers, cameras and smart phones — so that they can to keep the fans back here at home current with what is happening on the concert stage and off.
By now it has become apparent that the Pro Arte Quartet’s tour of Belgium is as big an event to the Belgians and to local residents there as it is to Madisonians, Wisconsinites and alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Just before taking a day’s rest, Sarah Schaffer, who manages the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte String Quartet, sent this text and this photo essay. They cover the trip from Brussels to Dolhain Limbourg, the hometown of founding violinist Alphonse Onnou, and the official greetings and events that awaited the quartet. (Current members are violinists David Perry and Suzanne Beia; violist Sally Chisholm; and cellist Parry Karp.)
Today’s Part 2 covers the concert at Dolhain-Limbourg.
Here are links to Day 1:
To Day 2:
To Day 3:
And to Day 4, Part 1:
Schaffer’s latest installment once again shows the hard work of undertaking such a concert tour, which involves a lot more than playing and performing music. In this case, it also involves being cultural ambassadors.
After such an already full day, there is still the evening concert!
By evening the Kursaal (below) has warmed up and is now much more welcoming.
We learn, as we wait through the sound check/rehearsal that the local television crew is on hand! They hope to interview a quartet member, but are so busy down the street at the Onnou house that they barely make it in time to film the concert.
Anne van Malderen opens the evening with a touching tribute to Onnou, and them outlines the concert program because there are, surprisingly, no printed versions on hand this evening:
Franz Joseph Haydn: Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, N. 4
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Adagio & Fugue, K. 546
Alexander Glazunov: Five Novelettes
Intermission
Igor Stravinsky: Elegy for Solo Viola
Cesar Franck: Quartet
It’s hard to imagine a program more strongly evocative of the original Quatuor Pro Arte (below, in 1928)!
Haydn represents their recorded legacy. Mozart is included because, well, it’s Mozart. The Glazunov was one of original violinist Alphonse Onnou’s favorite pieces, here in Onnou’s hometown, in the Kursaal, which he likely performed in himself.
The Stravinsky Elegy for Solo Viola (below, Sally Chisholm playing the Stravinsky Elegy at the Wisconsin Union Theater in 2012) was commissioned by founding violist Germaine Prevost as a memorial to Onnou, who died in Madison just months after the quartet was stranded there, before ever playing a first concert with the newly artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
And of course the tour-de-force quartet by Cesar Franck (below) is by one of Belgium’s most celebrated composers.
It’s very touching, this entire program, this small town.
And such an audience — rapt, attentive, knowledgeable, appreciative with the applause long and sustained, much whistling, many “bravos!” shouted out. An incredibly warm reception.
Those of us who have been with David and Suzanne and Sally and Parry this whole long day, coming after the past few days so full and dramatic, can hardly believe the intensity and concentration they’ve brought to this performance.
Once again, we hear a ravishing performance by this amazing quartet. (below, playing the same Haydn String Quartet at the concert on March 2, 2012.)
Sunday is Election Day in Belgium -– and will bring a well-deserved day off for everyone.
Then on Monday, we go to the Conservatoire Royale, where the Quatuor Pro Arte originated — just students who, like music students everywhere, formed a pick-up group.
Sometimes they last a semester or two, sometimes they make a real go of it during and beyond school, and in one extraordinary case they made it to . . . 100! (Below is the Pro Arte Quartet in 1940.)
AN INTERMEZZO AND A PRELUDE
Pro Arte Quartet violist Sally Chisholm (below) writes of her latest adventure that occurred when there group arrived back in Brussels. It has no pictures but, trust me, it is well worth the read:
“Last night a few steps from our hotel, in the center of the square, or rather Place, is the area normally occupied by touring jazz/rock groups during the multi-week jazz festival here in Brussels.
It was 8:30 p.m., and I was strolling for the last time of the day.
Mozart. “Eine Kleine Nacht Musik.” (The familiar opening movement is at the bottom in a popular YouTube video that has over 8 million hits.)
Hmm … and there they were: 3 young musicians, 2 violinists and a cellist, playing beautifully in front of a rapt audience of locals and tourists from many countries.
The open violin case was filling up with euros as listeners quickly tiptoed up to lay in their offering, then tiptoe away all smiles.
One violinist saw me, and the “fiddlers rose” (that red discoloration that comes from years of gripping the instrument) on my neck, immediately elbowing her partner.
When they finished, and started packing up, I went over to congratulate them.
You play?
Yes, I said. Alto.
(That’s French for the viola.)
Are you students here?
Yes, at the Conservatoire.
Oh, I will be there tomorrow!
Pro Arte, Pro Arte! Yes, we are coming to hear you!
So I will see my new friends again tomorrow.
Mozart is very alive here in Brussels, with beautifully trained young musicians representing him well to an enthusiastic and grateful audience.
Tags: Alexander Glazunov, alto, Arte, Arts, Belgium, Brussels, buskers, busking, Cello, Cesar Franck, Chamber music, Classical music, conservatory, David Perry, Dolhain Limbourg, Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, Franck, Franz Joseph Haydn, Glazunov, Haydn, Igor Stravinsky, IPad, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Mozart, Pro Arte Quartet, Stravinsky, TV, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Day 4 — the UW Pro Arte Quartet goes to Dolhain-Limbourg, Part 1 of 2: Prelude to the concert. Here is a photo essay of the Pro Arte Quartet’s day-long homage stop at the Belgian hometown of the group’s founding violinist Alphonse Onnou.
9 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Editor’s note: The Well-Tempered Ear has asked people on tour with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) to file whatever dispatches. updates and photos are possible — from iPads, computers, cameras and smart phones — so that they can to keep the fans back here at home current with what is happening on the concert stage and off.
By now it has become apparent that the Pro Arte Quartet’s tour of Belgium is as big an event to the Belgians and to local residents there as it is to Madisonians, Wisconsinites and alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Just before taking a day’s rest, Sarah Schaffer, who manages the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pro Arte String Quartet, sent this text and this photo essay. They cover the trip from Brussels to Dolhain Limbourg, the hometown of founding violinist Alphonse Onnou, and the official greetings and events that awaited the quartet. (Current members are violinists David Perry and Suzanne Beia; violist Sally Chisholm; and cellist Parry Karp.) Part 2 will cover the concert at Dolhain-Limbourg.
Here are links to Day 1:
To Day 2:
And to Day 3:
Schaffer’s latest installment also shows the hard work of undertaking such a concert tour, which involves a lot more than playing and performing music. In this case, it also involves being cultural ambassadors.
SATURDAY, MAY 24
We have to catch to train to Verviers to get to Dolhain Limbourg, the hometown of the quartet’s original founding violinist Alphonse Onnou. (Below, from left, are Parry Karp, John Schaffer, Sally Chisholm and David Perry. Below, hometown fans Linda and Bob Graebner of Madison come along.)
So the day began with a peaceful, dozy train trip through verdant farm country southwest out of Brussels, gradually giving way to steep lush hillsides crisscrossed by many streams.
Trains passed more and more frequently, passing through the long tunnels the closer we got to Verviers, where we were advised not to take the connection to Dolhain but were instead met by a large and eager delegation, jabbering excitedly in, to us, yet another dialect of specifically Belgian French.
As we find out, the town is charming and the residents go out of their way to host and honor the quartet, which they clearly welcome with open arms.
They divvied us up into waiting cars and off we sped the 10K or so to Dolhain, birthplace of the quartet’s founding violinist Alphonse Onnou. Our hosts, it turned out, were all members of a local historical society club and were very excited about our visit.
First stop: Le Kursaal, the concert hall, which on initial glimpse appeared somewhat disheartening and unpromising. Much negotiating over the placement — high stage off flat floor, or on the floor, and lighting. A poster announces our appearance.
No notes were tried. We hoped on this cool damp day that it might be warmer when we returned, and that lighting and seating questions would be solved then.
Next stop: Old Dolhain Limbourg (not the cheese!), the ancient town with castle and military lookouts on top of the hill. Very charming!
Here we were joined by more club members and treated to a “typical” lunch at the cafe. About 18 of us in all by now. (From left are Sally Chisholm, Parry Karp, Linda Graebner, David Perry and Suzanne Beia.)
We take part in a municipal ceremony at 4 p.m.
Genealogical charts of the Onnou family were shared, as well as a thick sheaf of papers describing — mostly in French, a few things translated to English — the historical sites of the village, which we experienced in person on the guided walking your after the meal.
The Mayor of Dolhain Limbourg is the woman on the left dressed in white. The interpreter-translator Alain Boucart is in red. The bald head belongs to the head of the Historical Society of Dolhain Limbourg. Then comes the head of the Alphonse Onnou celebration and exhibit, with tour organizer and quartet documentarian Anne van Malderen dressed in the turquoise sleeveless top and wearing eyeglasses.
Elections being on everyone’s minds — political posters everywhere, no concerts scheduled for Sunday because of elections in Belgium, the same reason the royals are sequestered — perhaps this explains Bob Graebner’s enthusiastic comment on meeting the Mayor of Dolhain: “I’d vote for her!”
Many speeches followed: the mayor, president of the historical society, and Onnou and Quatuor Pro Arte expert Anne Von Malderen (below left), all presented in French and then in translation (for our sakes) by an increasingly fatigued interpretor Alain Boucart (below right), who gave briefer and briefer summaries as the proceedings wore on, finally promising a written translation by email after the event.
At the reception that followed we were treated to excellent performances by the municipal band, made all the more enjoyable accompanied by chocolates and local cognac! (Below top and, below bottom in photo by Sally Chisholm of the band’s youngest member.) They sounded terrific and in our honor played “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
And after another glass of wine, the grandniece of Alphonse Onnou autographed the first violin part of the score to composer Alexander Glazunov’s “Five Novelettes,” a favorite of Onnou that the quartet is to perform there, for violinist David Perry.
Tags: Alexander Glazunov, Alphonse Onnou, Arte, Arts, band, Belgium, Brussels, Cello, Cesar Franck, Chamber music, Classical music, Concert, David Perry, Dolhain Limbourg, Franck, Glazunov, IPad, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Music, Pro Arte Quartet, Sally Chisholm, train, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Verviers, Viola, Violin
Classical music: On Day 3 in Belgium, the University of Wisconsin Pro Arte Quartet plays at the Royal Library, gives a gift to King Philippe and keeps performing a lot of hard and varied music.
12 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Editor’s note: The Well-Tempered Ear has asked people on the one-week tour of Belgium by the UW Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) to file whatever dispatches and photos they can to keep the fans at home current with what is happening on the concert stage and off.
Thanks goodness for iPads, iPhones, Androids and other smart phones, computers and digital cameras!
Here is a link to the first installment:
And here is the second installment:
After troubles at customs and catching up from jet lag, the Pro Arte Quartet got down to the business of rehearsing and performing.
The quartet members -– violinists David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violist Sally Chisholm, cellist Parry Karp and manager Sarah Schaffer — and their entourage of “groupies” also spent time meeting and greeting the descendants of the original quartet members who started the ensemble over a century ago at the Royal Belgian Conservatory of Music in Brussels before World War II stranded them in Madison.
That’s when they became artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of music, where they have remained ever since.
Here are some updates on Day 3:
Read on:
Sarah Schaffer (below), who also took the photos, writes:
Day 3 — FRIDAY:
The “coats and cases” space was the room that houses the Bela Bartok archives at the Royal Library!
Here is the exterior with its name in the two official languages of Belgium: Flemish and French.
The Bartok Room (below) has many rare and unique items – letters, photos, etc. It all rather takes one’s breath away. We each received a copy of a recent publication by the collection’s archivist, Denijs Dille.
FYI, the fifth person, on the right in the photo (below) taken after the bows that followed the concert on the Arthur De Greef Auditorium — named for the early 20th-century Belgian composer — is Hubert Roisin, Counselor to the King.
Mr. Roisin (below, in a close-up by violist Sally Chisholm) seemed very honored to be in attendance. We were certainly honored by his presence at the concert.
Here are the gifts we gave Monsieur Roisin for King Philippe: A framed photo (below top) of the original members and the current members of the Pro Arte Quartet plus an honorary letter (below bottom) from University of Wisconsin-Madison Rebecca M. Blank.
PAQ played to a mostly full house and was very warmly received. Many accolades filled the air at the private reception afterwards.
Afterwards, I pressed the willing-but-exhausted quartet into a “photo shoot” taking advantage of the spectacular architecture and gardens surrounding the library.
Then they all went off to rest.
It has been a very strenuous few days, and tomorrow is especially long, beginning with an 11 a.m. train trip to original quartet member Alphonse Onnou’s town of Dolhain, arriving in time for a 1 p.m. lunch. (Below is a photo of the Pro Arte Quartet in 1928. Alphonse Onnou is on the far left.)
Then it gets jam-packed with a full day of commemorations — including the municipal band offering “American” tunes in our honor — all BEFORE the 8 p.m. concert.
We will all be very glad to have Sunday “off.”
Not only is the SCHEDULE strenuous, but so also is the REPERTOIRE — with very few repeats over all these concerts.
The norm on tour is to recycle a handful of pieces.
Not so the Pro Arte Quartet, not on this trip.
They are holding up well but are, understandably, fatigués. (Below is the dual-language program notes from the concert of music by Bela Bartok and Franz Joseph Haydn — two composers the early Pro Arte Quartet was celebrated for and identified with — at the Royal Library.)
More soon.
Tags: Android, Arte, Arthur De Greef, Arts, Béla Bartók, Belgium, Brussels, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, computer, digital camera, Dolhain, Flemish, Franz Joseph Haydn, French, IPad, iPhone, Jacob Stockinger, King, Madison, Music, Pro Arte Quartet, Rebecca M. Blank, royal, Royal Library, smart phone, String quartet, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, World War II
Classical music: On Day 2 in Belgium, the University of Wisconsin Pro Arte Quartet is offered rehearsal time in a bar; meets descendants of the original members of the quartet; and performs its first concert to applause, appreciation and acclaim.
11 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Editor’s note: The Well-Tempered Ear has asked people and participants on the one-week tour in Belgium with the UW Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) to file whatever dispatches and photos they can to keep the fans at home current with what is happening on the concert stage and off.
Thanks goodness for iPads, iPhones and other smart phones, computers and digital cameras!
Here is a link to the dramatic first installment:
And here, below, is the second installment:
After troubles at customs and catching up from jet lag, the Pro Arte Quartet got down to the business of eating and sleeping, rehearsing and performing, of meeting its public and catching up with its history.
The quartet members and their entourage of groupies -– the quartet consists of violinists David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violist Sally Chisholm, cellist Parry Karp plus manager Sarah Schaffer — spent time meeting and greeting the descendants of the original quartet members who started the ensemble over a century ago at the Royal Belgian Conservatory of Music in Brussels before it became a Court quartet and then World War II stranded the quartet in Madison.
That’s when, in 1941, the quartet became artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, where they have remained ever since.
Here are some updates on Day 2 of the Belgium tour:
Read on:
Sarah Schaffer writes:
Day 2 — Thursday:
Much calmer!
Today’s “crisis” is small compared to yesterday’s:
The quartet needed a place to rehearse.
We’d assumed, incorrectly it turned out, that the hotel would have something like a meeting room that might be used.
No luck.
They offered instead the BAR! It is not open mornings.
And that is where Michel Arthur Prevost (below left in my photo), the grandnephew of founding violist Germaine Prevost and the impresario of the opening concert at Flagey Hall, first encountered the quartet when he unexpectedly arrived at the hotel this morning. On the right is his brother Jean Marie Prevost.
Acoustics at Flagey were fantastic, as they quartet found out when rehearsing.
The opening concert was much enjoyed by a small but extremely appreciative audience.
Tomorrow we meet King Philippe’s counselor, Herbert Roisin, and offer him our gift of the photos of the old and current quartet members and a letter from our new University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank that we carried with us to Belgium.
Plus, the Pro Arte Quartet has received media attention, the local newspaper running a story (below) in French under a headline in English:
Adds violist Sally Chisholm, who always has an eye for the feature and the fun:
What a fine way to travel!
Here is a very professional taxi driver taking us to Flagey Hall.
Much acceleration, good humor and the local title of Place des Morts (Square of the Dead) for the number of pedestrians crossing the street.
We are now in Studio 1, safe and greeting the grandnephews of Germain Prevost and many Pro Arte friends.
Here is the grandson of cellist Robert Maas, speaking with Anne Van Malderen who is writing a documentary history of the Pro Arte. He speaks no English, but is very easy to understand!
And here is the great-granddaughter of Robert Maas:
What a wonderful hall and appreciative audience.
Here is the stage before I played the Elegy for solo viola that was composed by Igor Stravinsky for one Pro Arte member and dedicated to the passing of another, Germaine Prevost. I performed it after remarks, in French, by Dr. Prevost, grand-nephew of Germain Prevost.
And here is the brief review by Dr. Robert Graebner, a UW-Madison alumnus and retired Madison neurologist who, with his wife Linda Graebner, is following the Pro Arte on its one-week tour and who commissioned for the quartet’s centennial the String Quartet No. 6 by American composer John Harbison — who teaches at MIT and co-directs the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival near Madison each August, and who has won both the Pulitzer Prize and a coveted MacArthur “genius” grant:
We just returned from a private concert at the historic Art Deco Flagey Studio 1. (Below is a photo of the concert posters taken by Sarah Schaffer.)
The Pro Arte was in top form, and attendees included two relatives of Germaine Prevost and two relatives of Robert Maas.
Tomorrow brings a concert at the Royal Library.
So stayed tuned as the Pro Arte performs again (below is the printed program from Sarah Schaffer) and meets The Royals – or at least their reps.
Tags: Arte, Arts, Belgium, Brussels, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, computer, digital camera, Igor Stravinsky, IPad, iPhone, Jacob Stockinger, John Harbison, King, MacArthur Fellow, Madison, MIT, Music, Pro Arte Quartet, Pulitzer Prize, Rebecca Blank, royal, smart phone, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, World War II
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 