The Well-Tempered Ear
As the semester ends, virtual concerts allow UW students to reach many more family members, friends and listeners. Here is how the public can connect to them
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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
Starting tonight and over the next two weeks, as the spring semester at the UW-Madison comes to a close, there will be more than two dozen student recitals to listen to. (Below is the YouTube video for the concert this Thursday night, April 15, at 6:30 p.m. of the Marvin Rabin String Quartet that is comprised of graduate students.)
Often two or more concerts a day are scheduled, often at 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
That much is typical.
What is not typical during the pandemic is that technology will allow the recitals to be presented live-streamed and virtual.
The downside is that the students will not experience performing before a live audience.
But there is an upside.
Going virtual also means that the recitals will be available longer to family, friends and interested listeners here as well as around the country and — especially for international students — the world. (Below, in a photo by Bryce Richter for the UW-Madison, is the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the Hamel Music Center.)
It also means you can hear them when it is convenient for you and not at the actual scheduled times.
The Ear has heard his share of student recitals and often finds them to be exceptional events.
If you go to the Mead Witter School of Music’s website, you can see the concerts and the lineups.
You will see that there will be student recitals of vocal music, brass music, wind music, string music and piano music. There are solo recitals, chamber music and even a symphony orchestra concert. (Below, in a photo by Bryce Richter for the UW-Madison, is the Collins Recital Hall in the Hamel Music Center.)
There are too many details for each concert to list them all here individually.
But if you go to the Concerts and Events page on the music school’s outstanding website, you can hover the cursor over the event and then click on the event and get everything from the performers and programs to program notes, a performer biography and a photo with a link to the YouTube performance.
On the YouTube site, if you click on “See More” you will see more details and can even set up an alarm for when the concert starts.
Here is a link: https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/
Try it and see for yourself. Below is the YouTube link for pianist Mengwen Zhu, who performs his recital this Saturday, April 17, at 6 p.m.)
Happy listening!
Let us know what you think, especially if it is encouraging for the students.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Do you hear “On, Wisconsin” in this piece of classical music? Do you know of others?
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ALERT: In the era of #MeToo and #Time’sUp, it is hard to think of a better and more appropriate program than the FREE all-female concert at the UW on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Mills Hall.
That’s when the acclaimed UW faculty violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino (below) and guest pianist Jeannie Yu will perform works by Amy Beach, Cecile Chaminade, Rebecca Clarke and Lili Boulanger. Sorry, but The Ear can find no mention of specific works on the program.
For more background and biographical information about the performers, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/faculty-recital-soh-hyun-altino-violin/
By Jacob Stockinger
There he was.
On an ordinary afternoon, The Ear was just sitting at home listening to Wisconsin Public Radio.
On came the rarely heard Sonata for Clarinet by the French composer Camille Saint-Saens (below). It is a late work, Op. 167, written in 1921 and rarely performed.
And right away: BAM!!!
The neglected work sounded familiar.
That’s because the opening theme sure sounds like the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s fight song “On, Wisconsin!” which, with modified lyrics, is also the official state song of Wisconsin.
You can hear the familiar tune in the unfamiliar work’s first movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Is its appearance by accident or chance?
Is it a deliberate borrowing?
Today seems like an ideal day for asking the question, listening to the music and then deciding because it is a football Saturday. (The New Mexico Lobos and the Wisconsin Badgers will fight it out starting at 11 a.m. in Camp Randall Stadium (below, in a photo by Jeff Miller for the UW-Madison). It will be televised on BTN or the Big Ten Network).
Maybe history can help answer the question.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for “On, Wisconsin” with the history and lyrics of the song that was composed in 1909 — 11 years before the Saint-Saens clarinet sonata.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On,_Wisconsin!
The Ear could swear he has heard the same theme in other classical works, maybe even one by Mozart. But he can’t recall the name of that work or others.
Can you?
If you can, please leave the name of the composer and work, with a link to a YouTube video if possible, in the cOMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The all-female Arbor Ensemble performs a concert of all-French chamber music this SATURDAY (NOT Friday) night
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CORRECTION: In a recent post, The Ear used a wrong date and time for the Chopin and Debussy house concert by pianist Trevor Stephenson. The correct time is SATURDAY, FEB. 25, at 7 p.m. For more information, go to:
By Jacob Stockinger
The all-women chamber group Arbor Ensemble will perform a recital of all-French chamber music this weekend.
It will take place this SATURDAY (NOT Friday, as mistakenly reprinted form a faulty press release), Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, in Madison.
Admission is $10 general, and $5 for students and seniors.
The group will perform rarely heard chamber works by French composers, featuring Madison soprano Rachel Edie Warrick (below).
The program includes the Trio Sonata by Claude Debussy; Prelude, Recitative and Variations by Maurice Duruflé; “Où voulez-vous aller?” (Where do you want to go?) by Charles Gounod; “Une Flûte Invisible” (An Invisible Flute) by Camille Saint-Saëns; and Trio No. 2 in A minor by Cécile Chaminade (below).
You can hear the Chaminade Trio No. 2 in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Founding members of the Arbor Ensemble are flutist Berlinda Lopez (below top), violist Marie Pauls (below middle) and pianist Stacy Fehr-Regehr (below bottom).
The ensemble often performs programs by female composers.
For more information, go to Arbor Ensemble’s website at www.arborensemble.com.
Tags: Arbor Ensemble, Arts, Cecile Chaminade, Chamber music, Chopin, Classical music, Debussy, flute, France, French, Gounod, house concert, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Maurice Durufle, Music, Piano, recital, Saint-Saens, singer, Sonata, song, soprano, Trevor Stephenson, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Oakwood Chamber Players perform “Looking Within: Can We See Within Ourselves Those Who Have Gone Before?” this coming Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Plus, a FREE concert of French music is Friday at noon
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features the Ann Arbor Ensemble. The group consists of Berlinda Lopez, flute; Marie Pauls, viola; and Stacy Feher-Regehr, piano. The all-French program includes the Trio Sonata by Claude Debussy and the Trio No. 2 in A minor, Op. 34, by Cecile Chaminade.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Oakwood Chamber Players (below) continue their 2016-2017 season with a concert titled Looking Within on this coming Saturday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m.
The concerts will both be held at the Oakwood Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and $5 for students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.
Here are notes to the eclectic and unusually noteworthy program:
In 2011, American composer Byron Adams (below top) wrote a piece to honor the notable Czech-American composer Karel Husa (below bottom), who was also his composition teacher at Cornell University. The Serenade (Homage de Husa) not only illuminates Husa’s Czech heritage through musical references but also captures the essence of his positive influence in a piece that shows musical charm and wit. With the death of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Husa this past December, the intended tribute is particularly appropriate.
The Notturno (Nocturne) by Arnold Schoenberg (below) is a sweetly atmospheric, late Romantic work for harp and strings. After premiering in 1896 to an appreciative audience, this lovely piece of music was lost for decades and not rediscovered until 2001.
Originally written by French composer Maurice Ravel (below) in 1914, Kaddisch was set as a song using Aramaic text from the Jewish prayer book. The Oakwood Chamber Players will perform an evocative arrangement by David Bruce for a mixed ensemble of strings, winds, harp and English horn.
Music by British composer Gabriel Jackson (below, in a photo by Joel Garthwaite) is written with directness and clarity. In the Mendips, written in 2014, depicts the natural beauty of limestone hills in Somerset, England. The influence of generations of British composers, such as Vaughan Williams who was also inspired by pastoral beauty, is deftly woven into this piece for flute, clarinet, string trio, and harp.
Composer Frances Poulenc (below) was surrounded by the impressionist influence of his fellow French contemporaries Debussy and Ravel.
However, known for humor in how he approached his compositions, his creativity is resoundingly experienced in the high-energy Sextet for piano and woodwind quintet.
The listener will experience quicksilver shifts from the zesty vivace opening to glimpses of introspection to a dazzling high velocity finale. (You can hear the opening of the Sextet in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Oakwood Chamber Players are joined by guests Geri Hamilton and Maureen McCarty, violins; Brad Townsend, string bass; Aaron Hill, oboe and English horn; and Mary Ann Harr, harp (below).
This is the third of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players’ 2016-2017 season series entitled Perspective. Remaining concerts will take place on March 18 and 19, and May 13 and 14.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who have rehearsed and performed at Oakwood Village for over 30 years.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble proudly supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation
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