The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Friday night, the UW Concert Choir marks the assassination of JFK and the opening of Hamel Music Center. Plus, WYSO gives a Wisconsin premiere with a returning alumna as soloist
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ALERT: This Friday night, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Orchestra, under conductor Kyle Knox, will present a concert with two guest artists performing the Wisconsin premiere of the Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon composed for them by American composer Jonathan Leshnoff, who is known for his lyricism. (Sorry, there is no word about other works on the program.) Tickets are $10, $5 for 18 years and under, and are available at the door starting at 6:15 p.m.)
The two soloists are principals with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The bassoonist is Nancy Goeres, a Lodi native who is a returning WYSO alumna. If you want to read an interview with her and get more background, you can’t do better for a preview than the piece by Greg Hettmansberger for Madison Magazine and Channel 3000. Here is a link: https://www.channel3000.com/madison-magazine/arts-and-culture/wisconsin-youth-symphony-welcomes-two-special-guests/1143372727
By Jacob Stockinger
At 8 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 22, in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, the UW-Madison Concert Choir (below) will perform its first solo concert in the new Hamel Music Center.
Conductor Beverly Taylor (below), the director of choral activities at the UW-Madison who will retire at the end of this academic year, sent the following announcement:
“The a cappella program is entitled “Fall Favorites: Houses and Homecomings.”
“This year I’m particularly picking some of the pieces I like the best from my years here, although I’ll still add a few new things.
“The “Houses” part is primarily “Behold I Build an House” by American composer Lukas Foss (below), which was written for the dedication of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, and which I thought was a good piece for the opening of the Hamel Music Center.
“We’re also performing the wonderful -and difficult —“Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing,” which British composer Herbert Howells (below top) wrote in memory of John F. Kennedy (below bottom). You’ll notice our concert is also on Nov. 22, the same day in 1963 when JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. (You can hear the Howells work in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Besides these two big works are wonderful motets by Orlando di Lasso, Maurice Duruflé, Heinrich Schütz and Melchior Vulpius, plus some African, American and African-American folk songs.”
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Classical music: This afternoon is your last chance to hear rave-winning performances by pianist Joyce Yang and the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Here’s a review to read
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By Jacob Stockinger
This afternoon — Sunday, Nov. 10 — at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall is your last chance to hear South Korean pianist Joyce Yang and the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) under the baton of music director John DeMain.
The program features the exciting, popular and beautiful Piano Concerto No. 3 by the Russian modernist composer Sergei Prokofiev as well as “Newly Drawn Sky” by contemporary American composer and Yale School of Music professor Aaron Jay Kernis (below) and the Symphony No. 2 by the German Romantic master Robert Schumann.
For more information about the performers, the program and tickets, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/11/04/classical-music-this-weekend-prize-winning-pianist-joyce-yang-solos-in-prokofievs-most-popular-piano-concerto-with-the-madison-symphony-orchestra-works-by-schumann-and-aaron-jay-kernis-are/
The prize-winning Yang (below), who at 19 won the silver medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, rewarded a standing ovation with the late Earl Wild’s virtuosic arrangement of George Gershwin’s song “The Man I Love,” which you can hear Yang play in the YouTube video at the bottom.
The reviews that have appeared so far agreed: It is a rave-winning concert with special attention going to Yang, who is making her MSO debut after performing a solo recital several years ago at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
The Ear cannot find a link to the rave review by Bill Wineke for Channel 3000.
But here is the rapturous review that Michael Muckian wrote for Isthmus:
https://isthmus.com/music/joyce-yang-triumphs-with-prokofiev/
But you be the critic.
What did you think of Joyce Yang and the MSO?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: University Opera’s production of “The Marriage of Figaro” draws raves from two local critics. There are still two performances left to see and hear: Today at 3 p.m. and Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Unfortunately, The Ear didn’t get to see and hear the opening night performance on Friday night at Old Music Hall of the season-opening production by University Opera at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
The chosen opera is a beloved and beautiful classic: “The Marriage of Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (below in a rehearsal photo by Michael R. Anderson).
Marriage of Figaro dress rehearsal. Tia Cleveland (Marcellina), Joel Rathmann (Figaro), Anna Whiteway (Susanna), Thomas Weis (Bartolo).
But The Ear is going to today’s matinee performance.
And two local reviews, by critics The Ear respects highly, agree that is a very successful production and puts another feather in the cap of guest director David Ronis (below, in a photo by Luke Delalio) from New York City.
But also praised highly are set designer Dana Fralick, the student singers-actors and the student orchestra players under UW-Madison professor and conductor James Smith (below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson). You can hear the infectious Overture in a curious but eye-catching and mind-engaging “bar graph score” in a YouTube video at the bottom.
That makes The Ear, who loved last year’s production of “The Magic Flute,” all the more pleased and excited about going today.
Here is a review by John W. Barker (below), who often reviews concerts for this blog, for Isthmus:
http://www.isthmus.com/arts/stage/a-delightful-marriage-university-opera/
And here is the review by Greg Hettmansberger (below) for his column “Classically Speaking” in Madison Magazine and for WISC-TV Channel3000.com:
If you want to go, tickets are $25 for the general public; $20 for seniors; and $10 for student.
Here is a link to details about the show and about getting tickets:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/university-opera-the-marriage-of-figaro/
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