The Well-Tempered Ear
The 10th annual Baroque Holiday Concert by the Madison Bach Musicians is next Saturday night and will be virtual and online
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By Jacob Stockinger
On this coming Saturday night, Dec. 12, the Madison Bach Musicians will present their 10th annual Baroque Holiday Concert (below is a photo of a previous year’s holiday concert).
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s one-hour concert will be a virtual web event.
The program features Baroque masterworks by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, Arcangelo Corelli, Joseph Dall’Abaco, Jean Daniel Braun and Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was recorded Dec. 1-6 in several acoustically superior venues.
Links to the MBM holiday program can be purchased at $15 per household at https://madisonbachmusicians.org. Patrons purchasing the link can view the program the evening of Dec. 12 and anytime afterward through Friday, Dec. 26.
Festivities begin at 7:30 p.m. with MBM director Trevor Stephenson’s 30-minute pre-concert lecture about the repertoire, the composers and the period instruments.
At 8 p.m., viewers will see the 60-minute, high-definition video of the concert portion of the program, followed by a 30-minute Zoom Q&A session with the musicians from their homes. Questions for the Zoom session should be submitted by email to MBM manager Karen Rebholz at madisonbachmusicians.manager@gmail.com.
The concert begins with a selection of nine pieces from the Schemelli Songbook. Georg Schemelli collaborated with Johann Sebastian Bach (below, 1685-1750) in assembling this magnificent collection of spiritual songs, published in Leipzig in 1736. Bach provided most of the bass lines and wonderful harmonizations.
Grammy Award-winning soprano Estelí Gomez and harpsichordist Trevor Stephenson (both below) perform this set in the beautiful chapel at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.
From the sanctuary of Grace Episcopal Church, on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison, baroque cellist James Waldo (below) will perform Bach’s magisterial Solo Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major.
UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music bassoon faculty member Marc Vallon (below top, in a photo by James Gill) and esteemed baroque cellist Martha Vallon (below bottom) team up in the Collins Recital Hall of the UW”s Hamel Music Center for a Duo Sonata by Jean Daniel Braun (1703-1738).
Marc will also play a solo bassoon transcription of two Fantasias, originally for solo flute, by Telemann (1681-1767). Martha will perform the meditative Capriccio no. 4 in D minor by Dall’Abaco (1710-1805).
The program concludes at The Crossing in Madison with MBM concertmaster violinist Kangwon Kim (below top), violist Micah Behr (below bottom) and cellist James Waldo joining in a medley of holiday favorites.
They include Greensleeves variations over a ground (repeated bass line); three movements from Christmas Music for Instruments by Charpentier (1643-1704); the Adagio from the Christmas Concerto Op. 6, No. 8 by Corelli (1653-1713), which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom; and two beloved carols — Lo How a Rose and Sussex Carol – in arrangements by Micah Behr.
MBM wishes to thank Geneva Campus Church for their collaboration in filming this portion of the program as a contribution to their weekly services.
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Classical music: Acclaimed local soprano Sarah Brailey explains why performing artists and presenters need help during the COVID-19 pandemic
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By Jacob Stockinger
Sarah Brailey (below) is worried.
And with good reason.
Chances are good that you have seen the local soprano or heard her sing.
She is the artistic director of the Handel Aria Competition, which she herself won in 2015. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Brailey sing the aria “Will the Sun Forget to Streak” from Handel’s oratorio “Solomon,” with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra under conductor Julian Wachner, in the St. Paul Chapel in New York City.)
Brailey is a co-founder of and participant in the monthly free Just Bach concerts here. In addition, while pursuing graduate studies at the UW-Madison, she is a concert artist with a budding international career. For more about her, including a rave review from The New York Times and sample videos, go to: https://sarahbrailey.com
But right now the Wisconsin native is especially concerned about the lasting impact that the Coronavirus pandemic will have on her own career as well as on the careers of others like her and on the well-being of arts presenters.
Brailey (below, in photo by Miranda Loud) sent The Ear the following essay:
By Sarah Brailey
This is a scary time for everyone, but particularly for anyone who works as an independent contractor.
I am a freelance classical soprano based in Madison. I maintain a very active performing career, traveling all over the globe, and I am also a doctoral student at the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
When COVID-19 hit the United States, presenting organizations on the east and west coasts started canceling concerts to comply with social distancing recommendations.
I initially thought I was lucky to be living in the middle of the country where our lesser population density might save us. Plus, I am a Teaching Assistant at the UW right now, so I will still be getting my stipend — although teaching virtual voice lessons will be its own special challenge!
But many of my colleagues are not so lucky and are facing bankruptcy. If the government doesn’t include independent contractors in its relief packages, a lot of people are going to be insolvent.
And I myself am not immune. As the seriousness of the situation became clear, all my concerts in the next two months soon disappeared one by one.
While not being able to perform is emotionally devastating, these cancellations are also financially devastating.
There exists a clause in every standard performance contract called “force majeure” (superior force), which is idiomatically referred to as, “an act of God.” This clause excuses a party from not honoring its contractual obligations that becomes impossible or impracticable, due to an event or effect that the parties could not have anticipated or controlled.
This can come in handy for a presenter if there is, say, a blizzard that necessitates the cancellation of a concert. (This happened to me a few seasons ago with the Boston Symphony.) If the presenter will not make any money on ticket sales, they are not then further injured by having to pay the musicians for the canceled concert. (Below, Brailey sings Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” with the Colorado Symphony.)
The ramifications of this pandemic are unprecedented. Every freelance musician I know is suddenly out of work. The current conventions put all of the upfront financial burden on the artists. We are paid in one lump sum at the end of a project. We do not get a fee for the countless hours of preparation.
We often book travel and lodging on our own dime, and are not reimbursed until the end of the gig. We pay for our own health insurance, and we cannot file for unemployment because our work is paid via IRS Form 1099 and not W2s. The abrupt work stoppage caused by this pandemic means insolvency – or even bankruptcy — for many artists. (Below, Brailey sings Handel’s “Messiah” at the famed Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York City.)
Many institutions — and, unfortunately, many of the bigger players like The Metropolitan Opera — are invoking force majeure without much regard for how their artists are struggling.
My colleague, tenor Zach Finkelstein, is covering this in great detail on his blog The Middle Class Artist, as is Alex Ross, the prize-winning music critic for The New Yorker. Read his piece on force majeure here.
However, there are also thankfully some good stories to tell. The Bach Society of Minnesota reimbursed all my travel expenses and is paying 75 percent of my fee, as is the Lyra Baroque Orchestra.
I am helping Zach keep track of the organizations that are helping their artists in this time of need. (Read about them here. Madison Opera is on the list.)
The arts are not just cultural enrichment; they are an essential part of our economy. In 2017, the industry contributed $877.8 billion, or 4.5 percent, to U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employed over 5 million workers. We cannot afford to let this industry disappear. I fear that many individual artists and arts organizations will not recover from this. (Below, Brailey sings Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat” at the Bucknell Bach Festival.)
While we wait out this storm, I implore you to donate to a Madison arts organization. Here is a short list of recommendations along with some national relief funds for artists.
Local Arts Organizations
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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: Con Vivo concludes its 17th season Saturday night with chamber music by Prokofiev, Haydn, Medtner and Mozart. Children in Music Makers perform a FREE concert on Sunday afternoon
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ALERT: The final Music Makers concert is this Sunday, June 2, at 4 p.m. in the First Unitarian Society of Madison’s Atrium Auditorium, 900 University Bay Drive. The concert is FREE and open to the public and will include performances by students from age 8 to 18 performing works by Shostakovich, Puccini and more.
Part of Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Music Makers aims to enrich and develop the music skills of children from all backgrounds in an inclusive and non-competitive environment. Music Makers provides the financial support for instruments, lessons and performance opportunities, making music education accessible for all children. Learn more at wysomusicmakers.org.
By Jacob Stockinger
This Saturday night, the chamber music group Con Vivo (below) will close out its 17th season.
The concert, entitled “Overture to Summer,” will include music for violin and piano by Nikolai Medtner; the Overture on Hebrew Themes by Sergei Prokofiev; the Piano Trio in G Major “Gypsy Rondo” by Joseph Haydn; and the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (You can hear the Gypsy Rondo movement from Haydn’s piano trio in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert takes place on this Saturday night, June 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the intimate Chapel at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, across from Camp Randall Stadium.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception to discuss the concert.
About the concert, artistic director Robert Taylor says: “We conclude our 17th season with music evocative of warm summer days in the sun. The wonderful lush strains of Medtner’s violin music are contrasted by the bright music of Haydn in his Piano Trio in G Major nicknamed “Gypsy Rondo.” The evening continues with one of Con Vivo’s signature pieces, Overture on Hebrew Themes by Prokofiev. We conclude with the beautiful Quintet for Clarinet and Strings by Mozart. What could be a better way to ring in the warm sunny days of summer?”
Con Vivo is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.
For more information, go to the home website www.convivomusicwithlife.org
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Classical music: This Sunday brings three concerts of choral and orchestral music
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday brings three chances to hear choral and orchestral music.
On this Sunday morning, April 14, at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., in the Atrium Auditorium (below in a photo by Zane Williams) the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will host its spring All-Music Sunday. The public is invited to attend FREE of charge.
The performers are the Society Choir and Friends, a pickup orchestra, and vocal and instrumental soloists.
The program lasts about one hour and includes the Concerto for Two Trumpets by Antonio Vivaldi and the early Mass in G Major by Franz Schubert. (You can hear the Kyrie from the Schubert Mass in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
At 2:30 p.m., at Edgewood College in the St. Joseph Chapel (below, in a photo by Ann Boyer), 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra will give its spring concert.
Director Blake Walter (below) will conduct the performance.
Works to be performed are: the Overture to the opera Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven; St. Paul’s Suite for String Orchestra by Gustav Holst; and the Symphony No. 35, “Haffner,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Admission is $5 for general admission, free with those with an Edgewood College ID.
Here are some program notes provided by Edgewood College.
“The Overture to Fidelio — Beethoven’s only opera — is the first of four overtures composed for the opera, but is perhaps the least often performed.
“In 1904, Gustav Holst was appointed Music Director of St. Paul’s School for Girls in London, and wrote the Suite for the small string orchestra and based it on popular English folk songs.
“Mozart completed his Haffner Symphony in 1785 and dedicated it to his patron, Sigmund Haffner the Elder, a wealthy businessman in Vienna.”
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Classical music: Con Vivo will perform a “Winter Warmth” chamber music concert this Sunday afternoon. Plus, a FREE viola da gamba concert 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 viola da gamba duo ViolMedium in “Façades and Duplicities,” a multi-dimensional exploration of the rich harmonic, timbral and dramatic potentials offered by violas da gamba.
The viol is the medium through which gambists Eric Miller of Madison and Phillip Serna of Chicago bridge contemporary and historically informed performance. They use experimental and innovative programming as exemplified in masterworks by Carl Friedrich Abel, Bela Bartok, Gottfried Finger, Marin Marais, Christoph Schaffrath and others.
The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m. Food and beverages are allowed.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison-based chamber music group Con Vivo (below) will perform a “Winter Warmth” program of chamber music this coming Sunday afternoon, Feb. 3.
The concert will include the Finale from Symphony No. 6 for organ by Charles Marie Widor; the Quartet for oboe and strings by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; and the Piano Quintet for piano, clarinet and strings, Op. 42, by Czech composer Zdenek Fibich.
The concert takes place this Sunday afternoon, Feb. 3, at 2:30 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave. across from Camp Randall Stadium.
Tickets can be purchased at the door. Admission is $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and students.
Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception to discuss the concert.
New to this concert is that Con Vivo will perform in two different spaces. The first half of the concert will be in the sanctuary, and the second half in the chapel at the First Congregational Church. This will provide the audience with different experiences for hearing the chamber music.
In remarking about the concert, Con Vivo’s artistic director Robert Taylor said, “We continue our 17th season with music evocative of warm winter thoughts during these cold, dark winter days that we often have.
“The wonderful lush strains of Charles Marie Widor’s organ music are contrasted by the bright cheerful music of Mozart in his oboe quartet. (You can hear the opening movement of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in the YouTube video at the bottom.) The afternoon is capped off by the rarely played Piano Quintet by Fibich (below). What better way to spend a cold winter afternoon?”
Con Vivo is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.
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Classical music: Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras perform the Evelyn Steenbock fall concerts TODAY and next Friday night. The Edgewood Chamber Orchestra performs this Sunday afternoon
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ALERT: This Sunday afternoon, Nov. 11, at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra will give its fall concert. Conducted by Blake Walter, the chamber orchestra will play Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Word on the Moon” Overture, Arthur Honegger’s Pastorale D’été (Summer Pastoral) and Symphony No. 1 in C minor by Felix Mendelssohn. Tickets are $5 for general admission, free with Edgewood College ID.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO, below) will present their first concert series of the 2018-19 season, the Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concerts TODAY, Saturday, Nov. 10, and next Friday, Nov. 16.
WYSO orchestras will perform works by Igor Stravinsky, Aram Khachaturian, Soon Hee Newbold and more. The Youth Orchestra concert will include a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo” Variations with special guest cellist Joseph Johnson.
“Joseph Johnson is an extraordinary artist and person and it will be a treat for us all to hear and collaborate with someone of his stature,” says Youth Orchestra Conductor Kyle Knox (below).
Johnson has been heard throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician and educator. Principal cellist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since the 2009-10 season, he previously held the same position with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. (You can hear an interview with Joseph Johnson in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
He also serves as principal cellist of the Santa Fe Opera, and during the 2008-2009 season was acting principal cellist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his Milwaukee appointment, Johnson was a member of the Minnesota Orchestra cello section for 11 years.
“The Youth Orchestra couldn’t be more excited to present a program of all-Russian music for our first concert of the season,” Knox says. “We will begin with a rarely performed gem by 20th-century composer Igor Stravinsky, followed by one of the great solo works in the cello repertoire, the “Rococo” Variations by Tchaikovsky. Finally, we will finish the evening with the mighty Symphony No. 4 by Tchaikovsky, one of the most famous orchestral works in history, which features all sections of the orchestra.”
TODAY’S concerts begin at 11:30 a.m. in Mills Hall at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, 455 North Park Street, Madison.
The Nov. 16 Youth Orchestra concert with guest soloist Joseph Johnson begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Middleton Performing Arts Center, 2100 Bristol Street, next to Middleton High School, with a reception to follow.
WYSO students travel from communities throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois each weekend throughout the concert season to rehearse on the UW-Madison campus.
Each orchestra performs three concerts per season, with additional performance opportunities available to students, including ensembles and chamber groups.
Concert admission is $10 for adults, and $5 for youth 18 and under, with tickets available at the door.
Full concert repertoire is available at https://www.wysomusic.org/evelyn-steenbock-fall-concerts-repertoire/
To learn more about Joseph Johnson, go to: www.joecello.com.
Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concerts
Saturday, Nov. 10, Mills Concert Hall
11:30 a.m. Opus One and Sinfonietta
1:30 p.m. Harp Ensemble & Concert Orchestra
4 p.m. Percussion Ensemble (below) and Philharmonia Orchestra
Friday, Nov. 16, Middleton Performing Arts Center
7:30 p.m. Youth Orchestra, reception to follow
With guest artist Joseph Johnson, cello
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Classical music: This Sunday afternoon brings percussion music from Clocks in Motion and a performance by the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon brings two noteworthy concerts: a selection of percussion music from Clocks in Motion and a performance of classic composers by the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra.
Here are the details:
CLOCKS IN MOTION
This Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., the local percussion group Clocks in Motion will perform at its Rehearsal Facility, located at 126 West Fulton Street in Edgerton, Wisconsin.
Members of Clocks in Motion (below, performing in 2017) are Matthew Coley, Chris Jones, Sean Kleve and Andrew Veit.
Admission to the limited seating is $10, with donations accepted.
For more information, tickets and driving directions, go to:
https://www.artful.ly/store/events/15960
Presenting music never before heard in Wisconsin, Clocks in Motion Percussion will be performing classic repertoire and local premieres in this special event.
Here is the complete program: *”Gravity” by Marc Melltis; *Atomic Atomic” by Andrew Rindfleisch (below and heard in the YouTube video at the bottom); “Third Construction” by John Cage; selections from “Threads” by Paul Lansky; “Mechanical Ballet” by Anders Koppel; “Fantezie” by Sergiu Cretu; and “Glitz!” Bejorn Berkhout
*Denotes this piece was written specifically for Clocks in Motion.
Hailed as “nothing short of remarkable” (ClevelandClassical.com) and “the most exciting addition to Madison’s classical music scene” (Isthmus), Clocks in Motion is a percussion quartet that performs new music, builds many of its own instruments, and breaks down the boundaries of the traditional concert program.
Formed in 2011, Clocks in Motion is quickly becoming a major artistic force in today’s contemporary music scene. Among its many recent and upcoming engagements, the group served as performers at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan; The Stone in New York City; The Overture Center for the Arts; Casper College in Wyoming; the University of Michigan;, Baldwin-Wallace University in Ohio; the University of North Carolina-Pembroke; and the Ewell Concert Series in Virginia.
EDGEWOOD CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The Edgewood Chamber Orchestra will give a concert on this Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in the newly remodeled St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive.
The orchestra will perform under the baton of Blake Walter (below).
The program features three arrangements of piano works by Claude Debussy; Arabesques 1 and2, arranged by Henri Mouton, and the seldom-performed Sarabande, arranged by Maurice Ravel.
Other works to be performed include Luigi Cherubini’s Overture to the opera Medea, and Symphony No. 59, subtitled “Fire,” by Franz Joseph Haydn.
Admission is $5 for the general public, free with Edgewood College ID.
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Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players open their new “Vignettes” season with concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
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A CORRECTION: The Ear wants to apologize for and correct an error he made in yesterday’s blog post. The correct time and address for the all-Schubert concert by the Mosaic Chamber Players is on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Oakwood Chamber Players (below) will begin their 2018-2019 season series “Vignettes” with concerts on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 16, 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 Mall.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors 62 and over; and $5 students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com or call (608) 230-4316 for more information for individual and season tickets.
Once again, the group will explore largely new or unknown composers and neglected music.
Each program of the 2018-19 series will focus on how composers create specific themes to tell stories, and represent emotions, places or characteristics to enhance the listening experience.
Central to the program is poetry and narration paired with music that will feature Boston-based guest soprano Mary Mackenzie (below). She has been described by The New York Times as “a soprano of extraordinary agility and concentration,” and the Boston Globe as “sensational.”
Mackenzie is a passionate performer of contemporary vocal music, and has appeared with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Collage New Music, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, and The Knights.
American composer Byron Adams (below) was commissioned by renowned American clarinetist Yehuda Weiner to set Nightingales, a poem by British Victorian poet Robert Bridges, as a memorial to his brother. The composer chose a quartet of soprano, clarinet, cello and piano to evoke the breathtaking beauty of the natural world that is overlaid with a sense of loss and longing.
By contrast, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Jennifer Higdon (below, in a photo by Candace DiCarlo) set four poems that have titles that reference roses by James Whitcomb Riley for the combination of flute, soprano and piano.
Bentley Roses was written as a surprise tribute for the retirement of her former music teacher, Judith Bentley. The settings are sunny and accessible, the music weaves around the words with swirling energy, coy interactions, and graceful interplay.
The yearning Vocalise by conductor, composer and pianist Andre Previn conveys emotion using the voice without words as a chamber instrument. The combination of soprano, cello and piano carries the shifting harmonies and sinuous melodic line through a series of subtle yet powerful transformations. (You can hear Previn’s beautiful “Vocalise,” with soprano Barbara Bonney and the the composer at the piano, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A second piece by Previn (below) piece puts the cello and soprano in conversation with his setting of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison’s poem Stones.
American film composer and bassoonist Charles Fernandez (below) wrote Quatuor Parisienne (Parisian Quartet) for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon. It consists of three movements: a tongue-in-cheek march; a gracefully flowing reflection: and a farcical musical conversation with a dash of merriment.
Budapest-based clarinetist and composer Endre Szervanszky (below) wrote his Quintet No. 1 in 1953. Audiences will hear some characteristics similar to the writing of Kodaly and Bartok. It is a pleasing four-movement work that shows his strong understanding of each of the instruments, demanding both melodic expressiveness and technical panache.
The program concludes with poetry by British writer Roald Dahl, known for his darkly humorous children’s stories. Composer Martin Butler (below, in a photo by Katie Vandyck) incorporated The Pig, The Tummy Beast, and The Crocodile into his piece Dirty Beasts for narrator, piano and woodwind quintet. Butler mirrors the acerbic wit of the text with clever effects, closing out the program with some unexpected twists and turns.
Guest performers are soprano Mary Mackenzie, pianist Joseph Ross (below top) and oboist Laura Medisky (below bottom).
They join Oakwood Chamber Players members Marilyn Chohaney, flute; Nancy Mackenzie, clarinet; Amanda Szczys, bassoon; Anne Aley, horn; and Maggie Darby Townsend, cello.
This is the first of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players’ 2018-19 season series entitled Vignettes. Remaining concerts will take place on Nov. 24 and 25; Jan. 12 and 13; March 2 and 3; and May 18 and 19. For more information about the Oakwood Chamber Players and their new season, go to: https://www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who play with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and 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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Classical music: The Mosaic Chamber Players perform an all-Schubert concert on Saturday night. On Sunday afternoon, Opera Props presents singers in a benefit concert to support the opera program at the UW-Madison
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ALERT: On this Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., in the Madison Christian Community Church at 7118 Old Sauk Road on Madison’s far west side, Opera Props will present a benefit concert to raise money for the UW-Madison’s opera program and University Opera.
Student singers and piano accompanist Daniel Fung will perform arias and songs. But the spotlight will shine on University of Wisconsin-Madison alumna soprano Julia Rottmayer, who is a new faculty member at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. (Sorry, no specific program is given and no names of composers and works are mentioned.)
Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door with student tickets costing $10. Tickets include a reception with local Gail Ambrosius chocolate, fruit, cheese and wine. For more information, go to: https://www.uwoperaprops.org
By Jacob Stockinger
Why is The Ear increasingly drawn to the music of Franz Schubert (below) over, say, the music of his contemporary and idol Ludwig van Beethoven? It seems to be more than its sheer beauty and lyricism. It also seems to possess a certain warmth or human quality that he finds irresistible, poignant and restorative, especially if it is true, as the Buddha said, life is suffering.
In any case, The Ear is not alone.
The Madison-based Mosaic Chamber Players (below, in a photo by John W. Barker) will open their new and ambitious season this coming Saturday night with a concert of music by Franz Schubert.
The all-Schubert concert is at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium — NOT at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, as was incorrectly stated earlier in this blog post.
The program includes two Sonatinas for Violin and Piano in D Major, D. 384, and A minor, D. 385; the famous “Arpeggione” Sonata, D. 821, performed on the cello with piano; and the lovely and songful Adagio or “Notturno” (Nocturne) for Piano Trio, D. 897, which you can hear with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Daniil Trifonov, in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Tickets cost $15 for adults; $10 for seniors; and $5 for students. Cash and checks only will be accepted; no credit cards.
Members of the Mosaic Chamber Players are: founder and pianist Jess Salek (below top); violinist Wes Luke (below second), who plays with the Ancora String Quartet and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra; violinist Laura Burns (below third), who also plays with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the MSO’s Rhapsodie String Quartet; and cellist Kyle Price (below bottom), who founded the Caroga Lake Music Festival in New York State and is pursuing his doctoral degree at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music with distinction and who was a member of the graduate student Hunt Quartet while he studied for his master’s.
A reception will follow the concert.
For more information about the Mosaic Chamber Players and about their new season, which includes some very varied composers but no specific titles of works, go to: http://www.mosaicchamberplayers.com
What do you find so appealing and so special about the music of Schubert?
What is your favorite Schubert work?
Leave your thoughts in the COMMENT section with a link, if possible, to a YouTube video performance.
The Ear wants to hear.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 