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By Jacob Stockinger
This Tuesday night, Oct. 22, will see concerts of band music and organ-violin duets.
Here are details:
ORGAN AND VIOLIN CONCERT
At 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, the Overture Concert Organ Series, sponsored by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and organized by MSO principal organist Greg Zelek, offers a concert of music for organ and violin.
The organist is Michael Hey (below right), a Wisconsin native who won first prize at an organ competition in Shanghai, China, and is the organist at the famed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
The violinist is Christiana Liberis (below left) who recently toured with the rock band The Eagles.
Tickets are $20.
The program includes music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sir Edward Elgar, Maurice Ravel, Charles-Marie Widor, Giovanni Battista Vitali, Naji Hakim and Fritz Kreisler.
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the duo perform a haunting version of the popular “Gymnopedie No. 1” by Erik Satie
At 7:30 p.m. in the new Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the Hamel Music Center, 740 University Avenue, the UW-Madison Concert Band (below) will perform a FREE concert.
The band will perform under director Scott Teeple (below) and guest conductor Ross Wolf.
The program includes:
“Lux Arumque” by Eric Whitacre “Firefly” by Ryan George “Colonial Song” by Percy Grainger/ed. Mark Rogers “Huntington Tower Ballad” by Ottorino Respighi “George Washington Bridge” by William Schuman
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ALERT: On this Tuesday night, April 16, at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, organist Greg Zelek and guest cellist Thomas Mesa will close out the season of Concert Organ performances sponsored by the Madison Symphony Orchestra. The program includes music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Claude Debussy and Charles-Marie Widor. For tickets ($20) and more information about the program with detailed biographies of the performers, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/thoms-mesa-greg-zelek/
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker.Barker (below) is an emeritus professorof Medieval historyat the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a veteran and well-known classical musiccritic who writes for Isthmusand the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early MusicFestival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
The early spring concert on last Wednesday night by the Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by Brian Ruppert) at the Middleton Performing Arts Center that is attached to Middleton High School was comparatively short – it had no intermission — and was devoted to only two composers.
The first was Edward Elgar (below, in 1910), whose early orchestral works included a good deal of music drawn from his youthful sketchbooks. Notable in that category were two suites, given the joint title of The Wand of Youth.
From the eight sections of the First Suite (1907), six were played, and from the six sections comprising the Second Suite (1908), four were given. All these movements are colorful and evocative little miniatures, reflecting early imagination, often touching, but many quite boisterous.
The other composer was Ludwig van Beethoven (below), as represented by his Symphony No. 2. This shows the young composer moving quite distinctly beyond the stylistic world of Haydn and Mozart into the rambunctious new symphonic idiom he would go on to create. (You can hear Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic play the opening of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The guest conductor this time, Kyle Knox – the recent University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate who is the music director of Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and the associate conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra — chose to give the music a “big orchestra” approach.
For both the suites and the symphony, the lighter and cleaner textures of a chamber orchestra would seem best. But with an orchestra totaling some 91 players, Knox chose to go for volume and sonority.
His tempos, especially in the Beethoven were notably fast. As the largely amateur orchestra followed loyally, there was some raw playing at times.
Still, the MCO asserted strong character, which made a very happy impression on the audience and brightened an evening of soggy weather.
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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.
ALERT: This Saturday at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, the Madison Symphony Orchestra will offer another FREE Farmers Market Organ Concert. The program, which runs 45 minutes, features music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Charles-Marie Widor and Louis Vierne. The organist is the prize-winning Madison native Adrian Binkley.
By Jacob Stockinger
Two weeks ago, the Willy Street Chamber Players gave The Ear yet another reason to like them and be a fan.
After the season-ending program of Schubert, Osvaldo Golijov and Mozart was over, while the audience was cheering, standing and applauding loudly, two members of the young chamber music group played an encore.
The encore was “Julie-O” by Mark Summer. It was written for one cellist, as you can hear in a performance by the composer in the YouTube video at the bottom.
But this time it was performed by the two cellists of The Willys — Lindsey Crabb and Mark Bridges (below).
They agreed to play an encore only reluctantly – after some prodding by other members of The Willys, by guest clarinetist Michael Maccaferri (of the Grammy-winning group eighth blackbird) and, of course, by the audience.
But there shouldn’t have been any reluctance.
The Ear thinks we hear too few encores after so much memorable music-making.
Certain student recitals at the UW-Madison come immediately to mind. It sometimes seems that the protocol of student recitals prohibits encores, but The Ear has been told by faculty members that such is not the case.
What also comes to mind is the lack of encores at chamber music concerts by larger ensembles – piano trios, string quartets and piano or string quintets and sextets.
The Ear recalls that several years ago the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, performing the aria with notoriously difficult nine high C’s in the aria “Ah! Mes amis” from Donizetti’s opera “La Fille du Regiment,” then quickly repeated the same passage to frenzied approval.
What are encores but a way of saying: “You liked me, so now I like you.”
Encores are not immodest bragging. They are a reward, a gift, a way for the performer to say thank you to the audience for its attention and appreciation.
Maybe every individual or group should have some kind of encore in the back pocket and ready to go. It could be a short movement or even a section of a movement, perhaps a coda or finale.
It seems to The Ear that many instrumentalists, especially pianists who have such a rich repertory, would do well to have four encores ready: one fast and one slow, one loud and one soft.
That way, the encore can underscore — by either complementarity or contrast — the piece or pieces that preceded it and called for it.
Have you ever wanted to hear an encore and been frustrated?
What do musicians themselves say about playing encores?
Are there unwritten guidelines or an unstated protocol about when to play encores?
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) opens its new 2016-17 Overture Concert Organ Season with the sounds of brass and organ, marking the return of Chicago’s Gargoyle Brass (below top) with organist Jared Stellmacher (below bottom).
The concert is this Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, 201 State Street.
In addition to performing works by Charles-Marie Widor, Cesar Franck, Maurice Ravel and Alexandre Guilmant, Chicago’s Gargoyle Brass with organist Jared Stellmacher will perform The Dwarf Planets composed by Williams C. White, continuing MSO’s exploration of the universe that commenced with their season-opening concert, The Planets: An HD Odyssey in September.
Gargoyle Brass captured the Dane County Farmers’ Market audience in 2013 with an exciting program, which was enhanced by Stellmacher’s playing.
Subscriptions to all four organ concerts this season are available for $63, a 25% discount, at madisonsymphony.org/organsubscriptions or by calling (608) 257-3734.
General Admission for each Overture Concert Organ performance is $20. Tickets can be purchased at madisonsymphony.org/organperformancesTix, (608) 258-4141 or the Overture Box Office.
Student Rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Box Office at 201 State Street. Students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two $10 tickets.
This performance is sponsored by Friends of the Overture Concert Organ. Support for all Overture Concert Organ programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund. With a gift from Pleasant T. Rowland, the Madison Symphony Orchestra commissioned the Overture Concert Organ, which is the stunning backdrop of all MSO concerts.
ALERT: This afternoon at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall is your last chance to hear what may be the best concert of this season by the Madison Symphony Orchestra. The program features UW-Madison virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor (below) in Keyboard Concerto No. 4 by J.S. Bach and Piano Concerto No. 1 by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt as well as a “landmark” performance of the Late Romantic Austrian composer Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7.
Here is a rave review by John W. Barker, the dean of Madison’s music critics who writes for Isthmus and for this blog:
The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Organist and Curator Samuel Hutchison will mark a decade of memorable performances on the Overture Concert Organ (below) in a recital on this coming Tuesday, April 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, 201 State Street.
He also performed the complete works of J.S. Bach – himself primarily an organist — in a series of 11 weekly recitals for the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1985.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will host the last of three FREE summer performances on the Overture Concert Organ, this time featuring guest organist Donald VerKuilen, during the Dane County Farmers’ Market (below) on this coming Saturday, Aug. 9, at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall, 201 State Street.
No tickets or reservations are needed for this 45-minute concert.
A Wisconsin native and current Oberlin College organ performance major, Donald VerKuilen (below) makes his Overture Hall debut in an exciting program. (You can hear VerKuilen performing “Variations on ‘In Dulci Jubilo’ in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
VerKuilen recently returned from a concert tour of French organs, and is certain to bring the same magic to the colossal Klais organ, custom-built by Klais-Orgelbau of Bonn, Germany, in Overture Hall.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra and Overture Center for the Arts present the Farmers’ Market Concert Series in partnership with 77 Square.
The Free Farmers’ Market Concerts are sponsored by Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. Support for all Overture Concert Organ programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund.
To see the Overture Concert Organ series of concerts for 2014-15 or to subscribe at a 25 percent savings, visit: www. madisonsymphony.org/organseason14-15
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will host FREE performances on the custom-built Overture Concert Organ (below top) during the Dane County Farmers’ Market (below bottom) on three Saturdays -– June 21, July 19, and Aug. 9 –- all at 11 a.m.
The concerts will take place in Overture Hall, 201 State Street. NO tickets or reservations are needed for these 45-minute concerts featuring MSO organist and curator Samuel Hutchison, as well as guest organists Ahreum Han and Donald VerKuilen.
Here are more details:
June 21: Samuel Hutchison (below), the MSO’s principal organist and curator, presents a program entitled “Bach’s Lunch”, featuring the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Favorites including the famous and popular Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, used in the Walt Disney movie “Fantasia” (and available at the bottom in a popular animated YouTube voice that has more than 22 million hits) and a transcription of the Air on the G-String are among other items on the program.
July 19: Korean organist Ahreum Han (below) brings a delightful program to Overture Hall in her first recital on the Overture Concert Organ. A graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Han is known throughout the US, Asia, and Europe for her imaginative, powerful, and extraordinary performances.
Aug. 9: Wisconsin native and current Oberlin College organ performance major Donald VerKuilen makes his Overture Hall debut in an exciting program of music by Charles-Marie Widor, Bonnal, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Langlais. He recently returned from a concert tour of French organs, and is certain to bring the same magic to the colossal Klais organ in Overture Hall.
To see the Overture Concert Organ series of concerts for 2014-15 or to subscribe at a 25 percent savings, visit:
The Madison Symphony Orchestra and Overture Center for the Arts present the Farmers’ Market Concert Series in partnership with 77 Square.
The Free Farmers’ Market Concerts are generously sponsored by Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. Support for all Overture Concert Organ programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund.
This year the Madison Symphony Orchestra has again sponsored free one-hour Farmers Market organ concerts on the third Saturday of every month in Overture Hall, with the last one scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 18, at 11 a.m.
But there is one remaining event, and it has the hallmark of being an enjoyable and memorable event.
On Wednesday, August 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, the Freiburg Cathedral Girls Choir (below to) from Madison’s sister city of Freiburg, Germany (below bottom is the Freiburg Cathedral) will make its local debut. It will perform a concert that is FREE and open to the public without reservation or ticket.