The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: This Sunday afternoon, the Madison Symphony Orchestra takes listeners “Behind the Score” of the Symphony No. 5 by Prokofiev
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon, Jan. 19, at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) and MSO music director John DeMain will present the story behind Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 with “Beyond the Score®: Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No. 5: Pure Propaganda?”
The one performance-only concert is a multimedia examination of the Russian composer’s musical celebration of the end of World War II. (You can hear the second movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The presentation stars American Players Theatre actors James Ridge (below top), Colleen Madden (below second), Marcus Truschinski (below third) and Sarah Day (below bottom).
Along with MSO pianist Dan Lyons (below), the concert experience features visual projections, photos and musical excerpts.
Then in the second half comes a full and uninterrupted performance of the Symphony No. 5 by the orchestra conducted by John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad).
“This is one of the great offerings of Beyond the Score,” says DeMain. “Three generations of great Russian composers influenced Sergei Prokofiev (below) from childhood into his adult years, helping him create the most popular of his big symphonies, his fifth.
Adds DeMain: “I have so much fun working with the great actors from the American Players Theatre as they interweave the backstory with the orchestra. The visuals for this production are spectacular. After intermission, we play this wonderful symphony in its entirety.”
Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 was published in 1944. Taking inspiration from his experiences in America and his return to the Soviet homeland after the war, Prokofiev expresses the heroic, beautiful and strong nature of the music.
This Beyond the Score production joins Prokofiev at the end of World War II and discovers his inspiration for Symphony No. 5.
Incorporating war video footage and propaganda photos, the program presents the historical context behind the classical piece turned masterpiece.
CONCERT, TICKET AND EVENT DETAILS
The lobby opens 90 minutes prior to each concert. The symphony recommends concert attendees arrive early for each performance to make sure they have time to pass through Overture Center’s security stations.
Program notes are available online for viewing in advance of the concerts: http://bit.ly/msojan20programnotes
- Single Tickets are $16-$70 each and are on sale now at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/beyond-the-score-2020-prokofiev/through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online/phone sales.
- Groups of 10 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit, https://www.madisonsymphony.org/groups.
- Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
ABOUT BEYOND THE SCORE®
For newcomers to classical music and longtime aficionados alike, each Beyond the Score® presentation is a dramatic exploration of a composer’s music.
Through live actors, stunning visual projections and virtuosic fragments of live music performed by members of the orchestra, the compelling story of the composer’s life and art unfolds, illuminating the world that shaped the music’s creation. Beyond the Score presentations weave together theater, music and design to draw audiences into the concert hall and into a work’s spirit.
The popular program seeks to open the door to the symphonic repertoire for first-time concertgoers as well as to encourage an active, more fulfilling way of listening for seasoned audiences.
At its core is the live format of musical extracts, spoken clarification, theatrical narrative, and hand-paced projections on large central surfaces, performed in close synchrony.
After each program, audiences return from intermission to experience the resulting work performed in a regular concert setting, equipped with a new understanding of its style and genesis.
Beyond the Score® is a production of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gerard McBurney, Creative Director for Beyond the Score®
Exclusive funding for this concert is provided by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.
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Classical music: After a year recovering from an injury, Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang says he has become a more serious musician
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Chinese pianist Lang Lang (below) has long been popular, a best-selling superstar and one of the most bankable players in the business.
Yet such was his flamboyant showmanship and self-indulgence that many of his colleagues and critics did not take him very seriously. Many thought of him more as the Liberace of the classical concert stage.
But then a serious injury to his left arm, tendonitis from over-practicing and straining, forced Lang Lang to take a year off to recover.
During that time he married. He worked with young children and music students, even funding a new piano lab. And he released a new CD (“Piano Book”) of short pieces that he has loved since his student days. (You can see Lang Lang coaching a young pianist about a Mozart sonata that played a pivotal role in his life during a master class in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Lang Lang now says that during that recovery period he rethought everything about his career and has made some major changes from practicing to performing.
And what seems to have emerged, at age 37, is a new approach that emphasizes more seriousness and regularity coupled with greater respect for the music he plays.
Time will tell – in both live and recorded performances — how much has really changed in Lang Lang’s approach to making music.
Nonetheless, the dramatic change was recounted recently in a comprehensive story in The New York Times, which even goes back to trace the pianist’s career, including failures, from his early childhood (below) in China.
Read it and see what you think.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/arts/music/lang-lang-piano.html
Then tell us in the Comment section if it has changed how you think about Lang Lang.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players will perform playful works by Elisenda Fabregas, Malcolm Arnold and Robert Schumann this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Oakwood Chamber Players (below) continue the concert season theme of “Play” with playful whimsy in a concert entitled Fairy Tales and Other Stories, on this Saturday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 17, at 1:30 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.
Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door. They are $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and $5 for students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.
This concert features the chamber ensemble’s talented pianist Vincent Fuh (below top) who will perform solo selections from “Scenes from Childhood” By Robert Schumann (below bottom, in 1850). This piece captures a wide range of expressivity and shifts in energy illuminated by the composer‘s musical imagination. (You can hear “Scenes From Childhood” performed by Martha Argerich in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The program will also include “Voces di mi Terra” (Voices of My Land) by the compelling Catalan/American composer Elisenda Fabregas (below), written for flute, cello and piano.
The Quintet for violin, viola, flute, horn and bassoon by British composer Malcolm Arnold is a clever and varied composition that shows an upbeat and playful approach to a non-traditional combination of instruments.
Robert Schumann’s Fairy Tales, Op. 132, for clarinet, viola and piano will give the audience a glimpse into a dream world of music that is sometimes uplifting and sometimes mysterious.
This is the third of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players 2015-2016 season series titled “Play.” Remaining concerts include Children’s Games on March 5 and 6; and Summer Splash on May 14 and 15.
The Oakwood Chamber Players is 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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Classical music: It’s never too late! Retirement is the BEST time to start playing music -– or writing and painting -– says one expert who followed her own advice.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear knows quite a few retired people who say they would like to start learning to play a musical instrument — either for the first time or else to pick up where they left off, usually in childhood.
But they quickly add that they hesitate because they think it is something you really have to do in childhood or at least when you are much younger.
Not so, says psychologist Francine Toder (below), who herself took up the cello after retiring in her 60s. You can see other examples in the YouTube video at the bottom.
In fact, in her book “The Vintage Years,” Toder argues that retirement is the best time to unlock your creative self. That applies not only to learning a musical instrument but also to writing and to painting and other forms of the visual arts.
In case you missed it when it was broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio, an interview with Francine Toder comes from the WPR program “To the Best of Our Knowledge.
Here is a link to the page. On it, you have to click on play the story. You can also leave a comment if you go through the security process of signing in.
And please leave a COMMENT on this blog with a comment about you own experience with learning the arts in retirement.
http://www.ttbook.org/book/benefits-playing-music-you-vintage-years
And here is a link to the home page for Wisconsin Public Radio’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” which has the appropriate acronym TTBOOK:
Tags: Arts, Cello, childhood, Classical music, elderly, Francine Toder, Jacob Stockinger, Music, Music education, Piano, Retirement, senior, Singing, The Vintage Years, Violin, visual art, vocal music, wisconsin public radio, writing, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The Ear wishes you a Merry Christmas with three of his favorite pieces of music. What are yours?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today – Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2019 – is Christmas Day.
There is so much great Christmas music written by so many great composers. You’ll hear a lot of it tomorrow morning on Wisconsin Public Radio, starting at 9 a.m..
But here are three of The Ear’s favorites.
One comes from the “Christmas Oratorio” by the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach and is loud, upbeat and brassy.
The second is “Lo, how a rose ere blooming” is by the early German baroque composer Michael Praetorius, and is so hauntingly quiet and intimate, sounding almost medieval or chant-like.
The third work, also intimate but on a much larger scale, is the “Shepherds’ Farewell to the Holy Family” from “The Childhood of the Christ” by the Romantic French composer Hector Berlioz.
Here they are, first the Praetorius — in the original German — and then the Bach and finally the Berlioz.
And here is a YouTube compilation with almost three hours of seasonal music:
What is your favorite piece of classical music to celebrate Christmas?
Leave your answer – with a YouTube link, if possible — in the Comment section.
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