The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Here is the music that Wisconsin Public Radio hosts find calming and inspiring during the pandemic. What music would you list?
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By Jacob Stockinger
One of the major sources of music during the COVID-19 public health crisis and the coronavirus pandemic is Wisconsin Public Radio.
The Ear finds WPR a reliable source of beauty and companionship during this difficult time of self-isolation and self-quarantining required by the state’s stay-at-home and self-distancing orders.
Each host plans and broadcasts hours of classical music each day. So they hear a lot of classical music.
They also contribute to a blog that offers insights to: new and old recordings; background information about the composers, music and performers; and personal observations about classical music.
Recently, the radio hosts – including Stephanie Elkins (below), Norman Gilliland, Lori Skelton, Ruthanne Bessman, Anders Yocom (at bottom, in a photo by James Gill) and Peter Bryant — listed the music that they find particularly calming and inspiring during a difficult and anxiety-ridden time.
The names of composers include Bach, Scarlatti, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Ysaye, Vaughan-Williams and film score master John Williams.
The list includes audio-visual performances of the pieces.
Take a look and listen.
Then tell us what you think of the various suggestions and which ones you prefer?
Also leave the composers, pieces and performers that you would add to such a list, with a YouTube link if possible.
Here is a link:
https://www.wpr.org/wpr-music-hosts-share-music-calms-and-inspires
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Classical music: The UW-Madison Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra perform the Duruflé Requiem and Kodaly “Te Deum” this coming Saturday and Sunday nights
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By Jacob Stockinger
In Mills Hall this coming Saturday night, Dec. 8, at 8 p.m. and Sunday night, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m., the University of Wisconsin-Madison Choral Union (below, in a photo by John W. Barker) and the UW Symphony Orchestra will perform two works: the Requiem by Maurice Duruflé; and the “Te Deum” by Zoltan Kodaly.
The Choral Union is a campus and community choral group that performs once each semester. This spring, it will take part in three performances of the Symphony No. 8, “The Symphony of a Thousand,” by Gustav Mahler with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, where conductor Beverly Taylor is the choral director.
In addition to the chorus and the orchestra there are student soloists.
In the Duruflé Requiem, the student soloists are: Michael Johnson, baritone; and Chloe Flesch, mezzo-soprano (below).
In the Kodaly “Te Deum,” the student soloists are: Jing Liu, soprano; Chloe Flesch, mezzo-soprano; Benjamin Hopkins, tenor; and bass Ben Galvin.
Tickets cost $17 for the public, $8 for students.
For more information about the works as well as a YouTube video preview of the Kodaly and information about how to obtain tickets in advance or at the door, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/choral-union-the-durufle-requiem/
Beverly Taylor (below), the longtime director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music who will lead the performances, recently spoke to The Ear about the concert:
“I plan to retire in May 2020, so I’m picking some great music for my last few Choral Union concerts!
“I’ve always wanted to do the Duruflé Requiem, which Bruce Gladstone performed in Luther Memorial Church a few years ago in the organ version. But I knew we couldn’t get a good organ on stage in Mills Hall and still have room for the orchestra.
“I hadn’t realized that Duruflé (below) had written a full orchestra version without the organ, which is replaced by the woodwinds. So it seemed a wonderful piece to do. (You can hear the Kyrie movement from the Durufle Requiem in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Since I have the symphony orchestra only one semester, I ignore holiday music when it comes to programming for the Choral Union, and try to assemble a wonderful evening.
“The Duruflé piece sounds like music by Gabriel Fauré and other late French church works, with its less dramatic text choices and its warmth, lush color and tide-like swells and diminuendos.
“I’ve done the “Te Deum” by Kolday (below) twice before over my 24 years here. It continues to be a favorite, and I use it because I like it, because it’s about 20 minutes long and a good companion piece, and because it shows off the Choral Union so beautifully.
“It’s a work of great contrasts, from a thrilling opening to a quiet middle based on a Hungarian folksong, to a next-to-final fugato and to a very quiet ending.
“The only problem with this program? Both pieces end quietly! Can we still get a burst of applause?”
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: During the COVID-19 pandemic, hosts at Wisconsin Public Radio suggest music that expresses gratitude and hope
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By Jacob Stockinger
The various hosts of Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) — an indispensable companion during self-isolation at home — listen to a lot of music and think a lot about it, especially about its meaning and appeal to the public.
So it comes as no surprise that they have once again suggested music to listen to during the coronavirus pandemic and the mounting toll of COVID-19.
Almost two months ago, the same radio hosts suggested music that they find calming and inspiring. They did so on the WPR home page in an ongoing blog where they also included YouTube audiovisual performances.
Here is a link to that earlier posting, which is well worth reading and following: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/?s=Wisconsin+Public+Radio
This time, the various hosts – mostly of classical shows but also of folk music and world music – suggest music that inspires or expresses hope and gratitude. (Below is Ruthanne Bessman, the host of “Classics by Request,” which airs at 10 a.m. on Saturdays.)
Here is the genesis of the list and public service project:
“At a recent WPR music staff meeting, we talked about the many ways music can unite us and about how music can express the gratitude we feel for people and things that are important to us, often much better than words.
“That discussion led to this collection of music, which we wanted to share with you. It’s eclectic and interesting, just like our music staff.”
The composers cited include some familiar names such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Benjamin Britten and John Williams.
But some new music, based on historical events and written by contemporary or modern composers, is also named. It includes works by the American composer Daniel Gawthrop (b. 1949, below top) and the Israeli composer David Zehavi (1910-1977, below bottom). Here are links to their biographies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_E._Gawthrop
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/zehavi-david
Sound-wise, it is quite an eclectic list that runs from solo harpsichord music to orchestral and choral music as well as chamber music.
Many of the performers have played in Madison at the Overture Center, with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, at the Wisconsin Union Theater, at the UW-Madison and on the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Pianos.
They include: the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; cellist Amit Peled and pianist Eli Kalman, who received his doctorate from the UW-Madison and now teaches at the UW-Oshkosh; conductor-composer John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers; and superstars violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma along with Venezuelan pianist-improviser Gabriela Montero in a quartet that played at the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Here is a link to the new WPR suggestions: https://www.wpr.org/wpr-hosts-share-music-gratitude-and-hope
Happy listening!
If you read the blog or listen to the music, let us know what you think in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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