The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Apollo Chamber Players perform Croatian-inspired music this Saturday night in Edgerton. Plus you can now sign up for piano day at the Wisconsin Union Theater
1 Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
ALERT: The sign-up site for Open Piano Day – to be held this coming Sunday, Sept. 22, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Wisconsin Union Theater — is now available. Slots are for 15 minutes. Here is a link: https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsignup.com%2Fgo%2FfpUcsfW&data=02%7C01%7C%7C8ca06003be8b432ab9b408d73ba390d3%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637043445996735650&sdata=3qwBf6GVLZK6iN0UUywLtlKEfUnIPLfssaug5b3XTl0%3D&reserved=0
Memorial Union members and their guests are invited to attend to play the piano and to listen to the music. Here is a link to a story with more details and background: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/09/07/classical-music-the-wisconsin-union-theater-will-hold-an-exercising-or-playing-session-for-the-public-on-its-steinway-piano-on-sunday-sept-22-details-are-pending/
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement about a special concert of Croatian music that includes a world premiere and a Wisconsin premiere.
The Apollo Chamber Players (below) will perform this Saturday night, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Edgerton Performing Arts Center, 200 Elm High Drive, where they will give the Wisconsin premiere of Croatian Connections.
The program of chamber music is:
Medley of Croatian Folk Songs (2019, a world premiere), by Lorento Golofeev (b. 1976)
String Quartet Op. 33, No. 3 “The Bird” by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). You can hear the last movement of the “Bird” quartet in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Intermission/Prekid
Pannonia Boundless (1997) by Aleksandra Vrebalov (b. 1970)
String Quartet No. 4 “Obala” (No. 6 in the 20×2020 project and a Wisconsin premiere) by Alexandra du Bois (b. 1981)
Introduction: “Out of sea-mist, in medias res” (Aria: Adagio lugubre)
“Istria: Hrvatska Obala” (Croatian Coast) (Rondo: Allegro assai)
“Uspavankas” (Lullabies) (Waltz: Larghetto cantabile)
“Dalmatian Hinterland” (Scherzo: Allegro pesante con fuoco)
“Tempo di Gusle” (Finale: Presto all’ungherese)
Tickets are $30 each and can be purchased online at www.edgertonpac.comor by phone at (608) 561-6093.
Croatian Connections was underwritten by Frederic Attermeier, a native of Cudahy, Wis., and was first premiered in Houston, Texas in 2016. It explores the Croatian inspirations of the “Father of the String Quartet” Franz Joseph Haydn (below), and music celebrating Croatian cultural heritage.
The Wisconsin premiere of this new string quartet inspired by folk music from Croatia and Serbia by New York City-based composer Alexandra du Bois (below, in a photo by Nick Ruechel), adds a contemporary perspective – a bridge to common ground through ethnic folk music – between often-warring cultures.
The Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players “performs with rhythmic flair and virtuosity” (The Strad) and has “found fruitful territory” (Houston Chronicle) through innovative, globally-inspired programming and multicultural new music commissions.
A recent winner of the Chamber Music America’s prestigious Residency Partnership award, this quartet has performed for sold-out audiences at Carnegie Hall twice in the past five years, and holds the distinction of being the first American chamber ensemble to record and perform in Cuba since the embargo relaxation. The string quartet is featured frequently on American Public Media’s nationally-syndicated program “Performance Today.”
This concert is in honor of the late William J. Wartmann (below) whose parents immigrated to America from Croatia. This concert is partially funded by the William and Joyce Wartmann Endowment for the Performing Arts.
Tags: #AleksandraVrebalov, #AlexandraduBois, #ApolloChamberPlayers, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CarnegieHall, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberMusicAmerica, #CommissionedMusic, #CommonGround, #ContemporaryComposers, #ContemporaryMusic, #CroatianConections, #Cudahy, #CulturalHeritage, #EdgertonPerformingArtsCenter, #EdgertonWisconsin, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FolkMusic, #folksongs, #FranzJosephHaydn, #HoustonChronicle, #JoyceWartmann, #LivingComposers, #LorentoGolofeev, #MemorialUnion, #NationalPublicRadio, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #PerformanceToday, #PerformingArts, #StringQuartet, #Sundayafternoon, #TheBird, #TheCello, #TheEar, #TheStrad, #TheViola, #TheViolin, #WilliamWartmann, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Alexandra du Bois, America, American, AmericanPublicMedia, annoucement, Apollo Chamber Players, Arts, attend, audience, award, background, blog, bridge, Carnegie Hall, celebrate, Cello, Chamber music, Chamber Music America, Classical music, classicalmusic, coast, commission, Common Ground, composer, Concert, connection, contemporary, Croatia, Croatian Connections, Croation, Cuba, cultural, cultural heritage, culture, Dalmatian, day, details, distinction, Edgerton, embargo, endowment, ethnic, event, Facebook, father, finale, flair, folk, Folk music, folk songs, forward, Franz Joseph Haydn, funding, global, guest, heritage, hinterland, honor, Houston, Houston Chronicle, immigrate, immigrated, immigration, innovative, inspiration, introduction, Jacob Stockinger, Joyce Wartmann, last, like, link, listen, living composers, Lorenzo Golofeev, lullabies, Madison, medley, members, Memorial Union, minutes, mist, movement, multicultural, Music, national, National Public Radio, native, New Music, New York City, NPR, often, online, open, Parent, parents, partner, partnership, perform, Performance Today, performer, Performing arts, perspective, phone, Pianist, Piano, play, post, posting, premiere, prestigious, program, programming, Radio, record, relaxation, residency, rhythmic, Scherzo, sea, Serbia, Serbian, share, sign-up, site, slot, sold-out, song, special, story, String quartet, subscriber, Sunday, support, syndicated, tag, temp, Texas, The Bird, The Ear, The Strad, ticket, underwritten, union, United States, Viola, Violin, virtuosity, Waltz, war, Website, William Wortmann, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, word, world premiere, YouTube
Classical music: Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra concert shows Andrew Sewell is a born Bruckner conductor who uses a smaller orchestra to reveal structure
1 Comment
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 professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and 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 Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) gave the second concert of its season on Friday evening in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
The program opened with a rarely performed symphony, No. 30 in D Major, K. 202, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart did not muster in this score anything like the ideas he delivered in his symphonies on either side of this one.
Still, it is an engaging piece, and maestro Sewell always shows great sympathy for the Austrian Classical-era composers of the late 18th century, so the performance was nicely molded.
The guest soloist this time was Croatian-born guitarist Ana Vidovic (below). She was originally scheduled to play the Second Guitar Concerto by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, but for some reason she switched late on to the more substantial Concierto de Aranjuez by the 20th-century Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo.
Unfortunately, Vidovic followed other guitarists of today who feel they must fortify their performances with electronic amplification, so she brought her own rig with her. The result was a boomy, hollow sound, completely artificial, pitted in fake balance against the natural world of the orchestral writing that was rendered, by the way, with charm and delicacy.
The composer (below) was very careful about not allowing the orchestra to overwhelm the intimate guitar, and generations of guitar players have been able to perform this and parallel concertos without benefit of sonic hype.
Alas, the combination of technology with egotism! Vidovic is obviously a musician of genuine artistry, but she quite sabotaged her playing by use of this six-string howitzer. And the knobs were still on through an encore, a trivial Cavatina by one Stanley Meyer.
The evening was richly redeemed by the main work. Sewell has, in recent years, been working his way into the symphonies of the 19th century, late Romantic Austrian composer Anton Bruckner—a composer usually tackled by large orchestras. But he has brought off the first two numbered symphonies with aplomb, and now was the turn of the Third.
This is a work with a complex history of versions and revisions. Sewell bravely chose to use the 1874 revision of the original 1873 version, rather than the ill-fated revision of 1877 or the once-standard bowdlerization of 1889.
Sewell could command only 20 string players, but they proved quite sufficient, even with the occasional divisions of the violins. The reduced lushness resulting allowed inner parts to come through, and the rest of the orchestra played magnificently. Sewell understands Bruckner’s individual rhetoric, with its stop-and-start pacings and dramatic shifts between tremendous power and great delicacy.
Sewell (below) is indeed a born Bruckner conductor. The second movement in particular I have never heard played so eloquently. (You can hear the second movement of the 1874 edition in the YouTube video at the bottom.) I don’t know if Sewell plans to probe still further into Bruckner’s symphonies, but I am ready to follow him eagerly if he does.
Far from being put off by the often-maligned music of Bruckner, the very large audience gave the performance a justly deserved standing ovation. This was, I think, a genuine landmark in the WCO’s history.
Tags: American Record Guide, amplification, Ana Vidovic, Arts, Austria, Bruckner, cavatina, chamber orchestra, Classical era, Classical music, Concert, concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez, conductor, critic, Croatia, Early music, electronic, encore, guitar, History, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Joaquin Rodrigo, John W. Barker, landmark, Late Romantic, lecture, lushness, Madisn Early Music Festival, Madison, Maestro, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Medieval history, Mozart, Music, Music director, Orchestra, Overture Center, pacing, rhetoric, soloist, Stanley Meyer, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra shows its impressive mastery of many musical styles in a concert of Mozart, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Bruckner that marks again just how superb its music-making has become. Plus, read John W. Barker’s review for Isthmus.
2 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
There are many ways to take the measure of a performing arts group. And by all the important measures you can think of, the concert Friday night in the Overture Center’s Capitol Theater by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) succeeded superbly.
Not that we should be surprised. For many seasons now, the WCO, under the programming and baton of its longtime director Andrew Sewell (below) has been turning in higher and higher caliber performances in the Masterworks winter series.
But this concert may well mark a new highpoint.
Do you like light and easy-listening fare? Then the opening work, Mozart‘s overture to “The Impresario,” proved a perfect curtain-raiser. It possessed the right energy and articulation to make it seem, at least for a few minutes more than the things that the young Mozart (below) could toss off pretty much without thinking.
Do you like to hear the orchestra accompany a soloist? Then the Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic (pronounced VIDO-vich, not vik) proved terrific in an ideal vehicle.
It was the Guitar Concerto No. 1 by the early 20th-century Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, whose gift for accessibility, transparent structure and melody may be linked to his composing of movie scores. Take the bittersweet, heartbreaking song, Mozartean in its single-note simplicity, that opens the slow movement (at bottom, in a YouTube video).
True, Vidovic amplified her guitar And while purists might object to that, from where The Ear sat, the amplification helped maintain balance and kept the orchestra from holding back and the guitarist from forcing her sound. Plus, I am not sure the acoustics of the old refurbished Capitol Theater (below) allow for unamplified playing of the classical guitar. (Check out the microphone in the YouTube video at the bottom that comes from a live recording at a prestigious international guitar competition.)
Cutting an attractive figure with her long brunette hair, bright yellow dress and gracious stage presence, Vidovich also offered approving fans a beautiful solo encore, Francisco Tarrega‘s haunting “Remembrances of Alhambra.” The Ear expects, and hopes, we will be hearing her again in a couple of seasons, maybe in a concerto by Antonio Vivaldi or Joaquin Rodrigo.
Do you like music that is “red meat,” as a close friend of The Ear described the Symphony No. 2 in C minor by the late 19th century Romantic Anton Bruckner (below)? Then you wouldn’t have been disappointed either. In fact, this work that lasted over an hour was the only one that brought the audience to its feet -– and in a town renowned for easy standing ovations.
This particular standing ovation, I suspect, was more for the performance than for the demanding music. The audience recognized effort, force and precision when they heard them. The WCO poured itself, heart, soul and body into this work, which was clearly rehearsed long and in careful detail under Sewell’s guidance.
The work itself is early and somewhat disjointed, lurching from the dramatic to the lyrical and back again. Clearly Bruckner relies more on rhythm and pulse than on melody. I do not find that he sings all that naturally or all that much. But he certainly does engage you by the way works over the music, and especially by the way he uses the brass and percussion as well as nthe strings and winds. Bruckner sure was sone kind of orchestrator!
Bruckner’s sound is his own, whatever its historical roots or influences. I am reminded of the scratched out scrawls one sees in Beethoven’s notebooks. I suspect Bruckner, an endless reviser, worked the same way.
The deeply religious Bruckner (below) does not seduce you; sensuality is not his strong suit. Instead he forcefully grabs you and compels you to listen. We should hear more of him, and conductor Sewell, pretty much by himself, seems to be making sure that we do. And his efforts are appreciated.
Not for nothing did that the WCO, on a cold and snowy winter night, play to a full house of about 1,200. At this rate, and with this kind of mastery, one hopes that perhaps the WCO can one day justify doing double performances, maybe a matinee. The quality of the WCO’s music-making certainly deserves it. And so do we listeners.
If you want to compare and see what another critic thought, here is a link to the review the John W. Barker did for Isthmus:
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=41864
Tags: amplification, amplified, Ana Vidovic, Andrew Sewell, Anton Bruckner, Antonio Vivaldi, Bruckner, Capitol Theater, chamber orchestra, classical guitar, concerto, Croatia, Francisco Tarrega, guitar, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Orchestra, Overture, Overture Center, Remembrances of Alhambra, Rodrigo, Symphony No. 2, Vivaldi, WCO, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra kicks off the second half of this concert season with a performance this Friday night of orchestral music by Mozart and Bruckner and a guitar concerto by Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
3 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Event by event, The Ear sees that the winter intermission of the concert season is coming to an end.
To be specific: This Friday night, Jan. 17, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) will kick off the major performances of the season. Then next week comes the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and after that the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and the Madison Opera. And that doesn’t even begin to touch many other smaller chamber music ensembles and Edgewood College.
At 8 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, WCO music director and conductor Andrew Sewell will lead the orchestra with guest Croatian guitar soloist Ana Vidovic (below), who is making her Madison debut.
The program includes the energetic “Impresario” Overture by Mozart from the 18th century; the accessible and Romantic guitar Concerto by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco form the 20th century; and the dramatically introspective Symphony No. 2 in C Minor by Anton Bruckner from the 19th century.
Tickets are $15 to $67 and can be obtained by calling the Overture Center box office at (608) 258-4141 or by visiting:
The well-planned and eclectic program is a terrific combination of the light and the heavy, the lyrical and the dramatic. It is distinguished not only by the colorful guitar concerto by also by the second straight second season in which longtime WCO music director and conductor Andrew Sewell (below) has programmed a Bruckner symphony – while Bruckner has yet to find its way on a program of the Madison Symphony Orchestra for a couple of decades.
For a fine profile and interview with and on overview of Sewell’s achievements, you should read Sandy Tabachnick’s excellent story “The Malleable Maestro” in the Jan. 10 issue of Isthmus. Here is a link:
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=41783
Here is a link to an impressive biography of the guitar soloist Ana Vidovic. And you can hear her in a performance in a YouTube video at the bottom. She is playing Isaac Albeniz‘ popular “Asturias” and the video has over 6 million hits!
An addendum: I am not sure if the reservation deadline has already passed, but if you want to eat on the premises right before the concert, it can’t hurt to call right away if you are interested.
There is an appealing pre-concert dinner from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Studio of the Overture Center. And the menu of roast chicken with peach and walnut chutney or roast salmon with tomato chutney plus rice pilaf, green beans and chocolate mousse for dessert looks to The Ear to be pretty tasty and satisfying for a mid-winter meal. The cost is $33 per person. For reservations, call 257-0638.
http://wcoconcerts.org/performances/masterworks/2013-2014_pre-concert_dinners/
Tags: Albeniz, Andrew Sewell, Anton Bruckner, Asturias, Bruckner, Capitol Theater, Classical music, concerto, Croatia, Edgewood College, guitar, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mozart, Overture, Overture Center, symphony, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | welltemperedear on A jazz-pop composer is the new… |
 | David Spies on A jazz-pop composer is the new… |
| welltemperedear on A jazz-pop composer is the new… |
 | Kathy O on A jazz-pop composer is the new… |
 | Ann Boyer on A jazz-pop composer is the new… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 