The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players perform music that depicts concepts and stories in two concerts this weekend
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ALERT: Today’s Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison has been canceled due to the performer being ill.
By Jacob Stockinger
This coming weekend, the Oakwood Chamber Players (below) continue their season theme of “Vignettes” with rarely performed compositions that depict concepts and stories.
The Oakwood Chamber Players members are: Marilyn Chohaney, flute; Nancy Mackenzie, clarinet; Amanda Szyczs, bassoon; Anne Aley, horn; and Maggie Townsend, cello. They will be joined by guest artists Elspeth Stalter-Clouse, violin; Ariel Garcia, viola; and Joseph Ross, piano.
The program includes works by British, French and American composers drawn from the 18th to the 21st century with styles ranging from light-hearted to deeply felt.
Performances will take place on Saturday night, Jan. 12, at 7 p.m. and on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 13, at 2 p.m. Both concerts will 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, credit cards or personal checks at the door: $25 general admission, $20 seniors and $5 students. Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.
German composer Theodor Kirchner (below) was celebrated for his deft handling of “character pieces.” He studied with Mendelssohn and was friends with Brahms and Schumann. All three admired his miniature musical gems that distilled compositional ideas.
Kirchner published many sets of character pieces depicting ideas and moods. His Character Pieces for Piano Trio, subtitled “Brightly Colored Leaves,” showcase his uniquely creative and expressive approach to music.
American composer Dana Wilson (below) wrote works for chamber ensembles and symphonies that have been performed internationally. A consortium of clarinetists from across the country commissioned Wilson to write AThousand Whirling Dreams in 2014.
This trio for clarinet, viola and piano provides the listener with the thrilling synergy of instruments playing sinuous melodies at high velocity contrasted with moments of hush and mystery.
British composer Thomas Dunhill (below) was a peer of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams and studied with Charles Villiers Stanford. Dunhill was a strong proponent throughout his life of chamber music.
His Quintet for violin, cello, clarinet, horn and piano shows abundant personal artistry and melodic expression but it also resonates beautifully with the impressive influences that surrounded him during an important era in British music.
American composer Ferde Grofe (below) is best known today for his imaginative orchestral piece “Grand Canyon Suite.” However, he had a fulfilling and interesting musical life. He grew up in New York City, studied in Paris, became sought after as an arranger (including George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”) and jazz pianist, played viola with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and wrote for the film industry.
Table d’hôtel – Humoresque is written for the unusual combination of flute, violin and viola. Like a menu of French cuisine conjured up by its title, the piece delivers a palatable and charming musical confection. (You can hear “Table d’hôtel” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Also on the program are two brief contrasting works for flute, bassoon and piano. The first, Dialogue Sentimentale, by French composer Paul Lacombe (below top), shows the sweet and expressive melodic writing which his mentor Georges Bizet greatly admired. German-American composer Tim Jansa (below bottom) wrote Three Miniatures for flute, bassoon and piano that possess a serene energy expressing the composer’s concepts of evening.
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who rehearse and perform at Oakwood Village.
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: This week features FREE music for horn, violin, flute and voice at the UW-Madison
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By Jacob Stockinger
This will be a busy week at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, with a lot of FREE concerts and special events happening especially on SUNDAY.
Here is a schedule:
WEDNESDAY
This Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, Daniel Grabois — UW-Madison professor of horn and director of the Electro-Acoustic Research Space (EARS) – will be joined by several other faculty members for a FREE concert of trio music by Dana Wilson, Heinrich von Herzogenberg and John Harbison (his “Twilight Music,” which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For a complete list of performers and the full program, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/faculty-recital-daniel-grabois-horn/
For information about Daniel Grabois (below, in a photo by James Gill), go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/faculty/daniel-grabois/
SUNDAY
Starting on Sunday at 11 a.m., the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music will host Flute Day, in which middle school and high school students are invited to participate.
There will also be a FREE public concert at 5 p.m. with guest flutist George Pope (below top) and UW-Madison faculty flutist Timothy Hagen (below bottom), who is a member of the Wingra Wind Quintet. The UW-Madison Flute Ensemble will also perform. No word on the program, sorry.
To register and find out more information about workshops and master classes, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/flute-day/
On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall a FREE recital of songs by Jean Sibelius and Edvard Grieg will be performed by soprano Anna Hersey (below), who teaches at UW-Oshkosh and specializes in Scandinavian songs, and pianist Alan Johnson.
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-artists-anna-hersey-soprano-alan-johnson-piano/
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall, guest violinist Blaise Magniere, who was a founding member of the Avalon String Quartet and who teaches at Northern Illinois University, (below) will perform a recital of solo violin music by Johann Sebastian Bach. He will also hold a free and open master class on MONDAY morning at 9 a.m. in Morphy Hall.
For the full program, go to:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/guest-recital-blaise-magniere-violin/
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Classical music: Juilliard String Quartet names a replacement for violist Samuel Rhodes who has played with the UW’s Pro Arte Quartet and who will retire at the end of this season. UW clarinetist Linda Bartley performs on Saturday night.
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REMINDER: Saturday night at 8 p.m. — NOT Friday night as first and mistakenly stated here — in Morphy Recital Hall, UW clarinetist Linda Bartley (below) will perform a FREE concert with Jeannie Yu, piano; and Sally Chisholm, viola. The program includes “Sonata in D” by Nino Rota; “Liquid Ebony” by Dana Wilson; “Cantilene” by Louis Cahuzac and “Scarlattiana” for Clarinet, Viola and Piano by Walter Mays. Also, at 8 p.m. tonight, Friday night, in Mills Hall, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet marks 40 years with a FREE concert. For details, see Thursday’s post.
By Jacob Stockinger
Perhaps the premiere name among American violists these days, especially for chamber music, is Samuel Rhodes (below, in a photo by Peter Schaaf).
Rhodes teaches viola, and heads the viola department, at the Juilliard School of Music, where he also has played in the award-winning Juilliard String Quartet since 1969. The influential and critically acclaimed quartet was founded in 1946. (Rhodes in on the far right.)
Rhodes has often been a guest artist with the University of Wisconsin’s Pro Arte String Quartet. Last year (below, Rhodes sitting second from right), during the celebration of the Pro Arte’s centennial, Rhodes sat in to play one of those sublime but underplayed Mozart String Quintets with two violas.
Members of the Pro Arte have always told The Ear not only how much they admired Rhodes’ playing but also how they found him a congenial colleague to work with. And so it seemed form the beautiful results one heard when they played together.
Rhodes will be replace in the quartet by British player Roger Tapping (below, in a photo by Susan Wilson), the current violist of the acclaimed Takacs String Quartet.
Here is a link to two stories, from Gramophone Magazine and The New York Times, about Tapping and Rhodes:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/more-turnover-in-the-juilliard-string-quartet/
Here on YouTube is Samuel Rhodes playing and discussing Beethoven:
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