David Lang | The Well-Tempered Ear

NPR names relevant classical albums in a musical Diary of the Plague Year of the pandemic, racial protests, wildfires and hurricanes

December 29, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

For an unusual and difficult year, NPR (National Public Radio) and critic Tom Huizenga have found a new and unusual way to recommend this past year’s top classical music recordings.

On the “Deceptive Cadence” blog for NPR, Huizenga kept a personal month-by-month diary of “music and mayhem.”

For last February, for example, this ancient image of The Dance of Death inspired contemporary composer Thomas Adès to compose his own “Totentanz” or Dance of Death. (You can hear an excerpt from the work in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Some of the thematically-related music is modern or contemporary, some of it is from the Baroque or Classical era.

In June, as protests against the death of George Floyd (below top) flared up and spread worldwide, NPR names a recording of the “Negro Folk Symphony” by African-American composers William Dawson and Ulysses Kay (below bottom), thereby helping to rediscover Black composers whose works have been overlooked and neglected in the concert hall and the recording studio.

Devastating wildfires on the West Coast, Presidential impeachment and hurricanes on the Gulf Coast also found their way into the choices of music to listen to.

It is an unusual approach, but The Ear thinks it works.

See and hear for yourself by going to the sonic diary and listening to the samples provided.

Here is a link to the NPR album diary: https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2020/12/21/947149286/music-and-mayhem-a-diary-of-classical-albums-for-a-troubled-2020

But many roads, if not all, lead to Rome, as they say.

What is also interesting is that a number of the NPR choices overlap with ones listed by music critics of The New York Times as the 25 best classical albums of 2020.

Some choices also are found on the list of the nominations for the Grammy Awards that will be given out at the end of January.

In other words, the NPR diary can also serve as yet another holiday gift guide if you have gift cards or money to buy some new and notable CDs, and are looking for recommendations.

Here is a link to the Times’ choices, which you can also find with commentary and a local angle, in yesterday’s blog post: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/arts/music/best-classical-music.html

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/12/27/the-new-york-times-names-the-top-25-classical-recordings-of-2020-and-includes-sample-tracks/

And here is a list to the Grammy nominations: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/11/28/for-holiday-shopping-and-gift-giving-here-are-the-classical-music-nominations-for-the-63rd-grammy-awards-in-2021/

What do you think of the NPR musical diary of the plague year?

Do you find it informative? Accurate? Interesting? Useful?

Would you have different choices of music to express the traumatic events of the past year?

The Ear wants to hear.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: The third annual Madison New Music Festival features three world premieres and 25 composers, and takes place this weekend with three concerts

August 7, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

It has been a good year for new music in Madison, which has often seemed inhospitable to that music in the past.

Among major contributors have been the LunART Festival of contemporary women composers; programs by the UW Symphony Orchestra and other UW-Madison groups and individuals; the Madison Opera; the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society; the Willy Street Chamber Players; and the Oakwood Chamber Players. Plus, The Ear is sure there are many other contributors he is overlooking.

But the largest share of the credit has to go to a three-day annual festival of living composers that will take place for the third year this coming weekend. (Photos from last year’s well-attended festival are by Max Schmidt.)

Here is an announcement from the festival with the details:

The third annual Madison New Music Festival will take place this coming Friday, Aug. 10, Saturday, Aug. 11, and Sunday, Aug. 12.

The Madison New Music Festival is an annual weekend-long concert series dedicated to strengthening Madison’s cultural vitality through the celebration of fresh classical music from our lifetimes.

Founded by Madison native composer Zachary Green (below bottom), the festival presents new works by some of the world’s leading living composers, shines a spotlight on new music created in Wisconsin, and shares underplayed music of the 20th and 21st centuries with the Madison community.

Every concert will also have a world premiere of music that has never been heard before. On the opening night, Conduit is performing a new piece by Kyle Tieman-Strauss called Abject. The next day, organist Tyler Jameson Pimm premieres his new piece Psalm 22. Then on Sunday, listeners get to hear the premiere of They’re Still Here by BC Grimm, featuring music for nine different instruments (all of which will be played by Grimm himself).

Over the course of three concerts around town, we are featuring a total of 17 musicians playing the works of 25 composers, all of which were written in the last 50 years.

Though each concert has a different theme, every performance features music by Wisconsin composers, composers of color, and both men and women.

Fifteen of our musicians were born, raised or currently reside in Wisconsin, but we’re bringing several back to town just for the festival. They include members of the Madison, Milwaukee and Quad City symphonies; and graduates of Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes Conservatory, Northwestern University, and, of course, the UW-Madison.

We invite you to join us for the following three concerts:

CONCERT 1: Sounds of the ‘60s and Beyond – Friday, Aug. 10, at 7:30 p.m.

Hear sounds born out of the ’60s counterculture with works exploring minimalism, social and political engagement, and electronic experimentation, as well as the music they inspired for decades to come. There will be a cash bar, as well as opportunities to explore the exhibits.

Where: Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMOCA), 227 State Street

Who: Caitlin Mead, soprano; Heather Zinninger Yarmel, flute; Kristina Teuschler, clarinet; Jeremy Kienbaum, viola; Alex Norris, violin, and Zou Zou Robidoux, cello; and Conduit (below, Zach Manzi, clarinet and Evan Sadler, percussion).

Program: Music by Melissa Dunphy, Angelica Negron, Evan Williams, Steve Reich, Gilda Lyons, Anna Meadors, Kyle T. Strauss, David Lang and Andy Akiho

CONCERT 2: Sounds of Reflection – Saturday, Aug. 11, at 2 p.m.

The festival continues with an afternoon program invoking spirituality, morality and reflection. Organ interludes will be interspersed throughout the program of vocal and instrumental music.

Where: Bethel Lutheran Church, 312 Wisconsin Ave.

Who: Greg Zelek, Madison Symphony Orchestra organist (below); Jeremy Kienbaum, viola; Satoko Hayami, piano; Tyler Pimm; organ; Kristina Teuschler, clarinet; Alex Norris, violin; Micah Cheng, cello; Caitlin Mead, soprano; and Scott Gendel, piano.

Program: Music by Toru Takemitsu, Trevor Weston, Morton Feldman, Daniel Ficarri, John Weaver, Tyler Pimm, Tania Leon, John Musto and Scott Gendel

CONCERT 3: Festival Closing Party 2018 – Sunday, Aug. 12, at 7:30 p.m.

Kick back a drink as local musician BC Grimm plays his original works for instruments from cello to Chinese Guqin zither, followed by a set of music for solo strings. Then, the musicians from all three concerts come together for a performance of the 1973 piece “Stay On It” — heard in the YouTube video the bottom — by Julius Eastman (below).

Where: Robinia Courtyard, 829 East Washington Avenue

Who: BC Grimm, Jeremy Keinbaum, Aaron Yarmel, and All Festival Performers

Program: BC Grimm, Philip Glass, Ursula Mamlok, Aaron Yarmel, and Julius Eastman

All individual concerts are $15 for general admission, $5 for students. You can also subscribe to all three concerts for $35.

For more information, please visit our website http://madisonnewmusic.org or find us on Facebook (@Madison New Music Festival) or Instagram (@madisonnewmusic).

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #AaronYarmel, #AndyAkiho, #AngelicaNegron, #AnnaMeadors, #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BCGrimm, #ChamberMusic, #ChineseInstrument, #ChineseMusic, #ClarinetMusic, #ComposerofColor, #ContemporaryComposers, #CuturalDiversity, #DanielFicarri, #DavidLang, #EvanWilliams, #FemaleComposers, #FluteMusic, #GenderDiveristy, #GildaLyons, #InstrumentalMusic, #JapaneseComposer, #JohnMusto, #JohnWeaver, #JuilliardSchool, #JuliusEastman, #KyleT.Strauss, #LivingComposers, #LunARTFestival, #MadisonMuseumofContemporaryArt, #MadisonNewMusicFestival, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MaleComposers, #ManhattanSchoolofMusic, #MannesConservatory, #MelissaDunphy, #MeToo, #MilwaukeeSymphonyOrchestra, #MortonFeldman, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #NothwesternUniversity, #OakwoodChamberPlayers, #OrganMusic, #PeopleofColor, #PhilipGlass, #PianoAccompanist, #PianoMusic, #PoliticalActivism, #PoliticalEngagement, #QuanCitiesSymphony, #ScottGendel, #SocialActivism, #SocialEngagement, #SteveReich, #StringMusic, #TaniaLeon, #ToruTakemitsu, #TrevorWeston, #TylerPimm, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UrsulaMamlok, #ViolaMusic, #ViolinMusic, #VocalMusic, #WillyStreetChamberPlayers, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, #ZacharyGreen, Aaron Yarmel, admission, Andy Akiho, Angelica Negron, Anna Meadors, Arts, attendance, Audio, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, BC Grimm, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, color, composer, Conduit, cultural diversity, culture, Daniel Ficarri, David Lang, diversity, Evan Williams, festival, flute, Gender diversity, Gilda Lyons, Guqin, instrument, Iowa, Jacob Stockinger, Japan, Japanese, John Musto, John Weaver, Juilliard School, Julius Eastman, Kyle T. Strauss, lifetime, LunART Festival, Madison, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison New Music Festival, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, MANHATTAN, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes Conservatory, Melissa Dunphy, men, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, minimalism, MMOCA, Morton Feldman, Music, New Music, New York City, Northwestern University, Oakwood Chamber Players, opera, organ, people of color, percussion, performance, Philip Glass, Pianist, Piano, political activism, Politics, program, Quad Cities, Quad Cities Symphony, Scott Gendel, singer, social activism, Sonata, soprano, Steve Reich, string music, strings, Tania Leon, theme, Toru Takemitsu, Trevor Weston, Tyler Pimm, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Ursula Mamlok, UW Symphony Orchestra, video, Vioinist, Viola, Violin, violist, vital, vitality, vocal music, what, when, where, who, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, women, world premiere, YouTube, Zachary Green, zither

Classical music: The Madison Choral Project features a world premiere when it performs a “timeless” program this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon

February 9, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Madison Choral Project (below) bills itself as Madison’s only professional and paid choir, and judging by the results, the a cappella group has succeeded, creating many loyal fans. (You can hear a sample performance — of a world premiere, no less — in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Such success is in large part thanks to the efforts of its founder, director and conductor Albert Pinsonneault (below). Originally a music professor at Edgewood College, Pinsonneault now works at Northwestern University.

He commutes from his home in Madison where he continues his work with the Madison Choral Project.

You can sample his and the choir’s impressive music-making this weekend at two performances in two different venues of a concert called “Drown’d in One Endlesse Day.”

Here are details:

“Drown’d in One Endlesse Day” features a world premiere of Wisconsin composer Eric William Barnum (below).

The Madison Choral Project champions new music. But also on the eclectic program are new and old pieces exploring the transformational moments when “time seems to stop.”

Featured composers and compositions include: the motet Komm, Jesu, Komm by Johann Sebastian Bach; “Crucifixus” by Antonio Lotti (below top); There is an Old Belief by the British composer Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (below second); Credo by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (below third, in photo by Getty Images); I Live in Pain and Last Spring by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer David Lang (below fourth); and Entreat Me Not to Leave You by Dan Forrest (below bottom).

PERFORMANCES:

On Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.: CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 944 East Gorham Street in Madison on the near east side

On Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.: St. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL,
1833 Regent Street in Madison on the near west side

Tickets are $40 for preferred seating; $24 for general admission; and $10 for students.

To buy tickets online (they are also available at the door) as well as to see more background, reviews, information and several videos of MCP performances, go to:

http://themcp.org

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Madison Choral Project gives a concert of new music focusing on the social and political theme of “Privilege” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon

April 20, 2017
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, held at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features David Miller, trumpet; Amy Harr, cello; and Jane Peckham, piano. They will play music by Bach, Schmidt, Piazzolla, Honegger and Cooman. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.

By Jacob Stockinger

Call it activist beauty or beautiful activism.

It sure seems that political and social relevance is making a comeback in the arts during an era in which inequality in race, gender, ethnicity, wealth, education, health, employment, immigration status and other issues loom larger and larger.

For the Madison Choral Project (below), for example, singing is about more than making music. It can also be about social justice.

Writes the Project:

“The Madison Choral Project believes that too often the classical music concert is simply a museum of the beautiful. Yet the worlds of theater, art and literature can so brilliantly combine beauty with material that provokes contemplation and understanding.

“Our world is increasingly complicated, and we seek to provide voices exploring important emotional and social concerns of today.”

That means that, in its two concerts this weekend, the Madison Choral Project will explore the concept of privilege in two performances this weekend.

The repertoire is all new music or contemporary music by living composers.

The Madison Choral Project, under the direction of Albert Pinsonneault (below), who formerly taught at Edgewood College and is now at Northwestern University, presents their 10th Project – Privilege – on this Friday night, April 21, at 8:30 p.m. (NOT 7:30, as originally announced, because of noise from a nearby football game); and on Sunday afternoon, April 23, at 3 p.m.

Both performances are at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.

General admission is $24 in advance and online; $28 at the door; and $10 for students either in advance or at the door. A limited number of preferred seats are offered for $40.

The Privilege concerts feature the work Privilege by Ted Hearne (b. 1982), which Hearne (below) writes “are settings of little texts questioning a contemporary privileged life (mine).”

With texts that range from the inequality of educational experiences, to the unfair playing field brought through race, the work sets thought-provoking texts in a beautiful and musically accessible way. (NOTE: You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

The program also includes the world premiere of a new piece of music from Wisconsin composer and UW-Madison graduate D. Jasper Sussman (b. 1989, below), whose piece Work: “What choice?” is a contemplation of society’s confusing and hypocritical demands on women, their bodies and their appearance.

Sussman writes “I have never identified as a feminist. It’d be impossible, however, for me to remain ignorant of the clumsily uneven climate of our world, and certainly of this country. Work: “What Choice?” is an attempt at telling a common story shared by many.”

Included on the concert are two works of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang (b. 1957, below), whose new minimalism includes sonorities influenced by rock and popular music, but with layered repetition that gives the pieces a meditative and contemplative quality.

Also featured is When David Heard by Eric Whitacre (b. 1970, below), a gorgeous and devastating monologue contemplating the death of one’s child.

For more information and tickets, go to www.themcp.org

You can also go to a fine story in The Capital Times:

http://host.madison.com/ct/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/with-privilege-madison-choral-project-sings-on-social-justice/article_1d4ecf46-3347-5950-a655-eb270449fb96.html

The Madison Choral Project is Wisconsin’s only fully professional choir. All the singers on stage are paid, professional musicians.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: Activism, activist, Albert Pinsonneault, Art, Arts, Bach, Baroque, beautiful, beauty, Camp Randall Stadium, Chamber music, Child, choral music, Classical music, climate, composer, contemporary, Cooman, country, D. Jasper Sussman, David Lang, death, Edgewood College, Education, emotion, employment, Eric Whitacre, Ethnicity, feminism, feminist, First Unitarian Society of Madison, gender, Health, Honegger, immigration, Income Disparity, income inequality, inequality, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, literature, Madison, Madison Choral Project, minimalism, monologue, Music, New Music, Northwestern University, Piano, Piazzolla, political, Politics, pop, popular music, privilege, professional, Pulitzer Prize, race, relevance, repetition, Rock, Schmidt, singer, Singing, social, social justice, society, Ted Hearne, theater, Trumpet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, wealth, wealth gay, Wisconsin, world premiere, YouTube

Classical music: The critically acclaimed vocal group Cantus sings about four kinds of love at the Stoughton Opera House this Saturday night. The Stoughton High School Concert Choir is a special guest performer.

March 30, 2016
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received word about an intriguing and appealing performance this weekend:

On this Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., Cantus (below top, in a photo by Curtis Johnson), the critically acclaimed, nine-voice men’s vocal ensemble based in the Twin Cities, will perform at the Stoughton Opera House (below middle and bottom), known for its historical restoration and its fine acoustics.

Love has been the inspiration for artistic expression since the dawn of time. It is such a complex idea that the ancient Greeks broke it down into four different kinds: romantic, familial, friendly and unconditional or spiritual love.

Weaving together repertoire and interstitial remarks, Cantus regards this unquantifiable emotion from all sides.

The program spans multiple historical eras and cultural traditions.

It features music by Francis Poulenc, Edvard Grieg, Ludwig van Beethoven and Bobby McFerrin.

Each of those works is paired with newly commissioned works exploring each of the four loves (romantic, familial, friendly and spiritual) by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang (below top, in a photo by Peter Serling) as well as Roger Treece (second below), Joseph Gregorio (third below) and Ysaye Barnwell (below bottom).

The program brims with Cantus’s trademark programming juxtaposition, including pairing the Beach Boys’ “Their Hearts were Full of Spring” with “Wedding Qawwali” by the Grammy Award- and Academy Award-winning Indian composer A. R. Rahman (below) and Michael McGlynn’s setting of the traditional Gaelic “Ceann Dubh Dilis (Her Sweet Dark Head)” in a set about romantic love.

While seemingly disjointed on its face, the variety of repertoire throughout blends seamlessly and highlights the universality of Love – our greatest and most fragile gift.

For more information about Cantus, including biographies, photos, videos and audio samples, visit this link:

http://www.allianceartistmanagement.com/artist.php?id=cantus&aview=dpk

Here is a YouTube video about the program, with musical samples, to be performed in Stoughton:

Classical music: The City of Tomorrow wind quintet will perform contemporary music during its Madison debut concert this Thursday night at the Brink Lounge.

October 23, 2012
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By Jacob Stockinger

The City of Tomorrow wind quintet (below top) is coming to Madison for is local debut concert this Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Brink Lounge (below bottom), 701 East Washington Avenue.

The concert is sponsored by the Madison chapter of Classical Revolution, the growing national and international movement to present classical music in non-traditional venues.

The City of Tomorrow — which specializes in contemporary music, especially contemporary classical music, and offers many world premieres (at bottom) — is the only wind quintet to have won the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in the last 10 years. The Madison concert will include yet-unrecorded works by David Lang and Esa-Pekka Salonen (below), former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The program features “Memoria” by Esa-Pekka Salonen; the 1948 wind quintet by Elliott Carter; “Breathless” by David Lang; and the Wind Quintet No. 3 by David Maslanka.

Admission is $11 for adults; $6 for students with ID; and $5 for members of Classical Revolution. For information, call (608) 661-8599.

The City of Tomorrow wind quintet (below) is a long-distance ensemble. Members live in four different cities (New York, Chicago, Portland, Oregon and San Antonio) and have intensive rehearsal residencies throughout the year. The quintet will perform in 17 cities in nine states this season as well as make its Canadian debut with New Music Edmonton and record its first CD while at the Banff Centre.

Madison has had rich season of wind quintets, as the Imani Winds were just in town for the Wisconsin Union Theater, and the University of Wisconsin’s Wingra Woodwind Quintet performs regularly. So this will be a memorable season for wind fans and students.

A complete calendar and bio of the quintet can be found at www.thecityoftomorrow.org.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: Banff Centre, David Lang, David Maslanka, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Imani Winds, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Wind, Wind quintet, Wisconsin Union Theater

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The Well-Tempered Ear

NPR names relevant classical albums in a musical Diary of the Plague Year of the pandemic, racial protests, wildfires and hurricanes

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Classical music: The third annual Madison New Music Festival features three world premieres and 25 composers, and takes place this weekend with three concerts

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Classical music: The Madison Choral Project features a world premiere when it performs a “timeless” program this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon

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Classical music: Madison Choral Project gives a concert of new music focusing on the social and political theme of “Privilege” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon

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Classical music: The critically acclaimed vocal group Cantus sings about four kinds of love at the Stoughton Opera House this Saturday night. The Stoughton High School Concert Choir is a special guest performer.

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Classical music: The City of Tomorrow wind quintet will perform contemporary music during its Madison debut concert this Thursday night at the Brink Lounge.

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