The Well-Tempered Ear
What do you think of the ‘new’ Wisconsin Public Radio?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Is The Ear alone — the only listener who is apprehensive and even disapproving about the major changes coming to the “new” Wisconsin Public Radio?
Starting this coming Monday, May 20, WPR is about to be severely reinvented.
That is when there will really be two WPRs — an all-music channel and a separate all-news channel — and when schedules for programs and hosts will change drastically.
And, just as importantly, so will the locations the two new stations on the dial.
For more details about the new station maps and numbers as well as background to the Big Makeover, go to the newly redesigned and improved website and especially this page:
Switching stations several times each day to catch the programs that you like should be about as much fun as resetting your clocks and digital timers for going on and off Daylight Saving and after a power outage.
Only you will be doing it non-stop.
No more one-stop shopping from morning to night.
Might just be enough to make some people tune out.
Or maybe withhold donations, even with what seems an increasing reliance on matching gifts by “generous friends” of WPR.
Of course the promotions and YouTube video from WPR’s recently hired director Sarah Ashworth (below) say the changes will be “exciting” and come after two years of research and analysis. She says the changes will make it easier for listeners around the state to listen to WPR, but they sure sound inconvenient more than user-friendly.
Excuse my doubt.
I like the mix of news and classical music. Always have, alway will.
I like waking up to NPR’s “Morning Edition,” which is my comprehensive morning news briefing. It’s great to listen to while driving to work or resting in bed.
I love the transition to classical music at 9, when I need beauty and am ready to listen to some music. (Below is Stephanie Elkins in the studio where she masterfully hosted the now-defunct “Morning Classics.”)
And after six hours of music, I love hearing “All Things Considered,” one of the few broadcast news programs that take culture seriously in addition to politics, finance and world events. I also love catching Terry Gross’ interviews on “Fresh Air” and financial updates from “Marketplace.”
I have loved the news-music contrast and combination ever since I came to graduate school in Madison and first tuned in to WPR.
The station has always reinforced the astute observations made by the great American poet William Carlos Williams who said: ‘“Beauty” is related not to “loveliness” but to a state in which reality plays a part”’ and “It is difficult/to get the news from poems/though men die miserably every day/for lack/of what is found there.”
Beauty and news belong together — integrated, not segregated. (The all-music channel will still have hourly headlines.)
Hard to tell if the changes will take WPR, now over a century old, to greater success or put it on the path to slow suicide.
Other things might have helped increase listenership .
One that comes to mind is playing less second- and third-rate music that is thoroughly boring and forgettable, and then trying to pass it off as important. More of an emphasis on great music — you know, the kind that first made us all fall in love with classical music — and less of an emphasis on obscure musicology and identity programming might have helped.
Another is implementing faster solutions to mechanical problems — including missing online listings, frequent instances of dead air, and chopping off parts of news and music programs.
Anyway, we need to give the new changes a chance. So Monday I will tune in and see how it goes and hope for the best before passing final judgment. But I am not optimistic.
What do you think of the changes?
What would you like to see WPR do more of or less of?
Please leave a comment, however brief.
The Ear and surely the entire staff at WPR want to hear.
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The Wisconsin Union Theater closes its 2020-21 season with only one online concert this weekend. Sō Percussion on Saturday night has been CANCELED. The Wisconsin Sound all-Beethoven concert with the Pro Arte Quartet will take place at noon on Sunday.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Two online concerts this weekend were supposed to close the 2020-21 season at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
On Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., the usual subscriber season was supposed to wind up with an online concert by the Sō Percussion Ensemble with the contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Caroline Shaw.
That concert has been CANCELED. No reason is listed.
On this Sunday, May 2, at noon CDT, however, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s acclaimed string quartet, the Pro Arte Quartet (below top), will by joined by pianist and UW-Madison graduate Thomas Kasdorf (below bottom) in an all-Beethoven concert.
This will be the last concert of the WUT’s innovative Wisconsin Sounds – they feature local performers– this season.
Here are more details:
PROGRAM and PERFORMERS
The “Beethoven in C Minor” program will feature two works:
String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3 (1797-98). Performers are Sally Chisholm, viola; Parry Karp, cello; and David Perry, violin.
Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3 (1793-4). Performers are: Suzanne Beia, violin; Parry Karp, cello; and Thomas Kasdorf, piano. You can hear the opening movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.
The Pro Arte Quartet’s performance of early works by the young Beethoven (below) is part of the Wisconsin Sound Series, which showcases and supports local musicians and artists during the coronavirus pandemic.
Learn more about the series.
To learn more about the Pro Arte Quartet, go to the group’s Website or page on Facebook
TICKETS
Tickets cost $15 and are available at the Wisconsin Union Theater box office. You can purchase tickets and also see more information about the program and performers here: https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/pro-arte-quartet/
For ticket buyers who purchase a ticket less than two hours before the event start time, the link to view the concert will be in the confirmation email you will receive immediately following your purchase. This link will be accessible for seven days following the initial broadcast.
For all other purchases, all emails will come from https://union.wisc.edu/visit/wisconsin-union-theater/theater-tickets/
If you do not receive your email to your inbox, please check your junk or spam folder in case it was filtered there. If you have questions or problems, the box offices phone number is (608) 265-ARTS (2787).
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The New York Times music critics pick 10 online concerts and operas to watch through the month of November
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By Jacob Stockinger
Classical music critics for The New York Times have again listed their picks of virtual and online concerts that will be streamed during the month of November, starting this Sunday, Nov. 1, and running right through Nov. 30. In September, they did the same for the month of October.
The list of 10 highlights includes chamber music, orchestral music and operas as well as lots of new music, world premieres of commissions and even the Cliburn International Piano Competition, now known simply as The Cliburn.
Most of the events are posted and available for quite a while.
Note that all times are Eastern and that on this Sunday, Nov. 1, daylight saving ends.
As the critics point out, the list may be especially helpful and enjoyable now that the weather is turning colder, people are isolating at home during the nationwide spikes in coronavirus cases, and concert halls remain closed to the public.
Well-known institutions such as The Metropolitan Opera (below) and the Los Angeles Opera are featured. (You can sample an earlier Met production of Philip Glass’ “Satyagraha” – about the early life of Gandhi — in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
So are symphony orchestras from Detroit, Seattle, San Francisco and Cincinnati.
And pianist Igor Levit (below top), who this past year released the highly praised, award-winning complete cycle of 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven and who was named Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine, is also featured, as is the outstanding Chicago-based violinist Jennifer Koh (below bottom, in a photo by the Los Angeles Times).
Here is a link to the story: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/arts/music/classical-music-stream.html
What do you think of the choices?
Do you have other concerts or classical music events to add to the list?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: It will be all-Mozart and all-winds when the local chamber music ensemble Con Vivo performs this Sunday afternoon. Plus, a FREE piano and saxophone concert is at noon on Friday
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features pianist Joseph Ross and alto saxophonist Peterson Ross in music by Samuel Barber, Jacques Ibert, and by the performers Joseph and Peterson Ross. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
Con Vivo … Music With Life (below) continues its 16th season with music of Mozart – with special touches.
The chamber music concert, entitled “No Strings Attached,” will include the Serenade in C minor for wind octet along with selections from the opera The Marriage of Figaro arranged for winds. (You can hear the opening of the Mozart Serenade in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Anders Yocom (below top) from Wisconsin Public Radio will narrate the opera selections and Maestro Kyle Knox (below bottom) will conduct the ensemble.
The concert takes place on Sunday, March 11, at 2:30 p.m. at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave. across from Camp Randall.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at Orange Tree Imports, 1721 Monroe St., or at the door for $18 for adults, and $15 for seniors and students.
Convenient parking is only 2 blocks west at University Foundation, 1848 University Ave. For more information, go to: www.convivomusicwithlife.org
NOTE: This weekend marks the start of Daylight Saving Time. Remember to move your clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night!
Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception to discuss the concert.
Con Vivo’s artistic director Robert Taylor, in remarking about the concert said, “We are delighted and thrilled to be joined by Maestro Knox and Anders Yocom from WPR to present a unique music experience. This will be a wonderful way to experience opera music in a whole new light. We are sure this will once again be a concert to remember.”
Con Vivo is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.
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