The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The UW Pro Arte Quartet and Wingra Wind Quintet prove exceptional partners in a joint all-Schubert concert
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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. Barker also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
On Saturday night, in Mills Hall on the campus, two ensembles from the Mead Witter School of Music at the UW-Madison joined forces in an all-Schubert program.
The two groups were the Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) and the Wingra Wind Quintet (no group photo is available).
The music of Schubert (below) will, of course, guarantee a delightful evening, and that was certainly the case this time.
As a prologue, there was the set of variations for flute and piano, D. 802, on Schubert’s own song, Trockne Blumen from his Die schöne Müllerin song cycle. This was played with real flair by Timothy Hagen with pianist Daniel Fung (both are below). Hagen preceded the performance by explaining the relationship of the variations to the whole cycle. (You can hear the original song sung by the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
That choice of an opener had its point because the variations were composed just weeks before the major work on the program, Schubert’s Octet in F, D. 803.
There is much individuality in this Octet, scored for a combination of strings and winds. It is true that Schubert’s elder contemporary, Louis Spohr, had written such an octet, if with slightly different scoring, in 1817, while Schubert’s was composed in 1824. Still, Schubert’s hour-long score is more expansive, a work remarkable at its time and hardly equaled since.
In this broad, symphonically scaled six-movement work, Schubert just poured out one feast of melodic invention after another. One does not often have a chance to hear this work in concert, but this performance was a particularly memorable one.
The performers (below) were clarinetist Alicia Lee, bassoonist Mark Vallon, and hornist Joanna Schulz, along with bassist David Scholl, plus the usual four members of the Pro Arte Quartet.
Ah, but that last element gave the evening special meaning, for it involved the return to performing by cellist Parry Karp (below). A recent accident had damaged two fingers on his left hand; but here he was, all fingers flying with the spirited efficiency.
It proved a welcome moment in the quartet’s current life, and itself added a significant dimension to this concert.
Tags: accident, American, American Record Guide, Arts, bass, blog, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, contemporary, cycle, Daniel Fung, delight, Die Schöne Müllerin, Die Schoene Muellerin, Early music, elder, emeritus, Finger, flute, Franz Schubert, guide, History, Horn, hour, injury, invention, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Louis Spohr, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, Medieval, melodic, melody, movement, Music, Octet, Orchestra, Parry Karp, partner, photo, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, professor, Radio, record, review, score, song, symphony, theme and variations, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wingra Wind Quintet, Wingra Woodwind Quintet, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: You can hear Schubert’s last songs at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival TONIGHT at 7:30
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been informed that seats still remain for tonight’s all-Schubert concert at the popular Token Creek Chamber Music Festival.
Half of the concert will be piano music, including the six Moments Musicaux and a work for piano, four-hands, a genre that Schubert often composed in and performed with friends. Ya-Fei Chuang (below) is the featured piano soloist.
Also on the program is “Swan Song” – sung by tenor Charles Blandy (below top) with pianist Alison D’Amato (below bottom) of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Buffalo.
Here are program notes by the festival’s co-artistic director and prize-winning composer John Harbison about the work:
Schwanengesang is not a planned cycle. Instead it is a collection of Schubert’s last songs, as serious and searching as the two great cycles Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.
Thematically and musically, the songs have much in common and, taken together, they are unequalled in plumbing the emotional depths of the soul, heart-wrenching and heartwarming.
We can’t be certain whether Schubert (below) ever intended them to be performed as a unity.
When they were published early in 1829, after his death at 31, it was the first publisher, Tobias Haslinger, who named the collection Schwanengesang (Swan Song), presumably to emphasize that these were the last fruits of the composer’s genius.
The sequence consists of settings of seven poems by Rellstab, six by Heine and, as an encore, Seidl’s “Taubenpost,” quite likely the very last song Schubert ever wrote. (You can hear “Taubenpost,” sung by the famed German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more information about the festival, the remaining concerts and tickets, visit www.tokencreekfestival.org
Tags: Alison d'Amato, Arts, baritone, Chamber music, Charles Blandy, Chinese composers, Classical music, composer, cycle, Die Schoene Muellerin, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Eastman School of Music, emotion, emotional, encore, four-hands, Franz Schubert, fruit, genius, heart-wrenching, heartwarming, Jacob Stockinger, John Harbison, last, Madison, Moments Musicaux, Music, notes, Piano, Poetry, prize, program, publisher, singer, soloist, Sonata, song, soul, Swan Song, Taubenpost, tenor, theme, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, United States, unity, university, University of Buffalo, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, winner, Winterreise, Wisconsin, Ya-Fei Chuang, YouTube
Classical music: This year’s Token Creek Chamber Music Festival will explore “Necessary Music” by Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Ravel, Harbison and other composers from Aug. 26 through Sept 3
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post about an annual event that puts on a lot of MUST-HEAR programs:
TOKEN CREEK, WIS. – In what way, and for whom, is a certain kind of music necessary?
Certainly the presenters of a chamber music festival would be presumptuous to offer a program as a sort of prescription for listeners. And at Token Creek we won’t.
So often the music we need arrives by chance, and we did not even know we needed it until it appears. And other times we know exactly what we are missing. And so we offer this year’s programs of pieces that feed the soul.
Saturday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 27, at 4 p.m., Program I: Continuo
Some works of art are so rich that they sustain a lifetime of inquiry and encounters, each time revealing fresh new insights only possible through sustained engagement, pieces so resilient they admit multiple interpretations, approaches, nuances, shadings.
We open the season with music of Johann Sebastian Bach (below), pieces we’ve played before and some we have not, music that continues to compel for the very reason that it can never be fully plumbed, music that rewards over and over again. In a concert dominated by Bach, the requirement of the other pieces is really only that they offer sufficient originality and integrity not to be dwarfed or rendered ephemeral by his authority.
Flutist Dawn Lawler (below top), cellist Sara Sitzer (below second) and pianist Jeffrey Stanek (below third join the artistic directors composer-pianist John and violinist Rose Mary Harbison (below bottom) for this opening program.
Works:
BACH Sonata in E minor for violin and continuo, BWV 1023
HAYDN Trio in F major for flute, cello and piano XV:17
BACH Two Fugues, from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
HARBISON Mark the Date, for flute and piano (pre-premiere)
BACH Sonata in G major for violin and continuo, BWV 1021
BACH Three-Voice Ricercar, from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079
BACH Sonata in C minor, from The Musical Offering, BWV 1079
Wednesday, Aug. 30, at 7:30 p.m. Program II: Schubert
A sequel to last year’s all-Schubert program, which offered Die Schöne Müllerin and the “Trout” Quintet, this season we offer two late masterworks by Schubert (below): the song cycle Schwanengesang (Swan Song) and the solo piano set of six Moments Musicaux (Musical Moments).
In structure, ingenuity and invention these two large works offer an eloquent counterpoint and complement to one another. We are pleased to welcome back pianist Ya-Fei Chuang (below top), and to introduce tenor Charles Blandy (below middle) with pianist Linda Osborn (below bottom).
Works:
SCHUBERT Andante, from Sonata in C for Piano Four Hands (“Grand Duo”), D.812
SCHUBERT Moments Musicaux, D.780
SCHUBERT Schwanengesang, D.957
Saturday, Sept. 2, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 3, at 4 p.m. Program III: Waltz
This program explores the familiar form of the waltz as an unexpectedly flexible and diverse musical type, with uncommon approaches from a wide variety of composers from Schubert through Sur.
We conclude the season with Schumann’s splendid Piano Quartet, whose third movement offers one of the greatest of slow waltzes of all time. (You can hear it performed by the Faure Quartet in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We are pleased to introduce violist Becky Menghini (below top) and cellist Kyle Price (below bottom).
Works:
FRITZ KREISLER Three Old Viennese Melodies for Violin and Piano
DONALD SUR Berceuse for Violin and Piano
SCHUBERT Waltz Sequence
RAVEL Valses nobles et sentimentales
GEORGE CRUMB Sonata for Solo Cello
SCHUMANN Quartet in E-flat for Piano and Strings, Op. 47
The Token Creek Festival has been called a gem, a treasure nestled in the heart of Wisconsin cornfields, a late-summer fixture just outside of Madison.
Now in its 28th season, the Festival has become known for its artistic excellence, diverse and imaginative programming, a deep engagement with the audience, and a surprising, enchanting and intimate performance venue in a comfortable refurbished barn.
The 2017 festival offers five events to close the summer concert season, Aug. 26–Sept. 3.
Performances take place at the Festival Barn (below), on Highway 19 near the hamlet of Token Creek (10 minutes north of Madison, near Sun Prairie) with ample parking available.
The charmingly rustic venue—indoors and air-conditioned with modern comforts—is invitingly small, and early reservations are recommended.
Concert tickets are $32 (students $12). Reservations can be secured in several ways:
- Online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/token-creek-chamber-music-festival-2017-necessary-music-tickets-36091343179
- Website: www.tokencreekfestival.org (a link to our online ticketing, or a printable order form)
- Phone: 608-241-2525 (voicemail only, please leave a message)
- Email: info@tokencreekfestival.org
- U.S. mail: P.O. Box 5201, Madison WI, 53705
More information about the Token Creek Festival and all events and artists can be found at the website, www.tokencreekfestival.org or by calling 608-241-2525.
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Classical music: Songs and chamber music about water and nature by Franz Schubert flow with drama and assertiveness to conclude this year’s Token Creek Festival. The concert will be repeated today at 4 p.m.
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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 for 12 years hosted an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also provided the performance photos for this review.
By John W. Barker
The context of this year’s Token Creek Chamber Music Festival has been the reconstitution of a neglected trout stream on the property of John and Rose Mary Harbison, the festival directors.
With an overall festival title of “Water Music,” its final program is called “Water Colors,” and is devoted exclusively to music by this year’s featured composer, Franz Schubert (below).
This program, first performed on Friday evening, contained just two major works.
The first was Schubert’s song cycle, “Die schöne Müllerian (The Lovely Miller Maid).
Setting a cycle of 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller (almost a pun!), Schubert has us follow episodically the story of a mill worker who falls in love with his boss’s daughter. She first encourages him and then betrays him, abandoning him to a hopeless death. Through all this, his guide, sustainer and, finally, consoler, is the mill brook, itself effectively a character in the saga.
Occupying the first half of the concert, this cycle was sung from memory by the highly acclaimed tenor William Hite (below). His voice is somewhat more of a dramatic than a lyric tenor, and some of his delivery had a vehemence that was almost too big for the intimate setting of “the barn” on the Harbison estate.
But, in truth, Hite (below) could muster up delicacy and nuance as well as earthy strength. Above all, he became a story teller—at once narrator and protagonist—a singing actor who drew us into the tragic story.
He was also powerfully supported by pianist Kayo Iwama (below). Her playing was not subtle, but it struck just the right tone of assertiveness and caught the bucolic evocations.
As their performance proceeded, I found I was no longer in “the barn” but transported into the world of nature and hopeless love. The poignance and humanity of Schubert’s cycle was thus truly realized.
In the second half, another of Schubert’s “nature” evocations was fittingly offered: the beloved Quintet in A for piano and an adjusted string quartet (D.667). This bears the nickname of “the Trout,” because the fourth of its five movements is a set of variations on his own song, Die Forelle (The Trout). (You can hear that fourth movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Performers (below) were Rose Mary Harbison, violin; Jennifer Paulson, viola; Karl Lavine; cello, and Ross Gilliland, bass; with pianist Molly Morkoski.
It was given a lively performance, and made me pay particular attention to the role of the piano in the scoring. Aside from the two piano trios, this is Schubert’s only full-scale chamber work in which he matches the piano with a string ensemble. It’s not a quasi-concerto, but there is a clear understanding of the sonic distinctions between the piano and the strings as they contrast and collaborate.
The piano’s role was indeed the backbone of this performance, thanks to the work of Morkoski (below), who again—as in the opening concert program last weekend—showed herself a born Schubert pianist of great flair.
NOTE: This program is to be repeated this afternoon at 4 p.m., and will conclude this year’s festival.
For more information, here is a link:
Tags: Actor, American Record Guide, Baroque music, bass, bucolic, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, critic, Die Schoene Muellerin, Early music, emeritus, Franz Schubert, History, Isthmus, John Harbison, John W. Barker, Kayo Iwama, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Medieval, Molly Morkoski, Music, narrator, Piano, Piano Quintet, Piano Trio, professor, quintet, Rose Mary Harbison, Singing, song, song cycle, String quartet, strings, tenor, The Trout, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Trout Quintet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, vocal music, William Hite, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: Old music and new music mingle superbly at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival through a concert with viols, a countertenor and a new composition by John Harbison
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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 for 12 years hosted an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also provided the performance photos for this review.
By John W. Barker
The second of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival’s three public concerts, which took place on Tuesday evening, was a study in the old and the new, and the mingling thereof.
The program title was, in fact, “Viol Music, Then and Now.” The performing group was the Second City Musick Consort of Viols of Chicago (below) — three players from there, plus visitor Brady Lanier.
Craig Trompeter, Russell Wagner, Anna Steinhoff at the Planetarium, Chicago, May 30, 2013
Much, but hardly all, of their contributions were consort pieces of the 16th and 17th centuries, although a certain number of transcriptions — ironically, of later music — were involved.
Three Fantasias for three viols by William Byrd and one by John Jenkins for four viols were prime specimens. Two pairs of examples from Henry Purcell’s Fantasias in 4 Parts represented a late contribution to the consort literature, but were probably intended — primarily, if not exclusively — for members of the violin family, not viols.
With the addition of countertenor Nathan Medley, groups of “consort songs” were presented: three by Byrd and one each by four different composers of the late-Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. These were capped by one of the favorite airs of Purcell, “Fairest Isle”— which is a part of his large “semi-opera” King Arthur.
The program’s centerpiece, however, was a new work by festival co-founder and co-artistic director, John Harbison (below), who won a Pulitzer Prize and has been a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellow and who teaches at MIT.
The nature and the scoring of this work, The Cross of Snow, was defined by the patron who commissioned it. This was local businessman William Wartmann (below), who intended it as a tribute to his deceased wife, the painter and singer Joyce Wartmann.
It was understood from the outset that it would be written for countertenor and consort of viols, and that the texts set would come from 19th-century poetic literature.
The choice eventually fell on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who also lost his wife tragically, in a fire. The three poems set are: The Cross of Snow, Suspira and “Some day, some day.” All of them deal with the deep and enduring pain over the loss of a loved one. The three settings are framed by a Prelude and a Postlude for the consort alone. (You can hear the poem “The Cross of Snow” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Harbison has a strong sense of tradition and a genuine sympathy for Baroque music. Still, in this composition he by no means attempts simply to imitate long-past styles. While he is interested in exploring the special coloring and harmonics of the viols, he also brings to them a lot of the playing techniques familiar from writing for modern stringed instruments, but alien to viols. Indeed, the instrumental role in this work could pretty easily be transferred from viols to modern strings.
Nevertheless, Harbison’s stylistic assimilations run deep. The five movements, and especially the quite contrapuntal Postlude, are built upon allusions to chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach (below). And, quite wisely, the consort played transcriptions of three such pieces in conjunction with Harbison’s score.
Moreover, it was decided to perform Harbison’s new work twice, once in each half of the concert. This was most helpful in allowing a deepened appreciation of the emotional content of both the poetry and the music. The vocal lines are strongly etched, and were beautifully sung by countertenor Medley, a superb artist.
With the final program, on this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m., the spotlight will be exclusively on Franz Schubert (below) — his “Die Schoene Muellerin” (The Beautiful Miller’s Daughter) song cycle and the famous “Trout” Piano Quintet — music in a world between the two evoked by this concert.
For more information, visit: http://tokencreekfestival.org
Tags: air, American Record Guide, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago, Chorale, Classical music, color, countertenor, Die Schoene Muellerin, Early music, Elizabethan, Franz Schubert, genius grant, harmony, Henry Purcell, History, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Harbison, John Jenkins, John W. Barker, literature, Longfellow, MacArthur Fellow, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medieval, MIT, Music, opera, pain, painter, patron, Piano, poem, postlude, Prelude, Pulitzer Prize, Second City Musick, singer, song, song cycle, strings, Stuart, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, tradition, transcriptions, Trout Quintet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viol, Viola, Violin, vocal music, William Byrd, William Wartmann, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: This Friday night will see a FREE “Schubertiade” salon held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to celebrate Franz Schubert’s 217th birthday with the kind of friendly and informal musicale that the composer himself participated in.
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By Jacob Stockinger
How do you celebrate the birthday of a famous composer?
In the case of the early 19th-century Austrian Romantic composer Franz Schubert (below, 1797-1828), you re-create a MUST-HEAR “Schubertiade” – without the drinking and dancing but with the stage looking more like a living room, with carpet and a lamp, than as a concert hall.
That was the informal salon gathering (depicted below in a painting by Julius Schmid with Schubert seated at the piano) that the composer and his friends regularly participated in. It is the occasion where Schubert premiered many of his newly composed works, which invariably had a more intimate, social and congenial nature than the works of his mentor and model, Ludwig van Beethoven.
This Friday night at 8 pm. in Mills Hall, just such an event – with FREE admission — will be recreated by a group of UW faculty members and students.
The program is a varied one. UW collaborative pianist Martha Fischer and her pianist-husband Bill Lutes (both below) will play Schubert’s sublimely haunting Fantaisie in F minor for piano, four-hands.
Fischer will also be joined by UW cellist Parry Karp (below top) and UW student violinist Alice Bartsch (below bottom) in the beautiful “Notturno” (Nocturne),” the original slow movement of Schubert’s lovely and dramatic Piano Trio in B-Flat. Op. 99.
In addition there will be many songs and various vocal ensembles, fitting for the man who is considered the Father of the Art Song and who is known his many beautiful songs cycles, especially “Winterreise” (Winter Journey), “Die Schoene Muellerin” (The Beautiful Miller’s Daughter) and “Schwanengesang” (Swansong).
Performers include UW-Madison tenor James Doing (below top) and UW baritone Paul Rowe (below bottom).
At the higher end of the vocal range, there will be UW soprano Mimmi Fulmer (below top, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) and visiting UW-Madison teacher mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Hagedorn, a Wisconsin native whose has built a distinguished opera career in Europe and whose family lives in Vienna.
The Ear doesn’t know if the song “To Music” (An die Musik) is on the program, but it should be because it summarizes and embodies what makes Schubert so beautiful and heartbreaking. So here is a YouTube video of the song as sung on the BBC in 1961 by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and introduced by the acclaimed piano accompanist Gerald Moore:
Tags: Austria, baritone, BBC, Beethoven, Cello, Classical music, composer, Die Schoene Muellerin, duo-pianists, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Franz Schubert, Gerald Moore, Jacob Stockinger, Julius Schmid, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mezzo-soprano, Paul Rowe, Piano, Romantic, Schubert, Schubertiade, Schwanengesang, song, soprano, tenor, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna, Violin, vocal music, Winterreise, Wisconsin, YouTube
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