The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The fifth annual Schubertiade is this Sunday afternoon at the UW-Madison and will chronicle Franz Schubert’s short but prolific career year by year
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CORRECTION: The concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra this Friday night in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center starts at 7:30 p.m. — NOT at 7 as was incorrectly stated in an early version of yesterday’s posting and on Wisconsin Public Radio.
By Jacob Stockinger
On this Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., the fifth annual Schubertiade — celebrating the music of Franz Schubert (1797-1828, below) will take place in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
The informal and congenial mix of songs and chamber music in a relaxed on-stage setting and with fine performers is always an informative delight. And this year promises to be a special one. (Performance photos are from previous Schubertiades.)
Tickets are $15 for the general public, and $5 for students. Students, faculty and staff at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music get in for free.
A reception at the nearby University Club will follow the performance.
For more information about the event and about obtaining tickets, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/schubertiade-with-martha-fischer-bill-lutes/
Pianist and singer Bill Lutes (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), who plans the event with his pianist-wife and UW-Madison professor Martha Fischer, explained the program and the reasoning behind it:
“This year’s Schubertiade is a program that could never have actually occurred during the composer’s lifetime. It is in fact a year-by-year sampling of Schubert’s music, spanning the full range of his all-too-brief career.
“As with our previous programs, we still focus on those genres which were most associated with the original Schubertiades (below, in a painting) – those informal social gatherings in the homes of Schubert’s friends and patrons, often with Schubert himself presiding at the piano, where performances of the composer’s lieder, piano music, especially piano duets, and vocal chamber music intermingled with poetry readings, dancing, games and general carousing.
“Our hope on this occasion is to present the development of Schubert’s unique art in much the same way we might view a special museum exhibition that displays the lifetime achievements of a great visual artist.
“Thus we will follow Schubert from his earliest work, heavily influenced by Haydn and Mozart, and his studies with Antonio Salieri, to the amazing “breakthrough” settings of Goethe’s poems in 1814 and 1815, and on to the rich procession of songs and chamber music from his final decade. (Below is a pencil drawing by Leopold Kupelwieser of Schubert at 14.)
As always we have chosen a number of Schubert’s best-known and loved favorites, along side of lesser-known, but equally beautiful gems.
We are also particularly delighted to work with a large number of School of Music students and faculty, as well as our featured guest, mezzo-soprano Rachel Wood (below), who teaches at the UW-Whitewater.
(D. numbers refer to the chronological catalogue of Schubert’s work by Otto Erich Deutsch, first published in 1951, and revised in 1978.)
SCHUBERTIADE 2018 – Schubert Year by Year: Lieder, Chamber Music and Piano Duets by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
PERFORMERS
Rachel Wood (RW)
Katie Anderson (KA), Matthew Chastain (MC), James Doing (JD), Wesley Dunnagan (WD), Talia Engstrom (TE), Mimmi Fulmer (MFulmer), Benjamin Liupiaogo (BL), Claire Powling (CP), Cheryl Rowe (CR), Paul Rowe (PF), singers
The Hunt Quartet, Chang-En Lu, Vincius Sant Ana, Blakeley Menghini, Kyle Price (HQ)
Parry Karp, cello (PK)
Bill Lutes (BL) and Martha Fischer (MF), pianists (below)
PROGRAM
1811 Fantasie in G minor, D. 9 (MF, BL)
1812 Klaglied, D. 23 (Lament )– Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (MF, BL)
Die Advokaten, D. 37 (The Lawyers, comic trio) after Anton Fischer) (PR,BL, WD, MF)
1813 Verklärung, D. 59 Transfiguration – Alexander Pope (RW, BL)
1814 Adelaide, D. 95 – Friedrich von Matthisson (WD, MF)
Der Geistertanz, D. 116 The Ghost Dance – Matthisson (MC, BL)
Gretchen am Spinnrade, D. 118 Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel – Goethe (CP, MF)
1815 Wanderers Nachtlied I, D. 224 Wanderer’s Nightsong – Goethe (MF, BL)
Erlkönig, D. 328 The Erl-king – Goethe (TE, MC, WD, CP, MF, BL)
1816 Sonata for violin and piano in D Major, D. 384 (PK, below, BL)
Allegro, Andante, Allegro vivace
1817 Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531 Death and the Maiden – Matthias Claudius (RW, MF)
Erlafsee, D. 586 Lake Erlaff – Johann Mayrhofer (CR, BL)
Der Strom, D. 565 The River – anon. (PR, MF)
1818 Deutscher with 2 Trios in G (MF, BL)
Singübungen, D. 619 Singing Exercises (CP, TE, BL)
Intermission
1819 Die Gebüsche, D. 646 The Thicket – Friedrich von Schlegel (RW, BL)
1820 String Quartet #12 in C Minor “Quartetsatz” (HQ)
1821 Geheimes, D. 719 A Secret – Goethe (TE, MF)
1822 Des Tages Weihe, D. 763 Consecration of the Day (KA, MF, WD, MC,BL)
1823 Drang in die Ferne, D. 770 The Urge to Roam – K.G. von Leitner (MC,BL)
from Die Schöne Müllerin, Mein, D. 795 Mine – W. Müller (WD, MF)
1824 Grand March No. 6 in E major, D. 819 (MF, BL)
1825 Im Abendrot, D. 799 Sunset Glow – Karl Lappe (RW, MF)
An mein Herz, D. 860 To my Heart- Ernst Schulze (BenL, MF)
1826 Am Fenster, D. 878 At the Window – J. G. Seidl (MFulmer, below, BL)
1827 from Winterreise Frühlingstraum, D. 911 Dream of Spring – Muller(RW,MF)
1828 Die Sterne, D. 939 The Stars – Leitner (KA, BL)
from Schwanengesang (Swansong), D. 957
Ständchen (JD, MF) –Serenade – Ludwig Rellstab
Die Taubenpost (PR, MF) – The Pigeon Post – J.G. Seidl
An die Musik, D. 547 To Music (below) – Franz von Schober
Everyone is invited to sing along. You can find the words in your texts and translations.
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Classical music: The First Unitarian Society of Madison will give two performances of the anti-war cantata “Dona Nobis Pacem” by Ralph Vaughan Williams this Sunday. German anti-war art will accompany the concert.
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ALERT: One more subscriber and The Ear breaks 1,000. Who wants to be the one?
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following word about a very timely performance of a very timely work:
On this Sunday, March 20, at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. the Society Choir of First Unitarian Society of Madison will present the powerful anti-war cantata, “Dona Nobis Pacem” or Grant Us Peace, by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (below). Vaughan Williams used texts from the Bible and from the Civil War poems by the American poet Walt Whitman.
You can hear a section of the work in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Guest soloists are soprano Heather Thorpe (below top) and UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe (below bottom).
Violinist and retired UW-Madison violin professor and Madison Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Tyrone Greive (below top, in a photo by Katherine Esposito) will lead the string section, which will be joined by organ, piano, harp and timpani. First Unitarian Society Music Director Dan Broner (below bottom) will conduct.
The performances will take place in the Society’s modern Atrium Auditorium (below in a photo by Zane Williams), 900 University Bay Drive.
Admission is FREE. Donations will be accepted.
In conjunction with the performance there will be a small exhibit of German art in the Commons. It will feature anti-war artwork from the period after World War I.
Several prints of lithographs, drawings and sculpture by Kathe Kollwitz, Ernst Barlach and Otto Dix from the years 1921-1929 will be included. The images by Kollwitz are from her “Krieg Cycle.” Her son had been killed in the war; Barlach and Dix both had fought in the war. The two sculptures by Barlach were actually commissioned as war memorials, but instead of glorifying war they express his stark protest and grief.
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Classical music: The Madison Early Music Festival turns 15 with a perfect opening concert by the Toronto Consort that explored the Italian Renaissance and the musical legacy of Leonardo da Vinci.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Early Music Festival started as an idea.
So, what better way to mark its 15th anniversary than by exploring perhaps history’s greatest Man of Ideas -– Leonardo da Vinci?
And that is exactly what happened during the opening concert last Saturday night by MEMF, which this year is exploring Italian music from 1300 to 1600.
The festival — complete with workshops, lectures and concerts -– is held each summer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
It started as a way to help fill the summertime void of classical music. But now summer is its own season when it comes to classical music in Madison, and much of that success is due to MEMF’s success.
Co-founders and co-artistic directors UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe and his soprano wife Cheryl Bensman Rowe (below) had every reason to be proud and moved -– and they were, visibly and audibly.
This summer, because Mills Hall is under construction, MEMF has had to turn to other venues, chiefly the nearby Luther Memorial Church at 1021 University Avenue and Music Hall on Bascom Hill.
The opening concert “The Da Vinci Codex” was held at Luther Memorial, and the church seemed close to full, meaning almost 400 listeners attended. This alternative venue actually seemed an improvement in that it offered a warm and acoustically superior environment with sets and a building that complemented the religious beliefs and art of that era’s music and culture.
The program was set up by a fine and well-attended lecture and slide show given by UW-Madison art professor Gail Geiger (below). She examined the heretofore underestimated role of music in Leonardo’s life and career as a painter, drawing master, poet, engineer, inventor and all-round genius.
What the audience then heard was a two-hour concert in which no false note was sounded, no false step was taken.
The performer was the Toronto Consort, making its Madison debut. It proved an outstanding and thoroughly professional group of eight persons (below) who are multi-talented in their ability to sing, to play instruments and to recite narration dramatically, expressively and convincingly. They were not afraid to entertain and as well as to inform. (You can hear a sample of similar music performed by the Toronto Consort in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Ear was especially impressed by the tightness of the scissors-and-paste presentation and the uncanny way the Toronto Consort spoke to and engaged with the audience, who laughed and applauded thunderously.
The program’s effectiveness came from the terrifically seamless and smooth narrative thread, the story that centered on the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci. It was unifying and used primary sources (Leonardo’s notebooks and letters) and secondary sources like the proto-art historian Giorgio Vasari’s “Lives” and other historians or critics. (Below is David Fallis, the artistic director, tenor and narrator.)
The performers moved easily from historical accounts of Leonardo in Florence, Milan and France to contextual music that illustrated Leonardo –- the ultimate Renaissance Man — from birth to death. And it proved thoroughly enjoyable and often deeply moving. You did not have to be a fan of early music to be taken in by the contagious melodies and harmonies, the catchy inflections and rhythms, the facts of an amazing life and career.
Just watching these complete professionals perform took us into their world because they are full-body performers who used hands, feet and facial expressions to convey the emotional meaning of the music and get the audience to connect with the music and with them. It felt like Renaissance jazz, so free and yet also so disciplined and practiced was the performance. It is what The Ear likes to call “the well-rehearsed surprise” and is a hallmark of all great performances that are virtuosic and make what is hard seem easy or effortless. (Below is Katherine Hall, viola da gamba player and soprano, singing.)
There is much more left of the 15th Madison Early Music Festival to hear, including “Songs of Love” by the instrumentalists and vocal ensemble Ex Umbris in Music Hall tonight at 7:30 p.m. tonight; plus other concerts including the second annual Handel Aria Competition in Music Hall on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. (NOT 7 p.m., as the MEMF home website mistakenly said at first, and the always impressive All-Festival Concert, which focuses this year on the Trionfi of the poet Petrarch, on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in Luther Memorial Church. FREE pre-concert lectures by experts in art, music and history take place at 6:30 p.m.
Here is a link to a schedule and descriptions of events, with times, places and participants:
Unlike many of Leonardo’s ideas, which were adventurous and even prophetic if uncompleted, MEMF has moved from idea to reality.
The Ear has no doubt, and every hope, that it is here to stay, and that it will continue to evolve and grow.
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