#EdvardGrieg | The Well-Tempered Ear

A busy weekend of online concerts features the UW Symphony, Edgewood College, Madison Opera, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Bach Around the Clock and more

March 25, 2021
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By Jacob Stockinger

With only a little over a month left before the academic year ends at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it’s not surprising that the last weekend in March is very busy with noteworthy – and competing – online concerts.

Each morning at 8 through Friday, Bach Around the Clock will release the last concerts of its 10-day online festival. You can find the programs – including the finale Friday night at 7 with Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 — and link for streaming here: https://bachclock.com/concert-schedule

The weekend starts tonight with one of The Ear’s favorite groups during the Pandemic Year: the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra

Here is a day-by-day lineup. All times are Central Daylight Time:

TONIGHT, MARCH 25

The UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra (below) performs a FREE virtual online concert TONIGHT starting at 7:30 p.m.

The concert will be preceded by a 7 p.m. talk about Igor Stravinsky with modern musicologist and Penn State Professor Maureen Carr as well as conductor Oriol Sans and Susan Cook, UW musicologist and director of the Mead Witter School of Music.

The program is: Suite from the opera “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell, with student conductor Alison Norris; Duet for Two Violins and String Orchestra by the contemporary American composer Steve Reich; and the Neo-Classical “Apollon musagète” (Apollo, Leader of the Muses) by Stravinsky. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear an excerpt of the Stravinsky played by the Berlin Philharmonic with Simon Rattle conducting.)

Here is the link to the talk and concert. Click on more and you can also see the members of the orchestra and the two violin soloists: https://youtu.be/2rgHQ4lWTV8

For more information about the program, including notes, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra/

FRIDAY, MARCH 26

At 7:30 p.m. the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will post for three days the third of its four online chamber music concerts (below). There will be excerpts of music by Beethoven and Brahms as well as complete works by Jessie Montgomery and Alyssa Morris.

Tickets to the online on-demand event are $30, with some discounts available, and are good through Monday evening.

Here is a link to more about this concert, including program notes by conductor and music director Andrew Sewell, and how to purchase tickets: https://wcoconcerts.org/events/winter-chamber-series-no-iii

At 8 p.m., the music department at Edgewood College will give a FREE online Spring Celebration concert. It will be livestreamed via music.edgewood.edu

The performers include: the Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Sergei Pavlov (below); the Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of Nathan Wysock; and the Chamber Winds, directed by Carrie Backman.

Highlights include the Guitar Ensemble’s performance of Wish You Were Here, by David Gilmour and Rogers Waters, and the Chamber Winds epic Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The Chamber Orchestra, which will perform live, will feature Musical moment No. 3, by Franz Schubert and Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg.

SATURDAY, MARCH 27

At noon, in Grace Episcopal Church on the Capitol Square downtown, there will be a FREE online concert. Grace Presents: “A Patient Enduring”: This early music program of medieval conductus (a musical setting of metrical Latin texts) and ballade, English lute song, and duets from the early Italian Baroque features two sopranos, Grammy-winnner Sarah Brailey (below) and Kristina Boerger, with Brandon Acker on lute and theorbo.

Here is a link: YouTube.com/GracePresentsConcerts

You can also go to this webpage for a link: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/grace-presents-a-patient-enduring/

At 3 p.m. the Perlman Trio, a piano trio that is made up of UW-Madison graduate students, will give a FREE online concert. The program includes piano trios by Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert.

Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/EAjK0DfWB3A

Here is a link to the complete program plus background, names and photos of the performers as well as to the performance: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/perlman-piano-trio/

At 7 p.m. the UW-Madison’s Wingra Wind Quntet (below) will perform a FREE pre-recorded online concert. Here is a link to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn7eobSnfr8

And here is a link to the page with more background information about the faculty members – including bassoonist Marc Vallon (below top) and flutist Conor Nelson (below bottom) – and to the complete program: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/wingra-wind-quintet/

SUNDAY, MARCH 28

From 4 to 5:30 p.m., guest mezzo-soprano Julia Ubank (below) will give a free online recital with pianist Thomas Kasdorf.

The program features songs by Mahler, Debussy, deFalla, Jake Heggie and Ellen Cogen.

Here is the complete program plus a link to the recital: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/julia-urbank-voice-recital/

From 4 to 5:30 p.m. the Madison Opera will host a Opera Up Close cocktail hour discussion with four general directors of opera companies. Here is the website’s description:

“Four opera general directors walk into a chat room…. Stepping outside the Madison Opera family, Kathryn Smith (below, in a photo by James Gill) is joined by three colleagues: Michael Egel of Des Moines Metro Opera, Ashley Magnus of Chicago Opera Theater, and Lee Anne Myslewski of Wolf Trap Opera.

“From how they got into opera, to the ups and downs of running an opera company, their favorite productions, funniest moments, and more, it will be a unique and entertaining afternoon.

Here is a link with more information including the cost of a subscription: https://www.madisonopera.org/class/general-directors/?wcs_timestamp=1616947200

At 6 p.m., Rachel Reese, a UW-Madison doctoral student in violin, will give a lecture-concert about the Violin Concerto No. 2 by the rediscovered African-American composer Florence Price (below). She will be accompanied by pianist Aubrie Jacobson.

Here is a link to the concert plus background about Rachel Reese: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/rachel-reese-lecture-recital/

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Spring arrives today. Here is music to lift your spirits. What music do you like to greet spring?

March 19, 2020
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ALERT: All events, including worship, are canceled at Luther Memorial Church “until further notice,” and that includes the monthly free Just Bach concert scheduled for noon on next Wednesday, March 25. Organizers say they hope the church reopens in time for the Just Bach concert scheduled for April 15.

By Jacob Stockinger

Spring arrives today – Thursday, March 19 – at last!

The Vernal Equinox will occur at 10:49 p.m. CDT.

Given all the fear and anxiety, isolation and discomfort caused by both the coronavirus and self-quarantining at home, maybe some music inspired by spring will lift your spirits.

At the bottom is a two-hour compilation – with more than a million hits – from YouTube with bright and upbeat, tuneful and melodic spring-like music.

The composers are Baroque, Classical and Romantic and include Bach, Corelli and Vivaldi; Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky; waltzes by Strauss; and songs without words by Mendelssohn and Grieg.

But the choice of spring music is endless, as you can no doubt also hear by listening to Wisconsin Public Radio today.

Is there a special piece you like to hear when you greet the arrival of spring?

Please leave the composer, title, performer and, if possible, a YouTube link, in the Comment section.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Famed radio station WQXR names the best 100 recordings of 2019. Listen to samples of them here

December 28, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

Did you get a gift card for the holidays?

Are you looking how to spend it by either purchasing CDs or subscribing to a streaming service?

Help and guidance are available.

Few names in the airing of classical music carry more prestige than the famed radio station WQXR in New York City.

To check out the radio station’s choice of the best recordings of 2019 is also to see where the worlds of recording and concertizing are heading.

Such trends include rediscovering neglected composers and championing new music as well as women composers, such as Clara Schumann, and composers of color, such as the American composer Florence Price (below), who has often been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio this past year.

But you will also find noteworthy recordings of such classics as Johann Sebastian Bach – and two of his rarely heard cousins instead of his sons – and well as outstanding recordings of symphonies and piano sonatas (below, the set by Igor Levit) for the upcoming Beethoven Year to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the composer.

And you will also find names of outstanding performers you may not have heard of — such as the exceptional Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang (below), a Van Cliburn Competition gold medalist whom The Ear would like to see perform here.

Here is a link to 25 picks with commentaries– plus another 75 titles and samples, without commentary, to round out a Top 100.

Happy listening!

https://www.wqxr.org/story/best-classical-recordings-2019/

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #AmericanComposer, #AmyBeach, #AndrewNorman, #Anne-SophieMutter, #AntoninDvorak, #AntonioVivaldi, #BarbaraStrozzi, #BaroqueMusic, #BeethovenPianoSonatas, #BeethovenYear, #BelaBartok, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CamilleSaint-Saens, #CarolineShaw, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #ClaraSchumann, #ClassicalGuitar, #CompactDisc, #ComposersofColor, #DaniilTrifonov, #DanishStringQuartet, #DerekBermel, #DomenicoScarlatti, #EdvardGrieg, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FannyMendelssohn, #FilmMusic, #FlorencePrice, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FredericChopin, #GabrielFaure, #GeorgeFridricHandel, #GiacomoPuccini, #GiftCard, #GiftGuide, #GuitarMusic, #GustavMahler, #HaochenZhnag, #HectorBerlioz, #HolidayGift, #HolidayGiftGuide, #IgorLevit, #IsaacAlbeniz, #IsataKanneh-Mason, #JeanSibelius, #JenniferHigdon, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnTavener, #JohnWilliams, #JuliaWolfe, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #LuigiBoccherini, #MauriceRavel, #MieczyslawWeinberg, #ModestMussorgsky, #MovieMusic, #NeglectedComposers, #NeglectedMusic, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #OperaMusic, #OrchestralMusic, #OrganMusic, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PianoConcerto, #PianoSonata, #RichardStrauss, #RobertSchumann, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #StringQuartet, #TheEar, #VanCliburn, #VanCliburnInternationalPianoCompetition, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinMusic, #VocalMusic, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WomenComposer, #WQXRradio, #WyntonMarsalis, 2019, Albeniz, American, American composer, Amy Beach, Andrew Norman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, anniversary, Antonín Dvořák, Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, Bach, Barbara Strozzi, Baroque, Baroque music, Bartok, Béla Bartók, Beethoven, Beethoven piano sonatas, Beethoven Year, Berlioz, best, birth, blog, Boccherini, Brahms, Caroline Shaw, CD, Chamber music, champion, China, Chinese, Chopin, choral music, Clara Schumann, Classical music, classicalmusic, classics, color, commentary, Compact Disc, composer, composers of color, concertizing, concerto, conductor, cousin, Daniil Trifonov, Danish String Quartet, Derek Bermel, discover, Domenico Scarlatti, Dvorak, Early music, Edvard Grieg, Facebook, fame, Fanny Mendelssohn, Faure, film, film music, Florence Price, forward, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, George Frideric Handel, Giacomo Puccini, gift, gift card, gift guide, gold, Gold medal, Grieg, guidance, guitar, Gustav Mahler, Handel, Haochen Zhang, Haydn, Hector Berlioz, help, Holiday, holiday gift guide, Igor Levit, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Jacob Stockinger, Jean Sibelius, Jennifer Higdon, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Tavener, John Williams, Julia Wolfe, like, link, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Boccherini, Mahler, Maurice Ravel, medal, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Modest Mussorgsky, Mompou, Mozart, Music, Mussorgsky, name, neglected, neglected composer, neglected music, new, New Music, New York City, noteworthy, opera, Orchestra, organ, perform, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, Piano sonata, post, posting, prestige, prize, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Radio, radio station, Ravel, reader, recording, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Saint-Saens, Scarlatti, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, service, share, Shaw, Sibelius, son, Sonata, Strauss, streaming, String quartet, subscribe, subscription, symphonies, symphony, tag, Taiwan, Taiwanese, Tchaikovsky, The Ear, title, trend, United States, Van Cliburn, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Viola, Violin, Vivaldi, vocal music, winner, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, women, word, world, WQXR, WQXR-FM, Wynton Marsalis, year, Zhang

Classical music: On Saturday and Sunday, the Madison Savoyards and Central Wisconsin Ballet team up in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pineapple Poll” and “Trial by Jury.” Plus, the first Stoughton Chamber Music Festival starts Saturday

August 15, 2019
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ALERT: The two concerts of the first Stoughton Chamber Music Festival will take place on this Saturday afternoon, Aug. 17, at 3 p.m. and on Monday night, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Stoughton Opera House, 381 East Main Street. Admission is FREE with a suggested donation of $15.

Featured is music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Samuel Barber, Edvard Grieg, George Gershwin and Paul Schoenfield as well as Norwegian folk music. The Ear did not receive details, but here is more information from a story in Isthmus: https://isthmus.com/events/stoughton-chamber-music-festival/

By Jacob Stockinger

This weekend, the Madison Savoyards and Central Midwest Ballet Academy team up to present two of the less well-known works by Gilbert and Sullivan: the comic ballet Pineapple Poll and the operetta Trial by Jury (below, in a photo by Kat Stiennon).

The performances of the two one-acts are in the Mitby Theater at Madison College (formerly Madison Area Technical College), located at 1701 Wright Street on Madison’s east side, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night, Aug. 17, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 18.

Tickets are $30 for adults; $28 for seniors; and $15 for young people and students. Children 3 and under get in for free.

For more information, call the Mitby Theater Box Office at (608) 243-4000 or got to: www.TrialbyPineapple.com

The music director and conductor of the professional orchestra, who is making his debut with the Madison Savoyards, is Sergei Pavlov (below), who teaches at Edgewood College and directs the Festival Choir of Madison.

The “Pineapple Poll” choreography is by Marguerite Luksik (below) of the Central Midwest Ballet Academy.

The stage director of “Trial by Jury” is J. Adam Shelton (below).

PROGRAM NOTES

Here are some program notes provided by The Madison Savoyards:

In an age of international copyright and patent tension, Pineapple Poll ballet suite is an intriguing story. The composer, Arthur Sullivan, had died in 1900. The 50-year copyright moratorium on his music expired in 1950, but his librettist partner, W.S. Gilbert, died in 1911. So in 1950, the leading 20th-century conductor, the late Sir Charles Mackerras (below), could only use the work of the former to create a new work in their honor.

From this legal oddity came the only ballet based on the works of Gilbert and Sullivan (below) and, according to The Times of London, one of the best loved of English ballets. It was first performed in the United States in 1970 by the Joffrey Ballet in New York City; and, most recently, in El Paso, Tulsa, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Livermore, Sarasota and Northampton, Mass.

The music for Pineapple Poll,as a suite, has been played in numerous venues in the U.S., including a performance with band director Mike Leckrone at the UW-Madison in 2008 and at the UW-La Crosse in 2015, thus indicating a strong Wisconsin interest in the music alone.

From its opening notes leaping off the pages of Mikado, Pineapple Poll is a vigorous listen and a visual delight. Clement Crisp of the Financial Times called it, “that rarest of delights, a true balletic comedy.” The National Association for Music Education had identified it as a model piece for elementary school children. In 2003, Christopher Rawson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette observed that, in its pairing with Trial by Jury, “if there’s ever been a Gilbert and Sullivan show for people who don’t like Gilbert and Sullivan, this is it.”

Trial by Jury contrasts with the non-verbal Pineapple Poll, showcasing Gilbert’s lyric style in songs that tell the Victorian tale of marital promissory breach with the resulting farcical trial ending in marriage. It was Gilbert and Sullivan’s second collaboration and established their successful reputations. (In photos by Aimee Broman, below top shows Thore Dosdall playing the defendant Edwin (at left) getting the feeling that the jury is not on his side. Below bottom shows the plaintiff Angelina, played by Megan McCarthy).

The Central Midwest Ballet Academy’s Marguerite Luksik and Michael Knight have created original choreography for Pineapple Poll, and performances will feature students from the Academy’s pre-professional level.

In contrast to the tragic-dramatic plots of traditional ballets, the lighthearted nature of Pineapple Poll appeals to a broader audience. Pineapple Poll presents a combination of balanced spectacle and the challenge of experimental work.

Yoked to Trial by Jury, the two productions spark social and artistic novelty, critique and entertainment.

It is worth noting that the performances this weekend are a new collaboration between two homegrown Madison troupes. The Savoyards have been performing every summer since 1963, while Central Midwest Ballet has been active since 2015.

Here is an example of the Sullivan operetta tunes patched together in the Opening Dance of “Pineapple Poll.” (You can hear the Overture in the YouTube video at the bottom):

1. The Mikado, Opening Act 1.
2. Trial By Jury, “Hark, the hour of Ten is sounding.”
3. The Mikado, “So please you, sir, we much regret” (“But youth, of course, must have its fling. . .”
4. Patience, “The Soldiers of our Queen.”
5. Trial by Jury, “He will treat us with awe” (“Trial-la- law”).
6. The Gondoliers, “Good Morrow, Pretty Maids” (orchestral accompaniment).
7. Trial By Jury, “Hark, the hour of Ten is sounding.”
8. The Mikado, “So please you, sir, we much regret.”

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO) will give two FREE afternoon performances this Saturday and Sunday with the world premiere of a socially relevant piece by local composer Lawren Brianna Ware

August 1, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO, below) will present its ninth season this weekend, performing two free afternoon concerts.

Co-directed by the husband-and-wife team of conductor Mikko Rankin Utevsky (below left) and concertmaster Thalia Coombs (below back), the orchestra will perform music of Haydn, Wagner and Grieg, plus a commissioned work from local composer Lawren Brianna Ware.

Performances are Saturday, Aug. 3, at noon on the “Grace Presents” concert series at Grace Episcopal Church, located downtown at 116 West Washington Avenue on the Capitol Square; and on Sunday, Aug. 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the Mead Witter Lobby of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Chazen Museum of Art, as part of “Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen.”

(Please note that Sunday’s concert is NOT in the Brittingham Gallery III due to space constraints.) Sunday’s performance will be live-streamed on the Chazen website. Here is a link to the portal for streaming: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen7/

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Utevsky and Coombs offer the following comments about the program:

We’re excited to be working with Lawren Brianna Ware (below) on a new work she composed for us, Un sueño aplazado (A Dream Deferred – a quote from the African-American poet Langston Hughes), which chronicles the emotional trajectory of a migrant’s journey from Central America to the United States.

Our two high school Conducting Apprentices, Luke Whittingham (below top) and Quinn Wilson (below bottom) will each conduct one performance of a movement from Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite. Whittingham conducts on Saturday and Wilson does so on Sunday.

Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is a luxurious tone poem for small orchestra that he composed as a love letter to his wife Cosima, first performed on the staircase of their villa in Switzerland on her birthday. Often chamber orchestras don’t get the chance to dig into the great German Romantic repertoire, but this gem is a notable — and unforgettably beautiful — exception. (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

We conclude our program with Franz Joseph Haydn’s final symphony, No. 104. Nicknamed the “London,” it is one of 12 symphonies he wrote for performances there late in his career, and it remains one of his finest essays in symphonic form.

MAYCO is made possible by a grant from the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.

For more information about the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, go to www.mayco.org or call (608) 514-5537.

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Classical music: What music is good to listen to every day for a year? And why? Clemency Burton-Hill discusses her book “Year of Wonder” on PBS’ “Newshour”

March 23, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

What different pieces of classical music would be good to listen to every day of the year?

And what should you know about it?

Those are the simple but ambitious questions that the British writer Clemency Burton-Hill — who now works for the famed classical radio station WQXR in New York City — tackles in her book “Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day” (below).

You can get a sample by going to the book section of Amazon.com and looking inside the book. Just click on the Introduction for an overview and then click on some specifics dates to see how it works.

But recently Burton-Hill (below) also appeared on “The NewsHour” on PBS to talk about the book, where she explained her purpose and method, especially her intent to help expand the audience for classical music.

Her remarks impressed The Ear who has ordered a copy of her book and hopes to learn from it and maybe even pass along some lessons from it.

All the genres, all the great composers (dead and living) and most of the great works are covered, as are many other neglected composers and unknown works. So the book can be considered a terrific resource for music education for both beginners and those who are experienced.

Her commentaries are also a model of brevity and engaging interest.

All in all, “Year of Wonder” seems a supremely practical, unpretentious and informative guide to daily listening, especially given how many of these works – often they are shorter sections of larger works — can be found for free on YouTube. (In fact, a playlist of music featured in the book is available on YouTube. Go to YouTube and type in “Year of Wonder Playlist” into the search engine, then look to the upper right for a list. A sample is at the bottom. Or use this direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wNTNEZYoHg&list=PLKPwLlyrD2y-1x-uKmUBzSOiAh83GhU7A

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Here is a link to the television interview:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/embracing-classical-music-and-its-potential-for-sonic-salvation

The Ear hopes you find the interview both informative and useful.

Happy listening!

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Organist and composer Chelsea Chen debuts at Overture Hall on Tuesday night

February 18, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

Organist Chelsea Chen (below) makes her Madison debut on this Tuesday night, Feb. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Overture Hall as part of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Concert Organ series.

Ticket information is below.

Chen brings to her Overture Hall premiere an array of widely known classical pieces plus her own original composition.

Chen’s performance begins with Ola Gjeilo’s Sinfonietta and Edvard Grieg’s First Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46— continuing with Chen’s original work, the Taiwanese Suite, Camille Saint-Saens’ Finale from “Organ” Symphony No. 3, Ad Wammes’ Miroir, and finally, selections from Gustav Holst’s The Planets.

Composer Gjeilo (below) has praised Chen’s interpretation of Sinfonietta, which the organist has performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

The First Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46, by Grieg is one of the most easily recognizable compositions within the musical art form. Subtitled “Morning,” it is the first of two suites that Grieg (below) transcribed from Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 Norwegian play Peer Gynt.

The opus, albeit a short first movement from the suite, intends to instill imagery of the sunrise over the North African desert. Despite this, it is more commonly associated with the sweeping mountains, fjords and lakes that mark Norway’s landscape.

Chen’s own Taiwanese Suite combines the dynamic range of the organ with inflections of traditional Asian folksongs. It is composed of three movements: “Hills in the Springtime,” “Moonlight Blue” and “Mountain of Youth.”

Inspired by the works of Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and others, Saint-Saens (below) composed a variety of arrangements and selections for numerous occasions. By age 10, the French composer and child prodigy had given his first concert. His Finale from “Organ” Symphony No. 3 is, as some consider, the pinnacle of his body of compositions. (You can hear Chen’s playing of the Finale from the “Organ” Symphony by Saint-Saens in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Miroir was composed by Dutch composer Ad Wammes (below) for Stephen Taylor to celebrate the organist’s appointment to the Nicolaïkerk, a church in the Netherlands. In an unconventional mirroring — hence the title — the right hand repeats the higher voices in the same pattern throughout the song, whereas the left hand varies texture, voice and tone in the lower registers. The result is a calming, low hum that is lifted by the glistening echoes of the upper registers.

To Holst, The Planets suite could be framed as “a series of mood pictures,” with its seven movements. Ironically, Holst (below) seemed to heavily dislike his explosive popularity resulting from the suite’s compositional structure. Despite his supposed negativity towards the piece, its inherent superb qualities of each movement — no two are alike — became a staple of evocative composition.

Following an academic career at the Juilliard School and Yale University, Chelsea Chen has practiced under the tutelage of known names in the musical world, such as Paul Jacobs and John Weaver. For more information about her, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/chelsea-chen/

Single Tickets are available for $20 each and can be purchased online at http://madisonsymphony.org/chen, through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141.

Groups of 10 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit, https://madisonsymphony.org/groups

Student rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street. Students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two tickets for $10 each. More information is at: https://madisonsymphony.org/studentrush

Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.

This performance is sponsored by Friends of the Overture Concert Organ (below) that was custom-built by Klais Orgelbau of Germany. Support for all Overture Concert Organ programs is provided by the Diane Endres Ballweg Fund. With a gift from Pleasant T. Rowland, the Madison Symphony Orchestra commissioned the Overture Concert Organ.

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Classical music: Trio Celeste makes its Madison debut this Sunday afternoon playing music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Piazzolla. They give a FREE master class on Saturday afternoon

January 3, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

This is a slow time of the year for classical music concerts, the winter intermission between fall and spring semesters. But The Ear received for the Salon Piano Series the following announcement to post:

“We caught this West Coast group on a rare Midwest tour. Trio Céleste (below) has firmly established itself as one of the most dynamic chamber music ensembles on the classical music scene today. They’ve wowed audiences worldwide with their “unfailingly stylish” (The Strad) and “flawless” (New York Concert Review) interpretations.

“The piano trio has firmly established itself as one of the most dynamic chamber music ensembles on the classical music scene today. This season’s highlights include recital debuts at the Chicago Cultural Center and New York’s Carnegie Hall, and the world premiere of Paul Dooley’s Concerto Grosso for Piano Trio and Strings.

“Winners of the prestigious Beverly Hills Auditions and the recipients of the 2017 Emerging Artist Award from Arts Orange County, the ensemble has performed hundreds of recitals worldwide.

“Their first album on the Navona label debuted at No. 5 on iTunes for “Best Seller New Release.” (You can see them recording the first album in the YouTube video at the bottom.)”

The program for Trio Celeste’s concert on this Sunday afternoon, Jan. 6, at 4 p.m. at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on the far west side of Madison near West Towne Mall, will include:

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 (1882)

Sergei Rachmaninoff – Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor (1892)

Astor Piazzolla – Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (1965-1970) (selections) arr. for piano trio by José Bragato

For more information, about the trio, go to: http://www.trioceleste.com

MASTER CLASS

On this Saturday, Jan. 5, at 4 p.m., Trio Céleste will teach a master class at Farley’s House of Pianos, where they will instruct students from Farley’s House of Pianos and the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO). This is a FREE event that the public is invited to observe.

The master class program will include portions of:

Joseph Haydn – String Quartet Op. 33, No. 3 “The Bird”

Klaus Badelt (arr. Larry Moore) – Theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean”

Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet Op. 18, No. 1

Edvard Grieg – String Quartet Op. 27, No. 1

The master classes for the 2018-19 season are supported by the law firm of Boardman & Clark LLP.

Tickets are $45 in advance (students $10) or $50 at the door. You can purchase tickets at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3499176

An artist’s reception will follow the concert.

For more information, go to https://salonpianoseries.org

Service fees may apply. Tickets also for sale at Farley’s House of Pianos.  Student tickets can only be purchased online and are not available the day of the event.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Who are the greatest classical composers? And how do you decide?

November 24, 2018
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ALERT: The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s holiday tradition of the “Community Carol Sing,” with organist Greg Zelek, is FREE and open to the public of all ages. It takes place in Overture Hall at 7 p.m. this Monday night, Nov. 26. No tickets or reservations are needed for the hour-long Carol Sing. For more information, including a list of the carols on the program, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/free-community-carol-sing/

By Jacob Stockinger

Who are the greatest composers of classical music?

Who are the most influential composers?

And which composer is the greatest of all time?

Just as important, how do you decide? How do you pick them and make your choice?

And finally, should such choices matter?

You could ask Anthony Tommasini (below), senior classical music critic for The New York Times — who came to the UW-Madison during the Pro Arte Quartet centennial several years ago and lectured in the Wisconsin Union Theater — who has just published a new book about those very questions.

The new book is “The Indispenable Composers: A Personal Guide” (below) and is published by Penguin Books. (It could make a nice holiday gift for a classical music fan.)

In a recent story, Tommasini – who readily admits to the project being very much a subjective game – discussed the process, which comes in the wake of his publishing a two-week project in 2011 when he named the 10 greatest composers of all time.

This time he uses (below, from left) Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven and Edvard Grieg as test cases for asking: Who is a great composer, and how do you know or decide what makes a composer great?

The Ear doesn’t agree with all the results, but he found it a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion, and figures you might too:

Here is a link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/arts/music/anthony-tommasini-classical-music.html

Read the overview story, and then leave word if you agree with Tommasini about the greatest of all composers. (A clue is in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Which composers would you include that he didn’t?

Who did he include whom you wouldn’t?

And let’s play along: Which composers would be on your own personal list of the Top 5 or Top 10 indispensable composers? And in what order?

Have fun!

And, pro or con, don’t be shy in saying what you think. The more controversial and stronger the opinion and the words, the better.

The Ear wants to hear.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Autumn arrives today. What composers, works and instruments do you like to listen to in fall? The Ear favors late Brahms – specially the strings, the piano and the clarinet

September 22, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

Fall arrives today.

The autumn equinox will occur at 8:54 p.m. Central Daylight Time.

As the days get markedly shorter and the night longer, one’s mood often changes as do one’s listening preferences.

Many composers have written pieces about autumn, and you are sure to hear many of them on Wisconsin Public Radio or other media outlets.

But The Ear has his favorites.

Not for nothing is the late music of Johannes Brahms described as autumnal, both because it happens late in the composer’s life and because of its bittersweet sounds, its poignant harmonies and its melancholy melodies.

For The Ear, you will find it in most of late Brahms, especially in the slow movements. He loves the string music – the violin, the cello and especially the viola sonatas – as well as the clarinet sonatas and piano intermezzi.

Below are three samples.

Here is the slow movement from the Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, played by violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Daniel Barenboim:

Here is the slow movement of the Sonata in F Minor, Op. 120, No. 1, for, in this case, clarinet or viola:

And here is a particularly moving piano intermezzo, Op. 117, No. 2, in B-flat minor, played by Arthur Rubinstein:

And should you still be unsure what music you like for the fall, here is a link to two hours of music for fall — vocal and instrumental music by Antonio Vivaldi, Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn Alexander Glazunov, Peter Tchaikovsky, Giuseppe Verdi, Edvard Grieg, Gustav Mahler and others — put together by Minnesota Public Radio:

Is there a special composer who evokes autumn for you?

What instruments most speak to you of fall?

Are there special works you like to listen to in autumn?

Leave your thoughts in the COMMENT section, along with a link to a YouTube performance if possible.

The Ear wants to hear.

Posted in Classical music
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