The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra performs its annual gala Christmas concert this weekend and also offers a FREE community carol sing this Saturday morning
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By Jacob Stockinger
As Charles Dickens might say, the Madison Symphony Orchestra knows how to keep Christmas well.
Over many years, “A Madison Symphony Christmas” has become a popular and major annual kickoff to the holiday season in the Madison area by embracing the season with Christmas classics and new music.
Much of the event’s appeal derives from the diversity and range of the performers. This year it again features the full orchestra plus the Madison Symphony Chorus, the Madison Youth Choirs and the Mount Zion Gospel Choir.
In addition, two opera stars who have performed with the Madison Opera — tenor Mackenzie Whitney (below top) and soprano Michelle Johnson (below bottom)– return to the stage for this annual family-friendly tradition. For biographies of the two singers, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/a-madison-symphony-christmas-2019/
MSO principal harpist Johanna Wienholts (below) is a featured soloist in a concerto by George Frideric Handel.
“A Madison Symphony Christmas” takes place in Overture Hall, 201 State Street, on this Friday night, Dec. 13, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday night, Dec. 14, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, Dec. 15, at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $19 to $95 with discounts available. See below for details.
NOTE: On this coming Saturday morning, Dec. 14, at 11 a.m., Greg Zelek (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) — the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Organist and Curator of the Overture Concert Organ — leads a FREE Community Carol Sing in Overture Hall. All ages are welcome, and no tickets or reservations are needed. Learn more at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/free-community-carol-sing-2019/
Music director and conductor John DeMain (below) offers the following preview of the MSO concert:“This is the biggest celebration of the season in Madison and beyond. It has four different choruses and choirs as well as amazing soloists from the orchestra, the world of opera and Broadway.
“The huge Madison Symphony Orchestra will play your favorite Christmas music, and there is a great carol sing-along featuring the Overture Hall organ playing with the MSO. After this concert, you’ll want to celebrate Christmas all year long.”
The program begins with classical styles in the first half, culminating in Handel’s “Hallelujah” Chorus (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom.) The concert climaxes with a Gospel music finale, and a chance for the audience to sing along.
Works to be performed include John Rutter’s version of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”; the “Magnificat” by Johann Sebastian Bach; Franz Schubert’s “Wiegenlied” (“Lullaby”); and music by Charles Gounod, J. S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Adolphe Adam, Dan Goeller and Randol Alan Bass.
The older voices of the Madison Youth Choirs (below) are featured in works by composer Stephen Hatfield, including a version of the traditional English “Apple-Tree Wassail.”
The Madison Symphony Chorus (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) and soloists present of medley of familiar holiday favorites, including “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
Finally, the Mount Zion Gospel Choir (below, in a photo by Bob Rashid) sings arrangements for choir and orchestra by co-director Leotha Stanley, including “The Joy of Christmas,” Stanley’s version of “Silent Night,” and a newly composed song by Stanley, “Christmas Hope.”
CONCERT, TICKET AND EVENT DETAILS
The lobby opens 90 minutes prior to each concert. The MSO recommends concert attendees arrive early for each performance to make sure they have time to pass through Overture Center’s security stations — and participate in singing carols with the Madison Symphony Chorus that take place in the Overture Hall lobby (below) 45 minutes before the concerts.
Program notes are available online for viewing in advance of the concerts: http://bit.ly/msodec19programnotes
- Single Tickets are $19-$95 each and are on sale now at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/a-madison-symphony-christmas-2019/through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online/phone sales.
- Groups of 10 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit, https://www.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 $15 or $20 tickets. More information is at: https://www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush
- Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
- Flex-ticket booklets of 8-10 vouchers for 19-20 symphony subscription concerts are available. Learn more at: https://madisonsymphony.org/flex
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
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Classical music: The Madison Early Music Festival will present a Grand Tour of musical styles to mark its success after 20 years. The “tour” starts this Saturday, July 6, and runs through Saturday, July 13. Part 1 of 2
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IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
A big anniversary deserves a big celebration – and that is exactly what the organizers of this year’s Madison Early Music Festival (below, the All-Festival Concert in 2018) have come up with.
Co-artistic director Cheryl Bensman-Rowe recently wrote about the festival in a Q&A interview for this blog. Here is Part 1 of 2:
This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the Madison Early Music Festival. Can you briefly summarize the progress of the festival over all those years and how you – through audience size, participants, media coverage – measure the success it has achieved?
How successful is this year’s festival compared to the beginning festival and to others in terms of enrollment, budgets and performers? How does this of MEMF’s reach nationally or even internationally compare to previous years?
What can you say about where the festival will go in the coming years?
As the 20th Madison Early Music Festival approaches, we have looked back at how far we have come from 1999 when we were a little festival of 60 participants and faculty. We have grown to our current size of 140 faculty members and participants — fellow lovers of early music.
Last year, we had the largest group of participants when 120 students enrolled. MEMF now attracts students of all ages, from 18 to 91, amateurs and professionals, from all over North America and Europe.
Our success is due to the help and support of many individuals and outside organizations. We could not manage MEMF without the amazing staff at the Division of the Arts at UW-Madison. They help with everything from printed materials, website design and management, social media, grant writing, fundraising, proofreading and on-site assistance at all of our events and more.
Paul and I (below) work with Sarah Marty, the Program Director of MEMF, who keeps things organized and running smoothly throughout the year.
Also, we are grateful to our dedicated MEMF Board, donations from many individuals, grants, and the generosity of William Wartmann, who created an endowment for the festival, and after his death left an additional $400,000 for our endowment. It takes a village!
Not only have we become an important part of the summer music scene in Madison, but we have contributed to the national and international early music community. The 2019 concert series will be featuring artists from California to New York, Indiana to Massachusetts, and from Leipzig, Germany.
We hope to have many old and new audience members join us for this exciting celebration of our 20th year. For future seasons our motto is “To infinity and beyond!” as we continue to build on our past successes.
What is new and what is the same in terms of format, students, faculty members and performers?
This year we have a new program, the Advanced Voice Intensive, which provides an opportunity for auditioned advanced singers who are interested in a capella vocal music from the Renaissance – singing sacred polyphony and madrigals to improve their skills as ensemble singers.
Twenty singers from all over the country will be joining the inaugural program to rehearse and perform music from Italy, England and Germany.
At the end of the week they will sing in a masterclass with the vocal ensemble Calmus (below) on Thursday, July 11, at 11:30 a.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. On Saturday, July 13, they will perform in a FREE concert with the popular Advanced Loud Band ensemble in Morphy Recital Hall.
Here’s the link for all the information about MEMF: https://memf.wisc.edu/
All concerts include a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. and the concerts in Mils Hall begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $90 for an all-event pass; each individual concert is $22, for students $12. Tickets are available for purchase online and by phone at 608-265-ARTS (2787) with a $4 service fee, or in person at the Campus Arts Ticketing Box Office @ Memorial Union.
We also have two Fringe Concerts this year featuring new vocal ensembles from Wisconsin. On Monday, July 8, at 7 p.m. at Pres House, Schola Cantorum of Eau Claire (below), a 12-voice ensemble directed by UW-Madison graduate Jerry Hui, will perform “Mystery and Mirth: A Spanish Christmas.”
And on Wednesday, July 10, at 7 p.m. at Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, the Milwaukee-based Aperi Animam (below) perform “Libera Nos,” a program of sacred vocal music.
The Fringe Concerts are FREE with donations accepted at the door.
Why was the theme of “The Grand Tour” chosen for the festival? What is the origin of the conceit, and what major composers and works will be highlighted?
We decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary by choosing a theme that would be broader than previous years and portray what people might experience when they are 20 years old – traveling abroad on a gap year.
We were also inspired by Englishman Thomas Coryat, aka “The First Tourist.” He published his travelogue Crudities in 1611, an amusing and thorough account of his five months of travel throughout Europe. This tradition of the Grand Tour of Europe continued through the 17th and 18th centuries, especially when wealthy young aristocrats finished their formal schooling.
Several of the concert programs this summer feature quotes from different travelogues, including Coryat’s, as an organizational concept. If you search all over Europe, you find an American at Versailles learning courtly manners, and a fictional Englishman, born in 1620, sending postcards from the Grand Tour.
We will also have a stop at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris with the silent film version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and a musical tour of sacred vocal music and madrigals. This theme allowed us to include music from many different time periods from all over Europe — a rich Grand Tour of musical offerings!
The opening concert on this Saturday, July 6, features Dark Horse Consort returning to Madison with Wanderlust, their newly created program for MEMF’s Grand Tour theme. The program follows the misadventures of an English gentleman as he embarks on a continental Grand Tour adventure in search of love and fulfillment.
Our hero’s travelogue includes springtime consort songs by Alfonso Ferrabosco and William Byrd; Erasmus Widmann’s beguiling German dances dedicated to women; the wooing songs of the Italian gondolier; and sultry Spanish airs.
On Sunday, July 7, Alchymy Viols (below) performs “American at Versailles,” an original ballet masque of French baroque music, dance and drama written and choreographed by Sarah Edgar, featuring Carrie Henneman Shaw, soprano; Sarah Edgar, director and dancer; and guest soprano Paulina Francisco. The American on the Grand Tour encounters the exotic world of French baroque manners, dress, dance and love.
TOMORROW: Part 2 explores the rest of the festival next week, including a rare book exhibit and the All-Festival finale on Saturday night
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Classical music: Celebrate Commencement Day 2018 with Brahms and Elgar
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is The Big Day – Graduation or Commencement Day 2018 — at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The weather may be too rainy and too cold, but there is little choice as an alternative to the huge outdoor ceremony for thousands of graduates, plus friends and family, at Camp Randall Stadium (below) unless there is lightning or dangerous weather that could delay and cancel the ceremony.
Still, there is some great music to celebrate with and perhaps warm up with.
If you have a favorite suggestion for graduation music, leave the name of the composer and work, along with a link to a YouTube video if possible, in the COMMENT section below.
In the mean time, here are the two most famous works that will perhaps stir you or even warm you.
First is the Academic Festival Overture, which uses a student drinking song, that was composed by Johannes Brahms when he received an honorary degree.
And what would any graduation be without the traditional old standby that still never fails to touch most of those who hear it: the stately Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 — one of five composed and then used for a royal coronation –by Sir Edward Elgar
Congratulations to the Class of 2018.
This post is for you.
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