The Well-Tempered Ear
The UW Symphony strings and Pro Arte Quartet team up Thursday night for a free online MUST-HEAR concert of Shostakovich, Elgar and Caroline Shaw. TONIGHT you can hear free piano and percussion recitals
Leave a Comment
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, 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.
All times are Central Daylight Time.
ALERTS: Tonight from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Collins Recital Hall of the Hamel Music Center, the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music will present a departmental piano recital with undergraduate and master’s students. There is no listing of performers and pieces yet. One assumes they will be announced during the live-stream. Here is the link to take you to the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7muCH_gupA
Then from 7:30 to 9 p.m., the UW Chamber Percussion Ensemble will live-stream a concert from the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall. Here is the YouTube link. If you click on Show More, you will find the details of the program and composers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWv285nZutI
By Jacob Stockinger
This Thursday night, April 22, you can hear two of the musical groups that The Ear found most impressive and consistently excellent during the Pandemic Year.
At 7:30 p.m., the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra’s string section (below) and the Pro Arte Quartet will team up to perform a free 90-minute, live-streamed concert online.
It is one of the last major concerts of this school year and will be conducted by the outstanding music director and conductor of the orchestra, Professor Oriol Sans (below).
For The Ear, it is a MUST-HEAR concert.
Here is a link to the YouTube site where you can see and hear it: https://youtu.be/TN2PftBJ4yg. If you click on Show More, you can see the members of the orchestra’s strings along with a list of the graduating seniors.
All the works on the innovative program are closely informed by the string quartet.
The program includes the darkly dramatic five-movement Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a, based on the famous and popular String Quartet No. 8, by Dmitri Shostakovich; the orchestral version of the entrancing and quietly hypnotic “Entr’acte” — heard in the YouTube video at the bottom — that was originally written for string quartet by the Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary American composer Caroline Shaw (below, in a photo by Kait Moreno); and the Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra by Sir Edward Elgar.
The UW-Madison’s acclaimed Pro Arte Quartet (below) is the soloist and will join forces with the orchestra for the Elgar work. Quartet members are: David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violins; Sally Chisholm, viola; and Parry Karp, cello.
And here is a link to more information about the program and to more extensive program notes: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra-8/
Tags: #AmericanComposer, #AudiofortheArts, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CarolineShaw, #CentralTime, #ChamberPercussionEnsemble, #CollinsRecitalHall, #ContemporaryComposer, #CoronavirusPandemic, #DavidPerry, #DmitriShostakovich, #EdwardElgar, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GraduateStudent, #HamelMusicCenter, #JacobStockinger, #LivingComposer, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicDirector, #Musicfaculty, #MusicProfessor, #NewMusic, #OnlineConcert, #OrchestralMusic, #OriolSans, #ParryKarp, #PercussionMusic, #PianoMusic, #PianoTeachers, #ProArteQuartet, #ProgramNotes, #PulitzerPrize, #SallyChisholm, #StringMusic, #StringQuartet, #SuzanneBeia, #TheEar, #TheUW, #UndergraduateStudent, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWSymphonyOrchestra, #VirtualConcert, #WorldWarII, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, allegro, American, American composer, Arts, audience, Beia, blog, Blog post, blog posting, Caroline Shaw, CDT, cellist, Cello, Central Time, chamber, Chamber music, Chisholm, Classical music, Collins Recital Hall, composer, Concert, conductor, consistent, contemporary, coronavirus, dark, David Perry, detail, Dmitri Shostakovich, dramatic, Edward Elgar, Elgar, entr'acte, entrancing, excellent, extensive, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, famous, forward, free, graduate student, graduates, graduating, group, Hamel Music Center, hear, hypnotic, impressive, include, information, innovative, introduction, Jacob Stockinger, Karp, like, link, list, live-stream, Living composer, Madison, major, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, member, Music, Music director, music faculty, musical, must-hear, New Music, online, Orchestra, orchestral music, original, Oriol Sans, outstanding, pandemic, Parry Karp, percussion, Percussion music, perform, performance, performer, Perry, Pianist, Piano, piano music, piano teachers, popular, Pro Arte Quartet, professor, program, program notes, Pulitzer Prize, quiet, recital, Sally Chisholm, Sans, see, seniors, share, Shaw, Shostakovich, site, soloist, string music, String quartet, strings, Student, Suzanne Beia, symphony, tag, team, The Ear, undergraduate, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW Symphony Orchestra, UW-Madison, version, Viola, Violin, violist, virtual, vocal music, war, Wisconsin, world, World War II, YouTube
Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet closes its 18th season with three upcoming local concerts of music by Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Caroline Shaw
Leave a Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ancora String Quartet closes its 18th season with a trio of concerts, and a program featuring two quartets from the early 19th century, juxtaposed with a shorter piece of much more recent date.
The program is the String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, by Felix Mendelssohn; “Entr’acte” (Minuet and Trio) by Caroline Shaw; and String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6, by Ludwig van Beethoven.
The schedule of concert dates, times and venues is below.
Members of the Ancora String Quartet (below, from left, in a photo by Barry Lewis), who also perform with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Madison Bach Musicians among other groups, are: Wes Luke and Robin Ryan, violins; Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola; and Benjamin Whitcomb, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Whtewater.
Here are some program notes provided by violist Marika Fischer Hoyt:
“Mendelssohn’s Op. 13 was written in 1827 when he was 18 years old. He’d written the Octet two years earlier, but this was his first mature string quartet. It expresses his youthful passion and includes one of his signature bubbly scherzos.
“Between our two more-established works, we insert a short piece entitled (appropriately enough) “Entr’acte” (“Intermission,” heard in the YouTube video at the bottom), composed by the American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw (below, in a photo by Dashing Burton) in 2011. (It is one of The Ear’s favorite contemporary works.)
The 12-minute piece, subtitled “a minuet and trio,” takes haunting fragments and memes from Baroque and Classical styles and treats them with 21st-century audacity. With an ABA structure, the opening and closing sighing motif seems dolorous, but takes its own sadness in a philosophical spirit.
“While both the Mendelssohn and Shaw end quietly, we conclude the program with Beethoven’s exuberant Quartet No. 6, the final quartet in the composer’s set of six early quartets, his Opus 18. This delightful work, completed in 1800, is full of energy and drive; the melancholy mood of the brief fourth movement “La malinconia” (Melancholy) is banished by a cheerful Allegretto, ending with a flourish in the final Prestissimo.”
SCHEDULE
Monday, May 13, at 3 p.m. in the Stoughton Opera House‘s Music Appreciation Series, 381 East Main Street, Stoughton. Free and open to the public
Tuesday, May 14, 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street, Madison. Ticketed event — $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $6 for young people. There will be a reception following the concert.
Saturday, June 15, at noon in Grace Episcopal Church for “Grace Presents,” 116 West Washington Avenue, on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison. Free and open to the public.
Tags: #21stCentury, #AmericanComposer, #AncoraStringQuartet, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueStyle, #BenjaminWhitcomb, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CapitolSquare, #CarolineShaw, #ChamberMusic, #ChristianChurch, #Classicalera, #ContemporaryMusic, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #GraceEpiscopalChurch, #GracePresents, #LivingComposer, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MarikaFischerHoyt, #MusicAppreciation, #NewMusic, #ProgramNotes, #PulitzerPrize, #RobinRyan, #St.Andrew'sEpiscopalChurch, #StoughtonOperaHouse, #StringQuartet, #TheEar, #UniversityofWisconsin-Whitewater, #WesLuke, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, 21st century, adult, American, Ancora String Quartet, Arts, ASQ, audacity, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Benjamin Whitcomb, blog, Capitol Square, Caroline Shaw, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Christian church, Classical, Classical music, classicalmusic, closing, composer, Concert, contemporary, dates, downtown, entr'acte, express, Facebook, favorite, Felix Mendelssohn, forward, fragment, free, Grace Episcopal Church, Grace Presents, group, haunting, House, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, like, link, Living composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marika Fischer Hoyt, mature, melancholy, meme, minuet, mood, motif, movement, Music, music appreciation, New Music, Octet, open, opening, opera, Passion, perform, philosophical, piece, program, program notes, public, Pulitzer Prize, reception, recpeiton, Robin Ryan, sadness, schedule, Scherzo, Season, senior, share, sigh, signature, spirit, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Stoughton Opera House, String quartet, structure, style, tag, The Ear, ticket, time, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University of Wisconsin–Madison, venue, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, Wes Luke, winner, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, works, written, years, young people, youthful, YouTube
Classical music: The 16th annual all-day Wisconsin Flute Festival will be held this Saturday and will present a FREE public concert on Saturday afternoon
Leave a Comment
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
The 16th annual Wisconsin Flute Festival will be held on this coming Saturday, April 6, at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Wisconsin Flute Festival brings together flutists and music lovers of all ages from Wisconsin, the greater Midwest, and across the country, for an engaging and educational day celebrating everything flute.
The festival includes: workshops; lectures; performances; junior, youth, and collegiate artist competitions; master classes and an extensive exhibit hall.
This year’s festival will feature guest artist Bonita Boyd (below in a photo by Kate Lemmon), an internationally renowned performer and Professor of Flute at the Eastman School of Music. (You can hear a sample of her teaching in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The festival will begin at 8 a.m. at the Pyle Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will culminate in a FREE 90-minute public concert beginning at 5:30 p.m. in Music Hall, at the bottom of Bascom Hill and a short walk from the Pyle Center.
The free evening concert will be performed by featured guest artist Bonita Boyd with Madison guitarist Christopher Allen (below).
Workshop topics will include yoga for flutists, orchestral audition preparation, recording techniques, a repair clinic, piccolo techniques, and more.
Participants will also have the opportunity to participate in an interactive session with low flutes including; alto flutes, bass flutes, and a contrabass flute, and take part in two flute choir reading sessions.
Performances during the day will feature an eclectic mix of music performed by professional and student flutists.
Festival attendees will hear music by composers from around the globe and from a variety of periods. Compositions by living composers will feature prominently in many of the recitals at the festival. Solo flute, flute and piano, flute quartet, and flute with mixed ensemble can be heard.
For flutists shopping for an instrument, music or accessories, companies from across the U.S. will be on-site in the Festival’s exhibit hall. Technicians will be also available to evaluate instruments and conduct minor repairs. Confirmed exhibitors include Burkart Flutes and Piccolos, Flute Specialists, Inc., Flute World, the Geoghegan Company, Heid Music and Verne Q. Powell Flutes.
Tickets range from $30 to $40 for festival participants. Tickets for non-flutist family members of participants (parents, siblings, etc.) are available for at a special rate of $7. Registration is now open and information is available online at https://wisconsinflutefestival.org. Tickets can also be purchased at the festival.
The evening concert, beginning at 5:30 p.m., will be held in Music Hall at the UW-Madison and is FREE and open to the public.
The program will include Mountain Songs by Robert Beaser, Histoire du Tango by Astor Piazzolla, Canyon Echoes by Katherine Hoover, Entr’acte by Jacques Ibert and Pièce en form de Habenera by Maurice Ravel.
The 2019 Flute Festival – which is a program of the Madison Flute Club — is sponsored by Heid Music. Major funding is provided by Verne Q. Powell Flutes, American Printing, Eric and Tobi Breisach, Distillery Marketing and Design, and Karl Sandelin – in memory of Joyce Sandelin.
Additional funding is provided by Audio for the Arts, Breisach Cordell PLLC, Dr. Danielle and Jeffrey Breisach, Madison Classical Guitar Society, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, and Jessica and Jim Yehle.
ABOUT THE MADISON FLUTE CLUB
The Madison Flute Club was founded in 2002 and currently presents over 20 concerts each year to an audience of more than 1,500 community members. The club involves, on average, 35 active adult members and over 30 youth from the surrounding area.
To advance and achieve its mission, the Madison Flute Club has undertaken several large projects and partnered with numerous organizations and events in Dane County. These projects include the commissioning and world premiere of a work for flute choir for Design MMoCA, successfully fundraising for a contrabass flute — the first such instrument in Wisconsin — and performing at the National Flute Association Convention.
Madison Flute Club ensembles and members have been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio’s The Midday with Norman Gilliland, on WORT 89.9 FM in Madison and in the publication The Flutist Quarterly.
For more information about the Madison Flute Club, go to: http://www.madisonfluteclub.org
Tags: #AmericanPrinting, #AstorPiazzolla, #AudiofortheArts, #BascomHill, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BonitaBoyd, #ChristopherAllen, #ClassicalGuitar, #DaneCounty, #EastmanSchoolofMusic, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FluteChoir, #FluteMusic, #FluteQuartet, #GuestArtist, #GuitarMusic, #HeidMusic, #InstrumentalPlayer, #JacquesIbert, #KatherineHoover, #MadisonClassicalGuitarSociety, #MadisonFluteClub, #MadisonMuseumofContemporaryArt, #MauriceRavel, #MusicEducation, #Musicfaculty, #MusicHall, #MusicLover, #NewTango, #NormanGilliland, #NuevoTango, #PyleCenter, #RobertBeaser, #TheEar, #TheFlutistQuarterly, #TheMidday, #TheMidwest, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WisconsinFluteFestival, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WorldPremiere, #WORT-FM89.9, #YouTubevideo, accessories, adult, alto, American Printing, American Printing Company, announcement, Arts, audience, Audio for the Arts, audition, Ástor Piazzolla, Bascom Hill, bass, blog, Bonita Boyd, canyon, Chamber music, Christopher Allen, classical guitar, Classical music, clinic, collegiate, commission, community, Competition, composer, Composition, Concert, contrabass, country, Dane County, distillery, Eastman School of Music, echo, ensemble, entr'acte, event, exhibit, Facebook, Family, festival, flute, flute choir, flute quartet, forward, free, funding, globe, guest artist, guitar, Habanera, hall, Heid Music, Jacob Stockinger, Jacques Ibert, junior, Katherine Hoover, lecture, like, link'share, lover, Madison, Madison Classical Guitar Society, Madison Flute Club, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, master class, masterclass, Maurice Ravel, member, Midwest, mixed, MMOCA, mountain, Music, Music education, Music Hall, music lover, Norman Gilliland, opportunity, organization, Parent, participant, partner, performance, performer, periods, Piano, piccolo, piece, post, posting, preparation, professional, professor, project, public, purchase, Pyle Center, rate, registration, renown, renowned, repair, Robert Beaser, Shopping, sibling, solo, song, Student, tag, tango, Teacher, teaching, tecnique, The Ear, The Flutist Quarterly, The Midday, ticket, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, variety, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Flute Festival, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, word, work, workshop, world premiere, WORT-FM 89.9, yoga, Youth, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | welltemperedear on What do you think of the… |
 | Scott on What do you think of the… |
| welltemperedear on Yunchan Lim’s Chopin etudes ar… |
 | bratschespeilerin on What do you think of the… |
 | MARVIN P WICKENS on Yunchan Lim’s Chopin etudes ar… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Despite overly traditional staging, the Madison Opera’s “Carmen” beguiled and bewitched through the outstanding singing
16 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
The Opera Guy attended Sunday’s sold-out performance of “Carmen” by the Madison Opera and filed the following review, with photos by James Gill:
By Larry Wells
When I learned that Madison Opera was going to produce Bizet‘s “Carmen,” I was not surprised. It is annually one of the most frequently performed operas internationally, and it is a surefire vehicle for filling seats. It is safe.
On the other hand, once one watches repeated performances of an old favorite, the appeal can diminish. One advantage of an opera is that novel approaches to the production can prevent a warhorse from becoming stale.
I would love to say that the approach both musically and dramatically to this production of “Carmen” broke new ground, but it did not. In fact, the production was as traditional as could be. (Below is the main set, rented from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.)
I attended a performance of “Carmen” in Tucson a couple of years ago, and the conductor Keitaro Harada breathed new life into the familiar music through interesting tempi and finely nuanced dynamics.
Maestro John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) conducted the Madison Symphony Orchestra in a perfectly fine and occasionally uplifting manner, but there was little new to learn from his approach. The purely instrumental entr’actes shimmered, but during the rest of the opera the singing was at the forefront.
Maestro Harada (below), whom Madison should be actively courting, is currently conducting “Carmen” in Sofia, and the accompanying publicity clip in the YouTube video at the bottom (bear with the Bulgarian commentary) shows that the production is unconventional in its approach although it clearly is still “Carmen.” I would have enjoyed something other than the ultra-traditional staging and sets experienced here in Madison.
At times the production was so hackneyed and hokey that I chuckled to myself – ersatz flamenco dancing, the fluttering of fans, all of the cigarette factory girls with cigarettes dangling from their lips, unconvincing fight scenes, annoying children running across the stage, dreary costumes that hardly reminded me of Seville. And I could go on.
Yet “Carmen” has a way of drawing one in despite oneself. The music is marvelous, and the singing was uniformly excellent.
The four principals were luminous both in their solo pieces and ensembles. Cecelia Violetta López as Micaëla (below right) was lustrous in her two arias as well as in her duet with Sean Panikkar’s Don José (below left).
Panikkar started the performance off with little flair, but from the time he became besotted with Carmen toward the end of the first act he was on fire. He then maintained a high degree of passion and zest in his vocal performance.
Corey Crider (below right) was a wonderful Escamillo, singing his toréador role with great élan despite his unfortunate costumes.
And Aleks Romano (below) as Carmen made the most of her complex character. Her singing was luscious, and her acting – particularly her use of her expressive eyes – was terrific.
Likewise, the lesser roles – Thomas Forde as Zuniga, Benjamin Liupaogo as Remendado, Erik Earl Larson as Dancaïre, a radiant Anna Polum as Fransquita, and Megan Le Romero as Mercédès – were equally well sung. The ensemble work in the quintet at the end of Act II and in the card scene was outstanding.
The chorus (below) sounded terrific throughout, although the women’s costumes and the stage direction made the choristers appear ludicrous as times.
When all is said and done, “Carmen” still beguiled me by drawing me into its characters’ complex psychologies and motivations. Likewise, its music still bewitched me in much the same way as Carmen inexplicably bewitched hapless Don José (below).
But I seem to always wish for more – more compelling productions, more daring music making, more risk-taking.
I do look forward to this coming spring’s production of “Florencia en el Amazonas.” The recording is captivating, and the opera’s performances have pleased a wide variety of audiences by all accounts. And it is something new. Hallelujah!
Did you go to “Carmen”?
What did you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
Tags: acting, Aleks Romano, appeal, aria, Arts, beguile, bewitched, Bizet, breathe, Bulgaria, Bulgarian, card, cards, Carmen, Cecilia Violetta Lopez, character, children, choral music, chorus, cigarette, Classical music, commentary, complex, composer, conductor, costumes, dance, dancing, Don José, dramatically, dreary, duet, dynamics, ensemble, entr'acte, ersatz, Escamillo, expression, expressive, eyes, factory, familiar, fan, fight, fine, flair, Flamenco, Florencia en el Amazonas, frequent, frequently, gir;s, ground, hackneyed, hokey, instrumental, international, James Gill, John DeMain, Kansas City, Keitaro Harada, kids, lips, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, manner, motivation, Music, musically, new, novel, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, Passion, performance, principal, production, psychology, publicity, quintet, recording, Rent, role, safe, scene, Sean Panikkar, seat, set, Seville, singer, Singing, Sofia, sold-out, Spain, stale, surefire, surprise, symphony, tempi, Tempo, toreador, Toreador song, tradition, traditional, Tucson, unconvincing, uniform, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vehicle, vocal, vocal music, warhorse, Wisconsin, year, YouTube, zest