The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble and Salon Piano Series cancel and postpone concerts and master classes
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By Jacob Stockinger
The coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll. The Ear has received notification of the following cancellations and postponements.
WISCONSIN BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below) has cancelled its April 18 concert, due to the COVID-19 virus threat. Its next concert is re-scheduled for the fall, on Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church at 1833 Regent Street.
SALON PIANO SERIES
Concerts by the Grammy-nominated, New York jazz pianist Bill Charlap (below) on April 25 and April 26 plus his master class on April 25 are all cancelled and indefinitely postponed.
New dates for Charlap’s concerts and master class are yet to be determined. They will be announced via email, on the Salon Piano Series website, and on the Salon Piano Series social media. The necessary decision is made out of concern for the public’s health and well-being.
In the event that it is not feasible to reschedule the concerts, or you have a conflict and cannot attend the rescheduled event, you can get a credit for a future Salon Piano Series performance or be issued a refund.
Everyone who bought a ticket will have one week after the announcement of the new concert date in order to request a refund.
If you have a ticket for the concert, please see additional information at the end.
| The Salon Piano Series — which takes place at Farley’s House of Pianos — also says that the concert by Drew Petersen (below), which was to have taken place this spring is rescheduled for Aug. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and the master class is rescheduled for Aug. 16 at a time to be determined.
To purchase tickets, go to: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4275242) If you have a ticket and cannot attend the rescheduled event, Salon Piano Series asks that you help support the arts by not requesting a refund. For those who request a refund, the deadline for refunds has been extended through Thursday, April 9, as a courtesy. For more information about the concert, visit salonpianoseries.org. |
| If you would like a refund, please follow the instructions below and allow several business days for refunds to be processed.
Paper Tickets If you have a paper ticket, please take a photo of your ticket and email the photo to cristofori@salonpianoseries.org explaining that you would like a refund. Online Tickets If the ticket is not part of a season ticket, call Brown Paper Tickets at 1-(800) 838-3006. If your ticket is part of a season ticket, contact Salon Piano Series at (608) 271-2626. Refunds for season ticket holders will be issued through Salon Piano Series by check, not through Brown Paper Tickets. Tickets Ordered by Phone If you purchased a ticket by phone, contact Salon Piano Series at (608) 271-2626 to request a refund. |
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Classical music: Two noteworthy baroque concerts by Just Bach and the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble are on tap this Wednesday afternoon and Saturday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
Fans of Baroque music have two noteworthy events this week to look forward to.
Both concerts feature period instruments and historically informed performance practices.
WEDNESDAY AT NOON
This coming Wednesday, Oct. 16, from noon to 12:30 p.m. at Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, the second FREE Just Bach concert of the semester will take place.
The concerts by Just Bach (below, in a photo by John W. Barker) are now a regular feature of the Music at Midday at Luther Memorial Church.
Organist Mark Brampton Smith opens the program with a brief Fantasia on the melody of “Christ lag in Todesbanden” (Christ Lay in Death’s Bonds). That tune will reappear at the very end of the program, in the final chorale of Cantata 158.
The next piece on the program was also written for solo organ, but will be heard in an arrangement for violin, viola, cello and organ. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote six organ trio sonatas, apparently for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann.
The C Minor Sonata, the second in the set, is full of fiery drama in the outer movements, framing a dreamy, peaceful Largo.
UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe will lead the chorale sing-along, a beloved audience-participation feature of these programs.
The program closes with Cantata 158, “Der Friede sei mit dir” (Peace Be with You), with solo bass-baritone Jake Elfner. Elisheva Pront provides the luminous “cantus firmus” (an existing melody used in a polyphonic composition) in the second movement, which also features a beautiful violin solo played by Kangwon Kim. The Cantata ends with a chorale on the tune of “Christ lag in Todesbanden.”
You may bring your lunch and beverage.
The concert is FREE and open to the public, with a goodwill offering collected.
Other Just Bach concerts this fall, all Wednesdays at Noon, are: Nov. 20 and Dec. 18.
Performers this week are: Jake Elfner, bass-baritone; Elisheva Pront, soprano; Kangwon Kim, violin; Leanne League, violin; Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola; James Waldo, cello; and Mark Brampton Smith, organ.
For more information, go to: https://justbach.org or https://www.facebook.com/JustBachSeries/
SATURDAY NIGHT
This Saturday night, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street in Madison, the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below) will perform a concert of varied chamber music.
Performers include: Mimmi Fulmer, UW-Madison soprano; Nathan Giblierano, baroque violin; Eric Miller, viola da gamba and baroque cello; Chelsie Propst, soprano; Charlie Rasmussen, viola da gamba and baroque cello; Consuelo Sañudo, mezzo-soprano; Anton TenWolde, baroque cello; and Max Yount, harpsichord.
Tickets are at the door only: $20 for the public, $10 students. After the concert, a reception will be held at 2422 Kendall Ave, second floor.
The program is:
Henry Purcell: Three Fantasias
Giacomo Carissimi: “Scrivete, occhi dolente” (Write, Sore Eyes)
George Frideric Handel: Violin Sonata, HWV 372 (heard in an animated graphic depiction the YouTube video at the bottom)
Claudio Monteverdi: “Baci soave e cari” (Soft and Dear Kisses)
INTERMISSION
Luzzasco Luzzaschi: “O dolcezze amarissime” (O Bitter Sweetness)
Martin Berteau: Trio for violoncellos
Giulio Caccini: Excerpts from “La liberazione di Ruggiero” (The Liberation of Ruggiero)
For more information, go to: www.wisconsinbaroque.org
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Classical music: The seventh annual Make Music Madison is on Friday, June 21, and features 17 different FREE classical concerts as well as dozens of performances of jazz, folk, blues, hip-hop, swing and other genres
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REMINDER: TODAY, Saturday, June 15, at noon in Grace Episcopal Church, 116 West Washington Avenue, on the Capitol Square, the Ancora String Quartet will give a FREE performance as part of “Grace Presents.” The one-hour program includes the String Quartet in A Major, Op. 13, by Felix Mendelssohn; the String Quartet in B-flat Major, “La Malinconia” (Melancholy), Op. 18, No. 6, by Ludwig van Beethoven; and “Entr’acte” by the contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. The Ear heard an earlier performance of the same program by the Ancora, and highly recommends it.
By Jacob Stockinger
This coming Friday, June 21, is the Summer Solstice, which arrives at 10:54 a.m. CDT.
That means not only the first day of summer, but also the seventh annual Make Music Madison – a day-long FREE mostly outdoor festival of live performances.
The event, which is organized and staffed by volunteers and costs about $45,000, will take place from easy morning until midnight. Madison will be joining more than 80 cities in the United States and more than 1,000 cities around the world for the global event. The estimated audience worldwide is in the tens of millions.
The local lineup is impressive.
More than 400 concerts at more than 100 venues will take place all around the Madison area.
Many genres of music besides classical will be featured: jazz, folk, ethnic, rock, blues, hip-hop, reggae, gospel, swing and more. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a compilation of different music and assessments from Make Music Madison participants in 2014.)
And many forms of music, both instrumental and vocal, will be featured. (Below is the Madison Flute Club performing during last year’s event.)
Performers include professionals and amateurs, young people and adults, students and teachers, individuals and ensembles.
Some events will be more formal, while others will be jam sessions. Some events will have an open mic.
The Ear counts 17 different venues for classical music, including a public piano in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Alumni Park, between the Memorial Union and the Red Gym. Also featured there is opera singer Prenicia Clifton (below).
You will also find classical music at Metcalfe’s market in the Hilldale Mall; the First Congregational United Church of Christ near Camp Randall Stadium; branches of the Madison Public Library; and other places. You can hear the Suzuki Strings as well as violin, viola, cello, brass, winds, piano and guitar ensembles.
Unfortunately, though, specific programs and works are not listed, which might cut into the attendance at some performances.
To whet your appetite, here is a link to the Make Music Madison home website, with lots of background, some fine photos, a complete listing of events and the names of major funding sources, which include the Madison Arts Commission, Isthmus, Dane Arts, WORT FM 89.9, Wisconsin Public Radio. WSUM-FM 91.7 (the student radio at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) and La Voz de Latinoamerica Desde Wisconsin as well as individual private donors.
To help classical fans decide what to attend and what works in their weekday schedule, here is a map of concerts. Just click on “Classical” in “Filter Map,” which is first tab on the top right, to see classical events listed by genre, location and name:
http://www.makemusicmadison.org/listings/
Have you ever attended Make Music Madison?
What did you think of it? Did you have a good time? Did you hear good music and fine performances?
Do you have any words of advice, tips or recommendations for organizers, performers and listeners?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Bach Around the Clock marks Johann Sebastian’s 334th birthday next Saturday with a FREE 12-hour celebration. Here is the full schedule. Plus, Parry Karp plays all-French cello music on Thursday night
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ALERT: This coming Thursday night, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW-Madison cellist Parry Karp, of the Pro Arte Quartet, will perform a FREE all-French recital with longtime piano partner Eli Kalman of the UW-Oshkosh. The program includes the Cello Sonata by Claude Debussy; the Cello Sonata by Albéric Magnard; “Granada” from “Foreign Evenings” by Louis Vierne; and Cello Sonata No. 1 by Camille Saint-Saens. For more information, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/faculty-recital-parry-karp-cello-and-eli-kalman-piano-2/
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By Jacob Stockinger
The event is coming a couple of weeks earlier than the actual birthday on March 21.
But next Saturday, March 2, from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m., the annual Bach Around the Clock will celebrate the 334th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
At 10 p.m., there will even be a birthday cake for the birthday boy and for those who are still there celebrating the Big Bang of classical music.
The FREE informal event – complete with interviews, snacks and beverages – will take place at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below) at 1833 Regent Street on Madison’s near west side close to Randall Elementary School.
How do you like your Bach?
Sung? Played on instruments?
As originally scored? As arranged and transcribed?
Played by students? By adult amateurs? Or by professionals?
Whatever you are looking for and love to hear, chances are good you will find it on the schedule. There will be all of the above, and more. There will be cantatas and concertos, suites and sonatas, preludes and fugues. (You can hear the instantly recognizable and frequently played Prelude No. 1 in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The whole event will be streamed live locally and beyond.
To get an idea of what will happen from previous events, go to the previous blog post, which has a lot of photos, or use this blog’s search engine:
For more information, here is a link to the home website that has both the full schedule and a link for streaming as well as other information about free parking as well as how to participate in and support the event.
Here is the specific link to the full schedule, with names of performers and pieces:
https://bachclock.com/concert-schedule/
Take a look. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations about what others should attend and listen to? Leave a COMMENT if you want.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Two noteworthy concerts of Baroque chamber music, organ music and vocal music take place this Wednesday midday and Saturday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is another very busy week for classical music in the Madison area. If Baroque music interests you, there are two noteworthy concerts this week that should attract your attention.
JUST BACH
This Wednesday, Feb. 20. at 1 p.m. in Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, the February midday concert by Just Bach (below, at its September concert) will take place.
Admission to the all-Johann Sebastian Bach concert is FREE with a goodwill offering accepted.
Because it will be lunchtime, food and drink are allowed.
This month’s concert includes three diverse works.
Organist Mark Brampton Smith (below) will open the program with the first movement of the Concerto in D Minor BWV 596. This is Bach’s arrangement for organ of the popular Concerto for Two Violins by Antonio Vivaldi, and it comes off with dramatic effect when transcribed to the organ.
Violinist Leanne League will take the stage next, with the Sonata for Violin in A Minor, BWV 1003.
The program ends with the hauntingly beautiful Cantata 82 “Ich habe genug”(I have enough), scored for solo bass voice and oboe, strings and continuo. The vocal soloist will be UW-Madison bass-baritone Paul Rowe (below). You can hear the incomparable Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sing the aria in YouTube video at the bottom.)
The orchestra of baroque period-instrument specialists will be led by concertmaster Leanne League, and will include oboist Claire Workinger (below), in her Just Bach debut.
Organizers and performers say the goal of this series is to share the immense range of Bach’s vocal and instrumental repertoire with the Madison community at large. The period-instrument orchestra will bring the music to life in the manner and style that Bach would have conceived.
The audience will be invited to sing along during the opening hymns and the closing cantata chorales.
The other Just Bach dates, all Wednesdays, this semester are March 13, April 24 and May 29.
WISCONSIN BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
The veteran Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble will perform a varied concert of vocal and instrumental chamber music this coming Saturday night, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m. in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street.
Tickets can be purchased only at the door. Admission is$20, $10 for students.
Performers are: Nathan Giglierano, baroque violin; Eric Miller; viola da gamba; Sigrun Paust, recorder; Charlie Rasmussen, baroque cello and viola da gamba; Consuelo Sañudo, mezzo-soprano; Daniel Sullivan, harpsichord; and Anton TenWolde, baroque cello.
The program is:
Nicolas Bernier – “Diane” Cantata for voice and basso continuo
Marin Marais – Pièces de violes (Pieces for Viola da Gamba), selections from Book 4
Louis Couperin – Pièces de clavecin (Pieces for harpsichord)
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier – Trio sonata, Op. 37, No. 2
INTERMISSION
Francesco Paolo Supriani – Sinfonia for cello and basso continuo
Georg Fridrich Handel – “Nel dolce dell’ oblio” (In Sweet Forgetfuness)
Tommaso Giordani – Duo for two cellos, opus 18 no 5
Georg Philipp Telemann – Quartet in G minor TWV 43 g4
Following the concert, there will be a reception at 2422 Kendall Ave., Apt. 2.
For more information, go to www.wisconsinbaroque.org
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Classical music: The veteran Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble opens its season with a variety of vocal and instrumental works
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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. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The new season’s first concert by the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble opened in Madison on Saturday evening, Oct. 13, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. It offered, as always, a program of wide range and variety.
There were nine performers involved this time, two of them singers — the familiar UW-Madison soprano Mimi Fulmer and mezzo-soprano Consuelo Sañudo.
Fulmer sang an Italian cantata of contested authorship, with Sigrun Paust on recorder (below). Later, Sañudo sang a Latin motet by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, with helpers (violinist Nathan Giglierano, Monica Steger on recorder, Eric Miller on gamba and Max Yount on harpsichord).
The two joined in three items from Claudio Monteverdi’s Third Book of Madrigals (below). They were a bit of a twist, for they were meant for five singers. So the other three parts were taken by three viola da gamba players (Anton TenWolde, Miller, Charlie Rasmussen) — which actually proved not the best way to project the madrigal textures.
The bulk of the program was instrumental.
Variations, or “divisions” made two appearances. From the obscure August Kuehnel, there was an aria given long elaborations by two gambas (Miller, Rasmussen). Another set of variations, from a collection published by John Playford, was dashed off by violinist Giglierano, with gamba (Miller) and harpsichord (Steger) for continuo (below).
The duo form was also represented by such a piece for two cellos (below), by Tommaso Giordani, played by TenWolde and Rasmussen. A cello sonata by a certain Franceso Alborea was the solo spot for TenWolde, with Rasmussen and Steger on continuo.
With a more conventional ensemble, we heard a Trio Sonata in A minor by Georg Phiipp Telemann, with Giglierano and Faust, plus TenWolde and Steger as the continuo. (You can hear the Telemann Trio Sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom)
It was for the final item, as a grand finale (below), that all seven of the instrumentalists joined in a little ballet suite by Boismortier.
Music lovers who attend concerts such as these should remember that the works presented were, by and large, not intended for presentation to a “public.” This is mostly “parlor” music (“chamber,” you recall), meant for the players to exercise their playing skills for themselves and any friends.
There are masterpieces in this literature, but seeking them out is not the primary goal of the WBE. Rather, that is to allow performers to test and show off their skills in music they find challenging and satisfying. The pleasures which that gives to an audience are the bonus.
The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble has been around as a performing group in Madison since 1997. As such, it is the oldest surviving ensemble in town devoted to early music, and might be said to have inaugurated the taste and audience for that literature.
Such taste and audience have now expanded extensively, but the WBE continues to make its own chamber contributions with unfailing devotion.
For more information, about the WBE and its upcoming season, go to: https://wisconsinbaroque.weebly.com
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Classical music: What we learn when we learn music. To prepare for two events next Saturday featuring students and amateurs, here is an insightful and informative PBS video
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By Jacob Stockinger
One week from today, two big events will take place.
One is the new and improved Bach Around the Clock 5 celebration. The FREE and PUBLIC event takes place at St. Andrew’s Episcopalian Church, 1833 Regent Street, and runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
It features all kinds of music by Johann Sebastian Bach performed by not only professionals, but also by students and amateurs of many ages, from young children to adults. The idea is to mark his 333rd birthday.
For more information about BATC 5, which will be covered in more detail next week, go to this website, which also features a complete schedule of performers and repertoire.
https://bacharoundtheclock.wordpress.com/concert-schedule/
The other big event is the day-long series of Winterfest Concerts by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO). It starts at 11:30 a.m. and runs through the evening. It features hundreds of students from dozens of middle schools and high schools in the larger area.
Here is a link to the information about the series of concerts, which will also be treated more at length this coming week:
https://www.wysomusic.org/events/concerts-recitals/
In both cases, the larger importance of music education will be in the spotlight.
That’s all the more reason to spend three minutes listening to this week’s “Brief But Spectacular” segment from the PBS Newshour in which an accomplished musician discuss the benefits of music education beyond having a career as a musician.
It may also whet your appetite to take in one or both of the events next Saturday.
Here is a link to the YouTube video of that impressive segment:
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Classical music: A revived 12-hour marathon Bach Around the Clock celebration is seeking musicians to mark Johann Sebastian’s 332nd birthday on Saturday, March 18
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is some news that The Ear is overjoyed to announce: An annual Bach Around the Clock celebration is being revived this year in Madison.
For three years, a similar event, inspired by celebrations in New Orleans, was sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio and coordinated by its music director Cheryl Dring. But when she left in 2013, and so did WPR.
But now baroque and modern violist Marika Fischer Hoyt (below right), who plays with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Ancora String Quartet and the Madison Bach Musicians, has undertaken to revive it.
So let’s help resume the tradition and call it Bach Around the Clock 4.
The place has changed.
But the concept remains the same.
The event is now looking for musicians -– professional and amateurs, teachers and students – to sign up to participate.
Here are particulars:
Bach Around The Clock 2017
Saturday, March 18
12 Noon to 12 Midnight
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below)
1833 Regent St., Madison, WI 53726
The event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
Bach Around The Clock is a 12-hour celebration of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Held on the Saturday closest to Bach’s birthday, it offers all members of the musical community, from young students to seasoned professionals, the opportunity to perform selections by this sublime composer.
This year’s BATC takes place in the sanctuary (below) of St. Andrew’s Church, and will be opened with an organ work and a performance by the St. Andrew’s Chancel Choir, under the leadership of music director and organist Ken Stancer.
NOTE: The entire event will be recorded, and audio/video live streaming will be available for those unable to attend.
Birthday cake will be served at midnight!
The month of March has been designated as the official ‘Early Music Month’ by the organization Early Music America <www.earlymusicamerica.org/endeavors/early-music-month>, and the Madison Bach Around The Clock is listed on their website as one of the many partners participating in this annual nationwide celebration.
For more information on BATC, or to request a time to perform, please visit the website <https://bacharoundtheclock.wordpress.com>, or email batcmadison@gmail.com
The Ear — who himself played solo piano works and accompanied a famous Siciliano movement from a flute sonata — has such great memories of past ones.
Those memories include hearing whole studios of young piano students performing; duos and trios done by siblings and friends, by parents and children, by teachers and students; accomplished professional and amateur instrumentalists, including UW-Madison faculty members; church choirs in cantatas; lots of intriguing arrangements including the solo cello suites on the saxophone and a flute and bassoon duo performing some Two-Part Inventions (in the YouTube video at the bottom) as well as Bach on the accordion and bagpipes. And on and on.
And to give you the flavor of the event, here links to the events, complete with photos, to the past Bach Around the Clock celebrations when they were sponsored by Wisconsin Public Radio and held at the Pres House near the UW-Madison campus:
From 2010:
From 2011:
From 2012:
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Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and piano soloist Ilya Yakushev excel in a varied program. But audience members should do better at observing concert etiquette. Plus, retired UW-Madison bass-baritone Sam Jones dies at 87.
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ALERT: Sad news has reached The Ear. Samuel M. Jones, a bass-baritone who was an exceptional performer and teacher at the UW-Madison School of Music for 37 years and who also served as the cantor at Temple Beth El and the Choral Director at Grace Episcopal Church, has died at 87. Here is a link to the obituary in the Wisconsin State Journal:
By Jacob Stockinger
On Friday night, The Ear couldn’t be in two places at once.
Being in the mood for some solo piano playing – because The Ear himself is an avid amateur pianist – he attended the solo recital of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, William Bolcom and Johannes Brahms performed by UW-Madison School of Music professor Christopher Taylor. But more about that will come in another post this week.
However, Larry Wells — a college classmate and good friend who is a longtime and very knowledgeable classical music follower and who has worked, lived and attended concerts in Rochester, San Francisco, Moscow, Tokyo and Seoul — went to the concert Friday night by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
He filed this review:
By Larry Wells
The program opened with a short introduction by Maestro Andrew Sewell, the longtime music director and conductor of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, to the “English Suite” for string orchestra by the contemporary British composer Paul Lewis. (Sewell himself is a New Zealand native who also trained in England.)
Although the work was termed by Sewell as an obligatory form for British composers in the manner of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar and the like, I found the rhapsodic opening and closing of the second section, “Meditation,” reminiscent of VW’s “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.” But the remainder of the piece seemed trite and forgettable.
Following was the Concerto No. 1 in D Minor for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In this case, a concert grand piano was used featuring soloist Ilya Yakushev, a Russian native who now lives in the U.S., who was making his second appearance with the WCO.
This familiar piece was played bouncily in the first movement, sweetly in the second, and really fast in the third. I enjoyed Yakushev’s playing, although from my seat the piano seemed slightly muffled and occasionally unheard over the orchestra.
The second half of the evening opened with the Chamber Symphony No. 2 by Arnold Schoenberg, which Maestro Sewell claimed to be in the manner of Richard Strauss. If so, Strauss was much more expressive and engaging.
The evening ended with the Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor by Felix Mendelssohn, again featuring Yakushev. I was unfamiliar with the piece, and found it immediately engaging and enjoyable throughout. (You can hear Ilya Yakushev perform the Mendelssohn piano concerto in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Altogether, it was a good evening of music.
But it was unfortunately marred early in the aforementioned “Meditation” movement when a woman two seats down from me decided to answer a text. The bright light from her cell phone was distracting, so I pointedly stared at her until her seat mate nudged her, and she put away the phone. The seat mate clearly felt that I was in the wrong and glared at me.
I noticed that there is no caution in the program about turning off cell phones, so I believe it would be a good idea for a brief announcement to be made at the beginning of the concert and at the end of the intermission for people to turn off their phones. That simple courtesy has still not become a part of all concertgoers’ routines.
And what is with the Madison tradition of giving everything a standing ovation? (Below is a standing ovation at a concert on the Playhouse by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society.)
There have been perhaps a dozen times in my long concert-going life when I have been so moved by the moment that I’ve leapt to my feet. I think of a standing ovation as recognition of something extraordinary — not as a routine gesture that cheapens to the point of meaninglessness.
For purposes of comparison, here is a link to the review of the same concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and pianist Ilya Yakushev that veteran local music critic and retired UW-Madison medieval history professor John W. Barker wrote for Isthmus:
http://www.isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=44422&sid=6243d3d1e78139b69884d31c5c1126e2
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet closes out its season with polished, precise and emotionally intense performances of contrasting music by Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Caroline Shaw
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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
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. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
The Ancora String Quartet (below) is closing its season with a cluster of concerts around the area, including a central one Tuesday night at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Regent Street in Madison.
Of the three works in the program, the centerpiece was the Entr’acte by the American musician and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw (below, in a photo by Kait Moreno). It was written in 2011 when Shaw was 29, and has won some acclaim over the years.
It is cast roughly in the traditional form of a minuet and trio, but its point is less any musical substance than the invention of new and utterly eccentric ways of string playing for ear-catching sound effects. Many of those effects are, to be sure, intriguing.
Surrounding this was a pair of quartets seemingly very distinct from each other but related.
The first published quartet, in A major, Op. 13, by Felix Mendelssohn (below), was written in the wake of a romantic song he wrote and whose motives he then used in the quartet.
Emotional suggestions aside, however, it is notable as a darker and more intense work than his subsequent ones in this form. It was composed in 1827, when Mendelssohn was 18, but also the year in which Beethoven died. And it is the shadow of Beethoven, and of Beethoven’s innovations in his later quartets, that hangs over the Mendelssohn work.
Clearly the young master was trying to see how he could absorb the older master’s progressive style into his own still emerging one. I think he found in the process that the two could not be reconciled, and so his subsequent quartets were to be in a less stressful vein.
Against that 1827 work, we were then offered a composition from Beethoven’s own earlier years when he was 29 or 30. This was the final quartet in the set of six published as his Op. 18.
This Op. 18, No. 6, by Beethoven (below) in B-flat major — the program had it mistakenly in G major — is a Janus-faced work, its first two movements still rooted in the late 18th-century background, but with a scherzo full of quirks and tricks that point to the future, and a finale that plays on emotional contrasts.
Its opening Malinconia – or melancholic – music is contested by music of rousing joy, somewhat prefiguring Beethoven’s absorption with recovering his health in the Heiliger Dankgesang (Sacred Hymn of Thanksgiving) of his late string quartet, Op. 132. (You can hear the two contrasting moods and themes in the last movement, played by the Alban Berg Quartet, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For all three of these scores, a quartet member gave some introductory comments. (Below, first violinist Wes Luke introduces the work by Caroline Shaw.)
Members of the Ancora String Quartet are violinists Wes Luke and Robin Rynan, violist Marika Fischer Hoyt and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb. As a group, the Ancora players displayed intensity and absorption as well as polished precision, in a program of contrasts.
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