The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society will perform a FREE concert this Sunday afternoon to help bring neglected Jewish music “out of the shadows” of history. Part 2 of 2.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear’s friends at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society write:
The U.S. component of a major international research project, “Performing the Jewish Archive,” led by the University of Leeds, in England, has attracted significant funding to shine new light on forgotten works by Jewish artists.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison and the City of Madison are uniquely situated as the sole hosts for the global project’s performance events within the United States; one of the premier public research-intensive universities in the world, located in a community that lives and breathes diverse arts, while striving for social change.
Here, in Madison, under the leadership of Teryl Dobbs, Chair of Music Education at the UW-Madison, “Out of the Shadows: Rediscovering Jewish Music, Literature and Theater” will be a full-day event held on this Sunday, August 30, 2015.
Local partners include the UW-Madison School of Music, Mosse-Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture, and the Arts Institute at UW-Madison; and the Bach Dancing andDynamite Society.
Yesterday The Ear posted the schedule of all FREE events.
Here is a link to that post:
Today’s post focuses on the classical music in the event:
The Ear’s friend Jeffrey Sykes of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society writes:
The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society is proud to partner with Performing the Jewish Archive’s “Out of the Shadows” event by performing neglected and suppressed Jewish music from the early 20th Century.
The FREE concert will be held this Sunday 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the Atrium Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive.
The program includes music from two composers who died at Auschwitz. Erwin Schulhoff’s flute sonata is a passionate mix of impressionism and jazz. Dick Kattenburg’s quartet for flute, violin, cello and piano is an irrepressible romp full of Gershwin-esque melodies and harmonies.
Robert Kahn (below) is a composer from an earlier generation whose work was suppressed by the Nazis. We perform his gorgeous song cycle “Jungbrunnen” (The Fountain of Youth) for soprano, violin, cello and piano.
The program concludes with two works by the Viennese wunderkind Erich Wolfgang Korngold (below). Already well-known in Austria, Korngold had begun to compose music for Hollywood movies. He was working California in 1938 when the Anschluss took place, and he never returned to his homeland.
We begin with three beautiful songs he composed for his mother and continue with his Suite for piano left-hand, two violins and cello based on those songs. A thrilling and important composition, the Suite was written for the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in World War I.
Adds BDDS flutist Stephanie Jutt:
Dutch composer Dick Kattenburg (1919-1944, below) barely got started before his career and his life ended at Auschwitz at age 24. A supremely gifted young composer, bursting with originality and ingenuity, his love of jazz and the popular idioms of the day make his music irresistible – by turns a bit of Stravinsky, a bit of Wizard of Oz, a bit of Duke Ellington. His two dozen complete works were hidden in the attic where his mother had kept them, and were discovered by his sister, Daisy.
The music of Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942, below) has become widely known over the last 20 years. Denounced as “Entartete Musik” (degenerate music) by the Nazis, he died in Wülzburg concentration camp. During the 30 years of his active career he wrote sonatas, quartets, sextets, jazz piano pieces, stage music, an opera, eight symphonies, and at least one oratorio.
Schulhoff, like Kattenburg, also fell in love with American jazz, and his flute sonata of 1927 reflects the infectious American rhythmic vitality with his great interest in the traditional music of Czechoslovakia.
Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society performers are: Emily Birsan, soprano; Stephanie Jutt, flute; Parry Karp, cello; Leanne League, violin; Axel Strauss, violin; and Jeffrey Sykes, piano.
PROGRAM
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942): Flute Sonata (1928). Jutt, Sykes
Robert Kahn (1865-1951): Seven Songs from Jungbrunnen, op. 46, for soprano and piano trio (1906). Birsan, League, Karp, Sykes
Dick Kattenburg: Quartet for flute, violin, cello and piano. Jutt, Strauss, Karp, Sykes.
Intermission
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957): Three Songs, op. 22, for soprano and piano (1930). Birsan, Sykes
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957): Suite, op. 23, for piano left hand, two violins, and cello (1930). Strauss, League, Karp, Sykes
For more about the performers, visit bachdancinganddynamite.org.
Here are biographies of the performers:
Founding Artistic Director STEPHANIE JUTT (below) is professor of flute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and principal flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. She is a winner of the International Pro Musicis Competition.
Founding Artistic Director and pianist JEFFREY SYKES (below) is a faculty member of the University of California-Berkeley. He is a member of the San Francisco Piano Trio.
Soprano EMILY BIRSAN (below) has completed her third year as a member of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, she is appearing with the Boston Lyric Opera this year.
Cellist PARRY KARP (bel0w) is artist-in-residence and professor of chamber music and cello at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet for the past 37 years.
Violinist LEANNE KELSO LEAGUE (below) is assistant concertmaster of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and associate concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. She also teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and is a member of the Ancora String Quartet.
Violinist AXEL STRAUSS (below), winner of the International Naumburg Award, is professor of violin at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal. He is also a member of the San Francisco Piano Trio.
Tags: Ancora Quartet, Arts, Auschwitz, Austria, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, California, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, concentration camp, death camp, Dick Kattenburg, Duke Ellington, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Erwin Schulhoff, flute, Gershwin, Hitler, Hollywood, Holocaust, Impressionism, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Jewish music, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Nazi, Orchestra, Piano, Robert Kahn, soprano, Stravinsky, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: It’s a very busy week at the UW-Madison School of Music. Here is a roundup of the mostly FREE concerts, master classes and other events.
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By Jacob Stockinger
You always know when we are coming down to the end of a semester or the end of the school year. The music events start stacking up over the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music likes planes stacked up over O’Hare.
Talk about Train Wreck Weekends! And this is just the UW. There is plenty more to come, as you will see here over the course of this week.
In a way, it is a testament to the vitality of the music scene here in the Madison area.
But it is also too bad to the degree that so many events almost guarantee that some audiences will be smaller than they might otherwise be because people just can’t keep up with so many things that are so closely scheduled that they compete with each other for listeners’ free time. And we are not even talking about big draws like the three performances of the annual concert and show by the UW-Madison Varsity Band.
TUESDAY
Guest artists the Elaris Duo (below) will give master classes Tuesday night, April 14. The violin class with Larisa Elisha will be from 6-7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, and the cello class will be with Steven Elisha from 8-9:30 p.m. They perform a concert Wednesday night at 8 in Mills Hall. See below.
WEDNESDAY
A FREE concert will be given by the UW-Madison Guitar Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall under the direction of Javier Calderon (below top). Sorry, The Ear has received no word about the program. For more information, go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/uw-guitar-ensemble-2/
$2 Broom, a FREE concert of electro-acoustic improvised music by students will be held in Music Hall, under the direction of UW-Madison horn professor Daniel Grabois (below bottom, in a photo by James Gill). For more information when it is posted, go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/2-dollar-broom-2015/
A FREE concert by guest artists the Elaris Duo — husband-and-wife cellist and violinist — in Mills Hall at 8 p.m. The program includes works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Zoltan Kodaly and Erwin Schulhoff. For more information, visit: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/elaris-duo-guest-artists/
THURSDAY
The Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) will perform a FREE concert at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. The program includes the String Quartet in A Major, K. 464, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the String Quartet No. 4 by Leon Kirchner; and the early String Quartet in C Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 18, No. 4. For more information about the concert and the Pro Arte Quartet, go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/pro-arte-quartet_4_16/
FRIDAY
At 2 p.m. in Room 1629 of the Humanities Building, Brazilian percussionist Ney Rosauro (below) will give a master class that is open to the public. For information about the artist, go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/master-class-with-brazilian-percussionist-ney-rosauro/
At 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall, the Mad City Brass Quintet, made up of UW-Madison students, will perform a FREE concert of music by UW-Madison professor emeritus of tuba and euphonium John Stevens (below) as well as by Billy Joel, Michael Kamen and Andre Lafosse. For more information, visit: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/mad-city-brass-quintet/
At 7:30 p.m. in Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, the UW-Madison Concert Choir, Chorale, and Madrigal Singers will perform. Bruce Gladstone will conduct. The joint concert of the three choirs is themed “O Beauty” but each ensemble will have its own section. (Below is the Concert Choir performing.)
The choirs will perform together on the following large works: Blest Pair of Sirens by C.H.H. Parry and Missa “O Pulchritudo” by Gian-Carlo Menotti.
These will be performed with UW-Madison Professor John Chappell Stowe on organ.
For information, visit: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/uw-concert-choir-chorale-and-madrigal-singers/
SATURDAY
At 3:30 in Morphy Recital Hall, the Perlman Trio (funded by local philanthropist Kato Perlman) and two guest artists (below in a photo by Tori Rogers) will perform a FREE concert. The piano trio members (three in the front) are SeungWha Baek, piano; Valerie Sanders, violin; and Daniel Ma, cello. Guests are Keisuke Yamamoto, violin, and Jeremy Kienbaum, viola.
The program includes: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Hoboken XV: 29, by Franz Joseph Haydn; the Piano Quintet in D Major, Op. 51, by Anton Arensky; and the Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8 (original version) by Johannes Brahms. For information, go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/perlman-trio-recital/
At 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Low Brass Ensemble will offer a FREE concert. Sorry, no other details are available. When they are, go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/low-brass-ensemble/
At 6 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. UW-Madison bassoonist-conductor Marc Vallon (below top, in a photo by James Gill) and Madison Bach Musicians founder, director and keyboard player Trevor Stephenson (below bottom) will host a demonstration of early music practices and period instruments, featuring performers from the Madison Bach Musicians. The event is part of the year-long “Rediscovering Rameau” music festival.
Later this week there will be two semi-staged performances of Rameau’s 1748 ballet-opera “Pygmalion” that Stephenson and the Madison Bach Musicians will give at the First Unitarian Society of Madison this Friday night at 6:45 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2:45 p.m. Go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/pygmalion-madison-bach-musicians/
![Marc Vallon 2011 James Gill (baroque & modern)[2]](https://welltempered.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/marc-vallon-2011-james-gill-baroque-modern2.jpg)
At 6:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the gala concert of the 12th annual Madison Flute Festival, “Flutes Down Under,” will take place. Admission is $5 for those not taking part in the day-long festival. It is held by the Wisconsin Flute Club and the flute studio of UW Professor Stephanie Jutt, who is Principal Flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and also a co-founder and co-director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society.
The Madison Flute Club is winding up a fund-raising drive — nearly $15,000 — for the purchase of a contra bass flute. This instrument was made by Eva Kingma in the Netherlands, and is in transit now. This instrument will be the first contra bass flute in Wisconsin.
The Madison Flute Club also recently sponsored a composition contest for the contra bass flute, and the winning piece will be performed at the Flute Club’s Spring Recital May 9 at Midvale Lutheran Church.
At the conclusion of the Flute Festival this week, the public is invited to hear a performance featuring the family of low flutes. This concert will present pieces by Gary Shocker, Vaughan McAlley and many other composers writing for the low flutes. Attendees will hear performances on alto, bass, contra bass and subcontrabass flute –an extremely rare instrument.
Other festival events take place at the UW-Madison Pyle Center. The festival features guest artist Peter Sheridan (below), low flutes specialist visiting from Australia. Activities include flute choir reading sessions, master class, performances, presentations, vendors and competitions featuring monetary prizes. For more information, go to: http://www.madisonfluteclub.org/FluteFestival.html
and
http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/gala-concert-wisconsin-flute-festival/
SUNDAY
At 3:30 p.m., the winners of UW-Madison’s annual Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition will perform. A reception will follow. The event is made possible by the generosity of former UW-Madison Chancellor Irving Shain (below bottom). For word on the winners and the sonatas to be performed, go to: http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/beethoven-competition-recital/
Tags: Anton Arensky, Arts, Australia, Bach, ballet, Baroque, Bassoon, bassooon, Beethoven, Billy Joel, Brahms, brass, Brazil, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, classical guitar, Classical music, composer, Concert Choir, Early music, Erwin Schulhoff, Euphonium, flute, Gian-Carlo Menotti, guitar, Haydn, historically informed performance practices, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Stevens, Keyboard, Kodaly, Leon Kirchner, low flute, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Music, opera, organ, Parry, percussion, Piano, Piano Quintet, Piano sonata, Piano Trio, Pro Arte Quartet, Pygmalion, Rameau, Sonata, String quartet, Tuba, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Classical music: Choral music, wind music and brass music add to the season-ending events this super-busy weekend.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend brings more season-closers. The groups concluding their concert seasons include the First Unitarian Society of Madison’s FREE Friday Noon Musicales; the Festival Choir of Madison; the UW Chamber Orchestra; and Edgewood College.
Here is a round-up of yet another busy weekend.
FRIDAY
On Friday afternoon, from 12:15 to 1 p.m., the last FREE Friday Noon Musicale of the season at the first Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature Driftless Winds, a University of Wisconsin-Platteville Faculty Reed Trio.
Members are Laura Medisky, oboe; Corey Mackey, clarinet; and Jacqueline Wilson, bassoon.
The program, performed in the historic Landmark Auditorium designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, includes music by Wolfgang Amadeus, Jacques Ibert, Erwin Schulhoff and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Bring your lunch; coffee and tea are provided.
On Friday night, the Madison Chamber Choir will perform at 7:30 p.m. at Christ Presbyterian Church (http://www.madisonchamberchoir.com) . It will be directed by Adam Kluck.
On Friday night, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, the University of Wisconsin-Stout Choirs come to Madison on a mini-tour, with a program titled “An Ode To The Bard: Shakespeare in Music.”
The concert will feature musical settings of Shakespeare’s words, popular music of his time (including tunes that are referenced in his plays), and works inspired by the legacy of William Shakespeare (below).
Performers include the Stout Symphonic Singers (an open-seat choir of about 30 singers) and the Stout Chamber Choir (an auditioned choir of 20 singers), both directed by composer-conductor Jerry Hui (below), with pianist Michaela Gifford.
Admission is free with a free-will donation welcomed.
SATURDAY
On Saturday at 11 a.m. at Oakwood Village West, 6209 Mineral Road, on Madison’s far west side, the UW-Stout Choirs will give a second performance of their Friday night program. See directly above.
On Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, the All-University String Orchestra will perform a FREE concert under conductor Janet Jensen (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot). Sorry, no word on a specific program.
On Saturday, May 3, at 7 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel at 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble will perform under the direction of Walter Rich and Daniel Wallach. Included will be works by Paul Dukas, Jenkins, Williams, Van der Roost and Franz von Suppe.
Admission is $7 to benefit music scholarships at the college.
On Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., the FESTIVAL CHOIR OF MADISON (below) will conclude its 40th season in the First Baptist Church, 518 North Franklin Avenue, in Madison. It will perform with the Pecatonica String Quartet and winds, and under the baton of artistic director Bryson Mortensen, who is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Rock County.
The program is entitled “Gloria” and features two Glorias: the well-known one by Antonio Vivaldi and a rarely heard one by Luigi Boccherini. A pre-concert lecture, begins at 6:30 p.m. The Ear hears there will also be an encore performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s “Ave Verum Corpus.”
Tickets are $18 general public, $14 for seniors and $8 for students if bought in advance – call (608) 274-7089; the day of the concert, tickets are $20, $15 and $10, respectively.
For more information, visit the link: http://festivalchoirmadison.org/index.htm
On Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Women’s Chorus and the University Chorus will perform a FREE concert under the direction of Anna Volodarskaya and Adam Kluck (below), respectively. Sorry, no word yet on a specific program.
SUNDAY
On “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from 12:30 to 2 p.m., members of the music faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire will perform the second-to–last concert of that series this season. As always it will be broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Radio. The concert itself is FREE in the Brittingham Gallery No. 3. Sorry, no word on a program.
On Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., in Mills Hall, the UW Concert Band will perform a FREE concert under director Mike Leckrone (below). Sorry, no word on the program.
On Sunday, May 4, at 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Chamber Singers, Men’s Choir, Women’s Choir and Campus-Community Choir.
Kathleen Otterson (below) will conduct the Women’s Choir, while Albert Pinsonneault will lead the Chamber Singers, Campus-Community Choir, and Men’s Choir.
Pinsonneault (below) will also conduct the combined choirs and the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Te Deum.”
Admission is $7 to benefit music scholarships at Edgewood.
On Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. in Music Hall, at the foot of Bascom Hill, the Lincoln Chamber Brass of Chicago will perform a FREE concert, just a week before they compete at the prestigious Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
All of them are members of Civic Orchestra of Chicago; at 21, the horn player already substitutes for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Four are students at Northwestern University, the fifth at DePaul. Four of the five, including Ansel Norris, who was born in Madison and in high school studied with UW-Madison trumpeter John Aley, will attend the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival this summer.
Musicians of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. The program includes Victor Ewald’s Brass Quintet No. 3; David Sampson’s “Morning Music”; Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria” (arranged by Barker); and Giles Farnaby’s Suite of Dances.
Members (below, from left) are Ansel Norris and William Cooper, trumpets; Kevin Haseltine, horn; Joseph Peterson, trombone; and Scott Hartman, bass trombone.
For more information, visit: http://lincolnchamberbrass.wordpress.com/home/
At 7:30 in Mills Hall, the UW Chamber Orchestra (below) will perform its last concert of the season and its last concert before being either mothballed or terminated.
The performance is FREE and will be under the baton of director James Smith.
The program includes: Jacques Ibert’s “Hommage to Mozart”; Richard Strauss’ “Dance Suite After Francois Couperin”; and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E Fat Major. (In a YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the first movement performed by the legendary conductor Karl Bohm and the Vienna Philharmonic.)
For more about the news significance of the event, here is a link to yesterday’s blog post:
Tags: Antonio Vivladi, Arts, Ave Verum Corpus, band, Beethoven, Boccherini, Boston Symphony Orchestra, brass, Chamber choir, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Choir, choral music, Classical music, Concert Band, DePaul University, Dukas, Early music, Edgewood College, encore, Erwin Schulhoff, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Joseph Haydn, Friday, Gloria, Horn, Jacob Stockinger, Jacques Ibert, Karl Böhm, Lincoln Chamber Brass, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luigi Boccherini, Madison, Mozart, Music, Northwestern University, Paul Dukas, Piano, reed, Richard Strauss, Saturday, Schulhoff, Shakespare, Symphony No. 39 in E Flat Major, Tanglewood, Te Deum, trio, Trumpet, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Platteville, UW-Rock County, UW-Stout, Vienna Philharmonic, von Suppe, William Shakespeare, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
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