The Well-Tempered Ear
See and hear The Cliburn piano competition for FREE via streaming. It runs through June 18
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By Jacob Stockinger
The 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition got under way this past Thursday, June 2, and will run through Saturday, June 18, when the winners will be announced.
2022 marks the 60th anniversary year of the competition, which the American pianist Van Cliburn founded at Texas Christian University after his 1958 Cold War victory in the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow,.
You can follow it all online. The complete impressive competition is being broadcast on medici.tv and on YouTube.
But The Ear has used the competition’s own streaming website and finds the videos, sound quality, contestant biographies and background information very professional and helpful. So far, it has been a thoroughly satisfying, enjoyable and engaging experience. I highly recommendation it for students, amateur pianists and all music lovers.
For The Ear, one of the most impressive performances from yesterday was given by the 21-year-old Chinese pianist Yangrui Cai (below), heard in the YouTube video at the bottom. Such beautiful and subtly virtuosic but shaded Liszt and Brahms is not often heard.
Here is a link to the home page (below): https://cliburn.org
From there you can hear live performances, past performances and many facts , including the complete schedule, about The Cliburn, as it is now called. All times are Central Daylight.
Starting at 10 a.m. today — Saturday, June 4 — will see the final 10 performances (3 in the morning and night, four in the afternoon) of the preliminary round, which has featured 30 pianists in 40-minute solo recitals. Except for a specially commissioned “Fanfare Toccata” by Sir Stephen Hough, who is also on the jury, the choice of programs is entirely up to the individual contestants.
The road to the Cliburn is not easy.
It started with 388 applicants. That was trimmed down to 72 by preliminary judges. Out of 72, 30 were chosen by jurors to compete.
After today, it will be on to the quarter-finals with 18 contestants in 40-minute recitals with no repetition from the preliminary round; then the semi-final round with 12 contestants in a combination of 60-minute solo recital along with a Mozart piano concerto accompanied by the Fort Worth Symphony conducted by the Nicholas McGegan, who is famous for his interpretations of Baroque and Classical era music; and the final concerto round with each contestant play two concertos with Fort Worth Symphony under famed conductor Marin Alsop, who is also the head juror.
The Ear will be posting his own thoughts as he experiences the extensive competition, maybe after each round or even each day.
But The Ear also wants to hear from you.
Do you have thoughts about the various contestants?
Who are your favorites and why?
Thoughts about the programs and repertoire being played?
Other thoughts about the competition in general?
The Ear Wants to hear.
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Critics for The New York Times name their Top 10 online classical concerts for May
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By Jacob Stockinger
Even as we wait to see whether concerts in the next season will be mostly streamed or live, the critics for The New York Times have named their Top 10 classical concerts to stream and hear online in May.
The Times critics have been doing this during the pandemic year. So perhaps if and when they stop, it will be a sign of returning to concert life before the pandemic.
Then again, maybe not, since The Ear suspects that many listeners have liked the online format, at least for some of the times and for certain events. So maybe there will be a hybrid format with both live and online attendance.
As the same critics have done before, they mix an attention to contemporary composers, world premieres and up-and-coming performers, including the Finnish conductor Susanna Maliki (below top) in a photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times).
In a welcome development, the recommendations for this month also seem to mention more Black composers, performers and pieces than usual, including the rising star bass-baritone Davon Tines (below, in a photo by Vincent Tullo for The New York Times).
But you will also find many of the “usual suspects,” including Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Bartok, Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen and Shostakovich. (On the play list is Schubert’s last song, “The Shepherd on the Rock,” which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
You will also find dates and times (all are Eastern), links to the event and some short commentaries about what makes the concerts, programs and the performers noteworthy.
Here is a link to the story: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/arts/music/classical-music-streaming.html
Do you know of local, regional, national or international online concerts that you recommend? Leave word with relevant information in the Comment section.
Happy Listening!
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Songs by Black composers trace their cultural realities in a free online UW performance TONIGHT of “Verisimilitudes.” Plus, the five winners of this year’s Beethoven Competition perform Sunday.
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ALERT: This Sunday, April 25, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. the five winners of this year’s Beethoven Competition at the UW-Madison will perform in a winners’ concert. Included in the program are the popular and dramatic “Appassionata” Sonata, Op. 57, and the famous and innovative last piano sonata, No. 32 in C minor, Op 111. Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMF0Hd1MJwMg. Click on “Show More” and you can see the full programs and biographical profiles of the winners.
By Jacob Stockinger
The concert could hardly be more timely or the subject more relevant.
Think of the events in and near Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S.; of the Black Lives Matter movement and social protest; of the political fight for D.C. statehood and voting rights – all provide a perfect context for an impressive student project that will debut online TONIGHT, Saturday, April 24, at 7 p.m.
The one-hour free concert “Verisimilitudes: A Journey Through Art Song in Black, Brown and Tan” originated at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. It seems an ideal way for listeners to turn to music and art for social and political commentary, and to understand the racial subtexts of art.
Soprano Quanda Dawnyell Johnson (below) created, chose and performs the cycle of songs by Black composers with other Black students at the UW-Madison.
Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/-g5hjeuSumw
Click on “Show More” to see the complete program and more information.
Here is the artist’s statement:
“Within the content of this concert are 17 art songs that depict the reality of the souls of a diasporic people. Most of the lyricists and all of the composers are of African descent. In large part they come from the U.S. but also extend to Great Britain, Guadeloupe by way of France, and Sierra Leone.
“They speak to the veracity of Black life and Black feeling. A diasporic African reality in a Classical mode that challenges while it embraces a Western European vernacular. It is using “culture” as an agent of resistance.
“I refer to verisimilitude in the plural. While syntactically incorrect, as it relates to the multiple veils of reality Black people must negotiate, it is very correct.
“To be packaged in Blackness, or should I say “non-whiteness” is to ever live in a world of spiraling modalities and twirling realities. To paraphrase the great artist, Romare Bearden, in “calling and recalling” — we turn and return, then turn again to find the place that is our self.
“I welcome you to… Verisimilitudes: A Journey Through Art Song in Black, Brown, and Tan”
Here, by sections, is the complete program and a list of performers:
I. Nascence
Clear Water — Nadine Shanti
A Child’s Grace — Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
Night — Florence Price (below)
Big Lady Moon — Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
II. Awareness
Lovely, Dark, and Lonely — Harry T. Burleigh
Grief –William Grant Still (below)
Prayer — Leslie Adams
Interlude, The Creole Love Call — Duke Ellington
III. The Sophomore
Mae’s Rent Party, We Met By Chance –Jeraldine Saunders Herbison
The Barrier — Charles Brown
IV. Maturity
Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man, Dream Variation; I, Too — Margaret Bonds (below)
Dreams — Lawren Brianna Ware
Song Without Words — Charles Brown
Legacy
L’autre jour à l’ombrage (The Other Day in the Shade) — Joseph Boulogne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges, below)
The Verisimilitudes Team
Quanda Dawnyell Johnson — Soprano and Project Creator
Lawren Brianna Ware – -Pianist and Music Director
Rini Tarafder — Stage Manager
Akiwele Burayidi – Dancer
Jackson Neal – Dancer
Nathaniel Schmidt – Trumpet
Matthew Rodriguez – Clarinet
Craig Peaslee – Guitar
Aden Stier –Bass
Henry Ptacek – Drums
Dave Alcorn — Videographer
Here is a link to the complete program notes with lyrics and composer bios. And a preview audio sample is in the YouTube video at the bottom: https://simplebooklet.com/verisimilitudesprogramnotes#page=1
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Today – Monday, March 29 – is World Piano Day. Here are links to free online recitals. What does the piano mean to you? Did it play a role during the pandemic?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today – March 29, 2021 – is World Piano Day.
That is because today is the 88th day of 2021.
Gotta have some kind of code or symbolic meaning, after all.
In any case, there are virtual online celebrations all over the world. Here is a link to the official welcoming website that also lists Spotify and SoundCloud playlists from past years and dozens of worldwide events this year, running from March 25-30: https://www.pianoday.org
You can also find more on Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The piano means a lot to The Ear, who listens to it and plays it. He loves, loves, loves the piano.
What has the piano and piano music meant to you in your life?
What role did the piano play for you during the past pandemic year?
Have you listened to or discovered newer, younger talent?
Do you have favorite pianists, either historic or current? What do you like about them?
Or maybe you have favorite piano pieces?
Please tell us all about you and the piano in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
In the meantime you can listen to the World Piano Day “monster recital” by 17 pianists who record for Deutsche Grammophon. The “Yellow Label” – the first commercial record label — has signed a lot of great pianists in its time, and still does.
Here is a link to the YouTube DG recital, which lasts 2 hours and 50 minutes. If you go to the actual YouTube site, click on Show More to see the complete list of performers and pieces. Otherwise performers and programs are displayed on the screen:
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The acclaimed Meccore String Quartet performs an online concert of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Penderecki this Sunday night as part of the Wisconsin Union Theater season
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The Wisconsin Union Theater will stream an online Concert Series performance by the Meccore String Quartet (below, in a photo by Arkadiusz Berbecki) this Sunday night, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. CST.
The program is: String Quartet No. 21 in D major, K. 575, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; String Quartet No. 3 “Leaves from an Unwritten Diary” by 20th-century Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki; and String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, by Ludwig van Beethoven.
The ensemble includes violinists Wojciech Koprowski and Aleksandra Bryla; violist Michal Bryla; and cellist Marcin Maczynski.
As one of Europe’s most compelling ensembles, the Meccore String Quartet has appeared at many influential music festivals around the globe, such as the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The ensemble was the first-ever Polish string quartet to perform during the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the Bundestag, the national parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Meccore String Quartet has also received many international awards, including a nomination for the Paszport Polityki award in the classical music category for its “innovative approach to the music and for breaking the musical stereotypes.”
The musicians won the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition and the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.
When they are not performing, Meccore’s members lead chamber music and individual instrumental classes at the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland.
Praised for their technical accuracy, Meccore is also known for its deep musicality and expressiveness. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the Meccore playing an excerpt from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 2 n G Major, Op. 18, No. 2.)
“The Meccore String Quartet brings an unparalleled energy and emotional depth to its performances,” says Wisconsin Union Theater director Elizabeth Snodgrass (below). “This ensemble is admired the world over, and our patrons will experience why the Quartet has earned global praise during its virtual Wisconsin Union Theater performance.”
Information about purchasing tickets can be found here. Tickets for this online event are $10 for UW-Madison students; $17 for Wisconsin Union members, UW-Madison staff and faculty, and students that do not attend UW-Madison; and $20 for all other patrons. Tickets are good for access for a week, through next Sunday, March 7.
The performance by the Meccore String Quartet is sponsored by the David and Kato Perlman Chamber Music Fund. The Wisconsin Union Theater presents this event, in part, with the help of financial support from Wisconsin Arts Board funding from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information about the Meccore String Quartet’s upcoming performance, visit union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/meccore-quartet.
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New York Times critics choose 10 online classical music concerts to stream in February, starting this Thursday
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By Jacob Stockinger
As they have done for previous months during the coronavirus pandemic, the classical music critics for The New York Times have named their top 10 choices of online concerts to stream in February, which is also Black History Month, starting this Thursday, Feb. 4.
Also predictably, they focus on new music – including a world premiere — new conductors and new composers, although “new” doesn’t necessarily mean young in this context.
For example, the conductor Fabio Luisi (below) is well known to fans of Richard Wagner and the Metropolitan Opera. But he is new to the degree that just last season he became the new conductor of Dallas Symphony Orchestra and its digital concert series.
Similarly, the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg (below top, in a photo by Saara Vuorjoki) and the American composer Caroline Shaw (below bottom, in a photo by Kait Moreno), who has won a Pulitzer Prize, have both developed reputations for reliable originality.
But chances are good that you have not yet heard of the young avant-garde cellist Mariel Roberts (below top) or the conductor Jonathon Heyward (below bottom).
Nor, The Ear suspects, have you probably heard the names and music of composers Angélica Negrón (below top), who uses found sounds and Tyshawn Sorey (below bottom). (You can sample Negrón’s unusual music in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Of course, you will also find offerings by well-known figures such as the Berlin Philharmonic and its Kurt Weill festival; conductor Alan Gilbert; pianists Daniil Trifonov and Steven Osborne; violinist Leonidas Kavakos; and the JACK Quartet.
Tried-and-true composers are also featured, including music by Beethoven, Schnittke, Weber, Ravel and Prokofiev. But where are Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann and Handel? No one seems to like Baroque music.
Here is a link to the events with links and descriptions. All times are Eastern: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/arts/music/classical-music-streaming.html
Do you have other virtual and online concerts to suggest? Please leave details in the Comment sections.
Tags: #African-AmericanComposer, #AlanGilbert, #AlfredSchnittke, #AmericanComposer, #AngelicaNegron, #AnthonyTommasini, #AntonioVivaldi, #BaroqueMusic, #BavarianStateOpera, #BerlinGermany, #BerlinPhilharmonic, #BertoltBrecht, #BlackComposer, #BlackHistory, #BlackHistoryMonth, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CarlMariavonWeber, #CarolineShaw, #ChamberMusic, #ClassicalSymphony, #ConcertSeries, #ContemporaryMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #CountertenorSinger, #COVID-19, #DallasSymphonyOrchestra, #DallasTexas, #DaniilTrifonov, #DetroitMichigan, #DetroitSymphony, #DetroitSymphonyOrchestra, #EasternTime, #FabioLuisi, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #HamburgGermany, #HannahKendall, #HelmutLachenmann, #JACKQuartet, #JacobStockinger, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnHoliday, #JohnStorgards, #JonathonHeyward, #JoshuaBarone, #KurtWeill, #LatinoComposers, #LeonidasKavakos, #LivingComposer, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MagnusLindberg, #MarielRoberts, #MauriceRavel, #MetropolitanOpera, #ModernMusic, #MotherGoose, #MotherGooseSuite, #MunichGermany, #MusicCritic, #NDRElbphilharmonieOrchestra, #NewMusic, #NewYorkTimes, #OnlineConcert, #OnlineFestival, #OperaMusic, #OrchestralMusic, #PercussionEnsemble, #PercussionMusic, #PianoConcerto, #PuertoRico, #PulitzerPrize, #RichardWagner, #RiseandFalloftheCotyofMahagonny, #SeattleSymphony, #SergeiProkofiev, #SethColterWalls, #SoPercussion, #SteveOsborn, #StringQuartet, #TheEar, #TheMet, #TheThreeopennyOpera, #TheVoice, #TVShow, #TyshawnSorey, #ViolinConcerto, #VirtualConcert, #VirtualFestival, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, #ZacharyWoolfe, abolitionist, African American, African-Amercian, Alan Gilbert, Alfred Schnittke, America, American, Angelica Negron, Anthony Tommasini, Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, audience, avant-garde, Bach, Barone, Baroque, Baroque music, Bavaria, Bavarian State Opera, Beethoven, Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic, Bertolt Brecht, black, black composer, Black history, Black History Month, blog, Brecht, Carl Maria von Weber, Caroline Shaw, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, chance, Classical music, Classical Symphony, colorful, comment, composer, computer, Concert, concert series, concerto, conductor, contemporary, contemporary music, context, coronavirus, coronavirus pandemic, countertenor, critics, Dallas, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Daniil Trifonov, dergee, description, details, Detroit, Detroit Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, digital, Eastern time, enchanting, Europe, European, event, Fabio Luisi, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, February, female, festival, Finland, Finnish, forward, Franz Joseph Haydn, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frideric Handel, German, Germany, Gilbert, Hamburg, Handel, Hannah Kendall, Haydn, Helmut Lachenmann, Heyward, Hispanic, History, JACK Quartet, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Holiday, John Storgards, Jonathon Heyward, Joshua Barone, Kavakos, Kendall, Kurt Weill, Latina, Latino, Leonidas Kavakos, like, Lindberg, link, living composers, Ludwig van Beethoven, Luisi, Magnus Lindberg, Mariel Roberts, Maurice Ravel, Metropolitan Opera, modern music, Mother Goose, Mother Goose Suite, Munich, Music, music critic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Negrón, new, New Music, New York Times, online, opera, Orchestra, orchestral music, original, originality, Osborn, Overture, percussion, Percussion Ensemble, performers, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, post, posting, Prokofiev, Puerto Rico, Pulitzer Prize, Ravel, reliable, reputation, Richard Wager, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Roberts, Romantic, Schnittke, Season, Seattle, Seattle Symphony, section, Sergei Prokofiev, series, Seth Colter Walls, share, Shaw, singer, Singing, So percussion, Sorey, Steven Osborn, Storgards, stream, String quartet, suffragist, suggestion, Suite, symphony, tag, Telemann, Texas, The Ear, the Met, The Threepenny Opera, The Voice, time, Tommasini, Trifonov, TV, TV show, Tyshawn Sorey, United States, Violin, Violin concerto, violinist, virtual, Vivaldi, vocal music, Wagner, Weber, Weill, win, women, Woolfe, young, YouTube, Zachary Woolfe
The eighth annual UW Schubertiade is this Sunday afternoon. It features a FREE online retrospective of the past seven years plus a new four-hand piano performance
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By Jacob Stockinger
The University of Wisconsin has posted the following announcement:
For the eighth consecutive year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music will present its annual Schubertiade — a special concert celebrating the music of Franz Schubert (below).
Traditionally these concerts have been held around the composer’s birthday. This year’s concert will in fact occur on his birthday — this Sunday, Jan. 31, at 3-4:30 p.m. CST. The pre-recorded premiere is at: https://youtu.be/7sshhKiFPAg
You can also use the link to prepare for the concert before or during the concert. You will find the program with song titles, the original German texts and English translation, and biographies of the performers by simply clicking on “SHOW MORE” on the YouTube website and follow the links to PDFs.
BECAUSE THERE ARE NO COPYRIGHT ISSUES, ACCORDING TO UW OFFICIALS, THE POST SHOULD BE UP AND AVAILABLE INDEFINITELY AFTER ITS PREMIERE.
As in past years, founders and performers Martha Fischer (below left), professor of piano and head of the collaborative piano program at UW-Madison, and her husband Bill Lutes (below right), an independent piano teacher, and UW emeritus artist-in-residence, will host the program.
These concerts have been presented in the sprit of the first Schubertiades (below, in a painting by Julius Schmid) that took place during the composer’s lifetime (1797-1828) in the homes of his friends and fellow artists, poets and fans.
These were social as well as musical occasions with Schubert himself presiding at the piano, giving his audience a chance to hear his latest songs, piano duets and chamber music, as well as pieces that had already become favorites.
This year’s Schubertiade will be different in response to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be an online look back — or Rückblick — at past concerts, with songs chosen from performances that have been preserved in the audio and video archive.
The featured performers will include faculty members, students and alumni from the Mead Witter School of Music, along with special guests.
In addition, pianists Fischer and Lutes will give a “new” performance recorded for this occasion of the great Fantasie in F minor for piano duet. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear that work, performed by Dutch brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen and recorded live in Seoul, South Korea.)
The songs have been chosen to reflect themes that were not only relevant to Schubert and his circle, but also to all of us in the midst of this challenging time: hope for a brighter future; the need for connection with others; remembrance of happier times; and the consolation to be found in nature.
Schubert left a vast and precious legacy of beauty — an enormous output of music that he composed in his short lifetime.
In a sense, each time his music is performed and heard, it is a journey from the past to our own time, the sounds speaking to us today as vividly and consolingly as they did when they were created 200 years ago.
Performers
Martha Fischer and Bill Lutes, pianists
Alumni:
Jamie-Rose Guarrine, soprano (below, in a photo by Peter Konerko)
Emily Birsan, soprano
Michael Roemer, baritone
Jennifer D’Agostino, soprano
Daniel O’Dea, tenor
Wesley Dunnagan, tenor
Sarah Brailey (alumna and current DMA student)
Sara Guttenberg
Guests:
Marie McManama, soprano
Cheryl Bensman-Rowe, mezzo-soprano
Faculty:
Mimmi Fulmer, soprano
Paul Rowe, baritone (below)
Julia Rottmayer, soprano
Staff
David Alcorn, videographer, editor, etc.
Katrin Talbot, images for audio only tracks
Tags: #ArcticCircle, #ArthurJussen, #ArtSong, #AustrianComposer, #BassBaritone, #BillLutes, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CentralTime, #ChamberMusic, #CherylBensman-Rowe, #CollaborativePianist, #CollaborativePIano, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DanielO'Dea, #DavidAlcorn, #EmilyBirsan, #EnglishTranslation, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzSchubert, #GuestArtist, #husband-and-wife, #JacobStockinger, #Jamie-RoseGuarrine, #JenniferD'Agostino, #JuliaRottmayer, #JussenBrothers, #KatrinTalbot, #LiveMusic, #LiveRecording, #LookBack, #LucasJussen, #MarthaFischer, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #Mezzo-sopranoSinger, #MichaelRoemer, #MimmiFulmer, #MusicProfessor, #OnlineConcert, #PaulRowe, #SaraGuttenberg, #SarahBrailey, #SeoulSouthKorea, #SopranoSinger, #SouthEastAsia, #SouthKorea, #SpecialGuest, #Sundayafternoon, #TenorSinger, #TheEar, #TheNetherlands, #TheUW, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWSchubertiade, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #WesleyDunnagan, #Wife-and-Husband, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, alumni, announcement, archive, art song, Arthur Jussen, artist, artist-in-residence, Arts, Asia, asian, audience, Audio, Austria, bass, bass-baritone, before, Bill Lutes, bio, biography, birthday, blog, brighter, celebrate, Central Time, challenging, Chamber music, Cheryl Bensman Rowe, chosen, circle, Classical music, collaborative, composer, Concert, connections, consolation, copyright, coronavirus, Daniel O'Dea, David Alcorn, different, duet, Dutch, editor, emeritus, Emily Birsan, English, Europe, European, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, fans, Fantasie, fantasy, favorite, forward, found, founder, Franz Schubert, friends, future, German, Germany, good-natured, great, guest artists, happier, Home, hope, host, images, indefinitely, independent, issue, Jacob Stockinger, Jamie-Rose Guarrine, Jennifer D'Agostino, Julia Rottmayer, Jussen, Jussen brothers, Katrin Talbot, Korea, lieder, lifetime, like, link, live music, Live Recording, look back, Lucas Jussen, Madison, Martha Fischer, Mead Witter School of Music, Mezzo-soprano, Michael Roemer, Mimmi Fulmer, Music, music professor, nature, occasion, occur, online, original, other, painting, pandemic, past, Paul Rowe, performance, performer, photographer, photographs, Pianist, Piano, piano duets, pieces, poets, post, postih, pre-recorded, premiere, prepare, present, preserved, professor, program, reflect, remembrance, response, restrictions, retrospective, Sara Guttenberg, Sarah Brailey, Schubert, Schubertiade, Seoul, share, sing, singers, Singing, social, song, songs, soprano, South Korea, Southeast Asia, special, special guest, spirit, students, Sunday afternoon, tag, Teacher, tenor, text, The Ear, the Netherlands, theme, time, trabslatio, tradition, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, video, Vienna, virtual, vocal music, Website, Wesley Dunnagan, Wisconsin, year, YouTube
Library of Congress streams UW pianist Christopher Taylor’s online Liszt-Beethoven symphony recital for free this Thursday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Thursday night, Dec. 17, from 7 to 9 p.m. CST, University of Wisconsin-Madison virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor (below) will close the celebration of the Beethoven Year, marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, at the Library of Congress. After the concert’s premiere, it will stay posted online.
For the past several years, Taylor has been performing the solo piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies both in Russia and at the UW-Madison.
Here is more from the website of the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music:
“It takes extraordinary skill as an orchestrator to condense an entire symphony by Beethoven (below top) into a version for a solo instrument, but that is just what Franz Liszt (below bottom) accomplished in his piano transcriptions. (You can hear a sample, along with a visual representation, of the Fifth Symphony transcription in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Hear virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor perform three of these transcendent symphony transcriptions, works he describes as a “new perspective on something familiar.” (The Ear, who has heard Taylor’s impressive performances of almost all nine symphonies, finds that comparing the two versions is like looking at the same photograph in color and then black-and-white. Color emphasizes details while black-and-white emphasizes structure. You hear new things by comparing the two.)
The performance was pre-recorded in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the Hamel Music Center.
The program is:
BEETHOVEN/LISZT
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
You can find more details at: https://loc.gov/concerts/christopher-taylor.html
You can Register on Eventbrite
Hailed by critics as “frighteningly talented” (The New York Times) and “a great pianist” (The Los Angeles Times), Taylor has distinguished himself throughout his career as an innovative musician with a diverse array of talents and interests.
He is known for a passionate advocacy of music written in the past 100 years — Messiaen, Ligeti and Bolcom figure prominently in his performances — but his repertoire spans four centuries and includes the complete Beethoven sonatas, the Liszt Transcendental Etudes, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and a multitude of other familiar masterworks.
Whatever the genre or era of the composition, Taylor brings to it an active imagination and intellect coupled with heartfelt intensity and grace.
Taylor has concertized around the globe, with international tours taking him to Russia, Western Europe, East Asia and the Caribbean.
At home in the U.S. he has appeared with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, the Madison Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony. As a soloist he has performed in New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls, in Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia and Aspen festivals, and dozens of other venues.
In chamber music settings, he has collaborated with many eminent musicians, including Robert McDuffie and the Borromeo, Shanghai, Pro Arte, and Ying Quartets.
His recordings have featured works by Liszt, Messiaen and present-day Americans William Bolcom and Derek Bermel.
Throughout his career, Taylor has become known for undertaking memorable and unusual projects. Examples include: an upcoming tour in which he will perform, from memory, the complete transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies by Liszt; performances and lectures on the complete etudes of Gyorgy Ligeti; and a series of performances of the Goldberg Variations on the unique double-manual Steinway piano (below) in the collection of the University of Wisconsin.
Numerous awards have confirmed Taylor’s high standing in the musical world. He was named an American Pianists’ Association Fellow for 2000, before which he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1996 and the Bronze Medal in the 1993 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In 1990 he took first prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition, and also became one of the first recipients of the Irving Gilmore Young Artists’ Award.
Taylor lives in Middleton, Wis., with his wife and two daughters. He is a Steinway artist.
For more biographical information — including his piano teachers and his education as well as his interest in mathematics and engineering — go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/christopher-taylor-concerts-from-the-library-of-congress/
Tags: "Goldberg" Variations, #AliceTullyHall, #Americancomposers, #AmericanOrchestras, #AmericanPianistsAssociation, #AspenColorado, #AspenFestival, #AveryFisherCareerGrant, #BaroqueMusic, #BeethovenYear, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BronzeMedalist, #CarnegieHall, #ChamberMusic, #ChristopherTaylor, #Contrast-and-Compare, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DerekBermel, #DetroitMichigan, #DetroitSymphony, #DoubleManual, #EastAsia, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FifthSymphony, #FirstPrize, #FranzLiszt, #Goldberg"Variations, #GyorgyLigeti, #HamelMusicCenter, #HarvardUniversity, #HomeWebsite, #husband-and-wife, #InstrumentalMusic, #IrvingGilmoreYoungArtistsAward, #JacobStockinger, #JohannSebastianBach, #KennedyCenter, #LibraryofCongress, #LosAngelesPhilharmonic, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddletonWisconsin, #MilwaukeeSymphonyOrchestra, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MusicCritic, #NewMusic, #NewThings, #NewYorkCity, #NewYorkPhilharmonic, #NewYorkTimes, #OlivierMessiaen, #OpusNumber, #PianoConcerto, #PianoSonata, #PIanoTeacher, #ProArteQuartet, #RaviniaFestival, #RobertMcDuffie, #RussellSherman, #ShanghaiChina, #ShanghaiStringQuartet, #SteinwayandSons, #StringQuartet, #TheEar, #TheU.S., #TheUW, #TranscendentalEtudes, #U.S.Congress, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VanCliburn, #VanCliburnInternationalPianoCompetition, #VirtuosoPianist, #WesternEurope, #WilliamBolcom, #WilliamKapell, #WilliamKapellInternaitonalPianoCompetition, #YingQuartet, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, 250, accomplish, active, advocacy, Alice Tully Hall, American, American Pianists Association, anniversary, array, artist, Arts, Asia, Aspen Festival, audience, Avery Fisher Career Grant, awards, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Beethoven Year, Bermel, biographical, biography, birth, birthday, black-and-white, blog, Bolcom, Borromeo, bronze medal, bronze medalist, California, career, Caribbean, Carnegie Hall, celebration, centuries, century, Chamber music, channel, China, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, close, collaborate, color, Colorado, complete, composer, Composition, Concert, concertize, concerto, condense, conductor, Congress, contrast, coronavirus, daughter, Derek Bermel, details, Detroit, Detroit Symphony, distinguish, diverse, double manual, dozens, Early music, East Asia, Education, eminent, emphasize, engineering, era, etude, Europe, Eventbrite, extraordinary, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, familiar, festival, Fifth Symphony, figure, find, first prize, Franz Liszt, free, frightening, genre, Georgy Ligeti, globe, grace, hailed, Hamel Music Center, hands, Harvard, Harvard University, hear, heartfelt, Home, home website, imagination, impressive, information, innovative, instrument, intellect, intensity, interests, international, Irving Gilmore Young Artists Award, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kennedy Center, lecture, library, Library of Congress, Ligeti, Liszt, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, mark, Masterworks, mathematics, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, memorable, memory, Messiaen, Middleton, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, multitude, Music, music critic, Music education, Musician, named, New Music, new things, New York City, New York Philharmonic, New York Times, Olivier Messiaen, opus, Opus number, Orchestra, orchestras, orchestrator, pandemic, passionate, performance, photograph, photography, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, Piano sonata, piano teacher, post, posting, pre-recorded, premiere, Pro Arte Quartet, program, projects, prominent, Ravinia Festival, recipient, register, repertoire, repertory, representation, Robert McDuffie, Russell Sherman, Russia, sample, setting, Shanghai, Shanghai String Quartet, skill, solo, soloist, Sonata, span, Steinway, stream, String quartet, structure, symphonies, symphony, talented, talents, Taylor, The Ear, tour, transcendent, Transcendental Etudes, transcription, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unusual, UW, UW-Madison, Van Cliburn, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, venue, venues, version, virtuoso, visual, Washington, Website, Western Europe, wife, WILLIAM BOLCOM, William Kapell, William Kapell International Piano Competition, Wisconsin, world, Ying Quartet, YouTube
The Pro Arte Quartet plays the fourth installment of its FREE Beethoven string quartet cycle online TONIGHT at 7:30 CDT
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By Jacob Stockinger
The historic Pro Arte Quartet, in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, will perform the fourth installment of its FREE Beethoven string quartet cycle TONIGHT — Friday, Oct. 23 — at 7:30 p.m. CDT. (It should be posted for about a day, but will not be archived due to copyright considerations.)
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the live concert will take place online and will be live-streamed without an audience from the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the new Hamel Music Center.
You can stream it live from https://youtu.be/IhmNRNiI3RM
The whole series of concerts are part of the Pro Arte Quartet’s yearlong retrospective to celebrate the Beethoven Year. This December marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the composer (below).
Members of the Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) are: David Perry and Suzanne Beia, violins; Sally Chisholm, viola; and Parry Karp, cello.
A pre-concert lecture by UW-Madison musicology Professor Charles Dill (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) starts at 7:30 p.m. CDT.
The program consists of one early and one late quartet: the string Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18 No. 4 (1798-1800), and you can hear the first movement played by the Dover Quartet in the YouTube video at the bottom; and the String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 127 (1825).
The Pro Arte Quartet is one of the world’s most distinguished string quartets. Founded by conservatory students in Brussels in 1912, it became one of the most celebrated ensembles in Europe in the first half of the 20th century and was named Court Quartet to the Queen of Belgium.
Its world reputation blossomed in 1919 when the quartet (below, in 1928) began the first of many tours that enticed notable composers such as Bartok, Barber, Milhaud, Honegger, Martin and Casella to write new works for the ensemble.
The Pro Arte Quartet performs throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia and continues to champion both standard repertoire and new music.
Since being stranded in the U.S. when Belgium was invaded by Hitler and the Nazis in World War II, the group is an ensemble-in-residence at the Mead Witter School of Music and resident quartet of the Chazen Museum of Art.
The quartet, the longest active string quartet in the history of music, has performed at the White House and, during the centennial celebration, played for the King’s Counselor in Belgium.
Recent projects include the complete quartets of Bartok and Shostakovich and, in collaboration with the Orion and Emerson String Quartets, the complete quartets of Beethoven.
Regular chamber music collaborators that perform with Pro Arte include Samuel Rhodes and Nobuko Imai, viola; Bonnie Hampton, cello; and the late Leon Fleischer and Christopher Taylor, piano.
Together since 1995, the quartet has recorded works of Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Rhodes, Shapey, Sessions, Fennelly, Diesendruck, Lehrdahl and the centennial commissions.
For more information and background, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/pro-arte-quartet-beethoven-string-quartet-cycle-program-iv/
For more about the challenges and modifications – including wearing masks and social distancing — of doing the Beethoven cycle for the virtual online performances and about the other dates and programs in the cycle, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/09/29/classical-music-uw-madisons-pro-arte-quartet-to-resume-its-free-beethoven-cycle-virtual-and-online-this-friday-night-with-two-other-programs-this-semester/
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
To celebrate Pride month, here are lists of LGBTQ+ composers, performers and musical ensembles
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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.
By Jacob Stockinger
June is Pride month.
And this weekend will see Pride marches and celebrations in some major cities including New York City, Chicago, Paris and Rome.
As time passes, scholars are finding out more about the LGBTQ+ composers, performers and musical groups that have been hidden by history.
And some ironies emerge. One can only imagine the response of conservative, right-wing Evangelical Christians who find out that the composer of “Messiah” – George Frideric Handel (below) — was queer, at least according to some researchers.
For most listeners, surprises abound.
Here is a good place to start. It is the very large Wikipedia entry of LGBTQ+ composers and performers, both contemporary and historical. The Ear finds it very informative. It is organized by the kind of musicians they are and the category of their sexual identity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_musicians
If you want to be more selective, try these: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/greatest-lgbtq-conductors-you-should-know/. They include Marin Alsop (below top) and her teacher and mentor Leonard Bernstein (below bottom).
Here is longer essay that focuses on lesbian conductors as well as gay men and reaches back to the Middle Ages: http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/conductors_A.pdf
And here is one with some great photos or pictures of the individuals: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/great-classical-composers-who-were-gay/
Finally, here are some of the international music ensembles – with audio samples of their performances — made up of LGBTQ+ singers and instrumentalists, including the Rainbow Symphony of Paris (in the YouTube video at the bottom, performing the beautiful Gloria by the gay French composer Francis Poulenc in a benefit Concert Against Homophobia for UNESCO): https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/best-lgbtq-classical-music-ensembles/
Inevitably, some readers will react by asking: What difference does the sexual identity of composer or performer make? All that matters, they argue, is the music.
Here is a reply to that specious argument that focuses on Yannick Nézet-Séguin (below), the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the City Symphony of Montreal. It appeared in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/arts/music/yannick-nezet-seguin-met-opera-gay.html
Happy Pride – this month and every day of the year!
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