The Well-Tempered Ear
The Willy Street Chamber Players give a free virtual concert this Sunday at noon. It will be posted until Dec. 31
Leave a Comment
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from The Willy Street Chamber Players (below), a relatively new group that is critically acclaimed for both its adventurous and eclectic, exploratory programming and for its outstanding performances of both the traditional repertoire and new music.
The Willy Street Chamber Players (WSCP) will play a virtual online concert this Sunday, Nov. 15, at noon CST.
Access to the “Beyond the Screen” concert is FREE and no registration is required. It will be available for free online until Dec. 31 on the group’s website. Here is a link to YouTube: https://youtu.be/j5Ved4FqYSQ
Listeners can visit the WSCP website or Facebook page Sunday at concert time for links to the 70-minute performance. Here is a link to the home website: http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
The dynamic WSCP program was recorded live, with masks and social distance, at the historic Gates of Heaven Synagogue (below, exterior and interior during the taping) in James Madison Park in downtown Madison.
The concert will premiere on Facebook live and YouTube, providing two ways to watch from the comfort and safety of your own home.
Members of WSCP will be on hand to interact with viewers in real time through the Facebook and YouTube virtual chat during the performance. They will provide spoken program notes.
Then, immediately following the concert, you can join WSCP members for a Q&A “reception” on ZOOM at 1:15 pm.
The concert program is:
Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922) by French composer Maurice Ravel (below)
“Allegro,” the first of Four Pieces for Solo Cello (1983) by Cuban-born composer Tania León (below), which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_León
Canción de Cuna Del Niño Negro (Cradle Song of the Black Baby, 1937) by Cuban composer Amadeo Roldán y Gardes (below), as arranged by Rachel Barton Pine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeo_Roldán
“Heart O’ the Hills” from Appalachian Duets, Op. 38, No. 8 (2001) by American composer Maria Newman (below), who is the youngest daughter of famous Hollywood film composer Alfred Newman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Newman
Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 (1914), by Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly
Tags: #AlfredNewman, #AmadeoRoldányGardes, #AmericanComposer, #AppalachianDuets, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #CityofMadison, #ConcertProgram, #CoronavirusPandemic, #CradleSong, #CriticalAcclaim, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #Cubancomposer, #FacebokPosting, #FacebookPage, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FilmMusic, #Frenchcomposer, #GatesofHeavenSynagogue, #HomeWebsite, #HungarianComposer, #JacobStockinger, #JamesMadisonPark, #LiveMusic, #MariaNewman, #MauriceRavel, #MovieMusic, #NewMusic, #OnlineConcert, #ProgramNotes, #RachelBartonPine, #RealTime, #RecordedMusic, #SocialDistance, #StringMusic, #TaniaLeon, #TheEar, #TraditionalRepertoire, #VirtualConcert, #WillyStreetChamberPlayers, #WomenComposers, #YouTubevideo, #ZoltanKodaly, #ZoomMeeting, acclaim, adventurous, Alfred Newman, allegro, Amadeo Roldán y Gardes, America, American composer, announcement, Appalachia, arrangement, baby, beyond, black, blog, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, chat, comfort, composer, Concert, coronavirus, cradle song, Cuba, Cuban, daughter, December, downtown, duo, dynamic, eclectic, exploratory, explore, exterior, Facebook, Facebook page, famous, film music, forward, France, free, French, Gates of Heaven Synagogue, group, historic, Hollywood, Home, home website, Hungarian, Hungary, interact, interior, Jacob Stockinger, James Madison, James Madison Park, Jew, Jewish, Kodaly, like, link, live music, lullaby, Madison, Maria Newman, mask, Maurice Ravel, member, movie, movie composer, New Music, noon, November, online, oral, outstanding, page, pandemic, Park, performance, piece, play, post, program, program notes, programming, Q&A, Rachel Barton Pine, Ravel, real time, reception, recorded, registration, relative, repertoire, repertory, require, RSVP, safety, screen, share, social distance, Sonata, song, spken, string, string music, Sunday, synagogue, tag, Tania Leon, taped, taping, The Ear, traditional, Tye Ear, viewer, Violin, violinist, virtual, visit, watch, Website, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, women, women composer, women composers, young, YouTube, Zoltan Kodaly, Zoom
Classical music: The UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet delivers a perfect program of superb music by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert
Leave a Comment
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.
By John W. Barker
While snow may have restricted the audience attending the Pro Arte Quartet (below, in a photo by Rick Langer) on Saturday night, those who came were amply rewarded with a virtually perfect program of superb music.
The program brought together three Austrian works, two by those Classical-era titans, Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the third by the Austrian early Romantic Franz Schubert.
The combination of the first two was particularly stimulating, an opportunity to reckon how different from each other were these composers who are so often bracketed together.
The E-flat Quartet is No. 3 in the Op. 50 set that some commentators have viewed as the response by Haydn (below) to the set of six quartets that Mozart had recently published in Haydn’s honor.
Deliberately, Haydn chose to avoid matching Mozart’s lyricism and rich imagination, turning instead to statements of strength in austere textures.
Composed in 1790, a year before his death and only three years after the Haydn work, the Quartet in B-flat, K. 589, by Mozart (below) was his penultimate quartet, part of a series to be written for the King of Prussia who played the cello, which is featured prominently in the quartet.
Here we have a Mozartian style that is expansive and exploratory. Amid music of great lyric beauty and even vivacity, we have a Menuetto third movement whose Trio, or midsection, is remarkably dark and ambiguous. (You can hear a period-instrument performance of the third movement in the YouTube video at the bottom)
The Pro Arte players brought out the individuality of the two different styles quite beautifully. To my ears, the viola lines were delivered with notable strength and color by Sally Chisholm.
The final work, and the longest, was one of Schubert’s amazing late quartets. The No. 13 in A minor, D. 804), from 1824 is known as the “Rosamunde” Quartet because the second movement is the elaboration by Schubert (below) of the lovely melody in the well-known interlude in his incidental music for the play of that title.
Despite a somewhat moody first movement, the work as a whole is suffused with Schubert’s very special, very personal lyricism. Analyses of it can be instructive, but ultimately this remains music for the soul, not just the brain, I think.
The Pro Arte understands that well, and gave a generous demonstration of its beauties.
It proved such a wonderful concert, for which we can only give warm thanks to the UW-Madison’s Mead-Witter School of Music where the Pro Arte Quartet has been an artist-in-residence since World War II.
Tags: #ChamberMusic, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzSchubert, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #ProArteQuartet, #SecondWorldWar, #StringQuartet, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WorldWarII, amazing, ambiguous, American Record Guide, analyses, analysis, artist, artist-in-residence, Arts, austere, Austria, Austrian, beauty, bracket, Brain, Cello, Chamber music, Classical, Classical music, color, composer, Concert, critic, dark, death, demonstration, drama, elaboration, emeritus, expansive, exploratory, fina, Franz Schubert, generous, Haydn, historically informed performance practices, History, honor, imagination, incidental, incidental music, individuality, instrument, interlude, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, King, late, lecture, line, long, longest, lovely, lyrical, lyricism, Madison, Medieval, melody, minuet, moody, morning, Mozart, Music, opportunity, perfect, period, period-instrument, personal, play, Pro Arte Quartet, professor, program, Prussia, residence, response, reward, Romantic, Rosamunde, Saturday night, section, set, snow, soul, statment, strength, String quartet, style, Sunday, texture, thanks, Titan, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vivacity, warm, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, World War II, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | welltemperedear on What do you think of the… |
 | Scott on What do you think of the… |
| welltemperedear on Yunchan Lim’s Chopin etudes ar… |
 | bratschespeilerin on What do you think of the… |
 | MARVIN P WICKENS on Yunchan Lim’s Chopin etudes ar… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the fourth and fifth pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
4 Comments
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
The project has reached the midway point.
Last week was when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on various social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as well as the Internet.
One performance is released each weekday night starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The project is a way to capture some of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
The first piece was “Sequestered Thoughts,” a solo piano work by composed Damien Sneed and performed by Jeremy Jordan.
The second was “shadow of a difference/falling” by composer Richard Drehoff Jr. and solo oboist Andrew Nogal of the Grossman Ensemble.
There were featured in this blog last week.
The fourth and fifth pieces were premiered last Thursday and Friday, bringing the project to the halfway point before the Summer Solstice, Father’s Day and Make Music Madison weekend.
The fourth work is “Bridges,” a solo piano work composed by Cliff Eidelman (below top) and performed at home by Jenny Lin (below bottom, in a photo by Liz Linder).
The title refers to the composer’s focus on finding bridges from the peculiar coronavirus pandemic back to normal life.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/eidelman-lin.html
The fifth piece is “Hello World” by composer by Erin Rogers (below top, in a photo by Aleksandr Karjaka), an exploratory work for solo flute that is performed by Erin Lesser (below bottom) of the Wet Ink Ensemble.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/rogers-lesser.html
On the same page as the performance you can read what the composer and sometimes the performer have to say about the new work and what it strives to mean or express.
You can use links to go to the five past performances and premieres.
You can also follow links on the bottom of the page to see more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with some commentary and questions from The Ear, go to https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the pieces?
What do you think of the project?
Will you like to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
Tags: #AndrewNogal, #AWeekendintheCountry, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoccaccioProject, #ChamberMusic, #CliffEidelman, #CommissionedMusic, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #DamienSneed, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Father'sDay, #GiovanniBoccaccio, #GrossmanEnsemble, #HelloWorld, #JacobStockinger, #JennyLin, #JeremyJordan, #LibraryofCongress, #MakeMusicDay, #MakeMusicMadison, #NewMusic, #NormalLife, #RichardDrehoffJr., #Self-Isolation, #Stayathome, #SummerSolstice, #TheEar, #TheInternet, #TheU.S., #U.S.Government, #ViolaMusic, #ViolinMusic, #WetInkEnsemble, #WorldPremiere, #YouTubevideo, Andrew Nogal, Arts, audience, background, blog, Boccaccio, Boccaccio Project, bridge, California, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Cliff Eidelman, commentary, commission, composer, Congress, coronavirus, culture, Damien Sneed, difference, ensemble, exploratory, explore, express, Facebook, falling, fathers day, federal, fifth, first, flute, flutist, forward, fourth, Friday, general, Giovanni Boccaccio, government, Grossman Ensemble, halfway, hear, hello, Hello World, Home, Internet, isolation, Jacob Stockinger, Jenny Lin, Jeremy Jordan, last, library, Library of Congress, life, like, link, Madison, Make Music Day, Make Music Madison, mean, Music, New Music, New York City, night, normal, Oboe, oboist, page, pandemic, past, peculiar, performance, performer, Pianist, Piano, piece, piuece, Point, posting, project, public, questions, reader, Richard Drehoff Jr., say, second, self-isolating, shadow, share, shelter, short, solo, solstice, stay at home, summer, Summer solstice, tag, The Ear, think, third, Thursday, Twitter, U.S., unique, United States, Viola, violoist, week, weekday, weekend, Wet Ink Ensemble, world, world premiere, YouTube