The Well-Tempered Ear
Middleton Community Orchestra performs the second of four FREE outdoor summer concerts at Firemen’s Park this Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Firemen’s Park, the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (MCO) will give the second of its FREE four summer outdoors concerts.
Besides the fact that the day is Father’s Day holiday, weather predictions also call for a good chance of rain or even thunderstorms.
Updates on whether the concert will take place, be cancelled or postponed to a later date, can be found by checking the MCO’s website at 10 a.m.: https://middletoncommunityorchestra.org
Meanwhile, here are the programs, conductors and soloists for the remaining three concerts. All concerts take place in Firemen’s Park in Middleton close to Middleton High School:
CONCERT – SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (revised program)
Sergei Pavlov (below), conductor and professor at Edgewood College
George Walker – “Lyric for Strings”
Ralph Vaughan Williams – “Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
Giacomo Puccini – Lauretta’s aria from “Gianni Schicchi”; Mimi’s aria in Act 3 and Musetta’s aria in Act 2 from “La Boheme” with soprano Yanzel Rivera (below).
Selections from the Pixar movie COCO (piano and strings)
CONCERT – SUNDAY, JULY 25, 11:30 – a.m.-1 p.m.
Chris Ramaekers (below), conductor and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky – “March Slav”
Carl Maria von Weber — Clarinet Concerto No. 2 with soloist and Madison Symphony Orchestra principal clarinetist JJ Koh (below)
Tchaikovsky — Symphony No. 2 “Little Russian”
CONCERT 4 – SUNDAY, AUG. 15, 11:30-1 p.m.
Sergei Pavlov, conductor
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist and UW-Madison graduate Thomas Kasdorf (below)
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Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the sixth and seventh pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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By Jacob Stockinger
The project has is now heading towards it end.
Last week was when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the U.S. Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on various social media sites as well as the Internet.
This week will see the last five compositions and complete the project.
One performance is released each weekday night starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The project, funded by the federal government, is intended to capture some aspect 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.
The third was “Intuit – a way to stay in the world” for solo cello composed by Miya Masaoka and performed by Kathryn Bates of the Del Sol String Quartet.
The first three were featured in two postings on this blog last week. Here are links:
The fourth and fifth pieces were premiered last Thursday and Friday, bringing the project to the half way point before the Summer Solstice, Father’s Day and Make Music Madison weekend.
They were posted on this past Monday. Here is a link:
The fourth work is “Bridges,” a solo piano work composed by Cliff Eidelman and performed at home by Jenny Lin. The title refers to the composer’s focus on finding bridges from the coronavirus pandemic to normal life.
The fifth piece is “Hello World” by composer by Erin Rogers, an exploratory work for solo flute, and is performed by Erin Lesser of the Wet Ink Ensemble.
And now the second half of premieres has started.
The sixth piece is “1462 Willard Street,” composed for solo viola by Luciano Chessa (below top, in a photo by Melesia Nunez) and performed by Charlton Lee (below bottom, in a photo by RJ Muna) of the Del Sol String Quartet.
The address refers to a place in San Francisco where the composer was staying on March 16, 2020 – the day the city enacted orders to stay at home because of the pandemic.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/chessa-lee.html
The seventh piece, premiered last night, is “Olcott Park” for solo piano composed by Aaron Travers (below top, in a photo by James Matthew Daniel) and performed by Daniel Pesca (below bottom, in a photo by Jay Morthland) of the Grossman Ensemble.
It is a recollection of the forest and birds the composer knows in a park near his home but which he hasn’t’ visited much during the pandemic.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/travers-pesca.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 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 individual pieces?
Do you have one or more favorites?
What do you think of the project?
How successful is it?
Will you like to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the fourth and fifth pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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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
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.
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Classical music: Today is the Summer Solstice. What music best greets summer during this odd year? Plus, here is information about Make Music Madison this Sunday
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today – Saturday, June 20, 2020 – is the Summer Solstice.
Summer officially arrives this afternoon at 4:43 p.m. CDT.
Is The Ear alone in thinking that the time since the winter solstice has passed both more slowly and also more quickly than usual, thanks to the pandemic?
And now the days will start getting shorter. Can that be possible? Is the year really half over?
Well, it has been an unusual spring and promises to be an unusual summer, to say the least.
So how about some unusual Vivaldi?
If you listen to Wisconsin Public Radio, chances are good that today or sometime soon you will hear the hyper-popular original version of “Summer” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.”
But The Ear finds this unusual contemporary version a welcome change from the over-programmed and too familiar original version, and more appropriate to the special summer that will follow the special spring.
It is a version that has been “recomposed” by British composer Max Richter (below top) with violin soloist Daniel Hope (below bottom), a protege of the legendary Yehudi Menuhin, who performed several years ago with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The Ear finds the entire work very appealing, but here is the YouTube video of just the Summer section as it was being recorded.
If you don’t like this music, what music would you choose to listen to as you celebrate the coming of summer?
And if you like this excerpt, here is a link to the complete version of “Vivaldi Recomposed”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJnxPgT83rw
MAKE MUSIC MADISON
Today may be the Summer Solstice, but this year’s Make Music Madison will take place this Sunday, which also happens to be Father’s Day.
The eight annual Make Music Madison – which includes classical music but also rock, jazz, folk, blues, hip-hop and country — is part of Make Music Day, an international celebration of the Summer Solstice that this year will take place in some 1,000 cities in 120 countries.
Here is a helpful listing with locations, time, performers and programs as well as form (virtual and online, with links, or real): http://www.makemusicmadison.org
Here is a story with more background about the event: http://www.makemusicday.org
If you attend or hear some of the events, let us know what you thought.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: It’s Father’s Day as well as the Summer Solstice plus the second FREE Make Music Madison festival. What music would you play for your father?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is a lot of things.
It is the summer solstice — the first day of summer — so a lot of people will be listening to “Summer” section (below in a popular YouTube video with more than 9 million hits) from “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi. Or perhaps they will celebrate the coming of summer with other music and other composers?
It is also the FREE citywide and mostly outdoor festival of Make Music Madison. Here is a link to the website, where you can find a search engine that feature genres and performers as well as locations:
But because it is Father’s Day, I would like to hear what music you would play for your father. Leave your suggestion, with a YouTube link if possible, in the COMMENTS section.
My father liked his music less heavy. Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner and Richard Wagner were not for him.
But something like the Barcarolle to Jacques Offenbach’s opera “The Tales of Hoffmann” was exactly to his liking.
So here it is, for you Dad.
Tags: Anton Bruckner, Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, barcarolle, Bruckner, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, fathers day, Four Seasons, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Mahler, Make Music Madison, Music, Offenbach, Orchestra, Richard Wagner, summer, Summer solstice, The Tales of Hoffmann, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Happy Father’s Day! Music is filled with bad paternal role models and some good ones too. NPR discusses some bad fathers and praises good ones.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today, June 15, 2014, is Father’s Day.
Classical music is filled with notable father figures and not all of them are fathers you would want to emulate.
Take the overbearing and ambitious Leopold Mozart (below top), who browbeat and exploited his young son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (below bottom).
And what about Ludwig van Beethoven’s father (below top) who used to come home drunk and threatened his young prodigy son with a beating to force him to practice the piano?
One has to wonder: Did such paternal abuse actually yield positive results on these two towering figures of classical music? Or did Mozart and Beethoven succeed despite their fathers’ bullying. Does an unhappy childhood benefit the art even when it hurts the artist?
On the other hand, maybe some good parenting by Johann Sebastian Bach -– the “old wig” as his more “modern” Classical-era sons called him –- led to such good achievements by his composer sons Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Christian Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
The same might be said for Baroque composers Alessandro Scarlatti (below top), best known for vocal music, and his son Domenico Scarlatti (below bottom), best known for his keyboard music.
There are a lot of fictional fathers to mention on this holiday too.
Especially in opera.
Those fathers were discussed this past week on NPR by Miles Hoffman. Hoffman is himself both the father of two daughters and a professional musician, both a performer and a teacher. His interview, with musical samplings, covered works by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Mozart, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi and, as a positive counterpoint, Giacomo Puccini.
Here is a link:
http://www.npr.org/2014/06/13/321544999/just-in-time-for-father-s-day-bad-dads-in-opera
What real or fictional fathers -– good or bad — in classical music come to your mind?
The Ear would like to see the Father’s Day discussion of musical fathers expanded. So share good stories and bad stories about music and paternity — even if it is your own, because there are a lot of fathers who played a positive and encouraging role in music careers and musical stories.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Alessandro Scarlatti, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Classical era, Classical music, Classical period (music), Classical style, Domenico Scarlatti, fathers day, Giacomo Puccini, Giuseppe Verdi, harpsichord, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Christian Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach, Keyboard, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart, Music, NPR, opera, Piano, Scarlatti, sonatas, vocal music, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Classical music: It’s Father’s Day. Who is tops as a musical father figure? The Ear says Johann Sebastian Bach is the Father of All Fathers – literally and figuratively — when it comes to classical music.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today, Sunday, June 16, is Father’s Day in the U.S.
The holiday just isn’t as important as Mother’s Day, as lower retail sales figures show. But it is well worth noting and is widely celebrated.
So The Ear has to ask: What is the best music to play on Father’s Day, and who qualifies as the most important father figure in classical music?
Of course there are many father figures in opera, with Verdi’s Rigoletto protecting his daughter Gilda as a prime example. (Below is a photo from a production by the San Francisco Opera.)
Then there is Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang’s dour, tyrannical and demanding father who played such a pivotal and not always good role in his son’s career.
Same for Beethoven’s father, a drunk who forced and abused his son Ludwig into practicing in the middle of the night.
The talented Alessandro Scarlatti (below top) gave us the prolific composer of wonderful keyboard sonatas Domenico Scarlatti (below bottom).
But I think the honors for today’s holiday must go to the Father of All Fathers: Johann Sebastian Bach.
Not only did he father a lot of children– 20 with two wives. He also fathered some pretty important composers in their own right who followed him and at times even disavowed or repudiated their own father’s style as old-fashi0ned and outdated: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Johann Christoph Bach.
More importantly, Johann Sebastian (below) was — at least to my ears – the father of all Western classical music, if any single figure can be said to be that.
He was, in short, The Big Bang of classical music.
In that sense J.S. Bach was a father to all classical composers who followed him, whether they emulated him or rebelled against him.
So here is a favorite work of mine by J.S. Bach to celebrate Father’s Day and the towering influence of Bach as a literal and figurative father:
If you can think of others father figures, please let The Ear know by leaving a remark in the COMMENTS section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Classical music: Celebrate Father’s Day with stories about the fathers of famous composers and musicians.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Father’s Day.
Successful composers and performers have been influenced by all kinds of fathers — and father figures.
Mozart’s father Leopold (below, in 1765) was exploitative, if well meaning and knowledgeable about music. He helped the young Wolfgang who nonetheless resisted later advice once he was a mature artist and man.
Then there is the Bach family where many fathers, including Johann Ambrosius Bach (below), the father of Johann Sebastian Bach, passed down the musical trade to their sons, just as Johann Sebastian passed the trade or art down to Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christoph.
Clara Wieck’s father Friedrich, couldn’t accept that his talented pianist daughter Clara would fall for a young critic and upstart composer named Robert Schumann (below with Clara).
And Richard Strauss’ composer and performer father Franz Joseph (below, son on the left and father on the right) also proved an influence on the late Romantic composer.
What better way, then, is there for classical music fans to mark Father’s Day than to explore some of the ways that fathers have influenced the field throughout history.
And I have found no better way than a recent story that Miles Hoffman, a professional violist, told last week on NPR.
Even the childless “Papa” Haydn came in for some remarks as being the “father” of the string quartet, the piano trio and the symphony.
But Hoffman left out one famous, or infamous, case: Johann Beethoven (below), on the other hand, was a drunk who was abusive and who would wake the young Ludwig and make him practice in the middle of the night, hoping that his son would become a profitable prodigy like Mozart. It is amazing Ludwig turned out as creative and productive as he was.
Here is a link. Enjoy! And Happy Father’s Day.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/06/15/155027862/tracing-the-trail-of-musical-fathers
And there other famous father stories about classical music that classical fans should know about?
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Live music continues its comeback from the pandemic. Today is Make Music Madison with free concerts citywide of many kinds of music. Here are guides with details
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By Jacob Stockinger
Live music continues to make its comeback from the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The past week saw live outdoor concerts by Con Vivo, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society and the Middleton Community Orchestra.
Today – Monday, June 21 –is Make Music Madison 2021.
It is part of an annual worldwide phenomenon that started in France in 1982. It has since spread globally and is now celebrated in more than 1,000 cities in 120 countries.
Yet in the U.S., Wisconsin is one of only five states that celebrate Make Music Day statewide. The other states are Connecticut, Hawaii, New Mexico and Vermont. In there U.S., more than 100 cities will take part in presenting free outdoor concerts. Globally, the audience will be in the millions.
The day is intended to be a way to celebrate the annual Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. Technically, the solstice occurred in Wisconsin last night, on Father’s Day, at 10:32 p.m. CDT.
But The Ear is a forgiving kind. This will be the first full day of summer, so the spirit of the celebration lives on despite the calendar.
You can see – the composer Igor Stravinsky advised listening with your eyes open – and hear 38 different kinds of music. The choices include blues, bluegrass, Celtic, roots music, gospel, rock, jazz, classical, folk, African music, Asian music, world music, children’s music (see the YouTube video at the bottom) and much more. It will be performed by students and teachers, amateurs and professionals, individuals and groups.
Here is a link to a press release about the overall event: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/make-music-day-2021-announces-updated-schedule-of-events-301304107.html
And here is a link to the global home website — with more background information and a live-stream video of a gong tribute to the who died of COVID — about the festival: https://www.makemusicday.org
The local events will take place from 5 a.m. to midnight. All are open to the public without admission, and safety protocols will be observed.
Here is a guide to local events that allow you to search particulars of the celebration by area of the city, genre of music, performers, venues and times. If you are a classical fan, in The Ear’s experience you might want to pay special attention to Metcalfe’s market in the Hilldale mall.
Here is a link to the home webpage of Make Music Madison: https://www.makemusicmadison.org
Here is a link to the event calendar with maps and schedules as well as alternative plans in case of rain and various menus for searching: https://www.makemusicmadison.org/listings/
Happy listening!
In the Comment section, please leave your observations and suggestions or advice about the quality and success of the festival and the specific events you attended.
The Ear wants to hear.
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