The Well-Tempered Ear
FREE birthday bash for Johann Sebastian Bach is this Saturday in Madison
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear thinks of this week’s Bach Around the Clock — which runs March 6-10 — as a double celebration.
The primary one is to mark the 339th birthday of composer Johann Sebastian Bach (below, March 20, 1685-July 28, 1750), whom many consider to be the Big Bang of Western classical music.
The second celebration is to honor the late Madison violist Marika Fischer Hoyt (below), who with help resurrected Bach Around the Clock in Madison after it had been dropped by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Talented, hard-working and congenial, Fischer — who died a year ago of cancer — was a fixture of the local music scene. She was a member of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and spent 20 years playing in the Madison Symphony Orchestra. An outstanding chamber musician, she also helped found and played in the Ancora String Quartet.
An avid proponent of early music using period instruments and historically informed performance practices, Fischer Hoyt helped found and play in the weekly free Just Bach concerts. She performed regularly with the Madison Bach Musicians and with an early music string group she helped found, Sonata à Quattro.
Here is a link to a complete schedule on the BATC website:
The Ear thinks Marika would be very pleased and proud of this year’s event.
It will feature Bach’s original choral and instrumental music in many genres and transcriptions. Soloists and groups of varying sizes will take part. And Bach’s music — so central to the repertoire and all levels of musicianship — will be performed by students (below are members of the Suzuki Strings), by amateurs and by professionals (in the YouTube video at the bottom) — making BATC a truly community-wide celebration of Bach.
The hours for the Birthday Bash concert, which used to run 12 hours, have been cut back to a reasonable and accessible 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent St., on Madison’s near west side. But a birthday cake will still be cut at the end.
And in case you want to duck in and out or catch certain performances or performers, here is a full program schedule for Saturday:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CIRby29h6wZjyngZgyMPpTrLNiMC_1OR/view
You can find links to all other events and programs — printed in blue — on the main website for the March 6-10 festival.
Performances by performers in their own homes and studios will air online as part of the Virtual Festival held of BATC’s YouTube channel, starting at midnight on this Sunday, March 10. Its runs without a time limit and can be accessed worldwide.
Here is a link to the YouTube channel, which also has past performances
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHBRPHSGd_fNECp-qrWsqlQ
Have you attended or heard other Bach Around the Clocks?
What do you think of the celebration?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Meet the 2024 winners of the Classic Piano International Competition in Dubai, UAE
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By Jacob Stockinger
Did you know that the fourth and final round of a major international piano competition was taking place in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates this past week?
The Ear didn’t — until now.
That when he saw the nine 2024 winners (below), chosen from 70 participants, named in a post on The Violin Channel website.
The third edition of Classic Piano International Competition — which started during the 2017-28 season — makes sense when you think about it.
Dubai has lots of oil money but not a lot of Western culture or prestige. But Piano World contains more than enough competitors and venues for the event — even after such top-ranked, career-boosting competitions as the Tchaikovsky in Russia, the Arthur Rubinstein in Israel, the Leeds in the UK, the Chopin in Poland and the Van Cliburn in the United States.
So why not a major piano event for the Middle East and the Arab world? (Readers: Do you know if any other music competitions take place in that area?)
Its format is unusual.
Pianists cannot apply directly. Instead, they have to participate in the early rounds that are held in countries around the world. Those who finish in the Top Five of a preliminary competition get invited to the final round in Dubai.
The competition’s preliminary rounds took place in the USA, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Kazakhstan, Poland, UK, Armenia, China, South Korea, Japan, Israel, and Spain.
Here is some general background:
And here are details including the jury members, the various prizes, and the restricted and required repertoire that the pianists must select from:
https://classicpiano.eu/competition
Russian and Asian pianists dominated this year, with veteran Andrey Gugnin of Russia (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom) taking home the first prize of 100,000 Euros ($108,300) plus 10 concert dates and a 50,000-Euro honorarium for performing with two different orchestras: the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. Gugnin, who protested Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now lives in Croatia.
Here is a link to the story with the complete list of winners:
Like many major music competitions these days, Dubai’s was live-streamed. Its global media partners are medici.tv; euronews; and bachtrack. You can or will soon be able to find various artists and rounds of the competition on YouTube.
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Remembering the classical musicians who died in 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
It remains an end-of-the-year ritual: remembering the dead who brought beauty to us through music.
Here are remembrances of the classical musicians we lost in 2023.
From Presto Music comes a list of world-known talents who died this past year — plus those who died in recent past years. It is relatively short and has links to the full obituaries, including the of American mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry (below, in 2009, in the singing the famous Habanera from Bizet’s “Carmen” in the YouTube video at the bottom). A pioneer, she was the first Black singer to perform at the annual summer Wagner festival in Beyreuth, Germany, and she performed at the Wisconsin Union Theater during the 1978-79 season:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/articles/obituary/browse
Here is a longer, less renowned and more international list from The Violin Channel.
It includes many very well known musicians, including Menahem Pressler (below who co-founded and played for more than 50 years with the Beaux Arts Trio, which performed several times at the Wisconsin Union Theater. He also taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
It also includes the jazz and classical bassist Richard Davis (below), who spent decades teaching and performing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
The Ear especially likes this list because ordinary “house” musicians — and not just stars — are remembered. After all, the majority of musicians who add so much to our lives are not stars — but usually just mainstream workers in the arts.
Click on the names in red to see the full biographies, many of which are more touching than you might expect — for example, the Ukrainian conductor who died young while defending his country against Russia.
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New Yorker critic Alex Ross names 26 notable classical music recordings from 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
Alex Ross (below) writes for The New Yorker magazine and is perhaps the most respected classical music critic not only in the U.S. but in the world.
His bestselling book of collected essays, “The Rest Is Noise,” has been acclaimed and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. HIs latest book about Wagner, art and politics has also been highly praised.
This year, unlike in many others, Ross chose to list notable recordings along with a few general observations about the live performances and the recording scene.
For example, he has both sharp criticism and high praise of how the largest commercial labels as well as smaller specialty labels such as BIS and Hyperion are coping with the ever-growing popularity and challenge of streaming.
Ross also sounds a warning about the “transformation” of the iconic Mostly Mozart Festival by Lincoln Center to re-conceive the famous summer concert series as more “inclusive” — despite its financial and artistic success over decades.
Ross’ remarks serve as a timely warning for programmers at concert venues and radio shows to be careful of trying to increase popularity with simplistic ways to “de-canonize” and “de-colonialize” the repertoire in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion.
One suspects that what matters most of all to Ross is the quality of the compositions and the performances — not the genre, color or culture of those who are responsible for them. Not all parts of culture, he suggests in a longer version of the remarks, need to appeal to all parts of society.
Anyway, read his remarks about the best recordings and see the list of 20 others and see what you think:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/notable-classical-recordings-of-2023
One noteworthy fact is that he named the young Korean pianist Yunchan Lim (below, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucci) to his “best-of” list for Lim’s live recording made during the Van Cliburn Competition that he won last year at the age of 18.
In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear Lim play “Mazeppa,” perhaps the most fiendishly difficult of Liszt’s “Twelve Transcendental Etudes.” It depicts a Ukrainian folk hero who is punished for his adultery by being strapped naked to a galloping wild horse and struggles to free himself.
And if you have not yet heard Lim’s electrifying performance Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with conductor Marin Alsop during the finals of the Cliburn competition, you should check it out at YouTube.
Do you have any opinions about the recording that Ross selected?
About Yunchan Lim?
The Ear want to hear.
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See and hear the new extended trailer for ‘Maestro’
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By Jacob Stockinger
If — like The Ear — you are really looking forward to seeing “Maestro”(below) and can hardly wait for it to arrive, you will want to see the newly released extended preview or trailer.
The bio-pic about the late American conductor, composer, pianist and educator Leonard Bernstein being in love has been acclaimed at festivals and received standing ovations around the world. Film greats Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg were involved in making it.
“Maestro” — which runs 2 hours and 9 minutes — opens in select theaters in the U.S. on Nov. 22.
Then it comes to Netflix on Dec. 20.
And the soundtrack — which includes the music of Mahler whom Bernstein help to rediscover — will be released soon on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label.
Forget the silly brouhaha about whether Bradley Cooper — who wrote, directed and stars in the film — should have used a prosthetic nose to portray Lenny. It was a move that Lenny’s children approved of and it works even though some critics said the actor should have been the same ethnicity as the characters.
Cooper also practiced a certain way of breathing and talking, and took conducting lessons from Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
And to see and hear his portrayal is to be amazed at how closely he resembles Lenny.
And yes, if you ware wondering, it definitely does not ignore the gay side of Bernstein.
Just take a look and a listen.
The visuals and the music whet your appetite for more, much more.
Here is some of it found of the British radio station ClassicFM:
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/bernstein-l/maestro-official-trailer-bradley-cooper-biopic/
And for more background, here is the movie’s Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maestro_(2023_film)
What you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
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How do you rank Beethoven’s five piano concertos? Which is your favorite set of recordings?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Lately, The Ear has been listening to the five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven (below).
That, of course, is not counting the composer’s rarely performed piano transcription of his own violin concerto.
The five concertos are so different but so consistently great that they are always in demand for programming and always a pleasure to listen to as well, I imagine, to play.
Lately I have been sampling two new complete recordings that have received high praise from critics: one (below top) by the Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang, who won the Van Cliburn competition in 2009 and recorded his set, including a cadenza by him, with the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Nathalie Stutzmann; and the other, a complete live set (below bottom) by the American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, the winner of the 1970 Chopin competition, recently recorded at the Grand Teton Festival.
Both are fine recordings and well worth listening to.
They made me once again recalculate my personal ranking of the five piano concertos. I don’t mean a ranking by quality or which one is the best, but simply which individual concertos I prefer to listen to by frequency. Here is any order: 4, 3, 5 (Emperor), 1, and 2.
How would you rank these five masterworks?
There are so many excellent recordings of these glorious works. I have listened to individual concertos and complete sets by Claudio Arrau, Emanuel Ax, Alfred Brendel (who has recorded them three times), Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Daniel Barenboim, Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andnes, Glenn Gould, Arthur Rubinstein (who recorded them twice), Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jan Lisiecki, Rudolf Buchbinder, Krystian Zimerman, Yefim Bronfman; and on and on. It is hard to pick just one favorite and the idea of a “definitive” performance is impossible.
And truth be told, I generally turn to different performers for different concertos. Martha Argerich has not recorded all five but I love her performances of Piano Concertos 1, 2 and 3. I admire the late Nelson Freire in the Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”). And I am very moved by Krystian Zimerman’s playing of the inspired and unconventional middle movement of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in the YouTube video at the bottom.
But overall the most consistent sets I continue to like are classics by the late Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode, who completely understands and captures what is special about Beethoven, as he demonstrated in his pioneering complete set of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas.
How would you personally rank the Beethoven pianos concertos as your favorites by appeal and listenability?
Which pianist in Beethoven’s five piano concertos do you listen to and like the most often?
Is there a complete set you find irresistible and recommend to others? Or a particular recording of a particular concerto?
The Ear wants to hear.
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ALL Bach Around the Clock 2023 concerts are now online. Here are the links and some stats
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following news from Bach Around the Clock 2023 (BATC). Please note that there is no time limit or expiration date on viewing and listening to the online postings (see the example video of a string quartet arrangement from “The Art of Fugue” at the bottom):
| BATC 2023 Festival video recordings are now available at BachClock.com and on YouTube |
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BATC 2023 recordings have been organized into playlists: Guest Artist Lawrence Quinnett; String Soloists; Keyboard soloists; Ensembles and Studios; Festival Finale; Virtual Performances Recordings for Just Bach’s Concert and Bach on Marimba lecture/performance are also available. |
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Thank you to BATC 2023 performers! True to our mission, Bach Around The Clock welcomed the participation of over 115 performers (below in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church), including amateurs and professionals of all ages and experience levels, sharing their love of Bach’s music with the community. |
| 85 musicians performed at St. Andrew’s on Saturday, March 11. 30 musicians submitted recordings from their homes and studios. 28 hours of Bach Around The Clock performances are available. |
| Thank you to our audience members (below in Grace Episcopal Church)! In-person and online — BATC 2023 performances have been enjoyed by record-setting numbers of Bach enthusiasts. |
| Thank you to our BATC Donors, acknowledged here. With the generous support of over 40 BATC fans and business sponsors, we achieved our fundraising goal of covering all 2023 festival expenses! New contributions will help us with planning for the future of Bach Around The Clock. |
New contributions will help us with planning for the future of Bach Around The Clock.
You can donate here: https://bachclock.com/donate
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This Sunday at 4 p.m., the Salon Piano Series debuts an online recital by pianist Kangwoo Jin. He plays music by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Liszt and Schumann. It is up until May 9
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. CDT, the Salon Piano Series, hosted by Farley’s House of Pianos, will debut an online concert by pianist Kangwoo Jin (below, in a photo by Andy Manis).
The concert, which was recorded at Luther Memorial Church, costs $10 and will be available online through May 9.
The program is:
Scarlatti – Sonatas in D minor and D Major, K. 213 and 214 (ca. 1756-1757)
Beethoven – Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight” (1801)
Liszt – Transcriptions for solo piano of the songs “Widmung” (Dedication) by Robert Schumann and “Litanei” (Litany) by Franz Schubert
Schumann – Symphonic Etudes, Op.13 (1830)
Bishop – Home, Sweet Home
Tickets are only available online at eventbrite.com. Service fees apply. Complete program and concert information is at salonpianoseries.org
PROGRAM NOTES
Jin has written the following program notes for The Ear:
“As a musician, I am always eager to share music with the public. I am very excited to be able to reach out to the audience with this unprecedented Salon Piano Series Virtual Concert.
“I believe music soothes our mental health in difficult times regardless of age, gender or race. I very much hope my performance will contribute to this collective healing we feel through music.
“I wanted to include three different styles, as I usually do for recitals. This time I have Baroque, Classical and Romantic music.
“I chose one of the most famous Beethoven sonatas in order to celebrate his 250th birth year (2020), which I did not have a chance to mark last year.
“This piece is popular with the title of “Moonlight,” which Beethoven (below) never intended. Five years after his death, the German critic Ludwig Rellstab used the word “Moonlight” in order to describe the first movement. But it was really inspired by the funeral march in Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni.” I try to bring out the tragic color of the first movement. (You can hear Jin play the exciting final movement of the sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“I also wanted to play the virtuosic masterpiece “Symphonic Etudes,” Op. 13, by Robert Schumann (below), including the beautiful posthumous variations 4 and 5.
I find this piece special in the sense that Schumann intended to make this piece “symphonic.” He created multiple layers of voices in various ways through each etude and created orchestral sounds. This polyphonic writing with multiple layers and a thick texture is what makes this piece difficult to play.
“I also specifically wanted to include one of the piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt (below) of Schubert’s Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen (Litany for the Feast of All Souls), D. 343.
“Schubert (below) used the poem “Litany” by Johann Jacobi (1740-1814). It is written for comforting the deceased. Robert Capell, the author of the book “Schubert’s Songs” (1929), said about this lied: There was never a truer or more touching expression of simple devotion and consoled grief … “The music rises from a pure well of affection and humility.”
“I would like to dedicate this piece to all the people who suffered from Covid 19.”
BACKGROUND
Here is a link to Kangwoo Jin’s impressive website where you can see many photos, learn about his extensive career as a teacher and hear many samples of his playing: https://www.pianistkangwoojin.com
Praised for his “refined tone quality with powerful energy” (Chosun Daily Newspaper), Jin (below, in a photo by Steve Apps for the Wisconsin State Journal) concertizes nationally and internationally, including performances in Germany, Italy, China, Indonesia and South Korea.
He gave his debut concert at the Sejong Arts Center in Seoul, South Korea, sponsored by the Chosun Daily Newspaper. He has given live performances on Wisconsin Public Radio and WORT 89.9 FM.
Jin appears frequently as a guest artist at music festivals, universities and various concert series. Recent invitations include UW-River Falls, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and Tongji University in Shanghai. Kawai Pianos USA has also invited him as a guest artist at the annual Piano Technicians Guild Convention and Technical Institute in Florida.
Jin completed the Bachelor of Music degree at Hanyang University in South Korea, then earned his Performer Diploma and Master’s of Music at Indiana University, where he worked as an associate instructor.
He is the recipient of the J. Battista Scholarship for performance excellence at Indiana University and received the Collins Distinguished Fellowship for his doctoral studies, completed last year, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied piano with Christopher Taylor and piano pedagogy with Jessica Johnson.
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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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