#FifthSymphony | The Well-Tempered Ear

Library of Congress streams UW pianist Christopher Taylor’s online Liszt-Beethoven symphony recital for free this Thursday night

December 16, 2020
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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/

Posted in Classical music
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Did Beethoven and his Fifth Symphony foster racism, exclusion and elitism in the concert hall? The Ear thinks that is PC nonsense. What do you think?

September 19, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

Controversy has struck big among classical music critics and fans — just in time for the Beethoven Year that will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth this December. Plans call for celebrations by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, and others.

At question is what seems yet another fallout and dust-up from the Black Lives Matter movement and the current struggle to foster social justice and racial equality.

In some ways, it all seems inevitable.

Now the history-denying advocates of cancel culture are suggesting that Beethoven (below) and his music – especially the popular Fifth Symphony (you can hear the famous opening in the YouTube schematic video at the bottom) – fostered white privilege and the rise of racism, sexism and homophobia in the concert hall.

That seems like quite an accusation for a single composer and a single piece of music that was premiered in 1808.

The assertion is food for thought. But not much.

In the end The Ear finds it a stretch and a totally bogus argument. He thinks that Beethoven attracted far more performers and audiences than he repelled. Others, including famed critic Norman Lebrecht in his blog Slipped Disc and a critic for the right-wing newspaper The New York Post, agree:

https://slippedisc.com/2020/09/beethovens-5th-is-a-symbol-of-exclusion-and-elitism/

https://nypost.com/2020/09/17/canceling-beethoven-is-the-latest-woke-madness-for-the-classical-music-world/

The Ear also thinks it is political correctness run amok, even for someone who, like himself, advocates strongly for diversity of composers, performers and audiences – but always with quality in mind — in the concert hall.

Just because Beethoven was such a great creative artist is hardly cause to blame him for the inability of other artists to succeed and for non-white audiences taking to classical music. Other forces — social, economic and political — explain that much better.

Yes, Beethoven is a towering and intimidating figure. And yes, his works often dominate programming. But both musicians and audiences return to him again and again because of the originality, power and first-rate quality of his many works.

Beethoven himself was deaf. That would certainly seem to qualify him as inclusive and a member of an important category of diversity.

No matter. The writers are happy to blame Ludwig and his work for exclusion and elitism. They argue that people of color, women and LGBTQ people have all felt alienated from classical music because of Beethoven’s legacy.

Of course, there is elitism in the arts. People may be equal, but creative talent is not.

And clearly, Beethoven was a towering and intimidating figure – more for the quality of his music than for the simple fact that it exists. Such exclusion and elitism have to do with other factors than the composition of the Fifth Symphony.

If The Ear recalls correctly, when he died Beethoven was given the largest state funeral up to that time for a non-royal, non-politician or non-military person.

And how do you explain that Beethoven’s music, so representative of Western culture, appeals deeply to and attracts so many Asians and Asian-Americans, and became both banned and symbolically central to those opposed to Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China?

But these days being provocative can become its own reward.

You can read the analysis and decide about its merits for yourself, then let us know what you think in the Comment section.

Here is a link to the opinion piece in Vox Magazine, a free online journal: https://www.vox.com/switched-on-pop/21437085/beethoven-5th-symphony-elitist-classism-switched-on-pop

What do you think about the idea that Beethoven played a large and seminal role in fostering an elitist and exclusive culture in classical music?

Did you ever feel alienated from classical music because of Beethoven or know others who have?

What is your favorite Beethoven composition?

The Ear wants to hear.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Artificial Intelligence will complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony

December 20, 2019
1 Comment

By Jacob Stockinger

The timing of the announcement and project couldn’t be more perfect as we are now about the enter The Beethoven Year.

2020 will see the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (below).

And word is that hi tech in the form of AI will come to rescue of art through a powerful computer program.

That is, artificial intelligence will be used to complete the drafts and sketches of an unfinished 10th symphony by Beethoven. (Below is Beethoven’s manuscript for the opening of the iconic Fifth Symphony.)

It will not be the first time. You can hear a well researched if less rigorous and less technological version of Beethoven’s 10th, assembled by Barry Cooper, in the YouTube video at the bottom.

Whether we end up with a piece of music that can be performed or that we want to hear remains to be seen. After all, how many times do you hear — or want to hear — live performances of completed versions of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony or Mahler’s unfinished 10th?

So Beethoven’s 10th may end up being more a curiosity than a work of art.

But at least we may get an idea of where Beethoven was headed after his unconventional and revolutionary Ninth Symphony that influenced so many later composers.

You can learn more about it by going to the homepage of Classical FM, an important British radio station. Here is a link:

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/news/computer-completes-unfinished-tenth-symphony/

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Milwaukee’s PianoArts festival turns 20 this year, and Madison musicians will take part in this year’s festival this weekend

June 13, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement to post:

The 2019 PianoArts 20th anniversary festival, “Concerts with Personality,” will showcase pianists with actors, singers, dancers and chamber music ensembles this coming Friday through Sunday, June 14-16, at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and at Vogel Hall of the Marcus Performing Arts Center.

Among the artists performing in the festival are Madison-based Martha Fischer and Christopher Taylor.

Also performing is Madison’s Sophia Jiang (below top), a 12-year-old winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Youth Piano Competition and the Varshavski-Shapiro Duo (below bottom). Both Stanislava Varshavski and Diana Shapiro received their doctorates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, studying with Martha Fischer.

UW-Madison Professor Martha Fischer (below), who teaches collaborative piano, will present a pre-concert lecture, “Singing Keys,” that explores the special relationships between singers and pianists — in art song, opera and musical theater — on Saturday night, June 15, at 7 p.m. at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, 1584 North Prospect Avenue, in Milwaukee. At 8 p.m., she will be joined by singers from opera and musical theater.

Christopher Taylor (below), a Van Cliburn competition bronze medalist who also teaches at the UW-Madison, will bring the festival to a dazzling close when he performs Franz Liszt’s solo piano transcription of Ludwig van Beethoven’s popular and iconic Fifth Symphony on Sunday night, June 16, at 8 p.m. in Vogel Hall, 929 North Street, Milwaukee. (You can hear the opening of the Liszt-Beethoven transcription, with a fascinating keyboard diagrammatic, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Details, tickets and more information are at www.PianoArts.org

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Saturday is busy with baroque music by Vivaldi and Bach at the Wisconsin Union Theater; Wagner’s opera “Die Walküre” in cinemas; and FREE Beethoven performances for families by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra

March 28, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

This Saturday, March 30, is busy with classical music from morning until night.

In the morning, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s Family Series features two FREE performances of “Beethoven Lives Next Door” featuring Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony.

They start with pre-concert educational activities at 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. with 40-minute concerts at 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

All activities take place at the Warner Park Recreational Center, 1625 Northport Drive.

To get FREE tickets and see more information, go to:

https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/education/wco-connect-family-concerts/

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the penultimate Live From the Met in HD production of this season will feature “Die Walküre” (The Valkyries), the Metropolitan Opera’s second installment of the epic “Ring” cycle by Richard Wagner.

Screenings will be at the Point Cinema on the west side, near West Towne Mall, and the Palace Cinema in Sun Prairie.

The encore HD showings are next Wednesday, April 3, at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

The opera will be sung in German with supertitles in English, Italian and Spanish.

Tickets for Saturday broadcasts are $24 for adults and $22 for seniors and children under 13. For encore showings, all tickets are $18.

It will also be broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Radio, starting at 11 a.m. (You can hear the famous and dramatic “Ride of the Valkyries” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

For a cast list and synopsis, go to:

https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/synopsiscast/2018-19/die-walkure/?performanceNumber=15381

For information about the production, go to:

https://www.metopera.org/season/2018-19-season/die-walkure/

But the big local event is the Madison debut of Apollo’s Fire (below), a period-instrument baroque group that just won a 2019 Grammy Award, at 7:30 p.m. in Shannon Hall of the Wisconsin Union Theater.

The program features suite and concertos by Antonio Vivaldi and Johann Sebastian Bach. Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins and “The Goldfinch” Flute Concerto will be featured as will Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 and Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.

Trevor Stephenson, founder and director of the Madison Bach Musicians, will give a FREE pre-concert lecture at 6 p.m. in the Old Madison Room.

For more information and samples of rare reviews about the Cleveland-based group devoted to passionate and dramatic performances of early music, go to:

https://apollosfire.org

For the full program, background, videos and ticket information ($10-$47), go to:

https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/apollos-fire/

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: You must hear this – how Debussy provided a soft way to end a season

May 24, 2018
2 Comments

By Jacob Stockinger

It seems perfectly normal and natural that big groups like to close their season with a big ending.

So the Madison Symphony Orchestra closed this past season with the “Glagolitic Mass” by Leos Janacek, which used a lot of brass and a large choir.

The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra went for an all-Beethoven program that featured the Piano Concerto No. 3, with soloist John O’Conor, and the forceful, driven Fifth Symphony.

Yet there was something particularly soothing and reassuring about the way the Ancora String Quartet (below) closed its 17th season last Friday night. (Member, below from left, are Wes Luke and Robin Ryan, violins; Benjamin Whitcomb, cello; and Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola.

The group opened with a welcome rarity: the fourth and final string quartet by Danish composer Carl Nielsen. It proved a fine offering, especially noteworthy for the hymn-like slow movement that brought to mind the open harmonies of Aaron Copland.

But the concert ended ever so quietly and warmly with the only String Quartet, Op. 10, written by French composer Claude Debussy (below).

The poet T.S. Eliot said the world ends not with a bang but a whimper.

But this ending was neither bang nor whimper.

The Ear would call it a sigh, a long and sensual sound bath that left you leaving the performance less with admiration or wonder than with gratitude for the group and for the music.

Plus, it was all the more affecting for the way that violinist Wes Luke (below) clearly explained how the main themes of all movements grow out of one motif and cohere.

The Debussy string quartet, he explained, is one of the most performed and recorded of the entire string quartet repertory. Yet its sensuality always makes it seems so fresh and so French.

The highlight was, as always, the third movement, the slow movement. And as the spring season completes winding down and the summer seasons starts to pick up, here it is for your enjoyment in a YouTube video of the Juilliard String Quartet.

What did you think about the season-closing concerts this spring? Did you have a favorite?

What do you think of the Debussy string quartet?

If you know of a better slow movement from a string quartet, please leave a COMMENT and a link, if possible, to a YouTube performance.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #AaronCopland, #AncoraStringQuartet, #BrassMusic, #CarlNielsen, #ClaudeDebussy, #FifthSymphony, #FrenchMusic, #GlagoliticMass, #JohnO'Conor, #JuilliardSchool, #JuilliardStringQuartet, #LeosJanacek, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyChorus, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #PianoConcerto, #StringQuartet, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, admiration, Arts, bang, Beethoven, big, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Claude Debussy, close, cohere, composer, end, ending, French, gratitude, harmony, hymn, Jacob Stockinger, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, motif, movement, Music, Orchestra, poet, Poetry, quiet, Season, sensual, sensuality, slow, T.S. Eliot, theme, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, whimper, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wonder, YouTube

Classical music: Two performances of a FREE family concert for young children of “Beethoven Lives Next Door” take place this Saturday morning at the Goodman Community Center

May 17, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

This Saturday, young children and their families can experience the world of classical music through the eyes and ears of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Beethoven will be portrayed by Whitney Derendinger (below) of the UW-Madison Department of Theatre and Drama.

Two performances of the FREE concert will combine music, storytelling and learning for the whole family as Beethoven and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, with help from students from the University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music, bring to life the compositional journey of the infamous theme and first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – heard in the YouTube video at the bottom that has more than 53 million views — which closed the WCO season last weekend.

Here are the details:

WHERE: Goodman Community Center, 149 Waubesa Street, on Madison’s east side

WHEN: Saturday, May 19, 2018

CONCERT 1

9:00 a.m. | Preconcert Activities

9:30 a.m. | Performance #1 (40 minutes)

CLICK HERE to get tickets to Concert 1

CONCERT 2

10:45 a.m. | Preconcert Activities

11:15 a.m. | Performance #2 (40 minutes)

CLICK HERE to get tickets to Concert 2

The WCO’s Family Community Concert Series is a new, free-of-charge but ticketed educational program for children ages 4-10 and their families.

A unique format will encourage audience members of all ages to interact with classical music and each other like they never have before and serve as a new way for parents to introduce their children to classical music.

WCO will use music to inspire connections within families and communities and to foster a love for music that spans generations.

Families can also help prepare children for the experience. For more information and a preparatory study guide, go to:

https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/education/wco-connect-family-concerts/concert-experience

The event is sponsored by CUNA Mutual and Findorff Construction.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #BeethovenLivesNextDoor, #CommunityConcertSeries, #CUNAMutual, #EyesandEars, #FamilyCommunityConcertSeries, #FamilyEntertainment, #FamilyFriendly, #FifthSymphony, #FindorffConstruction, #Free-of-Charge, #GoodmanCommunityCenter, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicalPerformance, #SaturdayMorning, #StudyGuide, #TheaterandDrama, #TheatreandDrama, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #YoungChildren, activities, activity, admission, Arts, Beethoven, Cello, Classical music, composer, ears, eyes, first, free, infamous, information, Jacob Stockinger, journey, learning, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, movement, Music, Orchestra, performance, preconcert, preparation, sponsor, sponsored, storytelling, symphony, theme, ticket, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube

Classical music: Here are the performers, programs and schedule for Saturday’s concerts by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras

March 8, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement from the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras to post:

Join us for our second concert series of the season, the Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts on this Saturday, March 10, in Mills Concert Hall, 455 North Park Street, on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Programmed pieces include works from Brian Balmages, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ralph Matesky, Gustav Holst, Samuel Barber, and more.

For the full concert repertoire, go to: https://www.wysomusic.org/2018-winterfest-repertoire/

“Every one of these concerts is jam-packed with great music—the kind of classics that have endured,” said interim WYSO artistic director Randal Swiggum (below).

“These concerts will inspire audiences, guaranteed, not just with masterworks like Holst’s ‘Jupiter’ from The Planets, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, but with the energy and freshness that young musicians bring to this music.” (You can hear the dramatic and well-known opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, with an engaging graphic display of its structure, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Additional highlights from the concerts include an Opus One collaboration with the WYSO Music Makers Honors Ensemble on the traditional piece Goin’ To Boston; a guest appearance from NBC-15 TV News Anchor/Reporter John Stofflet (below top) who will narrate Sinfonietta’s performance of Lincoln at Gettysburg; and concerto performances from the 2017-2018 Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winners, violist Maureen Sheehan (below middle) of Middleton and violinist Dexter Mott (below bottom) of Madison.

“Both Maureen with the Walton Viola Concerto, and Dexter with the Sibelius Violin Concerto, have tackled mature pieces that demand not just technical prowess, but thoughtful, nuanced interpretation,” Swiggum said. “I know audiences will be truly moved by their playing.”

Tickets are available at the door the day of the concerts, and are $10 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under.

Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts Schedule

11:30 a.m. – Opus One with WYSO Music Makers (below, playing at the Wisconsin Union Theater) and Sinfonietta with NBC-15 News Anchor/Reporter John Stofflet narrating Lincoln at Gettysburg.

1:30 p.m. – Harp Ensemble (below) and Concert Orchestra.

4:00 p.m. – Philharmonia Orchestra (below), with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, and Holst’s “Jupiter” from The Planets.

7:00 p.m. – Youth Orchestra, with performances from the 2017-2018 Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winners, Dexter Mott and Maureen Sheehan.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #AbrahamLincoln, #FifthSymphony, #FranzSchubert, #GeorgesBizet, #GustavHolst, #JayUngar, #JeanSibelius, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnStofflet, #LeonardBernstein, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MusicEducation, #MusicMakers, #NBCNews15, #PaulDukas, #SamuelBarber, #ThePlanets, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WilliamWalton, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, anchor, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Bernstein, Bizet, Boston, Brian Balmages, Campus, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Competition, composer, Concert, concerto, display, Dukas, energy, freshness, Gettysburg, graphic, great, harp, highlight, honors, interpretation, Jay Ungar, Jay Unger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Stofflet, Jupiter, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, mature, Middleton, Mozart, Music, Musician, narrate, news, nuance, Orchestra, playing, prowess, Ralph Matesky, reporter, Rossini, Samuel Barber, Schubert, Sibelius, solo, soloist, structure, symphony, technical, Television, thoughtful, TV, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, Viola, Violin, Walton, winner, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WYSO, young, Youth, YouTube

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