The Well-Tempered Ear
Music education: The Madison Youth Choirs explore the theme of “Legacy” in three concerts this Saturday and Sunday in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post from the Madison Youth Choirs about their upcoming concerts this weekend:
This spring, Madison Youth Choirs singers are exploring the meaning of “Legacy,” studying works that have endured throughout history, folk traditions that have been passed on, and musical connections that we maintain with those who have come before us. Along the way, we’re discovering how our own choices and examples are leaving a lasting impact on future generations.
In our upcoming concert series in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 201 State Street, on this Saturday, May 11, and Sunday, May 12, we’ll present a variety of works. They include Benjamin Britten’s “The Golden Vanity,” Palestrina’s beloved “Sicut Cervus,” Sweet Honey in the Rock’s “Wanting Memories,” the final chorus of Handel’s oratorio Samson, American and Scottish folk songs, and Zoe Mulford’s powerful modern folk piece, “The President Sang Amazing Grace.”
The concert will also pay tribute to our alumni, with selections featured on the very first Madison Boychoir album, and past Cantabile singers invited to join us on stage for “Sisters, Now Our Meeting is Over.”
At the Saturday concert, MYC will present the 2019 Carrel Pray Music Educator of the Year award to Diana Popowycz (below), co-founder of Suzuki Strings of Madison.
DETAILS ABOUT “LEGACY” MYC’S SPRING CONCERT SERIES
Saturday
7:30 p.m. Purcell, Britten, Holst and Ragazzi (boychoirs)
Sunday
3:30 p.m. Choraliers, Con Gioia, Capriccio, Cantilena and Cantabile (girlchoirs)
7:30 p.m. Cantilena, Cantabile and Ragazzi (high school ensembles)
THREE WAYS TO PURCHASE TICKETS:
- In person at the Overture Center Box Office (lowest cost)
- Online (https://www.overture.org/events/legacy)
- By phone (608-258-4141)
Tickets are $15 for adults and $7.50 for students. Children under 7 are free, but a ticket is still required and can be requested at the Overture Center Box Office. Seating is General Admission.
This concert is supported by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, American Girl’s Fund for Children, BMO Harris Bank, the Green Bay Packers Foundation, the Kenneth A. Lattman Foundation and Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, charitable arm of The Capital Times, and the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation. This project is also made possible by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with additional funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT MADISON YOUTH CHOIRS (MYC):
Recognized as an innovator in youth choral music education, Madison Youth Choirs (MYC) welcomes singers of all ability levels, annually serving more than 1,000 young people, ages 7-18, through a wide variety of choral programs in our community. Cultivating a comprehensive music education philosophy that inspires self-confidence, responsibility, and a spirit of inquiry leading students to become “expert noticers,” MYC creates accessible, meaningful opportunities for youth to thrive in the arts and beyond.
REPERTOIRE
SATURDAY
For the 7:30 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Boychoirs)
Britten
“The Golden Vanity,” by Benjamin Britten (to our knowledge, this will be the first time the work has ever been performed in Madison)
Purcell
“Simple Gifts” by Joseph Brackett, arr. Aaron Copland
“Tallis Canon” by Thomas Tallis
“Sound the Trumpet” from Come Ye Sons of Art by Henry Purcell
Britten
“Ich jauchze, ich lache” by Johann Sebastian Bach
Holst
“Hallelujah, Amen” from Judas Maccabeus by George Frideric Handel
“Sed diabolus” by Hildegard von Bingen
“Bar’bry Allen” Traditional ballad, arr. Joshua Shank
“Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Ragazzi
“Let Your Voice Be Heard” by Abraham Adzenyah
“Sicut Cervus” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
“Agincourt Carol,” Anonymous, ca. 15th century
Ragazzi & Holst
“The President Sang Amazing Grace” by Zoe Mulford, arr. Randal Swiggum
Holst
“Shosholoza,” Traditional song from Zimbabwe
Combined Boychoirs
“Will Ye No Come Back Again?” Traditional Scottish, arr. Randal Swiggum
Legacy Choirs
“Day is Done” by Peter Yarrow, arr. Randal Swiggum
SUNDAY
For the 3:30 p.m. Concert (featuring MYC Girlchoirs)
Choraliers
“Music Alone Shall Live,” Traditional German canon
“Ut Queant Laxis,” Plainsong chant, text attributed to Paolo Diacono
“This Little Light of Mine” by Harry Dixon Loes, arr. Ken Berg
“A Great Big Sea,” Newfoundland folk song, arr. Lori-Anne Dolloff
Con Gioia
“Seligkeit” by Franz Schubert
“Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin, arr. Roger Emerson
“When I am Laid in Earth” from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell
“Pokare Kare Ana” by Paraire Tomoana
“Ah, comme c’est chose belle” Anonymous, 14th century
“Hope” by Marjan Helms, poem by Emily Dickinson
Capriccio
“Non Nobis Domine,” attributed to William Byrd
“Ich Folge Dir Gleichfalls” from St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach
“Dirait-on” by Morten Lauridsen
Cantilena
“Aure Volanti” by Francesca Caccini
“Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon
Cantabile
“Come All You Fair and Pretty Ladies” Traditional Ozark song, adapted by Mike Ross
“Wanting Memories” by Ysaye M. Barnwell
Legacy Choir
“Music in My Mother’s House” by Stuart Stotts
For the 7:30 p.m. concert (featuring High School Ensembles)
Cantilena
“Aure Volanti” by Francesca Caccini
“Una Sañosa Porfía by Juan del Encina
“Ella’s Song” by Bernice Johnson Reagon
“O Virtus Sapientiae” by Hildegard von Bingen
Ragazzi
“Sicut Cervus” by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
“Agincourt Carol,” Anonymous, ca. 15th century
“Let Your Voice Be Heard” by Abraham Adzenyah
“The President Sang Amazing Grace” by Zoe Mulford, arr. Randal Swiggum
Cantabile
“In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles” by Roger Bourland
“Sed Diabolus” by Hildegard von Bingen
“Come All You Fair and Pretty Ladies” Traditional Ozark song, adapted by Mike Ross
“Wanting Memories” by Ysaye M. Barnwell
Combined Choirs
“Let Their Celestial Concerts All Unite” by George Frideric Handel
Cantabile and Alumnae
“Sisters, Now Our Meeting is Over,” Traditional Quaker meeting song
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Classical music: This Sunday brings three concerts of choral and orchestral music
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday brings three chances to hear choral and orchestral music.
On this Sunday morning, April 14, at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., in the Atrium Auditorium (below in a photo by Zane Williams) the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will host its spring All-Music Sunday. The public is invited to attend FREE of charge.
The performers are the Society Choir and Friends, a pickup orchestra, and vocal and instrumental soloists.
The program lasts about one hour and includes the Concerto for Two Trumpets by Antonio Vivaldi and the early Mass in G Major by Franz Schubert. (You can hear the Kyrie from the Schubert Mass in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
At 2:30 p.m., at Edgewood College in the St. Joseph Chapel (below, in a photo by Ann Boyer), 1000 Edgewood College Drive, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra will give its spring concert.
Director Blake Walter (below) will conduct the performance.
Works to be performed are: the Overture to the opera Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven; St. Paul’s Suite for String Orchestra by Gustav Holst; and the Symphony No. 35, “Haffner,” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Admission is $5 for general admission, free with those with an Edgewood College ID.
Here are some program notes provided by Edgewood College.
“The Overture to Fidelio — Beethoven’s only opera — is the first of four overtures composed for the opera, but is perhaps the least often performed.
“In 1904, Gustav Holst was appointed Music Director of St. Paul’s School for Girls in London, and wrote the Suite for the small string orchestra and based it on popular English folk songs.
“Mozart completed his Haffner Symphony in 1785 and dedicated it to his patron, Sigmund Haffner the Elder, a wealthy businessman in Vienna.”
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Classical music: Madison Youth Choir’s sixth annual Boychoir Festival is this Saturday. Plus, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet performs this Sunday at the Chazen Museum of Art
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ALERT: This month’s Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen, to start at 12:30 p.m. this Sunday, features the Wisconsin Brass Quintet from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
The program includes music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Giovanni Gabrieli, Ira Taxin, Ingolf Dahl and UW-Madison alumnus Andrew Rindfleisch.
Since Wisconsin Public Radio no longer carries the concerts live, you must either attend it FREE in the Brittingham Gallery No. 3 in the Chazen Museum of Art or stream it live on your computer. Here is a link to the museum’s web site to reserve seats and to listen live:
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following note from the Madison Youth Choirs:
“The Madison Youth Choirs, in partnership with Madison Metropolitan School District, will present the sixth annual FREE Madison Boychoir Festival this Saturday, Jan. 30, in the Stevens Gym at Madison West High School, 30 Ash St., starting at 12:30 p.m.
(Below is a photo of middle school singers, conducted by Margaret Jenks, from last year’s festival. You can also hear excerpts in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“The festival is a day-long celebration of choral music for boys in grades 2-12, culminating in a free concert for the community.”
“We’re expecting a record number of well over 400 young men, ages 7-18, from across southern Wisconsin at this year’s festival, and recently also broke a new record for enrollment in MYC’s three yearlong performing boychoirs – a great sign for the culture of boys’ singing in our community!”
The program usually includes classical music, folk music and crossover or pop music. This year’s is no different. Here is the line-up:
COMBINED CHOIRS
Plato’s Take (sing in Greek) by Randal Swiggum
YOUTH CHOIR
Margaret Jenks, conductor; Andrew Johnson, piano/percussion
Banaha — Congolese folk song
MIDDLE LEVEL CHOIR
Randal Swiggum, conductor; Steve Radtke, piano; Zachary Yost, piccolo; Andrew Johnson, snare drum
“Riflemen of Bennington“ Revolutionary War song, arr. Swiggum
HIGH SCHOOL MEN’S CHOIR
Albert Pinsonneault, Michael Ross, conductors; Jess Salek, piano
Byker Hill, Traditional, arr. Sandler
THE MADISON BOYCHOIR
Randal Swiggum, Margaret Jenks, Michael Ross, conductors
Intonent Hodie, Anonymous (ca. 12th century)
COMBINED CHOIRS
Unity, by Glorraine Moore/Freddie Washington, arr. Cason
“Over 400 young singers, joined by the men of the Madison Choral Project (MCP), will present repertoire from a variety of cultural traditions and historical eras, exploring beyond notes and rhythms to discover the context, meaning and heart of the music. (Below is a photo of elementary school singers from the 2014 festival, conducted by Randal Swiggum.)
“This project is supported in part by the Madison Arts Commission, by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, and by Dane Arts with additional funding from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation.”
About Madison Youth Choirs (MYC)
“Recognized as an innovator in youth choral music education, Madison Youth Choirs (MYC) welcomes singers of all ability levels, annually serving more than 1,000 young people, ages 7-18, through a wide variety of choral programs in our community.
“Cultivating a comprehensive music education philosophy that inspires self -confidence, personal responsibility and a spirit of inquiry leading students to become “expert noticers,” MYC creates accessible, meaningful opportunities for youth to thrive in the arts and beyond.”
For further information, visit www.madisonyouthchoirs.org or call (608) 238-7464
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Classical music: The opening of this week’s Madison Early Music Festival blossomed with a stunning performance of early Slavic choral music by The Rose Ensemble of St. Paul, Minnesota.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The 16th annual Madison Early Music Festival opened on Saturday night.
The coming week of daily workshops, lectures and concerts could hardly have enjoyed a more promising opening than the stunning a cappella singing turned in by the justly acclaimed Rose Ensemble (below) of St. Paul, Minnesota. (You can hear the Rose Ensemble in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The group consists of 12 singers and one string player – she plays a Medieval violin-like instrument called “la vielle” — with some singers doing double duty and playing a drum or recorder.
Somewhere around two-thirds of a house (below) turned out in Mills Hall to hear a thoroughly masterful display of early Eastern European music from the 11th century through the 16th century, which is the topic of this year’s festival.
Start with the basics.
As far as The Ear could tell, there was not a single weak link in the chain. Each singer sang strongly and with conviction.
Each excelled at pitch and diction, even in multiple Slavic languages from Poland, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia and Russia.
And the balance that allowed different lines to emerge was nothing short of miraculous.
They sang as a large group of 12.
They sang smaller motets with groups of six women or six men (below).
They sang duets and they sang solos.
And all of the permutations proved successful.
They were terrific in all the liturgical music that makes up the bulk of the early Slavic repertory.
But The Ear’s favorite pieces were some of the folksongs from Ukraine and elsewhere. The performers moved around the stage and used their voices in what American poet Walt Whitman aptly described as a “barbaric yawp” that came close to artful shouting.
The singing was nothing short of thrilling as the performers cut loose with chopping arms, moving feet and howling mouths. Yet it all remained controlled and convincing. It reminded The Ear of plain chant and shape-note singing.
The Rose Ensemble organized a masterful display of varied programming and performances that, to be honest, helped offset a lot of the similarities of so much of the music.
One other thing: If you wonder about attending the lectures, just go. They start one hour before the concerts, at 6:30 p.m. in 2650 Mosse Humanities Building.
For this concert, John W. Barker, a veteran music critic and retired professor of Medieval history at the UW-Madison, provided a terrific historical context that help the audience appreciate the achievement of early Slavonic music. His lecture was filled with wit and facts as he pointed to the map to show how Slavic culture was born and how extensive it became.
What we learned in one hour!
For more detail about events, venues and prices, go to the comprehensive website:
http://artsinstitute.wisc.edu/memf/MEMF2015.htm
Tags: Arts, Baroque, Bohemia, choral music, Classical music, Czech, Early music, folk songs, Jacob Stockinger, liturgical music, Madison, Medieval, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Music, Poland, Russia, Singing, Slavic, St. Paul, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, vocal music, Walt Whitman, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society opens with a Big Bang and makes The Ear look forward to Weekend 2 this coming weekend. You should too.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Every year, the Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society chooses a theme to unify their three-weekend season.
This year’s theme is “Guilty as Charged” and you can read about its rationale in a previous post:
But of course the theme is really just a pretext.
What really matters is the fine and eclectic repertoire that the BDDS chooses to perform and the undeniably first-rate performances they consistently turn in by using outstanding local and guest performers.
And boy, did the BDDS ever deliver the goods!
So here, in a series of mini-reviews — one-liners or maybe two-liners — are five reasons why The Ear loved the opening concert and is looking forward to the second series of concerts in Madison, Stoughton and Spring Green this coming weekend, which you can check out at the following link:
http://www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
WHAT THE EAR LOVED
- The inventive and unobtrusive backdrop by artists Dianne Soffa and Thomas Kovacich, with broken rearview mirrors and luminous colors in abstract shapes, adds visual beauty to sonic beauty. It greets you and enlivens the performance stage by adding a certain entertainment and class to the otherwise bare stage:
- UW-Madison School of Music graduate soprano Emily Birsan (below) who, after completing further training at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, came to sing a wonderfully poignant and moving aria “Steal Me, Sweet Thief” by Gian Carlo Menotti (you can hear Dawn Upshaw singing the Menotti aria in a YouTube video at the bottom) as well as wonderful solo arias and duets by Johann Sebastian Bach plus Irish and Scottish folk songs arranged by – YES — Ludwig van Beethoven:
- Bass-baritone Timothy Jones, who is superb and who returned to BDDS to sing solo and with Birsan in music by Bach and Beethoven:
- The breezy chamber music by Franz Joseph Haydn, a divertimento for flute (BDDS co-founder and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt), violin (Katarzyna Bryla) and cello (Parry Karp), substituting the cello for the outdated baryton that Haydn’s longtime patron Prince Esterhazy played and favored:
- UW-Madison and Pro Arte Quartet cellist Parry Karp and BDDS co-founder and co-artistic director Jeffrey Sykes in an impressively virtuosic, vivacious and sensitive performance of the Cello Sonata No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn. Loved that slow movement based on a Bach chorale!!
I was not alone in my enthusiasm.
The audience in The Playhouse at the Overture Center jumped to its feet as soon as the Mendelssohn cello sonata ended.
And here is the rave review that veteran critic John W. Barker wrote for Isthmus:
http://www.isthmus.com/arts/stage/bach-dancing-opener-is-smashingly-diverse/
Tags: Arts, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Bachelor of Music, baritone, Baroque, baryton, bass, Beethoven, Cello, Cello Sonata, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, Dawn Upshaw, divertimento, Emily Birsan, flute, folk songs, Haydn, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John W. Barker, List of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn, Menotti, Music, Overture Center, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, Sonata, soprano, Timothy Jones, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, vocal music, YouTube
Classic music: Today is World Cup Sunday. As Argentina and Germany battle to win the soccer championship, here is another installment of the music by the great Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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By Jacob Stockinger
As loyal blog readers already know, The Ear has been using the FIFA World Cup (below) competition in soccer — or football, as the rest of the globe knows the sport – as a fine occasion to explore and to hear the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
After all, the World Cup has taken place since June 12 in some dozen stadiums (below) throughout Brazil. And today’s championship match between Argentina and Germany will take place in Rio de Janiero.
And after hearing the music of Villa-Lobos performed by the Cello Choir at the National Summer Cello Institute (below) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, The Ear is more convinced than ever that this great but neglected 20th-century composer deserves a wider hearing and more live performances.
Villa-Lobos (below) attempted an ambitious and ingenious task: To reconcile and incorporate the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and concert hall music in general with the folk songs and folk dances of his native Brazil. Before Astor Piazzolla and his “new tangos,” there was Villa-Lobos and his Bachianas Brasileiras and Choros.
Here are links to the previous installments:
This is the link to the Cello Choir concert of the annual National Summer Cello Institute that is held each summer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and that inspired my Villa-Lobos video postings from YouTube.
And here are the links to the first two installments that feature the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 and No 1, which both deserve repeated hearings:
And here is the third installment that featured Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire performing the chorale prelude-type opening of the Bachianas Brasilerias No. 3 for solo piano:
Villa-Lobos was championed by none other than the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who performed his suite “Prole do bebe”:
And his well-known piece “The Little Train From the Caipira,” from “Bachianas Brasileiras” No. 2, which Walt Disney was attracted to for possible use in a second “Fantasia” film and which imitates the sounds of a rural choo-choo, as played by a youth orchestra in Great Britain:
Now here is a link to Installment No. 4: A beautiful movement from one of his 17 string quartets — this one is No. 5 and is available on YouTube. It once again shows the lyrical songfulness and folk music vigor of Villa-Lobos. It is even more beautiful than the perfect soccer kick or dribble, pass or goal, and it is more long-lasting:
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Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Choir will perform a concert of Russian and Baltic music this Saturday night — in the shadow of political events and turmoil in Ukraine. Plus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wisconsin Brass Quintet also performs a FREE concert of Bach, Gershwin and others on Saturday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Two fine and FREE concerts are on tap this Saturday night:
WISCONSIN CHAMBER CHOIR
On this Saturday night, March 29, in the critically acclaimed Wisconsin Chamber Choir (below) will perform its spring concert.
The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church (below top is the exterior, below bottom the acoustically terrific beautiful interior), located at the corner of West Washington Avenue at Carroll Street, on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison.
The concert features Russian music. But it worth noting that even an event this small and this local shows the ripples of the political situation in Ukraine where Russia has illegally annexed Crimea. Tickets are $15 for general admission; $10 for students. “Because of the situation in Ukraine (below), the choir made a decision to change the title of the concert from “Back to the U.S.S.R.” to just “Spring Concert,” the choir says. “We are confident the change will help our audience focus on the beautiful music and not current politics.”
The riches of Russian choral music will be represented by selections from the Vespers by Sergei Rachmaninoff (below top) along with ravishingly beautiful works by Alexander Grechaninov (below middle in 1912) and Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov (below bottom and at bottom in a YouTube video).
The scope widens to include sacred and secular music from various former Soviet Republics. Works by Veljo Tormis (below top) of Estonia), Pēteris Vasks of Latvia (below middle) and Vytautas Miškinis of Lithuania (below n bottom) exemplify the vibrant choral traditions of the Baltic states.
Sacred and secular works from Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Belarus round out this fascinating and varied program. There is also the possibility of something by the Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney (blew left and right, respectively) to bring things to a rousing close.
Advance tickets are available for $15 from www.wisconsinchamberchoir.org, via Brown Paper Tickets, or at Willy Street Coop (East and West locations) and Orange Tree Imports. Student tickets are $10. Founded in 1999, the Madison-based Wisconsin Chamber Choir has established a reputation for excellence in the performance of oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Franz Joseph Haydn; a cappella masterworks from various centuries; and world-premieres. Robert Gehrenbeck (below) is the Wisconsin Chamber Choir’s artistic director.
WISCONSIN BRASS QUINTET
The Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below, in a 2013 performance photo by Jon Harlow) in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, will perform a FREE concert on Saturday night, March 29, 8 p.m. in Mills Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Maidson campus.
WBQ members include John Aley, trumpet; Jessica Jensen, trumpet; Daniel Grabois, horn; Mark Hetzler, trombone; John Stevens, tuba; and special guest Abby Stevens, soprano, who is the daughter of John Stevens, who is retiring this May.
The program offers “Distant Voices” by David Sampson; “Brass Calendar” by Peter Schickele, aka P.D.Q. Bach); “Contrapunctus” by Johann Sebastian Bach; and a selection of songs by George Gershwin sung by Abby Stevens.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Baltic states, Baroque, Beatles, Brass quintet, Chamber choir, Choir, choral music, Classical music, Daniel Grabois, Estonia, folk songs, George Gershwin, Gershwin, Horn, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Lennon, John Stevens, Latvia, Lennon and McCartney, Lithuania, Madison, Mark Hetzler, Mozart, Paul McCartney, Pēteris Vasks, Saturday, Sergei Rachmaninoff, songs, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba, Ukraine, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Brass Quintet, Wisconsin Chamber Choir, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Guest blogger Sig Midelfort says the viola and violin shined in a recent Carnegie Hall recital, thanks to University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni Elias Goldstein and Roxana Pavel Goldstein
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a review by guest blogger Sigurd “Sig” Midelfort, a good friend of the blog and of classical music in the Madison area.
Sig is a retired CPA who has spent a number of years with non-profits. He adds: “Right now, that means I’m doing and have done volunteer work — with the Democratic Party of Dane County, Madison Music Makers Inc, a local environmental group and an orchestra in the western suburbs of Chicago. (I also was a history major as an undergrad, have a masters in economic development, was in the Peace Corps in Tanzania for three years, and so on.) All the time I have been interested in the local classical music scene, playing in amateur groups for decades.”
Sig recently attended a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and asked if he could file this review of performers who have local ties and local interest.
It proved too good to resist. Enjoy!
By Sigurd Midelfort
Two recent University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral graduates participated in a lustrous viola recital on February 19 at Carnegie Hall (below) in New York City.
Violist Elias Goldstein, now a professor at Louisiana State University who received his DMA from the UW-Madison in 2011 performed and received assistance on the violin from Roxana Pavel Goldstein, his wife (she received her DMA from the UW-Madison in 2012) and from Ieva Jokubaviciute, a Lithuanian pianist. (They are below, in a photo by Daniel Balan.)
Elias began the evening, playing an unaccompanied sonata for viola, Op. 25, No. 1, by Paul Hindemith. Roxana (below) joined him in two duos for violin and viola: one, a three-movement duet in G Major, K. 423, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the other, a “Passacaglia” by George Frideric Handel as arranged by the 19th-century Norwegian composer and conductor Johan Halvorsen.
After intermission, Elias and Ieva performed three works for viola and piano: a divertimento in three movements by Franz Joseph Haydn, as arranged by the famous cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and the famous violist William Primrose (below); a sonata (No. 6 in A major) in two movements by Luigi Boccherini, as arranged by Primrose; and the famous Caprice No. 24 by the legendary Nicolo Paganini –- it has been used for theme and variations by Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Witold Lutoslawski — also as transcribed for viola by Primrose. (The caprice, taken at a quasi presto tempo, is hard enough for violin, its original instrument. For viola? Well, one can imagine the difficulties it presented.)
I was not an unbiased observer. Elias is a distant relative, and I have been a passionate amateur cellist my entire life. Nonetheless, Elias’ tone was stunning. His playing was mellow and warm, round and resonant, displaying an ease and mastery of technique that is unusual for even the most accomplished performers.
Elias holds recent top prizes in the following international viola competitions: the Primrose, the Yuri Bashmet, the Lionel Tertis, the Watson Forbes and the Andrews University String Competition. In 2011, he made his Russian debut with the Moscow Soloists and the New Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexander Sladkovsky.
While at the UW-Madison School of Music, Elias was a student of Sally Chisholm of the Pro Arte Quartet.
Although the viola (below) generally has a lower public profile, in the hands of such an artist as Elias it stands as an equal of, or is even superior to, the violin or cello in terms of its quality of sound.
Roxana, too, is a superb artist, playing with considerable warmth and sensitivity on the violin. Originally from Romania, she worked at the UW-Madison with David Perry, first violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet, doing research on Romanian tunes and folk music as expressed on the violin.
Tags: Arts, Baroque, Caprice, Carnegie Hall, Chamber music, Chicago, Classical music, conductor, CPA, Dane County, Dane County Wisconsin, Democratic Party, divertimento, duet, duo, folk songs, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, George Frideric Handel, Gregor Piatigorsky, Jacob Stockinger, Johan Halvorsen, Johannes Brahms, Lionel Tertis, Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, Louisiana State University, Luigi Boccherini, Madison, Madison Music Makers, Moscow Philharmonic Orchetsra, Moscow State Orchestra, Mozart, Music, New York City, non-profit, Paganini, Paul Hindemith, Peace Corps, Piano, Pro Arte Quartet, Romania, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sonata, Tanzania, theme and variations, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Watson Forbes, William Primrose, Witold Lutoslawski, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube, Yuri Bashmet
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