The Well-Tempered Ear
Take a free brief Chopin break, thanks to pianist Adam Neiman playing the first six preludes at the Salon Piano Series
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is an announcement about the latest monthly free concert excerpt from the Salon Piano Series. It features pieces by Chopin, some of which are played by students and amateurs, and other that require the technique of a virtuoso:
“During these uncertain times, we appreciate remembering time spent together enjoying music.
Please take a brief break from your day to see and hear Adam Neiman (below) perform Frederic Chopin’s Preludes 1-6, Opus 28. (The Ear hopes we get to hear the remaining 18 preludes in several installments from Neiman, who has performed with and recorded Mozart piano concertos with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and conductor Andrew Sewell.\.)
The 8-minute video was recorded live at Farley’s House of Pianos as part of the Salon Piano Series on Feb. 26, 2017.
You can hear the performance in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Over the years, you have supported Salon Piano Series with your attendance, individual sponsorships, and donations. We look forward to bringing you world-class musical performances in our unique salon setting again soon.
Sincerely,
Salon Piano Series
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Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet closes its 18th season with three upcoming local concerts of music by Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Caroline Shaw
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ancora String Quartet closes its 18th season with a trio of concerts, and a program featuring two quartets from the early 19th century, juxtaposed with a shorter piece of much more recent date.
The program is the String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13, by Felix Mendelssohn; “Entr’acte” (Minuet and Trio) by Caroline Shaw; and String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6, by Ludwig van Beethoven.
The schedule of concert dates, times and venues is below.
Members of the Ancora String Quartet (below, from left, in a photo by Barry Lewis), who also perform with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Madison Bach Musicians among other groups, are: Wes Luke and Robin Ryan, violins; Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola; and Benjamin Whitcomb, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Whtewater.
Here are some program notes provided by violist Marika Fischer Hoyt:
“Mendelssohn’s Op. 13 was written in 1827 when he was 18 years old. He’d written the Octet two years earlier, but this was his first mature string quartet. It expresses his youthful passion and includes one of his signature bubbly scherzos.
“Between our two more-established works, we insert a short piece entitled (appropriately enough) “Entr’acte” (“Intermission,” heard in the YouTube video at the bottom), composed by the American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw (below, in a photo by Dashing Burton) in 2011. (It is one of The Ear’s favorite contemporary works.)
The 12-minute piece, subtitled “a minuet and trio,” takes haunting fragments and memes from Baroque and Classical styles and treats them with 21st-century audacity. With an ABA structure, the opening and closing sighing motif seems dolorous, but takes its own sadness in a philosophical spirit.
“While both the Mendelssohn and Shaw end quietly, we conclude the program with Beethoven’s exuberant Quartet No. 6, the final quartet in the composer’s set of six early quartets, his Opus 18. This delightful work, completed in 1800, is full of energy and drive; the melancholy mood of the brief fourth movement “La malinconia” (Melancholy) is banished by a cheerful Allegretto, ending with a flourish in the final Prestissimo.”
SCHEDULE
Monday, May 13, at 3 p.m. in the Stoughton Opera House‘s Music Appreciation Series, 381 East Main Street, Stoughton. Free and open to the public
Tuesday, May 14, 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street, Madison. Ticketed event — $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $6 for young people. There will be a reception following the concert.
Saturday, June 15, at noon in Grace Episcopal Church for “Grace Presents,” 116 West Washington Avenue, on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison. Free and open to the public.
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Classical music: The UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra deliver outstanding performances of great music by Mozart and Brahms
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The program for the first concert this season by the UW Choral Union (below), mercifully, had nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas, and just offered great music.
There were only two works, one by Brahms and the other by Mozart. Surefire!
Johannes Brahms composed three relatively short works for chorus, without soloists, and orchestra. Of these, I wish conductors would get busy with two of them in particular. The Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) and Nänie are simply superb works by one of the greatest of all choral composers.
The third, the Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny), Op. 54, I would rate just a bit lower for musical content, but that is the one of the three that is more frequently performed, and that was the one we heard.
That said, there is much quite beautiful music in the piece, which sets a poem of Friedrich Hölderlin that moves from anxiety to desperation. Brahms (below) preceded the choral setting with a serene introduction that—to satisfy his aesthetics if not the poet’s—he repeats at the end to restore order.
Conductor Beverley Taylor (below) employed rather broad tempos, but this enabled her to bring out some of the melodic material with great beauty.
And, with a chorus of some 124 singers, she was able to give the music tremendous sonority, if a bit at the price of German diction. With the very good UW Symphony Orchestra in fine fettle, too, this was an excellent performance that should alert listeners to neglected treasures.
The main work was the unfinished “Great” Mass in C minor, K. 427, by Mozart (below). This is music inspired by the composer’s marriage and by the new (for him) artistic climate of Vienna. Even incomplete – it has a fragmentary “Credo” and is missing an “Agnus Dei”) — it still stands, with his also uncompleted Requiem, as a towering masterpiece of his sacred choral output.
Taylor displayed a fine feeling for both the overall and individual qualities of the work, projecting them with vigor and discipline.
There were four student soloists (below), with promising young voices.
But eventually the standout proved to be soprano Sarah Richardson (below). The operatic-style aria, “Et incarnatus est” from the “Credo” was apparently sung by Mozart’s wife in its preliminary performance, and is often heard as a separate solo number today. This was sung by Richardson (below) with skill and eloquence. (You can hear the aria in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
This chorus was really a bit oversized for a work like this, but Taylor made it the real star of the performance, in singing with both power and precision.
A truly rewarding concert!
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The Well-Tempered Ear 