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New York Times music critics pick 10 MUST-HEAR online virtual classical concerts to stream for October

October 3, 2020
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ALERT: Tonight’s concert by the choral group Roomful of Teeth for the Wisconsin Union Theater at the UW-Madison’s Hamel Music Center has been canceled and postponed indefinitely.

By Jacob Stockinger

Increasingly the coronavirus pandemic seems surging out of control. So it comes as no surprise that also more and more concerts of classical music are taking place virtually and online.

There are many ways to choose among local, regional, national and international concerts.

But one good guide was published this last week and featured the choice of must-hear classical concerts by critics for The New York Times.

It is an interesting and varied selection, and includes times, links and brief descriptions.

It features concerts that emphasize Black composers such as Florence Price (below top) and women composers. It covers many genres from a solo piano recital by Jeremy Denk (below bottom) – who is supposed to perform here on Dec. 11 at the Wisconsin Union Theater – to chamber music, vocal music, orchestral concerts and operas.

Curiously, there is quite bit of new music but little early music, either Renaissance or Baroque. Perhaps more will appear around the holiday times, when that music is part of the traditional holiday celebrations.

You will find contemporary composers but also lots of certified, tried-and-true classics and masterworks.

Some are one-day only events but many run from a week through a month.

Here is a link to the story. PLEASE NOTE THAT TIMES ARE ALL EASTERN: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/arts/music/classical-music-stream.html

Please let The Ear know if you like this kind of listing and find it useful.

And please feel free to leave in the comment section other guides or events that the public should know about.

Posted in Classical music
Tags: "Blind Tom" Wiggins, #92ndStreetY, #African-AmericanComposer, #African-AmericanMusic, #AndrewNorman, #BachCantata, #BaroqueComposers, #BaroqueMusic, #BenjaminBritten, #BerlinGermany, #BerlinPhilharmonic, #BlackAmericans, #BlackComposer, #BlindTom"Wiggins, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrentanoQuartet, #BrentanoStringQuartet, #CarnegieHall, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberMusicSocietyofLIncolnCenter, #ClaudeDebussy, #ClevelandOrchestra, #ConcertProgram, #CoronavirusPandemic, #CountertenorSinger, #COVID-19, #DetroitMichigan, #DetroitSymphonyOrchestra, #EasternTime, #EricGarner, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FlorenceItaly, #FlorencePrice, #folksongs, #FrankBridge, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzWelser-Möst, #FredericRzewski, #GeorgeWalker, #GillesVonsattel, #GustavoDudamel, #HamelMusicCenter, #HolidayConcert, #HolidayMusic, #J'NaiBridges, #JeremyDenk, #JessieMontgomery, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnAdams, #KirillPetrenko, #LawrenceBrownlee, #LosAngelesPhilharmonic, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MetropolitanOpera, #MichaelBrown, #MinimalistMusic, #MusicCritic, #NathalieJoachim, #NewMusic, #NewYorkTimes, #OnlineConcert, #OperaMusic, #OperaPhiladelphia, #OrchestralMusic, #OttorinoRespighi, #PeopleofColor, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PianoMusic, #PIanoRecital, #PianoSonata, #QuodlibetEnsemble, #RenaissanceMusic, #RoomfulofTeeth, #ScottJoplin, #SpektralQuartet, #SpokenWord, #StringQuartet, #StringQuintet, #TaniaLeon, #TenorSinger, #TheEar, #TheMet, #TheUW, #TrayvonMartin, #Tried-and-True, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VikingurOlafsson, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #WilliamGrantStill, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WomenComposers, #YouTubevideo, 92nd Street Y, Adams, Africa, African, African American, African-American music, America, American, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic, Bert, black, Black Americans, blog, Brentano Quartet, Brentano String Quartet, Britten, cancel, canceled, Cantata, Caramoor, Carnegie Hall, celebration, cellist, Cello, certified, Chamber music, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, choose, choral music, Classical music, classicalmusic, classics, Claude Debussy, Cleveland Orchestra, comment, composer, Concert, conductor, contemporary, coronavirus, countertenor, critic, Debussy, Denk, description, Detroit, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel, Early music, earlymusic, Eastern time, emphasize, Eric Garner, Europe, Facebook, Felix Mendelssohn, Florence, Florence Price, folk, folk song, forward, Frank Bridge, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Welser-Möst, George Walker, Germany, Gilles Vonsattel, good, guide, Gustavo Dudamel, Haiti, Haitian, Hamel Music Center, Haydn, Holiday, holiday music, Holidays, images, incarceration, interesting, internation, inventive, Italy, J'Nai Bridges, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, Jessie Montgomery, Joachim, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Adams, kind, Kirill Petrenko, know, Lawrence Brownlee, like, link, live-stream, local, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ludwig van Beethoven, masterpiece, Mead Witter School of Music, Mendelssohn, Metropolitan Opera, Mezzo-soprano, Michael Brown, Michigan, minimalism, month, Mozart, Music, music critic, must-hear, narrator, Nathalie Joachim, national, New Music, New York City, New York Times, October, Ohio, online, opera, Opera Philadelphia, Orchestra, orchestral music, Ottorino Respighi, pandemic, people of color, performer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Pianist, Piano, post, posting, postpone, postponed, price, prison, program, public, Quodlibet Ensemble, recital, regional, Renaissance, Respighi, Roomful of Teeth, Rzewski, Scott Joplin, selection, share, singer, Singing, solo, Sonata, Spektral Quartet, spoken word, Still, stream, String quartet, string quintet, subscriber, surprise, symphony, tag, Tania Leon, Tchaikovsky, tenor, text, The Ear, the Met, theme, time, traditional, Trayvon Martin, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, useful, UW, UW-Madison, varied, Vikingur Olafsson, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, virtual, virtually, vocal music, Walker, ways, week, William Grant Still, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, women, YouTube

Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players perform a mini-opera version of “A Christmas Carol” this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon

December 6, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

Over several deuces, the Oakwood Chamber Players have built a solid reputation for their top-notch performances of unusual and neglected repertoire.

So it comes as no surprise that the group will offer one of the newer, more unusual and promising takes on the holiday classic, “A Christmas Carol.”

Twice this weekend, the Madison-based, widely experienced musical theater actor and baritone Robert A. Goderich reprises his tour-de-force performance, last done in 2016, of Charles Dickens’ characters for the Oakwood Chamber Players’ presentation of the mini-opera “The Passion of Scrooge” by New York composer Jon Deak.

A dozen musicians, including ensemble members with special guest artists, provide the platform for Goderich’s characterizations on this coming Saturday night, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m., and Sunday afternoon, Dec. 8, at 2 p.m.

The concerts take place at Oakwood Village University Woods Auditorium at 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall.

Tickets are available at the door and are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $5 for students. Go to https://www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.

Members of the ensemble for this program are: Marilyn Chohaney (flute), Nancy Mackenzie (clarinet), Anne Aley (horn), Elspeth Stalter Clouse (violin) and Maggie Darby Townsend (cello), and guest musicians Hillary Hempel (violin), Emma Cifrino (viola), Brad Townsend (bass), Mike Koszewski (percussion), and Margaret Mackenzie (harp).

Over the past two decades, New York Philharmonic bassist and composer Jon Deak (below) has created a variety of “concert dramas” that tell stories through words and sound.

Performed annually at the Smithsonian, this two-act musical setting re-imagines Ebenezer Scrooge’s struggle to transform his past, present and future from a life of avarice to warmth and humanity.

As singer and narrator, Goderich, who plays all the parts, is the focal point; but the composer has given the instrumentalists an integral part in the story line, too. Conductor Kyle Knox (below) leads the ensemble through many facets of this humorous work filled with dramatic effects.

Deak requires the musicians to be nimble performers, juggling melodic lines while interjecting entertaining sounds into Dickens’ traditional tale. You can hear the opening introduction by the Storyteller in the YouTube video at the bottom.

One of the score’s important aspects is the varied use of percussion, which provides a broad range of instruments and sound effects. Audiences can enjoy both the aural and visual artistry of chains rattling, doors creaking and footsteps echoing in this holiday classic.

Additionally, the Oakwood Chamber Players will perform a suite of British reels and carols, including songs mentioned in the text of Dickens’ original story.

For example, when the Ghost of Christmas Past reminds Scrooge of his first employer Fezziwig, a fiddler plays the tune “Sir Roger De Coverley.” This Scottish-English country dance, arranged by composer Frank Bridge in 1922, is one of the tunes providing an engaging introduction to “The Passion of Scrooge.”

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: A busy week at the UW-Madison includes FREE concerts of music for strings, winds, voice and brass

February 26, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

This week will be busy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.

There is something just about every day and all of it is FREE and OPEN to the public.

For all events, including some interesting doctoral recitals and lectures, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/events/

Here is a schedule of the major events:

TUESDAY

NOTE: The concert by guest artists flutist Cristina Ballatori and guitarist Jonathan Dotson has been CANCELED.

At 7:30 in Mills Hall, a concert and discussion of Eastern European string music will be given by Maria Pomianowska (below top) and Seth Parker Woods (below bottom in a photo by Michael Yu).

For more information, go to:

https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/maria-pomianowska-seth-parker-woods-eastern-european-string-music/

WEDNESDAY

At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW trombonist Mark Hetzler (below top, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) and UW collaborative pianist Martha Fischer (below bottom) will perform music from their latest CD on Summit Records “Themes and Meditations.” Featured composers include Sandro Fuga, Jan Bach, Anthony Plog, Anthony Barfield and Frank Bridge.

For more information, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/faculty-duo-recital-mark-hetzler-trombone-martha-fischer-piano/

THURSDAY

At 7 p.m. at Oakwood Village West, 6209 Mineral Point Road, in Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall, the UW Wingra Wind Quintet will perform a free concert. Sorry, no words on composers or pieces on the program. Members are (below, from left, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) bassoonist Marc Vallon, flutist Timothy Hagen, clarinetist Alicia Lee, oboist Aaron Hill, and hornist Joanna Schulz.

FRIDAY

At 5 p.m. in Morphy Hall, the voice students of UW professor Mimmi Fulmer (below) will perform a “Rush Hour Recital” of classical and popular songs. Sorry, no word on composers or pieces on the program.

At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, UW cellist Parry Karp (below left), who plays with the Pro Arte Quartet, will perform a recital with longtime partner pianist Eli Kalman (below right), who did his graduate studies at UW-Madison and now teaches at UW-Oshkosh.

The program features the “Romance for Violin and Piano” by Polish composer Karl Szymanowski as transcribed by Karp; the Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major by Johannes Brahms; and the Sonata for Cello and Piano by French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. (You can hear the original setting of the Szymanowski Romance in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

For more information, go to:

https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/faculty-recital-parry-karp-cello-and-eli-kalman-piano/

SUNDAY

At 3 p.m. in Morphy Hall the winners of the Irving Shain Woodwind and Piano Duo Competition will perform. The winners have not yet been named and there is no program yet posted. Stay tuned and go to here for an update: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/irving-shain-woodwind-piano-duo-competition-winners-recital/

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Classical music: Piano and viola duo Vis-à-Vis gives a FREE concert this Saturday at noon as part of Grace Presents

January 11, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

For a while, the acclaimed FREE community outreach concert series Grace Presents had folded.

But now it is back.

Grace Presents’ new coordinator Yanzel Rivera, who is a graduate student at the UW-Madison Mead-Witter School of Music, has sent the following information to post:

“Grace Presents, which offers free monthly concerts on the Capitol Square, will feature the Vis-À-Vis duo (below) of violist Brandin Kreuder and pianist Craig Jordan.

“The one-hour concert, called “Clarke and Brahms” will take place this Saturday, Jan. 13, at noon at the Grace Episcopal Church, 116 West Washington Avenue, across from the Capitol Square.

The program features: Four Pieces by British composer Frank Bridge, (1879-1941); a Sonata by British composer Rebecca Clarke, (1886-1979, below top); “Un regard dans le vide” or ‘A Look Into the Void” (2017) by American composer Christian Messier (b. 1995, below bottom), who studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin; and the Sonata in F Minor by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

“Duo Vis-À-Vis aims to bring engaging and explorative chamber music performances to communities across the country and share their love for musical collaboration and expression.

“The duo is comprised of violinist/violist Brandin Kreuder, and pianist, Craig Jordan. Brandin is a native of Burlington, Wisconsin, and a 2016 graduate of Lawrence University and Conservatory (below) who holds a B.A. in Studio Art and a B.M. in Violin Performance.

“Brandin is currently in his second year of his Master of Music degree studying viola with virtuoso violist Jodi Levitz at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami.

“Jordan, from Ames, Iowa, is a junior at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance under the teaching of Catherine Kautsky, with an emphasis on Collaborative Piano. He is currently studying this fall semester at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands with Marta Liébana Martínez.

“Since its debut in spring 2016, duo Vis-A-Vis has performed three recital tours in Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, Colorado and Massachusetts. Their recent tour “Reminiscence” brought the duo to their widest variety of performance locations yet. One of these performances also served as the beginning of a new chamber music series hosted by the College Light Opera Company in Falmouth, Mass.

(You can hear Duo Vis-à-Vis (below) perform the Violin Sonata by Cesar Franck in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

ABOUT GRACE PRESENTS

Grace Presents features a diverse range of music, including everything from classical and folk to jazz and bluegrass. The performers include nationally recognized musicians and exceptional young talent from Madison and beyond.

The mission is to create a premier concert series that everyone in the Madison community can enjoy. Each month it welcomes a diverse audience to its concerts, including Madison residents, students, farmers’ market shoppers, tourists, and people who are homeless.

The organizers invite audiences to bring a lunch to enjoy inside the church during our concerts.

A celebrated historic landmark established in 1839, Grace Episcopal Church (below top and bottom) is the oldest church in Madison. Known for its grand Gothic architecture and distinctive red doors, the church features hand-carved woodwork, brilliant stained glass windows–including a Tiffany window–and a cathedral organ.

Grace Presents is supported in part by a grant from Dane Arts, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, the Madison Arts Commission, with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.

The series also relies on donations from sponsors and free-will offerings at each concert.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: YOU MUST HEAR THIS — the slow movement of the Violin Concerto by Gerald Finzi

August 7, 2017
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has long had a fondness for the works of the 20th-century British composer Gerald Finzi (below).

His work may be relatively tweedy and conservative, but it is unmistakably modern. It is very poignant and appealing, with accessible harmonies and beautiful melodies. He seems much like a British Samuel Barber.

Ever since he first heard it maybe 20 years ago, The Ear has loved Finzi’s pastoral Eclogue for Piano and String Orchestra, which was meant to be the slow movement of a piano concerto but ended up being an independent work. And, judging by how increasingly often it gets played on Wisconsin Public Radio, the Eclogue seems to be a favorite among a growing number of fans.

But there are other works.

There is the Romance for Violin and Small Orchestra.

There is the Romance for String Orchestra.

There is the Concerto for Cello.

There is his Romance for Clarinet and String Orchestra as well as the Five Bagatelles for Clarinet and Orchestra.

And now The Ear has discovered the slow movement — appropriately marked “very serene” — of the Violin Concerto by Finzi, which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.

It is performed by British violinist Tasmin Little (below, in a photo by Melanie Winning), who four seasons years ago turned in wonderful performances in Madison with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under Andrew Sewell. She played Finzi’s rarely heard “Introit.”

If you want to hear the whole concerto, it is available for free on YouTube from a couple of different performers. And you can find many other works by Finzi on YouTube.

In any case, The Ear hopes the Violin Concerto gets programmed at a local concert.

This past summer, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society featured a song cycle by Finzi. Even so, we need to hear more music by Gerald Finzi in live performances.

Finzi was a modest and retiring man, publicity shy and not given to self-aggrandizement or self-promotion, who went underperformed and underappreciated during his lifetime. But he is an extremely welcoming and moving modern composer.

The Ear thinks he deserves a better place among other modern British composers who have become more popular, including Ralph Vaughan Williams (shown, below right, with Finzi), Benjamin Britten, Frank Bridge, William Walton and others.

Are there other Gerald Finizi fans out there?

What do you think about him?

And what is your favorite work by Gerald Finzi?

The Ear wants to hear.

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Classical music: What classical music best celebrates the solstice and the arrival of summer?

June 21, 2017
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REMINDER: Today is the fifth annual citywide Make Music Madison that celebrates the coming of summer with FREE, PUBLIC and LOCAL performances. For more information, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com

By Jacob Stockinger

Summer arrived late last night – at 11:24 p.m. — in the Midwest.

To mark and celebrate the welcome event, here are three pieces of well-known summer-related music:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” or a “A Short Night Music” (or “A Little Night Music”:

Summer from Astor Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons in Buenos Aires”:

And Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville, Summer of 1914” with soprano Dawn Upshaw.

But there is so much more to choose from.

Here is a link to five other pieces by different composers –- Antonio Vivaldi, Felix Mendelssohn, Frank Bridge, Alexander Glazunov, Frederick Delius and George Gershwin.

http://www.classical-music.com/article/six-best-pieces-classical-music-summer

Which music would you choose to mark the summer solstice and the coming of summer?

Leave word and a YouTube link, if possible, in the COMMENT section.

The Ear wants to hear.

Classical music: Native daughter violist Vicki Powell returns from her globe-trotting career to solo this Friday night in music by Vaughan Williams with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra

March 21, 2017
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By Jacob Stockinger

Madison has produced its share of important classical musicians who have gone on to achieve international reputations.

Among them was the composer Lee Hoiby (1926-2011).

More recently, there are the Naughton Twins, sister-duo pianists Christina and Michelle, who perform around the world.

And there is violist Vicki Powell (below), who was born in Chicago but started music lessons in Madison where she studied with the husband-and-wife team of violinist Eugene Purdue and Pro Arte Quartet violist Sally Chisholm, both of whom have taught at the UW-Madison.

She then attended the Juilliard School in New York and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. (You can see her typical day at Curtis in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Powell, who recently finished a tour of Asia and whose playing has garnered rave reviews internationally, returns to Madison this Friday night to perform with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.

WCO music director Andrew Sewell will conduct. Unlike Sewell’s typical eclectic programming that mixes music from different eras, this concert feature music from a single period – the mid-20th century.

It offers “Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge” by British composer Benjamin Britten, who studied with Bridge. Also included are two other British works: the Suite for Viola and Chamber Orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with Vicki Powell, and “Benedictus” by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. All three works are rarely performed.

The concluding work, on the other hand, is the popular and well-loved “Appalachian Spring” – a timely work for the coming of spring yesterday morning — by the American composer Aaron Copland.

For more information about the program, about how to get tickets ($10-$80) and about Vicki Powell, go to:

https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-iv-2/

And here is a link to Vicki Powell’s website with a biography, concert bookings, recordings, reviews and her community outreach projects:

http://www.vickipowellviola.com

Classical music: Can arias from Baroque operas address current chaos and concerns? Singer Joyce DiDonato thinks so. Plus, a FREE concert of music by Dvorak, Debussy, Frank Bridge and Amy Beach is at noon on Friday

November 29, 2016
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features Shannon Farley, viola, with Chris Allen, guitar; Leah King and Jason Kutz, piano; Elspeth Stalter Clouse and Ela Mowinski, violin; Leslie Damaso, mezzo-soprano; and Morgan Walsh, cello. They will perform the Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, by Antonin Dvorak; Three Songs for Mezzo-soprano, viola and piano by Frank Bridge; “Beau Soir” (Beautiful Evening) for guitar and viola by Claude Debussy; and a Romance for violin by Amy Beach as arranged for viola and piano. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.

By Jacob Stockinger

Can the past help us understand and weather the present time with its conflicts and chaos?

Mezzo-soprano and Grammy Award winner Joyce DiDonato (below) thinks so.

In fact her latest album, for the Erato-Warner label, of arias from Baroque operas from the 17th and 18th centuries is dedicated to that proposition. The album’s title is “In War and Peace: Harmony Through Music” (below).

It includes arias from opera by George Frideric Handel (one of which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom), Henry Purcell, Niccolo Jommelli, Leonardo Leo and Claudio Monteverdi, and it features two world premiere recordings as well as familiar works.

The singer talks about her concept album in an interview with Ari Shapiro of “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio (NPR).

She boils much of her viewpoint down to one question: In the widest of chaos, how can you find peace?

Sure seems timely, given foreign wars and domestic political strife.

Here is a link with the interview and some fetching music:

http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2016/11/04/500515350/joyce-didonato-on-why-art-matters-in-the-midst-of-chaos

Listen to it.

See what you think.

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Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players perform an unusual holiday program with a Wisconsin premiere twice this coming Sunday afternoon

November 22, 2016
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Oakwood Chamber Players (below) will perform a concert titled Looking Back and Forward on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016 at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

The performances will both be held at the Oakwood Village University Woods Center for Arts and Education, 6209 Mineral Point Road, on the far west side of Madison near West Towne Mall.

An innovative recipe for A Christmas Carol is a perfect addition to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Outstanding musical theater actor/singer baritone Bobby Goderich (below, seen on the right in Madison Opera‘s production of Stephen Sondheim‘s “Sweeney Todd”) will give a tour-de-force characterization of the entire cast of personalities for a rendition of Dickens’s tale in The Passion of Scrooge. A dozen musicians will give Goderich’s flair an abundant platform to show off his singing, humor, and dramatic effects.

The Passion of Scrooge by New York composer Jon Deak (below) is performed annually for holiday concerts at the Smithsonian, and the Oakwood Chamber Players are delighted to present the Wisconsin premiere of this memorable work.

Deak is known for weaving a variety of tales into “concert dramas,” turning words into music and giving instrumentalists the power to evoke speech through their sounds.

The Passion of Scrooge is laid out in two acts as the character struggles to come to grips with the past, present and future, to transform a life of avarice to one of human warmth.

Additionally, the Oakwood Chamber Players will perform music mentioned in the text of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

When the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a celebration hosted by his employer, Mr. Fezziwig, the fiddler plays the tune Sir Roger de Coverley. (You can hear a chamber orchestra version of the work, played by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

This traditional English country dance, set for string quartet by British composer Frank Bridge (below) in 1922, will provide an energetic introduction to The Passion of Scrooge. The musical pairing illustrates how creative expression can transform historic works to give fresh perspectives.

The Oakwood Chamber Players welcome guests Wes Luke, violin; Katrin Talbot, viola; Brad Townsend, bass; Mike Koszewski, percussion; Mary Ann Harr, harp; Bobby Goderich, baritone; and Kyle Knox, conductor (below).

This is the second of five concerts in the Oakwood Chamber Players 2016-2017 season series entitled Perspective. Remaining concerts will take place on Jan. 21 and 22, March 18 and 19, and May 13 and 14.

The Oakwood Chamber Players are a group of Madison-area professional musicians who have rehearsed and performed at Oakwood Village for over 30 years.

The program lasts about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Tickets can be purchased with cash or personal checks at the door: $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors and $5 for students.

Also, conductor Kyle Knox will discuss the music on Norman Gilliland’s show, The Midday, on Wisconsin Public Radio, 88.7 FM WERN, on this Friday, Nov. 25, from noon to 1 p.m.

Visit www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.

The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble proudly supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation.

Classical music: UW-Madison cellist Parry Karp performs a FREE recital of music by Beethoven, Ravel, Frank Bridge and Dmitri Kabalevsky this Friday night. On Friday at noon, pianist Jess Salek plays a FREE recital of music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy.

October 12, 2016
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ALERT: The week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features pianist Jess Salek (below).

The program includes: the “Italian” Concerto, BWV 971, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750); the Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109, by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827); the Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 39, by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849); and “Reflets dans l’eau” (Reflections in Water) by Claude Debussy (1862-1918).

By Jacob Stockinger

At 8 p.m. this coming Friday in Mills Hall, cello professor Parry Karp (below), who has performed for more than four decades with the Pro Arte Quartet, will play an ambitious recital, featuring one of his own many transcriptions.

He will be joined by two pianists: his mother Frances Karp and his faculty colleague Martha Fischer, who teaches collaborative piano.

Here is the decidedly varied and international program:

Sonata in A Major for Piano and Violin, Op. 12, No. 2 (1797-8) by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) as transcribed for Piano and Cello by Parry Karp. With Frances Karp.

Sonata in D Minor for Cello and Piano (1913-7) by English composer Frank Bridge (below, 1879-1941), the teacher of Benjamin Britten. With Martha Fischer. (In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear the first movement of the Bridge sonata performed by cello Mstislav Rostropovich and pianistBenjamin Britten.)

Sonata No. 1 in A Minor for Violin and Piano (1897) by French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), as transcribed for Cello and Piano by Christian Proske (1875-1937). With Martha Fischer.

Sonata in B-Flat Major, Op. 71 (1961) by Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky (below, 1904-1987). With Frances Karp.

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