The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet performs an all-Italian program four times this month starting this weekend and returns as an ensemble-in-residence at the First Unitarian Society of Madison
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By Jacob Stockinger
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The Ancora String Quartet (below) opens its 19th season with a program of works by three Italian composers more usually associated with opera, or solo violin music, than with string quartets.
Members of the Ancora String Quartet (ASQ, below from left in a photo by Barry Lewis) are violins Wes Luke and Robin Ryan; violist Marika Fischer Hoyt; and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb.
Violin virtuoso and composer Antonio Bazzini (below) led a rockstar’s life, touring Europe and hobnobbing with Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. He later settled in Milan, winning first prize in the Milan quartet competition in 1864 with this piece. The Scherzo shows Mendelssohn’s influence, and the Andante sostenuto delivers breathtakingly beautiful passages of lyrical romance and tender passion.
Opera great Giaocomo Puccini wrote Chrysanthemums (Crisantemi) in one night, upon hearing the news of the death of his friend the Duke of Savoy in 1890. The six-minute piece expresses the composer’s sorrow, in themes that bring to mind the poignant melodies of “Madama Butterfly.” (You can hear “Chrysanthemums” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The String Quartet in E Minor (1873) by Giuseppe Verdi (below) opens with restrained moodiness, but the drama quickly leaps off the page. Written to pass the time while waiting for the delayed opening of his opera “Aida,” this quartet demonstrates Verdi’s mastery of purely instrumental writing — although the cello solo in the Trio of the Scherzo could pass for a tenor aria. The work ends, surprisingly, with an elaborate fugue.
The quartet is gearing up for four performances in September, listed below.
In related news, the Ancora String Quartet, like the Madison Bach Musicians, will become a Resident Ensemble at the First Unitarian Society of Madison (FUS) starting this fall. We are pleased to reconnect with our FUS audiences, and hope our Regent Street fans will make the trip as well.
Here is the September schedule of the Italian program:
- This Friday, Sept. 6, from noon to 1 p.m. in an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio’s The Midday with host Norman Gilliland. WPR is Madison station WERN 88.7 FM. The ASQ will perform the entire Bazzini quartet.
- This Saturday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the FUS, Landmark Auditorium, Madison. Tickets at the door are $15 for the general public, $12 for seniors and $6 for students.
- Sunday, Sept. 8, at 3 p.m. at FUS, Landmark Auditorium, Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, Madison. Tickets at the door are $15, $12 and $6.
- Next Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 6 p.m. at the Germantown Community Library, N112W16957 Mequon Rd., in Germantown. The concert is FREE and open to the public.
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Classical music: TONIGHT through Sunday night, the Ancora String Quartet reprises the program it just performed on a 10-day tour of Germany
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ancora String Quartet (below, in a photo by Barry Lewis) has sent the following announcement about its upcoming concerts in Wisconsin – including two in Madison – that will reprise the group’s recent tour to Germany.
Members are (below, from left) violinist Wes Luke, violinist Robin Ryan, violist Marika Fischer Hoyt; and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb.
“The Ancora String Quartet (below, rehearsing in Nieder-Olm during the tour) is fresh back from Germany, our first overseas tour, which we called “Deutsch-Amerikanische “Träume,” or “German-American Dreams.”
“We are partnering with a wonderful mezzo-soprano, Melinda Paulsen, who serves on the voice faculty at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.
“Together, we have prepared a program of works by German and American composers, for string quartet, and for mezzo-soprano and quartet.
“We spent 10 fabulous days in Germany in August of 2018, performing at town halls, concert halls, churches, and a music school, in Nieder-Olm, Frankfurt, Vellmar, Schlitz and St. Goar on the Rhine. It was wonderful and we can’t wait to go back again in future years.
“We are back in Madison now with Melinda, to perform this same program in concert venues around the state of Wisconsin.
“We are grateful for funding from several German organizations, and from the Kassel-Dane Sister County Task Force.
“Melinda and the members of this quartet (below, in Schlitz) are thrilled that this project has taken shape, are pleased with our recent reception in Germany, and look forward to sharing with Wisconsin audiences a program exploring the intersections between two cultures that are quite distinct today, but which share deep, common roots.”
Here is the “German-American Dreams” Tour, Sept. 4-9, at venues in Wisconsin
Admission is FREE except where noted
- TONIGHT, Tuesday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. at Capitol Lakes Grand Hall, Madison
- Wednesday, Sept. 5 at noon on The Midday on Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison and at 6 p.m. at Germantown Community Library, Germantown
- Thursday, Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Light Recital Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. For ticket information, go to: https://mastercal.uww.edu/MasterCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?data=hHr80o3M7J72xlWbKk4NucsOjgrgFcp7yGVHvRRLZ2VDe4XLariznlZrFvCFdeeY
- Friday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Janesville Women’s Club
- Saturday, Sept. 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Eaton Chapel, Beloit College
- Sunday, Sept. 9, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Madison. Admission is $15.
PROGRAM
“Dover Beach” by Samuel Barber
Drei Lieder (Three Songs) by Viktor Ullmann
“Melancholia,” Op. 13, by Paul Hindemith
Intermission
Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11, by Samuel Barber (with the more transparent slow movement that later became the orchestral “Adagio for Strings,” heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
“Wesendonck” Lieder, WWV 91 (arranged by Stefan Heucke) by Richard Wagner
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