The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Today is the summer solstice. Here is information about the solstice plus 20 pieces of classical music to mark the coming of summer
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ALERT: Today is the fifth annual Make Music Madison. More than 300 FREE outdoor performances will be featured at some 100 venues. For information about artists, kinds of music, places and times, go to: http://www.makemusicmadison.org
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Thursday, June 21, 2018.
The summer solstice arrives in Wisconsin early today at 5:07 a.m. Central Daylight Time.
If you want to know more about the summer solstice, here are two stories from NBC and The Washington Post with some interesting information you might not know:
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/what-summer-solstice-ncna884991
Quite a few composers and works of classical music celebrate the coming of summer.
Twenty of the best-known are featured on a blog at the famous classical radio station WQXR FM in New York City. Here is a link:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/20-summertime-classical-pieces-maximum-chill/
The blog posting features many terrific sound samples, including such well-known works as “Summer” section from “The Four Seasons” violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi.
Still, some of the titles – including the famous Overture to “A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn – are not accompanied by sound.
That includes one of The Ear’s favorites, “Knoxville, Summer 1915” by the American composer Samuel Barber with words by the journalist and documentarian James Agee.
Here it is, in a much-praised recording by soprano Dawn Upshaw, in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Here’s hoping summer is better in this part of the country than spring was, what with record cold in April and record rainfall in May that seems to be continuing with disastrous flooding in June.
Happy Summer, all.
Tags: #AntonioVivaldi, #AntonWebern, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CentralDaylightTime, #DawnUpshaw, #EdvardGrieg, #FelixMendelssohn, #FrankBridge, #FrederickDelius, #GabrielFaure, #HectorBerlioz, #JamesAgee, #JosefSuk, #Knoxvile, #MarkO'Connor, #MidsummerNight'sDream, #MikhailGlinka, #NaturalDisaster, #NBCNews, #NedRorem, #NewYorkCity, #PeterTchaikovsky, #PeterTchaikowsky, #SamuelBarber, #SergeiProkofiev, #SummerSolstice, #TheWashingtonPost, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinMusic, #WilliamGrantStill, #ZoltanKodaly, April, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Berlioz, blog, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, cold, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, country, Delius, disaster, documentarian, documentary, Early music, flood, flooding, georgegershwin, Gershwin, Glinka, Grieg, information, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, journalism, journalist, June, Kodaly, Madison, Mark O'Connor, May, Music, NBC, Ned Rorem, New York City, news, Overture, posting, Prokofiev, Radio, rainfall, solstice, soprano, station, Stonehenge, storms, Suk, Summer solstice, Summer1915, Tchaikovsky, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Webern, wet, William Grant Still, WQXR-FM
Classical music education: Concerto contest winners perform at the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras winter concerts this Saturday
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By Jacob Stockinger
WYSO will hold its second concert series of the year with the Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts on this Saturday, March 18.
Nearly 500 young musicians will display their great talents to the community during the concerts, which are dedicated to music teachers. (See below for times and programs. And listen to WYSO members talk about WYSO in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert series will feature all five orchestras including the debut performance of WYSO’s newest string orchestra, Opus One.
Under the direction of Geri Hamilton, Opus One consists of string players ages 8 to 12. This ensemble focuses more on technique than on performance, incorporating instruction on fundamentals of scales, shifting and bowing, in addition to formative ensemble skills experience.
The Youth Orchestra concert will also feature two of the winners from the Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition: Violinist, Mary Deck and Percussionist, Adam Goren.
Mary Deck (below), age 16, is a junior at Madison West High School, and has been a part of WYSO since 2011. She will be performing the first movement of the Violin Concerto No. 4 in D minor, Op. 31, by Henri Vieuxtemps.
Adam Goren (below), age 18, is a senior at Middleton High School and has been a part of WYSO since 2013. He will be performing the third movement of Concertino for Marimba by Paul Creston.
The Diane Ballweg Winterfest Concerts will be held in Mills Concert Hall in the UW-Madison George Mosse Humanities Building, 455 North Park Street.
WYSO concerts are generally about an hour and a half in length, providing a great orchestral concert opportunity for families.
Tickets are available at the door, $10 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under.
For more information about WYSO, go to: https://www.wysomusic.org
This project is supported by Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation, the Evjue Foundation, Inc., a charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation. Generous funding was also provided from the American Girl’s Fund for Children. This project is also funded in part by a grant from the Madison Arts Commission with additional funds from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
SCHEDULE AND PROGRAMS
Opus One and Sinfonietta – 11:30 a.m.
Sinfonietta (below)
Longfield (b.1947), Black Diamond
Smetana (1824-1884), Themes from The Moldau, arr. Frost
Mosier, Kirt N., American Reel
Traditional Irish, The Salley Gardens
Richard Stephan (b. 1929), Variations On A Well-Know Sea Chantey,
Grundman (1934-1996), Kentucky 1800
Leyden (1917-2014), Serenade for String Orchestra: Prelude, Fugue, Nocturne, Cakewalk
Dvorak (1841-1904), Themes From The New World Symphony arr. Gruselle
Opus One
Richard Meyer (b.1957), Night Shift
Follow the Drinking Gourd – African-American Folk Song arr. Carrie Lane Gruselle
Ewazen (b.1951), Four Royal Dances: The Lord
Brian Balmages (b.1975), A Beethoven Lullaby
For the Star of County Down –
Richard Meyer (b.1957) Dragonhunter
Concert Orchestra and Harp Ensemble (below top) – 1:30 p.m.
Concert Orchestra (below bottom)
Gounod (1818-1893), Funeral March of a Marionette ed. Rosenhaus
Holst (1874-1934) Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets arr. Leidig
M.L. Daniels (b. 1931) Contending
Tres Danzas de Mexico setting by Rhoads (b. 1918): El Pitayero (from Jalisco); El Café (Province unknown); El Curripiti (from Veracruz)
Montgomery (1771-1854), Angels, From the Realms of Glory, setting Robert W. Smith
Philharmonia Orchestra (below) – 4 p.m.
Wagner (1813-1883), Procession to the Cathedral, from the Opera “Lohengrin” arr. Kennedy
Grieg (1843-1907), Peer Gynt: Suite No. 1, Op. 46: Morning; Ase’s Death; Anitra’s Dance; In the Hall of the Mountain King
Weber (1786-1826), Tourandot, J.75: Overture and March
Hindemith (1895-1963), Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber: Fourth movement – March
Youth Orchestra (below) – 7 p.m.
Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) Concerto for Violin No 4 D minor, Op.31, first movement. Mary Deck, violin soloist
Creston (1906-1985) Concertino for Marimba, third movement. Adam Goren, marimba soloist
Prokofiev (1891-1953) Symphony No 7, op.131, C-sharp minor: Moderato, Allegretto, Andante espressivo, Vivace
Glinka (1804-1857) “Russlan and Ludmilla” Overture
Tags: African American, angels, Arts, Beethoven, brass, cafe, cakewalk, cathedral, concerto, conductor, dance, Dane Arts, drinking, Dvorak, Eric Ewazen, Evjue Foundation, folk, folk song, fugue, funeral, George Mosse, Glinka, glory, Gounod, Grieg, harp, Henri Vieuxtemps, Hindemith, Holst, humanities, Irish, Jacob Stockinger, Jalisco, Jupiter, Lohengrin, Lord, lullaby, Madison, Madison Arts Commission, Madison West High School, march, marimba, Mexico, Music, Music education, New World Symphony, nocturne, opera, Orchestra, Overture, Paul Creston, Peer Gynt, percussion, Prelude, royal, sea chantey, Serenade, Sergei Prokofiev, Smetana, song, strings, Suite, symphony, Teacher, The Capital Times, The Moldau, The Planets, theme, traditional, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Veracruz, Viola, Violin, Wagner, Weber, Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin Youth Symhony Orchestras, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: UW bassoonist Marc Vallon plays a FREE all-Russian concert with other faculty and student colleagues this Friday night
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features The Madison Savoyards singing music of Gilbert & Sullivan, Jule Styne and Sheldon Harnick. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
CORRECTION: The Arbor Ensemble will perform an all-French program of chamber music at 7:30 p.m. on this SATURDAY night – NOT Friday as mistakenly first posted — at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive. Here is a link with more information:
By Jacob Stockinger
On this Friday night at 8 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, UW-Madison bassoonist Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill) will perform a FREE faculty concert.
![Marc Vallon 2011 James Gill (baroque & modern)[2]](https://welltempered.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/marc-vallon-2011-james-gill-baroque-modern2.jpg)
Colleagues who will join Vallon, an outspoken proponent of modern and contemporary new music, include Sally Chisholm, viola; Christopher Taylor, piano; Yana Avedyan, piano; Amy McCann, clarinet; Ivana Ugrcic, flute; and special guest Yuriy Kolosovskiy, domra (below).
The all-Russian program includes: Michael Glinka (1804-1857), Sonata movement, originally for viola; Edison Denisov (1929-1996), Trio for flute, bassoon and piano; Russian Folksongs with Yuriy Kolosovskiy, domra; Michael Glinka, Trio Pathétique for clarinet, bassoon and piano; and Sofia Gubaidulina (born 1931, below), Trio Quasi Hoquetus for viola, bassoon and piano (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom).
Here is a link to the UW website:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/bassoonist-marc-vallon-faculty-concert/
Tags: Arts, Bassoon, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, contemporary, domra, Edison Denisov, Edison Denisow, First Unitarian Society of Madison, flute, folk song, Gilbert & Sullivan, Gilbert and Sullivan, Glinka, Jule Styne, Madison, Madison Savoyards, Marc Vallon, modern, Music, New Music, Piano, Russia, Russian, Sheldon Harnick, Sofia Gubaidulina, Sonata, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, YouTube
Classical music: The concert by Con Vivo this Friday night features duets from the Baroque age through the 20th century
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By Jacob Stockinger
Con Vivo (Music With Life, below) will perform a chamber music concert entitled “Noah’s Ark” on this Friday night, Jan. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Avenue, across from Camp Randall.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
The “Noah’s Ark” program features duets of many instrumental combinations. Featured composers include Felix Mendelssohn, Mikhail Glinka, Dmitri Shostakovich, Franz Danzi, Max Bruch and Peter Schickele, to name a few. (Sorry, no specifics on the duets to be performed.) Also on the program is the hauntingly beautiful Sonata for Solo Cello by George Crumb. (You can hear the Crumb sonata in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception to discuss this chamber music literature designed to spread a little cheer for the winter season.
In remarking about the concert, artistic director Robert Taylor said, “With this winter concert we are excited to continue our 14th season with an exploration of duets. Our Madison audience will be able to hear our musicians up close and personal playing music from the Baroque to the 20th century.”
Con Vivo is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.
For more information visit:
http://www.convivomusicwithlife.org/concert-info.html
Tags: ark, Arts, Baroque, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Con Vivo, Dmitri Shostakovich, duet, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Danzi, George Crumb, Glinka, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Max Bruch, Mendelssohn, Music, Noah, Peter Schickele, Piano, Shostakovich, solo, Sonata, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, winter, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
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