The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: A FREE concert of Polish piano music is on this Sunday afternoon at the UW-Madison
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
On this Sunday afternoon, Oct. 21, at 4 p.m., University of Oklahoma Professor Igor Lipinski (below) will perform a solo piano recital with commentary at Mills Concert Hall of UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. Mills Hall is located at 455 North Park Street in the George Mosse Humanities Building.
At this FREE CONCERT, Lipinski will perform music by 19th through 21st century Polish composers: Fryderyk (Frederic) Chopin, Karol Szymanowski, Ignaz Jan Paderewski, Grazyna Bacewicz and Pawel Mykietyn. (Editor’s note: Sorry, no titles of specific works are listed.)
Since classical music from Poland has been rarely performed in concert halls in Madison, this recital will be a unique occasion to experience Poland’s musical heritage and diversity.
This concert also commemorates the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining independence at the conclusion of World War I, after 123 years of its partition and disappearance from the map of Europe.
Please join our local Polish community in celebrating this joyous occasion through appreciation of beautiful and captivating music from some of the Poland’s most important composers.
This event is organized by the Polish Student Association of UW-Madison and Mad-Polka Productions, with cooperation and financial support provided by Lapinski Fund (UW-Madison German, Nordic and Slavic Departments) and the Polish Heritage Club of Madison as well as the Sounds & Notes Foundation from Chicago.
ABOUT THE PERFORMER:
Prof. Igor Lipinski is native to Poland and currently teaching at the University of Oklahoma. At the age of 12, he won a Grand Prize at the Paderewski Piano Competition for Young Pianists in Poland.
He is a musician, piano teacher, performer and also a magician, sometimes surprisingly combining all of his interests during his performances.
He received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and since then performed over 100 concerts, both solo and with orchestras, all over the U.S.
This will be his debut in Madison.
For more information, go to: www.igorlipinski.com
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS:
Fryderyk (Frederic) Chopin (1810-1849, below): He was born in Poland, but also composed and performed in Germany, Vienna and France. Probably the most prominent Polish composer as well as pianist and performer. Much of Chopin’s inspiration came from Polish village music from the Mazovia region. Chopin composed 57 mazurkas – the mazurka being one of his most beloved type of compositions. He also composed numerous polonaises, concertos, nocturnes and sonatas. (You can hear famous Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein perform Chopin’s famously nationalistic “Heroic” Polonaise in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937, below): Part of “Young Poland” group of composers at the beginning of 20th century, Szymanowski composed operas, ballets, sonatas, concertos, cycle of songs, string quartets. Many of his compositions were also inspired by Polish folk music, including the famous ballet “Harnasie” based on the culture of Polish highlanders which he experienced while living in Zakopane.
Ignaz Jan Paderewski (1860-1941, below) was a remarkable figure in Poland’s turn-of-the-century history. He was a pianist, composer, statesman, politician, philanthropist, actor, businessman, patron of the arts and architecture, wine grower and humanitarian. As a pianist, he was praised for his interpretations of music of Chopin, Liszt, Bach and Beethoven. He successfully toured western Europe before eventually setting off for the USA. Starting with his first 1891 tour he crossed U.S. about 30 times in his 50-year career.
He was a very popular, charismatic and somewhat extravagant figure, which eventually resulted in “Paddymania” phenomenon. He was largely influenced by Chopin in his composition of sonatas, concertos, polonaises, Polish dances, symphonies, mazurkas, krakowiaks, minuets and even one opera. He also relentlessly supported and lobbied for Poland ‘s independence as World War I unraveled. He influenced U.S. politicians and played a crucial diplomatic role in Poland regaining its independence in 1911.
Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969, below): Violinist, pianist, teacher, writer and composer, she was one of the few female classical music composers at the time in Poland and in the world. Thanks to a generous grant from Ignaz Jan Paderewski, she was able to study music in Paris. She composed numerous concertos, string quartets, sonatas, symphonies.
Pawel Mykietyn (1971-, below in a photo by Oliva Soto): Composer, clarinetist, member of Nonstrom Ensemble. In 1995, he won a first prize in the young composers category during the UNESCO composers competition in Paris. Mykietyn’s composing style is at times aggressive and postmodern, incorporating sharp rhythms to create a vivid and provocative sound. He has composed concertos, sonatas, symphonies, preludes and string quartets.
Thanks to all the sponsors and community support, this concert is FREE and open to the public.
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Classical music: The 29th Token Creek Festival closes with the world premiere of a song cycle by John Harbison and dramatic, affecting Schumann
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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. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The third and final program of this summer’s 29th Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, held in a refurbished barn (below) was given on last Saturday afternoon, when I caught it, and then was repeated the following day.
There were adjustments down to the wire, as co-director John Harbison noted in his opening comments. The originally planned opening piece, Mozart’s Sonata in G Major, K. 301, for Violin and Piano, was cancelled, and the program actually began with Haydn’s Piano Sonata in E Major (H. XVI:22).
Harbison (below) played this himself, having observed that, if not noteworthy, it was representative of its kind. In fact, it is a worthy work, its third and final movement is a little set of delightful variations on a minuet tune. Harbison obviously loves this whole Haydn literature, and he played the piece with affection.
Then it was vocal music, sung by tenor Frank Kelley — who has worked with Harbison in the Emmanuel Music activities in Boston — with pianist Janice Weber.
Their first offering was the world premiere of a cycle-in-progress by Harbison, titled In Early Evening, to texts by poet Louise Glück (below): specifically, of its first three songs. The texts are dreamy and nostalgic, and the composer has attempted to capture their multi-layered implications.
The two performers (below) then completed the concert’s first half with a presentation of the complete 16 songs of the cycle Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) by Robert Schumann. This sets the reflections on failed love, written by the great German poet Heinrich Heine.
Kelley is not an ingratiating singer. His voice sounds raw and worn. Nevertheless, he has splendid diction, in both English and German. He sounded much more confident and secure in the magnificent Schumann cycle, which he sang without a score. In this music he conveyed the varying moods and emotions with genuine engagement and expression.
But pianist Janice Weber (below) proved a real discovery. In his program notes, Harbison rightly pointed out that Schumann’s piano writing was not so much accompaniment as individualized piano writing with its own character and even independence. Indeed, the final song of the Heine cycle ends, after the voice is finished, with a substantial little epilogue of reflection for the piano alone.
Weber projected that very strong piano dimension wonderfully, and she repeated the feat when, for the program’s second half, she was joined in Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63, by violinist and Festival co-founder Rose Mary Harbison and cellist Karl Lavine.
This is a lively and quintessentially Schumanesque work that the audience loved. (You can hear the energetic first movement, played by the Beaux Arts Trio, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
But I found the ensemble not well balanced. Lavine was surprisingly mild, deferential and understated in his playing. But Weber provided the sturdy backbone of the performance. We should hear more of this splendid artist.
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Classical music education: Before leaving for a festival in Scotland, the Madison Youth Choirs boy choirs will give a FREE send-off concert on Tuesday night. It features the world premiere of a new work by Madison composer Scott Gendel
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
This July, 55 members of Madison Youth Choirs’ boy choirs will travel to Aberdeen, Scotland to sing in the Aberdeen International Festival of Youth Arts, a new celebration of talented young performers from across the world. (Below is the Britten boy choir.)
The festival will continue the legacy of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (below), a tradition which had been running nearly 50 years when it was cancelled in late 2017 after Aberdeen city councilors withdrew its funding, citing budgetary concerns.
A groundswell of local and global support for the festival led to the creation of a new event, hosted by the Aberdeen Multicultural Center, which will continue to offer world-class performing opportunities for young artists.
In order to ensure that every eligible singer, including those whose families face significant financial challenges, had the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary experience, MYC undertook a major fundraising effort for the Scotland Tour Scholarship Fund, led by a generous anonymous benefactor who offered to double every dollar donated up to a total of $10,000. In total, 107 individual donors contributed to the fund, raising $20,224 to support the young singers’ journey.
Prior to their departure to Scotland, the MYC boys will present a send-off concert on Tuesday, July 24, at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5701 Raymond Road, in Madison. The concert is FREE and open to the public, but donations at the door will be accepted.
The concert will feature the world premiere of a new work by UW-Madison graduate and Madison composer Scott Gendel (below), “For That Alone,” which combines text from Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” with text from a work that may have inspired it, the “Declaration of Arbroath,” written in 1320 to assert Scotland’s independence.
The full list of repertoire includes:
“Sumer is icumen in,” Anonymous, mid-13th century
“O là, o che bon echo” by Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)
“No che non morira” (from Tito Manlio) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
“Bar’chu” by Salamon Rossi (c. 1570-1630)
“Il est bel et bon” by Pierre Passereau (fl. 1509-1547)
“Hopkinton” by William Billings (1746-1800)
“The Pasture” (from Frostiana) by Randall Thompson (1899-1984)
“Gloria Tibi” (from Mass) by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
“II. Adonai ro-I” from Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
“For That Alone” (world premiere) by Scott Gendel (b. 1977)
“Chorus of Street Boys” from Carmen by Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
“Weevily Wheat,” American play-party song, arr. Krunnfusz
“The Plough Boy,” Traditional, arranged by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) You can hear it for solo tenor with piano in the YouTube video at the bottom.
“Rustics and Fishermen” (from Gloriana) by Benjamin Britten
“I Will Howl” by Timothy Takach (b. 1978)
“Fugue for Tinhorns” (from Guys and Dolls) by Frank Loesser (1910-1969)
“Bonse Aba,” Traditional Zambian
“Birdsong” by Heather Masse, arranged by Randal Swiggum
“Revelation 19:1” by Jeffrey LaValley
“Anthem” (from Chess) by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Tim Rice, arranged by Randal Swiggum
“Will Ye No Come Back Again,” Traditional Scottish, arranged by Randal Swiggum
For more information about the Madison Youth Choirs, including how to join them and how to support them, go to:
https://www.madisonyouthchoirs.org
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Classical music: UW-Madison soprano Mimmi Fulmer discusses and sings Finnish music, which she will perform in a FREE concert this Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, UW-Madison faculty member and soprano Mimmi Fulmer (below) will open the new concert season at the UW-Madison when she performs a recital celebrating the centennial of Finland’s independence.
Fulmer will sing a variety of Finnish songs, from folk songs to new music, and will be accompanied by pianist Craig Randal Johnson (below).
This past week, Fulmer gave a preview sampling of the concert on The Midday program of Wisconsin Public Radio. In the studio (below), she talked to host Norman Gilliland about the concert and about Scandinavian music.
She also previewed the concert through her own 2014 CD (below), called “Voyage Home” — for Centaur Records — of Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish songs.
Here is a link to the WPR website where you can listen to Fulmer’s appearance on The Midday:
https://www.wpr.org/shows/mimmi-fulmer-0
And for Sunday’s concert here is the full program – unfortunately without translations of the difficult and even obscure language – that you will NOT find on the UW-Madison website (but which will be provided at the concert):
Illalle Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Soi vienosti murheeni soitto Oskar Merikanto (1868-1924)
Anmutiger Vertrag Yrjö Kilpinen (1892-1959)
Var det en dröm? Jean Sibelius
Syvä ilo Olli Kortekangas (b. 1955)
Maalari; Nuoruuden kaupungissa; Adagio; Illan tullen
Pastorale Tauno Pylkkänen (1918-1980)
Armolaulu Kari Tikka (b. 1946)
INTERMISSION
Kalevala-sävelmä (Runo melody) Arr. Ahti Sonninen (1914-1984)
Sydämeni laulu Kim Borg (1919-2000)
Suomalainen rukous Taneli Kuusisto (1905-1988)
Je chante la chaleur désespérée (solo piano) Jouni Kaipainen (1956-2015)
Tuoll’ on mun kultani Folk song
Kukapa sen saunan Arr. Väinö Hannikainen (1900-1960)
Oravan pesä P.J. Hannikainen (1854-1924)
Three Finnish Folksongs Arr. Ralf Gothóni (b. 1946)
Hilu, hilu; Tule, tule kultani (heard in the YoUTube video below); Minun kultani kaunis on
Tags: Arts, Centaur Records, centennial, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, Concert, contemporary, Craig Randal Johnson, faculty, Finland, Finnish, folk, Folk music, folk song, free, Home, independence, Jacob Stockinger, Kilpinen, Madison, Mimmi Fulmer, Music, New Music, Norman Gilliland, Norway, opera, Piano, recital, Scandinavia, Scandinavian music, Season, Sibelius, song, soprano, studio, Sweden, The Midday, translation, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, voyage, web, Website, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, WPR, YouTube
Classical music: Get the new UW-Madison brochure for the School of Music concerts, faculty and students. It’s a MUST-HAVE and a MUST-READ, and it is FREE to anyone
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By Jacob Stockinger
Although the UW-Madison officially opened yesterday, today is the first day of instruction. And this weekend will see the beginning of the new concert season at the Mead Witter School of Music.
On Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall, faculty soprano Mimmi Fulmer and alumnus pianist Thomas Kasdorf will kick off the season with a FREE concert of music and songs celebrating the 100th anniversary of the independence of Finland.
But that’s just the beginning to an event-filled school year that includes mostly free solo recitals, chamber music, orchestral music, opera, choral music and more.
And this year, there is a new guide to the concert season and the School of Music itself.
The short and usual glossy brochure of listings has given way to a booklet guide. It is 8-1/2 by 11 inches big and has 24 well-filled pages. It is printed on regular paper and has much more information about the events and the people who make them happen. It takes you behind the scenes as well as in the hall and on the stage.
It is less showy, to be sure, but so much more readable and informative. And it feels great in your hands.
On the right hand margin, you’ll find concerts with performers and programs. To the left and in the center, you will find news, biographies and other information about musicians, donors and an update about the new concert hall building.
The new guide, which you can get for FREE, is the brainchild of Kathy Esposito (below), the music school‘s publicist and concert manager.
Here is what Esposito has to say:
“Our School of Music website, which debuted in 2014, required resources that previously had been devoted to multiple print publications.
“So we dropped back to only one, a printed events calendar.
“I’m happy to say that for the 2017-18 academic year, we finally found time to enlarge the printed concert calendar into a true newsletter as well.
“We certainly have enough news to share. Much of what’s in there had not been, or still is not, placed on the website at http://www.music.wisc.edu.
“My personal favorites are the stories from students, both undergrad and grad. As a mom of two young musicians, I can, to some degree, understand both the challenges and the thrills of their careers. Learning about their lives is the best part of my job. Occasionally I can help them, too.
“A couple of other things to give credit where credit is due.
“My assistant, Brianna Ware, who is a graduate student in piano, caught and corrected many errors.
“The brochure was designed by Bob Marshall of Marshall Design in Middleton. He did a masterful job. Bravo!
“Printing was coordinated by the fabulous Sue Lind at DoIT (Division of Information Technology) Printing and Publishing, who helped me to choose a new paper stock, a lightweight matte.
“Lastly, upon request from our older readers, we increased the font size slightly.
“We mailed the brochure to all alumni, national and international. That also was new. And our feedback has been quite positive.
“I’m happy to send readers a FREE copy of this fall’s brochure – with the somewhat humdrum title “Concerts, News and Events” – to those who email their postal addresses to me. I’ll place you on the list for next year, too. Send your name and postal address to kesposito@wisc.edu
About twice a month, we also publish an e-newsletter in the form of a blog, which I also paste into an email for those on a Wisclist, who don’t get the blog. It is the same information, but I think the blog is prettier.
That’s available via this link: https://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/
Tags: academic, alumni, anniversary, Arts, assistant, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, behind the scenes, biographies, biography, blog, brochure, calendar, career, Cello, center, Chamber music, choral music, Concert, concerto, correct, design, donor, Early music, errors, feedback, Finland, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, graduate students, guide, hall, independence, information, informative, instruction, international, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, left, lives, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, manager, Mimmi Fulmer, mom, Mozart, Music, Musician, national, news, newsletter, opera, Orchestra, paper, performer, performers, Pianist, Piano, print, Pro Arte Quartet, program, publication, publicity, readable, recital, right, schedule, school, school year, Sonata, song, soprano, stage, story, Student, symphony, technology, Thomas Kasdorf, undergraduate, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, update, UW School of Music, UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music, Viola, Violin, vocal music, web, Website, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, year
Classical music: What is your favorite Sousa march for the Fourth of July? What other classical music celebrates the holiday?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day, when we mark the day and the Declaration of Independence when the U.S officially separated from Great Britain to become not a colony but its own country.
Over the past decade The Ear has chosen music from many American composers to mark the event – music by Edward MacDowell, Charles Ives, William Grant Still, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, William Schuman, Joan Tower, John Adams and so many others.
And of course also featured around the nation will be the “1812 Overture” by Peter Tchaikovsky.
You will probably hear a lot of that music today on Wisconsin Public Radio and other stations, including WFMT in Chicago and WQXR in New York City.
Here is a link to nine suggestions with audiovisual performances:
http://www.classical-music.com/article/nine-best-works-independence-day
But The Ear got to thinking.
It is certainly a major achievement when a composer’s name becomes synonymous with a genre of music. Like Strauss waltzes. Bach cantatas and Bach fugues. Chopin mazurkas and Chopin polonaises.
The Ear thinks that John Philip Sousa is to marches what Johann Strauss is to waltzes. Others have done them, but none as well.
So on Independence Day, he asks: Which of Sousa’s many marches is your favorite to mark the occasion?
The “Stars and Stripes Forever” — no officially our national march — seems the most appropriate one, judging by titles. “The Washington Post” March is not far behind.
But lately The Ear has taken to “The Liberty Bell” March.
Here it is a YouTube video with the same Marine Band that Sousa, The March King, once led and composed for:
And if you want music fireworks in the concert hall to match the real thing, you can’t beat the bravura pyrotechnical display concocted and executed by pianist Vladimir Horowitz, a Russian who became an American citizen and contributed mightily to the war effort during World War II.
Horowitz wowed the crowds – including fellow virtuoso pianists – with his transcription of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” in which it sounds like three or four hands are playing. Judge for yourself. Here it is:
Of course, you can also leave the names of other American composers and works to celebrate the Fourth. Just leave a word and a link in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear!
Tags: 1812 Overture, Aaron Copland, America, Arts, audiovisual, Bach, band, Baroque, brass, Cantata, Chamber music, Charles Ives, Classical music, colony, composer, concert hall, country, Edward MacDowell, England, Fireworks, Fourth of July, freedom, fugue, genre, George Gershwin, Great Britain, Holiday, Horowitz, independence, Independence Day, Jacob Stockinger, Joan Tower, John Adams, John Philip Sousa, July 4, Leonard Bernstein, Liberty Bell, Madison, march, Marine, mazurka, Music, National Public Radio, NPR, Orchestra, Piano, polonaise, pyrotechnics, Radio, Russia, Samuel Barber, Sousa, Stars and Stripes Forever, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, U.S., UK, United Kingdom, United States, United States Declaration of Independence, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, virtuoso, Vladimir Horowitz, Waltz, Washington D.C., Washington Post, WFMT, William Schuman, Willian Grant Still, wisconsin public radio, World War II, WQXR, WW II, YouTube
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