The Well-Tempered Ear
This ‘body percussion” version of Beethoven will make your day!
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is something that easily outdoes Bavarian thigh-slapping in Lederhosen!
It features 157 school children playing the opening theme of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony using “body percussion.”
That is, they use their hands, feet, knees and chests with various pressures and degrees of loudness, rhythm, speed and dynamics.
It is a performance practice and method of music education that has roots in folk music.
It was performed in 2020 — hence the covid masks — and was recently posted on Instagram by ClassicFM.
Here is a fuller definition from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_percussion
The kids are amazing. They are so synchronized and precise.
It took five months of practicing and rehearsing, so the persistent music teacher who organized and executed this must be amazing too.
It all seems very French in its combination of the physical and the emotional.
Take a look and listen. Here is a link to the one-minute video:
Does anybody else wonder if an American parent might have protested or even filed a lawsuit alleging inappropriate touching by classmates?
What do you think of this “body percussion” Beethoven?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Acclaimed pianist Ya-Fei Chuang plays works by Schubert, Liszt and Ravel this Saturday night at Farley’s House of Pianos
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By Jacob Stockinger
The critically acclaimed pianist Ya-Fei Chuang (below) will return to Madison this weekend to perform a solo recital and give a master class for the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall.
Advance tickets are $45 (students $10) or $50 at the door
You can purchase tickets at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3499200
Service fees may apply. Tickets are also for sale at Farley’s House of Pianos by calling 608 271-2626. Student tickets can only be purchased online and are not available the day of the event.
An artist’s reception will follow the concert.
For more information, go to: https://salonpianoseries.org
RECITAL
The recital by Chuang, who appears at festivals and concert halls around the world, is this Saturday night, April 6, 7:30 p.m. at Farley’s House of Pianos.
She comes with high praise from the famed Alfred Brendel, who said: “If you want to listen to Chopin and Liszt with different ears, Ya-Fei Chuang’s ecstatic performances cannot leave you cold, and her pianism is staggering.”
The program will include:
Maurice Ravel – Sonatine (1905) – Moderate; Menuet; Animated
Franz Schubert – “Moments Musicaux” (Musical Moments), D. 780/Op. 94
No. 2 in A-flat Major (1827); No. 3 in F Minor (1823) – played by Vladimir Horowitz in the YouTube video at the bottom; No. 6 in A-flat Major (1824)
Franz Liszt – “Reminiscences of Bellini’s ‘Norma,’” S. 394 (1831)
INTERMISSION
Maurice Ravel – “Jeux d’eau” (Fountain, or Play of Water) (1901)
Franz Liszt – “Reminiscences of Mozart’s ‘Don Juan,’” S. 418 (1841)
MASTER CLASS
On this Sunday afternoon, April 7, at 2 p.m., Ya-Fei Chuang will teach a master class at Farley’s House of Pianos, where she will instruct local students.
This is a FREE event that the public is invited to observe.
The master class program will include:
- Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor (”Pathetique”), Op. 13, Third Movement; performed by Angelina Chang whose teacher is Julie Chang
- Franz Liszt – “Liebestraum” (Dream of Love) No. 3 in A-flat Major “Notturno” (Nocturne); performed by Antonio Wu whose teacher is Shu-Ching Chuang
- Sergei Rachmaninov – Prelude Op. 3 No. 2, in C-sharp Minor; performed by Alexander Henderson whose teacher is Vlada Henderson
The master classes for the 2018-19 season are supported by the law firm of Boardman and Clark LLP.
This concert is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from Jun and Sandra Lee.
Another year of exceptional artists is planned for the 2019-20 season. Subscribe to the series’ e-newsletter, and check the website and social media sites Instagram and Facebook for the season announcement in June.
For more information, go to: https://salonpianoseries.org
To become a sponsor of Salon Piano Series, contact Renee Farley. Salon Piano Series is a nonprofit organization founded to continue the tradition of intimate salon concerts, including solo recitals and chamber music with piano, featuring exceptional artists.
Tags: #AlexanderHenderson, #AlfredBrendel, #AngeliaChang, #AntonioWu, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoardmanandClark, #ChamberMusic, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DonJuan, #DreamofLove, #EmailNewsletter, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Farley'sHouseofPianos, #FranzLiszt, #FredericChopin, #InstagramPost, #InstagramVideo, #IntimateSetting, #Jeuxd'eau, #JulieChang, #LawFirm, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MauriceRavel, #MomentsMusicaux, #MusicEducation, #NationalEndowmentfortheArts, #NonprofitOrganization, #OpentothePublic, #OperaMusic, #SalonPIanoSeries, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #Shu-ChingChuang, #StateOfWisconsin, #VincenzoBellini, #VladaHenderson, #VladimirHorowitz, #WestTowneMall, #WineReception, #WisconsinArtsBoard, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #Ya-FeiChuang, #YouTubevideo, Alexander Henderson, Alfred Brendel, Angelina Chang, Antonio Wu, artist, Arts, Beethoven, Bellini, blog, Boardman and Clark, Chamber music, Chopin, Classical music, composer, Concert, critically acclaimed, Don JUan, Dream of Love, ear, Facebook, Farley's House of Pianos, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, free, funds, hear, information, Instagram, instruct, international, intimate, Jacob Stockinger, Jeux d'eau, Julie Chang, law form, Liebestraum, like, LLP, Love, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, master class, masterclass, Maurice Ravel, media, menuet, Moments Musicaux, Mozart, Music, Musical Moments, National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, new, newsletter, nocturne, nonprofit, Norma, open, opera, Pathetique Sonata, performer, pianism, Pianist, Piano, public, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, reception, recital, reminiscence, sale, Salon Piano Series, Season, share, Shu-Ching Chuang, Sonata, Sonatine, sponsor, State of Wisconsin, Student, support, tag, Teacher, tradition, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vlada Henderson, Vlady Henderson, Website, West Towne Mall, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Arts Board, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, word, world, Ya-Fei Chuang, YouTube
Classical music: The FREE one-hour, monthly midday concert series “Just Bach” debuts with excellent playing and outstanding singing as well as practical problems such as downtown parking and timing
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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 FM. 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
Marika Fischer Hoyt is becoming ever more ubiquitous, not only as a performing violist in orchestral, string quartet and period-instrument ensembles, but also as organizer of musical activities, especially as devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (below).
Hoyt (below) has already revived the annual “Bach around the Clock” spectacular each spring to mark Bach’s birthday, but now she has established a monthly series of FREE midday concerts at Luther Memorial Church called “Just Bach.”
The first of this series was held last Thursday afternoon, Sept. 27, at 1 p.m. in the church sanctuary at 1021 University Avenue. Ten musicians participated.
The singers were UW-Madison alumna Sarah Brailey, soprano (below); mezzo-soprano Cheryl Bensman Rowe; tenor Wesley Dunnagan; UW-Madison bass-baritone Paul Rowe.
The players were Kangwon Lee Kim and Leanne League, violins; Fischer Hoyt, viola; James Waldo, cello; and Luke Conklin, oboe. All played on period instruments, with Mark Brampton Smith playing the organ.
The hour-long program offered Bach’s “Little” Organ Fugue in G minor, and two full cantatas: BWV 165, “O heiliges Geist- und Wasserbad” (O Bath of Holy Spirit and Water) for Trinity, and BWV 32, “Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen” (Dearest Jesus, My Desire), a dialogue cantata. (You can hear the opening aria of Cantata BWV 32 in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Both set the type of Pietistic Lutheran German texts standard for such church compositions of the day, and each built around pairs of arias and recitatives for different solo singers.
BWV 32, which adds an oboist (below, second from right) to the string players in some of the movements, is particularly interesting in representing a series of exchanges between the Soul (Seele) and Jesus Himself, culminating in direct duos between them.
Each cantata ends with a harmonization of a traditional Lutheran chorale. In the spirit of the program’s venue, the audience was asked to sing them, in German, from prepared sheets. In these, and in an English hymn from this church’s hymnal, the audience was prepped by Brailey, who served as general hostess.
In purely musical terms, the performances were really excellent, with both vocalists and instrumental players of established talents. And certainly the very atmosphere of a church setting evoked the composer’s original purposes. (The church’s ample acoustics enriched the musical performances, though they badly undermined spoken material on the microphone.)
Previously, the Madison Bach Musicians has been a rare group giving us specimens of the generally neglected cantatas, but now this “Just Bach” series will augment the works’ availability.
Subsequent concerts in this series will be switched to 1 p.m. on WEDNESDAY afternoons on Oct. 31, Nov. 28 and Dec. 12.
For more background, including the addresses of Facebook and Instagram sites of “Just Bach,” go to:
But prospective attendees should be warned of practical problems. The early afternoon time is difficult for most people, there is no parking facility, and access to the venue will likely be limited to those already in the vicinity.
For all that, I reckoned some 40 or so people in the audience – with no one eating lunch, even thought that is permitted. So artistic merits might still surmount obstacles.
Tags: #AmericanRecordGuide, #AncoraStringQuartet, #BachAroundtheClock, #BachCantata, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #CherylBensman-Rowe, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #ContrapuntalMusic, #EmeritusProfessor, #FacebookPost, #GermanLanguage, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #HolyTrinity, #InstagramVideo, #InstrumentalPlayer, #IsthmusNewspaper, #JesusChrist, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnW.Barker, #JustBach, #LutherMemorialChurch, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MarikaFischerHoyt, #MedievalHistory, #MusicCritic, #OrchestralMusic, #OrchestraPlayer, #OrganFugue, #OrganMusic, #PaulRowe, #PeriodInstrument, #SacredMusic, #SarahBrailey, #StringQuartet, #SundayMorning, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolaMusic, #WORT-FM89.9, #YouTubevideo, acoustic, activity, alumna, American Record Guide, Ancora String Quartet, aria, Arts, Bach, Bach Around the Clock, baritone, Baroque, bass, bass-baritone, birthday, blog, Cantata, Cello, Chamber music, Cheryl Bensman Rowe, choral music, Chorale, Christian, church, Classical music, composer, Concert, counterpoint, desire, devoted, dialogue, Early music, earlymusic, emeritus professor, English, Facebook, fugue, German, graduate, harmony, historically informed performance practices, History, holy, hymn, hymnal, Instagram, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Johann Sebastian Bach, John W. Barker, Just Bach, language, lecture, Luther, Luther Memorial Church, Lutheranism, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marika Fischer Hoyt, Mezzo-soprano, microphone, Midday, month, monthly, morning, Music, New York City, Oboe, Orchestra, organ, organize, parking, Paul Rowe, performance, period instruments, photo, photography, Pietism, piety, practical, problem, recitative, sacred, sacred music, sanctuary, Sarah Brailey, series, singer, solo, soprano, soul, spirit, Spring, String quartet, Sunday, tenor, text, time, timing, Trinity, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, violist, vocal music, vocalist, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: “Just Bach” — a monthly mid-day FREE concert series — starts this Thursday at 1 p.m. in Luther Memorial Church. Plus, the FREE fifth annual UW Brass Fest takes place Friday and Saturday
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ALERT: This Friday and Saturday, the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music will host Brass Fest V. It features guest artists and the faculty group The Wisconsin Brass Quintet. Events are FREE and OPEN to the public. For a schedule and more information about events and performers, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/brass-fest-v-alumni/
By Jacob Stockinger
A new and noteworthy monthly event starts this Thursday. Here is an announcement:
“Just Bach” is a new monthly mid-day concert series in Madison. It celebrates the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (below).
The series of hour-long concerts kicks off at 1 p.m. this Thursday, Sept. 27,at Luther Memorial Church (below), 1021 University Avenue.
Admission is free, but goodwill offerings will be accepted.
The Madison series, inspired by a model and successful program established by conductor Julian Wachner at the Trinity Wall Street Church in New York City, will offer monthly concerts at Luther Memorial Church, presenting programs curated from Bach’s sacred vocal repertoire.
As in New York City, the concerts will open with all present singing a hymn, followed by an organ solo, with the rest of the program devoted to cantatas, motets, and possibly oratorios or passions. An important component of the initiative will be the training and inclusion of local singers for the chorus. The period-instrument orchestra will include local and regional players.
Audience members may take in food and beverage for their lunch, which can be consumed during the program.
This Thursday afternoon, organist Mark Brampton Smith (below) will play the “Little” Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578 (heard, with a graphic depiction, in the YouTube video at the bottom); and the choir and orchestra will perform two beautiful cantatas: O heileges Geist- und Wasserbad (O Bath of Holy Spirit and Water), BWV 165; and Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (Dearest Jesus, My Desire), BWV 32.
Adds the organizer Marika Fischer Hoyt (below), who also directs the annual Bach Around the Clock event in March: “The goal of this series is to share the immense range of Bach’s vocal and instrumental repertoire with the Madison community at large.
“The period-instrument orchestra will bring the music to life in the manner and style that Bach would have conceived. Members of the artistic team will prepare local singers to perform alongside seasoned professionals and develop a familiarity and love of the repertoire.
“The audience will be invited to sing along during the opening hymns and the closing cantata chorales.
“The dream team bringing this venture to Madison consists of four individuals who have each dedicated a significant portion of their careers to the music of J.S. Bach: soprano Sarah Brailey, who did her master’s at the UW-Madison and won the Handel Aria Competition; mezzo-soprano Cheryl Bensman-Rowe; UW-Madison professor and bass-baritone Paul Rowe; and modern and baroque violist Marika Fischer Hoyt who also performs with the Madison Bach Musicians, Sonata à Quattro and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The vocal soloists for the concert on this Thursday will be Sarah Brailey (below), Cheryl Bensman-Rowe, tenor Wesley Dunnagan, and Paul Rowe. The period orchestra of local and regional baroque players will be led by concertmaster Kangwon Kim.
After the debut, Just Bach dates go to Wednesdays and will take place at 1 p.m. on Oct. 31, Nov. 28 and Dec. 12.
Our Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/SingetdemHerrn
Our Instagram account is at https://www.instagram.com/_just_bach_/
A website is in the process of being constructed.
We are extremely grateful to Pastor Brad Pohlman and the congregation of Luther Memorial Church for hosting the series this Fall.
We invite the Madison community to come spend a lunch hour with the sublime music of J.S. Bach – feed your body and soul!”
Tags: #BachAroundtheClock, #BachCantata, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassFest, #BrassMusic, #CherylBensman-Rowe, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #ConcertSeries, #FacebookPost, #Free-of-Charge, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HolySpirit, #HolyTrinity, #HolyWater, #HomeWebsite, #InstagramVideo, #JesusChrist, #JohannSebastianBach, #JulianWachner, #JustBach, #KangwonKim, #LittleFugue, #LunchHour, #LutherMemorialChurch, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #Mid-day, #NewYorkCity, #OrganMusic, #PaulRowe, #PeriodInstrument, #SacredMusic, #SarahBrailey, #SonataaQuattro, #TheEar, #TheWell-TemperedEar, #Thursdayafternoon, #TrinityWallStreetChurch, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VocalMusic, #WallSt., #WallStreet, #Wednesdayafternoon, #WisconsinBrassQuintet, #YouTubevideo, admission, Arts, audience, Bach, Bach Around the Clock, baritone, Baroque, bass, beverage, blog, Blog post, brass, brass fest, Cantata, celebrate, Cello, Chamber music, Cheryl Bensman Rowe, choral music, Chorale, chorus, Christian church, church, Classical music, composer, Concert, concert series, concertmaster, congregation, depiction, desire, Early music, Facebook, faculty, fall, food, free, Friday, fugue, George Frideric Handel, goodwill, graphic, Handel Aria Competition, holy, holy water, host, hosting, hymn, information, Instagram, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Johann Sebastian Bach, Julian Wachner, Just Bach, Kangwon Kim, life, local, Love, lunch, lunch hour, Luther Memorial Church, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mead Witter School of Music, Mezzo-soprano, modern, monthly, motet, Music, new, New York City, night, offering, oratorio, Orchestra, organ, organist, organizer, Passion, pastor, Paul Rowe, player, professional, professor, program, regional, repertoire, sacred, Sarah Brailey, Saturday, schedule, singer, Singing, soloist, Sonata, Sonata à Quattro, soprano, symphony, tenor, The Ear, Thursday afternoon, training, Trinity Wall Street Church, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal, vocal music, water, Website, Wednesday afternoon, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Brass Quintet, YouTube
Classical music: Want to know how professional musicians practice? For the next 100 days on Instagram, violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn will show you
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By Jacob Stockinger
Many listeners and many amateur musicians often wonder: How do professionals do it? How do they practice to prepare for a performance? And what goes on in the practice rooms (below) of major conservatories and schools of music where tomorrow’s professionals study?
Of course the usual advice is to play slowly, to repeat difficult sections and to break a larger piece down into smaller parts.
But it is one thing to be told what to do, and another thing to see professionals follow their own advice and put it into practice. The Ear finds that it often inspires him to work harder and better, and more efficiently and satisfyingly.
Many performers seem reluctant to show up what goes into a career, to show the hard work of practicing that leads to apparently effortless performing.
Not Hilary Hahn (below, in a photo by Peter Miller), the outstanding violin virtuoso who has performed several times at the Wisconsin Union Theater in some of the finest programs The Ear has ever heard.
Recently Hahn, the thoughtful three-time Grammy Award winner, started a series called #100daysofpractice on her Instagram account called “Hilary Hahn’s Violincase.” It is worth subscribing to for the short one-minute videos.
It is fascinating to see such a gifted professional slowing down passages of concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach and Jean Sibelius – music Hahn already knows intimately and has recorded — and to hear and appreciate how she continues to practice making hard leaps, negotiating difficult transitions, adjusting bowing, correcting off-pitches and finding difficult fingering and hand positions.
If you haven’t seen and heard it for yourself, treat yourself. You will learn a lot that will help you to appreciate the physicality of making music and perhaps even help you to play it better yourself.
Here is a link: https://www.instagram.com/violincase/
And there is another sample in the YouTube video at the bottom:
What do you think?
Do you know of other sites on the web and social media that document professional musicians practicing? If so, please leave the address in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #100daysofpractice, #AmateurMusicians, #GrammyAward, #HandPosition, #HilaryHahn, #HilaryHahn'sViolincase, #InstagramVideo, #JeanSibelius, #JohannSebastianBach, #PracticeRoom, #PracticingMusic, #SchoolofMusic, #ShortVideo, #ViolinCase, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinistVirtuoso, #ViolinMusic, #WisconsinUnionTheater, amateur, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, bowing, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, conservatories, conservatory, fingering, Grammy Award, hand, Hilary Hahn, Hilary Hahn's violincase, Instagram, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, leap, listener, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, performance, Piano, pitch, practice, practicing, professional, program, record, satisfying, Sibelius, Sonata, subscription, transition, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, video, Violin, violin case, violin music, violinist, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music education: Here are two blogs that allow you to follow the tour of Peru by the Youth Orchestra of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Youth Orchestra (below top) of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras has landed in Peru, and has already rehearsed, and will officially launch its 10-day tour — which includes the capital city of Cusco and the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu (below bottom) — with a performance tonight in Lima.
And thanks to the foresight of the WYSO staff, you can follow the young musicians, along with retired WYSO music director and conductor James Smith, each step of the way until the tour ends on July 15:
Here is a link to a typical kind of blog:
https://wysoperutour.wordpress.com
Here is another version about the tour on Instagram:
www.instagram.com/wysoperutour/
And here is a link to more about the tour — including repertoire by Leonard Bernstein , Malcolm Arnold and Dmitri Shostakovich — and to the group, which gave its send-off concert this past Tuesday night at Olbrich Botanical Gardens:
Check them out and forward this tour blog story, or a link to it, to friends and family, classmates and the community at large.
You can leave a COMMENT and words of encouragement and praise,
They are making Wisconsin proud — and at a time when the United States could sure use some goodwill ambassadors around the world.
Tags: #BrassMusic, #Cusco, #DmitriShostakovich, #IncanCivilization, #InstagramVideo, #InternationalTour, #JamesSmith, #LeonardBernstein, #Lima, #MachuPicchu, #MalcolmArnold, #MusicDirector, #MusicEducation, #OlbrichBotanicalGardens, #OlbrichGardens, #OrchestralMusic, #PercussionMusic, #UnitedStates, #WindMusic, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #YouthOrchestra, ambassadors, ancient, Arts, blog, brass, Cello, citizen, city, Classical music, classmate, community, composer, Concert, conductor, encouragement, Family, friends, goodwill, Inca, Incan, Instagram, Jacob Stockinger, Leonard Bernstein, Madison, Malcolm Arnold, Music, Musician, Orchestra, percussion, performance, Peru, praise, pride, rehearsal, repertoire, Shostakovich, South America, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, video, video log, Viola, Violin, vlog, winds, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, WordPress, world, WYSO, young
Classical music: It’s Mother’s Day 2018. The Ear remembers his mom with a Rachmaninoff prelude
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Mother’s Day 2018.
To celebrate The Ear’s late mom, here is a piece of music with a story to tell with it.
The Ear remembers it well.
He was 13, maybe 14, and living on Long Island, New York.
It was in the afternoon, after school.
His mom was talking to a stranger long-distance on the phone. The conversation, something about preparing wild rice, was with a person in Minnesota.
The Ear was at the piano practicing and playing the famous Prelude in C-sharp minor by the young Sergei Rachmaninoff (below) – the “Bells of Moscow” – which you can hear Evgeny Kissin play in the YouTube video at the bottom.
It was music that The Ear first heard live when a babysitter played it for him. And he immediately fell in love with it.
It was hard to play, a Romantic piece with big loud chords (below is part of the score) and fast passage work. Perfect for a teenager.
Rachmaninoff’s Prelude Op. 3 No. 2, The Recapitulation of the theme, in four staves (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It was The Ear’s first big piece, the right vehicle for an ambitious young piano student who was anxious to use the piano to make an impression.
Anyway, the person on the other end of the phone heard the piano playing and asked if they could listen a while longer.
Mom said, Sure!
Then she placed the phone near the piano — and beamed with pride at me while gesturing for me to continue playing.
Mom didn’t know a lot of classical music. But she knew her son loved it and she did everything she could to encourage that love.
She also liked this particular Rachmaninoff prelude because it was accessible and dramatic, easy to understand and to appreciate, and most of all because her son liked it and played it.
That’s how moms are.
The other person on the line listened until the end of the prelude, then offered praise and thanks, said good-bye, and hung up.
Mom told that story over many years and always with great pride.
For a long time after, it seemed that particular prelude fell out of fashion – probably because it was too popular and too melodramatic. Even Rachmaninoff grew to despise it and referred to the work disdainfully as “It,” which he often had to play as an encore.
But lately, as often happens to overexposed pieces that fall into neglect, it finally seems to be making something of a comeback.
Several years ago, Garrick Ohlsson played it as an encore after a concerto he performed with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. These days, The Ear has heard the young up-and-coming, prize-winning young Georgian-British pianist Luka Okros play it on YouTube and Instagram.
Anyway, here it is, offered with fond memories of a proud mom.
Is there a piece of classical music you identify with your mom? Maybe Antonin Dvorak’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” which you can hear on Wisconsin Public Radio‘s “Sunday Brunch” program at about 12:30p.m. today?
Maybe an opera aria or song?
Leave a comment, with a link to a YouTube performance if possible, and let us know.
The Ear wants to hear.
Happy Mother’s Day, all!
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: This summer’s Token Creek Festival is CANCELED. Plus, a teenager’s piano “practice journal” on Instagram is instructive, entertaining and encouraging
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NEWS ALERT: This summer’s Token Creek Festival (TCF) — with the chamber music theme of Legacy to run from Aug. 21-Sept. 6 –has been CANCELED. Organizers say they hope to launch a virtual online season of archived performances at the end of the summer. Also, once modestly sized gatherings are safe again, the TCF hopes to hold an off-season event. For more information and an official statement from TCF, go to: https://tokencreekfestival.org
By Jacob Stockinger
Somewhere in New York City is a young Chinese piano prodigy who can help you get through what is often the most challenging and discouraging part of piano lessons: practicing.
His name is Auston (below) – no last name is given – and you can find him, in T-shirts and shorts, on Instagram at Auston.piano.
Auston is quite the prodigy. A 13, he plays difficult and dramatic repertoire: the Nocturne in C minor, the Scherzo No. 1 in B minor and the Ballade No. 1 in G minor, all by Chopin.
You can also hear him play the Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, by Johann Sebastian Bach; the fiendish Toccata by Sergei Prokofiev; and the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
One day, The Ear expects, Auston might well be among the impressive amateurs and, later, professionals who compete in international competitions.
But more than listening to him playing, his frequent social media entries – sometimes he posts two or three times a day — allow us to hear him practice. We even hear him practicing scales – so-called Russian scales that combine scales in parallel and contrary motion.
This week, he hit 100 video posts. Just yesterday Auston started sight-reading the “Winter Wind” Etude of Chopin, Op. 25, No. 11, which many consider to be the most technically difficult of all Chopin’s etudes. (You can hear the etude – played by Maurizio Pollini – and see the note-filled score in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Starting out, he often plays hands separately (below) and sight-reads the score very, very slowly, making mistakes and working out fingering. He also uses a metronome at a very slow tempo. He gets frustrated but he never gives up. He just starts over again and provides an excellent role model for aspiring piano students.
But this young man is also fun to read. In his one-minute or less entries of his “practice journal” – which he also calls his “practice journey” — he is witty and self-deprecating in his commentaries about the music and especially about himself when he makes mistakes. As seriously as he takes the piano and practicing, he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
All in all he can even encourage others – including The Ear –to persevere and go through the same frustrations of practicing and learning a new piece.
In this case, it is the piano, but the postings could easily apply to practicing any other instrument or even to singing.
Check it out.
You will be impressed.
You will admire him.
You will laugh along with him.
And you just might practice more.
If this practice journal is a pandemic project, it succeeds way beyond what you — and probably Auston himself — might expect.
Happy listening!
And patient, productive practicing!
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