The Well-Tempered Ear
Making music saves senior brains, studies find
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you are a senior and think that making music— even as a beginner — is for younger people, you couldn’t be more wrong.
A newly released British study offers convincing evidence that singing in a choir (below top, the now-defunct UW-Madison Choral Union) and playing an instrument (below bottom) helps to boost memory, and save the brains of older people, possibly averting or postponing cognitive decline, dementia and possibly Alzheimer’s disease.
Here are links, on Classic FM radio station’s website, to the stories about the two studies:
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/piano-choir-keeps-brain-memory-active/
https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/piano-lessons-older-age-delay-dementia/
How does your own experience measure up to findings in the studies?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Apple Music Classical is now available in Asia
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By Jacob Stockinger
As of this past Tuesday, Apple Music Classical is finally available in Asia.
At least in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Macao.
Apple has not yet said whether it is available there on Android phones, which in the West came later than the inaugural availability only on iPhones.
But so far The Ear doesn’t see any mention of other East Asians countries such Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia, Indonesia, Laos or Cambodia. And there is also no mention whatsoever of South Asian countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Turkey, Iran and others.
Maybe Apple is still working on the native languages of those markets.
In any case, it seems a natural fit for Apple Music Classical and its enhanced streaming service in terms of artists, repertoire and organizations.
To The Ear, it certainly seems that in many ways Asia seems to be current hotspot for Western classical music, judging by concert attendance as well as the numbers of students and the winners of international competitions.
Here is the announcement that the prestigious Gramophone magazine in the UK posted:
And here is the announcement from Music Business Worldwide. It has more background, including some specifics about classical music performaers in Asia that will now be available on the Apple Music apps. But you have to click on the orange button that reads “Continue to article”:
Plus as of today, Apple has named two prominent and young Asian pianists (named below) as official Artist Ambassadors to Apple Music Classical. Here is the announcement made on Instagram:
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How does a blind great pianist learn music?
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By Jacob Stockinger
How does he do it?
It is amazing that Nobuyuki Tsujii (below), a 35-year-old Japanese man who has been blind since birth, learned to play the piano.
It is even more amazing that he learned to play classical music well enough to perform in public at the age of 12.
And it seems to The Ear that it is still more amazing that he plays and performs well enough to win the Gold Medal at the international and highly esteemed Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 2009 and go on to establish a global career.
You might have heard of him or even heard his playing before.
Here is a link to his biography on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuyuki_Tsujii
But The Ear can’t recall hearing him discuss is such specific detail how he goes about learning a piece of music despite his blindness, his vision impairment and severe disability.
And we are not talking about easy music.
He plays and performs both books of Chopin etudes; played Beethoven’s mammoth, knuckle-busting “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Op. 106, during the Cliburn competition; tosses off Liszt’s fiendishly virtuosic “La Campanella” (in the YouTube video at the bottom he plays it live as an encore to a rapturous reception at a BBC Proms concert); and the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1.
This past Sunday, Tsjuii played the Chopin concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in a free concert at Clemson University,
Here is the revealing Q&A interview he gave to the Greenville Journal for that occasion.
The Ear finds his career an inspiring story.
What do you think?
Would you like to see and hear him play locally?
If you have attended a live concert of his, what did you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Brrr! It’s time to hear the ‘Polar Vortex’ aria
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By Jacob Stockinger
We in the Upper Midwest — like much of the rest of the United States down to the Gulf of Mexico — have been treated to an Arctic gift from Canada for the next week or so.
It is called the Polar Vortex (below).
As you can see if you look closely or enlarge the diagram, the vortex has dropped way south from the North Pole, bringing with it way-below average temperatures, many of them going into the double digits below zero. And that doesn’t even include wind chill. (China has also been experiencing recording-breaking extreme cold.)
So it seemed only reasonable to see how a composer has expressed such extreme cold in a piece of vocal music — especially as the cold weather might seriously affect the Republican presidential caucuses that get started tomorrow in Iowa.
So here — complete with lyrics by the famous English writer John Dryden — is “The Cold Song” from 1691 opera “King Arthur” by the British baroque composer Henry Purcell (below), who did a terrific job of word painting and sound painting.
The Ear calls it the “Polar Vortex” aria. Officially its title is “What Power Art Thou Who From Below” and is sung by a character called The Cold Genius.
In the YouTube video below it is interpreted by the world-renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl (below) who is accompanied by the highly praised period-instrument early musical ensemble Accademia Byzantina under director Stefan Montenari.
The quivering repetitive rhythm you see in the notes duplicates shivering as a kind of extreme vibrato.
It is a literally chilling performance.
If you follow the words, the lyrics add to the sense of being stuck in a deep freeze.
How well do you think the imaginative song captures the extreme cold of The Polar Vortex?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Here are winners of major international music competitions in 2023. What’s next?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Which young, up-and-coming classical musicians should you keep an eye on during the coming year?
Which ones, if any, will be booked in coming years to performance locally, say, at the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Wisconsin Union Theater; or at the Salon Piano Series; or as a University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music guest artist?
One guide to 2024 and beyond might be to review the winners of the international music competitions held in 2023.
Thanks to The Violin Channel, here is a list of many such winners who may go on to establish more prominent careers. If you click on the names of the competitions, posted in red, you will be linked to fuller stories about the competitions, many of which you have probably never heard of. The Ear follows many contests but had never heard of many of these.
Here is a link:
You can find out about histories of the competitions, other prize winners, places they are held and how often, jury members and contest rules and formats, and more. And you can hear excerpts from some prestigious competitions including the Bischoff Chamber Music competition and a competition for young child prodigy violinists in Italy.
At the bottom of the story, you can hear a YouTube video with the 19-year-old, Asian-American pianist Magdelena Ho in her contest-winning performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland. She looks to have a promising future.
The winners came all continents — Asian, Africa, North America, South America and Europe.
And the competitions were held in many different places and focused on many different kinds or genres of classical music: violin, viola, cello, double bass and guitar; piano; saxophone;mharp; percussion and drums; chamber music and symphonic music; conducting; singing; and early music.
At the bottom is a vibrant performance of a familiar Bach suite by Canadian cellist Luka Coetzee who won Finland’s Paulo Competition and also took first prize at the Pablo Casals Competition on 2022.
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Remembering the classical musicians who died in 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
It remains an end-of-the-year ritual: remembering the dead who brought beauty to us through music.
Here are remembrances of the classical musicians we lost in 2023.
From Presto Music comes a list of world-known talents who died this past year — plus those who died in recent past years. It is relatively short and has links to the full obituaries, including the of American mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry (below, in 2009, in the singing the famous Habanera from Bizet’s “Carmen” in the YouTube video at the bottom). A pioneer, she was the first Black singer to perform at the annual summer Wagner festival in Beyreuth, Germany, and she performed at the Wisconsin Union Theater during the 1978-79 season:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/articles/obituary/browse
Here is a longer, less renowned and more international list from The Violin Channel.
It includes many very well known musicians, including Menahem Pressler (below who co-founded and played for more than 50 years with the Beaux Arts Trio, which performed several times at the Wisconsin Union Theater. He also taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
It also includes the jazz and classical bassist Richard Davis (below), who spent decades teaching and performing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
The Ear especially likes this list because ordinary “house” musicians — and not just stars — are remembered. After all, the majority of musicians who add so much to our lives are not stars — but usually just mainstream workers in the arts.
Click on the names in red to see the full biographies, many of which are more touching than you might expect — for example, the Ukrainian conductor who died young while defending his country against Russia.
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New Yorker critic Alex Ross names 26 notable classical music recordings from 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
Alex Ross (below) writes for The New Yorker magazine and is perhaps the most respected classical music critic not only in the U.S. but in the world.
His bestselling book of collected essays, “The Rest Is Noise,” has been acclaimed and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. HIs latest book about Wagner, art and politics has also been highly praised.
This year, unlike in many others, Ross chose to list notable recordings along with a few general observations about the live performances and the recording scene.
For example, he has both sharp criticism and high praise of how the largest commercial labels as well as smaller specialty labels such as BIS and Hyperion are coping with the ever-growing popularity and challenge of streaming.
Ross also sounds a warning about the “transformation” of the iconic Mostly Mozart Festival by Lincoln Center to re-conceive the famous summer concert series as more “inclusive” — despite its financial and artistic success over decades.
Ross’ remarks serve as a timely warning for programmers at concert venues and radio shows to be careful of trying to increase popularity with simplistic ways to “de-canonize” and “de-colonialize” the repertoire in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion.
One suspects that what matters most of all to Ross is the quality of the compositions and the performances — not the genre, color or culture of those who are responsible for them. Not all parts of culture, he suggests in a longer version of the remarks, need to appeal to all parts of society.
Anyway, read his remarks about the best recordings and see the list of 20 others and see what you think:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/notable-classical-recordings-of-2023
One noteworthy fact is that he named the young Korean pianist Yunchan Lim (below, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucci) to his “best-of” list for Lim’s live recording made during the Van Cliburn Competition that he won last year at the age of 18.
In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear Lim play “Mazeppa,” perhaps the most fiendishly difficult of Liszt’s “Twelve Transcendental Etudes.” It depicts a Ukrainian folk hero who is punished for his adultery by being strapped naked to a galloping wild horse and struggles to free himself.
And if you have not yet heard Lim’s electrifying performance Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with conductor Marin Alsop during the finals of the Cliburn competition, you should check it out at YouTube.
Do you have any opinions about the recording that Ross selected?
About Yunchan Lim?
The Ear want to hear.
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Hear 25 works of Christmas-inspired classical music plus 86 minutes of background music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today — Sunday, Dec. 24, 2023 — is Christmas Eve.
Many people and households will start celebrating Christmas today and tonight.
Then, of course, there is tomorrow — Christmas Day and especially morning,
By now you have certainly heard many hymns and carols plus the usual popular holiday musical fare.
But here are 25 works of classical music that are appropriate for today and tomorrow.
Some composers and works probably sound familiar while others are more obscure or neglected.
But each work comes with a short background story or narrative, plus an audio-visual video clip from YouTube.
Here is the link. Take a listen and decide for yourself.
In a less serious vein, the YouTube video below adds a different site with 86 minutes of traditional and familiar songs, hymns and carols — but in instrumental arrangements. It might sound a lot like old-fashioned Mantovani, but The Ear thinks that the lack of words and vocal music makes it more suitable for background to conversation and socializing.
What do you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
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The Guardian names its Top 10 classical albums of 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here’s another “Best of 2023” or “Top 10 of 2023” list of classical recordings during the past year.
This one comes come the British newspaper The Guardian. The Ear likes that the critic also refrains from calling the choices definite, but rather emphasizes personal preference that were “particularly impressive or rewarding.”.
While my own preferences haven’t been well incorporated into other lists, at least this one has one of my favorite and relatively young artists: the Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson (below).
He is noteworthy when playing Mozart, Debussy and Philip Glass.
But I find him most outstanding in Baroque repertoire, including his performances and own transcriptions of Rameau and especially Bach.
This year he is touring the world with his latest release — an astonishing recordings of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.” He takes all repeats and offers 85 minutes or greater clarity, drive, left hand voicing and ornamentation. (You can hear a snippet in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
But there is much more to check out.
This list lacks audio samples but does have links to the full reviews.
See for yourself:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/20/our-top-10-classical-recordings-of-2023
And here are lists to other Best of lists, which can be used for buying or receiving gifts or for exploring on various subscription services.
This is from NPR or National Public Radio:
And this is from Gramophone magazine:
Are you familiar with any of the named or honored recordings?
What ones do you recommend?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Gramophone critics name their favorite recordings of 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
Based in London, Gramophone Magazine — below is the December cover celebrating the centennial of opera legend Maria Callas — is probably the best known and most highly respected magazine to focus on classical music.
The monthly features and reviews are usually quite illuminating. And the year-end wrap-ups or seasonal holiday guides are often excellent for purchasing CDs and LPs, or for simply finding out and sampling the new releases of the past year on a streaming service.
Below are the the favorites by various critics for Gramophone.
The Ear finds it particularly interesting and telling that the critics refer to their “favorite” recordings — not the “best” recording — of the past year. I find “favorite” more honestly subjective than the falsely objective “best,” which takes no account of personal taste or preference.
Unfortunately, unlike many other similar lists the Gramophone story does not include samples from YouTube or the actual recordings. (You can hear one sample in the YouTube video at the bottom where Andras Schiff plays Bach on a rarely heard clavichord.)
But each selection has a link to the full review that appeared in Gramophone.
You should know that Gramophone has the reputation of favoring British composers, artists and labels. And that nationalistic bias shows in some of this year’s selections.
Nonetheless, many of the choices —across many different genres from instrumental and vocal soloists to chamber music to orchestral and choral music — are informative and intriguing.
Check them out for yourself via this link:
To see any crossovers in British and American year-end lists, you can check out this year’s Top 10 from Tom Huizenga on National Public Radio (NPR):
What do you think of the selections?
Do you agree with any? Which ones?
Do you have your own suggestions about the best or favorite recordings you heard this year?
The Ear wants to hear.
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