The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Mosaic Chamber Players complete their cycle of Beethoven sonatas for strings with impressive beauty and sensitivity
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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. Barker also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
In another distressingly overcrowded weekend, hard choices had to be made about which event to attend. I picked the performance by the Mosaic Chamber Players last Saturday night at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Landmark Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society of Madison.
For the past four years, this group has pursued a “complete” survey of Beethoven’s sonatas for strings and piano. Since he composed 10 for violin and piano plus five for cello and piano, it was easy to organize them into five concerts, each with two violin sonatas and one for cello. In addition, it was possible in many programs to draw on all three periods of Beethoven’s output.
This year’s concert was thus the fifth and the last in the series, climaxing a really impressive achievement for artistic director and guiding spirit Jess Salek and his colleagues.
As pianist in all three of the works presented, Salek (below) provided more than accompaniment, since the role of the piano was generally put on terms of equal partnership, sometimes even of relative superiority. He played bravely, justly showing palpable pride in the total achievement.
Laura Burns (below), who also plays with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the MSO’s Rhapsodie String Quartet, was the violinist in the early Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12, No. 2.
This happens to be the first of these Beethoven sonatas that I came to know and love in my youth, via an old Jascha Heifetz recording, so it had particular reverberations for me. To its wit and sprightliness Burns brought an added warmth of sound and spirit.
The Cello Sonata No. 5 in D, Op. 102, No. 2, was the last one Beethoven composed for this medium, and one of two that dates from the composer’s late period. A great deal of very serious thinking went into it, with a slow movement particularly notable for its spiritual depth. Cellist Kyle Price (below) delivered it with genuine feeling and with great strength of tone.
Also Beethoven’s last work for its medium, the Violin Sonata No. 10 in G, Op. 96, comes from late in the composer’s so-called middle period. It is a work of almost kaleidoscopic variety, with frequent changes of mood and character.
Its core is another slow movement of amazingly personal eloquence and breath-taking beauty. And the theme-and-variations movement finale seems to have everything (almost) in it but the kitchen sink. (You can hear Wes Luke and Jess Salek performing another theme-and-variations movement from a different Beethoven violin sonata in the cycle, Op. 30, No. 1, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
It was clear that violinist Wes Luke (below), who is also the first violinist of the Ancora String Quartet, was having a whale of a good time playing it, relishing almost every note.
Luke’s printed program notes were particularly excellent, and included notice that the group’s spring concert will juxtapose piano trios of Beethoven and Brahms.
The Mosaic Chamber Players do not receive a great deal of publicity, but their concerts offer some of the most lovely and thought-provoking chamber music repertoire to be found, even in a town so full of wonderful music-making as ours.
Tags: accompaniment, achievement, American Record Guide, Arts, beauty, Beethoven, blog, brave, Cello, Chamber music, character, Classical music, composer, Concert, critic, cycle, Early music, eloquence, emeritus, equal, equality, feeling, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Frank Lloyd Wright, genuine, guide, History, impressive, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jascha Heifetz, Jess Salek, Johannes Brahms, John W. Barker, kaleidoscope, Kyle Price, late, Laura Burns, lecture, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Medieval, medium, mood, Mosaic Chamber Players, movement, Music, note, notes, old, Orchestra, output, overcrowded, partner, partnership, performance, period, Piano, Piano Trio, posting, pride, professor, program, Radio, recording, review, Rhapsodie Quartet, role, series, Sonata, Sound, spirit, spiritual, sprightly, Spring, strength, String quartet, strings, strong, Superior, survey, theme and variations, tone, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, variety, Violin, warm, warmth, weekend, Wes Luke, Wisconsin, wit, WORT-FM 89.9, Writer, YouTube
Classical music: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra opens its new season at 7:30 p.m. – NOT 8 — this coming Friday night. The program includes symphonies by William Boyce and Franz Schubert along with the Violin Concerto by Tchaikovsky
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By Jacob Stockinger
One by one, the major groups in town are getting their new concert season under way.
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below) will take its turn this coming Friday night in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
PLEASE NOTE: The traditional starting time for the WCO Masterworks concerts has been changed from 8 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The Ear isn’t sure whether it is for the convenience of audiences or because of the new security measures at the Overture Center. But he likes the earlier starting time since WCO programs are usually very generous.
True to his programming philosophy, WCO music director and conductor Andrew Sewell is mixing the very popular with the rarely heard and the almost completely unknown.
The most popular and well-known work, the Violin Concerto in D major by Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky features Russian violinist Ilya Kaler (below) at the soloist in the surefire work.
Kaler sounds very promising, since he is the only violinist ever to won gold medals at three prestigious competitions — the Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Paganini competitions. In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear him perform a work by Fritz Kreisler at the Heifetz Festival.
The Symphony No. 4 in C minor by Franz Schubert (below) is a youthful work, but it possesses a surprisingly mature power deriving from its mood and mystery — perhaps because he composed it in the favorite key of his mentor and idol Ludwig van Beethoven. Hence its nickname, “Tragic.”
It should also be an outstanding performance because Schubert’s music is one of conductor Sewell’s many strengths.
William Boyce (1711-1779) was a Baroque-era English composer, a contemporary of George Frideric Handel, who was more popular in his own day. But who has been making something of a comeback, thanks to the early music movement.
Boyce (below) wrote six symphonies, and No. 5 in D Major on this program promises some pleasant surprises. The Ear doesn’t recall ever hearing Boyce performed live in Madison, though that is hardly the definitive word. Maybe he just missed it.
Single tickets are $10 to $80. For tickets, a sample of Ilya Kaler’s playing and background information, visit:
http://www.wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-i-2/
Tags: Andrew Sewell, Arts, Baroque, Chamber music, Classical music, Competition, concerto, conductor, Early music, English, Franz Schubert, Fritz Kreisler, George Frideric Handel, Gold medal, Heifetz Festival, Ilya Kaler, International Tchaikovsky Competition, Jacob Stockinger, Jascha Heifetz, London, Madison, Music, Music director, Orchestra, Overture Center, Paganini, program, Russia, security, Sibelius, symphony, Tchaikovsky, Tragic, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Violin concerto, William Boyce, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: The Ear catches up again. This time he takes in a terrific evening sampler of Edvard Grieg at Taliesin in Spring Green. Plus, here is more news from Day 3 of WYSO’s tour in Argentina.
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Here is the daily alert for the tour though Aug. 3 by Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) in Argentina. Here is a link to the latest news from Day 3: www.wysotour2014.blogspot.com
By Jacob Stockinger
As I said yesterday, The Ear is finally getting a chance to catch up on some old business, now that live concerts have quieted down a bit for a while.
I have another short review for today.
THE EAR HEARS A GREAT GRIEG SAMPLER AT TALIESIN
Earlier this month, The Ear found himself wondering: Why don’t we hear more music by Edvard Grieg?
Well, we know that famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright -– better known to his cult-like following as Mr. Wright –- much preferred the music of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Makes sense. One big and difficult ego attracted to another big and difficult ego. One would-be artistic titan wanting to cloak himself in the mantle of another.
But nevertheless on July 14 -– forget Bastille Day — the Hillside Theater (below) at Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green saw an evening sampler of the 19th-century Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, and some other Scandinavian composers, performed, thanks to the Rural Musicians Forum and its director Kent Mayfield.
Called “Songs of Norway,” the program featured the kind of variety that The Ear would like to see in more concert programming: a dozen or so songs; 10 solo piano pieces from the “Lyric Pieces”; and the Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 13, for violin and piano.
I found the music somewhat uneven, but never bad. And all the performances, turned in by three outstanding musicians (below), proved quite satisfying.
University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music soprano Mimmi Fulmer (below) showed fine control and tone while singing songs both a cappella and with the piano. Moreover, her Norwegian diction and pronunciation were quite good, or so I was told by a native Norwegian speaker.
Pianist Michael Keller, a retired professor from UW-Stevens Point, performed admirably both as soloist and accompanist or collaborator. He excelled at conveying the quickly changing moods of miniature Lyric Pieces, of which he played 10 contrasting ones.
And violinist Stephen Bjella, an artist-in-residence at the UW-Stevens Point, played the more ambitious violin sonata with conviction and aplomb.
Now truth be told, Edvard Grieg’s music is no match for the achievement of Bach. Or Beethoven. Or Mozart. Or Haydn, Or Schubert. Or Schumann. Or Brahms. Or Mahler. And so on and so on. But The Ear thinks of Grieg as The Dvorak of the North. I think Claude Debussy once said his works were bonbons filled with snow.
That doesn’t mean his music is without value. His “salon”-like music certainly is enjoyable and worth hearing more often. Major artists like pianists Arthur Rubinstein, Emil Gilels and Stephen Hough play his Lyric Pieces and included several in their active repertoire. I think the violinist Jascha Heifetz also liked his three violin sonatas. And his songs are too rarely heard, perhaps because of the difficulty of singing Norwegian instead of German and French, Italian and English. Plus, the Emerson Quartet won a Grammy with his one string quartet.
So this was a thoroughly enjoyable concert that reminded The Ear that the music of Grieg deserves to be heard more often in live performance than it currently is. Just listen to the lovely Nocturne, played by a contestant in the Grieg Piano Competition, in a YouTube video at the bottom.
Thanks go to Kent Williams (below top), to the Rural Musicians Forum –- which he directs and which is presenting a FREE tango quintet this Monday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Unity Chapel in Spring Green –- to Taliesin and especially to the three performers as well as to the full house (below bottom) that makes such a proposal all the more feasible and appealing.
Hear more music by Edvard Grieg?
As the late Eileen Stritch would sing: “I’ll Drink to That.”
Better break out the ice water.
Tags: Arthur Rubinstein, Arts, Bach, Beethoven, Chamber music, Classical music, Edvard Grieg, Emil Gilels, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Schubert, Hillside Theater, Jacob Stockinger, Jascha Heifetz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lyric Pieces, Music, Norway, Piano, Rural Musicians Forum, salon music, Scandinavia, Sonata, songs, soprano, Spring Green, Stephen Hough, Taliesin, tango, Unity Chapel, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Stevens Point, Violin, Violin Sonata, vocal music, voice, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: Would you believe that seeing a musician perform WITHOUT SOUND is a better predictor of competition success than hearing the performance? That’s what a new study tells us.
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By Jacob Stockinger
It turns out that composer Igor Stravinsky (below) was on to something when he urged people to listen to live performances of music with their eyes open.
But The Ear is betting that even he did not realize just what he was on to since maybe all you need is eyes.
So let me put the question to you:
How could you best predict the winner of a music competition? By using: A) audio only; B) visuals only; or C) audio and visuals.
I would have answered probably A followed by C.
And I suspect so would many of you.
But a new study says we would be wrong.
The correct the answer is definitely B.
That’s right. The music doesn’t matter after all. Don’t even listen. Forget the music. Just look! Or if you are a contestant, just send in a silent video.
It turns out that even very experienced professional musicians – yes, including the judges of competitions — did better using silent visuals than other sources including the combination of audio and visual.
Not surprisingly, a number of classical music websites have been buzzing with news of the study.
But the best summary I know of so far was done by NPR’s “Morning Edition”’s social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam (below) who also blogs on the website www.hidden brain.org. Here is a link you can use to listen to his story (don’t just look at his picture):
http://www.npr.org/2013/08/20/213551358/how-to-win-that-music-competition-send-a-video
And here is another good version from the Harvard Gazette of Harvard University where pianist and human behavioral psychologist specializing in organizational behavior Chia Jung-Tsay (below in a photo by Kris Snibbe) was a co-researcher of the surprising study:
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/08/the-look-of-music/
And to think I always enjoyed and emulated the non-emotive and regally quiet bearing of pianists Arthur Rubinstein (below) and Vladimir Horowitz, of violinists Jascha Heifetz and Itzhak Perlman.
I do wonder if an earlier generation, less used to social media and YouTube, would have yielded different results. But we won’t ever know, will we?
So perhaps the Liberace-like flamboyant gestures and physical antics or performing style of the superstar Lang Lang (below) have their place in communicating musical beauty after all.
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