The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: This week brings some appealing solo recitals and chamber music performances for piano, violin, cello, guitar and piano trio.

By Jacob Stockinger

This coming week has some big musical events, including the Madison Opera’s production of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Bohème” on Friday night and Sunday afternoon; and the annual two days of fall concerts by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras on Saturday and Sunday. Both of those events will be previewed at length later this week.

But there is also some very appealing music on a smaller scale, including a solo piano recital, a violin and piano recital, a guitar recital, and a chamber music concert that features piano trios.

Here are the four stand-out events:

TUESDAY NIGHT

On Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, Canadian-born pianist Joel Hastings will give a FREE guest artist concert.

His program features five transcriptions by Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Il m’aimait tant – Mélodie; Die Gräberinsel der Fürsten zu Gotha – Lied von Herzog Ernst, zu Sachsen-Coburg- Gotha; Spanisches Ständchen – Melodie von Graf Leó Festetic Romance du Comte Mikaïl Wielhorsky; Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth – Elegie/ Also included is piano music by Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954) including Barcarolle No. 1, Chant de l’Aube, Sonorités and Rythmes; and Twelve Etudes, Op. 8, by Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915).

Joel Hastings (below), who teaches at Florida State University in Tallahassee, was the winner of the 2006 Eighth International Web Concert Hall Competition and the 1993 International Bach Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
 After his performance at the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, one reporter designated Hastings the “audience favorite” while another declared, “the kinetic fingers of this young Canadian reminded me strongly of his late countryman, Glenn Gould.”

Hastings will also give a FREE and PUBLIC master class on Wednesday, Nov. 11, from noon to 2 in Morphy Hall.

For more information about events at the UW-Madison including student performances, visit:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/

WEDNESDAY 

The UW-Madison Guitar Ensemble (below) will perform a FREE concert at 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall under director Javier Calderon. Sorry, The Ear has received nothing specific about the program.

Undergraduates Erik Anderson, left, and Anthony Caulkins perform a duet during a UW Guitar Ensemble music concert in Mills Hall at the Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during spring on April 17, 2013. The photograph was created for #UWRightNow, a 24-hour multimedia and social-network project. (Photo by Jeff Miller/UW-Madison)

FRIDAY

At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, Soh-Hyun Park Altino (below, in a  photo by Caroline Bittencourt), the new professor of violin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, will make her local debut. (She is seen below teaching in a photo by Michael R. Anderson.)

Altino (left), with freshman violinist Lydia Schweitzer, has developed a specialty in addressing overuse injuries.

Her must-hear program features the Sonata No. 3 in C Major for Solo Violin, BWV 1005, by Johann Sebastian Bach (which you can hear performed by Hilary Hahn in a YouTube video at the bottom); the Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano by Johannes Brahms; the Romance, Op. 23, by American composer Amy Beach; and the Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano by American composer Charles Ives. UW professor of collaborative piano Martha Fischer will perform with her. Admission is $12 for the public; free for all students.

For more information, visit these sites:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/debut-faculty-concert-soh-hyun-park-altino-violin/

For a Q&A:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/2015/07/31/welcoming-new-faculty-violinist-prof-soh-hyun-park-altino/

For a fine background story and preview about a “world-class talent” from Isthmus:

http://www.isthmus.com/music/violin-professor-soh-hyun-park-altino/

SATURDAY

This Saturday afternoon, Nov. 14, at 3 p.m., St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below), located at 1833 Regent Street in Madison, will host a performance by participants in The Leonard Sorkin International Institute of Chamber Music.

Parking is on the street and admission is a free-will offering.

The Leonard Sorkin International Institute of Chamber Music (ICM) offers a concentration in chamber music performance for advanced level graduate students and young professional musicians. The program is based at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is directed by violin professor Bernard Zinck.

The program prepares students for careers in performance with a combination of weekly masterclasses, coaching and private lessons as well as financial and facility support. ICM students enjoy a rehearsal space and office dedicated to their use, mentors on self-management or advice on seeking professional management, and contest travel finances in addition to generous fellowships which pay tuition plus a modest stipend.

Typically, individual students form chamber ensembles such as string quartets or piano trios, give one group recital each semester, and use the repertoire from these recitals in outreach presentations, concerts and competitions.

The program to be performed at St. Andrew’s is: Piano Trio, Op. 33, in E-flat major by Louise Farrenc; Sonata for Cello and Violin by Maurice Ravel; and Piano Trio No. 3 in C Major, Op. 87, by Johannes Brahms.

For more information and biographies of the performers, go to an scroll down:

http://www.standrews-madison.org/saint-andrews-concert-series.html