The Well-Tempered Ear
The 10th annual Baroque Holiday Concert by the Madison Bach Musicians is next Saturday night and will be virtual and online
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By Jacob Stockinger
On this coming Saturday night, Dec. 12, the Madison Bach Musicians will present their 10th annual Baroque Holiday Concert (below is a photo of a previous year’s holiday concert).
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s one-hour concert will be a virtual web event.
The program features Baroque masterworks by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, Arcangelo Corelli, Joseph Dall’Abaco, Jean Daniel Braun and Marc-Antoine Charpentier. It was recorded Dec. 1-6 in several acoustically superior venues.
Links to the MBM holiday program can be purchased at $15 per household at https://madisonbachmusicians.org. Patrons purchasing the link can view the program the evening of Dec. 12 and anytime afterward through Friday, Dec. 26.
Festivities begin at 7:30 p.m. with MBM director Trevor Stephenson’s 30-minute pre-concert lecture about the repertoire, the composers and the period instruments.
At 8 p.m., viewers will see the 60-minute, high-definition video of the concert portion of the program, followed by a 30-minute Zoom Q&A session with the musicians from their homes. Questions for the Zoom session should be submitted by email to MBM manager Karen Rebholz at madisonbachmusicians.manager@gmail.com.
The concert begins with a selection of nine pieces from the Schemelli Songbook. Georg Schemelli collaborated with Johann Sebastian Bach (below, 1685-1750) in assembling this magnificent collection of spiritual songs, published in Leipzig in 1736. Bach provided most of the bass lines and wonderful harmonizations.
Grammy Award-winning soprano Estelí Gomez and harpsichordist Trevor Stephenson (both below) perform this set in the beautiful chapel at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.
From the sanctuary of Grace Episcopal Church, on the Capitol Square in downtown Madison, baroque cellist James Waldo (below) will perform Bach’s magisterial Solo Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major.
UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music bassoon faculty member Marc Vallon (below top, in a photo by James Gill) and esteemed baroque cellist Martha Vallon (below bottom) team up in the Collins Recital Hall of the UW”s Hamel Music Center for a Duo Sonata by Jean Daniel Braun (1703-1738).
Marc will also play a solo bassoon transcription of two Fantasias, originally for solo flute, by Telemann (1681-1767). Martha will perform the meditative Capriccio no. 4 in D minor by Dall’Abaco (1710-1805).
The program concludes at The Crossing in Madison with MBM concertmaster violinist Kangwon Kim (below top), violist Micah Behr (below bottom) and cellist James Waldo joining in a medley of holiday favorites.
They include Greensleeves variations over a ground (repeated bass line); three movements from Christmas Music for Instruments by Charpentier (1643-1704); the Adagio from the Christmas Concerto Op. 6, No. 8 by Corelli (1653-1713), which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom; and two beloved carols — Lo How a Rose and Sussex Carol – in arrangements by Micah Behr.
MBM wishes to thank Geneva Campus Church for their collaboration in filming this portion of the program as a contribution to their weekly services.
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Classical music: The Ear turns matchmaker – and helps amateur musicians to connect
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By Jacob Stockinger
It started out simply as a desire to help.
But now The Ear has turned out to be a matchmaker.
You may recall that a University of Wisconsin-Madison bacteriology professor Kenneth Hammel is an amateur baroque bassoonist. He asked if The Ear might have suggestions for his finding a chamber music partner.
So The Ear suggested posting his request, and he agreed.
Here is the original link:
Now it turns out the experiment worked and was a success.
So The Well-Tempered Ear now serves as a sort of online dating service for classical musicians who seek musical partners to play with. And as a fierce advocate of amateur music-making, he likes that role!
Here is the follow-up letter that Hammel sent to The Ear:
“Hi Jake:
“I wanted to let you know that it worked. Two people contacted me after you posted my letter and picture. One of them you certainly know — Paul Baker. He and I played together on cello and bassoon this weekend.
“The other person, named Betty Cohen, is a recorder player who says she’ll contact me shortly to arrange a session.
“So, many thanks to you for getting the word out on your blog.”
“In case you want to hear a sample of baroque bassoon playing, I’ve attached an mp3 (not for dissemination!) of me playing a short fantasia by Jean Daniel Braun, ca. 1730.
“Best wishes for the new year,
“Ken”
“PS: The music, and an interesting commentary on it (at the end of the score) is at:
http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/b/bf/IMSLP349300-PMLP564250-Tel41a4fag-cel.pdf
The bass line for the sonata was long thought to be lost, but was then discovered in a different library than the one that holds the original solo part.
A very good YouTube performance on baroque bassoon (4 separate links for the 4 movements) is at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO9l1PYJZEY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_ZyJp-avc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKNtxgEoatg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2IyM3pKR6A
A quick search for the ensemble, Concordi Musici, indicates that their bassoonist is named Josip Casadella.
And The Ear also heard about success from the other chamber music partner, Paul Baker (below), who wrote with his usual sense of self-deprecating humor.
Paul Baker, you might recall, is a jazz fan in addition to being a radio host for WSUM, the student radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He hosts a program and writes a blog called Only Strings:
Here is a link to his blog:
https://onlystringswsum.wordpress.com
“My friend:
“I thank you for posting Ken Hammel’s request for baroque practice buddies. We are now working independently on sections of a Sonatina in A Minor, TWV 41, by Georg Philipp Telemann and will meet soon to begin rehearsing.
Forgive The Ear’s pride.
But now he may have to seek out a violinist or cellist or another pianist for himself, as an avid amateur pianist, to play with.
Anyone interested in playing with The Ear?
Anyone else want to find a different music partner?
Leave word in the COMMENT section.
Or maybe it should be called the PERSONALS?
Tags: amateur, Antonio Torriani, Arts, Baroque, Bassoon, blog, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Eugene Bordeau, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gabriel Pierne, Gustav Schreck, Holiday, Holidays, Jacob Stockinger, Jean Daniel Braun, Madison, martchmaker, Music, online dating, Orchestra, Pablo Casals, Piano, Radio, recorder, sonatina, Telemann, TWV, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin, yenta, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
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