The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: This Saturday night, the Con Vivo woodwind quintet makes its debut. Plus, the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble performs a variety of chamber music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Valentine’s Day weekend is turning out to be a popular time for concerts. Here are two more performances on this coming Saturday night:
CON VIVO
Con Vivo!, or “Music With Life,” continues its 18th season of chamber music concerts with the inaugural performance of CVQ, the Con Vivo woodwind quintet (below).
The concert will take place this Saturday night, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave., across from Camp Randall Stadium.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
Convenient free parking is only 2 blocks west at the University Foundation, 1848 University Ave.
The debut concert will include music — no specific titles have been named — by Aaron Copland, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Gyorgy Ligeti and Ludwig van Beethoven. The woodwind quintet comprises flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn.
Says Con Vivo’s artistic director Robert Taylor: “We continue our season with our newest members joining forces to perform pieces for the woodwind quintet genre, providing new sounds for our audiences. We are excited to add these fabulous musicians to our group. This concert will be a great way to shake off those winter blues!”
Con Vivo (below) is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.
For more information, go to: convivomusicwithlife.org
WISCONSIN BAROQUE ENSEMBLE
The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below) will perform a concert of baroque chamber music this Saturday night, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street.
Players include: Eric Miller, viola da gamba; Sigrun Paust, recorder; Chelsie Propst, soprano; Charlie Rasmussen, baroque cello and viola da gamba; Daniel Sullivan, harpsichord; and Anton TenWolde, baroque cello and viola da gamba.
Tickets at the door only are: $20, $10 for students.
The program includes:
François Couperin – Pieces for viol, Suite No. 1 (You can hear the Prelude, played by Jordi Savall, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre – Cantata “Jacob and Rachel”
Pietro Castrucci – Sonata No. 3 for recorder and basso continuo
Jean-Baptiste Barriere – Adagio from Sonata No. 2 for cello and basso continuo, Book 1
Marin Marais – Chaconne 83 from Pieces for Viol, Book 5
Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana – “Veni dulcissime Domine” (Come, Sweet Lord)
Girolamo Frescobaldi – Toccata No. 8, Partita on the Aria of Monicha (1637)
Unico van Wassenaer – Sonata No. 2 for recorder and basso continuo
Johann Michael Nicolai –Sonata for Three Viola da Gambas in D major
For more information, go to: www.wisconsinbaroque.org
Tags: #AaronCopland, #AmericanBrassQuintet, #AntonTenWolde, #ArtisticDirector, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueRecorder, #BassoonMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CampRandallStadium, #ChamberMusic, #CharlieRasmussen, #ChelsiePropst, #ChristianChurch, #ClarinetMusic, #ClassicalMusician, #ConVivo, #DanielSullivan, #ElisabethJacquetdelaGuerre, #EricMiller, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #FluteMusic, #FrancoisCouperin, #GirolamoFrescobaldi, #GyorgyLigeti, #JacobStockinger, #Jean-BaptisteBarriere, #JesusChrist, #JohannMichaelNicolai, #JordiSavall, #LouisMoreauGottschalk, #LucreziaOrsinaVizzana, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MarinMarais, #MusicWithLife, #OboeMusic, #PietroCastrucci, #ProfessionalMusician, #RobertTaylor, #SaintAndrew, #SaturdayNight, #SigrunPaust, #SopranoSinger, #St.Andrew'sEpiscopalChurch, #TheEar, #UnicovanWassenaer, #ValentinesDay, #VioladaGamba, #VocalMusic, #WinterBlues, #WisconsinBaroqueEnsemble, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WoodwindQuintet, Aaron Copland, adagio, adult, Anton TenWolde, aria, Artistic director, Arts, audience, Baroque, Bassoon, Beethoven, blog, blues, Camp Randall Stadium, Cantata, cellist, Cello, chaconne, Chamber music, Charlie Rasmussen, Chelsie Propst, Christ, Christian, church, clarinet, Classical, Classical music, classicalmusic, Con Vivo, Concert, Copland, Couperin, CVQ, Daniel Sullivan, dear, door, Early music, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, ensemble, Eric Miller, Facebook, First Congregational United Church of Christ, flute, François Couperin, free, French horn, Frescobaldi, genre, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Gottschalk, group, György Ligeti, harpsichord, Horn, inaugural, Jacob, Jacob Stockinger, Jean Baptiste Barrière, Johann Michael Nicolai, Jordi Savall, Ligeti, like, link, Lord, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marin Marais, member, msician, Music, Music With Life, new, newest, noght, Oboe, Orchestra, partita, performance, performer, Piano, pieces, Pietro Castrucci, popular, post, posting, Prelude, professional, program, purchase, quintet, Rachel, recorder, Robert Taylor, Saturday, Season, share, Sigrun Paust, singer, Sonata, soprano, Sound, specific, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Student, Suite, sweet, tag, The Ear, tickets, time, title, toccata, Unico van Wassenaer, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Valentine's Day, viola da gamba, Violin, vocal music, weekend, winter, winter blues, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, woodwind, Woodwind quintet, YouTube
Classical music: Here are the classical music winners of the 2018 Grammy Awards.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This posting is both a news story and a gift guide of sorts about recordings you might like to give or get.
It features the classical music nominations for and winners of the Grammy Awards, which were just announced this past Sunday night.
Read them and in the COMMENT section what you think of the recordings that you know and which ones you think deserved to win. (The Ear got about half right.)
You can also encouraged to comment on the Grammys in general.
NOTE: THE WINNERS HAVE AN ASTERISK AND A PHOTO, AND ARE BOLDFACED
HISTORICAL ALBUMS:
- “The Goldberg Variations — the Complete Unreleased Recording Sessions June 1955” — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Matthias Erb, Martin Kistner & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Glenn Gould)
- *”Leonard Bernstein — the Composer” (below) — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Martin Kistner & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Leonard Bernstein)
ENGINEERED ALBUM, CLASSICAL
- “Danielpour: Songs of Solitude & War Songs” — Gary Call, engineer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)
- “Kleiberg: Mass for Modern Man” — Morten Lindberg, engineer (Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Trondheim Vokalensemble & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra)
- “Schoenberg, Adam: American Symphony; Finding Rothko; Picture Studies” — Keith O. Johnson & Sean Royce Martin, engineers (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony)
- *”Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio” (below) — Mark Donahue, engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
- “Tyberg: Masses” — John Newton, engineer; Jesse Brayman, mastering engineer (Brian A. Schmidt, Christopher Jacobson & South Dakota Chorale)
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, CLASSICAL
- Blanton Alspaugh
- Manfred Eicher
- *David Frost (below)
- Morten Lindberg
- Judith Sherman
ORCHESTRAL PERFORMANCE
- “Concertos for Orchestra” — Louis Langrée, conductor (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra)
- “Copland: Symphony No. 3; Three Latin American Sketches” — Leonard Slatkin, conductor (Detroit Symphony Orchestra)
- “Debussy: Images; Jeux & La Plus Que Lente” — Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)
- “Mahler: Symphony No. 5” — Osmo Vänskä, conductor (Minnesota Orchestra)
- *”Shostakovich (below): Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio” — Manfred Honeck, conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
OPERA RECORDING
- “Berg: Lulu” — Lothar Koenigs, conductor; Daniel Brenna, Marlis Petersen & Johan Reuter; Jay David Saks, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra)
- *”Berg: Wozzeck” (below) — Hans Graf, conductor; Anne Schwanewilms & Roman Trekel; Hans Graf, producer (Houston Symphony; Chorus of Students and Alumni, Shepherd School of Music, Rice University & Houston Grand Opera Children’s Chorus)
- “Bizet: Les Pêcheurs de Perles” — Gianandrea Noseda, conductor; Diana Damrau, Mariusz Kwiecień, Matthew Polenzani & Nicolas Testé; Jay David Saks, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
- “Handel: Ottone” — George Petrou, conductor; Max Emanuel Cencic & Lauren Snouffer; Jacob Händel, producer (Il Pomo D’Oro)
- “Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel” — Valery Gergiev, conductor; Vladimir Feliauer, Aida Garifullina & Kira Loginova; Ilya Petrov, producer (Mariinsky Orchestra; Mariinsky Chorus)
CHORAL PERFORMANCE
- *”Bryars: The Fifth Century” — Donald Nally, conductor (PRISM Quartet; The Crossing)
- “Handel: Messiah” — Andrew Davis, conductor; Noel Edison, chorus master (Elizabeth DeShong, John Relyea, Andrew Staples & Erin Wall; Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Toronto Mendelssohn Choir)
- “Mansurian: Requiem” — Alexander Liebreich, conductor; Florian Helgath, chorus master (Anja Petersen & Andrew Redmond; Münchener Kammerorchester; RIAS Kammerchor)
- “Music of the Spheres” — Nigel Short, conductor (Tenebrae)
- “Tyberg: Masses” — Brian A. Schmidt, conductor (Christopher Jacobson; South Dakota Chorale)
CHAMBER MUSIC/SMALL ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE
- “Buxtehude: Trio Sonatas, Op. 1” — Arcangelo
- *”Death & the Maiden” — Patricia Kopatchinskaja & the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
- “Divine Theatre — Sacred Motets by Giaches De Wert” — Stile Antico
- “Franck, Kurtág, Previn & Schumann” — Joyce Yang & Augustin Hadelich
- “Martha Argerich & Friends — Live From Lugano 2016” — Martha Argerich & Various Artists
CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTAL SOLO
- “Bach: The French Suites” — Murray Perahia
- “Haydn: Cello Concertos” — Steven Isserlis; Florian Donderer, conductor (The Deutsch Kammerphilharmonie Bremen)
- “Levina: The Piano Concertos” — Maria Lettberg; Ariane Matiakh, conductor (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin)
- “Shostakovich: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2” — Frank Peter Zimmermann; Alan Gilbert, conductor (NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester)
- *”Transcendental” – Daniil Trifonov (below)
CLASSICAL SOLO VOCAL ALBUM
- “Bach & Telemann: Sacred Cantatas” — Philippe Jaroussky; Petra Müllejans, conductor (Ann-Kathrin Brüggemann & Juan de la Rubia; Freiburger Barockorchester)
- *”Crazy Girl Crazy — Music by Gershwin, Berg & Berio” — Barbara Hannigan (Orchestra Ludwig)
- “Gods & Monsters” — Nicholas Phan; Myra Huang, accompanist
- “In War & Peace — Harmony Through Music” — Joyce DiDonato; Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor (Il Pomo D’Oro)
- “Sviridov: Russia Cast Adrift” — Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Constantine Orbelian, conductor (St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra & Style of Five Ensemble)
CLASSICAL COMPENDIUM
- “Barbara” — Alexandre Tharaud; Cécile Lenoir, producer
- *”Higdon: All Things Majestic, Viola Concerto & Oboe Concerto” (below with the first movement of the Viola Concerto in the YouTube video at the bottom) — Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Tim Handley, producer
- “Kurtág: Complete Works for Ensemble & Choir” — Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor; Guido Tichelman, producer
- “Les Routes de l’Esclavage” — Jordi Savall, conductor; Benjamin Bleton, producer
- “Mademoiselle: Première Audience — Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger” — Lucy Mauro; Lucy Mauro, producer
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITION
- “Danielpour: Songs of Solitude” — Richard Danielpour, composer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)
- *”Higdon: Viola Concerto” — Jennifer Higdon, composer (below)(Roberto Díaz, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony)
- “Mansurian: Requiem” — Tigran Mansurian, composer (Alexander Liebreich, Florian Helgath, RIAS Kammerchor & Münchener Kammerorchester)
- “Schoenberg, Adam: Picture Studies” — Adam Schoenberg, composer (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony)
- “Zhou Tian: Concerto for Orchestra” — Zhou Tian, composer (Louis Langrée & Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra)
Tags: "Goldberg" Variations, #DanielTrifonov, #DaniilTrifonov, #GlennGould, #GustavMahler, #JenniferHigdon, #JohannSebastianBach, #LeonardBernstein, #MetropolitanOpera, #TheMet, Adagio for Strings, Alan Gilbert, Alban Berg, American, Arts, Augustin Hadelich, Bach, Baroque, Berio, Berlin, Bernstein, Bizet, Bremen, Buxtehude, Cantata, Cello, Chamber music, China, Chinese, Choir, choral music, chorus, Cincinnati, Classical music, classics, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, conductor, Copland, crazy, death, Death and the Maiden, Debussy, Detroit, Deutsche Grammophon, Dietrich Buxtehude, divine, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Early music, ECM, engineer, etude, Franck, Franz Schubert, French, friend, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frideric Handel, Germany, Gershwin, girl, Glenn Gould, Grammy, Grammy Award, Grammys, Haydn, Houston, Houston Grand Opera, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Jordi Savall, Joyce Yang, Kansas City, Kurtag, Liszt, Luciano Berio, Lulu, Madison, Mahler, maiden, man, Mansurian, Mariinsky Theatre, Martha Argerich, mas, Mendelssohn, Messiah, Michael Tilson Thomas, Minneapolis, Minnesota, modern, motet, Mozart, Munich, Music, Nadia Boulanger, Nashville, Naxos, New Music, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, nomination, nominee, Oboe, opera, Orchestra, Piano, Picture, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Previn, Requiem, Rice University, Richard Danielpour, Rothko, Russia, sacred, Saint Paul, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Samuel Barber, San Francisco, San Francisco Symphony, Schumann, Shostakovich, solitude, Sonata, song, SONY, Sony Classical, South Dakota, sphere, studies, Suite, symphony, theater, theme and variations, Toronto, Trifonov, trio, Trondheim, Tyberg, United States, Valery Gergiev, Viola, Violin, vocal music, war, winner, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wozzeck, YouTube, Zhou Tian
Classical music: The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble performs a program of instrumental and vocal music of 16th-18th centuries on Saturday night. Plus, tenor J. Adam Shelton gives a FREE song recital at noon on Friday.
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature tenor J. Adam Shelton and pianist Rayna Slavova in music by Robert Schumann, Lee Hoiby, Ricky Ian Gordon and Richard Hunley.
By Jacob Stockinger
The very accomplished musicians and friends at what is probably the oldest early music, period instrument and historically informed performance group in the area write to The Ear:
The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble invites you to a concert of baroque chamber music on this Saturday night, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m. in the Gates of Heaven historic synagogue, 300 East Gorham Street, in James Madison Park in downtown Madison.
Members (below) include Mimmi Fulmer, soprano; Nathan Giglierano, baroque violin; Brett Lipshutz, traverse; Eric Miller, viola da gamba; Mary Perkinson, baroque violin; Consuelo Sañudo, mezzo-soprano; Monica Steger, traverse; Anton TenWolde, baroque cello; and Max Yount, harpsichord.
Tickets will be sold at the door only: Admission is $20; $10 for students. For more information: call 608 238-5126, email at info@wisconsinbaroque.org, or visit www.wisconsinbaroque.org
The program includes:
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643): “Occhi che sète” and “Begli occhi, io non provo”
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (ca. 1620–1680): Sonata Quarta
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704): Miserere à deux dessus, deux flûtes et basse continue H 157
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741): Suanate da Camera, Due Violini e Violone e Cembalo, Sonata XII (Folia), opus 1 nr 12; Theme with 19 variations
Benedictus Buns (1642-1716): Ave Maria, Due Cantus cum III Instrumentis
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767): Suite in e-minor from Tafelmusik, selected movements (performed in a YouTube video at the bottom by the acclaimed Jordi Savall and the Concert des Nations).
Tags: Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, Baroque, Baroque music, basso continuo, Benedictus Buns, Cello, Chamber music, Charpentier, Classical music, Early music, flute, Gates of Heaven, Georg Philipp Telemann, Girolamo Frescobaldi, harpsichord, Historically informed performance, Jacob Stockinger, Jordi Savall, Jordi Svall, Le Concert des nations, Lee Hoiby, Madison, Mezzo-soprano, Music, Richard Hunley, Ricky Ian Gordon, Robert Schumann, Schmelzer, sonat, song, soprano, Suite, synagogue, Tafelmusik, tenor, theme and variations, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viol, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, YouTube
Classical music: The new early music, a cappella vocal group Voces Aestatis (Voices of Summer) makes an impressive debut with many Renaissance composers and works. Plus, the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival opens to acclaim.
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ALERT: Perhaps you didn’t make it to the opening of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival last Saturday night or Sunday afternoon (below is a photo of the renovated barn concert hall). The festival runs through this coming Sunday afternoon and is celebrating both its 25th anniversary and the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach. Here is a link to a review written for the Classically Speaking blog of Madison Magazine by Greg Hettmansberger, along with two preview stories from this blog:
By Jacob Stockinger
Last Friday was one of those nights, one of those increasingly frequent “train wrecks,” as The Wise Critic likes to call them, when two or more worthy classical musical events conflict and compete.
The Ear could not be in two places at once.
The two concerts were given by the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO), which was reviewed yesterday by John W. Barker.
At another venue, at exactly the same time, the new early music vocal group Voces Aestatis made its Madison debut.
To give you an idea of that performance, The Ear welcomes another new reviewer -– Ann Boyer, a retired medical research librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a longtime member of the UW-Madison Choral Union.
Here is her review debut for The Well-Tempered Ear:
By Ann Boyer
The new Renaissance Choral group Voces Aestatis (Latin for Summer Voices) — all 13 of them, including director Ben Luedcke — delighted the 200 or so listeners who filled St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, on Regent Street, last Friday night. (Below is a photo of the choral group, minus Jerry Hui, the composer, singer and teacher who did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and now teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.)
They had rehearsed four times, we learned, but had been instructed to come prepared. They were professionals, and it showed.
Songs were arranged in thematic pairs or threes, the sacred songs reflecting such themes as the imperfection of humankind, the birth of Jesus (emphasizing Mary’s role), and the death of Jesus.
Composers included Michael Praetorius, De Victoria and Giovanni di Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Tallis, Orlando Gibbons and Heinrich Schütz. A particularly beautiful song was one by Antonio Lotti (below)
The second half of the program consisted of secular songs: the famous “Mille Regretz” (A Thousand Regrets) by Josquin des Prez (below and at bottom in a YouTube video performance by the famed Jordi Savall), sung sweetly and gently; the strange, expressionistic harmonies of Gesualdo and a work by Claudio Monteverdi with surprisingly erotic lyrics. A final pair of somber songs by Weelkes and Wilbye ended the program on a dark note, relieved by the encore: the chipper ”El Grillo” (The Grasshopper).
The group demonstrated fluidity of line, diction which varied from very clear to less so, good phrasing in particular songs, and good vocal blending. Towards the beginning the women’s voices seemed to dominate, but this corrected itself as the program continued.
The energy of director Ben Luedcke (below) – another UW-Madison graduate who was the music director of Lake Edge Lutheran Church and the founder-director of the Madison Summer Choir and who is completing a master’s degree at the University of Iowa — carried us all along.
We hope that the group will reassemble next summer.
Tags: American Record Guide, Ann Boyer, Antonio Lotti, Arts, Ben Luedcke, C.P.E. Bach, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach, choral music, Classical music, Claudio Monteverdi, Early music, Episcopal, Episcopal Church, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Friday, Greg Hettmansberger, Heinrich Schütz, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, Jordi Savall, Lutheranism, Madison, Madison Magazine, Madison Summer Choir, Michael Praetorius, Mille Regretz, Monteverdi, Music, Orlando di Lasso, Orlando Gibbons, Regent Street, Reniassance, Singing, song, summer, Thomas Tallis, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Stout, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wiscosnin, UW Choral Union, vocal music, Voces Aestatis, YouTube
Classical music: A FREE “fusion” concert of Arab and Jewish art music will take place on this coming Saturday night on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Plus, the students of UW tenor James Doing will perform a FREE recital of songs and arias this Thursday night at 7.
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ALERT: Tomorrow, Thursday night at 7 p.m., University of Wisconsin-Madison tenor James Doing will present another of his FREE studio recitals. It will feature 17 of his students (below, with Doing on the back row on the far right) — but this time NOT Doing himself — in various works, performed with piano accompaniment. The composers to be heard include George Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Faure, Maurice Ravel, Henri Duparc, Leo Delibes, Manuel DeFalla, Giaocchino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi, Leonard Bernstein and William Bolcom. The Ear has found such recitals in the past extremely informative and extremely enjoyable, a model of teacher-student cooperation based on a kind of master-apprentice model. Here is my review of a previous such recital:
By Jacob Stockinger
It seems to The Ear that the Israel-Palestinian conflict has lately been on the back burner for the most part, though it is heating up again as the Palestinians threaten again to go to the United Nations for official statehood recognition .
Still, that turmoil seems pretty much buried under the turmoil in Ukraine involving Russia’s annexation of Crimea; under the three week-long story of the missing Malaysian jet on its flight to Beijing; and under the tragedy of the massive and deadly mudslide near Seattle.
Add in the civil war in Syria, the student protests in Venezuela, concerns over Iran and nuclear proliferation and some African politics, and you can quickly understand why the Israelis and the Palestinians are less visible these days.
But although their disagreement may be less visible in the headlines, the Jewish-Arab problem is still there and is still urgent in its need to be solved.
After all, President Obama just returned from a trip to the Mideast where he met with to Saudi officials. And his administration continues to look for peace even as troubles from Palestinian rocket attacks to new Israeli construction on the West Bank, still plague the peace process.
So the Israel-Palestinian peace process, and the effort to secure a two-state solution, continues — or so one can hope.
With that background, it might seem that University of Wisconsin-Madison cellist Uri Vardi, who is an Israeli by birth and training, is following the current trend towards using art –- specifically music – to promote cross-cultural understanding and ultimately peace.
If that goal seems far-fetched or distant, well you might recall that world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra that he founded with the late Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said to foster peace by bringing together Israeli and Palestinian young musicians for concerts and recordings.
And the universally acclaimed early music master Jordi Savall (below top) and his ensemble Hesperion XXI have just released to rave reviews their second CD volume of music (below bottom) that blends Arabic and European cultures.
But Uri Vardi is anything but late to the game. For almost two decades he has been promoting such international understanding and peace efforts through art for a very long time through the Fusions Continuum Project.
This Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, Vardi will play the cello and his friend and colleague Taiseer Elias will play the oud (below) -– a fretless, lute-like instrument that is the ancient ancestor of the guitar and of the entire string family including the violin, viola, cello and double bass.
They will be joined by pianist-composer Menachem Wiesenberg (below), who is seen performing one of his own compositions with our master Taseer Elias in a YouTube video at the bottom.
If you miss that performance, the concert will be repeated the next day, this Sunday, on “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” (below), which will be broadcast LIVE statewide on Wisconsin Public Radio from 12:30 to 2 p.m., and on Sunday night at a FREE concert in Milwaukee at 7 p.m. at the Rubinstein Pavilion, 1400 North Prospect Avenue. Then the trio will embark of a tour of the U.S.
In 2008, Vardi and Elias – an acclaimed teacher and performer in Israeli — gave the world premiere in Madison in a specially composed Double Concerto for Oud and Cello by the American composer Joel Hoffman (below). It was premiered by the Madison Symphony Orchestra under conductor John DeMain, and it is the kind of cultural crossover project that has found similar success with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.
Here are three links to stories about Uri Vardi and the upcoming fusion concert of Arab and Israeli music:
The first is to the shorter story on the outstanding blog “Fanfare” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music:
http://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/acappella_taylorpiano_beatriceopera/
The second longer and more detailed story is a press release from the newsletter of the UW-Madison Department of Jewish Studies:
http://jewishstudies.wisc.edu/newsletter/winter2014/vardi/
And the third link will give you the full program:
http://jewishstudies.wisc.edu/arts/fusions/program/
What do you think of a project like this?
Can it be practical in the pursuit of peace and understanding?
Or does it remain pretty much irrelevant entertainment?
Leave your opinion in the COMMENT section of this blog.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: accompaniment, Arab, Arab music, aria, Arts, Bellini, Benjamin Netanyahu, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, concerto, Daniel Barenboim, DeFalla, double bass, Duparc, Early music, Faure, George Frideric Handel, guitar, Hesperion XXI, Israel, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, James Doing, Jewish, Jewish studies, Joel Hoffman, John DeMain, Jordi Savall, Leonard Bernstein, lieder, lute, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Menachem Wiesenberg, Middle East, Milwaukee, Nobel Peace Prize, opera, Orchestra, oud, Palestine, Palestinian, Palestinian people, Peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Piano, Ravel, recital, Rossini, Silk Road, song, Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen, Syria, Taiseer Elias, tenor, The Silk Road Project, U.N., United Nations, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uri Vardi, Verdi, Viola, Violin, West Bank, West-Eastern Divan, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, WILLIAM BOLCOM, wisconsin public radio, Yo-Yo Ma, YouTube
Classical music: Let us now praise French trumpeter Maurice Andre, dead at 78, whose mastery sparked a revival of Baroque and Classical repertoire and helped launch a renaissance in brass.
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ALERT and UPDATE: Due to treacherous road conditions, the Wingra Woodwind Quintet concert that was scheduled for Friday night at 8 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall was canceled. However, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet will perform its FREE concert as scheduled tonight at 8 p.m. in Mills Concert Hall.
By Jacob Stockinger
It is not very often that a musician gets a change to change and remake the public’s perception of his instrument and the repertoire for that instrument, even to advance that perception and spark a kind of renaissance that alters music history.
Certain performers come immediately to mind: Wanda Landowska and the harpsichord; Andres Segovia and the guitar; Jean-Pierre Rampal and the flute; Heinz Holliger and the oboe; Jordi Savall and the viola da gamba. There are others.
Ranking high among them is French trumpeter Maurice Andre (below), who died last week week at the age 78. He pioneered a renaissance of great trumpet playing (especially on his trademark piccolo trumpet), and arguably of brass playing in general, and especially helped revive the Baroque and Classical era repertoire for his instrument.
I first got to know Andre’s performances when his version of Fasch’s Trumpet Concerto was on the Musical Heritage Society’s original issue of the Paillard Chamber Orchestra’s version of the bestselling recording of Pachebel’s Canon in D.
But then I heard him in Haydn (at bottom), Hummel, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Purcell and so much more.
From the first, his playing seemed to me filled with joie de vivre, the embodiment of the Biblical injunction to make a joyful noise. It was clear that Maurice Andre loved what he was doing.
Andre reminded me of a classical cross between jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, playing with both heat and cool. He possessed great chops or technique. His playing was sensual but also had clarity, that ice water-like bracing transparency of tone, that I identify with, say, pianist Andras Schiff. To my mind, the fusing of those two qualities made Andre’s playing quintessentially French.
Andre’s playing possessed the force of a great declarative sentence that relies on verbs, not nouns or adjectives. It seemed irresistible and essential, never flowery of puffy.
In its breath control and long phrases, his playing seemed easy and effortless — the mark of a true virtuoso.
He was a hard worker with boundless energy and stamina who often played 180 dates a year.
And he was prolific in the studio. When you look him up at Amazomn.com, you get almost 500 hits.
And he is remembered as an unassuming man who never thought of himself as a star and who never forgot his time as a young coal miner.
Here is a link to some colorful obituaries and appreciations:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/29/maurice-andre?newsfeed=true
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