The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Madison Choral Project will sing and celebrate young people’s “Hope for the Future” at its concerts this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
Christmas is for the children, goes the old saying — and in more than one way such as gift-giving. The birth of Jesus represents the birth of hope and salvation in Christianity.
Other holiday traditions can claim the same — the extra light theme of Hanukkah in Judaism and the harvest theme of the African celebration of Kwanzaa, for example — and of course the New Year will soon be here with its promise of hope and change.
Now the critically acclaimed and professional Madison Choral Project (below top, in a photo by Ilana Natasha) and its founder, artistic director and conductor Albert Pinsonneault – who used to teach at Edgewood College and now works at Northwestern University near Chicago while living in Madison – has taken that saying to a new level and given it new meaning.
You can hear the results for yourself this Saturday night, Dec. 15, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Dec, 16, at 3 p.m. in Madison, and at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, Dec. 18, in Milwaukee.
The Madison performances are at Christ Presbyterian Church, 944 East Gorham Street. The Milwaukee performance is at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 812 Jackson St.
Tickets are $24 in advance online; $28 at the door. Students with ID are $10. Preferred seating is $40.
The theme of the sixth holiday concert by MCP is “Hope in the Future,” which is relevant at any time but seems particularly so this year. So it includes specially commissioned writings by young people, middle school and high school students from grades 6 through 12. Their work will be read by Noah Ovshinsky (below), the news director at Wisconsin Public Radio.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, so The Ear wants instead to direct you to a fine story about the MCP concert by reporter Gayle Worland for The Wisconsin State Journal.
There you will find out much more about the identities of the young writers, with a couple of examples of their work, and the inspiration or background of the theme that Pinsonneault (below) came up with.
Here is a link:
Unfortunately, what you will not find in that story or at the MCP’s home web page is the music program. No composers or specific works are mentioned.
But judging from past performances, you can count on outstanding repertoire of both classics and new music.
For more information about the MCP and its past concerts as well as it personnel and singers, go to: http://themcp.org
Here is a sample of the outstanding work by the Madison Choral Project:
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Classical music: Today is both Good Friday and Passover. Here is music to mark both religious holidays
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Good Friday, 2018.
Today is Passover, 2018.
Today is both religious holidays.
So it is a good time to recall that the original Last Supper that led to Easter WAS a Seder where Jesus Christ and his Disciples celebrated Passover, as depicted in the famous Renaissance painting “The Last Supper” (below) by Leonard da Vinci.
So today The Ear offers Jewish music that is an homage to both Christianity and Judaism.
If you go to YouTube, you can find a lot of music celebrating each event from Johann Sebastian Bach, and before, to the notorious anti-Semite Richard Wagner.
But in the YouTube video at the bottom, The Ear is offering a moving performance of Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo: A Hebrew Rhapsody” as played by cellist Leonard Rose with the Cleveland Orchestra under conductor Lorin Maazel.
The mood of the music feels right for both Passover and Good Friday.
The Ear hopes you agree.
Tags: #AntiSemitism, #CelloConcerto, #CelloMusic, #ChristianReligion, #ClevelandOrchestra, #ErnestBloch, #GoodFriday, #JesusChrist, #JewishReligion, #JohannSebastianBach, #LeonardodaVinci, #LeonardRose, #LorinMaazel, #ReligiousHoliday, #RichardWagner, #Seder, #TheLastSupper, anti-Semitic, anti-Semitism, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Bloch, Cello, Christian, Christianity, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Disciples, Easter, Easter Vigil, God, Good Friday, Hebrew, Holiday, Holy Week, homage, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus, Jewish, Johann Sebastian Bach, Judaism, Leonard Rose, Leonardo Da Vinci, Madison, Music, Orchestra, painting, Passover, Passover Seder, Religion, religious, Renaissance, rhapsody, The Last Supper, United States, Wagner, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Did anyone else hear Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and think of Donald Trump’s America as well as Stalin’s Russia?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has to agree with a knowledgeable friend.
If you heard the Madison Symphony Orchestra, under music director John DeMain, perform the famous Symphony No. 5 in D minor — the same key as Beethoven’s Ninth — by Dmitri Shostakovich almost two weeks ago, you heard a performance that rivals or surpasses any other one, live or recorded, you’ve probably heard.
The performance was nothing short of stunning. And it was especially moving, given its timing in coming right after the presidential election in which Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence won an upset surprise victory over Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine.
So here is what The Ear wants to know:
Was The Ear the only one who found himself thinking that the symphony proved an especially fitting, perhaps perfect, choice even though it was programmed a year ago? (You can hear the moving third movement, a lament with such pathos that people cried at its premiere, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Was The Ear the only one who identified with Shostakovich, who felt an even deeper empathy with the oppressed composer (below), who, fearing with good reason the dictator Joseph Stalin and his reign of Terror in the USSR, always kept a small suitcase packed with pajamas and a toothbrush by the front door in case the KGB secret police came knocking at 3 a.m., the usual arrest hour?
The symphony is dark music for dark times. And The Ear hopes he wrong when he fears that America is headed for some dark times of its own, times when various people and members of our society will live in constant fear and dread of what they might suffer?
This is not to suggest that President-elect Donald Trump can be equated to the murderous Joseph Stalin (below), or the United States in 2016 to the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
But it is to suggest that some comparisons — if not equations — might be in order.
It is to suggest there will be a constant and unsettling anxiety in the US created by a new ruling order that seems based on insults and intolerance, that excludes and condemns what it doesn’t approve of, that seeks to suppress or destroy opposition?
Like Latino and Syrian immigrants.
Like Muslims, Jews and other non-Christians.
Like African-Americans, Native Americans and other non-whites.
Like poor people.
Like liberals and progressives, dissenters and protesters .
Like LGBT people.
Like women and women’s health advocates and organizations that favor reproductive rights.
The list could go on and on.
But you get the idea.
If either as a musician or an audience member you agree – or disagree – leave a COMMENT.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Minimalist pioneer Steve Reich turns 80 and now finds his music in the mainstream. Plus, here is the program for the clavichord concert on Sunday
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ALERT: The Ear has received late notice of the program for the clavichord concert on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. in the Gates of Heaven Synagogue in James Madison Park.
The music, to be played by early music specialist David Schrader of Roosevelt University in Chicago, includes the Partita No. 5 in G Major, BWV 829, by Johann Sebastian Bach; the Sonata in C Major, K. 330, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the Sonata No. 44 in G minor by Franz Joseph Haydn; and the Sonata in A minor by Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.
For more information about the unusual concert, go to:
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is another better-late-than-never posting.
Composer Steve Reich, along with Philip Glass, was one of the pioneering giants of minimalism in classical music, which in turn influenced even pop music icons such as David Bowie and Brian Eno. (You can hear Part 1 of his influential and hypnotic work “Drumming” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Last month Steve Reich turned 80.
Here is a story that traces the evolution of Reich’s career and art — including his reliance on rhythm, his use of percussion and words, and his exploration and rediscovery of Judaism — from the Deceptive Cadence blog for National Public Radio (NPR):
And here is another story from The New York Times that covers Reich past, present and future:
Enjoy!
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Classical music: Let us now praise churches for providing concert venues.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear received the following message from a loyal reader and thinks it is worth passing on:
“Dear Ear,
“Two of your recent posts sing the praises of Wisconsin Public Radio.
“May I also suggest that we thank area churches?
“Not only do they provide concert venues for various groups, but their active promotion of music more generally — choirs, organ accompaniment — throughout the year is worth a blessing.
“On Christmas Eve, we went to the First Congregational United Church of Christ (below, in a photo by Kent Sweitzer of the Madison Bach Musicians performing its annual Baroque holiday concert) to hear an abbreviated Nine Lessons and Carols.
“We had the benefit of hymnals and for the first time for me could actually read or sing along with the service. Plus lighting dozens of candles in the darkness and wishing the congregation of the planet peace.”
The Ear couldn’t agree more and is happy to comply.
Quite a few churches or church-like organizations come immediately to mind.
There is the First Unitarian Society of Madison (below) with its FREE Friday Noon Musicales every week and its special concerts:
There is the downtown Luther Memorial Church (below) where University of Wisconsin-Madison choirs hold their annual holiday concert and where the Madison Early Music Festival has performed:
There is Blackhawk Church in Middleton (below) where the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra holds its annual performances of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Messiah”:
There is Grace Episcopal Church (below), on the Capitol Square, which is where the Wisconsin Chamber Choir held its concert this year of various settings of the Magnificat and which hosts the FREE Grace Presents series.
There is the Immanuel Lutheran Church (below), on the near east side, that hosts the Willy Street Chamber Players and the Madison Bach Musicians.
There is the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (below) on the near west side, which hosts many different concerts and groups:
There is Holy Wisdom Monastery (below) in Middleton, which holds a variety of concerts and hosts the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society in the summer.
And even though it is now a landmark building rather than an active place of worship, there is the historic Gates of Heaven Synagogue in James Madison Park, where the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble performs.
Thank you, all.
The Ear is sure there are many more that he is leaving out.
So he asks readers to please leave the names of other churches and concerts or musical events in the COMMENT section.
Tags: Advent, Arts, Baroque, Blackhawk, Chamber music, Choir, choral music, Christian, Christianity, Christmas, church, Classical music, Concert, Early music, Gates of Heaven Synagogue, George Frideric Handel, Holiday, Jacob Stockinger, Jewish, Johann Sebastian Bach, Judaism, Luther, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Early Music Festival, Magnificat, Messiah, Music, Orchestra, organ, synagogue, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, Wisconsin Chamber Choir, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio
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