The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Legendary American cellist Lynn Harrell, who performed in Madison, is dead at 76
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By Jacob Stockinger
Legendary American cellist Lynn Harrell (below) died Monday at 76.
If his name sounds familiar, it could be because Harrell performed in Madison at least three times – twice with the Madison Symphony Orchestra (2007 and 2011), in concertos by Lalo and Victor Herbert, and a recital with pianist Yefim Bronfman at the Wisconsin Union Theater (1994).
No cause of death has yet been given, but various sources say it was unrelated to COVID-19 or the coronavirus pandemic.
To know more about his remarkable life and impressive career, go to his biography on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Harrell
Colleagues were quick to praise Harrell not only as a master musician – gifted with beautiful tone and sensitive, expressive interpretations — but also as a great teacher and a congenial man who made friends easily. He also cut promotional ads for National Public Radio (NPR) urging members to donate, as he himself did.
Here is an interview he did in 2011 with host Norman Gilliland for Wisconsin Public Radio:
https://www.wpr.org/shows/lynn-harrell
Here is a link to an obituary from The Violin Channel that features quotes from many musicians who admired Harrell:
https://theviolinchannel.com/cellist-lynn-harrell-has-passed-away-died-obituary-rip/
And here are tributes from many of his colleagues for British critic Norman Lebrecht’s blog “Slipped Disc”:
https://slippedisc.com/2020/04/lynn-harrell-tributes-pour-in/
A prodigy who made his Carnegie Hall debut at 17, Harrell, who studied at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute, was renowned internationally. He later taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
In 1994 he played a Papal Concert at the Vatican to mark the first commemoration and remembrance of the Holocaust. His performance there of Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei” for cello and orchestra can be seen and heard at the bottom in the most popular of Harrell’s many YouTube videos.
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Classical music: You Must Hear This -– the Romance for Viola and Orchestra by Max Bruch.
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By Jacob Stockinger
I saw and heard Madison-born and Madison-raised violist Vicki Powell (below) last Wednesday night. That was when the alumna of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO), the UW-Madison School of Music, the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute who now plays with the New York Philharmonic and other prestigious groups and who has participated in the Marlboro and Aspen festivals, returned from New York City to solo with the Middleton Community Orchestra.
It was a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable performance as well as very affordable event, as you can read in the review by John W. Barker that was posted yesterday.
Here is a link:
After the concert done in the terrific 90-minute, no intermission format that I think attracts many people, there was a meet-and-greet, with cookies and punch, where the public and the musicians could mingle – and did.
That’s when I went up to the lovely, gifted and poised Vicki Powell and remarked on how beautiful her playing had been with the MCO under conductor Steve Kurr (below top). I was quite taken with her reading of the rarely heard Fantasy on Themes by Mozart for Viola and Orchestra by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (below bottom).
Hummel remains a much underappeciated composer who was invited by none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself to live in his house and take free lessons.
But what really swept me away was the Romance for Viola and Orchestra by the 19th-century Romantic German composer Max Bruch (below).
I have heard Max Bruch’s popular violin concertos – especially No. 1 in G minor — and his Kol Nidre for cello and piano as well as his Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra.
But this work was completely new and unknown to me, but captivated me from the first notes. No 10 listenings or more needed to like and appreciate this work!
“I am amazed it hasn’t yet been used for a movie soundtrack,” I said to Powell.
“Really?” she said. “So am I.”
That is how beautiful and tuneful, how accessible and emotional, it is.
And maybe you will be surprised too.
So here is a YouTube video of the work performed by violist Miles Hoffman, who also comments frequently on classical music for NPR (National Public Radio). It lasts about 9-1/2 minutes and is pure loveliness.
And maybe it has indeed been used in the movies.
If so and you know, please let us know.
And let us know what you think of the piece, which The Ear thinks deserves to be programmed much more often, even though the viola is not often featured as a solo instrument with orchestra. (All the more reason to admire the Middleton Community Orchestra and its mission.)
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, Aspen Festival, Chamber music, Classical music, Hummel, Jacob Stockinger, Juilliard School, Kol Nidre, Madison, Marlboro Festival, Max Bruch, Middleton Community Orchestra, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra, Scottish Fantasy, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vicki Powell, Viola, Violin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: Here is an update with more details about the memorial celebration for the late UW-Madison pianist Howard Karp on Sunday, Aug. 31, at 3 p.m.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Members of the Karp family have asked The Ear to fill you in about some more details concerning the memorial celebration for the late Howard Karp (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot).
As you may recall, Howard Karp, who taught for decades at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and the University of Kentucky, died unexpectedly this summer on June 30. He was 84. Here is a link to an announcement that was posted on this blog about Karp’s death.
A FREE memorial celebration of his life and career is planned for Sunday, Aug. 31, at 3 p.m. in Mills Hall.
And here is a link to a previous post, with link to other sources, about the reception:
Although some official announcements and this blog have said the memorial will run from 3 to 6 p.m., The Ear has been told that the celebration will probably last from 3 p.m. to about 5 p.m. with a reception to follow.
That reception will be held either in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music courtyard, if the weather permits, or in the lounge outside Mills Hall.
The master of ceremonies for the event will be Bill Lutes (below right, with his wife, UW-Madison pianist Martha Fischer. Lutes studied with Howard Karp and still teaches piano in Madison. You may also recall his name from his days at Wisconsin Public Radio and as a coach with the University Opera.
Most of the music will be recordings made by Howard Karp himself, including a new 6-CD set of live performances from Albany Records. (On a CD from the UW-Madison School of Music, at the bottom in SoundCloud, you can hear Howard Karp playing the well-known “Heroic” Polonaise in A-flat, Op. 53 by Frederic Chopin.)
There will also be some live performances.
Cellist son Parry Karp will be joined by his violinist-pianist brother Christopher Karp, who is a medical doctor specializing in infectious diseases and who works with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to perform “Kol Nidre” by Max Bruch.
Then the Karp Family, which usually gave a FREE Labor Day concert for more than 30 years, will perform the slow movement from the Piano Quartet by Robert Schumann. The players will be violinist son Christopher Karp, pianist wife Frances Karp, cellist Parry Karp and his violist wife Katrin Talbot.
Acclaimed keyboard artist Malcolm Bilson (below), who has retired from teaching at Cornell University is slated to play the piano – rather than his specialty, which is the early music fortepiano — in music by Franz Schubert.
As more details develop, they will get posted here.
Here is Howard Karp’s stirring and daring reading of Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise.
https://soundcloud.com/uw-madisonsom
Tags: Albany Records, Arts, Burch, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Cornell University, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Heroic Polonaise, Howard Karp, Jacob Stockinger, Kol Nidre, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Malcolm Bilson, memorial, Music, Parry Karp, Piano, Piano Quartet, Quartet, Robert Schumann, Schumann, SoundCloud, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, University of Kentucky, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, wisconsin public radio
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