The Well-Tempered Ear
Should the 1812 Overture be played this Fourth of July?
9 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear recently noticed that the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra has once again scheduled the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky (below) as part of the finale of its Fourth of July concert on the evening of July 6, 2022.
The performance is part of this summer’s FREE Concerts on the Square (COS) by the WCO that run on six consecutive Wednesday nights from June 29 through Aug. 3. Concerts start at 7 p.m. on the King Street corner of the Capitol Square in downtown Madison, and will be conducted by Andrew Sewell.
For more information about the series and individual performers and programs, go to: https://wcoconcerts.org/concerts-tickets/concerts-on-the-square
An asterisk says programs are subject to change.
Which got The Ear to thinking: Should Tchaikovsky’s perennial favorite, the flashy and loud 1812 Overture, be played again this year?
It is a tradition that was started on Independence Day in 1974 by Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops, according to reputable sources.
But this year might be a very different case because of a quandary that might cause organizers, including PBS’ “A Capitol Fourth,” to rethink the program.
It is a choice that will confront many musical groups across the U.S., given the current unprovoked brutality and and war crimes being committed by Russia against Ukraine.
After all, many music groups, including the Metropolitan Opera, have already banned Russian performers who support Russian President Vladimir Putin and his unjustified war in Ukraine (below).
So here’s the question: Is it appropriate to play a favorite work celebrating a Russian military victory while Ukraine, the United States and Western allies, including NATO, are desperately trying to defeat Russian forces?
As you may recall, the overture was inspired by Russia’s victory over the invading forces of Napoleon who was attempting go conquer Russia. Like Hitler and the Nazis, Napoleon failed and the Russians prevailed. That is why, in the work, you hear the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” overcome by the chimes and cannons of the Russian victory hymn. (There was no Russian national anthem until 1815.)
Here is a link to more background in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Overture
Will the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra or other orchestras as well as radio and TV stations around the U.S. find a substitute piece? Perhaps it could be the Ukrainian national anthem that is performed (as in the BBC Proms concert in the YouTube video at the bottom and as many other orchestras around the world, including the Madison Symphony Orchestra and John DeMain, have done).
What else could the WCO and other groups play — especially since Sousa marches are already usually featured on The Fourth?
Do you have a suggestion?
The Ear will be interested to see how the quandary is solved — with explanations and excuses, or with alternative music?
Meanwhile, as comedian Stephen Colbert likes to say: What do you think?
Should the “1812 Overture” be played on this Fourth of July?
Why?
Or why not?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #ACapitolFourth, #AdolfHitler, #AndrewSewell, #ArthurFiedler, #AudienceFavorite, #BBCProms, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BostonPops, #CapitolSquare, #ChamberOrchestra, #ConcertsontheSquare, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FourthofJuly, #FreeConcert, #IndependenceDay, #JacobStockinger, #JohnDeMain, #July4, #LaMarseillaise, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MadisonWisconsin, #MetropolitanOpera, #NapoleonicWars, #NationalAnthem, #NaziGermany, #NorthAtlanticTreatyOrganization, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #RadioStation, #SocialMedia, #StephenColbert, #TheEar, #TheInternet, #TheMet, #TheU.S., #TVstation, #UnitedStates, #VladimirPutin, #WarCrimes, #WebPage, #Wikipediaentry, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #WorldWarII, #YouTubevideo, 1812 Overture, @1812Overture, A Capitol Fourth, Allies, alternative, America, American, Andrew Sewell, Arthur Fiedler, Arts, asterisk, audience, ban, BBC, BBC Proms, blog, Blog post, Boston Pops, brutal, brutality, cannons, Capitol, Capitol Square, celebrate, chamber orchestra, chimes, choice, Classical music, comedian, commit, composer, Concert, Concerts on the Square, conductor, confront, COS, downtown, evening, excuse, explanation, Facebook, Facebook post, favorite, finale, flashy, force, Fourth of July, France, free concert, French, Germany, group, help, Hitler, home website, hymn, Independence Day, individual, information, inspire, invasion, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, John Philip Sousa, July 4, justice, La Marseillaise, link, loud, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, march, Metropolitan Opera, military, Music, Napoleon, Napoleonic Wars, national anthem, NATO, Nazi, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Orchestra, organizer, PBS, perennial, performance, performer, performers, piece, play, President, program, Putin, quandary, Radio, radio station, reputable, reputation, rethink, Russia, Russian, say, schedule, series, share, singer, social media, solve, source, Sousa, Stephen Colbert, suggestion, support, symphony, tag, Tchaikovsky, Television, The Ear, the Internet, the Met, think, tradition, TV, TV station, U, U.S., Ukraine, Ukrainian, United States, unjust, unjustifiable, victory, video, war, war crimes, WCO, web, Website, Western, why, why not, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, world, World War II, YouTube
Classical music: Happy Bastille Day! But instead of militarism, let’s celebrate the holiday with revolutionary French music by a revolutionary French composer. What French music would you choose?
3 Comments
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is July 14, known in the U.S. as Bastille Day.
That is the day in 1789 when the infamous Bastille Prison in Paris was stormed by the masses and political prisoners were freed – marking the beginning of the French Revolution.
The tradition is to play “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem that grew out of the revolution. Usually there is a military side to the arrangement of the anthem and the performance of it.
After all, it was a Bastille Day parade that even inspired President Trump to stage his egotistical “Salute to America” – satirically dubbed “Tanksgiving” — on the Fourth of July this year in Washington, D.C..
But The Ear has had quite enough of militarism and of the lying draft dodger who became commander-in-chief using patriotism to camouflage his un-American actions and ideas.
With no disrespect to those who served or are serving in the armed forces, there are many ways besides the military to be patriotic and even revolutionary.
So this year The Ear is choosing something subtle and less martial to mark the day.
It is a performance of “Feux d’artifice” (Fireworks), a prelude for solo piano by Claude Debussy (below), who described himself – in an age where German and Italian music ruled – simply as a “French musician.” But make no mistake: Debussy, who was rejected for admission to the Paris Conservatory, was indeed a revolutionary figure in music history for his innovations in harmony and form.
(Perhaps this past season, you heard Marc-André Hamelin give an astoundingly virtuosic performance of “Fireworks” as an encore after his Sunday afternoon concerto performances with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.)
Listen carefully and at the very end you will hear a subtle reference to the Marseillaise that adds the right touch to the pyrotechnical celebration of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”
Added to that, the fiery performance in the YouTube video at the bottom is by Robert Casadesus, a deservedly famous French pianist.
Finally, The Ear thinks you can celebrate Bastille Day with any number of French composers and French works, many of which remain neglected and underperformed. (The Ear is particularly partial to the music of Gabriel Faure, below, who taught Maurice Ravel.)
Who is your favorite French composer?
What is your favorite French piece of classical music?
Leave a comment with, if possible, a YouTube link.
Happy Bastille Day!!
Tags: #ArmedForces, #BastilleDay, #BastillePrison, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ClaudeDebussy, #DraftDodger, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Feuxd'artifice, #FourthofJuly, #FrenchRevolution, #GabrielFaure, #GermanMusic, #HolidayTradition, #ItalianMusic, #July14, #LaMarseillaise, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #Marc-AndréHamelin, #MauriceRavel, #MusicHistory, #NationalAnthem, #NeglectedComposers, #NeglectedMusic, #NeglectedWorks, #ParisConservatory, #ParisFrance, #PatrioticMusic, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #PianoPrelude, #PresidentDonaldTrump, #PresidentTrump, #RedWhiteandBlue, #RobertCasadesus, #SalutetoAmerica, #SoloPiano, #SoloPianoMusic, #Tanksgiving, #UnitedStates, #WashingtonD.C., #YouTubevideo, action, admission, age, armed forces, Arts, audience, Bastille Day, Bastille prison, beginning, blog, blue, camouflage, celebrate, celebration, Claude Debussy, commander-in-chief, composer, Concert, concerto, day, describe, display, disrespect, Donald Trump, draft, ego, egotistical, equality, Facebook, famous, fiery, fight planes, Fireworks, form, forward, Fourth of July, France, fraternity, free, freed, French, French Revolution, Gabriel Fauré, German, happy', harmony, History, Holiday, idea, Independence Day, infamous, innovation, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, July 14, La Marseillaise, liberty, lies, like, link, lying, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Marc-André Hamelin, mark, martial, masses, Maurice Ravel, military, Music, national, national anthem, nationalism, neglected, Orchestra, parade, Paris, Paris Conservatory, patriot, patriotic, patriotism, performer, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, piano prelude, political, political prisoners, President Trump, prison, prisoner, pyrotechnical, reader, red, reject, revolution, revolutionary, Robert Casadesus, Salute to America, serve, share, solo piano, storm, subscriber, Sunday, tag, tanks, tradition, tricolor, U.S., un-American, United States, US, virtuosic, viruosity, Washington D.C., white, Wisconsin, work, works, YouTube
Classical music: Here is a stirring version of “La Marseillaise” to mark Bastille Day and the French Revolution
1 Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Bastille Day in France – July 14th or “Le quatorze juillet” — celebrating the beginning of the French Revolution when the public stormed and liberated the infamous Bastille prison in Paris.
To mark it, here is a YouTube video of a stirring version of the French national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” It features the superstar opera tenor Roberto Alagna singing the arrangement done by the French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz.
And it is also a good time to recall how the French helped finance and wage the American Revolution, also known as the American War for Independence.
Tags: Air France, American Revolution, American War for Independence, anthem, arrangement, Arts, Bastille, Bastille Day, Berlioz, choral music, Classical music, France, Jacob Stockinger, La Marseillaise, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, national anthem, opera, Paris, prison, revolution, Roberto Alagna, Romantic music, symphony, tenor, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: If a perfect debut concert exists, new UW-Madison faculty violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino gave it last Friday night. Plus, a concert of music for two harpsichords takes place Saturday night.
6 Comments
ALERT: On this Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the Madison Christian Community Church, 7118 Old Sauk Road, on Madison’s far west side, Northwestern University music Professor Stephen Alltop and Madison Bach Musicians’ artistic director Trevor Stephenson will present a program of masterworks for two harpsichords including: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto in C major (BWV 1061); selections from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s elegant “Pièces de clavecin en concerts“; and a very zingy transcription of Luigi Boccherini’s famous “Fandango.” Plus, Stephen Alltop will perform selections from Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” and Trevor Stephenson will play three sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. Tickets are $20 and are available at the door.
By Jacob Stockinger
Last Friday night saw the bloody terrorist attacks and murders in Paris, France. And we were all understandably preoccupied then with those events.
That would not have seemed an auspicious time for a new music faculty member to make a debut.
Yet that is exactly what the new UW-Madison violin professor Soh-Hyun Park Altino (below, in a photo by Caroline Bittencourt) did. And it turned out to be a remarkable event: a pitch-perfect concert for the occasion.
Let’s start by saying that Park Altino is a complete violinist and has everything: pitch, tone, speed, depth and stage presence. But hers is the quiet and self-effacing kind of virtuosity. There were no show-off works by Paganini or Sarrasate on the program.
The concert opened in dimmed lighting, as she played (below) the Solo Sonata No. 3 in C Major by Johann Sebastian Bach. She dedicated the opening movement –- which you can hear played by Arthur Grumiaux in a YouTube video at the bottom –- to the people of Paris and said that the slow movement reminded her of a mysterious prayer or meditation.
She was right.
Simultaneously alone and together: Is there a better summing up of how we were feeling that night? And her mastery in voicing the difficult fugue was impressive as well as moving.
Let others play and hear once again Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” or “La Marseillaise.” The Ear will long remember that Bach played in that context. Thank you, Professor Park Altino.
Then she turned effortlessly from grave seriousness and talked about the Sonata No. 2 by Charles Ives (below) and how it borrows from hymn tunes and songs from popular culture. And with laughs she then related all that background to herself when she was growing up in Korea and forming her image of America from popular culture and TV shows such “The Little House on the Prairie,” “Anne of Green Gables” and from cartoons such as “Popeye.”
She was both informative and charming as she Ives-ified Korea and Koreanized Ives. And she totally connected with the audience. If you were there, you could tell. You felt it.
After intermission came a charming and relatively unknown miniature: the Romance in A Major, Op. 23, by the American composer Amy Beach (below). How refreshing it was to hear an immigrant musician enlighten us natives about our own musical history. It is all about new perspectives. Are you listening, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and other isolationists, anti-immigrationists and xenophobes?
And then came a masterpiece by Johannes Brahms.
She chose the Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100. It is not as dramatic as the other two violin sonatas, but relies instead on slow tempi to convey the geniality of its beautiful melodies and harmonies.
It proved the perfect ending to the perfect recital on that dreadful night of massacres and loss, fear and terror. It proved what so much music can do and should be doing, especially these days: offering a balm for the heart and soul.
Her program and playing brought to mind the inspiring words of Leonard Bernstein, who had to conduct a program right after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which happened 52 years ago this Sunday:
“We musicians, like everyone else, are numb with sorrow at this murder, and with rage at the senselessness of the crime. But this sorrow and rage will not inflame us to seek retribution; rather they will inflame our art. Our music will never again be quite the same. This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
It must be also be said that Park Altino had the perfect partner in Martha Fischer, who heads the collaborative piano program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
Even during the most difficult and thorny piano parts, such as in the Ives sonata, Fischer never upset the balance, never departed from the right dynamics, never lost a sense of transparency and always saw eye-to-eye with the violinist in interpretation. She possessed complete technical and interpretive mastery.
The two musicians really proved to be co-equal partners. They make a great pairing or partnership, and it was clear from their stage presence that they like performing with each other and are on the same wavelength. With their seamless playing, they showed exactly the difference between accompanying and collaborating.
That makes The Ear very happy. He loves the combination of violin and piano, and now he hopes he has a lot more of it to look forward to from these same two performers -– works he once hoped to hear from the outstanding partnership of Pro Arte Quartet first violinist David Perry and UW-Madison virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor, which started but never fully materialized.
So many works come to mind. The violin and keyboard sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, Vivaldi, Corelli and Tartini. (The Ear admits it: He prefers the piano to the harpsichord in Baroque works.) The violin sonatas, perhaps even in complete cycles, of Mozart and Beethoven. The various violin works by Schubert, perhaps in the annual Schubertiades. Sonatas by Schumann and Brahms. Sonatas by Faure, Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc. Sonatas and rhapsodies by Bartok. Sonatas by Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
And then there are the possibilities of her performing violin concertos with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (apparently its music director, Andrew Sewell, is a close friend of hers) and the UW Symphony Orchestra.
The possibilities make The Ear swoon with anticipation.
So when you see that Soh-Hyun Park Altino will play again, be sure to mark your calendars and datebooks. You do not want to miss her.
Ever.
Tags: accompanying, Adagio for Strings, Amy Beach, Anne of Green Gables, anti-immigration, Arthur Grumiaux, Arts, Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Bach, Baroque, Bartok, Beethoven, Ben Carson, Boccherini, Chamber music, Charles Ives, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, collaborative, concerto, Corelli, David Perry, Debussy, Domenico Scarlatti, Donald Trump, Early music, Fandango, Faure, France, Franz Schubert, harpsichord, isolationist, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Philippe Rameau, JFK, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John F, Korea, La Marseillaise, Leonard Bernstein, Little House on the Prairie, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Symphony Orchestra, massacre, Mozart, murder, Music, Northwestern University, Paganini, Paris, partita, Piano, Popeye, Poulenc, President, Pro Arte Quartet, Prokofiev, Rameau, Ravel, Samuel Barber, Sarrasate, Scarlatti, Schumann, Shostakovich, solo, Sonata, Tartini, terror, terrorism, terrorist attack, terrorist attacks, Trevor Stephenson, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Violin concerto, Vivaldi, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, xenophobia, YouTube
Classical music: Tell The Ear what music he should post on the Fourth of July?
7 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Today, the stock markets, banks and many businesses are closed in observance of the Fourth of July.
But Saturday is the real Independence Day for the United States of America.
Now, The Ear has some ideas about what classical music to celebrate the event -– and the choices do NOT include the “1812 Overture” by Peter Tchaikovsky or the “Marseillaise,” the French national anthem that started during the French Revolution. Maybe one of the overtures by Ludwig van Beethoven or an aria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Giuseppe Verdi would do. Try and see if you can convince me.
But the Ear thinks it would be much more patriotic to have something by an American composer – say Charles Ives (below top) or Aaron Copland (below bottom), William Schuman or Samuel Barber.
Or maybe Roy Harris or Leonard Bernstein, Joan Tower (below top) or Jennifer Higdon (below bottom) -– would be appropriate and a good choice.
But here is your choice to play DJ.
Leave your choice -– with a YouTube link, if possible -– in the COMMENT section.
Then I will decide which choice is most appropriate and best, and post a YouTube video of the work on Saturday to mark the real Fourth of July, the real Independence Day.
Thanks for your help.
I know I have some very knowledgeable readers, so I am looking forward to the seeing and hearing their suggestions.
Tags: 1812 Overture, Aaron Copland, aria, Arts, Beethoven, Beethoven piano sonatas, Charles Ives, choral music, Classical music, Independence Day (United States), Jacob Stockinger, Jennifer Higdon, Joan Tower, La Marseillaise, Leonard Bernstein, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart, Music, national anthem, Orchestra, Overture, patriot, patriotic, patriotism, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Samuel Barber, United States, William Schuman, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Today is Bastille Day, the celebration of the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. Here is a very popular YouTube video of acclaimed tenor Roberto Alagna singing a version of the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” as arranged by French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz.
6 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Today is July 14 or Bastille Day, the celebration of the beginning of the French Revolution of 1789 that overthrew the monarchy and began with the storming and freeing of the infamous Bastille Prison in Paris.
It has become fashionable in conservative circles to dismiss that revolution as a failure because it descended into a mass terror, as so many revolutions do.
Indeed, even the American Revolution has shameful incidents and bloody violence that we prefer to overlook or not to think about these days when we want to glorify only the best aspects of our own momentous history. But revolutions are not pure or fun. And the Americans founders themselves (below, in a famous painting of the signing of The U.S. Declaration of Independence) knew very well what ideas and ideals they owed to the philosophers and politicians who inspired the French Revolution.
Anyway, today is a national holiday in France, and the French Revolution set in motion many things that we Americans can give thanks for. And some historians even say that without France’s help, the American Revolution would have surely failed.
Whatever you think of it, the French Revolution was a great historical drama that deserves to be remembered and celebrated for fostering democracy and putting an end to monarchy and divine right rule.
Here is a YouTube video, with over one million hits, of Roberto Alagna singing “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, in a grand version by Romantic composer Hector Berlioz, that originated in the French Revolution:
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 