The Well-Tempered Ear
Ailing superstar maestro and pianist Daniel Barenboim, 80, quits longtime German opera post
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By Jacob Stockinger
Yesterday — Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 — superstar maestro and pianist Daniel Barenboim, 80, resigned his longtime post of over 30 years as director of the Berlin State Opera.
Barenboim (below) cited ill health — specifically a severe inflammation of blood vessels — as the reason for his resignation.
Local residents might recall his long tenure at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where many of them probably heard him conduct and perhaps even perform as a concert pianist.
Here is a long biographical entry in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Barenboim
Below are links to two news articles about Barenboim’s decision.
In them you can read a lot of details about: his philosophy of interpretation; his childhood as a Jewish child prodigy in Argentina; his training and early career as both pianist and conductor; his performances with marriage to British cellist Jacqueline du Pré, who died young; his love of German music and his role in Germany’s reunification; his controversial criticism of how Israel treats Palestinians; and the orchestra and music school he co-founded with the Palestinian activist and world-famous literary scholar Edward Said.
Here is a story from British newspaper The Guardian:
And here is the story from the German broadcasting network and media conglomerate Deutsche Welle:
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fconductor-daniel-barenboim-resigns-as-berlin-state-opera-director-over-ill-health%2Fa-63760683&data=05%7C01%7C%7Ceeb75c8f244542d0496e08daf02ed28b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0e%7C638086381129033294%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qmTwyPzkWpJKfAT4ohHJVWWnISE%2BxZS%2FxuM7hrC09zQ%3D&reserved=0
Finally, here is a recent compilation video from the outstanding arts website and streaming service medici.tv to celebrate Barenboim’s recent 80th birthday. It is called “80 Minutes with the Barenboim” and it features many other classical luminaries such as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Pierre Boulez who have been vital to his life and global career.
Do you know any of Barenboim’s many recordings?
Do you have a favorite recording to recommend?
Did you ever hear Barenboim in person conduct or play the piano?
What did you think of him? Of his conducting or playing?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Saturday afternoon, Live From the Met in HD closes this season with an acclaimed production of “Dialogues of the Carmelites.” Here is a background story, two rave reviews, and next season’s 10 operas
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ALERT:The Brass Choirs of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras will present an afternoon of brass music this Saturday afternoon, May 11, at 2:30 p.m. in Mills Concert Hall, 455 North Park Street, in Madison. Directed by Tom Curry, the program features brass musicians from WYSO’s Concert, Philharmonia and Youth Orchestras. The concert is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLC. Music to be played is by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Giovanni Gabrieli, Charles Gounod, Edward Elgar, Paul Hindemith, Alan Hovahaness and Karel Husa.
CORRECTION: The Madison Youth Choirs will perform its “Legacy” concerts this weekend in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center on Saturday and Sunday — NOT Friday, as mistakenly listed and then corrected in the original post, which is below: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/05/08/classical-music-the-madison-youth-choirs-will-explore-the-theme-of-legacy-in-three-concerts-this-saturday-and-sunday-in-the-capitol-theater-of-the-overture-center/
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Saturday afternoon, May 11, the last production of this season’s “Live From the Met in HD” series, broadcast worldwide via satellite to cinemas, is Francis Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites.”
By all accounts, it would be hard to end on a higher, stronger or more darkly dramatic note, given the outstanding music and performance of the score as well as the superb acting. (There is a brief preview of short scenes in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The world premiere of the opera took place in 1957 at La Scala in Milan, Italy. One of the most successful operas of the later decades of the 20th century, “Dialogues of the Carmelites” is a rare case of a modern work that is equally esteemed by audiences and experts, according to program notes from the Metropolitan Opera.
The opera focuses on a young member of the order of Carmelite nuns, the aristocratic Blanche de la Force, who must overcome a pathological timidity in order to answer her life’s calling. The score reflects key aspects of its composer’s personality: Francis Poulenc (below) was an urbane Parisian with a profound mystical dimension, and the opera addresses both the characters’ internal lives and their external realities.
The opera takes place between 1789 and 1794 in Paris and in the town of Compiègne in northeastern France, the site of the Carmelite nuns’ convent.
Its historical basis is the martyrdom of a group of 16 Carmelite nuns and lay sisters from Compiègne, who chose to offer themselves as victims for the restoration of peace to France during the French Revolution.
The Met uses the classic John Dexter production of Poulenc’s devastating story of faith and martyrdom.
Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (below right) sings the touching role of Blanche and soprano Karita Mattila (below left), a legend in her own time, returns to the Met as the Prioress.
The conductor for the performance is the Met’s highly acclaimed new music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who also leads the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal.
The high-definition broadcast of the live performance from the Metropolitan Opera (below) in New York City starts at noon and runs until 3:10 p.m. with two intermissions. (It will also air at noon on Wisconsin Public Radio.)
The encore HD showings are next Wednesday, May 15, at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
The opera will be sung in French with supertitles in English, German and Spanish.
Tickets for Saturday broadcasts are $24 for adults and $22 for seniors and children under 13. For encore showings, all tickets are $18.
The cinemas where the opera can be seen are two Marcus Cinemas: the Point Cinema on the far west side of Madison (608 833-3980) and the Palace Cinema (608 242-2100) in Sun Prairie.
Here is a link to the Marcus website for addresses and more information. You can also use them to purchase tickets:
https://www.movietickets.com/movies
Here is a link to the Metropolitan Opera’s website where you can find the titles, dates, casts, production information and video clips of all 10 productions this past season — PLUS an announcement, with dates and titles, for next season’s 10 productions (which feature five new productions but no Verdi):
https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/
Here is a background story that focuses on the French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who leads the orchestra in this production and is the new music director of the Metropolitan Opera:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/arts/music/met-opera-dialogues-des-carmelites.html
Here is a rave review of “Dialogues of the Carmelites” by senior classical music critic Anthony Tommasini for The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/05/arts/music/dialogues-des-carmelites-met-opera-review.html
And here is another rave review from New York Classical Review:
http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2019/05/met-closes-season-with-a-riveting-devastating-carmelites/
Here are links to a synopsis and program notes:
https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/dialogues-des-carmelites/
https://www.metopera.org/season/2018-19-season/dialogues-des-carmelites/
And here is a Wikipedia history of the hi-def broadcast series that gives you more information about how many cinemas it uses, the enormous size of the worldwide audience – now including Russia, China and Israel — and how much money it makes for The Met.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera_Live_in_HD
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Classical music: “I like tunes,” says Academy Award-winning composer Thomas Cabaniss, who talks about his “Double Rainbow” piano concerto. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and guest soloists will give the world premiere of the work this Friday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Even for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below), which likes to mix things and up during its winter season, the concert this Friday night is something special to close out the current season.
The WCO will give the world premiere of the “Double Rainbow” Piano Concerto by Thomas Cabaniss, which was commissioned for the WCO.
The performance will also feature husband-and-wife duo-pianists Michael Shinn and Jessica Chow Shinn.
The concert is Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
Also on the program is Maurice Ravel’s Neo-classical homage to World War I, “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” and the Symphony No. 2 by Robert Schumann.
Tickets are $10 to $80.
For more information about the program, the soloists and tickets, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-v-2/
Composer Thomas Cabaniss recently did an email Q&A for The Ear:
Can you briefly introduce yourself and your career to the reader?
I’m Thomas Cabaniss (below). I am a composer and teaching artist from Charleston, South Carolina. I have lived in New York for the last 30 years, and so I greedily claim both places as home. I teach at the Juilliard School — where I met Michael and Jessica Shinn — and I also lead arts education projects at Carnegie Hall.
After graduating from Yale in 1984, I was an assistant conductor on a variety of projects including Leonard Bernstein’s opera A Quiet Place at La Scala and the Kennedy Center. Setting out to forge a career as a composer, I moved to New yolk City, which had the added benefit of being the same city where my girlfriend was attending medical school. A few years later we married and settled in Manhattan.
To start, I worked primarily as a theater composer, but I was also writing piano and chamber music on the side, and doing arts education work in between shows. In 1990 I scored and arranged a short film called The Lunch Date, which won the Palme D’Or and the Academy Award. In 1995 I joined the New York Philharmonic education programs, eventually becoming the orchestra’s Education Director.
I kept composing, and wrote a chamber opera called The Sandman, which was premiered in New York in 2002 and revived again the following season. In 2004 I was appointed to special education position with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and at the same time I wrote a series of evening length dance scores that were premiered in New York.
In 2009, I began working as composer-in-residence for the LinkUp program at Carnegie Hall, which has grown in that time to serve over 95 orchestras around the world and across the U.S. – including the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
I also helped to create the Lullaby Project at Carnegie Hall, which serves young parents in shelters, hospitals and prisons, and we are working hard to extend that work across the country through a series of partnerships.
How would you describe your musical style in general and the style of the new two-piano concerto specifically? Accessible? Tonal or atonal? Modernist or Neo-Classical? Melodic or percussive? Are there composers or works that have influenced your style?
I like tunes. I like to write songs, and I like to sing, so my music tends to value melody. My works are generally tonal, often spiked with cluster chords and other atonal devices, but I am always interested in the musical gravity of tonal centers. (You can hear a sample of Thomas Cabaniss’ music in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
This piece is inspired by its soloists, Michael and Jessica Shinn (below), and by the image of a Double Rainbow (also the work’s title). I have written Michael and Jessica pieces for piano-four hands, and there is one piece they have championed called Tiny Bits of Outrageous Love. Something about the chemistry of their relationship as musicians (and as husband and wife) has inspired me to create music that is particularly exciting and intimate.
And yes, I suppose most composers embed hints of the music they love in the music they write, and I am no different. Tiny Bits was a kind of homage to the Brahms Waltzes for piano-four hands, and Double Rainbow nods to Leonard Bernstein, Olivier Messiaen, Leos Janacek and John Adams. I’m sure listeners will hear other influences, too.
What would you like listeners to know about and listen for in the piano concerto? What were the special challenges of writing for duo-pianists?
This is from the program note I wrote for the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra:
DOUBLE RAINBOW is based on an experience I had with my family on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, about 20 years ago. On this particular August day, there was a huge rain in the early afternoon, many dark clouds, thunder (but no lightning). After the storm, from the porch of our beach rental house, we saw not one, but two rainbows (below). My sister-in-law is an avid photographer, and so she coaxed us all down onto the beach so she could get a pristine angle. That alone might have been enough inspiration for a piece of music, but when we got to the water’s edge, as Julia was snapping her photos, a dolphin jumped out of the water in a vertical launch, the tail clearing the water’s surface. It was one of those moments that seemed so unbelievable that none of us said a word.
I have always been fascinated by the search for the elusive “perfect moment,” and DOUBLE RAINBOW is a sort of study of that kind of exploration. It is all bound up in the idea of “doubleness,” represented by the two pianos. It is divided into three movements: “Surfaces” (exploring the accumulation of drops of water from tiny, atomized particles), “Disturbances” (exploring imbalances and the storms that result from them), and “Revelation” (of the Double Rainbow). Not surprising in a double concerto, there is a great deal of dialogue between the pianos, and the orchestra has more of an accompanying role in the first two movements. The final movement is different, though. Everybody is in, and the music pulses with magic. The movement seems to be headed for a big climax, but at the last moment, it suddenly slows down and there are stars.
The main challenge for me in writing a double piano concerto is all those fingers! Twenty of them, and they are capable of so much. The music I write does not usually focus on virtuosity, and yet I also wanted it to be a vehicle for them to be expressive and dynamic. I worked hard to achieve a balance between the lyricism and the fireworks – we’ll see how audiences experience it.
What else would you like to say?
I am especially excited to be able to visit Madison for the premiere. I’ll get to meet members of the family of Jessica Chow Shinn (below, she is a Madison native), and I have a former student in the orchestra (Midori Samson, Second Bassoon). My Carnegie Lullaby Project collaborators include another Madison native (Ann Gregg) and Elizabeth Snodgrass, who is originally from Appleton (I think) but recently moved to Madison. I will get to meet WCO music director Andrew Sewell (below) in person. We have been doing some Skype rehearsals and phone consultations. It will be great to watch Andrew in action.
While we are here, my wife Deborah will be giving Grand Rounds at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, and my son Will leads an a cappella group at University of Chicago (Voices In Your Head), and this year they have been singing frequently with a wonderful University of Wisconsin group (Fundamentally Sound).
The last few seasons the Madison Symphony Orchestra has been offering Carnegie Hall LinkUp concerts to kids in grades 3-5, and this year is no exception. They will perform The Orchestra Moves in May, for which I wrote two of the works (Come To Play and Away I Fly) and arranged another (Cidade Maravilhosa).
This project has been a few years in the making, and so for Michael and Jessica and me, this is a kind of celebration. We can’t wait to share DOUBLE RAINBOW with you.
Tags: a cappella, A Quiet Place, Academy Award, Andrew Sewell, Appleton, Arts, arts education, atomized, atonal, Bassoon, beach, Brahms, Carnegie Hall, Chamber music, chamber opera, Charleston, choral music, chord, Classical music, clinic, cluster, commission, composer, conductor, Couperin, dance, dialogue, doctor, dolphin, double rainbow, drop, email, expresisone, expressive, film, Finger, Fireworks, Fundamentally Sound, Hospital, House, husband, influence, Isle of Palms, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, John Adams, Juilliard School, Kennedy Center, La Scala, Le tombeau de Couperin, Leonard Bernstein, Leos Janacek, lightening, LinkUp, Love, lullaby, Lullaby Project, lyrical, lyricism, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, MANHATTAN, medical school, melodic, melody, memorial, Messiaen, Michael and Jessica Shinn, modernist, movement, movie, Music, Music education, neo-Classical, New York City, New York Philharmonic, opera, Orchestra, Palme D'Or, partnership, Philadelphia Orchestra, phone, photo, photographs, physician, Piano, Piano concerto, piano-four hands, prison, psychiatry, Q&A, rain clouds, rainbow, Ravel, rehearsal, Robert Schumann, shelter, sing, Skype, song, songs, South Carolina, stars, storm, style, symphony, telephone, The Lunch Date, The Orchestra Moves, The Sandman, Thomas Cabaniss, thunder, Tiny Bits of Outrageous Love, tomb, tonal, tune, U.S., United States, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, virtuosity, virtuoso, Voices in Your Head, Waltz, water, wife, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, world, world premiere, Yale, YouTube
Classical music: Madison Opera will present the Midwest premiere of ‘Charlie Parker’s Yardbird.’ Here are the many impressive preparatory events for the public that start this Friday
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following information to post about a local opera production that is both exciting and an inspired choice to mark February as Black History Month:
Madison Opera will present the Midwest premiere of “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” on 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12, in the Capitol Theater at Overture Center for the Arts.
For more information about the cast and the production as well as about purchasing tickets ($25-$114), go to:
http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2016-2017/charlie-parkers-yardbird/
With music by Swiss composer Daniel Schnyder (below top) and a libretto by writer and poet Bridgette A. Wimberly (below bottom), the acclaimed opera “Charlie Parker’s Yardbird” tells of the legendary jazz musician and the people closest to him.
The opera, which melds jazz and opera, is set on the day that saxophone great Charlie Parker died in 1955. As his body lies unclaimed in a New York City morgue, Parker returns in spirit to the jazz club Birdland, determined to compose a final masterpiece. Family and friends blend in and out of his memories, including his three wives, his mother, his friend Dizzy Gillespie and even his drug dealer.
Charlie Parker’s Yardbird premiered in June 2015 at Opera Philadelphia (below is tenor Lawrence Brownlee, in a photo by Dominic Mercier, in the title role of Charlie Parker in the Philadelphia production) and was subsequently presented by the company at the Apollo Theater in New York City in April 2016. (You can hear an excerpt in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The New York Times praised it for its “pulsing, jazz-infused score,” while the Wall Street Journal said, “its rhythms snap and swing, its melodies – including real arias – seize the ear, its ensembles crackle with energy.”
Madison Opera will be only the second company to present this work, which is sung in English with projected text and runs 90 minutes without an intermission.
“I saw Charlie Parker’s Yardbird when it premiered in Philadelphia and instantly knew it would be a perfect opera for Madison,” says Kathryn Smith (below, in a photo by James Gill), Madison Opera’s general director. “The very American story and the exciting jazz-inflected music fit perfectly into our ever-expanding range of repertoire.”
She adds, “It’s not a straightforward narrative of Parker’s life, but rather elements of his life as refracted through his memories and imagination, and particularly his relationships with the women in his life.”
Madison Opera’s cast includes both debuts and returning favorites, as well as a number of singers who created their roles in the world premiere.
Joshua Stewart (below), a young American tenor who has sung at La Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Opera de Lausanne, debuts in the tour de force role of Charlie Parker.
Angela Brown (below) returns following her performance at Opera in the Park 2016 as Addie Parker, Charlie’s mother, a role she created in Philadelphia.
Will Liverman, who sang Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville here in 2015, sings jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, a role he created in Philadelphia.
Krysty Swann debuts as Rebecca Parker, Charlie’s first wife. Angela Mortellaro, who sang Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea in 2013, returns as Doris Parker, Charlie’s third wife, a role she created in Philadelphia.
Rachel Sterrenberg debuts as Chan Parker, his final wife, a role she created in Philadelphia. Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, in whose hotel suite Parker died, is sung by Julie Miller in her Madison Opera debut.
Directing this production is Ron Daniels (below), who staged the world premiere and was the opera’s dramaturge, involved in the creation and workshop process.
John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) conducts, with members of the Madison Symphony Orchestra in the pit.
DeMain says: “I am so happy to be a part of Madison Opera’s Midwest premiere of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird. Parker was consumed with music, breathing it day and night. All of us who are passionate about performing and listening to music can identify with this phenomenal musician and will not want to miss this jazz-infused opera, the perfect expression of Parker’s range and depth as a musician.”
Composer Daniel Schnyder will attend the opening night performance and join Smith for the Pre-Opera Talk that evening at 7 p.m. in the Wisconsin Studio.
In addition to the performances, Madison Opera and its community partners are hosting a series of related events, collectively known as “Extending the Stage,” which culminate in a concert of Charlie Parker’s music with composer Daniel Schnyder and the UW-Madison’s Blue Note Ensemble.
These events include Opera Novice; community previews; Opera Up Close; discussions of the life and music of Charlie Parker (below); and presentations of rare jazz films.
All events are open to the public and the majority are free of charge.
RELATED EVENTS: EXTENDING THE STAGE
Opera Novice: Jazz Opera? Friday, Jan. 20 | 6-7 p.m. The Margaret C. Winston Madison Opera Center, 335 W. Mifflin Street. FREE and open to the public
New to opera? Passionate about Puccini, but not sure about a jazz opera? Join General Director Kathryn Smith for a short, fun, and informative evening exploring the history of jazz and opera, including a live performance of an aria from Charlie Parker’s Yardbird. With plenty of time to ask questions, it’s the perfect jump-start for the opera-curious.
Community Preview of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, Tuesday, Jan. 24 | 7-8 p.m. Capitol Lakes Retirement Community, 333 W. Main St. FREE and open to the public
Join a Madison Opera staff member for a multimedia look at Charlie Parker’s life, the history of the opera Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, and some insights into Madison Opera’s production.
Opera Up Close, Sunday, Feb. 5 | 1-3 p.m. The Margaret C. Winston Madison Opera Center, 335 West Mifflin Street. Admission: $20; free for full-season subscribers and full-time students with ID; $10 for two-show subscribers. Tickets available at the door.
Come even closer with a behind-the-scenes preview of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird. A multimedia presentation on Charlie Parker and the history of this opera will be followed by a roundtable discussion with the leading artists of Madison Opera’s production. There is no better way to get “up close” to this acclaimed new opera.
A Charlie Parker Concert and Discussion with Daniel Schnyder and the Blue Note Ensemble Thursday, Feb. 9 | 7:30 p.m. Morphy Recital Hall, UW-Madison. FREE and open to the public
Composer Daniel Schnyder joins UW-Madison’s Blue Note Ensemble for an evening featuring music by Charlie Parker, with solos performed by both Schnyder and UW-Madison saxophone students. The evening includes an aria from Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and a discussion about Parker and the opera with Schnyder, UW-Madison Professor of Saxophone Les Thimmig, and General Director Kathryn Smith.
Pre-Opera Talks: Friday, Feb. 10 |7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 12 | 1:30 p.m. Wisconsin Studio at Overture Center. FREE to ticket holders
Attend an entertaining introduction to Charlie Parker’s Yardbird one hour prior to curtain. On Friday night, composer Daniel Schnyder will join General Director Kathryn Smith to talk about the piece. Be sure to arrive early, as space is limited.
An Evening of Rare Jazz Films: Alicia Ashman Library. Friday, Feb. 3 | 7 p.m.; Goodman South Madison Library. Tuesday, April 11 | 6 p.m. FREE and open to the public (Below is footage of Charlie Parker playing and of people discussing the man and his artistic achievement.)
Jazz archivist Gary Alderman will present and explain films of the historically significant innovators of modern jazz, including the only two known existing videos with sound of Charlie Parker.
Among the other musicians shown will be those relevant to Parker’s music and career, including Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.
The Life and Music of Charlie Parker: DeForest Area Public Library: Monday, Feb. 13, 6:30 p.m.; Alicia Ashman Library: Friday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m.; Fitchburg Public Library: Sunday, Feb. 26, 2 p.m.; Oregon Public Library: Friday, March 10, 6:30 p.m. FREE and open to the public
UW-Madison Professor of Saxophone Les Thimmig (below) will talk about Charlie Parker’s life and music, as well as the history of bebop.
More information is available at www.madisonopera.org/education.
Tags: Acis and Galatea, Angela Brown, Apollo Theater, archive, aria, Arts, Barber of Seville, Bayerische Staatsoper, Birdland, Black History Month, blue note, Bridgette Wimberly, Capitol Theater, cast, Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker's Yardbird, Classical music, Coleman Hawkins, composer, Daniel Schnyder, dealer, debut, Dizzy Gillespie, drug, drugs, energy, English, February, Figaro, film, Handel, imagination, Jacob Stockinger, January, Jazz, John Coltrane, La Scala, legend, Les Thimmig, Lester Young, library, librettist, libretto, life, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, masterpiece, melody, memories, memory, Midwest, Miles Davis, morgue, Mother, multimedia, Music, narrative, New York City, opera, Opera de Lausanne, Opera in the Park, Opera Philadelphia, Orchestra, Overture Center, peview, Philadelphia, premiere, rhythm, Ron Daniels, Rossini, Saxophone, score, spirit, swing, Swiss, symphony, tenor, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, wife, Will Livermore, Wisconsin, wives, world premiere, YouTube
Classical music: Georges Prêtre, the French conductor Vienna adored, has died at 92
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By Jacob Stockinger
Vienna has been called “The Paris of the Reich.”
Perhaps that is why the Viennese took such a liking to the suave and debonair French conductor Georges Prêtre (below, in a photo by Dieter Nagli for Getty Images), who died last Wednesday at 92.
The urbane Prêtre – who specialized in French music but also was much in demand for a lot of German and Italian repertoire — studied karate and judo. But he also enjoyed the good life and by all accounts had a terrific sense of humor coupled to a “joie de vivre.”
He often said he preferred being a guest conductor to being a music director because the former was like a love affair and the latter was like a commitment. Yet Prêtre was committed: He is survived by his wife of more than 50 years.
His conducting career spanned 70 years. He was known for his association with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony. But he also conducted 101 performances of seven operas at the famed Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He also frequently conducted in Milan, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Here is a good summary obituary, with sound clips of orchestral and operatic music, from National Public Radio (NPR):
And here is a longer obituary, which gives you the French flavor of the man and the musician, from The New York Times:
And here is George Prêtre’s most popular video on YouTube, which also serves as a fine memorial in sound:
Tags: A German Requiem (Brahms), Arts, Austria, choral music, Classical music, commitment, conductor, France, French music, Germany, good life, guest conductor, Italian music, Italy, joie de vivre, judo, karate, La Scala, love affair, Maria Callas, Marriage, Met, Metropolitan Opera, Mozart, Music, Music director, New York City, New York Times, NPR, Orchestra, Philharmonic, repertoire, symphony, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, vocal music, Wagner, wife, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s popular Christmas concert celebrates the holiday with guest soloists and community choirs this coming weekend.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear’s friends at the Madison Symphony Orchestra write:
National vocalists, Madison community chorus members and the audience – all will get a chance to shine when Conductor John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra (both are below) kick off the holiday season with the much-loved tradition of the Madison Symphony Christmas concerts this coming weekend.
The concerts will celebrate the holidays with a range of music from Johann Sebastian Bach, Irving Berlin, George Frideric Handel, Felix Mendelssohn, John Rutter, Ralph Vaughan Williams (his “Magnificat,” which you can hear performed at the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy in the YouTube video at the bottom) and Franz Schubert to holiday favorites and rocking Gospel selections – topped off with the audience adding its voice to carols at the end.
The concerts are in Overture Hall of the Overture Center on Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Single Tickets are $16 to $85 each, available at www.madisonsymphony.org/singletickets and through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street or call the Box Office at (608) 258-4141.
Groups of 15 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information visit, www.madisonsymphony.org/groups
Student rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Box Office at 201 State Street. Students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two $12 or $15 tickets. More information is at: www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush. Students can receive 20% savings on seats in select areas of the hall on advance ticket purchases.
Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
Highlights of the concert include:
Soloists mezzo-soprano Emily Fons (below top) and bass-baritone David Govertsen (below bottom), who are accomplished national operatic singers.
Madison Symphony Chorus (below top), directed by Beverly Taylor (below bottom), with 165 members, who come from all walks of life to combine their artistic talent.
Madison Youth Choirs (below), directed by Michael Ross, which combines young voices for a memorable experience;
Mt. Zion Gospel Choir (below), directed by Tamera and Leotha Stanley, which uses jazz, blues and gospel harmonies to “raise the roof” in creating captivating music;
And Audience members who join in the singing.
Concertgoers are encouraged to arrive at the Overture Hall lobby 45 minutes before the concert, so they can be moved by the Madison Symphony Chorus leading carols in the festively lit lobby.
The festivities are sure to brighten spirits for all ages, and many families attend in groups of two or three generations.
PLEASE NOTE: These concerts typically sell out, so purchasing tickets early is encouraged.
Major funding for the December concerts is provided by American Printing, Nedrebo’s Formalwear, John W. Thompson and Jane A. Bartell, BMO Private Bank, Maurice and Arlene Reese Family Foundation, Hooper Foundation/General Heating & Air Conditioning, and Two Anonymous Friends. Additional funding is provided by National Guardian Life Insurance Company, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., Hans and Mary Lang Sollinger, and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tags: Arts, Bach, baritone, Baroque, bass, Berlin, Carol, Choir, choral music, chorus, Christmas, Classical music, community, Emily Fons, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, gospel, Holiday, Irving Berlin, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John DeMain, John Rutter, La Scala, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Magnificat, Mendelssohn, Mezzo-soprano, Milan, Music, National Endowment for the Arts, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, Ralph Vaughan Williams, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin Arts Board, YouTube
Classical music: Can you name the 20 famous classical musicians who died in 2014? NPR remembers them and The Ear celebrates them with the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Last year, classical music lost of a lot of important people -– performers and composers.
For The Ear, three of the most important people were the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado (below top), who was a master of the mainstream operatic and orchestral repertoire; the English conductor Christopher Hogwood (below middle), who also pioneered the performance and recording of early music, Baroque music, Classical era composers and even early Romantic composers — including Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Frideric Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert — on period instruments and with historically informed performance practices; and the Dutch flutist and conductor Frans Bruggen (below bottom), whose career followed a similar trajectory as Hogwood’s.
Those men made us hear music in new, unexpected and exciting ways — the highest achievement that any performer or interpreter can aspire to.
But we also lost highly accomplished and important singers and instrumentalists, including pianists and violinists.
The always outstanding Deceptive Cadence blog on NPR (National Public Radio) recently ran a list of 20 figures who died in 2014, though I am sure there are more.
Below is a link to the NPR story.
When you click on each entry you will get photo and full obituaries, readers’ comments and fine sound samples. So don’t be afraid to leave the NPR page and follow the various links.
And here is a fitting tribute, the final movement of the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms in which the chorus sings “Blessed are the dead for their works shall live on after them.”
And be sure to use the Comments section of this blog for any additions and tributes you wish to add, perhaps by naming your favorite composer or work they performed or recorded.
Tags: Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Baroque music, Beethoven, Boston, British, Cello, Chamber music, Christopher Hogwood, Classical era, Classical music, Classical period (music), Claudio Abbado, Compact Disc, Dutch, Early music, English, Franz Schubert, George Frideric Handel, Handel and Haydn Society, Haydn, Historically informed performance, historically informed performance practices, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Julius Rudel, La Scala, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Metropolitan Opera, Mozart, Music, Netherlands, New York City, NPR, opera, Orchestra, period instruments, Piano, Romantic, Schubert, UK, United Kingdom, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Van Cliburn, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Violin, Vivaldi, vocal music, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Critic John W. Barker says Eliza’s Toyes impressively surveyed early British music while exploring the religious shift from Latin Catholicism to English Anglicanism. Plus, acclaimed Italian conductor Claudio Abbado dies at 80.
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NEWS: As you have probably heard by now, the acclaimed Italian conductor Claudio Abbado (below) has died at 80. Here are links to some stories about this maestro who had such a varied and prolific career:
The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/arts/music/claudio-abbado-italian-conductor-dies-at-80.html?_r=0
The Washington Post:
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
It was a great pity that no more than 25 people turned out at the Gates of Heaven on Sunday afternoon for the latest program offered by Jerry Hui’s early-music group, Eliza’s Toyes (below, inside Gates of Heaven).
His program this time was a post-Christmas survey of English sacred music. The range of material ran from late-Medieval three-voice pieces through composers of the early 17th century, adding up to 13 selections in all.
This is the kind of music most regularly performed by a choir of some or another size, sometimes of mixed voices, sometimes in the British-cathedral style of all-male voices, with boys on the upper parts.
Hui (below) fielded a consort of six singers (three female, three male), so that each item was sung one singer per part — with a couple cases of a little doubling, I believe. While the result favored clarity against sonority, it must be said that, in certain full-textured items, some very lovely sonority was achieved.
My principal reservation was that the ordering of the program seemed aimed at a smooth variety of sounds, rather than at a demonstration of the momentous changes in English sacred composition. The key to those changes was the liturgical shift in the Anglican Reformation from motets setting traditional Latin texts to the new anthems with English texts.
The shift could be noted in the dominant composer of the program, the great William Byrd (1540-1623, below), represented by two Latin motets, and then an English anthem. “Sing joyfully”, which served as the dazzling finale (see the YouTube video at the bottom).
Byrd’s teacher, and then partner, Thomas Tallis (below), likewise spanned the reforming shifts, but was heard in one Latin motet, “O scrum convivium”, and a gorgeously harmonized Latin hymn, “O nata lux de lumina”. Earliest in the pre-Reformation lineup was Robert Fayrfax (1464-1521), whose five-voice setting of the Magnificat was in the traditional alternatim setting (odd-numbered verses of the canticle sung in chant, the even-numbered ones set polyphonically).
On the other hand, a poignant victim of the Reformation was Peter Philips (1560-1628, below), a staunch Roman Catholic who fled his homeland for a successful career in Catholic music on the Continent. His five-voice “O beatum et sacrosanctum Deum” made a noble closer to the first part of the program.
As for the Anglican, English-language composers, besides the case of Byrd, and besides the 15th-century para-liturgal songs, we had a rousing anthem by Christopher Tye (1505-1573, below top), “A sound of angels,” and, finally, a six-voice secular piece, “Music divine”, by the last survivor of the great era of Tudor music, Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656, below bottom).
The six singers who have been making up Eliza’s Toyes have settled into a beautifully balanced and smooth ensemble. They listen to, and sing in sync with, each other. There is nothing else like them, as a continuing performing group for early sacred ensemble music in Madison. Although he is a UW-Madison graduate who now teaches at University of Wisconsin- Stout, Hui has kept up his association with the group, convinced of its need for continuity.
It is one more of those blessings that make Madison’s musical life so wonderfully rich!
Tags: American Record Guide, Anglicanism, Baroque, Baroque music, chant, Christmas, Christopher Tye, Classical music, Claudio Abbado, conductor, Early music, England, English Renaissance, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, Jerry Hui, John W. Barker, La Scala, Latin, London Symphony Orchestra, Madison, Medieval, New York Times, Peter Philips, Reformation, Renaissance music, Robert Fayrfax, Roman Catholicism, Sunday, The Washington Post, Thomas Tallis, Thomas Tomkins, University of Wisconsin-Stout, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Washington Post, William Byrd, Wisconsin, WORT FM, YouTube
Classical music: Choosing a new Pope? There’s a play list for that! But is the Vatican listening? Plus, the UW Bands perform a FREE concert on Sunday afternoon.
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REMINDER: This Sunday, March 10, at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus, the University Bands will perform a FREE concert under conductors Justin Stolarik (below) and Matthew Mireles.
By Jacob Stockinger
An old friend and co-worker of The Ear saw the posting I did last week about Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI (see him in the photo below, at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim at La Scala opera house in Milan). Benedict has a passion for playing the piano and listening to classical music, especially for the works of Mozart and Beethoven (composers right in keeping with his conservative theology, no?).
Here is a link:
Well, now as the papal conclave in the Vatican starts slowly toward getting underway (NEWS FLASH: The Vatican has announced the conclave will begin Tuesday) to elect a new pope, it appears that a playlist has been put together – by an American theologian at Notre Dame University at the request of the website Spotify — of classical music to help the cardinals (below, in an Associated Press photo) choose a new pope.
Most of it is, of course, choral music, usually with sacred themes — but not all of it.
Some of it is familiar to me; much of it is not.
Some of its is well known and popular; some of it is not.
But the list is catholic rather than Catholic and sure has a lot of excellent and memorable music.
Whether listening to this excellent music would lead to an excellent new pope is another question.
Here is a link:
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/02/28/choosing-a-new-pope-theres-a-spotify-playlist-for-that/
Can any one of you think of other pieces of classical music that might be added? I thought of three pieces by Franz Liszt (below), who was quite the handsome and rakish youth and young man but who became a Franciscan monk later in life. (Below, a photo of Liszt in 1870 by Pierre Petit.)
The works are “Benediction of God in Solitude” from his “Poetic and Religious Harmonies” series, and his two “legends” about Saint Francis of Assisi: “St. Francis Preaching to the Birds” and “Saint Francis Walking on the Waves” (below, in a great YouTube video by Lise de la Salle with some incredible shots of the keyboard and her fingers walking on the rolling WAVES of notes.)
The Ear wants to hear.
And just maybe the Vatican’s conclave of 142 cardinals, to say nothing of the new pope, also wants to hear.
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Classical music: The gala opening this weekend of the UW-Madison’s new Hamel Music Center is SOLD OUT. What do you think of the building, the music and the event? Plus, veteran music critic John W. Barker has died
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. 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.
ALERT: Word arrived late last night that the respected longtime music critic John W. Barker, a retired UW-Madison professor of medieval history, died Thursday morning. He wrote locally for Isthmus, The Capital Times and this blog. Details will be shared when they are known.
By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, Oct. 25-27, marks the official gala opening of the new Hamel Music Center (below, in a photo by Bryce Richter for University Communications) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music. It is located at 740 University Ave., next to the new wing of the Chazen Museum of Art, which has a special exhibit relating to the new music center.
The impressive $58-million structure, which has taken many years to fund (completely privately) and then to build, will celebrate its opening tonight, Saturday night (while the 14th annual Halloween FreakFest on State Street is happening) and Sunday afternoon.
The performers will include distinguished alumni, faculty members and students.
Here is a link to an overall schedule as published on the School of Music’s home website: https://www.music.wisc.edu/hamel-music-center-opening-schedule/
Thanks to an astute reader who found what The Ear couldn’t find, here is a complete schedule — long, varied and impressive — of works and performers: https://www.music.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/20191025-Hamel-Music-Center-Opening-Weekend.pdf
And here is a link to the official UW-Madison press release with more background and details about the building: https://news.wisc.edu/mead-witter-school-of-musics-hamel-music-center-opening-this-fall/
UW-Madison composer Laura Schwendinger (below) has been commissioned to write a Fanfare that will receive its world premiere tonight.
The opening promises to be a success, complete with receptions at the end of each performance.
In fact, the public has signed on enough that the FREE tickets to all events are SOLD OUT, according to the School of Music’s home website.
Taste is personal and varies, and The Ear has heard mixed reviews of the new building. (For the special occasion, you can hear “The Consecration of the House” Overture by Beethoven, performed by the La Scala opera house orchestra in Milan under Riccardo Muti, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Basically, people seem to agree that the acoustics are much improved over Mills Hall and Morphy Recital Hall in the old Humanities Building.
But public opinion seems more divided over other aspects, from the overall external architecture and interior design to the smaller size of the big hall, the seats and seating layout, and the restrooms.
So if you go – or have already gone – let the rest of us know what you think about those various aspects of the new building and about the various performers and programs.
As a warm-up preview, here are photos of the main halls or spaces, all taken by Bryce Richter for University Communications:
Here is the 660-seat Mead Witter Concert Hall:
Here is the 300-seat Collins Recital Hall:
And here is the Lee/Kaufman Rehearsal Hall:
But what do you say? You be the critic.
The Ear and others hope to see COMMENTS from listeners and especially performers. What is it like to perform there? Or to sit and listen?
What does the public think of the new building and concert halls? Are you satisfied? What do you like and what don’t you like?
Should some things have been done – or not done – in your opinion?
Does the building and do the concert halls live up to the expectations and hype?
The Ear wants to hear.
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