The Well-Tempered Ear
Superstar maestro Gustavo Dudamel to leave LA for the New York Philharmonic
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By Jacob Stockinger
It will probably be the biggest music news story of the year, perhaps even the decade.
Gustavo Dudamel (below), the Venezuelan-born maestro of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will become the music director of the New York Philharmonic starting in 2026.
The news was announced late yesterday afternoon on both coasts. The New York Philharmonic post is probably the most prestigious music post in the United States, a podium once occupied by Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Kurt Masur.
In what one imagines is a very, very expensive coup — the financial terms were not disclosed — the New York Philharmonic recruited the 42-year-old superstar maestro who is known for giving passionate and fiery performances and for innovating music education programs, both of which have brought in bigger and younger audiences.
He also built a reputation for championing new music, Latin music and musicians of color. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Dudamel conducting Mexican composer Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2, a Latin American piece he made famous and which is now often used by other orchestras on full programs or as an encore. In the video, he is conducting the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra, the senior orchestra of “El Sistema” and the post that Dudamel held before heading to Los Angeles.)
Dudamel has guest conducted the New York Philharmonic more than two dozen times. The musicians there have greeted him warmly and enviously, especially since their CEO Deborah Borda originally signed Dudamel to the Los Angeles post in 2009 when he was 26.
Born into a musical family, Dudamel himself became a professional musician by rising through the ranks of “El Sistema,” the national youth music organization in his native country. He studied violin and composition before turning to conducting with global success and fame.
In Los Angeles he has been nominated for and won many Grammys for his many recordings. He also been the music director of the Paris Opera.
It is worth noting: New York will soon have two of the most charismatic and recognizable conductors in the world: Dudamel; and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is the music director of the Metropolitan Opera as well as the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal.
Here are stories from both sides now: from the West Coast he is leaving and the East Coast he will be going to.
Here is the story by The New York Times:
And here is the story from The Los Angeles Times:
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UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra gives a FREE hybrid online concert this Thursday night by mixing both recorded and live performances
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By Jacob Stockinger
One of the most interesting and innovative responses to the limitations imposed on live concerts by the coronavirus can be heard this Thursday night, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m.
That is when the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra – playing under the baton of director Oriol Sans in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the Hamel Music Center — will perform a short concert that features both live performances and pre-recorded performances in the same piece.
The reason for the hybrid is public health precautions, the same reason why no in-person audience will be allowed.
String players can play with masks and social distancing, as the same orchestra showed in a previous virtual concert (below) this semester.
But brass and woodwinds prohibit wearing masks and involve the spraying or draining of saliva – an obvious risk for the spread of COVID-19.
So, presenting the full symphonic experience of the Beethoven piece will be accomplished by a combination of pre-recorded and live music, all performed by UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra musicians.
The concert will last about 90 minutes with no intermission.
Here is a direct link to the YouTube channel of the UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music: https://youtu.be/af6hjmW1cQw
The program is:
“Fuga con Pajarillo” (Fugue with Pajarillo Dance) by the Venezuelan composer Aldemaro Romero (below, 1928-2007), who was known for blending folk songs and dances with classical music. You can hear the string version of the orchestral piece in the YouTube video at the bottom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldemaro_Romero
The famous Allegretto second movement from Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
“Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite III” by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (below, 1879-1936)
I. Anon.: Italiana
II. Jean-Baptiste Besard: Arie di corte
III. Anon.: Siciliana
IV. Lodovico Roncalli: Passacaglia
For more information about the program and the names of the student performers, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra-3/
Tags: #AldemaroRomero, #AncientAirsandDances, #BaroqueMusic, #BeethovenSymphony, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BrassMusic, #ClassicalMusician, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FolkDance, #FugaconParajillo, #HamelMusicCenter, #JacobStockinger, #Jean-BaptisteBesard, #LatinAmerican, #LiveMusic, #LudovicoRoncalli, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MeadWitterFoundationConcertHall, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #OnlineConcert, #OrchestralArrangement, #OriolSans, #OttorinoRespighi, #RecordedMusic, #SecondMovement, #SeventhSymphony, #SocialDistance, #SouthAmerica, #SouthAmerican, #StringMusic, #SymphonyNo.7, #TheEar, #TheUW, #Thursdaynight, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UW-MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #VirtualConcert, #WoodwindSection, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, air, Aldemaro Romero, Allegretto, ancient, Ancient Airs and Dances, anonymous, Arts, audience, Baroque, Baroque music, Beethoven, blend, blog, brass, Cello, Classical music, combination, composer, Concert, conductor, coronavirus, dance, drain, Early music, experience, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, folk, folksong, forward, free, Fuga con Parajillo, full, Hame Music Center, hour, hybrid, impose, infection, information, innovative, interesting, intermission, Itaky, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Baptiste Besard, Latin America, like, limitation, link, live, Ludovico Roncalli, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, mask, Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, Mead Witter School of Music, mix, movement, Music, Musician, names, night, obvious, online, Orchestra, orchestral, Oriol Sans, Ottorino Respighi, pandemic, passacaglia, perform, piece, post, posting, pre-recorded, previous, recorded, Respighi, response, risk, saliva, second movement, semester, Seventh Symphony, share, short, Siciliana, social distance, song, South America, South American, spray, spread, string music, strings, Student, Suite, symphonic, symphony, Symphony No. 7, tag, The Ear, Thursday, United States, university, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW Symphony Orchestra, UW-Madison, Venezuela, Venezuelan, version, Viola, Violin, virtual, winds, Wisconsin, woodwinds, YouTube
Classical music: Looking for serious fun? The thoroughly successful opening concerts by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society bode well for the upcoming second weekend
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By Jacob Stockinger
After 28 summers, going to a concert by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society still feels like attending a family reunion – the best kind of family reunion where everyone is familiar and friendly, where everything is fun, and where you always leave glad that you went.
That’s not by chance.
The first thing that co-founders and co-artistic directors Stephanie Jutt and Jeffrey Sykes did last Friday and Saturday nights was to thank the loyal audience. And the audience, full of longtime fans, returned the favor by being attentive to and appreciative of the first-rate music-making as well as responsive to the horseplay and antics – such as the surreal scene of virtuoso Axel Strauss playing “The Skater’s Waltz” on his violin while rollerblading around the stage (below).
BDDS players really mean it when they say that their audiences are in for something different, something they won’t find elsewhere and won’t forget.
Last weekend that meant the return of two longtime guest performers: San Francisco cellist Jean-Michael Fonteneau and Montreal violinist Axel Strauss (below, with pianist Jeffrey Sykes). Neither disappointed as they performed very varied music by Franz Joseph Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Gabriel Faure, Lili Boulanger, Maurice Ravel and Ned Rorem. And as always, the amazing pianist Jeffrey Sykes proved a chameleon who blended masterfully into the style of each period and each composer.
But for The Ear, the unexpected standout last weekend was guest accordion player Stas Venglevski from Milwaukee. Born in Russia and trained at the Moscow Conservatory, he is a virtuoso player, a sensitive arranger and a convincing composer – all done with good humor and a charismatic stage presence.
The Ear never thought of the accordion – the Russian bayan, to be specific – as an instrument for chamber music. But he does now, after hearing Venglevski play serious Russian, French and Latin American music that ran the gamut from a graceful waltz and a sprightly polka to torchy tangos. And then there were his flying fingers punching out “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” a real crowd-pleaser.
The large audience responded on both nights with wild applause and a standing ovation every time that Venglevski (below) played, and Jutt promised the audience that he will be back.
“As you can see, we have fun here,” Jutt deadpanned.
She is not exaggerating.
Which bodes well for the second weekend of three that will happen this coming weekend.
The second weekend — two programs in three venues — celebrates Jutt and Sykes, plus two of BDDS’ favorite guest artists: violinist Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio and Madison pianist Thomas Kasdorf.
Kasdorf (below) and Sykes are both featured in a program called “Rock the Sykes-o-delic Kas-bah.” Kasdorf is featured in Brahms’ Horn Trio with guest horn player Karl Kramer Johansen, and in the appealing and accessible Café Concertino by the contemporary Australian composer Carl Vine.
Sykes will perform another chamber transcription of a Classical-era symphonic work, which over the years has become a welcome specialty of BDDS. In this case it is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s snappy and appealing Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271, the “Jeunehomme” concerto. (You can hear the irresistible last movement of the piano concerto, used in the film “Amadeus,” in the YouTube video at the bottom.) Sykes will also perform in Robert Schumann’s “Fairy Tales” for clarinet and viola.
A Madison native, cellist Alison Rowe (below) — an artist from the Dynamite Factory, which is BDDS’ program for emerging talent — will be featured in the Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Major by Johann Sebastian Bach.
“Rock the Sykes-o-delic Kas-bah” will be performed at the Stoughton Opera House on Friday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. Braisin’ Hussies Food Cart will be parked outside the Opera House prior to the performance. The program will also be performed in Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 23, at 2:30 p.m.
Jutt (below top) and Sant’Ambrogio (below bottom, in a photo by Stephanie Ann Boyd) worm their musical way into the most unexpected places in the other program, “Steph Infection.” The Nocturne for flute, violin, horn and piano of Franz Doppler opens the program, which continues with Jutt’s own arrangement of Antonin Dvorak’s popular “American” String Quartet, with a flute substituting for one of the two violins.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Five Pieces for flute, clarinet and piano add spice to the program, and the evening concludes with Ernst von Dohnanyi’s epic Sextet for clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and piano. A work that ranges from stormy and turbulent to tender and funny, it features an all-star cast including audience favorite clarinetist Alan Kay, horn player Karl Kramer Johansen, violist Carol Cook (principal at the Lyric Opera of Chicago), and Madison’s own cellist of the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet, Parry Karp (below).
“Steph Infection” will be performed at The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts, Saturday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m.; and in Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 23, at 6:30 p.m.
And of course there could also be some unannounced surprises – more door prizes, perhaps a mystery guest, or more shenanigans and antics that correspond to the “Name Dropping” pun theme of the programs.
For tickets ($43-$49) and more information, go to: https://bachdancing.org
Tags: "Amadeus", #AlanKay, #AlisonRowe, #AmadeusFilm, #AntoninDvorak, #ArtisticDirector, #AustralianComposer, #AxelStrauss, #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #CarlVine, #CarolCook, #CastList, #CelloSonata, #ChamberMusic, #Classicalera, #ContemporaryComposer, #CPEBach, #DmitriShostakovich, #ErnstvonDohnanyi, #FamilyReunion, #FilmSoundtrack, #FlightoftheBumblebee, #FluteMusic, #FoodCart, #FrankLloydWright, #FranzDoppler, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FrenchMusic, #Fridaynight, #GabrielFaure, #HillsideTheater, #HornTrio, #Jean-MichelFonteneau, #JeffreySykes, #JeunehommeConcerto, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #KarlKramerJohansen, #LatinAmerica, #LatinAmerican, #LatinAmericanmusic, #LiliBoulanger, #LivingComposer, #LyricOperaofChicago, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MauriceRavel, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MontrealCanada, #MoscowConservatory, #MoscowRussia, #MovieSoundtrack, #Music-Making, #MusicReview, #NedRorem, #NewTango, #NuevoTango, #OvertureCenter, #ParryKarp, #PianoConcerto, #ProArteQuartet, #RobertSchumann, #RussianMusic, #SanFrancisco, #SaturdayNight, #SpringGreen, #StagePresence, #StandingOvation, #StasVenglevski, #StephanieJutt, #StephanieSant'Ambrogio, #StoughtonOperaHouse, #StoughtonWisconsin, #StringQuartet, #Sundayafternoon, #SymphonicMusic, #Taliesincompound, #TheEar, #ThePlayhouse, #TheSkater'sWaltz, #ThomasKasdorf, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolaMusic, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, accordion, afternoon, Alan Kay, Alison Rowe, all-star, American, Antonín Dvořák, applause, appreciative, arrangement, arranger, Artistic director, Arts, attentive, audience, Australia, Axel Stauss, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Baroque, BDDS, blend, blog, born, cafe, California, Canada, Carl Vine, Carol Cook, cart, cast, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, chameleon, charismatic, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical, Classical music, composer, Concert, concertino, contemporary, CPE Bach, critic, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dvorak, dynamite, Early music, era, Ernst von Dohnanyi, everyone, everything, factory, familiar, Family, favor, fi ger, film, first-rate, Flight of the Bumblebee, flute, flutist, food, forward, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Doppler, Franz Joseph Haydn, French, Friday, friendly, fun, Gabriel Fauré, graceful, guest, Hillside Theater, Horn, horseplay, House, Humor, infection, irresistible, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Jeffrey Sykes, Jeunehomme, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Karl Kramer Johansen, Latin America, Latin American music, like, Lili Boulanger, link, Living composer, longtime, loyal, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, masterful, masterfully, Maurice Ravel, Milwaukee, Montreal, Moscow, Moscow Conservatory, movie, Mozart, Music, name, native, New Rorem, new tango, night, nocturne, opening, opera, Orchestra, ovation, Overture Center, Parry Karp, performer, period, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, player, please, polka, popular, presence, principal, Pro Arte Quartet, program, promise, psychedelic, pun, reunion, review, Robert Schumann, rollerblading, Russia, Russian, San Francisco, Saturday, sensitive, serious, sextet, share, Sonata, soundtrack, spectacular, spice, sprightly, Spring Green, Spring Green Wisconsin, stage, standout, Stas Venglevski, Stephanie Jutt, Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, stormy, Stoughton, Stoughton Opera House, String quartet, style, successful, summer, Sunday, surreal, symphonic, tag, talent, Taliesin, tango, tender, The Ear, The Playhouse, The Skater's Waltz, Thomas Kasdorf, torch, torchy, trained, transcription, trio, turbulent, unexpected, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, virtuoso, Waltz, weekend, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, YouTube
Classical music: UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra resurrect Paul Hindemith’s long-neglected 20th-century secular Requiem with fine singing and committed playing
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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 once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photographs below.
By John W. Barker
It is unusual that, within the space of a few days, we have parallel performances of two very untraditional Requiems, ones setting vernacular texts rather than liturgical Latin ones.
The UW Choral Union and UW Symphony(below) performed Paul Hindemith’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: A Requiem For those we love” last weekend. And the Madison Symphony Chorus and Orchestra will give us Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) this coming weekend, May 5-7.
(NOTE: Here is a link with more information about the three MSO performances this coming weekend:
It is hard to resist the temptation to compare them.
They were, of course, composed about a century apart, in the contexts of very different stylistic eras. They reflect very different aesthetics: High Romantic warmth for Brahms, conservative modernism for Hindemith.
The different texts chosen also determine crucial differences. Brahms selected Luther’s German translations of passages from Scripture, as a broad collage of human consolation and solace, whereas the German-born Hindemith, a naturalized American citizen who fled from Hitler’s Nazism, in a patriotic commemoration of the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, chose the long poem of grieving that Walt Whitman (below) wrote over the death of President Abraham Lincoln.
The relatively concise Scriptural texts allowed Brahms to develop rich melodic and contrapuntal elaborations. Hindemith’s determination to set Whitman’s complete poem, of 208 verses in altogether irregular free verse, committed him to keep things in constantly moving continuity, with little chance for pausing and elaborating.
To be sure, Hindemith (below) was never a distinguished lyricist, for all his skills, so his writing is endless declamation by the soloists, backed by strongly cast choral statements. (You can hear famed baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the chorus sing the opening of the Hindemith requiem in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
There are many lovely and powerful moments, but they pass by quickly and leave little of memorable expressiveness. There is much clever music here, but in sum total it is more dutiful than beautiful.
The performance in Mills Hall — I heard the one Sunday night — showed a stage packed with musicians. There were two soloists, a chorus of exactly 100 singers, and an orchestra (the UW Symphony) of 67 players, 46 of them on strings. UW choral director and conductor Beverly Taylor (below) drew from all of them deeply committed musical results.
Of the two soloists, soprano Jennifer D’Agostino (below left) sang with beauty and expression, but it was baritone James Held (below right) who stole the show, with a ringing voice, superb diction, and a genuine eloquence.
The huge chorus was quite magnificent, well unified, fully serious in its enunciation, and capable of some truly musical sound — and Hindemith, though nowhere near Brahms as a choral composer, gave them some serious challenges. The orchestra sounded a bit rough at the very beginning, but settled into participating strongly in the performance.
Whatever reservations one may have about Hindemith’s score, this Whitman Requiem, one of his last important works and premiered in 1946, is a significant piece. It is far less frequently heard than that by Brahms, and so it is very good that UW choral director Beverly Taylor has brought it to our attention.
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Classical music: Here are the Final Forte winners. Mosaic Chamber Players concludes its season this Saturday night with piano trios by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and Charles Ives. Plus, a FREE concert of Latin American bassoon music is Friday at noon
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NEWS: In case you missed it last night on Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio, here are the winners of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s high school concerto competition, which featured a lot of fine music and excellent performances.
First prize went to violinist Julian Rhee of Brookfield, who performed Tchaikovsky; second prize went to pianist Michael Wu of Sun Prairie, who performed Saint-Saens; and the two runners-up were violinist Yaoyao Chen of Menasha, who played Sibelius, and harpist Naomi Sutherland, who performed Ravel.
For more information about the annual event, including links to video biographies of the contestants, go to:
ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature bassoonist Juliana Mesa-Jaramillo in works for solo bassoon by 20th-century Latin American composers. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
The critically acclaimed Mosaic Chamber Players will conclude its 2016-2017 season with a program of piano trios.
Members of the Madison-based Mosaic Chamber Players are Wes Luke, violin; Kyle Price, cello; and Jess Salek, piano.
The program features the “Elegy” Trio in D Minor, Op. 9, by Sergei Rachmaninoff; the Trio, Op. 86, by Charles Ives; and the Trio in D Minor, Op 49, by Felix Mendelssohn. (You can hear the opening of the lovely and darkly dramatic Rachmaninoff Trio in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert will be this Saturday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in the Landmark Auditorium of First Unitarian Society of Madison.
Tickets are $15 for general admission; $10 for seniors; and $5 for students. Cash or checks only will be accepted.
Pianist Jess Salek (below), who graduated from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton Wis., and who runs his own piano studio in Madison and also works with the Madison Youth Choirs.
Violinist Wes Luke (below) plays with many regional orchestras and ensembles, including the Madison-based Ancora String Quartet.
Here is an informative and engaging story about cellist Kyle Price (below), a UW-Madison student, and how he started a music festival and ended up studying with Professor Uri Vardi at the UW-Madison.
http://www.music.wisc.edu/2015/12/02/kyleprice_cello/
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Classical music: Don’t miss tango weekend at the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society
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By Jacob Stockinger
If there was ever a genre of music created specifically for the talented, eclectic and fun-loving musicians of the Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, it is surely the tango.
It is hard to imagine a more perfect kind of music because it seems so suited to the temperament of the BDDS and its participants. The tango and BDDS simply seem made for each other.
The sexy and sensual tango has become both a popular and populist form of South American dance music. It started in brothels and then went mainstream. Then it crossed over into the classical repertoire, thanks to composers Astor Piazzolla, Carlos Guastavino and others.
If you have heard the BDDS perform tangos before, you know how captivating the performances are.
This weekend, the BDDS Silver Jubilee season will feature two programs with tangos, arranged by Pablo Zinger (below), a Uruguayan native who now calls New York City home.
Last time they performed, Zinger and his BDDS colleagues were absolutely terrific. The Ear will never forget the BDDS version of Piazzolla’s “Oblivion,” a fantastic, soulful and heart-breaking piece of music. (You can hear another version of “Oblivion” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here are links to the program with tango this weekend to be performed at the Playhouse in the Overture Center and in the Hillside Theatre (below) at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green:
http://www.bachdancinganddynamite.org/schedule.php
Besides tangos, there will also be music by Maurice Ravel (Piano Trio); Arnold Schoenberg (Chamber Symphony); Franz Schubert (Piano Trio No. 1); Joseph Haydn (Piano Trio No. 25, “Gypsy Rondo”); and movie music by Nino Rota, Henry Mancini and Luis Bacalov.
But featured prominently are tangos by Uruguayan composer Miguel del Aguila (below top) and by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla (below bottom), who turned to the tango of his native land at the advice of Nadia Boulanger, the famous French teacher of Aaron Copland, Philip Glass and others.
If you are looking for a preview sample, you can of course go on YouTube. But you could also listen to the new CD of South American tangos by BDDS co-founder and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and who is also principal flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Not long ago, Jutt (below) spent a sabbatical year in Argentina, if The Ear recalls correctly. She clearly fell in love with tango music and is anxious to share her enthusiasm with others. That enthusiasm and her flair for the dance form show in the terrific performances on the CD.
The new CD (below), on the Albany label, features pianists Elena Abend and the versatile arranger-pianist Pablo Zinger, whom you can hear live this weekend. It features 20 modern Latin American and Spanish works by Piazzolla and Guastavino as well as by Angel Lasada, the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Basque composer Jesus Guridi. (It is on sale at BDDS concerts for $15.)
Dance has always inspired classical music. Historically, the tango seems a natural modern progression from the Baroque minuets and allemandes of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Classical landler of Haydn, the Romantic waltzes of Franz Schubert and Frederic Chopin, the Hungarian Dances of Johannes Brahms and the Slavonic Dances of Antonin Dvorak.
But don’t take The Ear’s word for it.
Go listen for yourself. And be captivated, be transported. You won’t be disappointed.
Tags: Aaron Copland, Albany Records, allemande, Angel Lasada, Argentina, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Ástor Piazzolla, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Baroque, Basque, BDDS, Carlos Guastavino, CD, Cello, Chamber music, Chamber Symphony, Chopin, Classical, Classical music, Compact Disc, dance, film, Film score, France, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Schubert, Haydn, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Henry Mancini, Hungarian Dances, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus Guridi, Johann Sebastian Bach, landler, Latin America, Libertango, Luis Bacalov, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, menuet, minuet, modern, movie, Music, Nadia Boulanger, New York City, Nino Rota, Philip Glass, Piano, Piano Trio, Ravel, Romantic, Schubert, sensual, sex, sexy, Slavonic Dances, Sonata, soul, South America, Spain, Spring Green, symphony, Taliesin, tango, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uruguay, Villa-Lobos, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Waltz, waltzes, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: The amateur Middleton Community Orchestra brings its fifth season to an impressively brassy close
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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 for 12 years hosted 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. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The mostly amateur Middleton Community Orchestra (below) finished its fifth season with a concert on Wednesday night that was a kind of brass sandwich—that is, a brass filling between two noisy slices of bread.
The opener was the popular “Carnival” Overture by Antonin Dvorak, the closest this composer ever came to producing a cheap crowd-pleaser.
(I wish that the enterprising conductor Steve Kurr (below), had chosen instead one of the other two overtures in Dvorak’s trilogy of “Nature, Life and Love,” which are much more substantial.)
The orchestra gave the overture a lusty performance, revealing some interesting wind details that one does not often hear.
There were two sandwich fillers.
The first was a concerto for tuba, dating from 2015. The composer, local musician and University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music alumnus Pat Doty (below), was also the soloist.
Of its three movements, the first was clearly in the idiom of music for marching band, in which Doty has had long UW experience. The second movement was an attempt at a waltz, while the finale had Latin American odors and featured a prominent part for marimba. What to say? The program bio made the sensible point that Doty’s music “never takes itself too seriously.”
A more substantial score was the other filling, the Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, Op. 91, by Russian late-Romantic Reinhold Glière, also in three movements. (Sadly, the program booklet failed to list the movements for each concerto.)
While this score may not be really great music, it is a splendid, if difficult, vehicle for the soloist.
Another UW-Madison grad, Paul Litterio (below), a player in many area orchestras including both the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (and with a sideline in handbells), was the soloist. Playing with perfect technique, an elegant style and just a touch of teasing vibrato, Litterio gave a fascinating demonstration of his instrument in a solo capacity that we do not often hear.
The closing bread for the sandwich was another example of near-vulgar bombast by one of its masters: Tchaikovsky (below). If that was the kind of music to be written, he was the one to do it, and still make you admire him.
The Capriccio Italien, Op. 40, was the composer’s reaction to a visit to Rome. He evoked his neighborhood and, above all, the riotous sounds and songs of a Roman Carnival. (You can hear it in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Tchaikovsky’s capacity for making bombast sound like fun creates a really delightful score, and the Middleton players poured all their energies into it.
(An interesting footnote: Tchaikovsky’s other musical product of his visits to Italy is a very different work, the gorgeous string sextet Souvenir de Florence (Memory of Florence), which is less about Italy itself and more a picture of the composer’s homesickness. As it happens, that masterpiece will be played on July 8 by the Willy Street Chamber Players.)
Tags: amateur, American Record Guide, Arts, band, biography, bombast, brass, brass instruments, bread, Capriccio Italien, Carnival Overture, Classical music, concerto, critic, Dvorak, History, Horn, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, John W. Barker, July, Latin America, life, Love, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Symphony Orchestra, marching band, marimba, Medieval history, MEMF, Middleton Community Orchestra, movement, nature, noise, Orchestra, Overture, percussion, program notes, Reinhold Gliere, review, sandwich, score, solo, soloist, songs, Souvenir de Florence, style, symphony, Tchaikovsky, technique, trilogy, Tuba, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vibrato, vulgar, Waltz, Willy Street Chamber Players, wind instruments, winds, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: Edgewood College offers two promising band and choral concerts this coming weekend. Plus, a FREE concert of new music for harp and cello is Friday at noon
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in the Landmark Auditorium of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Meeting House of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features harpist Linda Warren and cellist Carol Wessler in the music of Harper Tasche and Laura Zaerr.
By Jacob Stockinger
Two promising band and choral concerts are on tap this weekend at Edgewood College.
Both will take place in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive.
FRIDAY
The Edgewood College Concert Band, under the direction of Walter Rich (below), will perform a benefit concert for Luke House on Friday at 7 p.m.
Admission is FREE with a freewill offering to benefit the Luke House community meal program.
Included on the program are Flourish for Wind Band by Ralph Vaughan Williams; “Serenity” by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo; “Chorale and Capriccio” by Caesar Giovanini; “Jerusalem” by Hubert Parry; “I’m Seventeen Come Sunday” by Percy Grainger; “Daybreak” by Carl Strommen and “Children of Gaia” by Robert Sheldon.
The Music Department at Edgewood College has hosted benefit concerts for Luke House since 1994.
SUNDAY
Two vocal ensembles will perform a concert at 2:30 p.m., Sunday in St. Joseph Chapel. Admission is FREE.
Featured will be the Chamber Singers (below), under the direction of Sergei Pavlov (center at the bottom of the stairs). The group has just returned from performances at the International Sacred Music Festival in Quito, Ecuador.
The Chamber Singers will perform excerpts from the Mass in F by Domenico Zipoli; “Usnijze mi, usnij” by Polish composer Henryk Gorecki; “Holy, Holy” from the Gospel Mass by Robert Ray; and a Victor Johnson arrangement of “Bonse Aba,” a traditional Zambian work. Todd Hammes, adjunct faculty member in the Music Department, will assist on percussion.
Also performing will be the Women’s Choir (below top), under the direction of Kathleen Otterson (below bottom). The Women’s Choir will perform Israeli and Jewish folk songs, a spiritual, and the “Domine Deus” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in G major, also featuring Victoria Gorbich on violin. (You can hear the glorious Bach piece performed in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
Tags: Arts, Bach, band, Baroque, benefit concert, Caesar Giovannini, Capriccio, Carl Strommen, Cello, Chamber music, chamber singers, choral music, Chorale, Classical music, Domenico Zipoli, Ecuador, Edgewood College, Edgewood College Chamber Singers, Europe, First Unitarian Society of Madison, folk song, Frank Lloyd Wright, harp, Henryk Gorecki, Hubert Parry, Israel, Israeli, Jacob Stockinger, Jerusalem, Jewish, Johann Sebastian Bach, Latin America, Luke House, Madison, mass, Music, musicale, Norway, Ola Gjeilo, Percy Grainger, Piano, Quito, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Robert Sheldon, spiritual, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, vocal music, winds, Wisconsin, women, YouTube
Classical music: A multimedia concert – including poetry, dance, video and photographs — of Latin American and Spanish music will be held this Friday night at 8 in the Promenade Hall of the Overture Center by Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society co-director and flutist Stephanie Jutt and others.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Our friends from the always unusual and always first-rate Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society write:
Can’t wait for our summer festival in June? Come to Flautistico! The multimedia event will be held this Friday, March 20, at 8 p.m. in Promenade Hall at the Overture Center. All tickets are $25.
Flautistico! is a continuation of co-founder and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt’s exploration into Latin American, Mexican and Spanish music. (Jutt, below in a photo by Dick Ainsworth, teaches at the UW-Madison School of Music and is also Principal Flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.)
This one-time-only concert will feature a wide variety of music from Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and Spain that has never been performed at BDDS concerts.
Puerto Rican mezzo-soprano Yanzelmalee Rivera, Venezuelan clarinetist Orlando Pimentel, and Madison’s own fantastic collaborative pianist Thomas Kasdorf will join Jutt.
Composers include Jesús Guirdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Carlos Guastavino, Angel Lasala, and Astor Piazzolla, among many others.
Raquel Paraiso will weave poetry throughout the evening by Federico Garcia Lorca, Octavio Paz, Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda.
Dance choreographed by Ariel Juarez and performed by Jacques Saint-Cyr and Maria Castello will complement the music of Piazzolla.
An original art installation by UW-Madison artist Carolyn Kallenborn, including her film footage from Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico, will create a multi-dimensional concert evening.
Photos by Martin Chabi (below) will be projected during the concert.
To purchase tickets from Overture Center, visit: http://www.overturecenter.org/events/flautistico
Tags: Alfred Noble Prize, Angel Lasala, Argentina, Arts, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Carlos Guastavino, César Vallejo, Chamber music, Classical music, dance, Day of the Dead, Federico Garcia Lorca, film, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus Guiridi, Jorge Luis Borges, Latin America, Latin American music, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Martin Chabi, Mexico, Mezzo-soprano, Music, Oaxaca, Octavio Paz, Overture Center, Pablo Neruda, photo, photography, Piano, poem, poems, Poetry, Puerto Rico, Spain, Spanish music, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Venezuela, video, vocal music, Wisconsin
Classical music: The Ear gets totally immersed in two-piano music by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, and loves it. Now he looks forward to “drowning” this weekend in European concertos and South American tangos, then piano trios and works for piano, four-hands.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear thinks of it as the Berlitz Method of learning a language, only applied to music.
It’s called “Total Immersion.”
Each June, the Madison-based chamber music ensemble the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society always offers a lot of variety of outstanding music over three weekends, each featuring two different programs in three different venues. (This year’s theme, for the 23rd annual season is “23 Skiddoo.”)
But one thing I especially look forward to is that usually there is a chance to immerse yourself in a special style or genre or sub-category that you often don’t hear. That allows for added enjoyment and informative comparisons.
This summer’s immersion started this past opening weekend. This coming weekend and the weekend after that promise an immersion in Western European classics, especially concertos, and in Latin American music, especially Argentinian tangos.
For more details and information, including programs and tickets, visit:
www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
Some of that kind of immersion stems from the BDDS programming philosophy. Some of it probably also comes from the fact that BDDS hires guest artists for a weeklong stint and so must seek out repertoire to spotlight them.
In any case, this is the summer not only of Latin American music but also of two-piano works.
This is not to say I didn’t love the outstanding performance of Claude Debussy’s sublime Violin Sonata, his last work, by New York violinist Yura Lee (below) because I did.
And I also liked the BDDS debut of Icelandic soprano Disilla Larusdottir (below) in her superb readings of “Five Popular Greek Melodies” by Maurice Ravel and especially contemporary American composer Aaron Jay Kernis’ Renaissance-based “L’arte della danssar” (“The Art of the Dance,” 2011).
I also thoroughly enjoyed the vivacious and captivating Introduction and Allegro for Flute and Piano by Carlos Guastavino with BDDS co-founder and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt (below), who is also principal flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Personally, The Ear is generally less enthusiastic about harp music, so the Celtic-themed sonata by Arnold Bax left him feeling half-hungry, despite a terrific performance (below) by Stephanie Jutt and the gifted guest harpist Heidi Krutzen. Even the Quartet by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach struck me as not especially inspired, but rather a pretty run-of-the-mill Classical work that, despite a fine performance, has charms but not genius.
To The Ear, the true stand-outs stand-outs of the first weekend were Jeffrey Sykes, the pianist who co-founded and co-directs the BDDS with Jutt and who teaches at the University of California-Berkley; and guest piano virtuoso and Van Cliburn Competition prizewinner Christopher Taylor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, who has a national and international reputation.
And The Ear, himself a devoted amateur pianist, sure got an earful of great, first-class piano playing through four very difficult works for two pianos.
Such concerts are not easy to stage. To get two pianos on stage at The Playhouse in the Overture Center and the Hillside Theater famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green involves a lot of difficult and expensive logistics.
But it was done, and the results were terrific.
Critic John W. Barker thought so too. Here is a link to his review for Isthmus:
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=42978&sid=2d270176d08b03b104e01230f4e31d17
As almost always happens with BDDS, there were pleasant surprises.
I really didn’t think I would love Maurice Ravel’s popular and over-programmed “Bolero.”
But I did.
Jeffrey Sykes was completely right when he said that the two-piano version is drier and more modernistic, more like the work of Igor Stravinsky, than the better-known orchestral version, which has its more old-fashioned charms and colors as the melody bounces less percussively around various sections. (You can see for yourself in a YouTube video at the bottom. Let me know if you agree or disagree.)
On the other hand, it was something to see the insistent rhythms make the always physical and impressively dynamic Christopher Taylor (below) rock out and to watch how a single repetitive note gradually worked up to five-finger chords.
There was 20th-century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s biting and percussive Variations on the famous theme by Niccolo Paganini that was also used by Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
There was Ravel’s “La Valse,” a grandly elegant and overblown nostalgia trip to the society embodied by the waltz as it came to its chaotic end in World War I.
And in the end there were Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, his last composition that is filled with luscious melodies, infectious rhythms, unusual harmonies and astonishingly virtuosic and precise playing. (The two-piano version was premiered by Rachmaninoff himself and Vladimir Horowitz. Now THAT would have been something to hear and see!)
Now the two-piano part of the BDDS season is over. But The Ear can’t wait for this coming weekend, which will bring a Concerto for Two Cellos by Antonio Vivaldi as well as the lovely Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart plus the great Clarinet Trio by Johannes Brahms and selected tangos by Astor Piazzolla with tango pianist Pablo Zinger (below), who performed with Piazzolla’s band, from Argentina.
During the week there will be piano trios by Dmitri Shostakovich and Antonin Dvorak and performed by the exceptional San Francisco Trio; more tangos by Piazzolla; and works for one piano-four hands by Darius Milhaud and William Hirtz with Sykes and frequent guest pianist Randall Hodgkinson, who teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music.
The Ear intends not to miss any of the four programs in the two coming weekends. And neither should you.
They mean more immersion, even if it is not quite as total.
Tags: 23 Skiddoo, Aaron Jay Kernis, Antonín Dvořák, Arnold Bax, Arts, Ástor Piazzolla, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, BDD, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Carlos Guastavino, Cello, Chamber music, Christopher Taylor, clarinet, clarinet trio, Classical music, Claude Debussy, Darius Milhaud, Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dvorak, four-hands, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Liszt, Iceland, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Latin America, Liszt, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Maurice Ravel, Milhaud, Mozart, Music, New England Conservatory, Niccolo Paganini, Overture Center, Pablo Zinger, Paganini, Piano, Piano Trio, Randall Hodgkinson, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Sonata, South America, Spring Green, Taliesin, Total Immersion, two-piano, United States, University of California-Berkeley, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, William Hirtz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
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