The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Duo-pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung perform Schubert and Poulenc at Farley’s House of Pianos this Sunday afternoon. Plus, a FREE guitar concert takes place at noon on Friday.
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ALERT: The week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, held from 12:15 to 1 pm. at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features guitarist Steve Waugh, who will perform music by Johann Sebastian Bach, John Dowland, Isaac Albeniz, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Francisco Tarrega and more.
By Jacob Stockinger
As part of the Salon Piano Series held at Farley’s House of Pianos, Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung (below) will perform numerous pieces by Franz Schubert and a concerto by Francis Poulenc, all for one piano-four hands and for two pianos.
The concert is this Sunday, Jan. 17, starting at 4 p.m. when Bill Lutes, a local distinguished piano teacher who also used to be the music director and a program host at Wisconsin Public Radio and a voice coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and University Opera, will give an introduction to the concert.
Tickets are $45 in advance or $50 at the door, and are available online at salonpianoseries.org, or at Farley’s House of Pianos (call 608 271-2626) or Orange Tree Imports.
But a new development will help students, says Renee Farley.
“The Salon Piano Series recently got word of being awarded a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board,” says Farley. “Their board liked what we do, but wanted us to increase our outreach to younger people. So, effective today we are offering student tickets to this concert for $30 each. Right now this is just being offered for the Bax-Chung concert. But our SPS board meets later this month and will discuss how to handle it for future programs.”
The two-piano pieces will be played on rare “twin” pianos restored by Farley’s House of Pianos: a 1914 Mason & Hamlin CC and a 1914 Mason & Hamlin BB.
Bax, a winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition and the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, started off 2016 performing several concerts in Japan with other concerts scheduled in Spain, Chile, South Korea and China.
Chung, an alumna of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, is a winner of the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts and an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Governor General of Canada. In 2015, she performed in Canada, Italy, Germany and Argentina.
Here is the program:
Fantasia in F Minor, D. 940 — Schubert
Andantino varie, D. 823 — Schubert
Military March No. 1, D. 733 — Schubert
Lebensstürme, D. 947 — Schubert
Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor, original transcription for two solo pianos — Poulenc (NOTE: You can hear the poignant Mozartian second movement in its original form and with the composer at a keyboard in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Salon Piano Series is a non-profit organization founded by Tim and Renée Farley to continue the tradition of intimate salon concerts at Farley’s House of Pianos.
For ticket information and concert details see salonpianoseries.org.
All events are held at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side near the Beltline. Plenty of free parking is available and it is easy to reach by bicycle or Madison Metro.
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Classical music: The piano played an important role in the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, whose democracy party just triumphed over the military in the election held this past week in Myanmar, or Burma.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Often we lose a sense of the importance of music to non-musicians and to life outside the concert hall and conservatory or school of music.
Which is a reminder why supporting this weekend’s concerts by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras has social and educational as well as artistic meaning. Here is a link to the WYSO schedules and programs;
But this past week the world also received a vivid and dramatic reminder of just how important music can be in the life of the non-musical world.
It has to do with the landslide victory of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar, formerly called Burma. That is the party led by the democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi (below) – or The Lady, as her compatriots and supporters simply refer to her.
During her 20 years of house arrest by the military, the piano helped her keep her sanity and her resolve.
And hearing her play the piano also reassured her neighbors outside her home in Yangon (Rangoon) about her emotional and mental health.
Exercise, study and playing the piano (below) all proved key during the 20 years of house arrest imposed by the military on the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
It is also worth noting that to honor her, on its 50th anniversary, the famous Leeds international Piano Competition in Great Britain in the United Kingdom renamed its top Gold Medal in her honor.
Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan even wrote and performed a special song, “Unplayed Piano,” for Suu Kyi in honor of her 60th birthday in 2005. You can hear it in there Youtube video at the bottom.
Here is an overview:
http://theappendix.net/issues/2013/7/solitude-and-sandaya-the-strange-history-of-pianos-in-burma
And here is another story with more specific details, including her favorite composers – Bach, Telemann, Mozart, Clementi, Pachelbel and Bartok — and how piano tuners, when finally allowed by the military to repair her piano, dealt with the forcefulness with which she sometimes played as well as with the effects of the hot and humid climate:
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/15/world/la-fg-myanmar-piano-tuner-20121116
Tags: Arts, Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi, Bach, Baroque, Bartok, Burma, Classical music, Clementi, democracy, Election, General election, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, Madison, Mozart, Music, Myanmar, National League for Democracy, Nobel Peace Prize, Pachelbel, Piano, Rangoon, Telemann, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Yangon, YouTube
Classical music: Italian pianist Federico Colli wins the 2012 Leeds International Competition, which has ties to Wisconsin this year.
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By Jacob Stockinger
It’s official.
After two weeks of performances, the 2012 Britain-based Leeds International Piano Competition has a winner. He is the 24-year-old Italian pianist Federico Colli, who played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” (below, in a photo by SWPIX) in the final round, as well as several solo recital and a chamber music performance, to win.
An American, Andrew Tyson, also won a prize for his concerto performance.
Since it started some 40 years ago, the prestigious Leeds Competition, which is held every three years, has launched the careers of such pianists as Murray Perahia, Mitsuko Uchida, Andras Schiff, Radu Lupu, Lars Vogt, Alessio Bax and Louis Lortie among many other recognizable names.
Here are links to stories about the winner (below in a photo by BBC News):
http://www.classical-music.com/news/federico-colli-wins-2012-leeds-international-piano-competition
http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2012/09/italian_pianist_federico_colli.html
There are some local connections to this year’s competition. The panel of judges included pianist Robert McDonald (below top), who studied at Lawrence University in Appleton Wis., as well as at the Curtis Institute and Juilliard School. (He now reaches at both, and is also known as the longtime collaborator with violinist Midori.) And Harvard-based pianist-scholar Robert Levin (below bottom), who has perform often at the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival was also on the panel of jurors.
Here is a link to the official website of the Leeds competition:
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