The Well-Tempered Ear

The eighth annual UW Schubertiade is this Sunday afternoon. It features a FREE online retrospective of the past seven years plus a new four-hand piano performance

January 29, 2021
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By Jacob Stockinger

The University of Wisconsin has posted the following announcement:

For the eighth consecutive year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music will present its annual Schubertiade — a special concert celebrating the music of Franz Schubert (below).

Traditionally these concerts have been held around the composer’s birthday. This year’s concert will in fact occur on his birthday — this Sunday, Jan. 31, at 3-4:30 p.m. CST. The pre-recorded premiere is at: https://youtu.be/7sshhKiFPAg

You can also use the link to prepare for the concert before or during the concert. You will find the program with song titles, the original German texts and English translation, and biographies of the performers by simply clicking on “SHOW MORE” on the YouTube website and follow the links to PDFs.

BECAUSE THERE ARE NO COPYRIGHT ISSUES, ACCORDING TO UW OFFICIALS, THE POST SHOULD BE UP AND AVAILABLE INDEFINITELY AFTER ITS PREMIERE.

As in past years, founders and performers Martha Fischer (below left), professor of piano and head of the collaborative piano program at UW-Madison, and her husband Bill Lutes (below right), an independent piano teacher, and UW emeritus artist-in-residence, will host the program.

These concerts have been presented in the sprit of the first Schubertiades (below, in a painting by Julius Schmid) that took place during the composer’s lifetime (1797-1828) in the homes of his friends and fellow artists, poets and fans.

These were social as well as musical occasions with Schubert himself presiding at the piano, giving his audience a chance to hear his latest songs, piano duets and chamber music, as well as pieces that had already become favorites.

This year’s Schubertiade will be different in response to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. It will be an online look back — or Rückblick — at past concerts, with songs chosen from performances that have been preserved in the audio and video archive.

The featured performers will include faculty members, students and alumni from the Mead Witter School of Music, along with special guests.

In addition, pianists Fischer and Lutes will give a “new” performance recorded for this occasion of the great Fantasie in F minor for piano duet. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear that work, performed by Dutch brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen and recorded live in Seoul, South Korea.)

The songs have been chosen to reflect themes that were not only relevant to Schubert and his circle, but also to all of us in the midst of this challenging time: hope for a brighter future; the need for connection with others; remembrance of happier times; and the consolation to be found in nature.

Schubert left a vast and precious legacy of beauty — an enormous output of music that he composed in his short lifetime.

In a sense, each time his music is performed and heard, it is a journey from the past to our own time, the sounds speaking to us today as vividly and consolingly as they did when they were created 200 years ago.

Performers

Martha Fischer and Bill Lutes, pianists

Alumni:

Jamie-Rose Guarrine, soprano (below, in a photo by Peter Konerko)
Emily Birsan, soprano
Michael Roemer, baritone
Jennifer D’Agostino, soprano
Daniel O’Dea, tenor
Wesley Dunnagan, tenor
Sarah Brailey (alumna and current DMA student)
Sara Guttenberg

Guests:

Marie McManama, soprano
Cheryl Bensman-Rowe, mezzo-soprano

Faculty:

Mimmi Fulmer, soprano
Paul Rowe, baritone (below)
Julia Rottmayer, soprano

Staff

David Alcorn, videographer, editor, etc.
Katrin Talbot, images for audio only tracks

 


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Classical music: On Wednesday at noon, Just Bach turns to C.P.E. Bach. At night, the Middleton Community Orchestra, with soloist Paran Amirinazari, plays the Violin Concerto No. 1 by Bruch plus works by Janacek and Sibelius.

February 17, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

This coming Wednesday, Feb. 19, features two noteworthy concerts, one by Just Bach at noon and the other by the Middleton Community Orchestra at 7:30 p.m.

Here are details:

JUST BACH

For this month’s FREE one-hour Just Bach concert (below, in a photo by John W. Barker) on this Wednesday at noon in Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, attention will turn from father to son.

The concert features music by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (below), the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach.

The concert opens with a movement from the Sonata in A Minor, Wq. 70/4, H. 85, performed by organist Mark Brampton Smith.

The program continues with a recently rediscovered Cantata, “Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Stande” (I Am Content with My Station), featuring bass-baritone Professor Paul Rowe, and the Just Bach period-instrument players led by Kangwon Kim.

Just Bach co-founder and soprano Sarah Brailey (below) will lead the chorale sing-along, a beloved audience-participation feature of these programs.

The program concludes with eight selections from the “Geistliche Oden und Lieder ‘Gellert Lieder’” (Sacred Odes and Songs ‘Gellert Songs’), performed by students of Paul Rowe (below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson), accompanied by organist Mark Brampton Smith.

This will also be the first concert with a mother and daughter performing, with violinist Leanne League in the Just Bach players, and soprano Cecilia League in the Paul Rowe studio.

Performers are: Sarah Brailey, soprano; Paul Rowe, baritone; Kangwon Kim, violin 1 (below); Leanne League, violin 2; Katrin Talbot, viola; Anton TenWolde, cello; Mark Brampton Smith, organ; Allyson Mills, Cecilia League, Carly Ochoa and Ella Anderson, sopranos; and Jack Innes, Jake Elfner, Nick Schinner and Chase Kozak, baritones.

The concert is free and open to the public, with a goodwill offering collected.

Other Just Bach concerts this spring, all Wednesdays at noon are on: March 25, April 15 and May 20.

MIDDLETON COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA

At 7:30 p.m., the mostly amateur and critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (below) will perform its winter concert as part of its 10th anniversary season.

The concert takes place in the comfortable and acoustically pleasing  Middleton Performing Arts Center (below, in a photo by Brian Ruppert) that is attached to Middleton High School, 2100 Bristol Street.

The program, under conductor-composer Steve Kurr, includes the “Lachian Dances” by Leos Janacek; “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius; and the Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor by Max Bruch with guest soloist Paran Amirinazari (below). (You can hear the finale of the violin concerto, played by Sarah Chang, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Tickets are $15 for adults. Students are admitted free.

The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and auditorium doors open at 7 p.m.

There will be a meet-and-greet reception (below) with the orchestra players and audience members after the concert.

For more information about upcoming concerts, how to join the orchestra and how to support it, call (608) 212-8690 or go to: http://middletoncommunityorchestra.org

 


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Classical music: Today is the Winter Solstice. It’s a good time to listen to Schubert’s “Winterreise” (Winter Journey)  — this year in English translation

December 21, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

Winter starts today – Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019 – when the Winter Solstice arrives tonight at 10:19 p.m.

That means tonight — the longest night of the year — we turn the corner. The days start getting longer and the nights shorter.

It is also the day when The Ear likes to listen to the best winter music ever written: the cycle of 24 songs called “Winterreise” (Winter Journey) by Franz Schubert (1797-1828).

Over the years, The Ear has heard many fine versions. Among his favorite singers are Ian Bostridge, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Matthias Goerner and Thomas Quasthoff.

Next year, you can probably expect to see a new release of the performance this past week by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the pianist-conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

But this year, he is listening – even as he writes – to a 2018 version by the critically acclaimed British baritone Roderick Williams (below top) with pianist Christopher Glynn (below bottom) on the Signum Classics record label.

The real and unusual appeal is that all the songs are sung in English — not the original German.

And The Ear finds it very appealing not to have to read translations but instead to sit back and listen directly to the meaning of the stories in the songs — all sung with excellent diction — in the austere, subtle and outstanding translation by theater director and writer Jeremy Sams (below).

It makes The Ear want to hear more Lieder or art songs sung in English translation — both live and recorded — just as he likes the translation, used by the Metropolitan Opera, done by the late American poet J.D. “Sandy” McClatchy of Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”

Try it and see what you think.

Here is the first song on YouTube, where the audio proceeds through the remainder of the 70-minute cycle after the end of each song.

Enjoy. And let us know what you think of the English translation:

 


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Classical music: Recitals of Scandinavian art songs and of tuba music are on tap at the UW this Sunday afternoon and Monday night

September 26, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

In the next few days, two noteworthy and free recitals, open to the public, are on tap at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.

On this Sunday afternoon Sept. 29, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Morphy Hall, mezzo-soprano Jessie Wright Martin and pianist John O’Brien (both below) – who have performed together at Carnegie Hall – will give a FREE recital of Nordic art songs. (It includes the Grieg song performed by Anne Sofie von Otter in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Wright (below) will sing in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.

This week, the two performed the same recital at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s School of Music. Wright spoke to the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel.

“It started because I have Norwegian heritage and was interested in Norwegian music,” said Martin, a professor of music at Wingate University. “I thought it would be interesting to expand to Swedish and Danish music.”

Composers on the program are Edvard Grieg, Peter Heisse and Gunnar de Frumeri.

For more information about the performers and the program, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/jessica-martin-john-obrien-nordic-song-recital/


On Monday night at 7:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall, guest artist Beth Weise (below) will give a FREE tuba recital.

Unfortunately, no program is listed.

For more information about the concert and about Weise, a distinguished and very accomplished musician who did her undergraduate work at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, go to:

https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/beth-wiese-tuba-guest-artist-recital/


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Classical music: Madison native and virtuoso trumpeter Ansel Norris has made it to the final round of the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition. You can hear him perform live on Thursday morning or in replay

June 26, 2019
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A REMINDER and CORRECTION: American pianist Kenneth Broberg, who performed last season in Madison on the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Pianos, will be the last finalist – not the second-to-last – in the final concerto round of the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition. The pianist from China that was to play after him played yesterday instead.

Broberg will play the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” by Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23, by Tchaikovsky. You can watch his performance live  still on Thursday morning at 11:45 a.m. by going to https://tch16.medici.tv/en/ and clicking on PIANO LIVE or REPLAY after the performance.

By Jacob Stockinger

This news came to The Ear late or he would have passed along more information much earlier.

Ansel Norris (below), a 26-year-old Madison native and virtuoso trumpeter, has made it as one of the nine finalists — the contest started with 47 contestants in trombone, French horn, trumpet and tuba — in the first-ever Brass Competition at the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition.

You can hear Norris perform live on Thursday morning at 7:45 a.m. via live-streaming or afterwards via replay. Just go to https://tch16.medici.tv/en/

Then click on BRASS and choose WATCH or REPLAY.

You can also listen to his earlier performances.

Here is a link to his performance in the first round, when he played a concerto by Franz Joseph Haydn plus works by Allen Vizzutti and Georges Enescu:

https://tch16.medici.tv/en/replay/first-round-with-ansel-norris/

And here is a link to his performance in the semi-final round, where he played concertos by Johann Friedrich Fasch and Vladimir Peskin — you can hear a much younger Norris play the first movement with piano in the YouTube video at the bottom —  as well as a solo competition piece by Théo Charlier:

https://tch16.medici.tv/en/replay/semi-final-with-ansel-norris/#filter?instrument=brass

His performance in the finals, with an orchestra in St. Petersburg instead of Moscow, will take place on Thursday, June 27, at 7:45 a.m.

He will play Lensky’s aria “Where, Where Have You Gone?” from the opera “Eugene Onegin” by Tchaikovsky and the Trumpet Concerto by Rodion Shchedrin. Playing opera arias and art songs on the trumpet is a Norris specialty.

Norris, a graduate of Northwestern University who was also a member of the well-known New World Symphony in Miami, studied with John Aley, University of Wisconsin-Madison Emeritus Professor and Principal Trumpet of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and played for many years in the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras.

Norris is the son of Katherine Esposito, the concert manager and publicity coordinator at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.

Here is a link to the more complete and current biography posted by the Tchaikovsky Competition:

https://tch16.medici.tv/en/competitors/ansel-norris/


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Classical music: Milwaukee’s PianoArts festival turns 20 this year, and Madison musicians will take part in this year’s festival this weekend

June 13, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement to post:

The 2019 PianoArts 20th anniversary festival, “Concerts with Personality,” will showcase pianists with actors, singers, dancers and chamber music ensembles this coming Friday through Sunday, June 14-16, at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and at Vogel Hall of the Marcus Performing Arts Center.

Among the artists performing in the festival are Madison-based Martha Fischer and Christopher Taylor.

Also performing is Madison’s Sophia Jiang (below top), a 12-year-old winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Youth Piano Competition and the Varshavski-Shapiro Duo (below bottom). Both Stanislava Varshavski and Diana Shapiro received their doctorates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, studying with Martha Fischer.

UW-Madison Professor Martha Fischer (below), who teaches collaborative piano, will present a pre-concert lecture, “Singing Keys,” that explores the special relationships between singers and pianists — in art song, opera and musical theater — on Saturday night, June 15, at 7 p.m. at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, 1584 North Prospect Avenue, in Milwaukee. At 8 p.m., she will be joined by singers from opera and musical theater.

Christopher Taylor (below), a Van Cliburn competition bronze medalist who also teaches at the UW-Madison, will bring the festival to a dazzling close when he performs Franz Liszt’s solo piano transcription of Ludwig van Beethoven’s popular and iconic Fifth Symphony on Sunday night, June 16, at 8 p.m. in Vogel Hall, 929 North Street, Milwaukee. (You can hear the opening of the Liszt-Beethoven transcription, with a fascinating keyboard diagrammatic, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Details, tickets and more information are at www.PianoArts.org


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Classical music: Irish pianist John O’Conor charms and excels in solo works by Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven and John Field. Ancora String Quartet plays Nielsen and Debussy Friday night. 

May 14, 2018
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ALERT: The Ancora String Quartet will close out its 17th season with a performance this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street. The program features the String Quartet No. 4 in F Major, Op. 44, by Danish composer Carl Nielsen and the String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10, by Claude Debussy. Tickets are available at the door and are $15, $12 for seniors, $5 for children. A reception follows the concert. For more information, go to: https://www.ancoraquartet.com

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 Isthmusand 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.

By John W. Barker

Lovers of piano music were given a special treat this past weekend — a double-header, allowing access to two different dimensions of one of the important pianists of our time.

John O’Conor (below), the Irish pianist, appeared on Friday evening with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO), presenting a stimulating performance of the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Then, the following evening, at the Salon Piano Series at Farley’s House of Pianos, O’Conor gave a solo recital that showed the more personalized aspects of his art.

O’Conor concentrates particularly on the early Romantics in both his performing and recording activities, and from such concentrations was the recital program derived.

He began it with a reach back to an early favorite, Franz Joseph Haydn, in the Sonata No. 32 in B minor. In this work from 1776 O’Conor could find hints of the Romantic spirit to come — in a composer usually more identified with High Classicism.

The pianist was more fully in his own comfort zone, however, with the four Impromptus that make up the Op. 90 (D. 899) by Franz Schubert.

Dating from 1827, the composer’s last year, these are simply marvelous gems, and they made me realize that part of their delightfulness is what differentiates them from Schubert’s larger-scale piano works (sonatas,a fantasy, etc.).

The latter correspond to his efforts at music of grand scope and structure, as in the string quartets and symphonies, whereas the shorter piano pieces correspond to Schubert’s Lieder, or art songs, in their greater directness and intimacy. O’Conor played them with conviction and affection.

After the intermission came music by two composers with whom O’Conor has his most-established affinity. He has been the outstanding and crucial champion in the revival of interest in the piano music — both concertos and the pace-setting nocturnes — by John Field (1782-1837, below), the Irish pianist and composer who is recognized now as an important forerunner to Chopin.

Three of Field’s nocturnes (Nos. 5, 6, and 18) were presented, the last a kind of picture of party life in old Russia — where Field spent his later years — ending at the tolling of midday chimes. (You can hear John O’Conor play the lyrical and lullaby-like Nocturne No. 6 in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Beethoven’s music is O’Conor’s other speciality. He has recorded all of the sonatas and the concertos, among other things. For this program, he performed the Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor (1801), a work nowadays cursed by the nickname given its first movement, “Moonlight.” He reminded us that the other two movements are the more fascinating and important ones.

As an encore, he suggested the John Field connection with one of Chopin’s own nocturnes.

Before each half of the program, the pianist gave his own comments, on both personal and analytical matters, and laced with his delightful Irish charm.

O’Conor performed on the amazing 1906 Chickering concert grand piano that Tim Farley has so lovingly restored. The post-recital conversation I had with O’Conor suggested that he had had too little time to adjust to the very remarkable individualities of the instrument. We may hope that he will return to Madison to fill out that acquaintance.

And we hope for more examples of the fruitful cooperation between the WCO and Farley’s in jointly bringing so fine a performer as this to the Madison scene.


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Classical music: The fifth annual Schubertiade is this Sunday afternoon at the UW-Madison and will chronicle Franz Schubert’s short but prolific career year by year

January 23, 2018
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CORRECTION: The concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra this Friday night in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center starts at 7:30 p.m. — NOT at 7 as was incorrectly stated in an early version of yesterday’s posting and on Wisconsin Public Radio.

By Jacob Stockinger

On this Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., the fifth annual Schubertiade — celebrating the music of Franz Schubert (1797-1828, below) will take place in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus.

The informal and congenial mix of songs and chamber music in a relaxed on-stage setting and with fine performers is always an informative delight. And this year promises to be a special one. (Performance photos are from previous Schubertiades.)

Tickets are $15 for the general public, and $5 for students. Students, faculty and staff at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music get in for free.

A reception at the nearby University Club will follow the performance.

For more information about the event and about obtaining tickets, go to:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/schubertiade-with-martha-fischer-bill-lutes/

Pianist and singer Bill Lutes (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), who plans the event with his pianist-wife and UW-Madison professor Martha Fischer, explained the program and the reasoning behind it:

“This year’s Schubertiade is a program that could never have actually occurred during the composer’s lifetime. It is in fact a year-by-year sampling of Schubert’s music, spanning the full range of his all-too-brief career.

“As with our previous programs, we still focus on those genres which were most associated with the original Schubertiades (below, in a painting) – those informal social gatherings in the homes of Schubert’s friends and patrons, often with Schubert himself presiding at the piano, where performances of the composer’s lieder, piano music, especially piano duets, and vocal chamber music intermingled with poetry readings, dancing, games and general carousing.

“Our hope on this occasion is to present the development of Schubert’s unique art in much the same way we might view a special museum exhibition that displays the lifetime achievements of a great visual artist.

“Thus we will follow Schubert from his earliest work, heavily influenced by Haydn and Mozart, and his studies with Antonio Salieri, to the amazing “breakthrough” settings of Goethe’s poems in 1814 and 1815, and on to the rich procession of songs and chamber music from his final decade. (Below is a pencil drawing by Leopold Kupelwieser of Schubert at 14.)

As always we have chosen a number of Schubert’s best-known and loved favorites, along side of lesser-known, but equally beautiful gems.

We are also particularly delighted to work with a large number of School of Music students and faculty, as well as our featured guest, mezzo-soprano Rachel Wood (below), who teaches at the UW-Whitewater.

(D. numbers refer to the chronological catalogue of Schubert’s work by Otto Erich Deutsch, first published in 1951, and revised in 1978.)

SCHUBERTIADE 2018 – Schubert Year by Year: Lieder, Chamber Music and Piano Duets by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

PERFORMERS

Rachel Wood (RW)

Katie Anderson (KA), Matthew Chastain (MC), James Doing (JD), Wesley Dunnagan (WD), Talia Engstrom (TE), Mimmi Fulmer (MFulmer), Benjamin Liupiaogo (BL), Claire Powling (CP), Cheryl Rowe (CR), Paul Rowe (PF), singers

The Hunt Quartet, Chang-En Lu, Vincius Sant Ana, Blakeley Menghini, Kyle Price (HQ)

Parry Karp, cello (PK)

Bill Lutes (BL) and Martha Fischer (MF), pianists (below)

PROGRAM

1811   Fantasie in G minor, D. 9 (MF, BL)

1812   Klaglied, D. 23 (Lament )– Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (MF, BL)

            Die Advokaten, D. 37 (The Lawyers, comic trio) after Anton Fischer)     (PR,BL, WD, MF)

1813   Verklärung, D. 59 Transfiguration – Alexander Pope (RW, BL)

1814   Adelaide, D. 95Friedrich von Matthisson (WD, MF)

            Der Geistertanz, D. 116 The Ghost Dance – Matthisson (MC, BL)

            Gretchen am Spinnrade, D. 118 Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel –         Goethe (CP, MF)

1815   Wanderers Nachtlied I, D. 224 Wanderer’s Nightsong – Goethe (MF, BL)

            Erlkönig, D. 328 The Erl-king – Goethe (TE, MC, WD, CP, MF, BL)

1816  Sonata for violin and piano in D Major, D. 384 (PK, below, BL)

           Allegro, Andante, Allegro vivace

1817   Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531 Death and the Maiden – Matthias   Claudius (RW, MF)

            Erlafsee, D. 586 Lake Erlaff – Johann Mayrhofer (CR, BL)

            Der Strom, D. 565 The River – anon. (PR, MF)

1818   Deutscher with 2 Trios in G (MF, BL)

            Singübungen, D. 619 Singing Exercises (CP, TE, BL)

Intermission

1819   Die Gebüsche, D. 646 The Thicket – Friedrich von Schlegel (RW, BL)

1820   String Quartet #12 in C Minor “Quartetsatz” (HQ)

1821   Geheimes, D. 719 A Secret – Goethe (TE, MF)

1822   Des Tages Weihe, D. 763 Consecration of the Day (KA, MF, WD, MC,BL)

1823   Drang in die Ferne, D. 770 The Urge to Roam – K.G. von Leitner (MC,BL)

             from Die Schöne Müllerin, Mein, D. 795 Mine – W. Müller (WD, MF)

1824   Grand March No. 6 in E major, D. 819 (MF, BL)

1825   Im Abendrot, D. 799 Sunset Glow – Karl Lappe (RW, MF)

             An mein Herz, D. 860 To my Heart- Ernst Schulze (BenL, MF)

1826   Am Fenster, D. 878 At the Window – J. G. Seidl (MFulmer, below, BL)

1827   from Winterreise Frühlingstraum, D. 911 Dream of Spring – Muller(RW,MF)

1828   Die Sterne, D. 939 The Stars – Leitner (KA, BL)

          from Schwanengesang (Swansong), D. 957

          Ständchen (JD, MF) –Serenade – Ludwig Rellstab

          Die Taubenpost (PR, MF)The Pigeon Post – J.G. Seidl

An die Musik, D. 547 To Music (below) – Franz von Schober

Everyone is invited to sing along. You can find the words in your texts and translations.


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Classical music: Today is the start of Fall. Here is autumnal music by Richard Strauss. Plus, UW-Madison soprano Jeanette Thompson makes her FREE debut tonight at 7 p.m. in Mills Hall.

September 22, 2017
1 Comment

ALERT: UW-Madison faculty soprano Jeanette Thompson gives her FREE debut recital tonight at 7 p.m.  in Mills Hall. Guest performers are pianist Thomas Kasdorf and faculty colleague baritone Paul Rowe.

Thompson has put together a concert of some of her favorite love songs, though not always typical of love songs:  some of them are about a love that is lost, some of them are about a love desired, and some of them are about a love for God.

These songs include excerpts from Gustav Mahler’s Rückert Lieder and Johannes Brahms’ Volksbuchlieder. In addition to Rückert, they include some of her favorite poets like Charles Baudelaire and Eduard Möricke. She will perform songs by Cole Porter and George Gershwin, and will be joined by baritone Paul Rowe to sing two of the most beautiful “Porgy and Bess” love duets ever written.

Thompson (below) will conclude the concert with some of her favorite spirituals, including her mother’s favorite song, “His Eye is on the Sparrow.“

By Jacob Stockinger

Today is the autumnal equinox, which arrives at 3:02 p.m. CDT. It marks when the day has an equal amount of daylight and night.

It also means that today is the first official day of Fall.

And despite the hot weather right now, Fall is often a great time to start returning to indoor activities.

That makes it a good time for listening to classical music.

There are the usual candidates such as Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and its modern counterpart “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” by tango master Astor Piazzolla.

If you want to hear other season-appropriate music, YouTube, Spotify, Classical-music.com and other websites have generous compilations. Just Google “classical music for autumn.”

But today The Ear want to feature just one selection to celebrate the season. It is soprano Jessye Norman singing “September” from “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss.

What is you favorite music to greet autumn with?

Use the COMMENT section to let us know, along with a link to a video performance if possible.


Classical music: This Friday night is a FREE sampler concert of great German art songs based on great German poetry

September 12, 2017
1 Comment

By Jacob Stockinger

There is a good reason why art songs are usually referred to by their German name ”Lieder.”

It is because the 19th century in Germany remains a Golden Age when great German Romantic composers such as Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann drew inspiration from great German Romantic poets such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (below top) and Heinrich Heine (below bottom).

You can hear a generous sampler of such works, including many well-known individual songs and a famous complete song cycle, this Friday night in a FREE concert at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall.

The singers are guest tenor Wesley Dunnagan (below top) and UW faculty baritone Paul Rowe (below bottom, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson).

The pianists are Benjamin Liupaogo (below top) and UW graduate Thomas Kasdorf (below bottom), who is substituting for Martha Fischer.

The concert is also a partnership between the UW School of Music and the UW German Department. And it marks the 50th Wisconsin Workshop, a series based on the Wisconsin Idea.

For more information and background, go to:

http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/faculty-recital-paul-rowe-voice-martha-fischer-piano/

If you want to prepare and check out some of the repertoire, here is the complete program:

GEDICHTE VON JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749-1832)

Felix Mendelsson (1809-1847): Ich Wollt’ Meine Lieb’

Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Erster Verlust; Nähe des Geliebten; Rastlose Liebe; Musensohn; Schäfers Klagelied; An die Entfernte; Erlkönig

GEDICHTE VON HEINRICH HEINE (1797-1856)

Clara Schumann (1819-1826): Lorelei; Sie liebten sich beide; Ihr Bildnis

Franz Schubert: Ihr Bild; Das Fischermädchen

Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Lorelei

Felix Mendelssohn: Abendlied

Intermission

Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Dichterliebe, Opus 48 (1840)

Im wunderschönen Monat Mai

Aus meinen Tränen sprießen

Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne

Wenn ich in deine Augen seh

Ich will meine Seele tauchen

Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome

Ich grolle night (sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the YouTube video at bottom)

Und wüßten’s die Blumen, die kleinen

Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen

Hör’ ich das Liedchen klingen

Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen

Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen

Es leuchtet meine Liebe

Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet

Allnächtlich im Traume seh’ ich dich

Aus alten Märchen

Die alten, bösen Lieder


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