The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: How will Brexit affect classical music in Great Britain? Many musicians and audiences are preparing for the worst
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By Jacob Stockinger
London has long been a international hub of culture, with a special reputation as the home base of many of the great musicians who perform regularly on the Continent.
But how will “Brexit” affect the future of classical music and classical musicians in Great Britain?
Some pretty prominent, active and knowledgeable musicians, including the pianist-conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy and Daniel Barenboim, think it will be for the worst.
One sign is that the European Youth Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Adamik, and in the YouTube video at the bottom), which receives a subsidy from the European Union, is moving from London to the city of Ferrara in Italy before Great Britain exits from the European Union.
A particular cause of concern is what kind of confused logistics will happen if visas are required for British groups to tour and perform on the Continent, something that apparently has opera houses especially worried.
A recent story goes into more detail, including charges from Brexit defenders that musicians and representatives of the culture industries in general are being alarmist.
Here is the story, published by The Independent in the United Kingdom and then reproduced in the United States in The New York Times: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/brexit-classical-music-musicians-europe-vladimir-ashkenazy-daniel-barenboim-eu-a8483271.html
What do you think?
Leave your opinion in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Want to know how professional musicians practice? For the next 100 days on Instagram, violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn will show you
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By Jacob Stockinger
Many listeners and many amateur musicians often wonder: How do professionals do it? How do they practice to prepare for a performance? And what goes on in the practice rooms (below) of major conservatories and schools of music where tomorrow’s professionals study?
Of course the usual advice is to play slowly, to repeat difficult sections and to break a larger piece down into smaller parts.
But it is one thing to be told what to do, and another thing to see professionals follow their own advice and put it into practice. The Ear finds that it often inspires him to work harder and better, and more efficiently and satisfyingly.
Many performers seem reluctant to show up what goes into a career, to show the hard work of practicing that leads to apparently effortless performing.
Not Hilary Hahn (below, in a photo by Peter Miller), the outstanding violin virtuoso who has performed several times at the Wisconsin Union Theater in some of the finest programs The Ear has ever heard.
Recently Hahn, the thoughtful three-time Grammy Award winner, started a series called #100daysofpractice on her Instagram account called “Hilary Hahn’s Violincase.” It is worth subscribing to for the short one-minute videos.
It is fascinating to see such a gifted professional slowing down passages of concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach and Jean Sibelius – music Hahn already knows intimately and has recorded — and to hear and appreciate how she continues to practice making hard leaps, negotiating difficult transitions, adjusting bowing, correcting off-pitches and finding difficult fingering and hand positions.
If you haven’t seen and heard it for yourself, treat yourself. You will learn a lot that will help you to appreciate the physicality of making music and perhaps even help you to play it better yourself.
Here is a link: https://www.instagram.com/violincase/
And there is another sample in the YouTube video at the bottom:
What do you think?
Do you know of other sites on the web and social media that document professional musicians practicing? If so, please leave the address in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The Madison Summer Choir celebrates its 10th anniversary with one of the best concerts of the year
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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 photos.
By John W. Barker
The Madison Summer Choir (below) celebrated its 10th anniversary on Wednesday night at the First Congregational United Church of Christ.
Each year’s program has had a theme, and for this one it was “Old Wine in New Bottles”— though it might as well have been the other way ‘round.
The idea, though, was that the selections showed their composers looking back to the techniques and tastes of earlier generations while writing new music. Conductor Ben Luedcke (below) introduced each work to explain how such approaches worked out.
The first half of the program was devoted to four works, dating from three different centuries.
Two were by contemporary composers. A setting in English of the Psalm text “By the Waters of Babylon” by Sarah Riskind (below top) was followed by Amor de mi Ami, a tribute to his wife, in Spanish, by Randall Stroope (below bottom).
Each work had instrumental additions — in the first, piano with cello, in the second, just piano) which personally I found unnecessary. Riskind’s choral writing is attractively full and quite idiomatic, while Stroope achieves a natural lyricism. I would be interested to hear just the choral parts alone for each work. (Editor’s Note: You can hear the work by Randall Stroope in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
These two items were framed by music of earlier epochs. The Geistliches Lied (Spiritual Song) by Johannes Brahms showed his ability to create his own version of both pre- and post-Baroque polyphony. And Mozart’s Psalm setting Laudate pueri, from one of his Vespers collections (K. 339), showed his assimilation of Baroque counterpoint.
Bruce Bengtson played the part Brahms included for organ (or piano), and he also played the organ reduction of the orchestral part for the Mozart.
It was partly the acoustics, but also a weakness in diction that made the words in those four pieces all but indistinguishable, in whatever language was being sung—my one serious criticism of the performances.
The second part of the program was devoted to the first of the numbered Mass settings by Anton Bruckner. In some ways, such large-scale sacred works were studies for his majestic symphonies yet to come.
In this Mass No. 1 in D minor, Bruckner saw himself in the line of earlier Austrian church music, but anyone expecting bald imitations of Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven would be disappointed.
In his dense and highly chromatic writing — something like a step beyond Schubert — Bruckner created some very fascinating music. It reached really exciting power in the Credo, and the words “dona nobis pacem” at the conclusion had a deeply moving sense of serenity.
The choir, of 68 mixed voices, was joined for the Bruckner by four soloists — Chelsie Propst, Jessica Lee Timman, Peter Gruett, Christian Bester (below on the left) — who sang their parts handsomely, and by an orchestra of 30 players, who provided strong and sturdy support.
Luedcke deserves particular praise for giving a chance to hear the Bruckner Mass, which was thought to be its Madison premiere. It climaxed a really enterprising event, one that I think will stand as among the Best Concerts of the Year.
Tags: #AmericanRecordGuide, #AntonBruckner, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BenLuedcke, #BlogPosting, #BruceBengtson, #CelloMusic, #ChelsiePropst, #ChristianBester, #ChristianChurch, #ChurchMusic, #ContemporaryComposer, #EnglishLanguage, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FranzSchubert, #IsthmusNewspaper, #JessicaLeeTimman, #JohannesBrahms, #JohnW.Barker, #LivingComposer, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonSummerChoir, #MedievalHistory, #MusicalPerformance, #NewMusic, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #PeterGruett, #RandallStroope, #SacredMusic, #SarahRiskind, #SpanishLanguage, #SpiritualMusic, #TheBible, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WORT-FM89.9, #YouTubevideo, American Record Guide, amor, anniversary, Anton Bruckner, Arts, attractive, Austria, Austrian, Babylon, Baroque, Beethoven, Ben Luedcke, best, Bible, bottle, Bruce Bengtson, Cello, Chelsie Propst, choral music, Christian Bester, Classical music, classicalmusic, composer, conclusion, conductor, counterpoint, Credo, critic, Early music, epoch, event, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Franz Schubert, Haydn, History, idea, idiomatic, introduce, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Lee Timman, Johannes Brahms, John W. Barker, language, lecture, Love, Ludwig van Beethoven, lyricism, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Summer Choir, mass, Medieval, natural, new, old, orchestral, organ, organist, part, performance, Peter Gruett, Piano, player, polyphony, posting, praise, professor, program, psalm, Psalms, Randall Stroope, review, sacred music, Sarah Riskind, serenity, singer, soloist, song, Spanish, spiritual, taste, technique, text, theme, tribute, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vesper, Viola, Violin, vocal music, wife, Wine, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, writing, year, YouTube
Classical music education: NPR gets rid of pianist Christopher O’Riley as a long-time host of “From the Top”
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you are a fan of the award-winning program “From the Top” – which spotlights talented young classical musicians (below) and is broadcast weekly on National Public Radio (NPR) – you will want to know that this season is the last one for pianist Christopher O’Riley (below), who has hosted the show for the past 18 years.
NPR is not renewing his contract and O’Riley will NOT return for the 2018-19 season.
“From the Top” airs locally on Sunday nights — including tonight — at 8 p.m. on Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR).
You might recall that O’Riley — a gifted and award-winning pianist is his own right — has also played his own concerts in Madison.
Years ago, he played his solo piano transcriptions of rock songs by Radiohead at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
This past spring, he played a Mozart piano concerto to close the season of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
For more about the 61-year-old O’Riley, here is a link to his biography on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_O%27Riley
For the radio program, he accompanied some of the talented young classical musicians who were featured, and also provided short interludes of solo piano music, which were compiled on a CD several years ago.
For more about the show (below), go to: https://www.fromthetop.org and view the YouTube video at the bottom, which features a behind-the-scenes look at the show:
Although it focuses on string players who have appeared on “From the Top,” here is a story, with many names and details, from The Violin Channel:
https://theviolinchannel.com/christopher-oriley-from-the-top-radio-tv-let-go-contract-not-renewed/
One thing worth mentioning is that O’Riley’s departure will NOT mark the end of the show. “From the Top” will continue with guest hosts, some of whom will be successful or famous alumni of the show.
What do you think of the news about Christopher O’Riley?
What do you think of “From the Top”?
What do you think of Christopher O’Riley as a host and a pianist?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #ChristopherO'Riley, #CompactDisc, #FromtheTop, #GuestHost, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MusicEducation, #NationalPublicRadio, #NPRProgram, #PianoAccompanist, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #RadioHost, #RockandRoll, #RockBand, #RockMusic, #SoloPianoMusic, #StringMusic, #StringPlayers, #SundayNight, #TheViolinChannel, #Wikipediaentry, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YoungPeople, #YouTubevideo, air, alumni, Arts, award-winning, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, biography, CD, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Early music, famous, Franz Schubert, interlude, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, local, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Music education, National Public Radio, night, NPR, Radiohead, show, solo, song, students, Sunday, symphony, The Violin Channel, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: This Sunday, Beverly Taylor retires as associate conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Kyle Knox will succeed Taylor starting this fall.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has announced that Associate Conductor Beverly Taylor (below) will retire from her current position after 22 years, effective this Sunday, July 1.
Taylor will continue to serve as Director of the Madison Symphony Chorus (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson).
She will also continue as the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, where she conducts many groups including the Choral Union (below) and the Concert Choir.
Kyle Knox (below) will become the MSO’s new Associate Conductor, effective in the 2018–2019 season.
“I am delighted that Beverly will continue to work with the Madison Symphony Chorus. The chorus has improved steadily under her direction and will sing some very difficult music in the coming seasons,” said MSO music director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad). “I also want to thank Beverly for the outstanding help she has given me in the preparation of our concerts over the years.”
“I’ve loved my time as associate conductor of the symphony, and will continue as chorus director,” says Taylor. “But I’m looking forward to more time for guest conducting, visiting friends and family and finishing the two books I’m at work on. I also have a grant to write a basic conducting textbook, and I’m finishing a handbook on how to develop a musical interpretation.”
John DeMain says he looks forward to Knox joining the MSO. “I think Kyle Knox is a natural to step into the associate conductor position. He has distinguished himself in the past few years with his work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Opera and the Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by John W. Barker). He also successfully led the MSO in last year’s Concert on the Green.
“His recent appointment as Music Director of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) is a testament to his brilliant talent and will dovetail easily with his duties with the MSO. I so look forward to our working together and welcome him to our Madison Symphony Orchestra family.”
Knox is also very pleased with his appointment.
“My history with the MSO goes back a few years and I have long admired the work of Maestro DeMain and this wonderful group of musicians,” he says. “It is an honor to have been selected for this opportunity and I look forward to happy years of service and collaboration.”
BACKGROUND BIOGRAPHIES
Beverly Taylor has been the Associate Conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Director of the Madison Symphony Chorus since 1996 and Director of Choral Activities at UW-Madison since 1995.
Prior roles include conductor of the Boston Bar Association Orchestra, Music Director of the Back Bay Chorale, and Associate Director of Choral Activities at Harvard University.
Taylor has been a guest conductor at the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland, the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, the Vermont Symphony, the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Opera, the U.S. Air Force Band and Orchestra, the Harvard Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and the Wellesley Chamber Singers.
She graduated from the University of Delaware and Boston University School for the Arts and received a fellowship with Chorus America and an orchestral fellowship at Aspen.
Kyle Knox will take over the dual positions of Music Director of WYSO and Associate Conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 2018–2019 season.
Past and upcoming conducting credits include Mark Adamo’s Little Women with the Madison Opera; Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw, and Transformations; with UW-Madison’s University Opera; the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 Concert on the Green; Johann Strauss Jr.’s Die Fledermaus and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers and H.M.S. Pinafore with the Madison Savoyards; as well as UW Music Clinic’s High School Honors Orchestra.
Other concerts include Carousel, Sunday in the Park with George, and Sweeney Todd (2018) with Middleton Players Theatre, Jon Deak’s The Passion of Scrooge with Oakwood Chamber Players, as well as regular appearances with the Middleton Community Orchestra.
He was formerly a clarinetist with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera and Philadelphia Orchestras, and was on the faculty at UW-Milwaukee. Festivals credits include Tanglewood, Spoleto (Italy), Santa Fe Chamber Music, and Bowdoin College, among others. His debut album, the first commercial recording of Conrad Susa’s chamber opera Transformations, will be released in the summer of 2018 on iTunes. He holds degrees from Juilliard School and the UW-Madison. He is married to MSO concertmaster Naha Greenholtz.
Tags: #AlbertHerring, #ArthurRubinstein, #ArturRubinstein, #AssociateConductor, #BenjaminBritten, #BostonUniversity, #BowdoinCollege, #BowdoinFestival, #Carouselmusical, #ChoralMusic, #ChoralUnion, #CollegiumMusicum, #ConcertChoir, #ConradSusa, #DieFledermaus, #FriendsandFamily, #GilbertandSullivan, #GuestConducting, #HarvardChamberOrchestra, #HarvardUniversity, #JohannStrauss, #JohnDeak, #JohnDeMain, #JuilliardSchool, #KyleKnox, #LittleWomen, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonSavoyards, #MadisonSymphonyChorus, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MarkAdamo, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #MIddletonPlayersTheatre, #MilwaukeeSymphonyOrchestra, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MusicalInterpretation, #MusicClinic, #MusicDirector, #NahaGreenholtz, #OakwoodChamberPlayers, #RadcliffeCollege, #SantaFeChamberMusicFestival, #SantaFeOpera, #SpoletoFestival, #St.LouisSymphonyOrchestra, #StephenSondheim, #SundayintheParkWithGeorge, #SweeneyTodd, #SymphonyOrchestra, #TanglewoodFestival, #TheGondoliers, #TurnoftheScrew, #U.S.AirForceBand, #UniversityofDelaware, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityOpera, #VermontSymphony, #WellesleyChamberSingers, #WellesleyCollege, Albert Herring, Arts, associate conductor, Bach, Back Bay Chorale, Baroque, basic, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, Book, Boston, Boston Bar Association Orchestra, Boston University, Bowdoin College, Chamber music, choral music, chorus, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, concertmaster, concerto, Family, friends, Gilbert & Sullivan, Gilbert and Sullivan, H.M.S. Pinafore, handbook, interpretation, iTunes, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Strauss Jr., Johannes Brahms, John DeMain, Juilliard School, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison Opera, Madison Savoyards, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Middleton Community Orchestra, Mozart, Music, music clinic, musical, Naha Greenholtz, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, Passion, Poland, Scrooge, Stephen Sondheim, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, symphony, textbook, The Gondoliers, Turn of the Screw, United States, University of Delaware, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, writing
Classical music: This weekend kicks off the 27th annual summer season of Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society concerts with the theme of musical works as toys to be “played” with for serious fun
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By Jacob Stockinger
Four performances on this coming Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon and Sunday night will open the 27th annual summer concert series of the critically acclaimed but always informal and light-hearted Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom).
There will be six programs in 12 concerts performed in three venues over the next three weekends.
The venues are: The Playhouse in the Overture Center (below top) at 7:30 p.m.; the Stoughton Opera House (below middle) at 7:30 p.m.; and the Hillside Theater (below bottom) at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright compound in Spring Green, at 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.
Ticket prices are $43, or $48 if you want a prime seat at the Overture Center. For more information, go to: http://bachdancing.org/tickets/season-tickets/
This opening weekend features a lot of flute music and a lot of string music plus some unusual arrangements or transcription and music by unknown women composers.
As usual, BDDS has lined up a series of impressive local talent as well as favorite guest performers, including the critically acclaimed soprano Emily Birsan (below top) and bass-baritone Timothy Jones (below bottom).
Also on the schedule is a Madison-based hip-hop dancer and choreographer, Blake Washington (below), for two pieces during the second weekend: Igor Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” and Francis Poulenc’s “The Masked Ball.” In addition, four players from the BDDS Dynamite Factory – the apprentice school of BDDS for emerging performers – will take part.
Again, as always, there is a unifying theme to the season. This year it is “Toy Stories,” playing off the idea of “playing” pieces of chamber music.
Here is a background and overview story that appeared this week in The Wisconsin State Journal: http://host.madison.com/wsj/entertainment/music/bach-dancing-and-dynamite-gets-playful-with-toy-stories/article_918d38c4-1eba-5196-822e-2b2616eddb75.html
Here is an explanation from UW-Madison graduate and San Francisco-based teacher and pianist Jeffrey Sykes (below left), who co-founded, co-directs and performs in the series with retired UW-Madison and Madison Symphony Orchestra principal flutist Stephanie Jutt (below right):
“When we were kids, we would ride our hobby horses around the back yard pretending to be knights on a quest. We’d race our Slinkies down the stairs, cheering their contorted yet gymnastic moves. We made crazy cyborgs with our Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads. The cyborgs would fight for world domination, and then they’d sit down to tea with our dolls. We cuddled our stuffed animals as we prepared for bed, confessing our deepest dreams and aspirations to them. How easily those toys sparked our imaginations and transported us to fantastic realms!
“I’m a grownup now, sort of, and while I might get a short-lived bang out of newfangled tech toys, I’ve mostly left behind the dolls, bears and rubber ducks (below) of my childhood. The “toys” that really light my fire are incredible pieces of chamber music that have their own personalities; that delight me, surprise me, cry with me, and laugh with me.
CHAMBER
“Performing chamber music is called “playing” for a good reason. Ask any artist who joins BDDS for our festival: chamber music is a magical way to recapture the spirit of imaginative play that came to us so easily as kids.
“We cherish favorite old toys — the great chamber works of Bach, Mozart, and Brahms, for example. Yet we can also delight in the new toys that come our way — the music of Gabriela Lena Frank (below top), Paul Wiancko (below middle) and Kevin Puts (below bottom).
“Whether these new playthings become favorite old friends, who’s to say? One thing’s for sure, we’ll never know unless we play with them.
“BDDS’s 27th season theme is TOY STORIES, and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt and I have organized each of our programs around a quirky take on iconic toys.
“To celebrate the festival’s age, we’ve also scattered various “27s” across our programs. In the spirit of imaginative play, rather than spell ing everything out, here are some clues to what you’ll hear this June.
TEDDY TALKS. Just change the motto “ideas worth spreading” to “music worth hearing” and you have our modus operandi. In this case, we have all sorts of Teddies talking to us through their music: I wonder what they’ll say.
AMERICAN GIRLS. Proud and multi-ethnic, they have been coming on strong as composers for a hundred years, and here’s the proof!
PLAY DO(H). C Major is the most malleable of keys.
GI JOE. War is no game, but it has inspired some seriously imaginative music.
RUBBER DUCKY, YOU’RE THE ONE. Sesame Street’s beloved Ernie adored his bath toy: see who else jumps into the tub.
TRANSFORMERS. I’m amazed how a couple of twists and turns can transform a few unassuming blocks into something breathtakingly complex.
“Join us June 8-24 for TOY STORIES in Madison, Stoughton, and Spring Green. We’ll play together with some irresistible toys and have ourselves some serious fun.
“With a bang!”
For the schedule of performances, with times and places, go to: http://bachdancing.org
For the full programs, including the many new or neglected composers and works to be performed, go to: http://bachdancing.org/concerts/festival-concerts/
For a complete list of performing and helping personnel, go to:
http://bachdancing.org/concerts/cast-crew/
And for a complete and impressive list of BDDS repertoire throughout the years, listed in alphabetical order by the composer’s last name, go to:
http://bachdancing.org/about/repertoire-through-the-seasons/
Tags: #AlbertEinstein, #AlphabeticalOrder, #AmericanGirl, #AmyBeach, #ArtisticDirector, #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BassoonMusic, #BlakeWashington, #BohuslavMartinu, #CamilleSaint-Saens, #CarlPhilippEmanuelBach, #ChamberMusic, #ChenYi, #ClarinetMusic, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DoubleBass, #EmilyBirsan, #FluteConcerto, #FluteMusic, #FrancisPoulenc, #FrankLloydWright, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GabrielaLenaFrank, #GabrielPierné, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GIJoe, #HillsideTheater, #Hip-HopDance, #IgorStravinsky, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannPeterSalomon, #JohannSebastianBach, #KevinPuts, #LivingComposers, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MaskedBall, #MauriceRavel, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #NewMusic, #OboeMusic, #OperaHouse, #OperaSinger, #OvertureCenter, #PauWiancko, #PercussionMusic, #PianoConcerto, #PianoQuintet, #PIanoTeacher, #PianoTrio, #PlayDoh, #RebeccaClarke, #RichardStrauss, #RobertSchumann, #RubberDucky, #SamuelBarber, #SanFrancisco, #SergeiProkofiev, #SirEugeneGoossens, #Slinky, #SpringGreen, #StoughtonOperaHouse, #StoughtonWisconsin, #StringMusic, #StringSextet, #Taliesincompound, #TeddyBear, #TheodoreDubois, #ThePlayhouse, #TheSoldier'sTale, #TimothyJones, #ToyStories, #ToyStory, #TrioSonata, #TrumpetMusic, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WaterFowl, #WisconsinStateJournal, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WomenComposers, #YouTubevideo, 27, acclaimed, Albert Einstein, alphabet, Amy Beach, annual, apprentice, arrangement, Artistic director, Arts, Bach, Barber, baritone, Baroque, bass-baritone, Bassoon, BDDS, Beethoven, C.P.E. Bach, Cello, Chamber music, Chen Yi, choreographer, choreography, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, continuo, critically, cyborg, dance, dancer, do, double bass, dynamite, Einstein, factory, festival, founder, Friday, Gabriel Pierne, guest, Haydn, hip-hop, House, informal, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Kevin Puts, local, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Martinu, Mozart, Mr.PotatoHead, Music, narrator, New Music, opera, order, Paul Wiancko, percussion, performance, performer, Piano, poem, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Ravel, Rebecca Clarke, repertoire, repertory, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Romance, Saint-Saens, Salomon, Samuel Barber, Saturday, Season, seat, series, sextet, sketch, Sonata, song, soprano, summer, Sunday, symphony, talent, Taliesin, Teddy bear, Telemann, theme, toys, transcription, Trumpet, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, unknown, Viola, Violin, Virgil, vocal music, weekend, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Con Vivo closes its chamber music season with satisfying performances of string duos, violin romances and a clarinet quintet in a new, more intimate space
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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 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 photos.
By John W. Barker
The season’s closing concert by the Con Vivo! chamber ensemble (below) took on an extra degree of novelty.
Usually the group has performed in the main sanctuary of the First Congregational United Church of Christ. But the acoustics there are variable and not always ideal for small ensembles.
This time, the performers moved to the chapel, a much smaller room in the building complex. With a high ceiling but modest space, this venue has a much more appropriate quality for chamber music. It’s a trifle hard, but not reverberant — a good place for intimacy and directness of sound. This should become one base of choice for the ensemble now.
The program was split interestingly between two different musical realms.
The first half consisted of duos. At the core was a set of six brief pieces drawn from the 44 Duos by Bela Bartok, published as his Op. 104. Written for two violins, but adaptable to other string instruments, they were delivered here by violist Janse Vincent and cellist Maggie Darby Townsend (below), in charming fashion.
Framing them were two violin romances, each written with orchestral accompaniment that was rendered on the piano by Dan Lyons. One was the Romance No. 2 in F Major, Op. 50, by Ludwig van Beethoven played by Kathryn Taylor (below).
The other — which in fact originally began life as a movement of a string quartet — was the Romance in F minor, Op. 11, by Antonin Dvorak. This was played by Olga Pomolova (below). It is no disrespect to the other players to note that her performance was outstanding for rich tone and strong feeling. (You can hear Dvorak’s lovely Romance in its orchestral version in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A different world was drawn upon after the intermission, one for larger-scale chamber writing. This was the wonderful Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, for Clarinet and Strings. In this work, clarinetist Robert Taylor joined the four string players.
This is a mellow late work from Brahms, full of his artful denseness of textures, yet finely sensitive to balances. It is remarkable how the clarinet is constantly shifted between blending with the strings and standing apart from them. The performance was worthy of the challenges, full of spirit yet carefully controlled at all times — a performance that allowed the listener to ponder, and savor.
The sum total was a very satisfying concert, and one that suggested experiences with this chapel chamber should continue to be explored.
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Classical music: Con Vivo ends its 16th season this Saturday night with chamber music by Bartok, Beethoven, Dvorak and Brahms
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, Con Vivo — or music with life (below) — concludes its 16th season with music of Bartok, Dvorak, Beethoven and Brahms.
The chamber music concert, entitled “Spring Romance,” includes Duets for Viola and Cello by Bela Bartok; the Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 11, by Antonin Dvorak; the Romance, Op. 50, for violin and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven; and the supremely beautiful Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Op. 115, by Johannes Brahms. (You can hear the opening movement of the Brahms, played by clarinetist David Shifrin and the Guarneri String Quartet, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert takes place on this coming Saturday night, June 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave. across from Camp Randall Stadium.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $18 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
Audience members are invited to join the musicians after the concert for a free reception to discuss the concert.
New to this concert: Con Vivo will perform in the Chapel at First Congregational Church, creating a more intimate chamber music experience for the audience.
In remarking about the concert, artistic director Robert Taylor says: “We finish our 16th season with music evocative of spring romances. The wonderful Romances for violin and piano by Dvorak and Beethoven are contrasted by miniatures for viola and cello by Bartok that highlight our members in a soloist role. The evening is capped off with the beautiful Clarinet Quintet by Johannes Brahms. What could be a better way to spend a spring evening?”
Con Vivo is a professional chamber music ensemble comprised of Madison area musicians assembled from the ranks of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and various other performing groups familiar to Madison audiences.
Tags: #AntoninDvorak, #Beautifulmusic, #BelaBartok, #CampRandallStadium, #ClarinetMusic, #ClarinetQuintet, #ConVivo, #DavidShifrin, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #GuarneriStringQuartet, #JohannesBrahms, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #SpringRomance, #StringQuartet, #ViolaMusic, #ViolinMusic, Antonín Dvořák, Arts, audience, Beautiful music, Beethoven, Cello, Chamber music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, Con Vivo, Concert, duet, F major, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, Piano, professional, reception, Romance, Spring, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, weekend, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
Classical Music: Today is Memorial Day 2018. What music would you play to honor those who died in service to their country?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Memorial Day 2018, when those soldiers who died in war and military service to their country — in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or whatever other branch — are honored. (Below is an Associated Press photo of Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.)
Many blogs, newspapers and radio stations list classical music that is appropriate for the occasion.
But one of the very best overviews and compilations that The Ear has seen comes this year from Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, California.
Here is a link:
http://www.capradio.org/music/classical/2018/05/25/classical-selections-in-honor-of-memorial-day/
Another very good selection dates from last year and comes from Nashville Public Radio.
Perhaps that makes sense because Nashville is such a musical city.
Perhaps it has to do with other reasons.
Whatever the cause, this playlist gives you modern and contemporary composers and music (John Adams, Joseph Bertolozzi and Jeffrey Ames) as well as tried-and-true classics (Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar— the famous and moving “Nimrod” Variation that you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom — Franz Joseph Haydn and Frederic Chopin).
It even features some music that The Ear is sure you don’t know.
Take a look and many listens:
Finally, you can also hear some appropriate music for today on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Do you agree with the choices?
Do you like them or at least some of them? Which ones?
Which music would you choose or add to mark today’s holiday?
Leave a title and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance in the COMMENT section.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Here is what happened when the late American writer Philip Roth heard fugues by Bach and Beethoven. What do you think of his reactions?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The late, great and award-winning American novelist Philip Roth (below) – who died of congestive heart failure in a Manhattan hospital on May 22 at age 85 – spent the last half-dozen years of his life retired and not writing.
Instead he liked to visit friends and attend concerts.
Roth was an avid fan of classical music.
So the following story about a chamber music concert by the Emerson String Quartet (below) – one of his favorite chamber music ensembles — of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Dmitri Shostakovich is especially amusing and perhaps telling to read.
What seems especially Rothian are his different reactions to fugues by Bach (below top is an unfinished manuscript page from Bach’s “The Art of Fugue”) and by Beethoven (below bottom is a manuscript page from the “Grosse Fuge”).
Here is a link to the story as recounted on the blog by the famous New York City classical music radio station WQXR-FM — and be sure to read the comments by other readers:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/what-roth-thought-bach
You can hear the Emerson Quartet playing the opening fugal theme that Bach chose to permute for almost 90 minutes, followed by Fugue No. 9, in the YouTube videos at the bottom.
What do you think of Roth’s reactions and comments to fugues by Bach and Beethoven?
Do you agree or disagree with him?
The Ear wants to hear.
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