The Well-Tempered Ear
Vivaldi turns 345 today. His irresistable music deserves more live performances
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today The Ear wishes Happy Birthday to composer Antonio Vivaldi (below), who was born on this day — March 4 — in 1678 in Venice. (He became famous but died in poverty at age 63 on July 28, 1741, also in Venice.)
The Ear likes Vivaldi and his music deserves many more live performances. Even local early music and modern music groups seems reluctant to program much Vivaldi besides “The Four Seasons,” despite the popularity of his other works. Vivaldi not only composed a lot but he did so for many instruments — strings, brass, winds — and in other genres than concertos including sonatas, choral works and operas.
Listen to Vivaldi in the morning. Who can resist him? The Italian style with its energetic rhythm, songful lyricism and major-key cheerfulness are caffeine for the ears.
There are so many fine groups and soloists who perform Vivaldi. Yet so much of his prolific output remains relatively unknown or unheard.
That’s too bad. Johann Sebastian Bach recognized a good thing when he heard it, so he “borrowed” and transcribed many of Vivaldi’s works. One imagines the Italian taste for transparency and tunes appealed to Bach and helped him leaven the often dense, even pedantic Germanic counterpoint and smothering religiosity. Vivaldi provided a model influence for Bach’s eclectic fusion of styles.
Here is a link to an extended Wikipedia biography of the “Red Priest” (below) — Vivaldi’s nickname, used during his teaching at an all-girls school in Venice and derived from his bright red hair. It holds some surprises including the political controversy that surrounded Vivaldi in his day:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Vivaldi
A lot of modern musicians and music historians seem to hold Vivaldi’s popularity and listener-friendly music against him. Opinions seem divided over who made the snide remark — Igor Stravinsky, Luigi Dallapiccola or both — that Vivaldi rewrote the same concerto 500 times.
Here is an informative takedown of that putdown:
https://notanothermusichistorycliche.blogspot.com/2018/10/did-stravinsky-say-vivaldi-wrote-same.html
In the YouTube video at the bottom is a favorite Vivaldi movement of mine. It helped give me a lifelong unforgettable moment as an accompaniment to viewing NASA’s recently taken moon footage at 37,000 feet in a plane on my way to Hawaii. It is the slow movement of the lute concerto played on the guitar by Julian Bream — and it was perfect for expressing weightlessness and space flight.
That was long ago.
These days for period-instrument performances, I tend to favor The English Concert under Trevor Pinnock , The Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood, and the Academy of Ancient Music Berlin — although there are others terrific ensembles including the modern instrument groups I Musici and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
For period string soloists — try the double concertos — look to Simon Standage, Monica Huggett, Andrew Manze and Rachel Podger. For modern instrumentalists, check out Victoria Mullova and especially the Israeli violinist Shlomo Mintz, who uses his own ordering and groupings of concertos. I also like the period cellist Christophe Coin and the modern cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras.
Do you have an opinion about Vivaldi — a like or dislike of his music?
Do you have a favorite Vivaldi work?
Do you have favorite performers of Vivaldi?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Salon Piano Series posts pianist Kangwoo Jin playing the Liszt transcription of Schumann’s song “Dedication”
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has the following announcement to post from the Salon Piano Series.
As the series has done during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is offering a FREE excerpt from a past concert.
In this case, it is the South Korean pianist Kangwoo Jin (below, in a photo by Andy Manis) playing Franz Liszt’s solo piano transcription of Robert Schumann’s song “Widmung” (Dedication). which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom. It is a sensitive and lyrical performance full of unrushed songfulness.
It is often used as an encore, and was a favorite of Van Cliburn and others.
Here it was part of a larger program that Jin – who last summer received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin’s Mead Witter School of Music — did virtually and only during the pandemic.
For more information about the complete concert, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2021/04/22/this-sunday-at-4-p-m-the-salon-piano-series-debuts-an-online-recital-by-pianist-kangwoo-jin-he-plays-music-by-scarlatti-beethoven-liszt-and-schumann-it-will-be-available-until-may-9/
Here is the announcement from the Salon Piano Series, which is sponsored by and held at Farley’s House of Pianos on Madison’s far west side near West Towne:
Please take a break from your day to see and hear Kangwoo Jin perform a portion of Franz Liszt’s Transcriptions for Piano.
This video was recorded (below), without an audience, at Luther Memorial Church on April 15, 2021 as part of the Salon Piano Series.
Over the years, many of you have supported the Salon Piano Series with your attendance, individual sponsorships and donations.
We look forward to bringing you world-class musical performances in our unique salon setting again soon.
Please stay tuned for the announcement of our 2021-22 season.
Sincerely,
Salon Piano Series
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Longtime friends organist Greg Zelek and Madison native and award-winning trumpeter Ansel Norris team up for a FREE live-streamed concert this Tuesday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
Two longtime friends and fellow musicians will team up this Tuesday night, April 27, to close this season’s organ concert series, sponsored in the Overture Center by the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
It will be live-streamed online because of the pandemic restrictions on attendance.
The concert features the critically acclaimed MSO organist Greg Zelek (below left) and Ansel Norris (below right), an award-winning trumpeter who is a native of Madison.
The program includes works by Bach, Vivaldi, Haydn and Samuel Barber among others.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. CDT. It is FREE but you must register. The concert will be available to registered listeners for unlimited access through May 31.
Here is a link to the MSO website where you can register. It also has more information about the program and biographies of the two performers: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/norris-zelek-2021-streamed/
Here is more background. It appeared in the latest issue of the email newsletter of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO), of which Norris was a member for many years:
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Ansel Norris and Greg Zelek first met in 2010 as high school seniors who had both been selected as finalists in the YoungARTS Awards. The YoungARTS Award is a big competition with just a small percentage of students selected for the $10,000 prize from the thousands of high school applicants. In classical music that year, 12 students became finalists and assembled in Miami for a week of master classes with internationally recognized arts leaders. “You know, there really is a synergy with trumpet and organ. The sounds are produced in a similar way and the way the sounds blend together is really special. Even then, I imagined a concert together.” Ten years later, the two friends were dreaming up this concert when Greg was in Miami in February, 2020. And then the world shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Norris has distinguished himself as a solo, orchestral and chamber musician. As Greg Zelek (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) writes: “Concerti of Bach and Haydn will bookend this program filled with music that is both written and arranged for this electrifying pairing of instruments. Mr. Norris’ remarkable technique and soaring lyricism will be on full display while our Mighty Klais both supports and shimmers in this exhilarating performance you won’t want to miss!” Register here for Tuesday’s concert!
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Classical music: Friday night, the UW Concert Choir marks the assassination of JFK and the opening of Hamel Music Center. Plus, WYSO gives a Wisconsin premiere with a returning alumna as soloist
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ALERT: This Friday night, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Orchestra, under conductor Kyle Knox, will present a concert with two guest artists performing the Wisconsin premiere of the Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon composed for them by American composer Jonathan Leshnoff, who is known for his lyricism. (Sorry, there is no word about other works on the program.) Tickets are $10, $5 for 18 years and under, and are available at the door starting at 6:15 p.m.)
The two soloists are principals with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The bassoonist is Nancy Goeres, a Lodi native who is a returning WYSO alumna. If you want to read an interview with her and get more background, you can’t do better for a preview than the piece by Greg Hettmansberger for Madison Magazine and Channel 3000. Here is a link: https://www.channel3000.com/madison-magazine/arts-and-culture/wisconsin-youth-symphony-welcomes-two-special-guests/1143372727
By Jacob Stockinger
At 8 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 22, in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall, the UW-Madison Concert Choir (below) will perform its first solo concert in the new Hamel Music Center.
Conductor Beverly Taylor (below), the director of choral activities at the UW-Madison who will retire at the end of this academic year, sent the following announcement:
“The a cappella program is entitled “Fall Favorites: Houses and Homecomings.”
“This year I’m particularly picking some of the pieces I like the best from my years here, although I’ll still add a few new things.
“The “Houses” part is primarily “Behold I Build an House” by American composer Lukas Foss (below), which was written for the dedication of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, and which I thought was a good piece for the opening of the Hamel Music Center.
“We’re also performing the wonderful -and difficult —“Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing,” which British composer Herbert Howells (below top) wrote in memory of John F. Kennedy (below bottom). You’ll notice our concert is also on Nov. 22, the same day in 1963 when JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. (You can hear the Howells work in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Besides these two big works are wonderful motets by Orlando di Lasso, Maurice Duruflé, Heinrich Schütz and Melchior Vulpius, plus some African, American and African-American folk songs.”
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Classical music: This weekend, prize-winning pianist Joyce Yang solos in Prokofiev’s most popular piano concerto with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Works by Schumann and Aaron Jay Kernis round out the program
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, prize-winning pianist Joyce Yang (below) will return to Madison to join the Madison Symphony Orchestra in her local concerto debut and perform Prokofiev’s brilliant, bravura and tuneful Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26.
The concert opens with Kernis’ Newly Drawn Sky and concludes with Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61.
Performances will be held in Overture Hall, 201 State Street, on Friday night, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m.; on Saturday night, Nov. 9, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, Nov. 10, at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $19-$95 with discounts available. See below for details.
Speaking about the program, music director and maestro John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) says: “November brings us another Madison Symphony debut, that of the amazing pianist Joyce Yang. She will perform the Prokofiev’s dazzling Piano Concerto No. 3, one of the great and most popular concertos, and certainly a favorite of mine.”
Adds DeMain: “I can’t wait for audiences to experience the hauntingly beautiful Newly Drawn Sky by Aaron Jay Kernis. And of the four symphonies by Robert Schumann, many regard his second as the greatest of them all.”
According to Aaron Jay Kernis (below), who has won the Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award and who teaches at the Yale School of Music, “Newly Drawn Sky” is “a lyrical, reflective piece for orchestra, a reminiscence of the first summer night by the ocean spent with my young twins, and of the summer sky at dusk.”
The chromatically shifting three-note chords that begin in the strings and transfer to the winds are a central element in the creation of this work. The works last approximately 17 minutes and was premiered at the Ravinia Festival in 2005 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
To read more about Kernis and his successful career, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Jay_Kernis
Sergei Prokofiev (below) himself played the solo part at the world premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 on Dec. 16, 1921 in Chicago with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Although he started work on the composition as early as 1913, the majority of it was completed in 1921 and the piece didn’t gain popularity until 1922 when it was confirmed in the 20th-century canon. (You can hear Prokofiev play the first movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.) The Ear thinks that the work has much Russian Romanticism in it and if you like Rachmaninoff, you will probably like this Prokofiev.
Originally a composer for keyboard, Robert Schumann (below with wife Clara) began writing symphonies around the time of his marriage to his virtuoso pianist and composer wife Clara Wieck, who encouraged his compositional expansions.
The uplifting Symphony in C major was created while the composer was troubled with depression and hearing loss; a Beethovenian triumph over pessimism and despair, the creation of this symphony served as a healing process for Schumann.
ABOUT JOYCE YANG
Blessed with “poetic and sensitive pianism” (The Washington Post) and a “wondrous sense of color” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Grammy-nominated pianist Joyce Yang, who years ago played a recital at the Wisconsin Union Theater, captivates audiences with her virtuosity, lyricism and interpretive sensitivity.
Yang first came to international attention in 2005 when she won the silver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The youngest contestant at 19 years old, she took home two additional awards: Best Performance of Chamber Music (with the Takacs Quartet), and Best Performance of a New Work.
In 2006 Yang (below) made her celebrated New York Philharmonic debut alongside conductor Lorin Maazel at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center along with the orchestra’s tour of Asia, making a triumphant return to her hometown of Seoul, South Korea.
CONCERT, TICKET AND EVENT DETAILS
The lobby opens 90 minutes prior to each concert.
One hour before each performance, Wisconsin Public Radio host Anders Yocom (below, in a photo by James Gill )will lead a 30-minute Prelude Discussion in Overture Hall to enhance concertgoers’ understanding and listening experience. It is free to ticket holders.
The MSO recommends concert attendees arrive early for each performance to make sure they have time to pass through Overture Center’s security stations, and so they can experience the Prelude Discussion.
Program notes for the concerts are available online: http://bit.ly/msonov19programnotes.
- Single Tickets are $19-$95 each and are on sale now at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/joyce-yang-plays-prokofiev/through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online/phone sales.
- Groups of 10 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit, https://www.madisonsymphony.org/groups.
- Student rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street. Students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two $15 or $20 tickets. More information is at: https://www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush
- Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
- Flex-ticket booklets of 8-10 vouchers for 2019-20 symphony subscription concerts are available. Learn more at: https://madisonsymphony.org/flex
- Subscriptions for the 2019–2020 season are available now. Learn more at: https://madisonsymphony.org/19-20
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
Major funding for this concert is provided by Madison Magazine, Stephen D. Morton, National Guardian Life Insurance Company, Scott and Janet Cabot, and Peggy and Tom Pyle. Additional funding provided by Foley & Lardner LLP, Howard Kidd and Margaret Murphy, and the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts
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Classical music: As we say goodbye to summer, YOU MUST HEAR THIS: Irish composer Joan Trimble’s “Pastorale” homage to the summery French composer Francis Poulenc
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By Jacob Stockinger
One week from today is Labor Day.
So it is time to start saying goodbye to summer and hello to fall — even though the autumnal equinox won’t arrive until Monday, Sept. 23, at 2:50 a.m. CDT.
The Ear’s favorite summertime composer is the French master Francis Poulenc (below), whose accessible and tuneful music possesses in abundance that Gallic sense of lightness and lyricism, of wit and charm, of modern Mozartean classicism and clarity — complete with trills and ornaments — that seems so appropriate to the summer season.
But then recently on Wisconsin Public Radio, The Ear heard for the first time something inspired by Poulenc that he thinks many of you will appreciate, especially during the transition between the seasons.
It is, appropriately, a 2-1/2 minute “Pastorale” for two pianos – a form Poulenc himself used in his most famous piano concerto — by the underplayed and little known Irish 20th-century composer and pianist Joan Trimble (below). And it has many of the same qualities that distinguish Poulenc.
Here is a link to a Wikipedia entry with more about Trimble: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Trimble
You can hear her homage to Poulenc in the YouTube video, from a Marco Polo CD distributed by Naxos Records, that is below.
Here’s hoping you enjoy it.
If you have a reaction, positive or negative, please share it.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: UW-Madison pianist Jessica Johnson celebrates International Women’s Day this Friday night with a FREE recital of all-female composers and a special keyboard for smaller hands
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features Ukrainian pianist Yana Avedyan in solo works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Prokofiev and Franz Liszt. The program will include music from her upcoming appearance at Carnegie Hall. The musicale runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
March is Women’s History Month, and this Friday is International Women’s Day.
To mark the latter occasion, Jessica Johnson, who teaches piano and piano pedagogy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, where she has won an award for distinguished teaching, will perform a program of all-women composers.
The FREE recital is this Friday night, March 8, at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall. Johnson (below, in a photo by M.P. King for The Wisconsin State Journal) will perform works from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, pairing works with interesting connections.
Here is what Johnson has to say about the program:
“Dreaming, Op. 15, No. 3, by Amy Beach (below top) and The Currents by Sarah Kirkland Snider (below bottom) both feature beautiful lyricism and long-line phrases inspired by poetry.
“2019 is the bicentennial celebration of Clara Schumann’s birth, so I wanted to honor her and her tremendous legacy. Her Romance, Op. 11, No. 1, was composed in 1839 in the midst of the difficult year when Clara (below) was separated from her beloved Robert. (You can hear the Romance in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Bolts of Loving Thunder by Missy Mazola (below) was written in 2013 for pianist Emanuel Ax as a piece that would appear on a program of works by Brahms. Mazzoli alludes to the romantic, stormy side of “pre-beard” Brahms, with exuberant floating melodies, hand crossings and dense layers of chords.
“Troubled Water (1967) by Margaret Bonds (below) is based on the spiritual “Wade in the Water,” with hints of blues, jazz and gospel traditions throughout.
“Azuretta (2000) by Chicago-based composer, Regina Harris Baiocchi (below) describes Azuretta as a musical reaction to a debilitating stroke Dr. Hale Smith, her former composition teacher, suffered in 2000. The work honors his incredible legacy by mixing classical and jazz idioms.
“Germaine Tailleferre (below), the only female member of Les Six, the group of early 20th-century French composers, wrote her beautiful Reverie in 1964 as an homage to Debussy’s “Homage à Rameau” from Images, Book I.
“Preludes (2002) by Elena Ruehr (below) draw inspiration from Debussy’s Preludes, mimimalism and Romantic piano music.
“Also, as an advocate for the adoption of the Donison-Steinbuhler Standard — which offers alternatively sized piano keyboards for small-handed pianists — I will perform on the Steinbuhler DS 5.5 ™ (“7/8”) piano keyboard.
“By performing on a keyboard that better fits my hands — studies suggest that the conventional keyboard is too large for 87% of women — and featuring works by female composers who are typically underrepresented in concert programming, I hope to bring awareness to gender biases that still exist in classical music.
“For more information about both me and the smaller keyboard, go to the following story by Gayle Worland in The Wisconsin State Journal:
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Classical music: Madison Opera’s “A Little Night Music” proved totally satisfying as both music and theater
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By Jacob Stockinger
Larry Wells – The Opera Guy for The Well-Tempered Ear – went to both performances in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center last weekend by the Madison Opera of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and filed the following review. Photos are by James Gill.
By Larry Wells
Although I was familiar with the recording, my first experience seeing “A Little Night Music” by Stephen Sondheim (below) was in London 25 years ago. I remember it as a theatrical experience – it featured Judi Dench and was performed at the National Theatre – more than as a musical event.
Two years ago, I saw it performed by Des Moines Metro Opera, and although it was “operatic” it was also sabotaged by a confusing, even chaotic, production designed by Isaac Mizrahi.
I finally experienced the complete package with the recent performances by the Madison Opera. It was a totally satisfying combination of acting, music and theatrical design.
Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film “Smiles of a Summer Night,” which in turn was inspired by Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “A Little Night Music” concerns itself with mismatched lovers who are eventually properly paired or else reconciled.
Without going into detail, suffice it to say that the carryings-on are amusing, the dialogue is witty, and the lyrics are sophisticated.
One of the earliest numbers in the show — the trio of songs “Later,” “Now” and “Soon” — set the tone for the evening musically. Each was performed individually by three fine singers – Quinn Bernegger, Jeni Houser (below left) and Daniel Belcher (below right).
In a musical tour-de-force, the three songs ultimately combined into one. Houser’s clear tone, Benegger’s intense passion, and Belcher’s suave lyricism promised an outstanding musical experience to come. Special praise must go to Bernegger (below) who sang while comically, but skillfully, miming playing a cello.
One show-stopper was Sarah Day’s “Liaisons” which was really perfect in its world-weariness. Day (below) — from American Players Theatre in Spring Green — half-declaimed and half-sang such memorable lines of regret as, “What once was a sumptuous feast is now figs. No, not even figs. Raisins.” Or amusing internal rhymes like “…indiscriminate women it…”. (I am completely taken by Sondheim’s clever use of language.)
Likewise, the singing of “Miller’s Son” by Emily Glick (below) was a good old Broadway rendition – no operatic pretense – and the audience, and I, loved it.
Charles Eaton (below left) as a puffed-up dragoon and Katherine Pracht (below right) as his long-suffering wife were both outstanding vocally and deftly comic.
The center of most of the activity was the character Desirée Armfeldt portrayed by Emily Pulley (below). At first I thought she was overacting, but then I realized that, of course, she was portraying a veteran stage actress – a matinee idol type – who had internalized theatrical gestures into her own character. Her “Send in the Clowns” stopped the show, and the lyrics finally made sense to me. (You can hear the familiar Judy Collins interpretation in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
But I would have to say that the star of the show was the chorus, a quintet of excellent voices – Stephen Hobe, Kirsten Larson, Benjamin Liupaogo, Emily Secor and Cassandra Vasta. They waltzed through the action while sliding the panels and frames that comprised the set, moving props, and commenting on the action.
Never obtrusive but always necessary, I thought they were a delight. The three women got to sing a brief round “Perpetual Anticipation” that is another wonder of Sondheim’s musical imagination.
As mentioned, sliding panels, along with dropping frames and panels, comprised the set. The continuous changing of the panels, the blocking and the movements of the quintet were the creative product of stage director Doug Schulz-Carlson (below). There was often a whirlwind of activity, but I was never distracted.
The costumes by Karen Brown-Larimore seemed straight out of Edward Gorey – which is a good thing. And altogether I felt it was the best production of the musical I’ve seen.
The orchestra was situated on stage behind the set, which made additional seats available close to the stage. People seated in those rows had to bend their necks to read the supertitles, but the diction was so consistently excellent that I rarely needed to even glance at the supertitles.
Praise is due for members of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and particularly conductor John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad). I heard subtleties in the music that had heretofore eluded me, and that is always a reward for attending a live performance and is a tribute to the maestro.
I was happy to see a younger audience, particularly Friday night. Let us hope that they were enchanted enough to attend the upcoming production on April 26 and 28 of Antonin Dvorak’s “Rusalka.”
This is an opera I have never seen; and until recently, I was familiar only with one of its arias, the so-called “Song to the Moon.”
But now that I have a recording, I realize that it is a musical treasure that should not be missed. I suppose the reasons it is not so frequently performed are that it is in Czech and its plot involves water sprites. But don’t let that stop you. The music is wonderful.
Tags: #ALittleNightMusic, #AmericanPlayersTheatre, #AMIdsummerNight'sDream, #AntoninDvorak, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BroadwayMusical, #CapitolTheater, #CzechLanguage, #DesMoines, #DesMoinesMetroOpera, #DougSchulz-Carlson, #EdwardGorey, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #GoodThing, #GreatBritain, #husband-and-wife, #IngmarBergman, #IsaacMizrahi, #JamesGill, #JohnDeMain, #JudiDench, #JudyCollins, #KarenBrown-Larimore, #LarryWells, #LivePerformance, #LondonEngland, #MadisonOpera, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MatineeIdol, #Miller'sSon, #MusicReview, #OperaReview, #OvertureCenter, #SarahDay, #SendintheClowns, #Show-stopper, #SmilesofaSummerNight, #SongtotheMoon, #SpringGreen, #StageActress, #StageDirector, #StephenSondheim, #TheWell-TemperedEar, #WaterSprite, #WilliamShakespeare, #World-Weariness, A Little Night Music, A Midsummer Night's Dream, acting, action, activity, actress, American Players Theatre, amusing, Antonín Dvořák, Arts, audience, blog, Broadway, Capitol, Capitol Theater, Cello, chaotic, character, choral music, chorus, Classical music, clear, clever, comic, Compact Disc, complete, composer, conductor, confusing, costumes, Czech, declaim, delight, Des Moines Metro Opera, design, details, dialogue, diction, distraction, Doug Schulz-Carlson, Edward Gorey, enchant, event, experience, Facebook, film, forward, frame, gesture, good, Great Britain, husband, idol, imagination, Ingmar Bergman, intense, internal, Iowa, Isaac Mizrahi, Jacob Stockinger, James Gill, John DeMain, Judi Dench, Judy Collins, Karen Brown-Larimore, language, Larry Wells, liaison, like, lines, link, live, London, Love, lover, lyricism, lyrics, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, matinee, memorable, Miller's Son, movie, Music, music review, musical, National Theatre, opera, operatic, Orchestra, outstanding, Overture Center, Overture Center for the Arts, package, pair, panel, Passion, performance, performer, photo, post, posting, praise, pretense, props, reconcile, recording, regret, review, rhyme, Rusalka, Sarah Day, seats, Send in the Clowns, set, Shakespeare, share, sing, Singing, skillful, Smiles of a Summer Night, song, Song to the Moon, sophisticated, Spring Green, stage, stage director, star, Stephen Sondheim, suave, suffering, supertitles, symphony, tag, The Well-Tempered Ear, theater, theatre, theatrical, thing, tone, trio, type, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, use, Veteran, vocal music, vocally, Waltz, water sprite, weariness, weary, whirlwind, wife, Wisconsin, wit, witty, wonderful, world, young, YouTube
Classical music: Cliburn-winning pianist Kenneth Broberg makes his Madison debut with a FREE master class this evening and a recital Sunday afternoon at Farley’s House of Pianos
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By Jacob Stockinger
A 25-year-old Minneapolis native, pianist Kenneth Broberg (below in a photo by Jeremy Enlow for The Cliburn) won the silver medal at the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
His 2017-2018 debut season as a Cliburn medalist included recital engagements in cities across the United States and Europe. His debut solo album was released by Decca Gold in August 2017.
This weekend, Broberg — whose playing The Ear finds impressively beautiful — makes his Madison debut at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on the far west side near West Towne Mall, as part of the Salon Piano Series.
Broberg will be featured in a master class with local young pianists and a solo recital.
For more about Broberg, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Broberg
And to the pianist’s home web site: https://kennybroberg.com
For more about the Salon Piano Series and the other three concerts this season, along with videos and reviews, go to: https://salonpianoseries.org
You can also hear Broberg play a lyrical and well-known Impromptu by Franz Schubert in the YouTube video at the bottom. He also has many other performances on YouTube, including some from the Cliburn competition.
Here are details about his appearances:
MASTER CLASS
Broberg will give a master class with local piano students THIS EVENING from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Farley’s House of Pianos.
The literature being played is: Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 333, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; “Des Abends” (Evening) and “Grillen” (Whims) from “Fantasiestuecke (Fantasy Pieces) Op. 12, by Robert Schumann; and “Evocation” and “El Puerto” for the “Iberia” Suite by Isaac Albéniz
The master class is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Children must be age 6 and over to attend.
SOLO RECITAL
On Sunday afternoon, Nov. 4, at 4 p.m. Broberg will perform a solo recital at Farley’s House of Pianos in the main showroom.
The program includes: Prelude, Fugue and Variation, Op. 18, by Cesar Franck and Harold Bauer; Sonata in E minor “Night Wind,” Op. 25, No. 2, by Nikolai Medtner; Toccata on “L’Homme armé” by Marc-André Hamelin; “Children’s Corner” Suite by Claude Debussy (movements are “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum; Jimbo’s Lullaby; Serenade for the Doll; The Snow Is Dancing; The Little Shepherd; and Golliwog’s Cakewalk); and Three Preludes by George Gershwin.
Advance and online tickets are $45 for adults and $10 for students, and are available at brownpapertickets.com or at Farley’s House of Pianos (608) 271-2626. Tickets at the door are $50. More details are at SalonPianoSeries.org
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: What concerts or performances in 2019 did you most like, and do you most remember and want to praise?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The concert season’s winter intermission will soon draw to a close.
So this is a good time to recall favorite concerts and performances of last year.
But let’s be clear.
This is a not a request to name “The Best Concerts of 2019.”
Calling them the most memorable concerts doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best.
Perfection or “the best” sounds so objective, but can really be quite personal and subjective. So much can depend not only on the music and the performers, but also on your own mood and your taste or preferences.
So please share the concerts or performances that you most liked and enjoyed, the one that most still linger in your mind. And, if you can pin it down, tell us why you liked them so much and why they linger for you.
There are so many excellent groups and concerts, so much fine classical music, in the Madison area that there should be lots of candidates.
Here are several performances or complete concerts that The Ear remembers with special fondness.
The MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) held a season-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of John DeMain’s tenure as its music director and conductor. The big event came at the end: Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 8 – the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand” – that brought together the MSO and the MSO Chorus as well as the Madison Youth Choirs and the UW-Madison Choral Union.
It proved an impressive, overwhelming and moving display of coordination and musicianship, a testament to how far DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) has brought the orchestra.
(Also memorable on the MSO season were pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin in Ravel’s jazzy Piano Concerto in G Major and UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor in the Leonard Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” symphony during the MSO tribute to Bernstein, with whom DeMain worked closely.)
The WISCONSIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (below, in a photo by Mike Gorski), under its veteran music director Andrew Sewell, continues to test its own limits and surpass them. Particularly impressive was the last concert of the winter season with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 featuring two outstanding soloists: soprano Mary Mackenzie and bass Timothy Jones.
The playing of the difficult score was precise but moving, and the singing blended beautifully. It made one understand why during this season – when the orchestra marks 60 years and maestro Sewell (below, in a photo by Alex Cruz) marks his 20th season — the WCO has deservingly graduated to two performances of each Masterwork concert (one here on Friday nights followed by one in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield on Saturday night).
Also memorable was an impressive concert by the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed MIDDLETON COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA. The Ear likes amateur musicians, and for their 10th anniversary concert they really delivered the goods in Dvorak’s famous Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” and, with fabulous guest soloist J.J. Koh (below — principal clarinet of the Madison Symphony Orchestra — in Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto.
But it wasn’t only large-scale works that The Ear remembers.
Three chamber music concerts continue to stand out.
During the summer, the WILLY STREET CHAMBER PLAYERS and guest UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor (both below) delivered a performance of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major that would be hard for any group to match, let alone surpass, for its tightness and energy, its lyricism and drama.
The same goes for the veteran PRO ARTE QUARTET at the UW-Madison, which this fall started its complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets in the new Hamel Music Center to celebrate the Beethoven Year in 2020 when we mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
The quartet played early, middle and late quartets with complete mastery and subtlety. Treat yourself. Don’t miss the remaining five concerts, which resume in February and take place over the next year at the Hamel center and also at the Chazen Museum of Art, from where they will also be live-streamed.
Finally, The Ear will always remember the wholly unexpected and thoroughly captivating virtuoso accordion playing he heard last summer by Milwaukeean Stas Venglevski (below) at a concert by the BACH DANCING AND DYNAMITE SOCIETY. Venglevski performed music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Igor Stravinsky and Astor Piazzolla in a new and enthralling way.
Unfortunately, for various reasons The Ear missed many other concerts – by the Madison Opera and the University Opera among others – that promised to be memorable performances.
But perhaps you can fill him in as we start 2020 concerts next weekend.
What concerts in 2019 did you like most and do you most remember and praise? Why?
The Ear wants to hear.
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