The Well-Tempered Ear
Apple Music Classical is now available in Asia
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By Jacob Stockinger
As of this past Tuesday, Apple Music Classical is finally available in Asia.
At least in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Macao.
Apple has not yet said whether it is available there on Android phones, which in the West came later than the inaugural availability only on iPhones.
But so far The Ear doesn’t see any mention of other East Asians countries such Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia, Indonesia, Laos or Cambodia. And there is also no mention whatsoever of South Asian countries such as India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Turkey, Iran and others.
Maybe Apple is still working on the native languages of those markets.
In any case, it seems a natural fit for Apple Music Classical and its enhanced streaming service in terms of artists, repertoire and organizations.
To The Ear, it certainly seems that in many ways Asia seems to be current hotspot for Western classical music, judging by concert attendance as well as the numbers of students and the winners of international competitions.
Here is the announcement that the prestigious Gramophone magazine in the UK posted:
And here is the announcement from Music Business Worldwide. It has more background, including some specifics about classical music performaers in Asia that will now be available on the Apple Music apps. But you have to click on the orange button that reads “Continue to article”:
Plus as of today, Apple has named two prominent and young Asian pianists (named below) as official Artist Ambassadors to Apple Music Classical. Here is the announcement made on Instagram:
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How does a blind great pianist learn music?
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By Jacob Stockinger
How does he do it?
It is amazing that Nobuyuki Tsujii (below), a 35-year-old Japanese man who has been blind since birth, learned to play the piano.
It is even more amazing that he learned to play classical music well enough to perform in public at the age of 12.
And it seems to The Ear that it is still more amazing that he plays and performs well enough to win the Gold Medal at the international and highly esteemed Van Cliburn Piano Competition in 2009 and go on to establish a global career.
You might have heard of him or even heard his playing before.
Here is a link to his biography on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuyuki_Tsujii
But The Ear can’t recall hearing him discuss is such specific detail how he goes about learning a piece of music despite his blindness, his vision impairment and severe disability.
And we are not talking about easy music.
He plays and performs both books of Chopin etudes; played Beethoven’s mammoth, knuckle-busting “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Op. 106, during the Cliburn competition; tosses off Liszt’s fiendishly virtuosic “La Campanella” (in the YouTube video at the bottom he plays it live as an encore to a rapturous reception at a BBC Proms concert); and the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1.
This past Sunday, Tsjuii played the Chopin concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in a free concert at Clemson University,
Here is the revealing Q&A interview he gave to the Greenville Journal for that occasion.
The Ear finds his career an inspiring story.
What do you think?
Would you like to see and hear him play locally?
If you have attended a live concert of his, what did you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music predictions for 2024
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By Jacob Stockinger
The classical music blogger LudwigVan has made some interesting predictions about where classical music will go in the coming year.
Not all of the subjects might come to pass in classical music.
But many do seem possible or even plausible.
Like ticket prices dropping because of rising post-pandemic demand and tight family and personal budgets.
Or rising wages for musicians because of inflation.
Or the growing use of VR or virtual reality.
Or hearing more local music and musicians that appeal to younger audiences.
See for yourself. Here is a link:
The Ear will venture his own predictions:
First is that more and more audiences — especially the oldest baby boomers — will increasingly watch and listen to concerts via live streaming and recorded streaming.
It certainly is not as exciting as attending in person. But it is convenient. And it is way cheaper. For example, one good ticket to the Madison Symphony Orchestra or the Madison Opera will buy you a one-year unlimited subscription to the Paris-based arts streaming site medici.tv, which features live and recorded performances of all kinds, plus interviews, competitions and master classes, from around the world and especially Europe.
Then there are other factors to consider such as the artists and the programs you want to see and hear, or the inconvenience, expense and dangers of finding parking or navigating icy walking and driving at night and in bad weather.
And The Ear’s second prediction is that Asian musicians, especially Chinese and Korean, will continue to dominate international competitions.
See: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/?s=asian+musicians
Which predictions by Ludwig-Van do you think apply to classical music and are correct?
Do you have your own thoughts or predictions about trends in the classical world?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Here are winners of major international music competitions in 2023. What’s next?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Which young, up-and-coming classical musicians should you keep an eye on during the coming year?
Which ones, if any, will be booked in coming years to performance locally, say, at the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Wisconsin Union Theater; or at the Salon Piano Series; or as a University of Wisconsin Mead Witter School of Music guest artist?
One guide to 2024 and beyond might be to review the winners of the international music competitions held in 2023.
Thanks to The Violin Channel, here is a list of many such winners who may go on to establish more prominent careers. If you click on the names of the competitions, posted in red, you will be linked to fuller stories about the competitions, many of which you have probably never heard of. The Ear follows many contests but had never heard of many of these.
Here is a link:
You can find out about histories of the competitions, other prize winners, places they are held and how often, jury members and contest rules and formats, and more. And you can hear excerpts from some prestigious competitions including the Bischoff Chamber Music competition and a competition for young child prodigy violinists in Italy.
At the bottom of the story, you can hear a YouTube video with the 19-year-old, Asian-American pianist Magdelena Ho in her contest-winning performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 at the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland. She looks to have a promising future.
The winners came all continents — Asian, Africa, North America, South America and Europe.
And the competitions were held in many different places and focused on many different kinds or genres of classical music: violin, viola, cello, double bass and guitar; piano; saxophone;mharp; percussion and drums; chamber music and symphonic music; conducting; singing; and early music.
At the bottom is a vibrant performance of a familiar Bach suite by Canadian cellist Luka Coetzee who won Finland’s Paulo Competition and also took first prize at the Pablo Casals Competition on 2022.
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New Yorker critic Alex Ross names 26 notable classical music recordings from 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
Alex Ross (below) writes for The New Yorker magazine and is perhaps the most respected classical music critic not only in the U.S. but in the world.
His bestselling book of collected essays, “The Rest Is Noise,” has been acclaimed and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. HIs latest book about Wagner, art and politics has also been highly praised.
This year, unlike in many others, Ross chose to list notable recordings along with a few general observations about the live performances and the recording scene.
For example, he has both sharp criticism and high praise of how the largest commercial labels as well as smaller specialty labels such as BIS and Hyperion are coping with the ever-growing popularity and challenge of streaming.
Ross also sounds a warning about the “transformation” of the iconic Mostly Mozart Festival by Lincoln Center to re-conceive the famous summer concert series as more “inclusive” — despite its financial and artistic success over decades.
Ross’ remarks serve as a timely warning for programmers at concert venues and radio shows to be careful of trying to increase popularity with simplistic ways to “de-canonize” and “de-colonialize” the repertoire in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion.
One suspects that what matters most of all to Ross is the quality of the compositions and the performances — not the genre, color or culture of those who are responsible for them. Not all parts of culture, he suggests in a longer version of the remarks, need to appeal to all parts of society.
Anyway, read his remarks about the best recordings and see the list of 20 others and see what you think:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/notable-classical-recordings-of-2023
One noteworthy fact is that he named the young Korean pianist Yunchan Lim (below, in a photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucci) to his “best-of” list for Lim’s live recording made during the Van Cliburn Competition that he won last year at the age of 18.
In the YouTube video at the bottom you can hear Lim play “Mazeppa,” perhaps the most fiendishly difficult of Liszt’s “Twelve Transcendental Etudes.” It depicts a Ukrainian folk hero who is punished for his adultery by being strapped naked to a galloping wild horse and struggles to free himself.
And if you have not yet heard Lim’s electrifying performance Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with conductor Marin Alsop during the finals of the Cliburn competition, you should check it out at YouTube.
Do you have any opinions about the recording that Ross selected?
About Yunchan Lim?
The Ear want to hear.
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Hear 25 works of Christmas-inspired classical music plus 86 minutes of background music
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today — Sunday, Dec. 24, 2023 — is Christmas Eve.
Many people and households will start celebrating Christmas today and tonight.
Then, of course, there is tomorrow — Christmas Day and especially morning,
By now you have certainly heard many hymns and carols plus the usual popular holiday musical fare.
But here are 25 works of classical music that are appropriate for today and tomorrow.
Some composers and works probably sound familiar while others are more obscure or neglected.
But each work comes with a short background story or narrative, plus an audio-visual video clip from YouTube.
Here is the link. Take a listen and decide for yourself.
In a less serious vein, the YouTube video below adds a different site with 86 minutes of traditional and familiar songs, hymns and carols — but in instrumental arrangements. It might sound a lot like old-fashioned Mantovani, but The Ear thinks that the lack of words and vocal music makes it more suitable for background to conversation and socializing.
What do you think?
The Ear wants to hear.
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NPR names the Top 10 classical recordings of 2023
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By Jacob Stockinger
Every holiday season, The Ear used to post various lists of the top classical recordings of the year as a kind of gift guide for giving or receiving CDs.
Such lists can still be used that way — especially now that audiophiles have turned to vinyl LPs that are quite expensive as well as limited in choice.
But since so many of us now have streaming services, I view such lists more and a guide to exploring rather than purchasing.
For example I can listen to the first album in 12 years by Awadagin Pratt (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom). It is “Stillpoint” and it features six pieces commissioned by Pratt. By streaming I can decide if I like it without buying it – and getting stuck if I don’t, which is often the case with new music.
Indeed, I think one of the best and most economical gifts one can gift a classical music lover is a trial subscription to a streaming service. For what it is worth, I find Apple Music and Apple Music Classical to be extremely useful and comprehensive in their offerings, including countless out-of-print vintage and outstanding recordings.
But their are several others — including Spotify, Idaho, Presto Music and Qobuz.
Plus, my hunch is that the coming year will bring improvements in offerings and user-friendly listening to all of the streaming services.
In any case, here is the Top 10 list of new recordings from 2023 with numerous YouTube samples and helpful comparisons to other composers and styles of music. It has been compiled by the veteran critic and blogger Tom Huizenga (below) of National Public Radio (NPR):
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/13/1218517774/the-10-best-classical-albums-of-2023
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Met operas start this Saturday at noon on Wisconsin Public Radio and in local cinemas. Check out the Top 10 rising opera stars
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By Jacob Stockinger
The new season of weekly live radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera starts this Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, at noon on Wisconsin Public Radio. It open the “Met Live in HD” season at noon at the Point and The Palace cinemas on Madison’s west side and Sun Prairie, respectively. Here is the “Live in HD” schedule: https://www.metopera.org/season/in-cinemas/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA98WrBhAYEiwA2WvhOj0HP5-xcXKDJFvUeS_2VO_wu0imdxy1aRnN-aFgYuC3yYL90dbf2BoCFKsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
The opening opera is the exotic, lyrically melodic and Romantic “Florencia en el Amazonas” (Florence in the Amazon, below and in the YouTube preview at the bottom) by the Mexican composer Daniel Catan.
It will be the first opera staged in Spanish at the Met in many decades. But you might recall that the Madison Opera and Madison Symphony Orchestras under John DeMain presented it in an outstanding production at the Overture Center in the spring of 2018.
Here is a review from this blog to remind you about the work and the local production:
And here is the complete schedule of Met radio broadcasts on Saturday afternoons, which includes works by Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Wagner, Gounod, Terrence Blanchard, Anthony Davis and Jake Heggie among others.
https://www.metopera.org/season/radio/saturday-matinee-broadcasts/
But The Ear thought you might also like to read and listen to what OperaWire sees at the The Top 10 up-and-coming opera singers, who just might be heard in this season’s or future productions at the Met.
The story has profiles with biographies, appearances in upcoming productions, here and in Europe, as well as singing samples from YouTube:
What do you think of “Florencia en el Amazonas”?
Which singers, productions and broadcasts do you most look forward to?
The Ear wants to hear.
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20 women composers talk about classical music
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By Jacob Stockinger
What do women composers think about themselves, their careers and the place they occupy in the world of classical music?
Here are quotes — with YouTube videos, great vintage still photographs and musical excerpts — by 20 women composers throughout history from Hildegard von Bingen in the Middle Ages to contemporary living composers such as Americans Joan Tower, Missy Mazzoli, Jennifer Higdon and Jessie Montgomery.
That many of the names will seem familiar to many readers is a sign of how the “canon” has expanded in recent years and brought a new appreciation of neglected women composers, many of whom have been completely overlooked but are now featured prominently on concert programs and radio shows.
Mind you, insightful observations and great quotes about sexism, racism, ambition, creativity and history don’t guarantee music of superior quality.
But their music has to be played and listened to before it can be judged.
The Ear found this collection well worth paying attention to by men as well as women, especially young ones pursuing a career in music. Everyone can use a little inspiration and encouragement.
Here is a link to the website based in Hong Kong, China that has the story:
What about Louise Ferrenc or Florence Price?
Barbara Strozzi and Asian women?
Are there other names you would include?
What do you think of the collage of quotes, music and videos?
The Ear wants to hear.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Apple Music Classical is now available for iPads
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Apple Music Classical (logo is below) continues to make headway in the streaming service market.
Originally, it was only available on iPhones with an OS operating system. Then it became available on Google’s Android phones.
As of this week, it is now available on iPad, programmed for bigger formats.
The Ear finds the app particularly useful and cheap for checking out new releases. IT offers more than 5 million recordings.
Some critics complain, however, that the app is still not available for other Mac computers and Apple devices. But one imagines Apple is working on that too even as it continues to buy up other classical music labels.
The recordings on the Hyperion label are now fully available on the app, thanks to that label’s decision to finally offer streaming. (The Ear particularly likes having accessibility to the recordings of prolific pianists Marc-André Hamelin and Stephen Hough as well as those of violinist Isabelle Faust and cellist Steven Isserlis.)
The app also now has the complete catalogue of the critically acclaimed Swedish label BIS as well as the Pentatone label it started with.
Here is a story from MacRumors about the technical update, with almost 70 comments and some very good background and tips about how to use it — which you can also find in the YouTube video at the bottom:
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/11/16/apple-music-classical-comes-to-ipad/
And here are links to previous posts about Apple Music Classical and its release and expansion:
What do you think of Apple Music Classical?
Do you use it or plan to subscribe?
Like it or dislike it?
Why?
The Ear wants to hear.
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