The Well-Tempered Ear
Can American film director Ron Howard make a sensitive and accurate biopic of Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang? Or is it a cultural appropriation that deserves to be condemned?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The self-appointed PC diversity police have struck again.
This is getting silly and tiresome, insulting and embarrassing.
Some advocates of cultural diversity are crying foul over the latest project of the American and Academy Award-winning Hollywood film director Ron Howard: making a biopic of the superstar Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang (below).
The script will be drawn from the pianist’s bestselling memoir “Journey of a Thousand Miles” — which has also been recast as an inspirational children’s book — and the director and scriptwriters will consult with Lang Lang.
It seems to The Ear a natural collaboration, as well as a surefire box office hit, between two high-achieving entertainers. Check out their bios:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_Lang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Howard
But some people are criticizing the project in the belief that because Ron Howard (below) is white and Western, he cannot do justice to someone who is Chinese or to Asian culture.
Here is an essay, found on the website of Classic FM, by one objector. She is Chinese film director Lulu Wang (below), who says she has no interest in doing the project herself: https://www.classicfm.com/artists/lang-lang/pianist-biopic-ron-howard-faces-criticism-lulu-wang/
Talk about misplaced alarm over “cultural appropriation.”
Don’t you think that Lang Lang will have a lot to say about how he is depicted?
Do you wonder if Wang thinks cultural appropriation works in reverse?
Should we dismiss Lang Lang’s interpretations of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Bartok simply because he is non-Western and Chinese rather than German, French or Russian?
Of course not. They should be taken on their own merits, just as the interpretations of any other Asian classical musician, and artists in general including Ai Weiwei, should be.
But however unfairly, cultural appropriation just doesn’t seem to work in reverse.
Mind you, The Ear thinks that cultural appropriation is a valid concept and can indeed sometimes be useful in discussing cross-cultural influences.
But it sure seems that the concept is being applied in an overly broad and even misdirected or ridiculous way, kind of the way that the idea of “micro-aggressions” can be so generously applied that it loses its ability to be truthful and useful.
Take the example of the heterosexual Taiwanese movie director Ang Lee. He certainly proved himself able to depict American culture in “The Ice Storm” and the gay world in “Brokeback Mountain.”
Let’s be clear. The Ear is a piano fan.
But if he objects to the project, it is because he doesn’t like Lang Lang’s flamboyant playing, his Liberace-like performance manners and showmanship, and his exaggerated facial expressions.
Yet there is no denying the human appeal of his story. He rose from a young and suicidal piano student (below) who was emotionally abused by his ambitious father – shades of the lives of young Mozart and Beethoven and probably many other prodigies – to become the best known, most frequently booked and highest paid classical pianist in the world.
Yet not for nothing did some critics baptize him with the nickname Bang Bang.
Still, the Curtis Institute graduate does all he can to foster music education, especially among the young and the poor.
And there is simply no denying his virtuosity. (See Lang Lang playing Liszt’s Paganini etude “La Campanella” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
So there is plenty to object to about Lang Lang the Piano Star besides the ethnicity of Ron Howard, who also did a biopic of opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, in telling his story.
What do you think?
Is it culturally all right for Ron Howard to direct a film about Lang Lang?
Do you look forward to the movie and seeing it?
What do you think of Lang Lang as a pianist and a celebrity?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, the Madison Bach Musicians explore the miracle of Mozart across his lifetime and across different genres
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Bach Musicians concludes its 15th season on this coming Saturday night, April 6, at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, April 7, at 3:30 p.m. with The Mozart Miracle .
The program features performances of beloved music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791, below) with an all period-instrument chamber orchestra in the magnificent acoustic setting of the First Congregational United Church of Christ (below), 1609 University Avenue, near Camp Randall Stadium.
Period-instrument specialists hailing from Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Omaha, Seattle, Philadelphia and New York City will perform on natural or valveless horns, classical oboes, gut-strung violins, violas, cellos and a double bass played with 18th-century transitional bows.
Early music specialist and bassoon professor Marc Vallon (below to, in a photo by James Gill) of UW-Madison Mead Witter School of Music will lead the orchestra (below bottom, in a performance last year at the First Unitarian Society of Madison).
Internationally acclaimed soprano Ariadne Lih (below), from Montreal, Canada, will join the ensemble for Exsultate Jubilate — a ringing example of how Mozart could seamlessly fuse religious zeal with vocal pyrotechnics. (You can hear Renée Fleming sing “Exsultate Jubilate” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The program also features dance sequences, choreographed by Karen McShane Hellenbrand (below) of the UW-Madison, from Mozart’s ballet Les Petits Riens (The Little Nothings).
Also included are pre-concert lectures: On Saturday, April 6, at 7:15 p.m. there is a lecture by MBM artistic director Trevor Stephenson with an 8 p.m. concert . On Sunday, April 7, his lecture is at 2:45 p.m. with the concert at 3:30 p.m.
Advance-sale discounted tickets are $35 for general admission.
Tickets are available at Orange Tree Imports and Willy Street Coop (East and West). You can also buy advance tickets online at www.madisonbachmusicians.org
Tickets at the door are: $38 general for adults, $35 for seniors 65-plus, and student rush for $10, on sale 30 minutes before lecture.
MBM artistic director Stephenson (below) sent the following remarks to The Ear:
Here are two fantastic quotations about Mozart:
“Together with the puzzle he gives you the solution.” Ferrucio Busoni on Mozart
“It may be that when the angels go about their task of praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together as a family, they play Mozart…” Karl Barth
Both quotes underline, I believe, Mozart’s charismatic generosity of spirit, his sense of play and camaraderie. We’re all in this together! Mozart’s music is a perfect fusion of melodic inspiration — tunes so good they can stay in your head for joyous weeks at a time, or even a lifetime — and structural clarity.
His sense of proportion — when to display 18th-century balance and when to step outside the frame — is uncanny and always a delight. And for me, as a five-year-old-boy, dancing about the living room to the old LP vinyl — dancing lightly, though, so the record wouldn’t skip — it was Mozart’s boundless energy and joy, pouring out of the speakers, that really revved me up.
The Madison Bach Musicians program on this coming Saturday and Sunday will explore several sides of Mozart’s genius: master orchestrator and symphonist; aficionado of fugues; virtuoso keyboard player and mesmerizing improviser; ballet composer; and the greatest fashioner of material for the soprano voice.
MBM has assembled a Classical-period chamber orchestra, replete with gut strings and transitional bows, natural horns, and classical oboes. To this we’ll add: a fortepiano — the type of instrument Mozart toured with; an elegant dancer — for dance was an integral part of 18th-century living; and a magnificent soprano — Mozart was virtually besotted with the magic of the high female voice, and he wrote for it throughout his life with imagination and a sense of thrilling experiment that has never been equaled before or since.
Here is a bit about each selection:
Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major – Composed 1764 when Mozart was just eight years old (below), during an extended stay in London with his father Leopold and sister Nannerl. Strongly influenced by the symphonies of C. F. Abel and J. C. Bach (The London Bach, youngest son of Johann Sebastian).
Symphony No. 29 in A major – Composed 1774 when Mozart was 18 years old (below). It is often considered the pinnacle of his early symphonic writing.
Exsultate Jubilate for soprano and orchestra – Written 1773 in Milan for the castrato, or male soprano, Venanzio Rauzzini, it is an elegant fusion of rapturous melodies and vocal display.
Adagio & Fugue in C minor for strings – Composed in 1788, certainly the latest Mozart work on the program when the composer was 32. Mozart had by this time — largely through the Sunday soirees at Baron van Swieten’s—been studying Bach’s fugues closely for several years. This fugue is an arrangement of a work for two fortepianos, K. 426, which Mozart had composed five years earlier in 1783. Mozart added the opening Adagio for the strings version.
Fantasy in D minor for fortepiano – Mozart improvised frequently as part of both private and public performance. This Fantasy, with its dark distinctive opening which explores the fantastical low register of the fortepiano, may give us a good idea of what Mozart might have done one night just sitting down to “jam” for his friends.
Two French Songs for soprano and fortepiano — Birds follow the warm weather, so they never cease their courtship. And in the woods one day the protagonist foolishly rouses a sleeping Cupid — and pays a terrible price.
Ballet excerpts from Les Petit Riens – literally The Little Nothings. Mozart composed most, but not all, of this ballet in Paris 1778 for Jean-Georges Noverre, ballet master of the Paris Opera. The work served as an interlude to an opera by Niccolo Piccinni that closed after just four performances.
For more information, go to: www.madisonbachmusicians.org
Tags: #AriadneLih, #ArtisticDirector, #BalletMusic, #BaronvanSwieten, #BBCProms, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CampRandallStadium, #ChamberOrchestra, #ChicagoIllinois, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianReligion, #Classicalera, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #ExsultateJubilate, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FerruccioBusoni, #FirstCongregationalUnitedChurchofChrist, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FrenchSong, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #JesusChrist, #JohannChristophBach, #JohannSebastianBach, #KarlBarth, #LeopoldMozart, #LondonEngland, #MadisonBach Musicians, #MaleSoprano, #MarcVallon, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MelodicMusic, #MilanItaly, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MontrealCanada, #MusicalExcerpt, #NannerlMozart, #NewYorkCity, #NiccoloPiccinni, #OboeMusic, #OmahaNebraska, #OperaMusic, #OrangeTreeImports, #ParisFrance, #ParisOpera, #PeriodInstruments, #PhiladelphiaPennsylvania, #RenéeFleming, #SeattleWashington, #SeniorCitizen, #SopranoSinger, #TheLondonBach, #TrevorStephenson, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VocalMusic, #WillyStreetCoopEast, #WillyStreetCoopWest, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, 18th century, acoustic, adult, angels, Ariadne Lih, Artistic director, Arts, Bach, balance, ballet, ballet music, Baron van Swieten, Baroque, basson, BBC Proms, bird, birds, blog, bow, bows, boy, Busoni, C.F. Abel, camaraderie, Camp Randall Stadium, Canada, castrato, Cello, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, charisma, Chicago, Christ, church, clarity, Classical, Classical music, closed, compose, composer, conductor, counterpoint, courtship, critically acclaimed, cupid, dance, dancer, dark, delight, discount, display, door, double bass, Early music, energy, era, excerpt, experiment, Exsultate Jubilate, Facebook, Family, fantasy, father, Ferruccio Busoni, First Congregational United Church of Christ, First Unitarian Society of Madison, fortepiano, French, fugue, fusion, generosity, genius, God, gut, head, historically informed performance practices, horns, imagination, improvisation, improviser, interlude, international, Jacob Stockinger, jam, Jesus, Johann Christoph Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach, Joy, Karl Barth, Keyboard, lecture, Leopold Mozart, lifetime, London, LP, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Marc Vallon, Mead Witter School of Music, melody, Milan, Milwaukee, miracle, Montreal, Mozart, Music, natural, New York City, Niccolo Piccinni, Nonnerl Mozart, Oboe, Omaha, online, opera, Orange Tree Imports, Orchestra, orchestrator, Paris, Paris Opera, period instruments, Philadelphia, play, player, price, private, professor, Proms, proportion, protagonist, public, pyrotechnics, quotation, quote, rapture, Religion, religious, Renée Fleming, ringing, Saturday, Seattle, senior citizen, sense, sequence, setting, sing, singer, sister, soprano, speaker, specialist, spirit, strings, structure, Student, Sunday, symphony, terrible, The London Bach, thrill, thrilling, ticket, transitional, Trevor Stephenson, tune, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, valveless, vinyl, Viola, Violin, virtuoso, vocal, vocal music, voice, weeks, Willy Street Coop East, Willy Street Coop West, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Woods, YouTube, zeal
Classical music: With much of Wisconsin underwater from historic flooding, Britten’s opera “Noah’s Flood” seems timely. Can you think of other works inspired by floods and natural disasters?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Right now much of Wisconsin lies underwater.
This past week has seen record-setting rain and historic flooding along with high winds and tornadoes that have left many towns and counties declared official disasters.
Then yesterday, Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency for the entire state. More rain and thunderstorms are predicted for all weekend and next week.
The flooding is not on the order of the deadly and destructive wildfires out west. But the situation seems nonetheless the kind of emergency or natural disaster that usually draws some kind of attention of the national media — on a smaller scale something like Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria that devastated respectively, New Orleans, Houston and Puerto Rico.
But this time The Ear can’t recall seeing or hearing even mentions or 10-second spot reports about the flooding of a state capital on national news programs. Can you?
New programs always seem to focus more on weather stories when they occur on the coasts and in the south. And right now the media also appear preoccupied with offering ever more words about the deaths of Senator John McCain and singer Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul.”
But the situation got The Ear to thinking and searching.
Are there works of classical music inspired by flooding and other natural disasters?
And he doesn’t mean just music inspired by and celebrating calmer and less destructive water such as George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music” or Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony or Georg Philipp Telemann’s “Ebb and Flow” Music.
One important discovery that met the criterion was the children’s opera, “Noah’s Flood,” composed by British composer Benjamin Britten (below) in the wake of his own personal and home experience with floods – as you can see in the YouTube video below.
Can you think of other works composed in response to a natural disaster?
If so, in the comment section please leave the names of the work and composer and, if possible, a link to a YouTube performance.
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: The new period-instrument group Sonata à Quattro makes its debut and excels in early Baroque music
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ALERT: The All-Festival Concert that closes this summer’s 19th annual Madison Early Musical Festival will take place in Mills Hall on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $20 for the general public, $10 for seniors and students. Here are two links where you can find more specific information, including composers and works on the program:
https://memf.wisc.edu/event/all-fest-2018/
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.
By John W. Barker
Marika Fischer Hoyt (below) is becoming another powerhouse in our musical scene. Already a spark plug of the Ancora String Quartet, and now the director of the annual “Bach Around the Clock” bashes, she has organized a new ensemble, Sonata à Quattro, which made its debut on Wednesday night at Pres House.
This was done under the aegis of the current Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) as a “fringe concert” — in the manner long-established by the Boston Early Music Festival. Plus, the concert’s theme was “The Lübeck Connection,” clearly tying it to the MEMF.
The music was early Baroque, almost entirely from the 17th century.
The first half presented pieces by seven composers, including, among the better-known ones, Michael Praetorius, Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schütz, Heinrich Ignaz Biber and Antonio Vivaldi.
In the earlier pieces, the instruments were not originally specified at all — and one of them was in fact purely vocal. But the later ones clearly displayed the definition of the early string ensemble.
Indeed, the basic players — besides the backup harpsichord — were seated (below) in what is now familiar in the configuration of the latter-day string quartet, with the subtle suggestion that the earlier sonata à quattro genre was its natural predecessor.
The presence here of Vivaldi—besides Gabrieli, the only Italian among these Germans, and of later date—seemed a bit incongruous, but his familiar Sinfonia ‘al Santo Sepolcro’ actually illustrated well the mature à quattro texture. (You can hear the Vivaldi in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
And a most impressive conclusion for this first half of the program was the fascinating eight-part Sonata in A minor by the sadly neglected Samuel Capricornus (1628-1665)—its eight-voice scoring not serving as a double choir but as a richly textured study in contrasting high with low parts.
For this first half, the core performers were Nathan Giglierano and Christine Hauptly Annin, violins; Fischer-Hoyt, viola; and Charlie Rasmussen, cello, with harpsichordist Daniel Sullivan.
They were joined along the way by gambist Phillip Serna (below top) who performed later on violone; and, for the Capricornus also violinist Thalia Coombs (below second), violist Micah Behr (below third) and viola da gambist Eric Miller (below bottom, in a photo by Katrin Talbot).
The program’s second half was devoted entirely to the music of Dietrich Buxtehude (below, ca. 1637-1707), the big star of the MEMF constellation.
First we had a Trio in B-flat from his Op. 2 collection, then a slightly French-style solo harpsichord Suite in D minor from Daniel Sullivan (below top).
Finally, we had two solo cantatas, sung by Kristin Knutson (below bottom), whose lovely soprano voice blended beautifully with the instruments.
This new ensemble will continue with concerts scheduled ahead for the coming season. But certainly this appearance represents a beautiful, and perfectly timed, introduction in a concert of true delight.
Tags: #AmericanRecordGuide, #AncoraStringQuartet, #AntonioVivaldi, #BachAroundtheClock, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BostonEarlyMusicFestival, #ChamberMusic, #DietrichBuxtehude, #EarlyBaroque, #GermanBaroque, #GermanComposers, #GermanMusic, #GiovanniGabrieli, #HarpsichordContinuo, #HarpsichordMusic, #HeinrichBiber, #HeinrichSchütz, #IsthmusNewspaper, #ItalianBaroque, #ItalianComposers, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnW.Barker, #LübeckGermany, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MedievalHistory, #MichaelPraetorius, #MusicCritic, #PeriodInstrument, #PresHouse, #RadioHost, #SamuelCapricornus, #SonataaQuattro, #StringQuartet, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #WORT-FM89.9, #YouTubevideo, American Record Guide, Ancora String Quartet, Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Boston Early Music Festival, Cantata, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, composer, critic, debut, Dietrich Buxtehude, Early music, ensemble, Gabrieli, Germany, Giovanni Gabrieli, harpsichord, Heinrich Biber, Heinrich Schütz, History, Isthmus, Italian Baroque, Italian composers, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John W. Barker, lecture, Madison Early Music Festival, Medieval, MEMF, Michael Praetorius, Music, natural, public, Radio, Samuel Capricornus, show, solo, Sonata, soprano, String quartet, Student, Suite, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, viola da gamba, Violin, violone, Vivaldi, vocal music, voice, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra finishes its season with first-time performances of a piano concerto by Mozart and a Slavic Mass by Janacek
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) concludes its current season with “Mass Appeal,” a program that includes two first-ever performances.
One work is the Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-Flat Major, K. 382, with Christopher O’Riley as the soloist. The other work is the massive “Glagolitic Mass” by the Czech composer Leos Janacek.
The concerts are in Overture Hall of the Overture Center, 201 State St., on Friday, May 4, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, May 5, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, May 6, at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets cost $18-$90. Ticket information is lower down.
MSO music director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) had the following comments about the program:
“The concert opens with the exhilarating Overture to the opera Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
“Janacek’s monumental Glagolitic Mass is a very dramatic work. The soloists who are joining us will fill Overture Hall with voluptuous sound, and the Madison Symphony Chorus will bring its high level of professionalism, adding to the thrilling auditory experience that is so characteristic of Janacek. (NOTE: You can hear the dramatic and brassy opening of the Glagolitic Mass in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“This work also features the organ in a movement all its own, and will give our audiences a chance to once again experience the beauty and power of the Overture Concert Organ as played by MSO’s Principal Organist Greg Zelek (below).”
“Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was completed in 1787. Mozart’s musical genius is evident in the subtle shadings of darkness he injects into even the most outwardly cheerful moments of the overture — which was most recently performed by the MSO in 2003.
“Composed in December of 1785, Piano Concerto No. 22 was the first concerto by Mozart (below) to include clarinets, his favorite woodwind, in its scoring. The concerto is considered to be a particularly elegant work, filled with ornate, often complicated, writing for the soloist that carries a natural sense of aristocratic poise.
“The Glagolitic Mass, considered to be one of the century’s masterworks and Janacek’s finest choral work, has often been viewed as a celebration of Slavic culture. With text in Old Church Slavonic, the five movements correspond to the Roman Catholic Ordinary of the Mass, omitting “Dona nobis pacem” in the Agnus Dei.
“The piece begins and closes with triumphant fanfares dominated by the brass and prominently features the organ throughout.
“Janacek (below) wanted it to be a Mass “without the gloom of the medieval monastic cells in the themes, without the same lines of imitation, without the tangled fugues of Bach, without the pathos of Beethoven, without the playfulness of Haydn,” rather he talks of the inspiration of nature and language.
“Acclaimed for his engaging and deeply committed performances, pianist Christopher O’Riley (below, in a photo by Dan Williams) is known to millions as the host of NPR’s From the Top, which spotlights gifted young classical musicians.
“O’Riley’s repertoire spans a kaleidoscopic array of music from pre-baroque to present-day. He performs around the world and has garnered widespread praise for his untiring efforts to reach new audiences.
Christopher O’Riley has performed as a soloist with virtually all of the major American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony. He last appeared with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in 1995, making for a highly anticipated return with his performance this season.
Soprano Rebecca Wilson (below, in a photo by Jeremy Lawson) has been praised as a “staggeringly talented singer” by St. Louis Magazine. She has appeared with Union Avenue Opera, in the role of Gutrune in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) and has performed throughout the Chicago area in many roles.
Hailed as possessing a voice of “spell-binding power and intensity” (The Register-Guard), mezzo-soprano Julie Miller (below, in a photo by Devon Cass) has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras and in many major concert halls across the country.
Tenor Rodrick Dixon (below, in a photo by Dan Demetriad) is a classical crossover artist who possesses a voice of extraordinary range and versatility. His body of work covers 25 years of television, recordings, live theater and concerts, including PBS Specials with tenors Victor Cook, and Thomas Young; “Hallelujah Broadway,” starring his wife, Alfreda Burke; the Miss World Pageant broadcast from China and Washington, D.C., on the “E” channel in 126 countries.
Dixon recently appeared in the annual Freedom Awards. His eclectic discography includes recordings for Sony BMG, EMI Records and Naxos.
Bass Benjamin Sieverding (below, in a photo by Lu Zang) has been recognized by critics nationwide for his “surprising depth” (Boulder Daily Camera), as well as his “natural gift for comedy” and “full, rich sound” (Ann Arbor Observer).
As an active soloist and recitalist, Sieverding performs both regionally and internationally. Sieverding is a three-time district winner and regional finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
The Madison Symphony Chorus (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) gave its first public performance on February 23, 1928, and has performed regularly with the Madison Symphony Orchestra ever since. The chorus (below) is directed by MSO assistant conductor Beverly Taylor and is comprised of more than 150 volunteer musicians who come from all walks of life and enjoy combining their artistic talent.
One hour before each performance, Beverly Taylor (below), Director of Choral Activities and Professor at the UW-Madison,will lead a 30-minute Prelude Discussion in Overture Hall to enhance concertgoers’ understanding and listening experience.
For more background on the music, please view the Program Notes by MSO trombonist and retiring UW-Whitewater professor J. Michael Allsen at: http://www.allsenmusic.com/NOTES/1718/8.May18.html
The Symphony 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 pre-concert talk (free for all ticket-holders).
Single Tickets for the 2017–2018 season finale May concerts are $18-$90 each and are on sale now at https://www.madisonsymphony.org/singletickets, through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141.
Groups of 15 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 $12 or $18 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.
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
Major funding for the May concerts is provided by Mirror 34 Productions, Fiore Companies, Inc., the Steinhauer Charitable Trust, Diane Ballweg, and WPS Health Solutions. Additional funding provided by Carla and Fernando Alvarado, Forte Research Systems and Nimblify, William Wilcox and Julie Porto, and Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Tags: #18Century, #20thCentury, #AmericanOrchestras, #BeverlyTaylor, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #ChinaBroadcast, #ChineseBroadcast, #ChristopherO'Riley, #ClarinetMusic, #Czechcomposer, #CzechMusic, #DonGiovanni, #EMIRecords, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FreedomAwards, #FromtheTop, #GlagoliticMass, #GregZelek, #HallelujahBroadway, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnDeMain, #LosAngelesPhilharmonic, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MadisonSymphonyChorus, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MetropolitanOpera, #MIssWorld, #MusicEducation, #NationalEndowmentfortheArts, #NationalPublicRadio, #NationalSymphony, #NaturalWorld, #NaxisRecords, #NewYorkPhilharmonic, #OperaOverture, #OrganMusic, #PBSSpecials, #PhiladelphiaOrchestra, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #RomanCatholic, #SanFranciscoSymphony, #SlavicCulture, #SonyBMG, #SonyRecords, #StateOfWisconsin, #TheMet, #TheRingCycle, #TwilightoftheGods, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UniversityofWisconsin-Whitewater, #WisconsinArtsBoard, #WoodwindMusic, #YoungPeople, Agnus Dei, American, aristocratic, Arts, audition, Baroque, bass, beauty, brass, Broadway, Catholic, celebration, Cello, century, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, China, choral music, clarinet, Classical music, comment, composer, Concert, concerto, country, critic, critics, culture, Czech, discount, discussion, Dona Nobis Pacem, Early music, elegant, Fanfare, finale, fugue, funding, genius, gloom, Gotterdammerung, host, inspiration, international, Jacob Stockinger, Janacek, John DeMain, language, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, mass, masterwork, Mezzo-soprano, monastery, monastic, Mozart, Music, Music education, Musician, national, National Symphony Orchestra, natural, nature, New Music, New York Philharmonic, notes, NPR, Old Church Slavonic, opera, Orchestra, Overture, Overture Center, pathos, PBS, percussion, performance, Philadelphia Orchestra, playfulness, power, Prelude, professional, program, recitalist, recording, regional, Ring cycle, role, Season, security, senior, sense, Slavic, Slavonic, soloist, soprano, Sound, Student, symphony, talk, Television, tenor, theater, theme, ticket, triumphant, Trombone, Trumpet, Twilight of the Gods, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, voice, volunteer, voluptuous, Wagner, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, woodwind, young people, Youth, YouTube
Classical music: More chamber music should be performed at the Goodman Community Center on the east side. Are there other underused venues?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Last Saturday morning, The Ear headed off to the Goodman Community Center (below), on the near east side just off Atwood Avenue.
The reason was to hear a noontime concert by one of his favorite chamber music groups: The Willy Street Chamber Players.
The summer concert was part of the new and FREE Community Connect series by The Willys. And the terrific performances of works by Caroline Shaw, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Astor Piazzolla and Johannes Brahms seemed to draw in a good-sized crowd that was younger and even included some children.
Clearly, The Willys have indeed connected to the community in a different part of town than where they usually perform.
But another of the great things about The Willys is that they also explore new venues.
For the past two winters, they have performed a season preview concert in “A Place to Be” on Williamson Street.
What struck The Ear this time, however, was the Evjue Community Room (below) at the Goodman Center.
The handsomely rehabbed room sure seems an ideal venue for chamber music.
Why, The Ear wondered, was it the first time he was there for a concert?
The room seats about 100, making it ideal for intimate music.
It has lots of natural light, which the players (below) said they really like for reading music.
And the acoustics were superb, no doubt the result of the cream-colored brick, the dark wood, the glass windows and the metal ductwork – all hard surfaces that made for clarity and sufficient volume, even in the back rows. It is, as they say in the biz, a “live” space.
Take a look:
The Ear sure hopes the Goodman Center will see the return of The Willys.
More to the point, he also hopes that other chamber music groups will also use the center. It would be a wonderful spot for recitals and small groups of all kinds.
What do you think of the Goodman Center as a venue for classical music and other kinds of music?
Do you know of other underused performance spaces around the Madison area that you would recommend?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: acoustics, Arts, Astor Piazzola, brick, Caroline Shaw, Cello, Chamber music, children, clarity, Classical music, community, crowd, Daniel Bernard Roumain, ductwork, Evjue, Glass, Goodman, Goodman Center, Goodman Community Center, handsome, intimate, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, light, Madison, metal, morning, Music, natural, New Music, performance, Performing arts, player, reading, recital, rehab, room, Saturday, space, String quartet, string quintet, summer, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, venue, Viola, Violin, volume, Willy Street Chamber Players, window, winter, Wisconsin, wood, young
Classical music: This is a very busy weekend for FREE choral music, band music, chamber music, a brass master class and a Berlioz colloquium at the UW-Madison.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is the time of the academic year, the end of a semester, when performers and venues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music really get a workout.
Take this weekend and especially this coming Sunday, which features seven events.
There will be two popular Winter Choral Concerts at Luther Memorial Church, 1026 University Avenue (below, in 2014) plus performances by the Concert Band and University Bands and a couple of recitals by students. Mills Hall, Morphy Hall and Music Hall will all be in use.
Here is a link to the full Sunday schedule with information about the many concerts, but which, unfortunately, does NOT include programs for the choral concerts and a band concert:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/events/2016-12-04/
This Friday and Saturday are also busy, though less so.
FRIDAY
At 4 p.m. in Room 2441 of the Mosse Humanities Building is a FREE public colloquium about the pioneering Romantic French composer Hector Berlioz (below).
Here is a description by the presenter, Professor Francesca Brittan of Case Western Reserve University:
“Against Melody: Neology, Revolution, and Berliozian Fantasy.”
“Complaints levied against Hector Berlioz’s music during his lifetime (and after) were many: deafening, terrifying, “too literary,” “too imitative.” But by far the most pervasive anxiety voiced by critics revolved around Berlioz’s illegibility. In particular, his music was ungrammatical, failing to adhere to the rules of syntax, the tenets of “proper” melody, and the laws of rhythm.
“These were not just idle or irritated complaints but urgent ones, linked by 19th-century critics to fears of social unraveling and even revolutionary violence. Berlioz’s musico-linguistic perversion, as one reviewer put it, was tantamount to Jacobinism. This strand of the criticism began in earnest with the “Symphonie fantastique,” a work that usually claims our attention for its orchestrational innovations and autobiographical resonances.
“In this talk, I redirect attention to the symphony’s syntax, arguing that melodic-linguistic deformation was at the heart of the work’s radicalism. I link Berlioz’s notions of “natural” grammar (borrowed in part from Victor Hugo) to notions of “natural” sound, and the “natural” rights of man. More broadly, I examine relationships among grammar, revolution, and 19th-century fantasy, between musical neology and the Berliozian imaginary.”
The event is funded by the University Lectures Anonymous Fund.
For more about Francesca Brittan (below) go to:
http://music.case.edu/faculty/francesca-brittan/
At 6:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, a student brass quintet will perform a FREE concert of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Malcolm Arnold, Kevin McKee and Victor Ewald. Performers are Nicole Gray, Brandi Pease, Kirsten Haukness, Hayden Victor and Michael Madden.
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall is a FREE public master class with David Wakefield (below), a former member of the American Brass Quintet who now teaches at The Hartt School. Sorry, no program of works to be played.
At 8:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall is a FREE graduate student concert of chamber music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Rayna Slavova is a second-year Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) student in collaborative piano, studying with professor Martha Fischer.
The all-Mozart program includes the Violin Sonata in F, K. 376, with Biffa Kwok, violin (an excerpt, played by Hilary Hahn, can be heard in the YouTube video at the bottom); the Piano Duo Sonata in C, K 521, with Alberto Pena, piano; and the Piano Quintet in E flat, K 452, with Juliana Mesa, bassoon, Kai-Ju Ho, clarinet, and Dafydd Bevil, horn.
SATURDAY
At 4 p.m. in Mills Hall, the University Strings – made up of talented non-music majors — will play a FREE concert. Sorry, no news about the program.
At 4 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall is a FREE Fall concert by the Flute Studio at the UW-Madison. Sorry, no word about the program or players.
At 8:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital in a FREE recital by Seth Bixler who is a senior violinist studying with Professor Soh-Hyun Altino. He will perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Peter Tchaikovsky and Eugene Ysaye.
Tags: American Brass Quintet, anxiety, Arts, autobiography, Bach, band, Bassoon, Berlioz, brass, Case Western Reserve University, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, clarinet, Classical music, colloquium, Concert, critic, David Wakefield, duet, duo, flute, Francesca Brittan, grammar, Hilary Hahn, Horn, imaginary, innovation, Jacob Stockinger, Jacobinism, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Kevin McKee, law, laws, linguistic, Madison, Malcolm Arnold, man, master class, melody, Mozart, Music, natural, natural rights, Orchestra, Piano, piano duo, Piano Quintet, quintet, Ravel, recital, revolution, rhythm, rights, rights of man, Romantic, Romanticism, Sonata, Sound, symphony, Symphony fantastique, syntax, Tchaikovsky, The Hartt School, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Victor Ewald, Victor Hugo, Viola, violence, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube, Ysaye
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Leon Fleisher, the inspirational pianist and teacher who died a week ago, had ties to Madison
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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
Famed American pianist and teacher Leon Fleisher (below, in a photo by Chris Hartlove), who also conducted, died of cancer at 92 last Sunday, Aug. 2.
Wisconsin Public Radio, like many other media outlets including National Public Radio (NPR) and most major newspapers and television stations, devoted a lot of time to tributes to and remembrances of Fleisher.
That is as it should be. If any musician deserved it, Fleisher did.
Fleisher (1928-2020) was a titan who became, over many years and despite major personal setbacks — stemming from an almost paralyzed right hand — a lot more than a keyboard virtuoso.
But despite lots of air time, less well covered has been his relationship to Madison audiences, who had the pleasure of seeing and hearing him several times in person.
In 2003 and then again in 2016 (below top) — at age 88 — Fleisher performed with the University of Wisconsin’s Pro Arte String Quartet (below bottom).
Both times he played the Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, a masterpiece of chamber music. He and his wife, Katherine Jacobson, also performed a joint recital at the Wisconsin Union Theater in 2009.
Fleisher felt at home in Baroque, Classical, Romantic and even modern music. He was renowned as an interpreter of Brahms. Indeed, his early and widely acclaimed recordings of both Brahms piano concertos as well as of the Waltzes and Handel Variations remain landmarks.
Once he was again playing with both hands, Fleisher also recorded the piano quintet for Deutsche Grammophon with the Emerson String Quartet, another frequent and favorite performer in Madison. (You can hear the finale in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here is a this blog’s review of his last Madison appearance: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/?s=Leon+Fleisher
Fleisher liked performing with the Pro Arte, and therein lies another historical tale.
His most influential teacher — the famed pianist Artur Schnabel, with whom the San Francisco-born Fleisher went to study in Europe when he was just 9 — also played often with the earlier members of Pro Arte Quartet. Together they recorded Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet by Franz Schubert, and that recording is still in the catalogue and available on Amazon.
Fleisher discusses studying with Schnabel in his entertaining and informative 2010 autobiography “My Nine Lives” (below).
Fleisher was a child prodigy who made his name while still young. Famed French conductor Pierre Monteux – who conducted the world premiere of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” in Paris — called Fleisher the “musical find of the century.” Fleisher made his concerto debut at 16 with the New York Philharmonic under Monteux.
Fleisher was just 36 and preparing for a tour with the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell – a perfect pairing and a conductor with whom he recorded all the Beethoven and Brahms concertos among may others – when he found he could not uncurl the last three fingers of his right hand.
Various diagnoses and causes were offered, and many cures were tried. In the end, it seems like that it was a case of focal dystonia that was caused by over-practicing, especially octaves. “I pounded ivory six or seven hours a day,” Fleisher later said.
After a period of depression and soul-searching, Fleisher then focused on performing music for the left hand; on conducting; and especially on teaching for more than 60 years at the Peabody Institute, located in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University.
There he helped shaped the career of many other famous pianists, including André Watts, Yefim Bronfman and Jonathan Biss (below, in a photo by Julian Edelstein), who played when Fleisher received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007. (All three have performed with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.)
Here is an inspiring overview of Fleisher’s life and career from the Peabody Institute: https://peabody.jhu.edu/faculty/leon-fleisher/
And here is another short biography from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Fleisher
Here are three especially noteworthy obituaries:
NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2020/08/02/702978476/leon-fleisher-the-pianist-who-reinvented-himself-dies-at-92
The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/arts/music/leon-fleisher-dead.html
The Washington Post, written by critic Anne Midgette who worked with Fleisher on his memoir: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/leon-fleisher-sublime-pianist-with-one-hand-or-two-dies-at-92/2020/08/02/c7c98f90-527d-11e6-b7de-dfe509430c39_story.html
The Ear has always found Fleisher’s playing remarkable for its technical fluency combined with the utmost clarity and exacting but flexible sense of rhythm. He always managed to make a piece of music sound just right, as it was intended to sound. His musicality always seemed innate and perfectly natural.
Sample it for yourself. The Ear thinks the performance of all five Beethoven concertos with George Szell still sets a high standard with its exciting, upbeat tempi, its exemplary balance between piano and orchestra, and its exceptional engineering.
The affable Fleisher will long remain an inspiration not only for his playing and teaching, but also for his determination to overcome personal obstacles and go on to serve music — not just the piano.
Did you ever hear Leon Fleisher play live or in recordings? What did you think?
Do you have a comment to leave about the legacy of Fleisher?
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