The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: What music is good to greet the Winter Solstice today?
4 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been waiting for this.
And now it is at hand,
Today we are about to turn the corner.
Today is the Winter Solstice (below), the first day of winter, when the days finally start getting longer and the nights shorter.
Officially, the Winter Solstice arrives at 5:03 p.m. CST in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Ear has even heard about quite a few parties being held to mark the event.
And parties need music.
Here are a few selections of classical music to get you in the right frame of mind to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
The composers include well-known works and composers like the Baroque violin concertos “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi; the Classical-era oratorios “The Creation” and “The Seasons” by Franz Joseph Haydn; a section of a Romantic symphony by Peter Illich Tchaikovsky, and a piano miniature by the Impressionist Claude Debussy.
But there are unknown ones too.
http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20131217/Blogs/312179869
But perhaps you have other favorites.
If so, please tell The Ear all about the music you listen to when you want to mark the Winter Solstice.
And here, in another version by Roger Norrington with the Handel and Haydn Society, is the “Winter” part of Haydn’s oratorio “The Four Seasons” that looks like it has been blocked from the link because of copyright infringement.
Tags: Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, Baroque, Baroque music, Cello, Chamber music, Christmas, Classical era, Classical music, Debussy, Early music, Earth, Handel and Haydn Society, Haydn, Impressionism, Jacob Stockinger, Northern Hemisphere, oratorio, Orchestra, Peter Tchaikovsky, Piano, Roger Norrington, Romantic, solstice, symphony, winter, winter solstice, YouTube, Yule
Classical music: Friday is Mexican modernism night at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. New CDs from Cedille show that we should hear more Mexican modernist music by Carlos Chavez, Manuel Ponce and other composers performed here.
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
From 6 to 9 p.m. this Friday, Aug. 23, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (below) in the Overture Center will host a night that focuses on the great artists of Mexican modernism. Admission is free for MMOCA members and $10 for non-members.
The event will feature an evening of Mexican paintings, prints and photographs as well as refreshments, a gallery talk 6:30-7 p.m. by University of Wisconsin-Madison art professor and artist Jim Escalante and movie screenings.
Here is a link with more details and some visuals;
http://www.mmoca.org/exhibitions-collection/exhibits/los-grandes-del-arte-moderno-mexicano
As luck or coincidence would have it, the event is happening around the same time that I received some CDs in the mail from the outstanding Chicago-based non-profit regional label Cedille. The recordings feature the works of several composers who also brought modernism to Mexican classical music.
Those composers include Carlos Chavez (1899-1978, below top), Manuel Ponce (1882-1948, below middle), Jose Pablo Moncayo (1912-1958), Jose Rolon (1876-1945) and Samuel Zyman (b. 1956) – all performed by the gifted Chicago pianist Jorge Federico Osorio (below) who possesses great tone, lyricism and drama. He plays with confidence born of natural affinity for the music and an abundance of musical talent.
I have sampled all the recordings and am both impressed and pleased.
This is not the Viennese modernism of, say, Arnold Schoenberg and the 12-tonists or atonalists. In fact much of this is much more accessible and listener-friendly. Much of that is due, my ears tell me, to the incorporation of tuneful Mexican folk songs and rhythmically catchy folk dances.
That makes it not so different from the photos of Manuel Alvarez Bravo (below top), the paintings of Frida Kahlo (below second), the expressionist style woodcuts of Leopoldo Mendez (below third), the murals of Diego Rivera (below bottom) – all of which are distinctly modern with overtones of traditional Mexican culture and society.
But for whatever reason this beautiful music has not caught on in the Northern Hemisphere and the United States, and Europe. Perhaps that is yet another expression of the inherent racism or provincialism that runs throughout Euro-centric classical music, as I touched on in recent post that drew some excellent responses form readers. Here is a link:
That is especially regrettable, given that many music ensembles would like to attract more Hispanic or Latino audiences.
It says something that even the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is giving its premiere performance of the Chavez Piano Concerto this season.
The Ear keeps thinking that it would be a smart move, and probably not too an expensive booking, for the Madison Symphony Orchestra or the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra to book Jorge Federico Osorio to play, and maybe even premiere, the spiky but accessible Chavez Piano Concerto here in Madison. It would certainly add some rarely heard repertoire and much needed ethnic diversity to the music scene.
Similarly, I think a lot of solo piano recital would benefit from the music of Manuel Ponce, who composed a lot ore than the ever-popular “Estrellita.” Once could try his Concerto Etudes and “Trozos Romanticos,” his “Mazurcas” (at bottom in a YouTube video), his “Cuban Suite” or even his two etudes written for Arthur Rubinstein. They have elements of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy and even Scrabin but with a Latin American flavor. These piano pieces certainly a more serious look than they seem to be getting.
But until this repertoire comes to you live, you can’t do better than these recordings that support Jorge Federico Osorio’s remarkable performances that are supported with great sound engineering and informative liner notes.
Tags: Arthur Rubinstein, Cedille Records, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Compact Disc, concerto, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jacob Stockinger, Jorge Federico Osorio, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mexican music, Mexico, MMOCA, Northern Hemisphere, Overture Center, Piano, Piano concerto, U.S., United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
Recent Comments
 | Ronnie on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Polly Kuelbs on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
| welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Ann Boyer on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Today is the Winter Solstice. Here is a piece to make you look forward to longer days, warmth and the Summer Solstice next year
1 Comment
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
Today – Monday, Dec. 21 — is the Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It arrives at 4:02 a.m. CST.
The Ear expects that Wisconsin Public Radio, among other media outlets, will be marking the event with traditional, often austere, winter music. That includes “Winter” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”; maybe some songs from Schubert’s “Winterreise” (Winter Journey); Peter Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons” and “The Nutcracker”; and, of course, plenty of winter holiday music, including carols and the Baroque oratorios, cantatas and concertos by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Corelli and others.
But many people – strained by the coronavirus pandemic –are already eagerly looking forward to the days growing longer, which will culminate in the Summer Solstice at 10:31 p.m. CST on Sunday, June 21, 2021.
Who needs to celebrate the season’s cold and darkness? So The Ear thought that we could all use a little sonic sunlight, tonal warmth and musical hope, especially at the end of this Plague Year.
There are standards and favorites such as Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” and Vivaldi’s “Summer.”
But to The Ear that work that really lifts one’s spirits, and captures the kind of joyful abandon and youthful energy of the mid-summer event, complete with animal noises and romance, is the “Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream” by a 17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn (below).
You can hear it below in a YouTube performance by the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig conducted by the late, great German conductor Kurt Masur, whose son, Ken-David Masur, is the new music director and conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
The Ear hopes you enjoy it.
What music would you like to hear or play to mark the Winter Solstice?
Leave a suggestion with your reason and, if possible, YouTube link in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
Like this:
Tags: #ALittleNightMusic, #AMIdsummerNight'sDream, #AntonioVivaldi, #ArcangeloCorelli, #BachCantatas, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOratorio, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CentralTime, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #ChristmasConcerto, #ChristmasMusic, #ChristmasOratorio, #ClassicalMusician, #CoronavirusPandemic, #DanielHope, #EineKleineNachtmusik, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FranzSchubert, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GewandhausOrchestra, #Handel'sMessiah, #HolidayMusic, #JacobStockinger, #Ken-DavidMasur, #KurtMasur, #LeipzigGermany, #MessiahOratorio, #MilwaukeeSymphonyOrchestra, #MusicDirector, #NorthernHemisphere, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PeterTchaikovsky, #PlagueYear, #StringMusic, #SummerSolstice, #TheEar, #TheFourSeasons, #TheSeasons, #TraditionalMusic, #VocalMusic, #WilliamShakespeare, #WinterJourney, #WinterSolstice, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, A Little Night Music, A Midsummer Night's Dream, abandon, animal, Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, arrive, Arts, audience, austere, Bach, Baroque, Baroque music, blog, Cantata, capture, Carol, celebrate, Central Time, Chamber music, choral music, Christmas Concerto, Christmas music, Christmas Oratorio, Classical music, classicalmusic, cold, comedy, comment, composer, concerto, conductor, Corelli, coronavirus, culminate, darkness, day, December, Early music, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, energy, enjoy, event, expect, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, favorite, Felix Mendelssohn, forward, Franz Schubert, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frederic Handel, German, Germany, great, Handel, heavy lifting, hemisphere, holiday music, hope, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, joyful, June, Ken-David Masur, Kurt Masur, late, Leipzig, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, like, link, longer, Madison, mark, media, Mendelssohn, Messiah, midsummer, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Monday, Mozart, MSO, Music, Music director, musical, night, noises, Northern Hemisphere, oratorio, Orchestra, outlet, Overture, pandemic, performer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Peter Tchaikovsky, plague, Plague Year, play, post, posting, Radio, reader, Romance, Schubert, Season, Shakespeare, share, short, shorter, solstice, songs, sonic, spirit, standard, strain, string music, subscriber, summer, Summer solstice, Sunday, sunlight, symphony, tag, Tchaikovsky, teenager, Telemann, The Ear, The Four Seasons, The Seasons, today, tonal, traditional, United States, use, Vivaldi, vocal music, warmth, we, winter, Winter Journey, winter solstice, Winterreise, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, year, youthful, YouTube