The Well-Tempered Ear
The New York Times names the top 25 classical recordings of 2020 and includes sample tracks
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By Jacob Stockinger
What did the holidays bring you?
Did Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa bring you a gift card?
A subscription to a streaming service?
Maybe some cash?
Or maybe you just want to hear some new music or new musicians or new interpretations of old classics?
Every year, the music critics of The New York Times list their top 25 recordings of the past year. Plus at the end of the story, the newspaper offers a sample track from each recording to give you even more guidance.
This year is no exception (below).
In fact, the listing might be even more welcome this year, given the coronavirus pandemic with the lack of live concerts and the isolation and self-quarantine that have ensued.
The Ear hasn’t heard all of the picks or even the majority of them. But the ones he has heard are indeed outstanding. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a sample of the outstanding Rameau-Debussy recital by the acclaimed Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafssen, who scored major successes with recent albums of Philip Glass and Johann Sebastian Bach.)
Here is a link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/arts/music/best-classical-music.html
Of course not all critics agree.
The Ear has already listed the nominations for the Grammy Awards (a link is below), and more critics’ picks will be featured in coming days.
You should also notice that a recording of Ethel Smyth’s “The Prison” — featuring soprano Sarah Brailey (below), a graduate student at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music and a co-founder of Just Bach — is on the Times’ list as well as on the list of Grammy nominations.
What new recordings – or even old recordings — would you recommend?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Library of Congress streams UW pianist Christopher Taylor’s online Liszt-Beethoven symphony recital for free this Thursday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Thursday night, Dec. 17, from 7 to 9 p.m. CST, University of Wisconsin-Madison virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor (below) will close the celebration of the Beethoven Year, marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, at the Library of Congress. After the concert’s premiere, it will stay posted online.
For the past several years, Taylor has been performing the solo piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies both in Russia and at the UW-Madison.
Here is more from the website of the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music:
“It takes extraordinary skill as an orchestrator to condense an entire symphony by Beethoven (below top) into a version for a solo instrument, but that is just what Franz Liszt (below bottom) accomplished in his piano transcriptions. (You can hear a sample, along with a visual representation, of the Fifth Symphony transcription in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Hear virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor perform three of these transcendent symphony transcriptions, works he describes as a “new perspective on something familiar.” (The Ear, who has heard Taylor’s impressive performances of almost all nine symphonies, finds that comparing the two versions is like looking at the same photograph in color and then black-and-white. Color emphasizes details while black-and-white emphasizes structure. You hear new things by comparing the two.)
The performance was pre-recorded in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the Hamel Music Center.
The program is:
BEETHOVEN/LISZT
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
You can find more details at: https://loc.gov/concerts/christopher-taylor.html
You can Register on Eventbrite
Hailed by critics as “frighteningly talented” (The New York Times) and “a great pianist” (The Los Angeles Times), Taylor has distinguished himself throughout his career as an innovative musician with a diverse array of talents and interests.
He is known for a passionate advocacy of music written in the past 100 years — Messiaen, Ligeti and Bolcom figure prominently in his performances — but his repertoire spans four centuries and includes the complete Beethoven sonatas, the Liszt Transcendental Etudes, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and a multitude of other familiar masterworks.
Whatever the genre or era of the composition, Taylor brings to it an active imagination and intellect coupled with heartfelt intensity and grace.
Taylor has concertized around the globe, with international tours taking him to Russia, Western Europe, East Asia and the Caribbean.
At home in the U.S. he has appeared with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, the Madison Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony. As a soloist he has performed in New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls, in Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia and Aspen festivals, and dozens of other venues.
In chamber music settings, he has collaborated with many eminent musicians, including Robert McDuffie and the Borromeo, Shanghai, Pro Arte, and Ying Quartets.
His recordings have featured works by Liszt, Messiaen and present-day Americans William Bolcom and Derek Bermel.
Throughout his career, Taylor has become known for undertaking memorable and unusual projects. Examples include: an upcoming tour in which he will perform, from memory, the complete transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies by Liszt; performances and lectures on the complete etudes of Gyorgy Ligeti; and a series of performances of the Goldberg Variations on the unique double-manual Steinway piano (below) in the collection of the University of Wisconsin.
Numerous awards have confirmed Taylor’s high standing in the musical world. He was named an American Pianists’ Association Fellow for 2000, before which he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1996 and the Bronze Medal in the 1993 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In 1990 he took first prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition, and also became one of the first recipients of the Irving Gilmore Young Artists’ Award.
Taylor lives in Middleton, Wis., with his wife and two daughters. He is a Steinway artist.
For more biographical information — including his piano teachers and his education as well as his interest in mathematics and engineering — go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/christopher-taylor-concerts-from-the-library-of-congress/
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Classical music: Acclaimed native son Kenneth Woods returns this weekend to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He talks to The Ear about what Madison meant to him and his international career
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, native Madisonian Kenneth Woods (below) returns from his home in the UK to conduct three performances of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The concerts feature two MSO debuts: the prize-winning young Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor; and the acclaimed guest conductor, Kenneth Woods, leading the orchestra for the MSO premiere of Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, “Miracle” plus Richard Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life).
Performances will be held in Overture Hall on Friday night, March 6, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday night, March 7, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, March 8, at 2:30 p.m.
Single tickets are $19-$95 each and are on sale now, along with discounted tickets, at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/the-miracle/; through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street; or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online and phone sales.
You can view program notes for this concert online at http://bit.ly/msomar2020programnotes
A Prelude Discussion by Randal Swiggum will take place one hour before each concert.
Guest conductor Kenneth Woods is a busy and versatile musician. He is the Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of both the Colorado MahlerFest and the Elgar Festival in England. (You can hear Woods conducting Carl Maria von Weber’s “Oberon” Overture in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Woods has won accolades for rediscovering and recording the music of the Austrian-British composer Hans Gàl. Woods, who has played guitar in a rock band, is also a professional cellist who solos with orchestras and plays chamber music. He writes a respected blog. And he currently plays and records in the Briggs Piano Trio for Avie Records.
For much more information about Kenneth Woods, including his blog “A View From the Podium,” go to: https://kennethwoods.net/blog1/
Woods recently spoke via email to The Ear about what Madison has meant to him and to his international career.
How did living in Madison play a role in your decision to become a professional musician?
Madison offered me a chance to hear music at an early age. I was taken to watch a rehearsal of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra as a very young kid, maybe three or four years old. That made a huge impression on me, especially seeing the rehearsal process. Later, my parents took us to all the UW Symphony Orchestra concerts for years.
There’s really no reason not to take young kids to concerts! For me, a love of live music led to a love of recorded music, listening to records at home, and from there, to an interest in playing music as a kid.
We were lucky to have a very strong music program in the Madison public schools when I was growing up here. The orchestras at Memorial High School played some really impressive repertoire under Tom Buchhauser (below top, in a photo by Jon Harlow). The UW Summer Music Clinic made being a musician social – it was a great immersion with one’s peers.
Most important, however, was probably the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO). Playing under Jim Smith (below bottom) was the most fantastic education in orchestral playing one could hope for. He and Tom are a big part of why I became a conductor.
Madison in those days wasn’t a super-pressurized scene, like one might encounter around the big pre-college programs in New York or LA. But what I might have missed in terms of conservatory-level instrumentalists in every corridor, one made up in terms of feeling like you could find your own path. By the time I was in high school, I pretty much knew music was that path.
How did your experiences in Madison help prepare you for that career?
I learned so much about rehearsing from Jim Smith. In his first year, we worked on Dvorak’s 8th Symphony pretty much all year. Every week, he opened our ears to new facets of the music. I’ve never forgotten that.
I went off to Indiana University to do my Bachelor’s degree, but returned to Madison for a Master’s, when I studied cello with UW-Madison professor Parry Karp (below top).
Those were wonderful years for me. I learned an enormous amount from Parry as both a cello teacher and chamber music coach (and especially as a person).
I played in fantastic chamber groups, did lots of wacky new music and had solo opportunities. UW Symphony Orchestra conductor David Becker (below bottom) even gave me my first meaningful chance to rehearse an orchestra when he had me take a couple of rehearsals on the Copland Clarinet Concerto.
And I played in both the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. I came away from that time with both new skills and new confidence.
What does returning to your hometown to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra mean to you?
It’s both very exciting and a little surreal. Under the leadership of John DeMain (below top, in a photo by Greg Anderson), the MSO (below bottom, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) has come so far since the time I was in it. And the new hall is such a treasure for all of Wisconsin – it’s practically a different orchestra.
I still have many friends and former mentors in the orchestra and it’s going to be wonderful to see them all and make music together again after so long.
But it’s more than a homecoming. It’s a chance to celebrate where we’ve all been and what we’ve all done the last 20 years or so. My musical life has mostly been in the UK for a long time, so to re-connect with my musical roots here is rather magical.
What are your major current and upcoming projects?
The English Symphony Orchestra (below) represents the biggest chunk of my musical life. This year we’re celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday and the orchestra’s 40th anniversary.
The ESO has a special commitment to new and unknown music, and right now we’re in the midst of something called the 21st Century Symphony Project, which involves commissioning, premiering and recording nine new symphonies by diverse composers. It’s one of the most ambitious commissioning projects I’ve ever heard of, let alone been involved in.
I’m also excited about this year’s Colorado MahlerFest in Boulder, where we’re focusing on Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” this May, which will crown a week of music exploring themes of color and visual art with music by Wagner, Messiaen and British composer Philip Sawyers.
Is the MSO program special to you?
I must say that it was incredibly generous of John DeMain to offer me such a fantastic program. Not every music director is gentleman enough to let a guest have Ein Heldenleben.
What would you like the public to know about your approach to music and about the specific works by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss?
Haydn’s music is maybe the richest discovery of my adult life. I didn’t get it as a kid, largely because most performances I heard were so dull.
His music is so varied, and his personality so complex, one mustn’t try to reduce him down to a simplistic figure. The late symphonies, of which this is one of the finest, are inexhaustible sources of wisdom, beauty, humor and sanity.
The Mendelssohn is really an astonishing piece. I’ve probably conducted it as much as any piece of music, with so many different soloists, all of whom had hugely different temperaments, personalities, sounds and approaches.
I’ve played it with some of the greatest violinists in the world and with young students. Somehow, whoever is playing, it always leaves me, and the audience, smiling. I’m pretty sure we can continue that streak with Blake Pouliot (below, in a photo by Jeff Fasano).
The Strauss is a rich, personal, wise, funny and moving work. It’s always a challenge, particularly bringing out all the astonishing detail in the score, but it’s also a real joy to perform. If the Mendelssohn always leaves me smiling, the Strauss always leaves me smiling with a tear in my eye.
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Classical music: Gift guide or gift or both? Critics for The New York Times name their top classical recordings of 2018, and so does National Public Radio (NPR)
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is “Panic Saturday” — another, newer theme day on the commerce-driven Holiday Consumer Calendar that goes along with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber-Monday and Giving Tuesday.
In past years, by this time many media outlets would publish the list of the top classical recordings of the past year. And The Ear has offered them as holiday shopping guides with links to the lists.
They seem to be running late this year, probably too late for many shoppers.
But recently the team of critics for The New York Times named their Top 25 classical recordings of 2018 that run from the 15th century to today (sample album covers are below).
This time, the website didn’t just reproduce something that first appeared in the printed edition. And something more than small snippets or excerpts are offered.
This time, the newspaper took full advantage of the electronic possibility of the web and used streaming to add hours of sound samples — some as long as 40 minutes – so you can see what you think of the recordings before you buy them. (Be sure to look at reader reactions and comments.)
It is a new and innovative way to do a Top 25 list – very appealing or entertaining as well as informative. Even if you don’t use it to buy anything for others or yourself, it can provide many minutes of listening pleasure. You can think of it as a gift guide or a gift or both.
Of course, there are also the usual short and very readable, to-the-point narratives or explanations about why the recording stands out and what makes it great music, a great performance or a great interpretation.
So there is a lot to listen to and help you make up your mind. The Ear has enjoyed it and found it helpful, and hopes you do too, whether you agree or disagree with the choice:
Here is a link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/arts/music/best-classical-music-tracks-2018.html
Since this is the last weekend for holiday shopping before Christmas, here is the previous list – notice the duplications in the two lists — posted here, which was of the nominations for the upcoming 2019 Grammy Awards:
And here is the Top 10 list, which was chosen by the always discerning Tom Huizenga (below) — who explains the reasons for his choices — and which also offers generous sound samples, from National Public Radio (NPR) and its Deceptive Cadence blog. Also look for duplications:
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/18/677776208/npr-musics-best-classical-albums-of-2018
What recordings would you suggest?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AlbumCover, #AnthonyTommasini, #BaroqueMusic, #BenjaminBritten, #BerlinPhilharmonic, #BlackFriday, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #ChamberMusic, #ChamberMusician, #ChoralMusic, #DeceptiveCadence, #DmitriShostakovich, #DoctorAtomic, #ElectricGuitar, #EroicaSymphony, #FranzLiszt, #FredericChopin, #GivingTuesday, #GrammyAwards, #GrammyNominations, #GustavMahler, #HenryPurcell, #HilaryHahn, #HolidaySeason, #HolidayShopping, #IgorLevit, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnAdams, #JohnnyGandelsman, #JoshuaBatone, #KarlheinzStockhausen, #LeifOveAndsnes, #LeonardBernstein, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MedievalMusic, #MiddleAges, #MirandaCuckson, #MusicalInterpretation, #MusicCritic, #MusicReview, #NationalPublicRadio, #NewMusic, #NewYorkTimes, #NicolePopora, #OlivierMessiaen, #OperaMusic, #PanicSaturday, #PhilipGlass, #RichardWagner, #RobertSchumann, #SimonRattle, #SmallBusinessSaturday, #SoloViolin, #SoundSamples, #StileAntico, #TheKnights, #TomHuizenga, #Top10, #Top25, #VikingurOlafsson, #ViolinMusic, #ZacharyWoolfe, album cover, Arts, Bach, Ballade, Baroque, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, Berlin Philharmonic, Black Friday, blog, Blog post, blog posting, calendar, Cello, century, Chamber music, choice, Chopin, choral music, Classical music, comment, Compact Disc, composer, concerto, conductor, consumer, Cyber-Monday, Deceptive Cadence, Doctor Atomic, Dufay, Early music, electric guitar, entertaining, explain, explanation, Franz Schubert, give, Giving Tuesday, Grammy Award, Grammy nomination, great, Hilary Hahn, Holiday, holiday season, Iceland, Icelandic, Igor Levit, informative, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johhny Gandelsman, John Adams, Joshua Barone, Karlheinz Stockhausen, late, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leonard Bernstein, life, Liszt, living, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mahler, media, Medieval, Middle Ages, Miranda Cuckson, Mozart, Music, music critic, narrative, National Public Radio, New Music, New York City, New York Times, Newspaper, Nicole Popora, nocturne, NPR, Olivier Messiaen, opera, Orchestra, Panic Saturday, partita, Philip Glass, Pianist, Piano, pleasure, Purcell, reaction, read, reader, receive, recording, Robert Schumann, sampling, shoppers, Shopping, short, Shostakovich, Simon Rattle, Small Business Saturday, Sonata, Stile Antico, stream, streaming, symphony, The Knights, today, Tom Huizenga, Top 10, Top 25, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vikingur Olafsson, Viola, Violin, violinist, vocal music, Wagner, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, year, YouTube, Zachary Woolfe
Classical music: UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor says Bach wouldn’t mind being played on the piano and the public should get to know the less virtuosic side of Liszt. He plays concertos by both composers this weekend with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today’s guest Q&A is the acclaimed UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor (below), who won a bronze medal in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and who has been praised by critics around the world.
Taylor will play a big role this weekend in what, for The Ear, is the most interesting program of the season from the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below).
The program, to be performed under the baton of longtime MSO music director John DeMain, includes the Piano Concerto No. 4 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Franz Liszt. The soloist for both is the dynamic and versatile Taylor (below), the resident virtuoso at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
The second half of the program is the Symphony No. 7 by the Late Romantic Austrian composer Anton Bruckner – the first time the MSO has tackled one of Bruckner’s mammoth symphonies.
Performances are in Overture Hall in the Overture Center. Times are Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $12-$84.
For details, go to https://www.madisonsymphony.org or call the Overture Center Box Office at (608) 258-4141.
Taylor recently agreed to an email Q&A with The Ear:
What do you say to early music and period instrument advocates about performing Bach on a modern keyboard versus a harpsichord? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
In matters musical I hope to foster a generally tolerant attitude. I think our art form is a broad and diverse enough domain to allow for the peaceful coexistence of interpretations that pursue varied goals.
Some may seek to recreate, in as precise a way as possible, the experiences of listeners living back in Bach’s day, a perspective that can undoubtedly prove illuminating and satisfying for contemporary audiences.
Others may pursue interpretations that employ more recent, or even completely novel, musical resources, with results that Bach himself might well find startling were he suddenly to return.
Still, given Bach’s documented flexibility regarding instrumentation — the Keyboard Concerto No. 4 was probably originally composed for oboe — I like to think he would be open-minded both towards the piano’s sonority and the interpretive possibilities it suggests.
The piano’s rich and varied sound undoubtedly fits naturally into the modern concert hall setting, and for me personally its character is what I understand and appreciate best. But again, I am always eager to learn about alternative approaches, and hope that others will listen to me with a similar mindset. (Below, Taylor is seen with the unusual two-keyboard Steinway piano he uses to play Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations.)
How would you compare the Keyboard Concerto No. 4 to Bach’s other ones?
Like all the Bach concertos this work possesses irresistible energy and momentum, paired with lyricism and ingenious construction. It strikes me as a particularly cheerful specimen — not so imposing or stern as the D minor or F minor concertos, for instance, but more modest in scale and upbeat in mood.
Right from the opening the first movement features an interesting back-and-forth relationship between the soloist and orchestra, with the keyboard seeming suitably soloistic on some occasions, more accompanimental at other moments, and completely united with the strings yet elsewhere.
The slow middle movement has particularly long phrases and sinuous lines, while the finale displays remarkable rhythmic variety, with relatively staid eighth notes taking turns with bustling sixteenth-notes and downright scrambling thirty-second-notes. (You can hear the Bach concerto for yourself in the YouTube video below that features the British pianist Nick Van Bloss who, curiously, suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome except when he is playing.)
A lot of listeners know you especially for your interpretations of modern and contemporary composers such as William Bolcom, Gyorgy Ligeti, Derek Bermel and especially Olivier Messiaen. But you are also known for your performances of the “Goldberg” Variations. What are the attractions of Bach’s music for you?
I find in Bach (below) the supreme balance of heart and brain. It is music whose intricacy provides endless material for intellectual stimulation and study, but which nonetheless, in its restrained and elegant way, evokes every imaginable shade of human feeling.
It is hardly surprising that composers as diverse as Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin and Arnold Schoenberg found inspiration in his immortal creations.
Playing his music is a foundational skill for me, providing essential training and background when I approach, for instance, the more recent composers whose challenging works you mention.
Liszt is known as probably the greatest piano virtuoso in history who reinvented keyboard technique. How do you see the first concerto in terms of both deeper musicality and sheer spectacle and technical virtuosity?
While Bach may sometimes be stereotyped as hyper-academic and dry, the stereotype associated with Liszt is quite the opposite: flashy and intellectually shallow.
Neither caricature captures the reality, and I hope that this week’s pair of concertos helps to illustrate the unexpected facets and depths of both composers.
While I have been familiar with the Liszt from a very early age, I only performed it for the first time fairly recently. While learning it I found myself continually surprised by its formal sophistication and intriguing quirkiness.
Certainly it has its moments of raw virtuoso display, but these only constitute one ingredient in a varied dramatic structure. Just as important are the lyrical characters (sometimes cut off short), the playful elements, the eccentric, the grand, the angelic. I have thus come to appreciate how experimental, individualistic, and sophisticated this work really is.
How do you view Liszt as a composer compared to his reputation as a performer and teacher? What should the public pay attention to in the Liszt Concerto and is there anything special or usual you try to do with the score?
As I suggested above, I think there’s often a tendency to underestimate Liszt’s compositional import — although admittedly he did produce certain works that feed into the stereotypes distressingly well.
I will hope to bring out this concerto’s interplay of characters and its individualism as vividly as possible. The virtuoso elements will play their part, but I do not wish for them to be the sole focus. (You can hear the concerto played by Martha Argerich in the YouTube video that is below.)
Tags: "Goldberg" Variations, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Britain, Chopin, Classical music, concerto, Derek Bermel, English, Franz Liszt, György Ligeti, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, John DeMain, Late Romantic, Liszt, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Martha Argerich, Music, Nick Van Bloss, Oboe, Olivier Messiaen, Orchestra, Piano, Piano concerto, Romanticism, Steinway, symphony, Tourette's, UK, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, WILLIAM BOLCOM, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
Classical music: Find out what eight famous composers were doing on Christmas Day. Plus, UW-Madison piano virtuoso Christopher Taylor performs Messiaen on WORT FM early on Christmas morning.
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ALERT: Blog fan and WORT 89.9 FM radio host Rich Samuels, who also documents the local music scene, writes:
Jake:
My Christmas Day 5-8 a.m. show on WORT will include a complete performance of Olivier Messiaen‘s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus” by University of Wisconsin-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor, as well as an interview that I recorded with Taylor about the piece and its composer.
The performance was recorded December 11, 2012 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Taylor performs this two-hour work from memory.)
Here’s a link to the New York Times review of the performance:
All the best in 2015.
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is an unexpected Christmas gift I stumbled across.
It consists of Christmas Day excerpts from letters and diaries by and about eight Romantic and modern composers. They include Felix Mendelssohn, Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner (see the YouTube video at the bottom), Claude Debussy, Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten and Sergei Prokofiev.
I like that the various writings demystify the lives of composers, and artists in general, and shows their ordinary human side through what they thought, felt and did on a special day, even on a holiday.
Happy reading and Merry Christmas!
http://www.classical-music.com/article/8-composers-at-christmas-through-letters
Tags: Arts, Bach, Beethoven, Benjamin Britten, Chamber music, Christmas, Christmas and holiday season, Christmas Day, Christopher Taylor, Christopher Taylor (pianist), Classical music, Debussy, diary, Edward Elgar, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, letters, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Messiaen, Olivier Messiaen, Orchestra, Piano, Prokofiev, Radio, Richard Wagner, Siegfried Idyll, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wagner, WORT, WORT FM 88.9, YouTube
Classical music: Pop pianist Bruce Hornsby takes a surprising turn to classical music. He performs in Madison on Oct. 30.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Pop pianist Bruce Hornsby (below) has made quite the reputation for himself over the past 25 years or so as a keyboard wizard — and singer — who explores all kinds of music, including rock and folk, with impressive improvisations and interpretations.
But imagine The Ear’s surprise when Hornsby announced that he was looking and playing and even programming classical music as well as jazz.
And on top of that, some of the classical music he is favoring comes from the Second Viennese School – the difficult 12-tone and atonal composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. He also plays music by Gyorgy Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen.
Clearly, Hornsby’s classical tastes runs to early modernism. One can’t be sure that kind of music will be included in the upcoming concert, but it sure sounds as if it will.
Hornsby’s concert in Madison is in Overture Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 30. Tickets run $39.50 to $59.50.
Here is a link to more information about the concert and tickets, which have been on sale for about two weeks now and which can also be reserved by calling the Overture Center box office at (608) 251-4848.
http://www.overturecenter.org/events/bruce-hornsby
Hornsby also talked to All Things Considered, on NPR or National Public Radio, about his turn toward the classics, especially in the wake of being a relatively late bloomer as a student instrumentalist. (And the classical stuff he plays is hard and very challenging both for performers and listeners.) But you can tell he has impressive technique in the YouTube video at the bottom.
You may also notice that buying a concert ticket gets you a copy of his latest 25-track, 2-CD set with The Noisemakers called “Solo Concerts,” which includes some of the classical music.
Anyway, here is a link to the NPR story about Bruce Hornsby’s Classical Moment:
Tags: Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Bruce Hornsby, Classical music, Compact Disc, fok music, improvisation, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Ligeti, Madison, Messiaen, Music, NPR, Olivier Messiaen, Overture Center, Piano, pop music, rock music, Schoenberg, Second Viennese School, Webern, YouTube
Classical music: The Ear falls in love with the clarinet as, once again, Madison’s Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society surprises fans and inspires audiences to standing ovations with great music, great performers and great fun. Don’t miss the rest of the BDDS season.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Every summer it happens.
Just when I think I can’t be pleasantly surprised anymore, the Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society once again manages to surprise me – and with the greatest of pleasure.
This summer’s series — three weekends of six programs in June — opened with two programs this past weekend. And this time, the BDDS made me fall in love with the clarinet.
Now, I have always liked the clarinet. But after hearing clarinetist Burt Hara in his first BDDS appearances, I am absolutely in love with the instrument.
Hara performed beautifully in Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio, but the pieces that really enraptured me were Brahms’ sublimely beautiful and intimate Clarinet Quintet (below) and Olivier Messiaen’s dramatic “Quartet for the End of Time,” which to me is more remarkable for the playing than for the music. (Retired Wisconsin Public Radio host and now narrator Linda Clauder expressively read poems by Shelley, Yeats and other works chosen by pianist Sykes in between movements.)
In all cases, Hara showed a complete mastery. (See and listen to his YouTube video at the bottom.) He is the model of a quiet virtuoso who avoids flash. He blends rather than stands out. He can play softly, almost inaudibly, without losing the incredible richness and depth of tone. His pitch is wonderful, and his ability in the Messiaen quartet (below) to hold a tone from almost silence to a very loud sound with gradual but absolute steadiness was nothing short of miraculous.
Not for nothing has Hara been the principal clarinetist of the Minnesota Orchestra for 25 years, although due to that orchestra’s unfortunate lockout and labor strife, he has apparently decided to take a position as assistant principal clarinet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its white-hot young, superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
Wherever Hara makes his home, I hope he returns to Madison in future summers to perform some of the great clarinet repertoire – Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces, Brahms’ two clarinet sonatas, Debussy’s Rhapsody and Poulenc’s sonata among others.
But Hara is not alone in attracting my attention and admiration.
Also impressive in the first two concerts was guest violist Yura Lee (below), whose lyricism and expressive face matched her impeccable intonation and tone.
Among the more regular BDDS members were co-founders and co-directors pianist Jeffrey Sykes and flutist Stephanie Jutt (below top) as well as Anthony Ross (below top), principal cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra, and violinist Carmit Zori (below bottom), from the Brooklyn Chamber Music Festival.
I don’t think a wrong note, an off-rhythm or a false interpretative move happened among all of them. In short, chamber music and ensemble playing just don’t get any better.
Then there is the repertoire.
I may be never again hear such rarely performed works as Felix Mendelssohn’s early Sonata for Viola or Maurice Emmanuel’s Trio Sonata from 1907, but I am very happy I got to hear them once and I doubt I will ever hear them performed better.
Then there was the American contemporary composer Kenji Bunch (below) and his “New Moon and Morning” (2008) for flute and string quartet. It was a lovely and accessible work that goes down easily. It struck me as very post-Ravel, a sort of meticulously Minimalist French-like work that was terrifically evocative and convincingly atmospheric. As far as I know it is a Madison or even a Midwest premiere, and the work’s colorful transparency worked perfectly as a counterpart complement to Mozart’s trio.
As always there are the creative and very ingenious sets, this year designed by artists Brenda Baker and Burt Ross. This summer’s theme is “Deuces Are Wild” to mark BDDS’ 22nd season, so art of thre “set” uses playing cards around the stage and projected onto the backdrop (below top and bottom) as well as a card trick by a local magician.
The Ear was told that ticket sales are ahead of last summer, and that even subscription tickets are moving faster. That pleases me since I named the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society as Musicians of the Year for 2012.
But there are still seats to be filled at the Overture Center’s Playhouse, the Stoughton Opera House and the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.
Over the next two weekends, the performers include Madison Symphony Orchestra conductor John DeMain as pianist and MSO concertmaster Naha Greenholtz as well as the always reliable singers of University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate soprano Emily Birsan and bass-baritone Timothy Jones plus Pro Arte Quartet violinist Suzanne Beia and cellist Parry Karp and the always reliable violinist Axel Strauss and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau of the San Francisco Trio.
The repertoire includes major instrumental works and songs by Brahms, Robert Schumann, Clara Wieck Schumann, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Mozart and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
But curiously, despite the group’s name, there was and is NO Bach.
Maybe pianist Jeffrey Sykes, a masterful chameleon of a pianist who can blend into any period or style and who played solo Haydn last summer, could open each concert with a brief overture of sorts — some solo Bach, perhaps a short Prelude and Fugue from “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” or a Two-Part or Three-Part Invention, or a movement from a suite or partita. Or maybe a guest violinist or cellist could play a movement from a Bach s0lo suite or, with Sykes, a movement from a Bach sonata. It would set the tone, so to speak, and become a unifying motif.
Anyway, if you love music and are not attending the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, you are cheating yourself out of a wondrous experience.
For a complete listing of dates, place, times, tickets, performers and pieces, go to:
http://www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
Tags: Anthony Ross, Axel Strauss, Burt Hara, clarinet, Clarinet Quintet, Deuces Are Wild, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Gustavo Dudamel, John DeMain, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Olivier Messiaen, Overture Center, Stoughton Opera House, wisconsin public radio, YouTube
Classical music: Madison’s summer classical music season kicks off this Friday night with the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society opening its 22nd season this Friday night at the Overture Center’s Playhouse.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Increasingly, it seems, classical music in Madison never takes a break or at least an extended vacation.
The regular seasons are barely over for the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Opera, the many University of Wisconsin School of Music groups including orchestras and opera, the Edgewood College music program, and many other small and large ensembles.
Nonetheless, the rich summer classical music season is about to begin.
Here is a round-up, hardly all-inclusive since I am sure I have overlooked something, of various local Madison-area events. (If some event has been left out, please forgive me and leave information in the COMMENTS section.)
JUNE 14-JUNE 30: This Friday night the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society will kick off its 22nd season, entitled in numerically fitting way, “Deuces Are Wild.” It will perform in three venues: the Playhouse in the Overture Center, the Hillside Theater at the Frank Lloyd Wright landmark compound Taliesin in Spring Green; and the Opera House in Stoughton.
There is so much to recommend this thoroughly professional and thoroughly enjoyable group, which The Ear named Musician of the Year for 2012.
For starters, there will be the usual door prizes, original art as stage backdrops and mystery guests.
There is some unusual repertoire such as works by Kenji Bunch, Ferdinand Ries, Frank Martin, Ned Rorem, Dick Kattenburg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold mixed in with such famous masterpieces as Beethoven’s “Archduke” Piano Trio, Gabriel Faure’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet and G Major String Sextet, Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio for piano, viola and clarinet and Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” with former Wisconsin Public Radio host Linda Clauder as narrator, and others. One especially intriguing program explores the romantic three-way among Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck Schumann.
Curiously, however, there will be NO BACH – no Johann Sebastian or Carl Philipp Emanuel or Wilhelm Friedemann or Johann Christoph –- despite the group’s name.
The usual mix of local and imported performers will be featured, including the always reliable co-founders and co-directors flutist Stephanie Jutt and pianist Jeffrey Sykes. But one noteworthy difference is the appearance of Madison Symphony Orchestra music director and conductor John DeMain (below), who will play the piano (his first instrument before he went into conducting and then specialized in opera) in two-piano works with Jeffrey Sykes.
Here is a link to the BDDS home webpage with lots of links to the programs, the venues, tickets and background:
http://www.bachdancinganddynamite.org
Here is a roundup of other dates and events you might want to put into your datebook.
JUNE 21: The first MAKE MUSIC MADISON outdoor festival will be held citywide to celebrate the summer solstice. Four acoustic pianos, with no advance sign-up, will be located at fire stations around the city. Here is a link: http://www.makemusicmadison.org
JUNE 21: The Madison Youth Area Chamber Music Orchestra (below in Mills Hall) will perform Aaron Copland’s “Our Town,” Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” with Wisconsin Public Radio narrator Lori Skelton and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Eugene Purdue and violist Deidre Buckley.
JUNE 21: In a “Real Men Sing” Concert, Kantorei (below), The Singing Boys of Rockford, Illinois, will perform a collaborative choral concert with choirs from the Madison Youth Choirs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 21 at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 7337 Hubbard Ave., in Middleton, Wisconsin.
JUNE 22: First of three free Farmers Market Concerts sponsored by the Madison Symphony Orchestra at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall with the Overture Concert Organ and organ soloist Jared Stellmacher (below) and The Gargoyle Brass. Here is a link with another link to the program: http://madisonsymphony.org/farmer
JUNE 26-JULY 31: The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra will hold the 30th annual summer of the hugely popular Concerts on the Square. While most of the repertoire will be folk, rock, jazz and pop music, the opening concert, featuring concerto competition winner violinist David Cao (below) will be all-classical, and other concerts will have some classical works. Here is a link: http://wcoconcerts.org/performances/concerts-on-the-square/
JUNE 29: The Madison Summer Choir (below) will perform Charles Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass and other works at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. Here is a link: http://madisonsummerchoir.org
JULY 6-JULY 12: The 14th annual Madison Early Music Festival will celebrate “A Festive Celebration of the German Renaissance.” (The logo is below.) It will feature the Calmus Ensemble of Leipzig, the Dark Horse Consort, the viol consort Parthenia and the Renaissance band Piffaro. The usual pre-concert lectures, workshops and outstanding performances as well as the All-Festival Concert (“Stuttgart 1616) will be featured. New this year is a Handel Aria competition, sponsored by early music fans Orange and Dean Schroeder of Orange Tree Imports, on Monday July 8, at 7 p.m. Here is a link: http://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/lsa/memf/
JULY 13: Madison Opera’s “Opera in the Park”: This FREE outdoors event usually tracts more than 10,000 people to Garner Park on the west side and offers a preview of the next season and other repertoire. Here is a link: http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2012-2013/park/
JULY 20: The second of three free Farmer’s Market Concerts sponsored by the Madison Symphony Orchestra at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall with the Overture Concert Organ and organist Wyatt Smith (below). Here is a link with a link to the program: http://madisonsymphony.org/farmer
AUGUST 9: The Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, under founder and conductor Mikko Utevsky (below) at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall will perform Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, Beethoven’s Symphony No.1 and the premiere of a new work from Madison composer Jerry Hui:
AUGUST 14: The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras perform a FREE concert in Old Sauk Trails Business Park.
http://wyso.music.wisc.edu/events/concerts-recitals/
http://gialamas.com/Events/tabid/164/vw/3/itemid/19/sm/615/d/20130814/Default.aspx
AUGUST 17: Last of three free FREE Farmers Market Concerts sponsored by the Madison Symphony Orchestra at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall with the Overture Concert Organ with guest organist Adrian Binkley (below) and MSO organist Samuel Hutchison. Here is a link with another to the program: http://madisonsymphony.org/farmer
AUGUST 20-SEPTEMBER 1: The Token Creek Chamber Music Festival has the theme “Improvisations on a Theme.” Concerts in the refurbished barn (below) will feature unfinished Mozart by Harvard scholar Robert Levin, a new piece (Violin Sonata No. 2) by composer and co-director John Harbison for his violinist wife and co-director Rose Mary Harbison. Also included this year is an emphasis on Shakespeare with music (Haydn and Schubert among others) and readings. Here is a link: http://www.tokencreekfestival.org
After that, summer will be behind us, and fall ahead of us, and it will be time again for the Karp Family Labor Day concert at the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Music–- for more than 30 years the traditional opening of the regular concert season.
Tags: Bach, Edgewood College, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Johannes Brahms, John DeMain, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Olivier Messiaen, Orchestra, Overture Center, Robert Schumann, University of Wisconsin, UW-Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Critics for The New York Times name their Top 10 online classical concerts for May
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By Jacob Stockinger
Even as we wait to see whether concerts in the next season will be mostly streamed or live, the critics for The New York Times have named their Top 10 classical concerts to stream and hear online in May.
The Times critics have been doing this during the pandemic year. So perhaps if and when they stop, it will be a sign of returning to concert life before the pandemic.
Then again, maybe not, since The Ear suspects that many listeners have liked the online format, at least for some of the times and for certain events. So maybe there will be a hybrid format with both live and online attendance.
As the same critics have done before, they mix an attention to contemporary composers, world premieres and up-and-coming performers, including the Finnish conductor Susanna Maliki (below top) in a photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times).
In a welcome development, the recommendations for this month also seem to mention more Black composers, performers and pieces than usual, including the rising star bass-baritone Davon Tines (below, in a photo by Vincent Tullo for The New York Times).
But you will also find many of the “usual suspects,” including Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Bartok, Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen and Shostakovich. (On the play list is Schubert’s last song, “The Shepherd on the Rock,” which you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
You will also find dates and times (all are Eastern), links to the event and some short commentaries about what makes the concerts, programs and the performers noteworthy.
Here is a link to the story: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/arts/music/classical-music-streaming.html
Do you know of local, regional, national or international online concerts that you recommend? Leave word with relevant information in the Comment section.
Happy Listening!
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