The Well-Tempered Ear
The Madison Bach Musicians will open its new season with a virtual online concert of Haydn and Mozart this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
Leave a 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
The Ear has received the following announcement, about a promising contrast-and-compare concert, from the Madison Bach Musicians:
The Madison Bach Musicians (MBM) will start its 17th season this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, Oct. 3 and 4, with a virtual chamber music concert and livestream event featuring the irrepressibly joyous, witty and poised music of Classical-era masters Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
The performances features period instruments and historically informed performance practices.
See details near the bottom about the schedules and how to buy tickets.
Performers are violinist Kangwon Kim and cellist James Waldo (on gut-strung period instruments), fortepianist Trevor Stephenson, and soprano soloist Morgan Balfour — winner of the 2019 Handel Aria Competition. (Below top is Kangwon Kim; below middle is James Waldo; and below bottom is Morgan Balfour.)
The broadcast will begin with a 30-minute pre-concert lecture by MBM artistic director Trevor Stephenson (below, in a photo by Kent Sweitzer) illuminating the program’s repertoire, the lives of Haydn and Mozart, and the aesthetic aims of the period instruments.
While most of the pieces on the program are buoyant and full of celebration, the concert will begin with a pensive and melancholy work commensurate with our current pandemic times.
Mozart composed the Sonata in E minor for violin and fortepiano in 1778 at the age of 22 while on tour in Paris. His mother, who was with him on the tour, became suddenly ill and died unexpectedly. This sonata is the only piece of instrumental music Mozart ever composed in the key of E minor, and its blend of gravitas, sparseness and tenderness is heartbreakingly poignant.
Mozart’s Piano Trio in G major, composed in 1788, shows him at his sunniest and most affable, with one brilliant and catchy tune after another suspended effortlessly — at least in Mozart’s hands! ― within the balance of Classical form.
The program’s first half ends with five of Mozart’s songs. Mozart truly loved the soprano voice, and he lavished some of his greatest writing upon it. The set includes perhaps his best-known song, Das Veilchen (The Violet)―which is also, oddly enough, Mozart’s only setting of a text by the German poet Goethe.
The second half of the concert is devoted to the music of Mozart’s near contemporary, Joseph Haydn, who was just 24 years older than Mozart.
Though the two composers came from very different musical and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Haydn (below) was lower working class, rural, and musical but not professionally trained.
Mozart (below) was urban, solid middle class, musically trained, sophisticated, and ambitious.
Both managed to carve out successful careers in the fertile musical culture of Vienna and its environs. They certainly knew each other and even made music together on occasion, playing in string quartets — with Haydn on violin and Mozart on viola.
Haydn composed two sets of English Canzonettas (songs) during his visits to England during the early 1790s.
The Mermaid, with its flirtatious beckoning, stretches the confines of the parlor setting (where this music was most likely performed) and suggests a cabaret environment. Fidelity, on the other hand, stays within the parlor style, emphasizing how the bond of devotion can overcome physical separation. Haydn brilliantly interweaves stormy, naturalistic episodes with declarations of unbending loyalty.
The concert will close with Haydn’s mercurial Piano Trio No. 27 in C major. Also composed during his London visits in the 1790s, this trio is the first of a set of three dedicated to the London-based virtuoso pianist Therese Bartolozzi. The Presto finale―with its unbridled high spirits―is a supreme example of Classical Era cheeky, theatrically conceived wit. (You can hear the finale in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
SCHEDULE AND TICKETS
As a result of public health guidelines in response to Covid-19 that do not allow for an in-person audience, we will livestream our concert from Grace Episcopal Church, downtown on Capitol Square, on Saturday evening for at-home viewing. (Below are Trevor Stephenson and Kangwon Kim rehearsing in masks at Stephenson’s home.)
The event will begin with a pre-concert talk by Trevor Stephenson at 7:30 p.m., and after the 8 p.m. concert, the musicians will remain on stage to answer questions submitted by our audience.
On Sunday, starting at 3 p.m. we will rebroadcast the Saturday evening recording and follow that with a live question-and-answer session with our musicians from their homes.
After purchasing tickets for $15 per household, you will be sent a link to access the performance. The recorded lecture and video will be available for up to 72 hours after they take place.
To purchase tickets, go to: https://madisonbachmusicians.org/oct-3-4-haydn-mozart/ or to: https://madison-bach-musicians.square.site/product/haydn-mozart-oct-3-4-livestream/54?cs=true
For information about the Madison Bach Musicians’ full season, go to: https://madisonbachmusicians.org/season-overview/
Tags: #ArtistcDirector, #BaroqueChamberMusic, #Baroquesinging, #BaroqueViolin, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CapitolSquare, #ChamberMusic, #ChristianChurch, #Classicalcomposer, #Classicalera, #Classicalform, #ClassicalStyle, #ConcertSeason, #Contrast-and-Compare, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzJosephHaydn, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GraceEpiscopalChurch, #GreatBritain, #GutStrings, #HandelAriaCompetition, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #InstrumentalMusic, #JacobStockinger, #James Waldo, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohannWolfgangvonGoethe, #KangwonKim, #LifeandDeath, #LiveStreaming, #LondonEngland, #MadisonBachMusicians, #MadisonWisconsin, #MajorKey, #MakeMusic, #Middle-Class, #MiddleClass, #MinorKey, #MusicalStyle, #OnlineConcert, #ParisFrance, #PeriodInstruments, #PianoTrio, #PianoVirtuoso, #Pre-concertLecture, #PublicHealth, #RecordedMusic, #SharonLynneWilsonCenterfortheArts, #SopranoSinger, #StringQuartet, #TheEar, #TheFortepiano, #TheMermaid, #TheViolet", #TrevorStephenson, #ViennaAustria, #ViolinSonata, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #WorkingClass, #YouTubevideo, aesthetic, afternoon, ambitious, answer, aria, Artistic director, Arts, at home, audience, Austria, Austrian, available, Bach, background, Baroque, Baroque music, beckoning, begin, best-known, blog, bond, bouyant, brilliant, Broadcast, buy, cabaret, canzonetta, Capitol Square, career, carve, catachy, celebration, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, cheeky, Christian, church, Classical era, Classical form, Classical music, compare, composed, composer, conceived, Concert, contemporary, contrast, coronavirus, culture, death, deatils, declaration, dedicated, devoted, devotion, different, downtown, Early music, effortless, effortlessly, eit, emphasize, England, English, environment, environs, episode, esthetic, Facebook, fertile, fidelity, fie, finale, flirtatious, fortepiano, forward, Franz Joseph Haydn, George Frideric Handel, German, Germany, Goethe, grace, Grace Episcopal Church, gravitas, great, Great Britain, greatest, guidelines, gut, gut strings, gut-strung, half, Handel, Handel Aria Competition, hands, Haydn, Health, hear, heartbreaking, help, historically informed performance practices, Home, household, illuminate, in person, information, instrument, instrumental music, interweave, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Joy, joyous, Kangwon Kim, key, Kim, lavished, lecture, like, link, live, lives, livestream, London, Love, loved, lower, loyalty, lyric, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, major key, Make Music, manage, masks, Master, melancholy, mermaid, minor key, minute, Morgan Balfour, MorganBalfour, Mother, Mozart, Music, musica, musical, Musician, naturalistic, night, odd, oddly, older, on-stage, online, only, onstage, overcome, pandemic, Paris, parlor, pensive, performer, period instruments, physicsl, Piano, Piano Trio, piece, play, poet, Poetry, poignancy, poignant, poise, post, posting, pre-concert, pre-concert lecture, professional, professionally, program, public, Public health, Q&A, question, recorded, rehearsal, rehearse, remain, repertoire, repertory, response, result, rural, Saturday, schedule, Season, separation, session, set, setting, share, Singing, socio-economic, solid, Sonata, song, sophisticated, soprano, sparseness, stormy, String quartet, style, subscriber, suddenly, sun, Sunday, sunny, suspended, tag, talk, tenderly, tenderness, text, The Ear, The Violet, theatrical, ticket, together, tour, trained, Trevor Stephenson, trio, tune, UK, unbendng, unexpected, United States, urban, Vienna, viewing, Viola, violet, Violin, Violin Sonata, violinist, violist, virtual, virtuoso, visit, vocal music, voice, winner, Wisconsin, wit, witty, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, working class, writing, year, YouTube
Classical music: The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble excels again in a varied program of rarely heard Baroque vocal and instrumental music
Leave a Comment
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. 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
The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble offered its latest specimen of intimate Baroque chamber music at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Regent Street last Sunday afternoon.
As always, each of the performers—six in this case—had one or two opportunities as soloist.
Mezzo-soprano Consuelo Sañudo (below), for instance, was featured in two solo cantatas.
One, by Giovanni Bononcini was on conventional emotional themes.
But the other was a real curiosity. By the French composer Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, it was written for the Nativity season, and has been given a French title as “Hymn of the Angels.” But its text was no more or less than the Latin words of the Gloria section of the Mass Ordinary.
A new member in the group, recorder player Sigrun Paust (below), delivered the Sonata No. 1 from a 1716 collection of works written by Francesco Veracini alternatively for violin or flute.
For flutist Monica Steger (below) the vehicle was a Sonata Op. 91, No. 2, for Flute and Harpsichord duo, by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.
The spotlight was on viola da gambist Eric Miller (below) in another duo with harpsichord, no less than the Sonata in D Major, BWV 1028, by Johann Sebastian Bach, but Miller also participated in continuo functions elsewhere. (You can hear the Bach sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Likewise active in continuo work was viola da gambist Anton TenWolde (below), but he had one solo, a Capriccio for cello, by Joseph Ferdinand Dall’Abaco.
And the harpsichordist Max Yount (below), also involved in continuo roles, presented two contrasting keyboard pieces, a Toccata by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and a Fantasie by Johann Jakob Froberger.
For a colorful finale, Paust and Miller joined TenWolde and Steger (on harpsichord) in a Trio Sonata in F by Georg Philipp Telemann.
The artistry of these performers (below) was fully up to their own high standards, and their delight in trading off assignments to play together is palpable.
St. Andrew’s Church (below) on Regent Street may have been a bit bigger than a Baroque salon or parlor, but still served well as a setting for this kind of amiable gentility in musical substance.
The group’s next Madison concert is at St. Andrew’s on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. No program has been announced.
Tags: American Record Guide, angels, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Boismortier, Bonocini, BWV, Cantata, Capriccio, Cello, Chamber music, church, Classical music, Clerambault, Concert, continuo, Dall'Abaco, Dutch, Early music, emeritus, Episcopal, Fantasie, fantasy, flute, French, Froberger, German, Gloria, harpsichord, hymn, Isthmus, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Johann Sebastian Bach, John W. Barker, Latin, lecture, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, mass, Medieval, MEMF, Mezzo-soprano, Music, nativity, parlor, professor, recorder, salon, Sonata, St. Andrew, Telemann, text, title, toccata, trio, trio sonata, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Veracini, Viol, Viola, viola da gamba, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, words, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: Spend a week in the Age of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I when the 17th annual Madison Early Music Festival is held, starting this Saturday. Part 2 of 2.
Leave a Comment
By Jacob Stockinger
Starting this Saturday, the 17th annual Madison Early Music Festival will take place on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The theme this year focuses on William Shakespeare and the Age of Queen Elizabeth I.
You can check out all the details of the festival at: http://www.madisonearlymusic.org
The co-directors of the festival – the wife-and-husband team of singers Cheryl Bensman Rowe and Paul Rowe (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot and signaled in the answers by the initials CBR and PR) took time out from the hectic preparations to answer an email Q&A with The Ear.
Here is a link to Part 1 that appeared yesterday:
Today is the last of two parts:
Why was the theme of the “Shakespeare 400: An Elizabethan Celebration” chosen for this year’s festival? What composers and works will be highlighted?l
CBR: We chose the theme to honor the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and the musical connections in his plays and sonnets, which also reflect the world of Queen Elizabeth I.
Audiences will hear many works of famous Elizabethan composers including Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tallis, Anthony Holborne, John Dowland and others.
How does Elizabethan music differ from its counterparts in, say, Italy, France and Spain. What is the historical origin and role of the music from that era?
PR: The most familiar music from this time, the madrigal, is “borrowed” from the Italians. There were several Italian composers who came to England to instruct the English in their music. The most famous collection of these pieces is called “Musica transalpine” or Italian madrigals “Englished.”
The lute song also originated in Italy but was taken to new poetic heights by John Dowland and his compatriots.
The English composers did create a unique style of sacred music with William Byrd (below top) and Thomas Tallis (below bottom) as the greatest of these Elizabethan composers.
What music and composers of the era have been most neglected and least neglected by historians and performers? What big things should the public know about Elizabethan music?
PR: Audience members may be less familiar with the vocal and instrumental consort music of this era. Many of these pieces were not intended for public performance, but were played as home or parlor entertainment. The pieces were designed to be very flexible and could be played with a variety of voices and instruments.
The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (below) with her active encouragement of the arts was a peak of artistic achievement in the long history of the British Empire. Music, poetry, dance and theater all thrived for more than 20 years and produced some of the greatest masterworks of Western culture, including the plays of Shakespeare.
Can you tell us about the All-Festival concert program on Saturday night, July 16?
CBR: The All-Festival Concert will feature MEMF students and faculty performing a new program created exclusively for MEMF by Grant Herried (below), “Shakespeare’s Musical World: A Day in the Life of Elizabethan London.
The program is organized by times of the day with speeches from different plays of Shakespeare. Musical reflections include several wonderful pieces by Orlando Gibbons including “The Cries of London,” “O Come Let Us Sing Unto the Lord” and a setting of the “Magnificat” by Orlando Gibbons, “Music Divine” by Thomas Tomkins, a motet by Thomas Tallis, and other works by Thomas Weelkes, Thomas Morely, John Coperario and John Dowland.
Retired UW-Madison history professor John W. Barker will be giving the 6:30 p.m. pre-concert lecture on “Queen Elizabeth I: The Politician” in the Elvehjem Building of the Chazen Museum of Art.
Are there other sessions, guest lectures and certain performers or performances that you especially recommend for the general public?
PR: We would like to encourage everyone to see all the concerts and experience the entire week. It’s like stepping back in time to a different era—a living history lesson complete with an authentic sound track.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
CBR and PR: Check out our website for more details about everything. There is a lot to hear, see, and experience! You can purchase tickets: online; at the Vilas Hall Box Office; at the Wisconsin Union Theater Box Office (Memorial Union); by calling 608-265-ARTS (2787); or the door. For more information about the MEMF concert series and workshop, please visit our website: http://www.madisonearlymusic.org
Tags: Anthony Holborne, Arts, Bard, British empire, Cello, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Concert, dance, drama, Early music, Elizabethan, empire, England, English, festival, France, Grant Herreid, History, Home, instrumental, Italiam, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, John Coperario, John Dowland, John W. Barker, lecture, London, lute, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, madrigal, Magnificat, motet, Music, opera, Orlando Gibbons, Overture Center, parlor, play, poem, Poetry, Queen Elizabeth I, song, Spain, theater, Thomas Morely, Thomas Tallis, Thomas Weelkes, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Western culture, William Byrd, William Shakespeare, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 