The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Who are the greatest classical composers? And how do you decide?
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ALERT: The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s holiday tradition of the “Community Carol Sing,” with organist Greg Zelek, is FREE and open to the public of all ages. It takes place in Overture Hall at 7 p.m. this Monday night, Nov. 26. No tickets or reservations are needed for the hour-long Carol Sing. For more information, including a list of the carols on the program, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/free-community-carol-sing/
By Jacob Stockinger
Who are the greatest composers of classical music?
Who are the most influential composers?
And which composer is the greatest of all time?
Just as important, how do you decide? How do you pick them and make your choice?
And finally, should such choices matter?
You could ask Anthony Tommasini (below), senior classical music critic for The New York Times — who came to the UW-Madison during the Pro Arte Quartet centennial several years ago and lectured in the Wisconsin Union Theater — who has just published a new book about those very questions.
The new book is “The Indispenable Composers: A Personal Guide” (below) and is published by Penguin Books. (It could make a nice holiday gift for a classical music fan.)
In a recent story, Tommasini – who readily admits to the project being very much a subjective game – discussed the process, which comes in the wake of his publishing a two-week project in 2011 when he named the 10 greatest composers of all time.
This time he uses (below, from left) Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven and Edvard Grieg as test cases for asking: Who is a great composer, and how do you know or decide what makes a composer great?
The Ear doesn’t agree with all the results, but he found it a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion, and figures you might too:
Here is a link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/arts/music/anthony-tommasini-classical-music.html
Read the overview story, and then leave word if you agree with Tommasini about the greatest of all composers. (A clue is in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Which composers would you include that he didn’t?
Who did he include whom you wouldn’t?
And let’s play along: Which composers would be on your own personal list of the Top 5 or Top 10 indispensable composers? And in what order?
Have fun!
And, pro or con, don’t be shy in saying what you think. The more controversial and stronger the opinion and the words, the better.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The FREE 39th Karp Family Labor Day concert is moved to TUESDAY night and features a world premiere
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from UW-Madison cellist Parry Karp (below) about the 39th Karp Family Labor Day Concert – which this year has been moved from Monday night to Tuesday night and aptly renamed as the first concert of the new season, the same purpose it has served since it began.
“On Tuesday — NOT Monday — we will perform our 39th Karp Family Opening Concert.
“Through the years we have always done our opening program the day before classes begin. For the past many years that has meant the program was on Labor Day. However this year classes start on Wednesday, so our program will be at 7:30 p.m. on this coming TUESDAY, Sept. 4, in Mills Concert Hall.
“Admission is FREE.
“Performers are: Suzanne Beia, violin; Alicia Lee, clarinet; Katrin Talbot, viola; Parry Karp, cello; Frances Karp and Christopher Karp, piano.
“The program is listed below.
“Continuing in our tradition of never repeating a piece, these are all new pieces for this series of concerts. The program includes the world premiere of Eric Nathan’s piece for Cello and Piano entitled “Missing Words III.” Some biographical information and an excerpt from a program note about the piece are below. We are very excited to play this program.”
For more information, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/39th-karp-family-opening-concert/
The program is:
Bohuslav Martinu (below): Quartet for Piano and Strings, H. 287 (1942)
Robert Kahn (below): Trio in G Minor for Piano, Clarinet and Violoncello (1906). Here is a link to Kahn’s Wikipedia biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kahn_(composer)
Eric Nathan (below): “Missing Words III” for Cello and Piano (2017) in its world premiere. Here is a link to Nathan’s home website: http://www.ericnathanmusic.com
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in F Major for Piano and Violin, Op. 24 “Spring” (1801-2), transcribed for Piano and Cello by Parry Karp
The music by Eric Nathan (b. 1983) has been called “as diverse as it is arresting” with a “constant vein of ingenuity and expressive depth” (San Francisco Chronicle), “thoughtful and inventive” (The New Yorker), and as moving “with bracing intensity and impeccable logic” (Boston Classical Review).
Nathan, a 2013 Rome Prize Fellow and 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, has garnered international acclaim.
EXCERPT FROM A PROGRAM NOTE BY ERIC NATHAN
“Missing Words III” (2017) is the third in an ongoing series of compositions composed in homage to Ben Schott’s book, Schottenfreude (Blue Rider Press/Penguin Group), a collection of newly created German words for the contemporary world.
The German language has the capability to create new words through the combination of shorter ones and can express complex concepts in a single word for which there is no direct translation in other languages. Such words include Schadenfreude, Doppelgänger and Wanderlust, and these have been adopted into use in English. With his new book, Ben Schott proposes new words missing from the English language that we can choose to adopt into our own vocabulary.”
“Missing Words III” was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, Parry and Christopher Karp (below). It follows two previous works in the “Missing Words” series, which were composed for the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble and the American Brass Quintet, respectively. (You can hear the composer and his “Missing Words” music in the YouTube video below.)
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