The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: A busy week at the UW spotlights choral and vocal music with some wind, brass and guitar music included
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By Jacob Stockinger
It’s going to be a busy week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.
And especially if you are a fan of choral music, there is much to attract you.
Here is run-down by the day:
TODAY
At 3 p.m. in Mills Hall is a FREE concert of Combined Choirs that features the Women’s Chorus (below), the University Chorus and the Masters Singers.
Sorry, no word about the program, but the groups’ past record suggests excellent programs are in store.
TUESDAY
From noon to 1:30 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, William Buchman (below), who is assistant principal bassoon of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a faculty member at DePaul University in Chicago, will give a master class that is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
At 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall on Bascom Hill, University Opera a FREE Fall Opera Scenes program with UW student singers (below form last year).
Featured are excerpts from four operas and one Broadway musical: “The Marriage of Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; “Orpheus in the Underworld” by Jacques Offenbach; “Der Freischuetz” (The Marksman or Freeshooter) by Carl Maria von Weber; and “Carousel” by Rodgers and Hammerstein,
WEDNESDAY
At 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below, in a photo by Michael R. Anderson) will give a FREE concert.
Members of the faculty ensemble are Alex Noppe and Matthew Onstad, trumpets; Mark Hetzler, trombone; Tom Curry, tuba; and Daniel Grabois, horn.
The program includes: Johann Schein: Three Psalm Settings; Peter Maxwell Davies, arr. Matthew Onstad: “Farewell to Stromness” (1980), from The Yellow Cake Review; Jan Radzynski: Take Five (1984); Gunther Schuller’s Music for Brass Quintet (1961); and Alvin Etler’s Quintet for Brass Instruments (1966).
For more information, go to http://www.wisconsinbrassquintet.com
THURSDAY
From 10 a.m. until noon in Morphy Recital Hall, the acclaimed Grammy Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin (below), who will perform with the Madison Symphony Orchestra this coming weekend, will give a FREE master class that is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
FRIDAY
At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Madrigal Singers (below top), under conductor Bruce Gladstone (below bottom, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), will present Part 2 of “Israelsbrünnlein” (Fountains of Israel) by the Baroque composer Johann Hermann Schein.
According to program notes, “Johann Hermann Schein’s collection of 26 motets from 1623 has long been considered the most important set of motets in the early 17th century. Schein (below), frustrated that there wasn’t a true counterpart of the Italian madrigal to be found in German music, set out to marry the expressiveness of the madrigal to German texts.
“In this case, he chose to set sacred and mostly biblical texts, rather than the secular poetry found in most madrigals. His set of spiritual madrigals display both moments of pure joy and exultation as well as heartbreaking sadness and longing.
“Last fall, the Madrigal Singers presented the first 13 of these motets, and this fall, we finish out the collection with motets 14-26.
“This music is incredibly moving and remarkably fresh, revealing a marked sensitivity to the texts and a mastery of musical expression.” (You can hear a sample in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
SATURDAY
At 8 p.m., in Luther Memorial Church (below), 1021 University Avenue, the Low Brass Ensemble will give a FREE recital. No word on composers or pieces on the program.
At 8 p.m. in Mils Hall, the group Chorale, under conductor Bruce Gladstone will present “Songs to Live By.”
Programs notes read: “Music has always had a way to touch our souls the way other things cannot. When paired with poetry that speaks honestly to the human condition, it can lift us out of the merely abstract, touching our souls and offering insight on how we can be better at being human and humane.
“The Chorale offers a choral song-cycle by composer Gwyneth Walker (below) on autobiographical poems by Virginia Hamilton Adair, as well as three works by Elizabeth Alexander: “How to Sing Like a Planet”; “If You Can Walk You Can Dance”; and “Finally On My Way To Yes.”
“Also on the program is Joshua Shank’s “Rules To Live By,” a heartfelt and moving piece whose text was written by the commissioning ensemble.
SUNDAY
At 5 p.m., in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison Wind Ensemble (below top) and Winds of Wisconsin will give a FREE joint concert.
Scott Teeple will conduct with guest violinist, Professor Soh-Hyun Altino (below bottom, in a photo by Caroline Bittencourt) soloing.
Here is the program:
UW-Madison Wind Ensemble:
“Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, #2,” by Joan Tower
Concerto for Violin and Wind Ensemble, by Robert Hutchinson with the violinist Park Altino
Winds of Wisconsin:
“Chester Overture for Band,” by William Schuman
“A Child’s Embrace” by Charles Rochester Young
“Vesuvius,” by Frank Ticheli
Combined UW Wind Ensemble and Winds of Wisconsin:
“Folk Dances,” by Dmitri Shostakovich
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Classical music: What is your favorite piece of music to greet Spring with? Plus, British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies has died at 81
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SURVEY: This is the first day of Spring. The vernal equinox just arrived here in Madison, Wisconsin and the Midwest about a half-hour ago, on Saturday, March 19, at 11:30 p.m. CDT.
What is your favorite piece of music to greet the season with? Antonio Vivaldi‘s “Four Seasons”? Robert Schumann‘s Symphony No. 1 “Spring”? A miniature piano piece by Felix Mendelssohn or Edvard Grieg? A song by Franz Schubert? Leave word in the COMMENT section, with a link to a YouTube performance if that is possible.
Here is a link to a similar post from 2011:
The Ear especially loves the “Spring” Sonata for Violin and Piano by Ludwig van Beethoven. Here is a link to a YouTube video with the first movement played by pianist Arthur Rubinstein and violinist Henryk Szeryng.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAcWGVC4Nqc
By Jacob Stockinger
He was a contrarian who was widely accepted and valued.
He was an iconoclast who achieved the height of respectability when Queen Elizabeth II of England named him to an honorary knighthood.
And he was an eclectic composer, whose style could be charmingly simple, melodic and tonal, or knottily atonal, difficult and complex.
The British composer and conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (pronounced Davis, below) died this past week at his island home off the coast of Scotland. He was 81 and had been ill with leukemia. (You can hear his “An Orkney Wedding With Sunrise” in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The year is early yet, but it has not been a kind one to classical music. We have already lost the avant-garde French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, the German-Austrian conductor and early music pioneer Nikolaus Harnoncourt and now Davies.
Here are obituaries about Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with video and audio clips:
From BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35802564
From the Deceptive Cadence blog on NPR (National Public Radio):
From the New York Times:
From The Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/14/sir-peter-maxwell-davies-obituary
And from Classical-music.com:
http://www.classical-music.com/news/sir-peter-maxwell-davies-dies-aged-81
Tags: art song, Arthur Rubinstein, Arts, BBC, BBC News, Beethoven, British, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, composer, England, English, Fours Seasons, Grieg, Henryk Szerying, Jacob Stockinger, lieder, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mendelssohn, Midwest, Music, New York Times, NPR, Orchestra, Orkney, Peter Maxwell Davies, Piano, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth II, royal family, Schubert, Scotland, Sonata, song, Spring, Spring sonata, sunrise, The Guardian, The New York Times, United Kingdom, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vernal equinox, Violin, Vivaldi, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Edgewood College will offer a mixed faculty concert on this Sunday afternoon. Plus, the First Unitarian Society’s music director Dan Broner performs piano music by Rachmaninoff and Kabalevsky in a FREE recital at noon on Friday.
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ALERT: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale, to be held from 12:15 to 1 p.m. in the Landmark Auditorium of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive, will feature pianist and FUS music director Dan Broner (below) performing music by Sergei Rachmaninoff (Preludes, Op. 32, Nos. 10 and 12) and Dmitri Kabalevsky (Sonata No. 3).
By Jacob Stockinger
This coming Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., four Edgewood College music faculty members will present “A Little of This, A Little of That.” It is a collaborative recital of solo works and chamber works.
The concert will take place in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive on the Edgewood campus.
The event features mezzo-soprano Kathleen Otterson (below top), guitarist Nathan Wysock (below middle), saxophonist Daniel Wallach, and violinist Laura Burns (below bottom), along with staff pianist Susan Goeres. Special guest performers include Michael Allen, cello, Aaron Johnson, piano, Jacob Richie, bass, Gregory Hinz, percussion, and Michelle Wallach, soprano.
Included on the program are “Mountain Songs” by Robert Beaser, which, features Burns and Wysock and excerpts of which you can hear in a YouTube video at the bottom; arias by George Frideric Handel performed by Otterson, Burns, Goeres and Allen; “Lunar Beauty” by Geoffrey Burgon, which features Otterson and Wysock; a jazz set performed by Wallach. The program concludes with an ensemble performance of Renaissance Scottish Dances by Peter Maxwell Davies.
Admission is $7, and will benefit music scholarships; FREE with an Edgewood College ID.
Tags: Arts, Baroque, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Early music, Edgewood College, Frank Lloyd Wright, Geoffrey Burgon, George Frideric Handel, Jacob Stockinger, Kabalevsky, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Music, opera, Peter Maxwell Davies, Piano, Prelude, Preludes, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Robert Beaser, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sonata, song, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Which one of five trains will you ride into the upcoming super-wreck on this Sunday afternoon?
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By Jacob Stockinger
There are “train wrecks,” as the Wise Critic likes to call competing or conflicting music events.
And then there are TRAIN WRECKS!!!!!!!!!
Take the afternoon of this upcoming Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014.
The best The Ear can figure, you have a choice of five trains to ride into the wreck, possibly two if you plan really carefully and everything — including the length of concerts, transportation time and the availability of parking — falls into place.
There are just too many events and too few weekdays to do separate blog posts on all of them. Besides, it will probably be helpful for scheduling –- if discouraging –- to see them all listed together.
A-l-l-l-l aboard:
Here, in timetable order, we go:
PRO ARTE STRING QUARTET
The Pro Arte Quartet (below top, in photo by Rick Langer), which is wrapping up its centennial anniversary and six centennial commissions with a gala FREE world premiere concert and dessert reception at the Wisconsin Union Theater on this Friday night at 8 p.m., will repeat the program in a FREE concert at the Chazen Museum of Art on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in the Brittingham Gallery No. 3 (below middle). It will be streamed live by Audio for the Arts. Go to www.chazen.wisc.edu on the day of the concert for a link.
The program includes the world premiere of the Clarinet Quintet “Howl” (based on the Beat poem by Allen Ginsberg) by American composer Pierre Jalbert (below bottom) by as well as String Quartet No. 2 in A Major (1824) by Spanish composer Juan Crisostomo Arriaga and the gorgeous Clarinet Quintet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Here is a link: http://proartequartet.org
Originally scheduled for Friday, Sept. 26, the Ancora Quartet (below top, in a photo by Barry Lewis), with guest violinist Wes Luke (below bottom, in a photo by Barry Lewis) filling in for Leanne League. The three regular quartet members are, from left, violinist Robin Ryan, violist Marika Fischer Hoyt and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb.
They will instead perform the Ancora’s opening concert of the season on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the Landmark Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society where the quartet has been artists-in-residence. The program includes the “Sun” Quartet, Op. 20, No. 4, by Franz Joseph Haydn; the one-movement Quartet for Strings by Amy Beach, which uses Inuit tunes; and the final String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80, composed by Felix Mendelssohn in honor of the death of his beloved sister Fanny. A champagne reception is included. Tickets at the door are $15; $12 for seniors; and $6 for children under 12.
Other performances of this program will take place on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at Eaton Chapel on the Beloit College campus, and on Sunday, Oct. 26, at 4 p.m. at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Fort Atkinson. In addition, the quartet has added the following dates: Monday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. at Oakwood Village West on Madison’s far west side at 6902 Mineral point Road, with FREE admission, followed by a Meet & Greet with the musicians; and on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the Loras College Visitation Center: Gallagher Hall, in Dubuque, Iowa.
UW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND SOPRANO ELIZABETH HAGEDORN
At 2 p.m. in Mills Hall, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Symphony Orchestra (below top, in photo by John W. Barker) with guest UW-Madison professor soprano Elizabeth Hagedorn (below middle) and conductor James Smith (below bottom) will perform a FREE concert.
The program includes the “Totenfeier” (Funeral Rites) music (the first draft of the First Movement from the Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”; and the “Rueckert Lieder,” both by Gustav Mahler; and also the Symphony No. 1 “Spring” by Robert Schumann.
EDGEWOOD COLLEGE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
At 2:30 p.m. in the St. Joseph Chapel, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, at Edgewood College, the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra (below top, in an old poster), conducted by Blake Walter (below bottom, in a photo by John Maniaci), will perform the “Ojai Festival Overture” by Peter Maxwell Davies, “Historic Scenes,” Op. 66, by Jean Sibelius and Symphony No. 53 in D Major “Imperiale” by Franz Joseph Haydn. Tickers are $5 at the door, free with an Edgewood College ID.
SOPRANO CHELSEA MORRIS AND FORTEPIANIST TREVOR STEPHENSON
At 3 p.m. in Christ Presbyterian Church, 944 East Gorham Street, there will be a voice concert and CD-release party with soprano Chelsea Morris and fortepianist Trevor Stephenson (both are below), the founder and leader of the Madison Bach Musicians, to celebrate the release of their new CD of songs by Mozart, Haydn and Franz Schubert. This past summer, Morris won top spot in the second annual Handel Aria Competition during the Madison Early Music Festival.
Trevor Stephenson will bring his 5-octave, 18th-century German fortepiano to accompany Ms. Morris and he also will play solo fortepiano works by Mozart and Beethoven.
He will give a brief talk about the Classical style and discuss how the fortepiano creates a thrilling sense of theatrical immediacy in the music of the 18th-century masters. Selections on the concert from Morris and Stephenson’s new CD: Songs by Mozart, Haydn & Schubert. A CD autograph signing will be held after the concert.
http://madisonbachmusicians.org
OVERTURE CENTER ANNIVERSARY
At 3:30 p.m. in the Overture Center for the Arts, “American Kaleidoscope,” the second performance of a multi-performing arts celebration of the Overture Center’s 10th anniversary, will take place, continuing from the all-day festival on Saturday.
All the resident performing arts companies — including the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Opera, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society — will do a second performance (the first is Saturday night). Here is a link:
http://www.overturecenter.org/about/news/1016-you—ve-never-seen-a-concert-like-this-sep-12-2014
Tags: Allen Ginsberg, Amy Beach, Ancora String Quartet, Arriaga, Arts, Beat generation, Beat poetry, Blake Walter, Chamber music, chamber orchestra, Chazen Museum of Art, Chelsea Morris, Clarinet Quintet, Classical music, Compact Disc, Eaton Chapel, Edgewood Chamber Orchestra, Edgewood College, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Handel, Handel Aria Competition, Haydn, Howl, Jacob Stockinger, Joseph Haydn, Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mahler, Mozart, Music, Orchestra, Overture Center, Peter Maxwell Davies, Pierre Jalbert, Poetry, Pro Arte Quartet, Rückert-Lieder, Resurrection, Robert Schumann, Sibelius, String quartet, Sunday, symphony, Trevor Stephenson, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Classical music education: You can hear for yourself how University of Wisconsin music students have improved by going to the UW Chamber Orchestra’s FREE opening concert of Maxwell-Davies, Ravel and Schubert on Saturday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
To those of us who have been in Madison a while, the difference is obvious to hear.
The University of Wisconsin student orchestras – the UW Symphony Orchestra and the UW Chamber Orchestra – have always been good. But over the years they only seem to have gotten better. The same can be said, I think, for solo pianists, chamber musicians and singers.
It seems to The Ear that the UW is recruiting more accomplished musicians. Is that due to the reputation for the UW School of Music? To better teachers and teaching methods in the lower grades? To more appreciation for the performing arts at home, in school and in society? I honestly don’t know.
I suppose if I had access to academic transcripts and admission audition notes, I would know for sure.
But the most recent proof I had was last Sunday, when I heard the UW Symphony Orchestra (below) perform an outstanding program of Messiaen, Berg and Berlioz.
In the late “Smile for Orchestra” by Olivier Messiaen (below), they showed off their ability to create color, follow complex rhythms and follow abrupt and extreme shifts in dynamics.
In the late Romantic (not atonal) “Seven Early Songs’ by Alban Berg (below) – which featured the outstanding faculty soprano Julia Faulkner as a soloist, although unfortunately she went unannounced in pre-concert publicity – the orchestra proved a fine accompanist.
True, some of the songs seemed unbalanced and the singer was a bit drowned out. Was that the resonant hall? The fact that Faulkner (below center), who possesses a big and beautiful voice, sang sitting down? The large size of the orchestra? It’s impossible for me to say, but I did want to hear more of the singing.
Then came the landmark “Symphonie Fantastique” — a long and difficult but seminal and programmatic Romantic work by Hector Berlioz (below) that is much like Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra in that if puts the spotlight on all sections. In one, it was the percussion and brass; in another the winds and strings, and so forth. All passed with honors.
So congratulations to conductor James Smith (below) and his players.
If you missed that concert, you have another chance to hear Smith with student players tomorrow, on Saturday night, when at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Chamber Orchestra (below) performs under James Smith its first concert of the 2012-13 season.
The concert is an appealing one; Smith always chooses an eclectic program. It features 19th and 20th century music: the “Ojai Festival Overture, J. 305” by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies; “Ma Mere L’Oye” (“Mother Goose” Suite) by Maurice Ravel; and Symphony No. 6 in C major, D. 589, by Franz Schubert (at bottom).
The concert is FREE.
Parking might be a problem, especially on a football day. But I have been told by the UW Parking Authority that there is some inevitable confusion because the UW system is moving to automated gates with pay machines rather than human cashiers.
The bottom line, they said, was that if the gate arm is open to let you in for nothing, you will be able to leave – and not be ticketed or towed. All day Sunday is FREE parking in nearby Grainger Hall, they said.
We will see.
Be sure to let The Ear know about your Adventures and Misadventures in UW Parking Land.
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