The Well-Tempered Ear
Yunchan Lim’s Chopin etudes are the best ever
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you haven’t yet heard the new bestselling recording of Chopin’s etudes by pianist Yunchan Lim (below), what are you waiting for? It is a new treat each time you listen to it — as The Ear has many times.
When it comes to piano etudes, which is the higher Everest: Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes or Chopin’s two sets of Etudes.
To the Ear, etudes by Liszt (below) are flashier and revel more in sheer physical technique, while Chopin’s significantly shorter etudes — no less technically challenging or difficult — are deeper and revel more in music that serves specific techniques such as octaves, double-thirds, sixths, arpeggios and so forth.
To The Ear, Chopin (below) is clearly a superior creator of piano etudes, and is more ingenious at integrating music into the technical challenges.
I have listened to wonderful recordings of all the Chopin etudes by Maurizio Pollini, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Claudio Arrau, Louis Lortie, Garrick Ohlsson, Murray Perahia, Jan Lisiecki and others.
I don’t think any pianist would even think about recording all the treacherous etudes without proving that they have mastered them. So, unsurprisingly, all the sets are good. Very good. And you might even find individual etudes that outdo Lim.
But as a complete set, Lim’s is better.
Simply put, to these ears, Lim’s set is the best ever.
That is no small achievement for the 20-year-old, mop-haired South Korean who in 2022 won the last Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at 18 and has since gone on to have a meteoric global career.
He has already been recorded live playing his prize-winning performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (found on YouTube) and of all of Liszt’s 12 Transcendental Etudes (on the Steinway label).
But the Chopin etudes are his first studio recordings for Decca, which has signed Lim as an exclusive artist.
And what a debut it is.
Lim is a natural. He makes whatever he plays sound as if that is exactly how it is supposed to be played. He reminds me of what Zubin Mehta once said: “If you want to hear how a piece should sound, listen to Rubinstein.”
Same goes for Lim.
Lim finds new things in the scores, but they never sound distorted or forced. Listen to the left-hand voices, selections of tempi, shading, volume control and tone. At all times Lim makes the technical challenges he has mastered serve the music.
In the YouTube video at the bottom, just listen to his sensitive reading, with transparency and sublimely subtle rubato, of the famous “Tristesse” Etude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3, in E major, which Chopin viewed as one his very best melodies.
Chopin would approve.
My only disappointment is minor. Advance publicity said the recording would be comprehensive and include the less virtuosic but very poetic “Three New Etudes” that were published posthumously — just like Arrau’s and Lortie’s recordings do. But no such luck. We fans will just have to wait for another disc.
The Ear sure hopes that Madison audiences soon get the chances to hear Yunchan Lim live in both recitals and concertos.
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Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s new CD and Friday night concert champion racial diversity
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By Jacob Stockinger
“Musical Landscapes in Color” is a five-year initiative by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra with its award-winning, composer-in-residence Dr. William Banfield (below), who has produced a body of work in the past 25 years that includes music, books, teaching and creative work that contributes to contemporary arts leadership.
The cultural undertaking aims to elevate the voices of an array of living, diverse composers of color throughout the United States. The project represents a significant step towards diversifying the classical music landscape through compositions and audiences, according to the WCO.
The first of several installments (below) — “Harmony in Black” — has just been released by Albany Records.
The album is available in a physical format and for digital streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube, where you can sample it at the bottom.
Performed and recorded live on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, it features excerpts from three compositions: one by four-time Grammy nominee Patrice Rushen entitled “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory”; and two by renowned composer Banfield entitled “Testimony of Tone, Tune, and Time” and “Symphony No. 8: Here I Stand.”
Their three compositions do not quote spiritual melodies directly, but do embody the spirit of those songs by drawing either on direct quotations of speeches or writings.
Multi-Grammy-nominated artist Patrice Rushen (below) is admired by many for her groundbreaking achievements including serving as Musical Director for the 46th, 47th and 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
CONTENTS:
Patrice Rushen: Movement 1: ”Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”
Dr. William Banfield: (starting at 8:10): “Testimony of Tone, Tune and Time” — Symphony No. 8
Performers are: retired City of Madison, Dane County and State of Wisconsin Judge Paul Higginbotham (below) as the narrator; saxophonist Matthew Sintchak; and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under conductor and music director Andrew Sewell.
For more background, including a release reception, go to a story in Madison 365:
A WORLD PREMIERE THIS FRIDAY NIGHT
The project continues with a concert that takes place this Friday night, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center features the WORLD PREMIERE of Banfield’s Symphony No. 14 “Revelation.”
Guest artists include the Madison Youth Choirs, the Festival Choir of Madison and the Edgewood College Chamber Singers. Soloists include soprano Angela Brown, tenor Ben Johnson and baritone William Volmar.
Opening the 90-minute concert is Symphony No. 1 in G major, Op. 4 (1901) by British composer Edwin York Bowen, whose music shows influences of Rachmaninov, Chopin and Tchaikovsky.
Tickets are still available and cost $34.50, $75 and $95. For more information and tickets, go to: https://wcoconcerts.org/
Have you heard Banfield’s music?
What do you think of it?
The Ear wants to hear.
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This ‘body percussion” version of Beethoven will make your day!
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is something that easily outdoes Bavarian thigh-slapping in Lederhosen!
It features 157 school children playing the opening theme of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony using “body percussion.”
That is, they use their hands, feet, knees and chests with various pressures and degrees of loudness, rhythm, speed and dynamics.
It is a performance practice and method of music education that has roots in folk music.
It was performed in 2020 — hence the covid masks — and was recently posted on Instagram by ClassicFM.
Here is a fuller definition from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_percussion
The kids are amazing. They are so synchronized and precise.
It took five months of practicing and rehearsing, so the persistent music teacher who organized and executed this must be amazing too.
It all seems very French in its combination of the physical and the emotional.
Take a look and listen. Here is a link to the one-minute video:
Does anybody else wonder if an American parent might have protested or even filed a lawsuit alleging inappropriate touching by classmates?
What do you think of this “body percussion” Beethoven?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: What music is helping you get through the Coronavirus by staying home? Help create a Pandemic Playlist
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By Jacob Stockinger
Starting today, Wisconsin joins other states and countries in proclaiming a stay-at-home emergency condition to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
That means non-essential businesses and schools are closed; restaurants can only deliver food and do pick-up; and residents must stay at home except for essential services and travel such as buying food, seeing a doctor and getting medicine.
For a couple of weeks, many of us have already been spending almost all our time hunkering down at home.
And the Internet and other mass media are full of helpful hints about how to handle the loneliness, fear and anxiety that can come with self-isolation and self-quarantining.
For many, music proves a reliable coping strategy.
Since there are no live concerts to preview or review, now seems like a good time for The Ear to ask readers: What music helps you deal with the isolation of staying at home?
Is listening to music a part of your daily schedule, structure or routine?
Maybe you are using the time to discover new music or neglected composers, works and performers.
Maybe you are using the time to revisit old favorites by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.
Maybe you prefer darker and deeper, more introverted works such as symphonies by Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich?
Maybe you prefer the stories and drama of operas by Verdi and Puccini, oratorios by Handel and songs by Schubert?
Maybe, like The Ear, you find the music of Baroque Italian composers, such as the violin concertos by Vivaldi and Corelli, to be a great, upbeat way to start the day with energy and a good mood.
One more modern but neo-classical work that The Ear likes to turn to — a work that is rarely heard or performed live – is the beautiful “Eclogue” for piano and strings by the 20th-century British composer Gerald Finzi (below).
Finzi wrote it as a slow movement to a piano concerto, but then never finished the concerto. The “Eclogue” — a short pastoral poem — was never performed in his lifetime. So it continues to stand alone.
But like so much English pastoral music, the poignant Eclogue feels like sonic balm, some restorative comfort that can transport you to a calmer and quieter place, put you in a mood that you find soothing rather than agitated.
Hear it for yourself and decide by listening to it in the YouTube video at the bottom, then let The Ear know what you think.
Perhaps you have many other pieces to suggest for the same purpose.
But the series of reader suggestions is meant to be ongoing.
The idea is to build a collective “Pandemic Playlist.”
So right now and for this time, please post just ONE suggestion – with a YouTube link, if possible — in the Comment section with perhaps what you like about it and why it works for you during this time of physical, psychological and emotional distress from COVID-19.
What do you think of the idea of creating a Pandemic Playlist?
The Ear hopes that you like his choice, and that he and other readers like yours.
Be well and stay well.
Let’s get through this together.
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Classical music: The Madison Opera performs Verdi’s popular “La Traviata” this Friday night and Sunday afternoon in Overture Hall
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, the Madison Opera opens its 59th season with a traditional production of Verdi’s “La Traviata” (The Lost One), one of the most popular operas in history.
According to the website www.operasense.com — specifically at https://www.operasense.com/most-popular-operas/ — it has been the most performed opera in the world, beating out such perennial favorites as Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Puccini’s “La Boheme” and “Madama Butterfly,” and Bizet’s “Carmen.” (Below are photos by Matthew Staver from the production by Opera Colorado in Denver, which features the same sets and costumes that will be used in the production by Madison Opera.)
Performances in Overture Hall are this Friday night, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, Nov. 3 at 2:30 p.m. The opera will be sung in Italian with projected supertitles in English. The running time, with two intermissions, is 2 hours and 45 minutes.
PRE-OPERA TALKS are on Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Studio of the Overture Center. One hour prior to performances, general director Kathryn Smith will give an entertaining and informative talk about “La Traviata.” The talks are free to ticket holders.
POST-OPERA Q&A’s are on Friday and Sunday and will also take place in the Wisconsin Studio of the Overture Center. Audience members can join general director Kathryn Smith immediately after the performance to ask questions about what they have just seen. The sessions are free to ticket holders.
Tickets are $18-$135 with student and group discounts available. For information about tickets, the production and the cast, go to: https://www.madisonopera.org
Set in mid-19th century Paris, “La Traviata” tells of Violetta, a courtesan who tries to follow her heart. But societal pressures force her to leave the man she loves, and an incurable illness takes care of the rest.
Glittering parties contrast with quiet desperation, and ravishing music underscores all-consuming emotions.
“Only a few operas ever achieve a truly beloved status — and “La Traviata” is one of them,” says Kathryn Smith (below, in a photo by James Gill). For being over 150 years old, its story is quite modern: a young woman trying to overcome the limitations that society has placed on her because of her class and gender, searching for happiness yet willing to make sacrifices.
“Plus it is full of very famous music, from the ‘Brindisi’ to ‘Sempre Libera’ and more,” Smith adds. “It’s always a pleasure to have a new generation discover this work, and to share it with opera omnivores who know it well.” (You can hear Renée Fleming sing Violetta’s signature aria “Sempre libera” (Always Free) at the Royal Opera House in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“La Traviata” is based on the play and novel “La Dame aux Camélias” (The Lady of the Camellias) by Alexandre Dumas the son (below top), which were in turn based on his real-life relationship with the courtesan Marie Duplessis (below bottom), who died in 1847 of consumption.
The play was an instant hit when it premiered in Paris in 1852, and Verdi (below) turned it into an opera the following year.
While the first production of the opera was not a success, due to the poor singing of two cast members and the physical unsuitability of one singer, its second production was acclaimed, and the opera swiftly became one of the most performed operas in the world, a status it has not lost.
Both the opera and the play have inspired countless films, including “Camille” (with Greta Garbo), “Pretty Woman” (with Julia Roberts) and “Moulin Rouge” (with Nicole Kidman).
Madison Opera’s artistic director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) says: “”La Traviata” has been a part of my artistic life since the very beginning of my career – it’s one of the reasons I so wanted to conduct opera. The heartfelt and tragic story of a love that was cut short by both health and cultural circumstances is still deeply moving today.
“The role of Violetta is a tour-de-force that ranges from high-flying coloratura to dramatic vocalism, with a strongly-etched character. I love this opera so deeply and look forward to conducting it for our audience.”
Returning to Madison Opera as Violetta is Cecilia Violetta Lopez (she played Carmen in Madison), whom The Washington Post reviewer called “as compelling a Violetta as I’ve seen.”
Mackenzie Whitney (below, who appeared in “Florencia en el Amazonas” for the Madison Opera) returns as Alfredo, the young man for whom she sacrifices everything.
Weston Hurt (below) debuts with Madison Opera as Alfredo’s father Germont, whose disapproval of his son’s relationship with Violetta has tragic consequences.
Madison Opera’s Studio Artists are featured: Kirsten Larson as Flora, Emily Secor as Annina, Benjamin Hopkins as Gastone, and Stephen Hobe as the Marquis d’Obigny.
Rounding out the cast are Benjamin Sieverding (Romeo and Juliet) as Dr. Grenvil and Benjamin Major in his Madison Opera debut as Baron Douphol.
Fenton Lamb (below) directs this traditional production in her Madison Opera debut.
Maestro John DeMain conducts the singers, the Madison Opera Chorus and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The Madison Opera’s production of “La Traviata” is sponsored by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, Bert and Diane Adams, Carla and Fernando Alvarado, Chun Lin, Patricia and Stephen Lucas, Millie and Marshall Osborn, Kato and David Perlman, the Wallach Family, Helen Wineke, Capitol Lakes, and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
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Classical music: Organist Greg Zelek, of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, will give a FREE celebratory recital at First United Methodist Church this coming Tuesday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement to post:
“Greg Zelek (below), the new principal organist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Curator of the Overture Concert Organ and Series, will present a FREE public organ recital on this coming Tuesday night, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 203 Wisconsin Avenue, in downtown Madison.
“The evening’s program of masterpieces includes: the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, by Johann Sebastian Bach; the Organ Sonata in F minor, Op. 65, No. 1, by Felix Mendelssohn; the Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543, by J.S. Bach (heard performed by Zelek in the YouTube video at the bottom); and the Organ Sonata in D minor, Op. 42, No. 1, by Alexandre Guilmant.
“A public reception follows the recital where people can share their thoughts about the program and meet the artist.
“Zelek says he relishes the creative aspect of playing the organ. Because no two instruments are alike, every time he sits down at a new console he reinvents the repertoire that he has played thousands of times for that specific instrument and that specific space.
“Zelek adds: “It gives me the opportunity to be as creative as possible when it comes to the selecting of different sounds and colors for each individual instrument and composition.”
“The First Church organ console (below top), as well as the one (below bottom) at the Overture Center, is in front of the audience, offering the organist opportunities to interact and engage with them.
“I speak to the audience in between pieces,” Zelek explains. “Having a greater understanding of the music sheds light onto its immense beauty and enhances the listener’s appreciation of the performance.
“The organ is also such a physical instrument. When the audience can see what the organist is doing, it draws everybody in. There is so much going on. It’s not just the hands and the feet, but also the different buttons we’re pushing and sounds we’re generating from the instrument. It is a full body workout when I play! The audience should never be bored.”
“Zelek’s recital is part of the 180th anniversary celebration of First United Methodist Church as well as the 25th anniversary of its Austin organ.
“Admission for the recital is FREE with donation envelopes available to support The Arts program at First Church. The church has a deep tradition in featuring varied musical offerings and provides much needed rehearsal and performing space for local music and performing arts groups.”
Tags: Alexander Guilmant, Alexandre Guilmant, anniversary, announcement, artist, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, beauty, buttons, church, Classical music, color, composer, Composition, console, creative, curator, donation, Early music, envelope, First United Methodist, free, fugue, George Frideric Handel, Greg Zelek, group, groups, individual, instrument, invent, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, local, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, masterpiece, Mendelssohn, Methodist, Music, musical offering, offering, opportunity, Orchestra, organ, organ music, Overture Center, People, performing, Performing arts, physical, Prelude, prinicpal, public, reception, recital, rehearsal, repertoire, series, Sound, space, symphony, thoughts, time, toccata, Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, tradition, understanding, united, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Here are two dramas behind the scenes in this weekend’s production of Mark Adamo’s “Little Women” by the Madison Opera
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Madison Opera will present its production of Mark Adamo’s popular contemporary chamber opera “Little Women” this weekend.
Performances are in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center on this Friday at 8 p.m. and on this Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets to the opera, based on Louisa May Alcott’s famous novel of the same name, run $21-$101. You can call the Overture Center box office at 608 258-4141.
For more information about the opera, tickets, the cast and the production, and the pre-performance lecture and post-performance Q&A, visit:
http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2015-2016/little_women/
But not all the drama involved with this production is visible on the stage.
One drama is the creative process of writing both the libretto and the music for the opera, which was Adamo’s first opera and which has seen some 65 productions around the world.
Longtime music critic and freelance writer Mike Muckian covers that quiet drama quite insightfully in the Wisconsin Gazette, where he published an interview with Mark Adamo (below). And Muckian even broke some news about Adamo co-writing a new opera with his spouse, acclaimed composer John Corigliano.
Here is a link:
http://www.wisconsingazette.com/on-stage/adamos-landmark-little-women-comes-to-madison-opera.html
The other drama concerns the conductor of the opera, Kyle Knox. Knox (below), who is a very experienced graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, has gone into conducting after physical problems forced him to give up his career as a clarinetist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
That story is covered exceptionally well in the UW-Madison music blog A Tempo by veteran journalist Katherine Esposito, who is also the concert manager and director of public relations for the UW-Madison School of Music.
Here is a link to that story:
https://uwmadisonschoolofmusic.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/kyle-knox-the-accidental-conductor/
The Ear will also post a Q&A with Mark Adamo. In the meantime, perhaps these behind-the-scenes dramas will whet your appetite for both the Q&A and the actual production.
Here is a YouTube video with an excerpt from “Little Women,” with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato singing the aria “Things Change, Jo”:
Tags: aria, Arts, choral music, clarinet, Classical music, composer, conductor, critic, focal dystonia, injury, Jacob Stockinger, John Corigliano, Joyce DiDonato, libretto, Little Women, Louise May Alcott, Madison, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mark Adamo, Mezzo-soprano, Music, New York City, news, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, physical, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, Wisconsin Gazette, YouTube
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