The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Legendary American cellist Lynn Harrell, who performed in Madison, is dead at 76
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By Jacob Stockinger
Legendary American cellist Lynn Harrell (below) died Monday at 76.
If his name sounds familiar, it could be because Harrell performed in Madison at least three times – twice with the Madison Symphony Orchestra (2007 and 2011), in concertos by Lalo and Victor Herbert, and a recital with pianist Yefim Bronfman at the Wisconsin Union Theater (1994).
No cause of death has yet been given, but various sources say it was unrelated to COVID-19 or the coronavirus pandemic.
To know more about his remarkable life and impressive career, go to his biography on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Harrell
Colleagues were quick to praise Harrell not only as a master musician – gifted with beautiful tone and sensitive, expressive interpretations — but also as a great teacher and a congenial man who made friends easily. He also cut promotional ads for National Public Radio (NPR) urging members to donate, as he himself did.
Here is an interview he did in 2011 with host Norman Gilliland for Wisconsin Public Radio:
https://www.wpr.org/shows/lynn-harrell
Here is a link to an obituary from The Violin Channel that features quotes from many musicians who admired Harrell:
https://theviolinchannel.com/cellist-lynn-harrell-has-passed-away-died-obituary-rip/
And here are tributes from many of his colleagues for British critic Norman Lebrecht’s blog “Slipped Disc”:
https://slippedisc.com/2020/04/lynn-harrell-tributes-pour-in/
A prodigy who made his Carnegie Hall debut at 17, Harrell, who studied at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute, was renowned internationally. He later taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
In 1994 he played a Papal Concert at the Vatican to mark the first commemoration and remembrance of the Holocaust. His performance there of Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei” for cello and orchestra can be seen and heard at the bottom in the most popular of Harrell’s many YouTube videos.
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Classical music: The fifth annual Schubertiade is this Sunday afternoon at the UW-Madison and will chronicle Franz Schubert’s short but prolific career year by year
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CORRECTION: The concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra this Friday night in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center starts at 7:30 p.m. — NOT at 7 as was incorrectly stated in an early version of yesterday’s posting and on Wisconsin Public Radio.
By Jacob Stockinger
On this Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., the fifth annual Schubertiade — celebrating the music of Franz Schubert (1797-1828, below) will take place in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
The informal and congenial mix of songs and chamber music in a relaxed on-stage setting and with fine performers is always an informative delight. And this year promises to be a special one. (Performance photos are from previous Schubertiades.)
Tickets are $15 for the general public, and $5 for students. Students, faculty and staff at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music get in for free.
A reception at the nearby University Club will follow the performance.
For more information about the event and about obtaining tickets, go to:
http://www.music.wisc.edu/event/schubertiade-with-martha-fischer-bill-lutes/
Pianist and singer Bill Lutes (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), who plans the event with his pianist-wife and UW-Madison professor Martha Fischer, explained the program and the reasoning behind it:
“This year’s Schubertiade is a program that could never have actually occurred during the composer’s lifetime. It is in fact a year-by-year sampling of Schubert’s music, spanning the full range of his all-too-brief career.
“As with our previous programs, we still focus on those genres which were most associated with the original Schubertiades (below, in a painting) – those informal social gatherings in the homes of Schubert’s friends and patrons, often with Schubert himself presiding at the piano, where performances of the composer’s lieder, piano music, especially piano duets, and vocal chamber music intermingled with poetry readings, dancing, games and general carousing.
“Our hope on this occasion is to present the development of Schubert’s unique art in much the same way we might view a special museum exhibition that displays the lifetime achievements of a great visual artist.
“Thus we will follow Schubert from his earliest work, heavily influenced by Haydn and Mozart, and his studies with Antonio Salieri, to the amazing “breakthrough” settings of Goethe’s poems in 1814 and 1815, and on to the rich procession of songs and chamber music from his final decade. (Below is a pencil drawing by Leopold Kupelwieser of Schubert at 14.)
As always we have chosen a number of Schubert’s best-known and loved favorites, along side of lesser-known, but equally beautiful gems.
We are also particularly delighted to work with a large number of School of Music students and faculty, as well as our featured guest, mezzo-soprano Rachel Wood (below), who teaches at the UW-Whitewater.
(D. numbers refer to the chronological catalogue of Schubert’s work by Otto Erich Deutsch, first published in 1951, and revised in 1978.)
SCHUBERTIADE 2018 – Schubert Year by Year: Lieder, Chamber Music and Piano Duets by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
PERFORMERS
Rachel Wood (RW)
Katie Anderson (KA), Matthew Chastain (MC), James Doing (JD), Wesley Dunnagan (WD), Talia Engstrom (TE), Mimmi Fulmer (MFulmer), Benjamin Liupiaogo (BL), Claire Powling (CP), Cheryl Rowe (CR), Paul Rowe (PF), singers
The Hunt Quartet, Chang-En Lu, Vincius Sant Ana, Blakeley Menghini, Kyle Price (HQ)
Parry Karp, cello (PK)
Bill Lutes (BL) and Martha Fischer (MF), pianists (below)
PROGRAM
1811 Fantasie in G minor, D. 9 (MF, BL)
1812 Klaglied, D. 23 (Lament )– Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (MF, BL)
Die Advokaten, D. 37 (The Lawyers, comic trio) after Anton Fischer) (PR,BL, WD, MF)
1813 Verklärung, D. 59 Transfiguration – Alexander Pope (RW, BL)
1814 Adelaide, D. 95 – Friedrich von Matthisson (WD, MF)
Der Geistertanz, D. 116 The Ghost Dance – Matthisson (MC, BL)
Gretchen am Spinnrade, D. 118 Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel – Goethe (CP, MF)
1815 Wanderers Nachtlied I, D. 224 Wanderer’s Nightsong – Goethe (MF, BL)
Erlkönig, D. 328 The Erl-king – Goethe (TE, MC, WD, CP, MF, BL)
1816 Sonata for violin and piano in D Major, D. 384 (PK, below, BL)
Allegro, Andante, Allegro vivace
1817 Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531 Death and the Maiden – Matthias Claudius (RW, MF)
Erlafsee, D. 586 Lake Erlaff – Johann Mayrhofer (CR, BL)
Der Strom, D. 565 The River – anon. (PR, MF)
1818 Deutscher with 2 Trios in G (MF, BL)
Singübungen, D. 619 Singing Exercises (CP, TE, BL)
Intermission
1819 Die Gebüsche, D. 646 The Thicket – Friedrich von Schlegel (RW, BL)
1820 String Quartet #12 in C Minor “Quartetsatz” (HQ)
1821 Geheimes, D. 719 A Secret – Goethe (TE, MF)
1822 Des Tages Weihe, D. 763 Consecration of the Day (KA, MF, WD, MC,BL)
1823 Drang in die Ferne, D. 770 The Urge to Roam – K.G. von Leitner (MC,BL)
from Die Schöne Müllerin, Mein, D. 795 Mine – W. Müller (WD, MF)
1824 Grand March No. 6 in E major, D. 819 (MF, BL)
1825 Im Abendrot, D. 799 Sunset Glow – Karl Lappe (RW, MF)
An mein Herz, D. 860 To my Heart- Ernst Schulze (BenL, MF)
1826 Am Fenster, D. 878 At the Window – J. G. Seidl (MFulmer, below, BL)
1827 from Winterreise Frühlingstraum, D. 911 Dream of Spring – Muller(RW,MF)
1828 Die Sterne, D. 939 The Stars – Leitner (KA, BL)
from Schwanengesang (Swansong), D. 957
Ständchen (JD, MF) –Serenade – Ludwig Rellstab
Die Taubenpost (PR, MF) – The Pigeon Post – J.G. Seidl
An die Musik, D. 547 To Music (below) – Franz von Schober
Everyone is invited to sing along. You can find the words in your texts and translations.
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Classical music: After almost three decades, Anonymous Four will break up and retire after the 2015-16 season. The Ear is sure glad he heard them sing LIVE at the Madison Early Music Festival in 2012.
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By Jacob Stockinger
I remember some purists complaining when, in 2012, the 13th annual Madison Early Music Festival had booked the a cappella singing group Anonymous Four (below, in a photo by Dario Acosta) to open the festival in July, which focused that year on early North American and colonial American music.
The complaints ran that the guest “star” singers didn’t really stick to the Colonial and Early American and Canadian repertoire set out by the festival’s theme that year — the complement to the previous year’s festival theme of South and Latin American music — that many of the songs they performed dated from later than the “early music” title defined.
But the concert certainly drew a full, perhaps even sold-out house (below), I think probably the largest opening concert of any Madison Early Music Festival I have ever attended.
And The Ear thought they were wonderful performers that allowed the audience to thoroughly enjoy themselves and the repertoire that did indeed run into the 19th century, that they performed. The cheers were deservedly loud and long.
Even the group’s name honors the countless nameless women composers and performers who have sat outside mainstream music history and musicology for so long. Plus, it also emphasizes getting along and the seamlessly tight ensemble work that the group was deservedly celebrated for. It celebrates the more greater musical value of collectivity rather than individuality.
Editor’s Note: This year, the 15th annual Madison Early Music Festival features century Italian music 1300-1600, with an emphasis on the 14th century and ties to the other Papacy in Avignon, France, and will run this summer July 12-19. It will features the usual workshops for participants plus seven public concerts including the second annual Handel Aria Competition, which last proved a really delightful sing-off smack-down. Here is a link to the MEMF website, which will be featured on this blog a bit later:
And here is a link to that review The Ear wrote when the Anonymous Four sang at the Madison Early Music Festival in 2012 (below) taking turns as soloists, duets, trios and full quartets:
RETIREMENT IS PENDING
But like many other groups –- including the Tokyo String Quartet and the Guarneri String Quartet –- the members of the Anonymous Four have reached they age where they are tired of endless touring, recording some 20 albums and now want to settle down and into other things.
So the group will disband at the end of the 2015-16 season. They said they would do so once before, about a decade ago, but this time they are apparently serious about it.
Who can blame them? Three decades is a long time to spend touring on the road, selecting and rehearsing repertoire, and recording songs in a studio. At bottom is one of the group’s many YouTube videos, the done with the most hits (over 100,000) that features Medieval English chant and polyphony. It really spotlights the purity and clarity of their a cappella singing and how there is absolutely no weak link in their chain of music. But many others are also noteworthy and deserve listening, including recordings of Hildegard von Bingen and “Shall We Gather at The River” are among the group’s popular audio-visual samples..
Here is a link to the group’s own website:
Here are stories about the Anonymous Four, the breakup, retirement and the group’s history, with a good sampling of their range from Medieval and Renaissance music to colonial American music (below) and contemporary compositions and commissions. Much of what they sang in Madison came from the best-seedling CD “American Angels.”
Here is a link to the outstanding story on NPR and its first-rate blog Deceptive Cadence” that also features an exclusive preview of their last CD recording:
LESSONS?
Increasing, I think there is a lesson to be learned here.
At a time when so many local performing groups and arts presenters, including the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, keep offering many of the same soloists –- both because they are reliable and dependably excellent performers and because they are affordable -– it is a refreshing reminder than presenting new soloists and new performers is laudable in itself.
We need to experience new performers. We never know when a single performer or even an ensemble will die or retire or become too expensive or whatever. But if we have heard them, then at least we can say: I am glad I had a chance to hear them live before it was too late.
And, boy, I am glad I had a chance to hear the Anonymous Four not only through recordings, but also in person.
And as many readers pointed out during the current discord and controversy about Wisconsin Public Radio canceling the live statewide broadcast of “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” after 36 years, there is a huge difference between studio and recorded music versus live performances.
Here is a link to the post about the WPR decision. Be sure to read the post – it brought in more than four times the usual amount of “traffic” or “hits” and readers — but also to read the comments by readers, which set a record for the number and length.
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Classical music: Choosing a new Pope? There’s a play list for that! But is the Vatican listening? Plus, the UW Bands perform a FREE concert on Sunday afternoon.
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REMINDER: This Sunday, March 10, at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus, the University Bands will perform a FREE concert under conductors Justin Stolarik (below) and Matthew Mireles.
By Jacob Stockinger
An old friend and co-worker of The Ear saw the posting I did last week about Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI (see him in the photo below, at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim at La Scala opera house in Milan). Benedict has a passion for playing the piano and listening to classical music, especially for the works of Mozart and Beethoven (composers right in keeping with his conservative theology, no?).
Here is a link:
Well, now as the papal conclave in the Vatican starts slowly toward getting underway (NEWS FLASH: The Vatican has announced the conclave will begin Tuesday) to elect a new pope, it appears that a playlist has been put together – by an American theologian at Notre Dame University at the request of the website Spotify — of classical music to help the cardinals (below, in an Associated Press photo) choose a new pope.
Most of it is, of course, choral music, usually with sacred themes — but not all of it.
Some of it is familiar to me; much of it is not.
Some of its is well known and popular; some of it is not.
But the list is catholic rather than Catholic and sure has a lot of excellent and memorable music.
Whether listening to this excellent music would lead to an excellent new pope is another question.
Here is a link:
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/02/28/choosing-a-new-pope-theres-a-spotify-playlist-for-that/
Can any one of you think of other pieces of classical music that might be added? I thought of three pieces by Franz Liszt (below), who was quite the handsome and rakish youth and young man but who became a Franciscan monk later in life. (Below, a photo of Liszt in 1870 by Pierre Petit.)
The works are “Benediction of God in Solitude” from his “Poetic and Religious Harmonies” series, and his two “legends” about Saint Francis of Assisi: “St. Francis Preaching to the Birds” and “Saint Francis Walking on the Waves” (below, in a great YouTube video by Lise de la Salle with some incredible shots of the keyboard and her fingers walking on the rolling WAVES of notes.)
The Ear wants to hear.
And just maybe the Vatican’s conclave of 142 cardinals, to say nothing of the new pope, also wants to hear.
Classical music: As the newly retired Pope Benedict XVI faces his new life, he looks forward to playing the piano and to hearing classical music, especially Mozart and Beethoven. Plus, UW clarinetist Les Thimmig performs music by Schubert, Verdi and others for FREE on Sunday afternoon.
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ALERT: An apology is in order. Somehow, in Thursday’s round-up of FREE chamber music events at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this weekend, I left out the performance on the Faculty Concert Series on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall by The Thimming-Johnson Duo. UW clarinetist Les Thimmig (seen below with a saxophone) and UW pianist Jessica Johnson will perform the Sonatine in G minor, D. 406, by Franz Schubert; “Rhapsodie Dobrogeana” by Paul Jelescu; and two arias from Giuseppe Verdi‘s “Il Trovatore,” among other works. The duo will be joined by UW percussionist Anthony DiSanza on marimba.
By Jacob Stockinger
He plays the piano well.
He adores Mozart above all (see the YouTube video at bottom), followed closely by Beethoven.
He attends a lot of live performances and is a discerning listener.
He has a brother, who was a professional church choir conductor and a composer.
And now he is a retired ex-Pope or “pope emeritus,” as the Vatican has baptized Pope Benedict XVI, seen below at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with conductor Daniel Barenboim at La Scala in Milan.)
The outstanding classical music blog, “Deceptive Cadence,” which you can fin don the website of National Public Radio, has a terrific and very detailed story about the retired pope and classical music.
Here is a link:
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The Well-Tempered Ear 