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New York Times music critics pick 10 MUST-HEAR online virtual classical concerts to stream for October

October 3, 2020
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ALERT: Tonight’s concert by the choral group Roomful of Teeth for the Wisconsin Union Theater at the UW-Madison’s Hamel Music Center has been canceled and postponed indefinitely.

By Jacob Stockinger

Increasingly the coronavirus pandemic seems surging out of control. So it comes as no surprise that also more and more concerts of classical music are taking place virtually and online.

There are many ways to choose among local, regional, national and international concerts.

But one good guide was published this last week and featured the choice of must-hear classical concerts by critics for The New York Times.

It is an interesting and varied selection, and includes times, links and brief descriptions.

It features concerts that emphasize Black composers such as Florence Price (below top) and women composers. It covers many genres from a solo piano recital by Jeremy Denk (below bottom) – who is supposed to perform here on Dec. 11 at the Wisconsin Union Theater – to chamber music, vocal music, orchestral concerts and operas.

Curiously, there is quite bit of new music but little early music, either Renaissance or Baroque. Perhaps more will appear around the holiday times, when that music is part of the traditional holiday celebrations.

You will find contemporary composers but also lots of certified, tried-and-true classics and masterworks.

Some are one-day only events but many run from a week through a month.

Here is a link to the story. PLEASE NOTE THAT TIMES ARE ALL EASTERN: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/arts/music/classical-music-stream.html

Please let The Ear know if you like this kind of listing and find it useful.

And please feel free to leave in the comment section other guides or events that the public should know about.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: The weeklong 21st annual Madison Early Music Festival is virtual and will be free online here and worldwide starting this Saturday

July 8, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following announcement from the directors of the Madison Early Music Festival and the UW-Madison Division of the Arts to post:

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and concerns about public health for performers and audiences, the 21st annual Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) will be virtual.

It will be held as MEMF Online! from this Saturday, July 11, through next Saturday, July 18. It can be accessed at Facebook.com/MadisonEarly or madisonearlymusic.org.

All events are FREE. Lectures and special features begin at NOON (not 11 a.m., as first listed) and concerts begin at 7 p.m. (CDT). All events will be available nationwide and internationally.

The Madison Early Music Festival is internationally recognized as a top early music festival that features music from medieval, Renaissance and baroque eras from award-winning performers and distinguished faculty.

The uncertainty of the future for the arts and MEMF is daunting, but we have persevered and put together a virtual experience to showcase the musicians and faculty members that were supposed to perform this summer.

Each ensemble prepared a special video of highlights from past performances, and other faculty members recorded lectures.

Our focus was going to be “Musical Life from the Burgundian Court,” and the videos of the Orlando Consort, Piffaro, performances and lectures by Michael Allsen and Peggy Murray reflect that theme.

The other two ensembles, Trefoil and Nota Bene, sent us live concert recordings of Trecento and Italian repertoire.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we are launching a fundraiser campaign to help support the artists that were to perform this season. It is critical that we help these musicians as many of them have lost substantial and irreplaceable income for the foreseeable future.

People can donate online at madisonearlymusic.org — where you can also see the concert programs — and click on the Support tab at the top of our home page. All money raised is for the MEMF musicians.

HERE IS A COMPLETE SCHEDULE OF MEMF ONLINE:

Different events will be released each day of the festival, but the content will be available after that time for later viewing.

Saturday, July 11, at 7 p.m.: Orlando Consort (below) in 15th-Century Chansons from the Library of Congress

Sunday, July 12, at 7 p.m.: Piffaro, The Renaissance Band: (below) Excerpts from Burgundian Beginnings and Beyond, Philadelphia

Monday, July 13, at noon: Michael Allsen (below), Musical Life and History at the Burgundian Court

Tuesday, July 14, at 7 p.m.: Trefoil (below): Trecento Music from Bowerbird Concert Series, Philadelphia

Wednesday, July 15, at noon: T-shirt challenge! Post a photo wearing a MEMF T-shirt! #MEMF2020; plus Lecture by William Hudson (below) on style in singing and ornamenting Baroque songs

Thursday, July 16, noon: Renaissance Valois Dance at the Burgundian Court, a lecture by Peggy Murray (below)

Friday, July 17, at 7 p.m.: Nota Bene viol consort (below) in Sonetti Spirituali; Italian Madrigals and Divine Poetry of the High Renaissance composed by Pietro Vinci (c.1525–1584) to settings of the poetry of Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547) Brandeis University in Boston

Saturday, July 18, at 7 p.m.: All-Festival Concert videos from previous festivals. There will be a sing-along of Pastime With Good Company! by King Henry VIII (below). It will be led by a virtual MEMF Faculty Ensemble. You can hear the popular song — also known as “The King’s Ballad” — in the YouTube video at the bottom. (You can download the music and lyrics at: https://memf.wisc.edu/annual/online-program/)

We hope to see everyone in 2021, and that a vaccine is approved to help us gather again as a community experiencing all the arts with musicians, artists and audiences — at MEMF in Madison and around the world.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: Madison Bach Musicians cancels its performances in late April of the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610. Here are details about ticket donations and refunds

April 1, 2020
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following note from founder and artistic director Trevor Stephenson (below top) and associate artistic director Kangwon Kim (below bottom) of the Madison Bach Musicians regarding the cancellation of the April performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610.

Dear Friends of Madison Bach Musicians,

We hope everyone is staying well and hanging in there during this global health crisis and massive shutdown. We’re all monitoring the news and looking for any indication that things might improve soon.

Unfortunately, the chances of improvement coming soon enough for public concerts scheduled even near the end of April are overwhelmingly remote.

Madison Bach Musicians (MBM) is very sorry to have to cancel the Vespers of 1610 by Claudio Monteverdi (below) on April 25 and 26. We were all greatly looking forward to it, and of course the piercing irony of having to cancel is that the joy this music brings is what we now, as a culture, need more than ever.

The global economic impact of the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic is certainly catastrophic. And, in the music world we are feeling this directly. As a non-profit organization, cancelling a performance is one of the hardest decisions to make ― but the health and well-being of our audience, musicians and staff absolutely come first.

Madison Bach Musicians (below) has offered the Vespers musicians 40 percent of their fee ― we regret we are not a large enough organization to offer full payment.

Several of the players, however, in a show of great generosity, immediately requested that their portion be distributed among the other players. Considering the economic hardship that most freelance musicians will be facing in the coming months, every degree of financial support is deeply appreciated.

MBM is so very grateful to those of you who have purchased tickets to the Vespers. As MBM will feel the economic effects of the Vespers cancellation for a long time, we ask for your support and careful consideration as you decide what to do with your unused Vespers tickets.

If you have purchased tickets, please let us know by April 26, 2020 whether you would like to:

Make your Vespers tickets a tax-deductible donation to MBM. Thank you ― we appreciate it!

A. If you purchased tickets as part of a 2019-20 MBM season subscription or as individual tickets online, please email MBM manager Karen Rebholz at madisonbachmusicians.manager@gmail.com. She will email you your donation tax receipt.

B. If you purchased tickets at one of our outlet locations (Orange Tree Imports or Willy Street Co-op East and West), please mail your tickets to MBM by U.S. mail, provide us with your email address, and we will email you your donation tax receipt.

Request a refund. We’re happy to provide your money back, and look forward to seeing you again in 2020-21 season.

B. If you purchased tickets at one of our outlet locations (Orange Tree Imports or Willy Street Co-op East and West), please mail your tickets to MBM by the U.S. mail, provide us with your street address, and MBM will mail you your refund check.

Our mailing address is: Madison Bach Musicians, 5729 Forsythia Place, Madison WI 53705. If you have questions, please email Karen Rebholz, MBM manager, at madisonbachmusicians.manager@gmail.com or call us at (608) 238-6092

Thank you for your understanding. We look forward to seeing you in the 2020-21 season

Very best wishes―and please stay safe.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: The New Milwaukee Consort performs Renaissance and early Baroque love songs this Monday night in Spring Green

August 3, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Rural Musicians Forum will present the New Milwaukee Consort in a program of Baroque love songs on this coming Monday, Aug. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Unity Chapel in Spring Green.

This group of professionals and experts in early music includes soprano Kristin Knutson (below top), who competed in the 2015 Handel Aria Competition in Madison (in the YouTube video at the bottom); cellist and viol player Charlie Rasmussen (below middle); and lutenist Tim Sterner Miller (below bottom). They will perform on period instruments, bringing audiences back in time to the courts and chambers of Italy, England and France.

The New Milwaukee Consort is dedicated to the music of the European Renaissance and Baroque eras, crafting intimate performances around stories in words and music that resonate across the centuries.

They particularly relish bringing lesser-known sounds of the 17th century to modern audiences, from the work of women composers such as Barbara Strozzi (below) to music from handwritten manuscripts documenting the early development of the cello and ongoing experiments on the lute.

This concert features music from the chamber cantatas of the Venetian singer and composer Strozzi to celebrate her 400th birthday as well as works by her compatriots Claudio Monteverdi and Taruinio Merula; Elizabethan songs by lutenist and composer John Dowland (below); and “airs de cour” (Court music) by French court composer Etienne Moulinie.

Interwoven with these vocal works are pieces for the lute by Dowland and his contemporary Nicholas Vallet; for the viola da gamba by Tobia Hume and Marin Marais (below); and for the cello by Giulio Ruvo, Francesco Supriani and Giuseppe Jacchini.

This is an opportunity to enjoy some of the most precious pieces of Renaissance and Baroque era in the beautiful Unity Chapel (below) designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Chapel is located at 6597 County Highway T in Spring Green.

Admission is by free will offering, with a suggested donation of $15.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: The Madison Early Music Festival announces the dates and theme of next year’s 21st annual festival

July 23, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following news update:

As things wind down after the 2019 Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF), we want to extend a big thank you to our visiting concert artists, lecturers and faculty, all participants enrolled in the workshops, those who volunteered, and the Friends of MEMF who provided coffee and treats every morning.

Thanks to the many concert and lecture attendees along with our promotional and financial supporters. We were pleased to welcome 103 registrants and over 2,800 people in attendance at our Concert Series, lectures, fringe concerts, and our dance event, Grand Tour Excursions.

Thank you to everyone who helped bring the Grand Tour to life during the 20th annual celebration of the Madison Early Music Festival! We look forward to seeing you July 11-18, 2020 for Music at the Burgundian Court. (You can sample some of the Burgundian court music in the YouTube video below.)

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Classical music: The Madison Early Music Festival will present a Grand Tour of musical styles to mark its success after 20 years. The “tour” starts this Saturday, July 6, and runs through Saturday, July 13. Part 1 of 2

July 5, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

A big anniversary deserves a big celebration – and that is exactly what the organizers of this year’s Madison Early Music Festival (below, the All-Festival Concert in 2018) have come up with.

Co-artistic director Cheryl Bensman-Rowe recently wrote about the festival in a Q&A interview for this blog. Here is Part 1 of 2:

This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the Madison Early Music Festival. Can you briefly summarize the progress of the festival over all those years and how you – through audience size, participants, media coverage – measure the success it has achieved?

How successful is this year’s festival compared to the beginning festival and to others in terms of enrollment, budgets and performers? How does this of MEMF’s reach nationally or even internationally compare to previous years?

What can you say about where the festival will go in the coming years?

As the 20th Madison Early Music Festival approaches, we have looked back at how far we have come from 1999 when we were a little festival of 60 participants and faculty. We have grown to our current size of 140 faculty members and participants — fellow lovers of early music.

Last year, we had the largest group of participants when 120 students enrolled. MEMF now attracts students of all ages, from 18 to 91, amateurs and professionals, from all over North America and Europe.

Our success is due to the help and support of many individuals and outside organizations. We could not manage MEMF without the amazing staff at the Division of the Arts at UW-Madison. They help with everything from printed materials, website design and management, social media, grant writing, fundraising, proofreading and on-site assistance at all of our events and more.

Paul and I (below) work with Sarah Marty, the Program Director of MEMF, who keeps things organized and running smoothly throughout the year.

Also, we are grateful to our dedicated MEMF Board, donations from many individuals, grants, and the generosity of William Wartmann, who created an endowment for the festival, and after his death left an additional $400,000 for our endowment. It takes a village!

Not only have we become an important part of the summer music scene in Madison, but we have contributed to the national and international early music community. The 2019 concert series will be featuring artists from California to New York, Indiana to Massachusetts, and from Leipzig, Germany.

We hope to have many old and new audience members join us for this exciting celebration of our 20th year. For future seasons our motto is “To infinity and beyond!” as we continue to build on our past successes.

What is new and what is the same in terms of format, students, faculty members and performers?

This year we have a new program, the Advanced Voice Intensive, which provides an opportunity for auditioned advanced singers who are interested in a capella vocal music from the Renaissance – singing sacred polyphony and madrigals to improve their skills as ensemble singers.

Twenty singers from all over the country will be joining the inaugural program to rehearse and perform music from Italy, England and Germany.

At the end of the week they will sing in a masterclass with the vocal ensemble Calmus (below) on Thursday, July 11, at 11:30 a.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. On Saturday, July 13, they will perform in a FREE concert with the popular Advanced Loud Band ensemble in Morphy Recital Hall.

Here’s the link for all the information about MEMF: https://memf.wisc.edu/

All concerts include a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. and the concerts in Mils Hall begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $90 for an all-event pass; each individual concert is $22, for students $12. Tickets are available for purchase online and by phone at 608-265-ARTS (2787) with a $4 service fee, or in person at the Campus Arts Ticketing Box Office @ Memorial Union.

We also have two Fringe Concerts this year featuring new vocal ensembles from Wisconsin. On Monday, July 8, at 7 p.m. at Pres House, Schola Cantorum of Eau Claire (below), a 12-voice ensemble directed by UW-Madison graduate Jerry Hui, will perform “Mystery and Mirth: A Spanish Christmas.”

And on Wednesday, July 10, at 7 p.m. at Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, the Milwaukee-based Aperi Animam (below) perform “Libera Nos,” a program of sacred vocal music.

The Fringe Concerts are FREE with donations accepted at the door.

Why was the theme of “The Grand Tour” chosen for the festival? What is the origin of the conceit, and what major composers and works will be highlighted?

We decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary by choosing a theme that would be broader than previous years and portray what people might experience when they are 20 years old – traveling abroad on a gap year.

We were also inspired by Englishman Thomas Coryat, aka “The First Tourist.” He published his travelogue Crudities in 1611, an amusing and thorough account of his five months of travel throughout Europe. This tradition of the Grand Tour of Europe continued through the 17th and 18th centuries, especially when wealthy young aristocrats finished their formal schooling.

Several of the concert programs this summer feature quotes from different travelogues, including Coryat’s, as an organizational concept. If you search all over Europe, you find an American at Versailles learning courtly manners, and a fictional Englishman, born in 1620, sending postcards from the Grand Tour.

We will also have a stop at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris with the silent film version of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and a musical tour of sacred vocal music and madrigals. This theme allowed us to include music from many different time periods from all over Europe — a rich Grand Tour of musical offerings!

The opening concert on this Saturday, July 6, features Dark Horse Consort returning to Madison with Wanderlust, their newly created program for MEMF’s Grand Tour theme. The program follows the misadventures of an English gentleman as he embarks on a continental Grand Tour adventure in search of love and fulfillment.

Our hero’s travelogue includes springtime consort songs by Alfonso Ferrabosco and William Byrd; Erasmus Widmann’s beguiling German dances dedicated to women; the wooing songs of the Italian gondolier; and sultry Spanish airs.

On Sunday, July 7, Alchymy Viols (below) performs “American at Versailles,” an original ballet masque of French baroque music, dance and drama written and choreographed by Sarah Edgar, featuring Carrie Henneman Shaw, soprano; Sarah Edgar, director and dancer; and guest soprano Paulina Francisco. The American on the Grand Tour encounters the exotic world of French baroque manners, dress, dance and love.

TOMORROW: Part 2 explores the rest of the festival next week, including a rare book exhibit and the All-Festival finale on Saturday night

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Classical music: Saturday brings percussion music, chamber music and choral music, much of it free

April 5, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

As you can tell from earlier posts this week, this weekend will be very busy with music.

But Saturday is especially, offering percussion music, chamber music and vocal music, much of it FREE.

PERCUSSION MUSIC

At 1:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Percussion Ensemble of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras will perform its 18th annual Percussion Extravaganza.

It features the world premiere of “Common Mind” by composer and WYSO alumnus Jon D. Nelson (below). For more a bout Nelson and his music, go to: http://jondnelson.com

More than 150 performers – instrumentalists, singers and dancers – will be featured.

Here is a link to details about the event, including ticket prices:

https://www.wysomusic.org/wyso-percussion-ensemble-to-present-the-2019-percussion-extravaganza/

CHAMBER MUSIC

At 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall, the Perlman Piano Trio plus two guest artists will give a FREE concert.

The program is the “Kakadu”Variations in G major, Op. 121a, by Ludwig van Beethoven; the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49, by Felix Mendelssohn; and the Piano Quintet in F minor by Cesar Franck. (You can her the first movement of the Mendelssohn Trio performed in the YouTube vide at the bottom, by pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.)

Members of the quintet, based on an annual student piano trio supported by Kato Perlman (below), are: Kangwoo Jin, piano; Mercedes Cullen, violin; Micah Cheng, cello; Maynie Bradley, violin; and Luke Valmadrid, viola.

A reception will follow the concert.

CHORAL MUSIC

At 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison Concert Choir (below top) will perform a FREE concert under conductor Beverly Taylor (below bottom), who is the director of choral activities at the university.

AN UPDATE: Conductor Beverly Taylor has sent the following update about the program:

“I’m happy to update our Saturday, April 6, free concert at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall:

“The Concert Choir is singing a program called “Half a Bach and other good things.”

“We’re singing just half of the B Minor Mass: the Kyrie and Gloria (12 movements), which were what Bach originally wrote and sent off for his job interview!

We have a small orchestra and a mixture of student and professional soloists: Julia Rottmayer, Matthew Chastain, Wesley Dunnagan, Miranda Kettlewell, Kathleen Otterson, Elisheva Pront and Madeleine Trewin.

The remaining third of the concert is an eclectic mix of modern composers (Petr Eben’s “De circuitu eternal,” Gerald Finzi’s “My Spirit Sang All Day”), Renaissance music (Orlando Gibbons’ “O Clap your Hands”), spirituals and gospel.

Posted in Classical music
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Classical music: The Madison Bach Musicians celebrate 15 years with three performances this weekend of “Arias and Sonatas” by Bach and Handel

October 3, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

Two towering geniuses of the Baroque era – Johann Sebastian Bach (below top) and George Frideric Handel (below bottom) — were born in the same year, 1685, and just a little over 100 miles from each other.

Yet the two masters never met!

To mark their 15th anniversary, the Madison Bach Musicians will open their new season with three performances of a program “Arias and Sonatas” by the two great composers.

The program will include selections from Handel’s Violin Sonata in F major, Nine German Arias, Lascia chi’o ping (heard sung by Joyce DiDonato in the YouTube video at the bottom), Tornami a vagheggiar; and Bach’s Laudamus te (B minor Mass), Öffne dich (Cantata 61), Ich bin vergnügt in meinem Leiden (Cantata 58), and Prelude and Fugue in C major (Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II).

Advance-sale discount tickets are $30  general admission and are available at Orange Tree Imports, and Willy Street Co-op (East and West).

Online advance tickets at www.madisonbachmusicians.org

Tickets at the door are $33  for general admission, $30 for seniors (65+)  with student rush  tickets costing $10 at the door.

Here are the performance times and places.

Each performance offers a FREE pre-concert lecture by MBM founder, music director and keyboardist Trevor Stephenson (below), who will also appear at NOON TODAY (Wednesday, Oct. 3) with host Norman Gilliland on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Midday.”

This Friday, Oct. 5, with a 7:15 p.m. lecture and 8 p.m. performance at the Grace Episcopal Church (below top and bottom) at 116 W. Washington Ave., in Madison on the downtown Capitol Square.

This Saturday, Oct. 6, with a 7:15 p.m. lecture and 8 p.m. performance at Immanuel Lutheran Church (below top and bottom) at 1021 Spaight Street in Madison.

This Sunday afternoon, Oct. 7, with a 2:15 p.m. lecture and 3 p.m. performance followed by an outdoor wine reception at historic Park Hall at 307 Polk Street in Sauk City. The Park Hall venue has limited seating, so it is recommended to buy tickets in advance either online or at Willy St. Co-Op (East or West), or at Orange Tree Imports.

The major guest artist is soprano Chelsea Shephard (below). Praised by Opera News for her “beautiful, lyric instrument” and “flawless legato,” she won the 2014 Handel Aria Competition in Madison. She returns to perform with the Madison Bach Musicians after appearing in MBM’s production last season of Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas.”

Other performers include the Madison Bach Musicians concertmaster Kangwon Kim (below) on baroque violin.

Also, James Waldo (below) will perform on baroque cello. Known for his “nuanced, richly ambered” interpretations of Bach (LucidCulture in New York City), Waldo has lived and breathed period performance his whole life, having been raised in the home of two musicians who specialized in recorder, traverso and Renaissance choral music.

After graduate studies at Mannes College of Music and nine years living and working in New York City, he returned to Madison last fall to begin his DMA studies at UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music with Professor Uri Vardi. He recently participated in an all-Bach program for Midsummer’s Music in Door County, and is the regular principal cellist of Cecilia Chorus, performing twice a year in Carnegie Hall.

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Classical music: How did a reformation in religion and a revolution in printing change music? The 19th annual Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) offers answers and samples this week. Part 2 of 2

July 3, 2018
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By Jacob Stockinger

Starting this Saturday and running through the following Saturday, the 19th annual Madison Early Music Festival will explore the profound effects that the Lutheran Reformation and the invention of printing had on Renaissance and Baroque music of the time.

The festival is called “A Cabinet of Curiosities: A Journey to Lübeck.” For a complete listing of programs, lectures, concerts and workshops, with information about tickets, go to: https://memf.wisc.edu

Soprano Cheryl Bensman Rowe — who directs the festival with UW Arts Institute’s Sarah Marty and her husband and UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe — recently agreed to do a Q&A with The Ear about the upcoming festival. Here is Part 2 of 2. And, if you missed the beginning, here is a link to Part 1:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2018/07/02/classical-music-this-saturday-the-19th-annual-madison-early-music-festival-memf-starts-a-week-long-exploration-how-the-500thanniversary-of-the-lutheran-reformation-in-changed-western-music-part-1/

How does early north German music differ from its counterparts in, say, Italy, France, Germany and England. What is the historical origin and aesthetic importance of the music from that era in that part of the world?

One of the biggest changes during the Reformation in Germany began with sacred music and the far-reaching changes in the way it served the church. The music of mass, motet, psalm and hymn heard in the great urban cathedrals, cloistered chapels and royal palace churches of Catholicism represented the “otherness” of the divine, a God unreachable by the untutored masses.

Written in an intellectual language which required years of rigorous training to learn and understand, it was only the disciplined, practiced choir boys and men who could perform this sacred polyphony in all its wonder and glory.

Luther sought to traverse this divide. Though he held the existing music of sacred polyphony in high esteem, he felt that music could be used to even greater effect in furthering the education and religious commitment of the people.

Luther (below) chose the hymn form as the principle means to his musical aims. A prolific hymnodist himself, he authored hymns such as the famous “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God“) several settings of which begin the All-Festival concert, attempted to connect existing high art with folk music in a style that would appeal to all classes, clergy and laity, men, women and children. His texts were in the German vernacular in order to convey messages that would be understood by all in a way that the Latin of preexisting hymns were not.

The culmination of those first 100 years of reformed musical development and the composers whose works will be performed throughout the week at MEMF, launched the reformed hymnody of Luther (below) and his followers into the stratosphere of such giants as Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Sebastian Bach (all the Bachs for that matter) and on, a trail that continues to the present day.

What music and composers of that era have been most neglected and least neglected by historians and performers? Does rediscovery of works and composers play a special role this year?

Throughout the week we will be featuring compositions from the Choir Library from the Marienkirche in Lübeck (below) is a collection of music that Lübeck scholar and Buxtehude biographer Kerala Snyder catalogued and reconstructed.

The collection ended up in Vienna in the 19th century, and is a comprehensive data base that includes compositions by German and Italian composers, including Heinrich Schütz, Hermann Schein, Palestrina – the list starts with Agazzari and ends with Zucchini.

Besides the Choir Library compositions, audiences will have an opportunity to hear works of Buxtehude that have never been performed in Madison.

Can you tell us about the program and performers for the All-Festival concert on Saturday, July 14?

The All-Festival Concert (below) includes all of our workshop participants and faculty. We work together to prepare the concert all week and it is truly a MEMF community project. The music will be drawn from settings and compositions based on Lutheran chorales such as Ein Feste Burg and from the Choir Library of the Marienkirche.

The concert concludes with Buxtehude’s Missa Brevis and concludes with his grand motet, Benedicam Dominum in omne tempore, written for six contrasting choirs, which Buxtehude surely composed to match the structural design of the Marienkirche. (You can hear the Kyrie from Buxtehude’s “Missa Brevis” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)

Are there other sessions — guest lectures, certain performers, particular works — that you especially recommend for the general public?

All the planning that goes into each festival leads me to encourage the general public to attend everything. The concert series, lectures and workshop have so much to offer.

Special events include a dance with a live band drawn from the MEMF Faculty with dance instruction by Peggy Murray, Tanzen und Springen,at Memorial Union in the Grand Hall on Thursday night.

The lecture series features some well-known Madison scholars — John W. Barker and J. Michael Allsen, plus Michael Alan Anderson (below top), director of Schola Antiqua and professor of musicology, and Jost Hermand (below bottom), Professor Emeritus at the UW-Madison.

There will be a special exhibit created for MEMF in the lobby of Memorial Library by Jeanette Casey, the Head of the Mills Music Library and Lisa Wettleson of Special Collections at Memorial Library.

This curated display reflects the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The exhibit will be in the lobby of Memorial Library and open to the public through Thursday, July 19, 2018, with a special talk about the exhibit during the festival on Monday, July 9, at 11:30 a.m. This wonderful partnership allows the library to display rarely seen original and facsimile publications, some dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries within the context of the MEMF theme.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Martin Luther, who was a great lover of music, said: “The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them…. In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits…”

Join us to hear what Luther was talking about! Get your tickets for the concert series! Attend the lectures! Take some classes! You’ll find a link for all the information about MEMF at www.madisonearlymusic.org

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Classical music: This Saturday, the 19th annual Madison Early Music Festival (MEMF) starts a week-long exploration of how the Lutheran Reformation and the invention of printing changed Western music 500 years ago. Part 1 of 2

July 2, 2018
1 Comment

By Jacob Stockinger

The festival, to be held at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, is called “A Cabinet of Curiosities: A Journey to Lübeck.” For a complete listing of programs, lectures, concerts and workshops, with information about tickets, go to the website: https://memf.wisc.edu

Soprano Cheryl Bensman Rowe — who co-directs the festival with UW Arts Institute’s Sarah Marty and with her husband and UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe — recently agreed to do a Q&A with The Ear about the upcoming festival. Here is Part 1 of 2. The second part will appear tomorrow.

How successful is this year’s festival compared to others in terms of enrollment, budgets, performers, etc.? How does MEMF’s reach nationally or even internationally compare to previous years?

Each year enrollment in the workshop averages 100 students. As of June 15, we have 110 students enrolled. MEMF attracts students of all ages, from 18–91, amateurs and professionals, from all over the country and Canada.

What is new and what is the same in terms of format, students, faculty members and performers?

The ensemble Quicksilver (below, in a photo by Ian Douglas, and located at quicksilverbaroque.com) is returning to Madison after several years to open the MEMF Concert Series.

This will be an incredible virtuosic display of chamber music played at the highest level, and includes violinist Julie Andrijeski, sackbut player Greg Ingles and gambist Lisa Terry; harpsichordist Avi Stein and violinist Robert Mealy are on the faculty at the Juilliard 415 program, which is creating a fantastic opportunity for instrumentalists to study Baroque music with some of the finest early music professionals in the country.

Piffaro, The Renaissance Band, will return to play a live concert of the CD they just released, Back to Bach. For more information, go to: piffaro.org

The Tuesday concert is at Luther Memorial Church. Abendmusik (Evening Music) features organists John Chappell Stowe (below top, in a photo by Katrin Talbot), of the UW-Madison, and James Kennerley (below bottom) joined by the MEMF Faculty.

Abendmusik, refers to a series of performances at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, Germany. In the 17th century through 1810, a series of concerts were paid for by local business owners to provide admission for the public. Organists Franz Tunder and his successor Dietrich Buxtehude, organized the Abendmusiken with performances of organ, instrumental and vocal music. For more, go to: https://www.jameskennerley.com/

New to MEMF, Schola Antiqua of Chicago — see schola-antiqua.org — will perform on Friday, July 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall. They will sing musical treasures from a program prepared last fall for The Newberry Library’s exhibit “Religious Change 1450-1700” on the occasion of the quincentennial of the Lutheran Reformation.

Printed musical artifacts from the multidisciplinary exhibit testify to a period filled with religious dynamism and struggle with both theological and musical traditions. Their director, Michael Alan Anderson, will give a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. with projections of the printed music from The Newberry Library.

Why was the theme of “A Cabinet of Curiosities: Journey to Lübeck” chosen for the festival? What composers and works will be highlighted?

We chose the 2018 theme to explore the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and how the shifts in religion and 16th-century printed materials, including music, changed the world.

The Marienkirche (St. Mary’s Church) in Lübeck was an important musical center at this time. Built with Catholic ritual in mind, it easily was turned into a Lutheran church in the early 16th century as Lübeck changed into a Protestant town due to the Reformation that was inspired by Martin Luther.

The composer Dieterich Buxtehude (below) was the organist at the Marienkirche and was an improvisational genius. He attracted many musicians throughout Europe to come and visit, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel.

Around this same time collectors were sorting their wide-ranging collections of objects into “cabinets of curiosities,” and sometimes the categorical boundaries were not defined. With new-found compositional freedom, 17th-century composers similarly created many musical wonders and curiosities, stretching the boundaries of musical conversation.

We will be featuring works of Buxtehude, Tunder and Matthias Weckmann, and there will even be a bit of Bach on Sunday night’s concert by Piffaro.

Tomorrow: Part 2 – How did a Reformation in religion and printing technology change music?

Posted in Classical music
Tags: #AmateurMusician, #ArtsInstitute, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BusinessOwner, #CabinetofCuriosities, #ChamberMusic, #ChristianChurch, #ChristianMusic, #ChristianReligion, #ChurchMusic, #DietrichBuxtehude, #FacultyMember, #FranzTunder, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GermanMusic, #InstrumentalMusic, #JamesKennerley, #JohannSebastianBach, #Juilliard415, #JuilliardSchool, #LiveConcert, #LutheranReformation, #LutherMemorialChurch, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MartinLuther, #MatthiasWeckmann, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #NewberryLibrary, #OrganMusic, #PrintingTechnology, #ProfessionalMusician, #ProtestantReformation, #ProtestantReligion, #QuicksilverBaroque, #ReligiousChange, #RenaissanceBand, #RenaissanceMusic, #RomanCatholic, #SacredMusic, #ScholaAntiqua, #SecularMusic, #ThePublic, #TheReformation, #TheRenaissance, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VioladaGamba, #WesternCulture, #WesternMusic, #WesternReligion, admission, amateur, anniversary, Arts, Arts Institute, Bach, baritone, Baroque, blog, budget, Business, Canada, Catholic, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago, choral music, church, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Composition, Concert, country, Dietrich Buxtehude, director, Early music, earlymusic, enrollment, faculty, festival, Franz Tunder, free, freedom, genius, George Frideric Handel, Germany, Handel, harpsichord, improvisation, instrument, instrumental, international, invention, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, journey, lecture, live, Lubeck, Luther Memorial Church, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Marienkirche, Mead Witter School of Music, MEMF, Music, national, Newberry Library, Orchestra, organ, organist, Piffaro, player, printing, professional, program, public, Religion, Roman Catholic, sackbut, sacred, Schola Antiqua, secular, secular music, sing, singer, Sonata, song, soprano, Student, Sunday, technology, Telemann, theology, ticket, tradition, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, Viola, viola da gamba, Violin, violinist, virtuosic, virtuoso, vocal music, Website, Weckmann, Wisconsin, workshop

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