The Well-Tempered Ear
Muti to conduct an opera academy in China
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By Jacob Stockinger
Italian maestro Riccardo Muti (below) — the 83-year-old retired music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and longtime music director of the iconic La Scala Opera House in Milan— will take his workshops for young conductors and musicians to China for the first time this coming November and December.
Muti is a devoted advocate and practitioner of music education, and has led similar academies in: Ravenna and Milan, Italy; Tokyo, Japan; and Seoul, South Korea.
In a story published in Chinese media, Muti explains why he chose China this time. There he will work in the city of Suzhou with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra and with individual applicants from around the world.
“During the past decades, classical music has gained a large fan base in China, with new concert halls and new symphony orchestras appearing in the country,” Muti adds. “There are also many great Chinese musicians performing around the world — pianists, violinists, singers and conductors — who have become like bridges, bringing our countries closer to each other.”
The repertoire he has chosen to work on is the one-act Italian opera “Cavalleria Rusticana” (Rustic Chivalry) by Pietro Mascagni.
It seems a perfect choice to The Ear. It is shorter and easier to stage than most full-length operas. It uses the Roman Catholic Church and religion as well as other aspects of European and Italian society and culture. This includes the famous “Regina Coeli” or Easter Hymn (below):
The opera itself has beautiful parts for the vocal soloists, the chorus and the orchestral instrumentalists — as you can hear above and in the famously melodic Intermezzo (in the YouTube video at the bottom) that was used in the film “The Godfather.”
Here is a link to the full story from the China Daily newspaper:
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202404/13/WS661a1d39a31082fc043c1c81.html
You might also recall an earlier blog post about the recent successes of Asian classical musicians:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/?s=Asian+musicians
When it comes to Western classical music in China, it seems that success keeps building on success.
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Conductor Edo de Waart retires after 60 years
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By Jacob Stockinger
World-famous Dutch conductor Edo de Waart (below) announced on Wednesday that he is retiring after a career that has spanned 60 years.
You might recall that de Waart, 82, was the music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2017 and is now a conductor laureate of the MSO.
He lived in Middleton, Wisconsin, a suburb of Madison, while conducting in Milwaukee. He and his sixth wife, Rebecca Dopp, and their two children now live in Maple Bluff, another suburb of Madison.
De Waart is known for championing contemporary music and for an his extensive catalogue of recordings.
The Ear especially loved his early recording of Mozart’s “Gran Partita” wind serenade with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. You can hear the sublime slow movement — which was used in the film “Amadeus” — in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Here is a press release from his current agent:
https://www.harrisonparrott.com/news/2024-04-09/conductor-edo-de-waart-announces-his-retirement
Here is a link to a biography in Wikipedia that has many details about de Waart and his career:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_de_Waart
Did you ever hear de Waart conduct?
Did you happen to play music under Edo de Waart?
Do you have a favorite de Waart recording?
What do you think of Edo de Waart as a conductor?
The Ear wants to hear.
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From beginner to maestro — for the Final Forte, John DeMain reflects on a life in music
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Wednesday night, March 6 at 7 p.m. in Overture Hall, is the “Final Forte” — the annual high school concerto competition with the Madison Symphony Orchestra under its longtime music director and conductor John DeMain (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers).
You can attend the concert in person for FREE or watch it live on PBS Wisconsin or listen to it live on Wisconsin Public Radio.
For more details, go online to: https://madisonsymphony.org/education-community/education-programs/young-artist-competitions/the-final-forte/
As usual you can see and hear summary biographies of and impressive interviews with this year’s four teenage participants (below, in a photo by James Gill) and what they think of the competition. You can also read about the three judges and about past compeiutitons and the winners.
But this year, DeMain opened up about himself to PBS Wisconsin. He talks about why he likes and looks forward to directing the performances by young artists and what he thinks about starting a career in music.
DeMain — who will retire at the end of next season — also draws on his own award-winning career from his first piano lessons though his education at the Juilliard School, his lessons with Leonard Bernstein and his 30-year tenure at the MSO.
Trust The Ear — it is an engaging interview well worth reading for many reasons.
Here is a link to that interview:
Do you anything to say about how DeMain sees working with and encouraging young artists?
About his own career?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Here’s how to donate a piano in the US
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By Jacob Stockinger
Maybe the kids have left home.
Maybe you are downsizing.
Maybe you have just stopped playing it.
Maybe you want to help out a school, a music student organization or a retirement center.
If you have an old piano you are looking to get rid of, you might find the following story helpful.
It comes from Hello Music Theory, a free website, and it offers helpful tips on donating old pianos, including tax deductions from the IRS.
https://hellomusictheory.com/learn/where-and-how-to-donate-piano/
Are you looking to donate a piano?
Why?
Have you already donated a piano?
What did you think of the experience?
Do you have tips or advice to share with others?
Are you looking to receive a donated piano?
Why, in what condition and what use will you put it to?
You could leave more information in the comment section.
Do have any tips or questions about donating pianos?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, advice, American, Arts, blog, charity, children, Classical music, composer, Concert, condition, deduction, donate, downsize, Facebook, free, give, Hello Music Theory, Home, IRS, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Music, music student, Piano, playing, receive, Retirement, share, tag, tax, The Ear, tip, U.S., United States, Website, Wisconsin, YouTube
Here is a comprehensive overview of classical music in 2020. It includes deaths, virtual seasons, world premieres, major awards, new albums and other noteworthy events
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By Jacob Stockinger
The last day of a year, especially a year as tragic and eventful for the arts as 2020, seems a good time for a retrospective.
For many years, Wikipedia has done a fine job of collating noteworthy classical music events, both nationally and internationally.
Organized by categories and then by month and day, the events include deaths, many from COVID-19 of course.
The list also includes the world premieres of new operas and new works in other musical genres. (You can hear “From the Diary of Anne Frank and “Meditations on Rilke” by the American conductor, educator and composer Michael Tilson Thomas — below in a photo by Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times — in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The list, which has 567 footnotes and citations, includes cancellations, staff changes, virtual and online concert seasons and other fallout from the coronavirus. And they include awards for new recordings.
If you hover the cursor over names in blue print, you will also get specific details or biographical information with a portrait or photo in many cases. Then click on the blue name and you will go to the organization’s or individual’s home website.
The Ear finds it very useful as a year-in-review and hopes you do too.
Take a look for yourself. And here’s hoping that both artists and the arts thrive better in the coming new year of 2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_in_classical_music
What do you think of the Wikipedia list?
How did it leave you feeling?
Do you have something to add to the list?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Starting this Sunday, radio station WORT-FM 89.9 will air recordings that Rich Samuels made of many live performances in the Madison area
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ALERT: The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will be suspending the remainder of its spring season until further notice. Music director Kyle Knox and executive director Bridget Fraser says they are hopeful that an adjusted end-of-year schedule might be possible. Many ideas are under consideration. But they say they have no idea at this point what might be possible given the restrictions currently in place at the UW-Madison. “All we can do is explore possible scenarios and be ready to react if the restrictions are lifted,” they add.
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following note from Rich Samuels (below), a retired Chicago reporter and broadcaster who is often seen at concerts with microphones and a laptop computer. His public service is especially commendable and useful during the current coronavirus pandemic when almost all live concerts in music-rich Madison have been canceled or postponed for the foreseeable future.
Jake:
WORT (89.9 FM and at wortfm.org) will shortly start to air recordings of past public performances by Madison area classical musicians within its regularly scheduled classical music broadcasts.
This should help keep our local musician friends in the public ear even though their local venues have been shuttered and their gigs canceled.
I’ve had the good fortune to record hundreds of hours of local performances since 2012. I’m now editing them into segments that can be inserted into the shows of WORT’s classical music hosts.
The first segment to air, if all goes well, will be part of the “Musica Antiqua” early music program, hosted by Carol Moseson, this Sunday, March 22, from 8 to 11 a.m.
It will feature Eric Miller on viola da gamba and Daniel Sullivan on harpsichord performing a suite by French Baroque composer Louis Couperin. I recorded the concert (below) last Oct. 11 in the Landmark Auditorium of the First Unitarian Society of Madison (FUS).
Other such segments will follow on the weekday classical music shows that air from 5 to 8 a.m. We are still working on the details.
Additionally, I’ll be pre-recording three-hour broadcasts that can be run in place of the regularly scheduled classical music shows, assuming the host, for whatever reason, is unable to make it to the station.
These will hopefully include complete concert performances from the FUS Friday Noon Musicale, Grace Presents (in the YouTube video at the bottom) and Willy Street Chamber Players (below) series.
I gave up my own Thursday morning WORT show about a year ago after my wife developed some health issues. But I’ve continued to record local musicians whenever possible. (My wife, by the way, is presently in good shape).
Hopefully, this WORT effort will benefit both local musicians and their audiences. (Below is Samuels recording at Bach Around the Clock, which has been canceled this year.)
Please join The Ear in thanking Rich Samuels and WORT for their service to the community by leaving word in the Comment section.
What do you think of his project?
Tags: #BachAroundtheClock, #BaroqueEra, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BridgetFraser, #CarolMoseson, #ChamberMusic, #CityofMadison, #ClassicalMusician, #COVID-19, #DanielSullivan, #EricMiller, #ExecutiveDirector, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #Frenchcomposer, #FridayNoonMusicale, #GoodFortune, #GracePresents, #HarpsichordMusic, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #JacobStockinger, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #KyleKnox, #LandmarkAuditorium, #LaptopComputer, #LiebesliederWaltzes, #LiveConcert, #LiveMusic, #LivePerformances, #LocalMusicians, #LouisCouperin, #MadisonWisconsin, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MusicaAntiqua, #MusicDirector, #NewsUpdate, #PeriodInstruments, #PublicService, #RadioBroadcast, #RadioHost, #RadioStation, #RichSamuels, #SundayMorning, #TheEar, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VioladaGamba, #WillyStreetChamberPlayers, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WORT-FM89.9, #YouTubevideo, adjust, air, area, assume, attract, audience, Bach, Bach Around the Clock, blog, Brahms, Bridget Fraser, Broadcast, broadcaster, cancel, canceled, Carol Moseson, Chamber music, Chicago, Classical, classicalmusic, commendable, comment, community, complete, computer, conductor, consideration, coronavirus, Couperin, current, Daniel Sullivan, details, ear, Early music, earlymusic, edit, end, Eric Miller, event, Executive director, explore, Facebook, first, First Unitarian Society of Madison, fortune, forward, France, French, Friday Noon Musicale, friends, FUS, future, gigs, good, good fortune, Grace Presents, harpsichord, Health, historically informed performance practices, hope, hopeful, host, hours, hundreds, idea, insert, issues, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, join, journalism, Kyle Knox, laptop, laptop computer, Liebeslieder Waltzes, like, link, live, live concert, live music, live performances, local, local musicians, Louis Couperin, Love, Madison, Mead Witter School of Music, microphone, Music, Music director, Musica Antiqua, Musician, news, nite, notice, own, pandemic, performances, performers, period instruments, possible, post, posting, postpone, pre-recording, project, public, public service, Radio, radio station, react, reader, record, recording, remainder, reporter, restrictions, retired, Retirement, rich, Rich Samuels, scenario, schedule, Season, segment, series, service, share, show, shows, shuttered, Spring, station, subscriber, Suite, Sunday, suspend, tag, thank, thanking, The Ear, think, unable, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, update, usefuul, UW-Madison, venue, viola da gamba, Waltz, weekday, wife, Willy Street Chamber Players, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, word, work, WORT-FM 89.9, WYSO, year, YouTube
Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet will play several concerts of Beethoven and Randall Thompson over this coming weekend, including one at Olbrich Gardens on Friday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following information from the veteran Ancora String Quartet, which will play several performances of the same program over the coming weekend in several different cities.
Members of the Ancora String Quartet (below from left, in a photo by Barry Lewis), who also play with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, are: violinists Wes Luke and Robin Ryan; violist Marika Fischer Hoyt; and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb.
RECITAL PROGRAM:
String Quartet No. 2 in G Major by Randall Thompson
String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 130, by Ludwig van Beethoven
CONCERT DATES:
Friday, Feb. 7, at noon
Interview with Wisconsin Public Radio host
Norman Gilliland on The Midday
WERN 88.7 FM
Friday, Feb.7, from 5 to 7 p.m.
Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Bolz Conservatory
3330 Atwood Ave., Madison
Tickets at the door: $5
Saturday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m.
Park (“Freethinkers”) Hall
307 Polk Street, Sauk City
Tickets: $15 general, $12 children and seniors
Sunday, Feb. 9, at 2 p.m. (UPDATE: THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO AN OUTBREAK OF ILLNESS AT CHAI POINT. IT WILL BE RESCHEDULED.)
Chai Point Retirement Community
1400 N. Prospect Ave., Milwaukee
Free and open to the public
PROGRAM NOTES:
The program opens with an unusual work, the String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, by American composer Randall Thompson (below). Better known for his choral music, Thompson wrote this quartet in 1967 to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Harvard Musical Association.
The quartet is joyous and optimistic in character, with thoughtful and creative part-writing. The first movement brims with youthful energy, contained in smoothly flowing triplets.
The simple, graceful folk melody that opens the second movement continually reinvents itself in a set of charming variations. The third movement’s heartfelt tune expresses a deep content, setting up the finale, whose explosive energy erupts in a good-natured, light-hearted romp.
Beethoven (below) wrote the second piece on our program, the String Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 130, 141 years before the Thompson and many centuries beyond it in subtlety, sophistication, intellectual rigor and emotional depth.
With six movements and lasting 40 minutes, it is the composer’s longest piece of chamber music, and it stretches limits in other ways as well. The original work, completed in 1825, contained the Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue) but Beethoven replaced that in 1826 with the Finale Allegro, the last full-scale movement he completed before his death in 1827.
Op. 130 bristles with contrasts, and juxtapositions of extremes, on the micro-level to the macro-level, all contained in movements ranging from a short, gnarly Presto, to a graceful Poco Scherzo, to a lyrical, innocent Alla Danza Tedesco (In the Style of a German Dance), to the fabled Cavatina, which, Beethoven wrote, moved him to tears when he even thought about it. (You can hear the Cavatina in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
In performing Op. 130, the Ancora String Quartet tackles its 14th of the 16 Beethoven string quartets. The ASQ plans to perform Op. 59, No. 3, and Op. 131, in the summer and fall, to complete the Beethoven cycle in this, the Beethoven Year when we celebrate the 250th anniversary of his birth.
For more information, go to: facebook.com/ancoraquartet and www.ancoraquartet.com
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Classical music: This Saturday night brings both the Escher String Quartet to the Wisconsin Union Theater and the UW-Madison Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra to the Hamel Music Center
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CORRECTION: The Ear received the following correction to the story he posted yesterday about the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and apologizes for the error:
“There was a change to our rollout in Brookfield. We are only repeating the fifth Masterworks concert on Saturday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts. We are NOT repeating this Friday’s concert in Brookfield.
“We will perform a Family Series concert of “Beethoven Lives Next Door” on Sunday, March 29, at 3 p.m. at the same Brookfield venue.”
By Jacob Stockinger
The upcoming weekend is a busy one for classical music.
The busiest night is Saturday night when two major concerts will take place: a performance by the Escher String Quartet and the postponed concert by the UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra with soloists.
Here are details:
ESCHER STRING QUARTET and DAVID FINCKEL
The concert by the Escher String Quartet (below) with cellist David Finckel (below bottom. formerly of the critically acclaimed Emerson String Quartet) takes place on this Saturday night, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in Shannon Hall of the Wisconsin Union Theater.
The performance is part of the special season celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Concert Series.
The program includes the sublime Quintet in C Major, D. 956, with two cellos, by Franz Schubert and the String Quartet in A minor by the great early 20th-century Viennese violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler (below).
Tickets are $30-$50. For more information and to reserve tickets, go to: https://artsticketing.wisc.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=CFC3765F-5F1D-4663-BCA0-985BE3049CF5
For more information about the Escher String Quartet, including a video performance and detailed background, go to: https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/escher-string-quartet-with-david-finckel/
UW CHORAL UNION
Also on this Saturday night at 8 p.m., in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the new Hamel Music Center at 740 University Avenue, the UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra (below top), along with two vocal soloists – soprano Chelsie Propst (below middle) and baritone James Harrington (below bottom) — will perform a concert originally scheduled for Dec. 7 and then postponed.
The program, without intermission, is one 80-minute work: the epic and influential “A Sea Symphony” by the great 20th-century British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (below).
General admission tickets are $18 for the general public and faculty or staff; and $10 for UW students. To reserve tickets, go to Campus Arts Ticketing at: https://artsticketing.wisc.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=412623A4-4FB9-40D6-BC23-A425360713EA
Beverly Taylor (below), the longtime director of choral activities at the UW who will retire this spring, sent the following note:
“The text by American poet Walt Whitman presents four symphonic scenes of great breadth and imagination, with lush harmonies and constantly varying tempos and dynamics.” (You can hear the Waves section, or third movement, from “A Sea Symphony” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
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Classical music: A public memorial for critic John W. Barker is this Sunday afternoon. You can also help honor him with a named chair at the UW-Madison’s new Hamel Music Center
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By Jacob Stockinger
You might recall that John W. Barker (below, in a photo by Mark Golbach) — a retired UW-Madison professor of medieval history and a longtime, well respected music critic, lecturer and radio host for WORT — died at 86 on Oct. 24.
His wife Margaret writes:
Dear Friends,
There will be a gathering to remember John at Capitol Lakes Retirement Center, 333 West Main Street – downtown and two blocks off the Capitol Square — this Sunday afternoon, Dec. 15, at 3:30 p.m. Please join us for memories and music. And please pass the word.
Barker wrote frequently for this blog as well as for Isthmus, The Capital Times and the American Record Review. He had a long, full life with distinguished careers in both history and music.
For a complete obituary, go to: https://madison.com/news/local/obituaries/barker-john-walton/article_04261147-4317-5cf2-9b6a-4098f3ffca06.html
Barker has already been honored by a special performance for him and then by the current season being dedicated to him by Middleton Community Orchestra; and by the Madison Early Music Festival, in which he was very active for many years, naming its annual concert lecture series after him.
Another way to honor Barker is to contribute to a project that is headed by local businesspeople Orange and Dean Schroeder, who founded the annual Handel Aria Competition, of which Barker was a founding board member who also served as a judge. The Schroeders write:
“Members of the Madison musical community have decided to honor John W. Barker by dedicating a seat in his memory in the new Hamel Music Center at the UW-Madison. The cost is $1,500 of which $950 has already been raised. If you would like to join us, please click on this link and specify that you are making the gift in his memory: https://secure.supportuw.org/give/?id=515d53cf-e8ff-4caa-9260-c7885c66b309
John W. Barker sang in choirs and loved choral music, like the last movement, “In Paradise,” of the Requiem by Gabriel Faure that you can hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.
Thank you, John. Rest in peace.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
The Madison Early Music Festival joins the UW-Madison School of Music’s regular program and undergoes a major revamping. There will be no more separate summer events, and the two directors will retire next spring
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By Jacob Stockinger
After refining the format over the past 20 years, the Madison Early Music Festival (below) has grown into a popular event that is recognized regionally, nationally and internationally. It usually takes place for about 10 days in July.
But no longer.
The Ear has received the following updates from the two co-founders and co-directors, singers Cheryl-Bensman Rowe and UW-Madison Professor Paul Rowe.
Curiously, no reasons or causes are given for the major changes and revamping, or for the cancellation of the event this summer.
The Ear suspects it has something to do with the lack of funding and the reorganizations and consolidations being carried out because of the budgetary effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the UW-Madison, the whole UW System and the performing arts scene in general.
But that could be completely wrong. We will probably find out more details in the near future.
For more information and background, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/2021/02/01/memf-school-of-music-announce-administrative-partnership/
And to sound off, please leave your reactions to the news in the comment section.
Here is the letter from the Rowes (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot):
Dear MEMF Supporters,
It is difficult to believe that February is over and spring is on its way. We hope everyone is having luck scheduling coronavirus vaccines, and that you have all stayed healthy throughout this past year.
We are writing to give you advance notice of the latest MEMF news before you read it in an upcoming press release.
Due to programming realignment in the UW-Madison Division of the Arts, the Madison Early Music Festival will become a program of the Mead Witter School of Music, which will be our new administrative home.
After much discussion with the Director of the School of Music and the Interim Director of the Division of the Arts, the details of the move have been finalized.
The School of Music is excited to bring MEMF into its programming, and would like MEMF to be an integral part of the academic year so more students can have an opportunity to work with professionals in the field of early music.
At this point, in order to focus on this goal, the decision has been made to discontinue the summer festival in its current (pre-pandemic) format.(You can hear a sample of that in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We know this is disappointing news, but at the same time we are excited that MEMF concerts, lectures and classes will now be offered in some capacity throughout the year.
Although MEMF will be taking a different direction than the one we have all known and loved over the past 20 years, we are thrilled that it will continue to provide early music learning and presentation opportunities through this new collaboration.
We also want to announce that the two of us will be retiring from MEMF in the spring of 2022 and new leadership will take the helm.
Current plans are to present a celebratory MEMF concert and workshop next spring with School of Music students and faculty and former MEMF participants and faculty.
We want all of you to know that we appreciate everything you have done for MEMF. Some of you have been involved for 21 years!
We are grateful for your support, the friendships we have made, and all the beautiful music we have heard and made together. The success of the festival would not have been possible without each and every one of you.
This is an exciting new journey for MEMF, although different from what we have known and experienced. We hope that you will continue to be involved in MEMF in its new format, and we hope to see you in the spring of 2022!
Thank you for all your generosity in so many ways,
Cheryl Bensman-Rowe and Paul Rowe, co-founders and co-artistic directors of the Madison Early Music Festival
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