The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra and solo trumpeter Jessica Jensen score big with an unusual program
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The concert by the largely amateur Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by Margaret Barker) on Wednesday night presented a novel program at the Middleton Performing Arts Center.
In the relatively brief first part, it presented two unusual items.
The first was by Nebojsa “Neb” Macura (b. 1982, below right with conductor Steve Kurr), a local musician of Serbian background, who has been particularly identified with Russian folk music and ensembles. But he also plays viola in the MCO, which gave him this opportunity in the spotlight.
His piece, Polar Night, is quite brief, but in this version for full orchestra (with piano), it is grounded with secure melodic flow, and it unfolds into a tonal picture full of beautiful colors. My only reservation was that I wanted more of it — either more music in this piece or other sections around it.
Macura is obviously talented, and he has a confident sense of orchestral writing. I really look forward to hearing more of him. Indeed, the MCO might well serve as exactly the laboratory in which he can develop new creations.
The second item was only a bit longer, a Trumpet Concerto by Russian composer Aleksandra Pakhmutova (b. 1929, below). Her long career has involved her in jazz, and also in extensive scoring for films. But she has a feeling for Russian traditional song, and that could be heard in this concerto.
It is cast in only a single movement, but it proceeds episodically. There is certainly much flashy writing for the solo instrument, and local trumpeter Jessica Jensen (below) brought off her role dashingly.
The longer second part of the concert was devoted to the Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” by Robert Schumann. This splendid work was inspired by observation of life along the Rhine River.
It is unusual in being written in five movements, not the conventional four. (Oddly, their individual markings were not printed in the program, but conductor Steve Kurr (below) gave a clever spoken introduction that outlined the score for the audience.)
This is a very extroverted work, calling for a lot of orchestral sonority. I suspect that a little more rehearsal time would have helped the avoidance of some blemishes: rapid passages, especially in the first movement, were roughly articulated, and there were some tiny gaffes all along.
But the players were devoted in responding to maestro Kurr’s rather propulsive tempos. This score gives a lot to do particularly to the horn section, which played with ardent splendor.
As always, then, the MCO earned further laurels for presenting this very adventurous program.
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Classical music: This Wednesday night, the Middleton Community Orchestra will perform a Russian trumpet concert and a new work by an orchestra member along with a famous Schumann symphony
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed Middleton Community Orchestra (below, in a photo by Brian Ruppert) to post:
“For our winter concert, we are excited to welcome trumpeter Jessica Jensen back to the stage on this Wednesday night, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. to perform the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by Aleksandra Pakhmutova with the musicians of the Middleton Community Orchestra led by conductor Steve Kurr (below).
“I am beyond thrilled to be playing Aleksandra Pakhmutova’s Trumpet Concerto with the Middleton Community Orchestra,” says Jensen (below).
“After completing her concerto in 1955, Pakhmutova (below) — who is still actively composing and performing today at the age of 89 — cultivated a legendary career as one of Russia’s top film and popular music composers.
“Her future cinematic success was foreshadowed in her trumpet concerto as parts of it sound as though they could have been taken directly out of the score to a 1950s film. Week after week the MCO adds a new electricity to the work. I cannot wait to share this rarely performed fiery, dramatic piece with everyone.”
The program will open with “Polar Nights,” a piece composed by MCO violist Nebojsa Macura (below), who says: “‘Polar Nights’ uses a variety of instrumental colors to conjure up images of winter above the Arctic Circle. I’m tremendously honored to perform my own piece as a member of such a dedicated orchestra.”
The program will conclude with the famous Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish” by Robert Schumann. (You can hear the lyrical second movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The concert is at the Middleton Performing Arts Center, which is attached to Middleton High School at 2100 Bristol Street.
General admission is $15. All students are admitted free of charge. Tickets are available at the door and at Willy St. Coop West.
The box office opens at 6:30 p.m. and the concert hall doors open at 7 p.m.
A meet-and-greet reception (below) follows the concert.
Tags: #AleksandraPakhmutova, #AlexandraPahkmutova, #AlexandraPakhmutova, #AmateurMusicians, #ArcticCircle, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BoxOffice, #ConcertHall, #CriticalAcclaim, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FamousComposer, #FamousMusic, #FilmScore, #JessicaJensen, #LyricalMusic, #Meet-and-Greet, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #MiddletonHighSchool, #MiddletonPerformingArtsCenter, #MiddletonWisconsin, #NebojsaMacura, #PolarNights, #PopularMusic, #RhenishSymphony, #RhineRiver, #RobertSchumann, #RussianComposer, #RussianMusic, #Sovietcomposer, #SovietUnion, #SteveKurr, #TheEar, #TrumpetConcerto, #TrumpetMusic, #WillySt.Coop, #WillySt.CoopWest, #WillyStreetCoopWest, #WomanComposer, #YouTubevideo, acclaim, active, admission, Aleksandra Pakhmutova, Alexandra Pahkmutova, Alexandra Pakhmutova, Alexsandra Pakhmutova, amateur, annoucement, Arctic Circle, Arts, audience, auditorium, blog, box office, career, cinema, cinematic, Classical music, color, composer, Concert, concert hall, concerto, conductor, critic, critically, dedicated, dramatic, electricity, Facebook, famous, fiery, film, fire, forward, greet, honor, image, instrumental, Jacob Stockinger, Jessica Jensen, legendary, like, link, lyrical, Madison, meet, member, Middleton, Middleton Community Orchestra, Middleton High School, Middleton Performing Arts Center, movie, Music, musicians, Nebojsa Macura, night, Orchestra, performer, piece, playing, polar, Polar Nights, popular music, post, posting, program, reception, Rhenish, Rhine, Rhine River, Robert Schumann, Russia, Russian, share, Sound, soundtrack, Soviet composer, Soviet Union, Steve Kurr, success, symphony, tag, The Ear, top, Trumpet, trumpeter, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, violist, week, Willy Street, Willy Street Co-op, Willy Street Coop West, winter, Wisconsin, woman, YouTube
Classical music: TONIGHT through Sunday night, the Ancora String Quartet reprises the program it just performed on a 10-day tour of Germany
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ancora String Quartet (below, in a photo by Barry Lewis) has sent the following announcement about its upcoming concerts in Wisconsin – including two in Madison – that will reprise the group’s recent tour to Germany.
Members are (below, from left) violinist Wes Luke, violinist Robin Ryan, violist Marika Fischer Hoyt; and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb.
“The Ancora String Quartet (below, rehearsing in Nieder-Olm during the tour) is fresh back from Germany, our first overseas tour, which we called “Deutsch-Amerikanische “Träume,” or “German-American Dreams.”
“We are partnering with a wonderful mezzo-soprano, Melinda Paulsen, who serves on the voice faculty at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.
“Together, we have prepared a program of works by German and American composers, for string quartet, and for mezzo-soprano and quartet.
“We spent 10 fabulous days in Germany in August of 2018, performing at town halls, concert halls, churches, and a music school, in Nieder-Olm, Frankfurt, Vellmar, Schlitz and St. Goar on the Rhine. It was wonderful and we can’t wait to go back again in future years.
“We are back in Madison now with Melinda, to perform this same program in concert venues around the state of Wisconsin.
“We are grateful for funding from several German organizations, and from the Kassel-Dane Sister County Task Force.
“Melinda and the members of this quartet (below, in Schlitz) are thrilled that this project has taken shape, are pleased with our recent reception in Germany, and look forward to sharing with Wisconsin audiences a program exploring the intersections between two cultures that are quite distinct today, but which share deep, common roots.”
Here is the “German-American Dreams” Tour, Sept. 4-9, at venues in Wisconsin
Admission is FREE except where noted
- TONIGHT, Tuesday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. at Capitol Lakes Grand Hall, Madison
- Wednesday, Sept. 5 at noon on The Midday on Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison and at 6 p.m. at Germantown Community Library, Germantown
- Thursday, Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Light Recital Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. For ticket information, go to: https://mastercal.uww.edu/MasterCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?data=hHr80o3M7J72xlWbKk4NucsOjgrgFcp7yGVHvRRLZ2VDe4XLariznlZrFvCFdeeY
- Friday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Janesville Women’s Club
- Saturday, Sept. 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Eaton Chapel, Beloit College
- Sunday, Sept. 9, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Madison. Admission is $15.
PROGRAM
“Dover Beach” by Samuel Barber
Drei Lieder (Three Songs) by Viktor Ullmann
“Melancholia,” Op. 13, by Paul Hindemith
Intermission
Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11, by Samuel Barber (with the more transparent slow movement that later became the orchestral “Adagio for Strings,” heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
“Wesendonck” Lieder, WWV 91 (arranged by Stefan Heucke) by Richard Wagner
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Classical music: Brazilian pianist Alexandre Dossin makes his Madison debut Friday night with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in an overlooked masterpiece of American Romanticism. Plus, the amateur Madison Community Symphony Orchestra performs a FREE all-Russian program on Friday night at MATC
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ALERT 1: This week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features violinist Wendy Adams and pianist Ann Aschbacher in music by Schubert, Brahms and Hovhaness.
ALERT 2: The amateur Madison Community Symphony Orchestra will perform a FREE concert Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Norman Mitty Theater, 1701 Wright Street on the Madison Area Technical College campus on the east side. The all-Russian program, under the baton of Blake Walter of Edgewood College, features works by Glazunov, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Balakirev. For more information and the complete program, go to: http://www.madisoncommunityorchestra.org/pages/concerts.htm
By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below top), under music director Andrew Sewell (below bottom), always puts together memorable programs, often with new and exciting soloists plus neglected or little known repertoire.
That is once again the promise of the WCO concert this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 201 State St.
Tickets are $15-$80. See below.
First, the program offers the Madison debut of Alexandre Dossin (below), the 2003 winner of the Martha Argerich International Piano Competition.
Trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Dossin seems a power player. Little wonder that he has recorded music by Liszt, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky and Leonard Bernstein for Naxos Records as well as by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky for G. Schirmer Music. You can also hear and see a lot of his performances on YouTube.
Moreover, Dossin, who has taught at the UW-Eau Claire and the University of Louisiana and who now teaches at the University of Oregon, will be playing a relatively neglected masterpiece of American Romantic music: the Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 23, by Edward MacDowell (below).
MacDowell’s work is a dark, dramatic and virtuosic work that was once championed by Van Cliburn. (You can hear Cliburn with the third movement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the late Walter Hendl in the YouTube video at the bottom.).
For most listeners, that will be the discovery of the evening.
Rounding out the program are two more widely known masterpieces: the Orchestral Suite No. 4 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” by Robert Schumann.
The Ear is especially pleased that the WCO is doing Bach.
Too often modern instrument groups defer to period-instrument ensembles for Bach – which means that audiences don’t hear as much Bach (below) as they should and as previous generations did, as the prize-winning composer John Harbison has often lamented in public.
Of course, it is safe to bet that the WCO will borrow some of the faster tempi and historically informed performance techniques from the early music movement. Still, The Ear says Bravo to the programming of Bach by a group that uses modern instruments. We can always use more Bach.
The symphony by Robert Schumann (below) will also have an unusual, if subtle, aspect to its performance.
It is usually played by larger symphony orchestras. But using a chamber orchestra creates a certain intimacy and lends a transparency that reveals structure and themes in an engaging way. Yannick Nézet-Séguin – the highly acclaimed music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and music director-designate of the Metropolitan Opera — recently proved that with his outstanding recording of the four symphonies by Robert Schumann (below) with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
For more background and information about tickets, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-iii-3/
For more information about Alexandre Dossin, go to his two websites:
http://www.dossin.net/alexandredossin/Welcome.html
https://music.uoregon.edu/people/faculty/adossin
Tags: #AlanHovhaness, #AlexanderGlazunov, #AlexandreDossin, #AndrewSewell, #AramKhachaturian, #BaroqueMusic, #CapitolTheater, #ChamberOrchestraofEurope, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #EdgewoodCollege, #EdwardMacDowell, #FirstUnitarianSocietyofMadison, #FranzLiszt, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #InstrumentalMusic, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnHarbison, #LeonardBernstein, #MadisonCommunitySymphonyOrchestra, #MarthaArgerich, #MetropolitanOpera, #MilyBalakirev, #NaxosRecords, #OvertureCenter, #PeriodInstruments, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PhiladelphiaOrchestra, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #RobertSchumann, #RussianMusic, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SergeiRachmaninov, #TheMet, #UnitarianSociety, #UniversityofLouisiana, #UniversityofOregon, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Eau Claire, #VanCliburn, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #YannickNezet-Seguin, Alan Hovhaness, amateur, America, American, Arts, Bach, Balakirev, Baroque, Bernstein, Blake Walter, Brazil, Capitol Theater, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Chicago, Classical music, Compact Disc, Competition, composer, concerto, dark, dramatic, Early music, earlymusic, easy music, Edgewood College, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Franz Schubert, G. Schirmer, hear, historically informed performance practices, Hovhaness, instrument, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Harbison, Kabalevsky, Leonard Bernstein, Liszt, Madison, Martha Argerich, masterpiece, memorable, Met, Metropolitan Opera, modern, Moscow, Music, Music director, Naxos Records, Orchestra, Oregon, Overture Center, performance, period instruments, period-instrument, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Philadelphia Orchestra, Piano, program, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, repertoire, Rhenish, Rhine River, Romantic, Romanticism, Schirmer, Schumann, see, soloist, symphony, Tchaikovsky, tempi, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Van Cliburn, Violin, web site, Website, winner, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, YouTube
Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet will go on a 10-day tour of Germany next August, then tour Wisconsin the follwing month
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you went to the Ancora String Quartet’s summer concert last Saturday night, you not only heard some outstanding performances of music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Ludwig van Beethoven – along with some rarely heard music by Danish composer Niels Gade.
In case you missed it, here is a review:
You also got the lowdown on some big news for the chamber music group that just finished its 16th season. Members (below from right in a photo by Barry Lewis) are violinists Wes Luke and Robin Ryan; violist Marika Fischer Hoyt; and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb. (You can hear an earlier membership of the quartet performing music by Grieg in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
In August of 2018, the Ancora String Quartet will go on a 10-day tour of Germany. (They could have been gone for longer, a quartet member explained, but the time is limited by some of the day jobs that some members have.) They will perform concerts in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Kassel and in some castles along the Rhine River.
The string quartet will perform with Melinda Paulsen (below), a mezzo-soprano who is based in Frankfurt, where she also teaches. Born in America, she studied music at Swarthmore College and has made a name for herself in Germany singing and recording operas as well as cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The quartet and Paulsen are deciding on suitable repertoire for that combination of voice and string quartet, which includes works by Richard Wagner, Ottorino Respighi and Samuel Barber.
Then in September, the singer will come to Wisconsin and tour the state with the Ancora String Quartet. The stops in both countries are still being finalized, but Madison and the UW-Whitewater, where the cellist teaches, seem to be sure bets, according to a quartet member.
In other news, according to the quartet’s spokesperson, the Ancora will also soon announce its new season, and there will be some special fundraising concerts during the coming season.
The Ancora, with help from Audio for the Arts, will also soon post some recent concerts on YouTube.
The Ear sends his congratulations and thinks the quartet has been working hard, and turning in many outstanding performances, for many years in order to deserve and get this kind of honor.
Bravo!
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