The Well-Tempered Ear
This weekend, starting Friday night, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra finishes up its winter season of online chamber music
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is the time of the year when music groups generally announce their next season while finishing up the current one.
But of course the pandemic continues to shroud plans for the new upcoming season in uncertainty and whether it will be online or in-person.
Meanwhile, groups are in the final stretch of finishing up this season.
This Friday night, April 16, at 7:30 p.m., the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO, below in photo by Mike Gorski) will debut the fourth and last online chamber music concert of its curtailed and substituted winter season.
The varied program includes works, both well-known and neglected, by four composers — from Italy, Russia, France and Austria — who come from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The concert begins with the complete Concerto for Four Violins in B minor, RV 580, by Antonio Vivaldi (below). The string accompaniment will be scaled down.
Then comes the complete Septet for Winds, Strings and Piano by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (below).
The first and third movements of the Nonet by the rediscovered 19th-century French composer Louise Ferenc come next. (Here is the Wikipedia link to Ferenc (below):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Farrenc
The final music will be the first, fourth and fifth movements – including the famous theme-and-variations – of the famously tuneful “Trout” Piano Quintet by Franz Schubert (below).
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the namesake theme-and-variations movement — based on one of Schubert’s songs — played by Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline du Pre and Zubin Mehta, with a graphical depiction of the score.
The concert lasts 60-75 minutes.
Tickets are $30.
Here is a link to program notes by WCO music director and conductor Andrew Sewell (below, in a photo by Alex Cruz) and to purchasing a ticket through the Overture Center box office.
The ticket is good for one viewing between Friday night and Monday night, April 19, at 7:30 p.m.
https://wcoconcerts.org/events/winter-chamber-series-no-iv
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The UW Symphony Orchestra performs a FREE online concert Thursday night and Friday night the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra debuts its second chamber music concert. But in-person micro-concerts on Sunday by the the Willy Street Chamber Players are sold-out
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By Jacob Stockinger
The second half of the music season is well under way, with just about every major group performing online – or in one case even in person.
Here are three selections this week:
THURSDAY
Two of the most musically and technically impressive concerts The Ear heard last semester took place at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. They were by the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Oriol Sans (below).
First, Sans conducted a socially distanced and virtual all-strings concert (below).
Then, for the second concert, the conductor had the winds and brass – which spray dangerous aerosol droplets – record their parts individually. Then for the live performance, Sans donned earphones and masterfully combined all the forces into a full orchestra performance (below).
You can see similar results – with percussion joining for the strings for the last piece — this Thursday night, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. on YouTube when the UW Symphony Orchestra live-streams a 90-muinute concert from the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the Hamel Music Center. No in-person attendance is allowed.
Here is the program:
I Crisantemi (Chyrsanthemums) by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), with Michael Dolan, guest conductor
“Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout” by contemporary American composer Gabriela Lena Frank (b. 1972) Coqueteos (Flirtations)
“Carmen” Suite (after the opera by Georges Bizet) by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin (b.1932): Introduction; Dance; Carmen’s entrance and Habanera Torero; Adagio; Fortune-telling; and Finale.
Here is a link to the live-streamed video: https://youtu.be/GSrMLKrjlVg
And here is a link to more information, including program notes and the names of members of the orchestra: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra-2/
FRIDAY NIGHT
On Friday night at 7:30 p.m. the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below, in a photo by Mike Gorski) will offer the second of its Winter Chamber Series. It will run between 60 and 75 minutes.
There will be string, brass and percussion music by Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Steve Reich, Craig H. Russell and Thomas Siwe. Be aware that three of the works – string quartets by Mozart and Beethoven and a string sonata by Rossini — are presented in excerpts. That is not listed on the webpage.
The cost for one-time access between Friday night and Monday night is $30.
Here is a link to more information, including a link to ticket sales from the Overture Center box office and program notes by WCO music director and conductor Andrew Sewell (below, in a photo by Alex Cruz): https://wcoconcerts.org/events/winter-chamber-series-no-ii
SOLD-OUT
The Micro-concerts scheduled for this coming Sunday, Feb. 28, by the esteemed Willy Street Chamber Players (below), are SOLD-OUT.
The 10-minute private concerts for two, which require masks and social distancing for all, are perhaps the most innovative move by any local music group during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ear, who expects concert habits to change after the pandemic, thinks such micro-concerts have a very bright future even after the pandemic is under control and audiences can return safely to mass events.
The concert are pay-what-you can but a $20 donation for two was suggested.
For more information about the micro-concerts, listen to the YouTube video at the bottom and go to: http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org/micro-concerts.html
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Classical music: This Sunday afternoon, the Madison Symphony Orchestra takes listeners “Behind the Score” of the Symphony No. 5 by Prokofiev
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon, Jan. 19, at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) and MSO music director John DeMain will present the story behind Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 with “Beyond the Score®: Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No. 5: Pure Propaganda?”
The one performance-only concert is a multimedia examination of the Russian composer’s musical celebration of the end of World War II. (You can hear the second movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The presentation stars American Players Theatre actors James Ridge (below top), Colleen Madden (below second), Marcus Truschinski (below third) and Sarah Day (below bottom).
Along with MSO pianist Dan Lyons (below), the concert experience features visual projections, photos and musical excerpts.
Then in the second half comes a full and uninterrupted performance of the Symphony No. 5 by the orchestra conducted by John DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad).
“This is one of the great offerings of Beyond the Score,” says DeMain. “Three generations of great Russian composers influenced Sergei Prokofiev (below) from childhood into his adult years, helping him create the most popular of his big symphonies, his fifth.
Adds DeMain: “I have so much fun working with the great actors from the American Players Theatre as they interweave the backstory with the orchestra. The visuals for this production are spectacular. After intermission, we play this wonderful symphony in its entirety.”
Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 was published in 1944. Taking inspiration from his experiences in America and his return to the Soviet homeland after the war, Prokofiev expresses the heroic, beautiful and strong nature of the music.
This Beyond the Score production joins Prokofiev at the end of World War II and discovers his inspiration for Symphony No. 5.
Incorporating war video footage and propaganda photos, the program presents the historical context behind the classical piece turned masterpiece.
CONCERT, TICKET AND EVENT DETAILS
The lobby opens 90 minutes prior to each concert. The symphony recommends concert attendees arrive early for each performance to make sure they have time to pass through Overture Center’s security stations.
Program notes are available online for viewing in advance of the concerts: http://bit.ly/msojan20programnotes
- Single Tickets are $16-$70 each and are on sale now at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/beyond-the-score-2020-prokofiev/through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online/phone sales.
- Groups of 10 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit, https://www.madisonsymphony.org/groups.
- Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
ABOUT BEYOND THE SCORE®
For newcomers to classical music and longtime aficionados alike, each Beyond the Score® presentation is a dramatic exploration of a composer’s music.
Through live actors, stunning visual projections and virtuosic fragments of live music performed by members of the orchestra, the compelling story of the composer’s life and art unfolds, illuminating the world that shaped the music’s creation. Beyond the Score presentations weave together theater, music and design to draw audiences into the concert hall and into a work’s spirit.
The popular program seeks to open the door to the symphonic repertoire for first-time concertgoers as well as to encourage an active, more fulfilling way of listening for seasoned audiences.
At its core is the live format of musical extracts, spoken clarification, theatrical narrative, and hand-paced projections on large central surfaces, performed in close synchrony.
After each program, audiences return from intermission to experience the resulting work performed in a regular concert setting, equipped with a new understanding of its style and genesis.
Beyond the Score® is a production of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gerard McBurney, Creative Director for Beyond the Score®
Exclusive funding for this concert is provided by the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.
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Classical music: Here is the corrected program for the Oakwood Chamber Players, who open the new year with music by Mozart and Stravinsky plus new music by living composers this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
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CORRECTION: By mistake, The Ear earlier posted the wrong program for the Oakwood Chamber Players this weekend. Here is the correct information. The Ear apologizes for the error and any inconvenience.
By Jacob Stockinger
The first concerts for the new year by the Oakwood Chamber Players (below) will be take place this Saturday night, Jan. 11, at 7 p.m., and Sunday afternoon, Jan. 12, at 2 p.m., at the Oakwood Village University Woods Center for Arts and Education at 6209 Mineral Point Road in Madison, on Madison far west side near West Towne Mall.
The program begins with a witty opener, “L’Heure de Berger” by French composer Jean Francaix (below) for woodwind quintet and piano. The piece’s three movements cleverly depict the quirky personalities of patrons observed at a Parisian restaurant.
“Y Deryn Pur” for oboe, violin, viola and cello — by the award-winning British composer Cecilia McDonald (below) is based on an expressive Welsh folk tune, “The Gentle Dove.”
Written early in his career, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s “Pastorale” is a soothing song without words for a mixed quintet of winds and strings. It is a delicate piece originally written for voice and piano, then re-orchestrated for the sustained sonorities of a chamber ensemble.
“Silver Dagger” is a plaintive tale told through a traditional Appalachian folk song and re-envisioned emotionally and dramatically for violin, cello and piano by American composer Stacy Garrop (below).
The “Suite Belle Epoque in Sud-America” was written for the Berlin Woodwind Quintet by Brazilian composer and conductor Julio Medaglia (below). It bursts with vitality and expressive melodies while celebrating a variety of South American musical styles. (You can hear his suite in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The perennial simplicity, beauty and warmth of Mozart are showcased in his “Adagio in F,” performed by bassoon and string trio.
The program concludes with “Ralph’s Old Records” by Kenji Bunch (below) – a fresh and humorous composition for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano that takes listeners through a series of brief movements inspired by an old family record collection.
Tickets are available at the door and are priced at $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $5 for students, or at www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com
The Oakwood Chamber Players are a professional music ensemble supported by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries and the Oakwood Foundation
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Classical music: A FREE concert of stripped down Opera Scenes takes place this Tuesday night at UW-Madison
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By Jacob Stockinger
It has been a busy week for students and staff in the opera program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.
Last week saw three sold-out and critically acclaimed performances of Benjamin Britten’s opera “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Here is a review: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/11/23/classical-music-university-opera-succeeded-brilliantly-by-staging-brittens-a-midsummer-nights-dream-as-a-pop-project-of-andy-warhol-and-the-factory-in-the-1960s/
This week – on Tuesday night, Nov. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Music Hall (below) at the foot of Bascom Hill – the UW-Madison Opera Workshop will present a concert that presents a series of stripped down, quasi-staged opera scenes. There is piano accompaniment instead of an orchestra, and sometimes a prop with the suggestion of a costume instead of full costumes and full sets.
Admission is FREE to the public and no tickets are required.
David Ronis (below top, in a photo by Luke Delalio) and Mimmi Fulmer (below bottom) are the directors, and Ben Hopkins is the Teaching Assistant
No specific roles, arias or works are listed.
But the program features scenes from: “Werther” by the French composer Jules Massenet; “Fidelio” by Ludwig van Beethoven; “Little Women” by American composer Mark Adamo (below top); “Eugene Onegin” by Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky; “A Little Night Music” by American Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim; “Dead Man Walking” by American composer Jake Heggie (below bottom); and “Hansel and Gretel” by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck.
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Classical music: Award-winning prodigy pianist Maxim Lando performs a recital at Farley’s on Sunday afternoon and gives a free public master class on Saturday afternoon
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ALERT: At noon this Saturday, Nov. 16, Grace Presents offers a FREE one-hour concert by Lawren Brianna Ware and friends. The concert is at Grace Episcopal Church, 116 West Washington Avenue, downtown on the Capitol Square.
Pianist and composer Ware, the 2017 Grand Prize Winner of the Overture Rising Stars Competition, will perform a program of original, contemporary and classical solo and chamber works entitled “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.” Featured are works by Aram Khachaturian, Fazil Say, Frederic Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert W. Smith, Martin Ellerby and Eric Ewazen.
By Jacob Stockinger
You have to hand it to Farley’s House of Pianos and its Salon Piano Series: They sure know how to book young up-and-coming performers to stay ahead of the curve.
Last season, they presented Kenneth Broberg, a silver medalist at the last Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, before he was accepted into the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, where he won a bronze medal.
This weekend, the Salon Piano Series presents another timely choice.
This Sunday afternoon, Nov. 17, at 4 p.m., the 17-year-old American piano prodigy Maxim Lando (below, in a photo by Matt Dine) will perform a solo recital at Farley’s showroom, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall.
Once again, Lando was booked just before winning a big award and honor.
In addition, at his Salon Piano Series premiere, Lando will have grandparents in the audience, as well as an aunt, uncle and cousins, all from the Madison area.
The son of pianist Pippa Borisy, who grew up in Madison, and clarinetist Vadim Lando, Maxim was raised in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, and has a full-time career as a touring pianist while still finishing high school.
Lando first received national attention in 2017 when he performed with superstar Chinese pianist Lang Lang and jazz great Chick Corea with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall’s Gala Opening Night.
He won the 2018 Young Concert Artists auditions at the age of 16 and Susan Hall of Berkshire Fine Arts has described him as having “a very old musical soul.”
This fall he received a Gilmore 2020 Young Artist Award, which recognizes the most promising of the new generation of U.S.-based pianists, age 22 or younger. He will perform a series of concerts this season at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival as part of the recognition.
For this Salon Piano Series concert, Lando will perform the same program he performed for recent sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Lando’s program includes: Nikolai Kapustin’s Concert Etude “Toccatina”; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 (you can hear the opening movement in the YouTube video at the bottom); Alexander Scriabin’s Prelude in B major and Etude in D-sharp minor; and Franz Liszt’s “Transcendental Etudes.”
Tickets are $45 in advance (full-time students are $10) or $50 at the door (if any remain). Service fees may apply. Student tickets can only be purchased online and are not available the day of the concert.
Tickets can be purchased at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4275212
An artist’s reception will follow the concert.
For more information, go to: https://salonpianoseries.org/concerts.html
MASTER CLASS
Also, on this Saturday, Nov. 16, at 4 p.m., Maxim Lando will teach a master class at Farley’s House of Pianos, where he will instruct four local students.
This is a free event that the public is invited to observe.
For a complete list of the music by Beethoven, Prokofiev and Clementi to be performed as well as the names of the local students and their teachers, go to: https://salonpianoseries.org/concerts.html
The master classes for the 2019-20 season are supported by the law firm of Boardman and Clark LLP.
This concert is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Classical music: This afternoon is your last chance to hear rave-winning performances by pianist Joyce Yang and the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Here’s a review to read
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By Jacob Stockinger
This afternoon — Sunday, Nov. 10 — at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall is your last chance to hear South Korean pianist Joyce Yang and the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) under the baton of music director John DeMain.
The program features the exciting, popular and beautiful Piano Concerto No. 3 by the Russian modernist composer Sergei Prokofiev as well as “Newly Drawn Sky” by contemporary American composer and Yale School of Music professor Aaron Jay Kernis (below) and the Symphony No. 2 by the German Romantic master Robert Schumann.
For more information about the performers, the program and tickets, go to: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2019/11/04/classical-music-this-weekend-prize-winning-pianist-joyce-yang-solos-in-prokofievs-most-popular-piano-concerto-with-the-madison-symphony-orchestra-works-by-schumann-and-aaron-jay-kernis-are/
The prize-winning Yang (below), who at 19 won the silver medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, rewarded a standing ovation with the late Earl Wild’s virtuosic arrangement of George Gershwin’s song “The Man I Love,” which you can hear Yang play in the YouTube video at the bottom.
The reviews that have appeared so far agreed: It is a rave-winning concert with special attention going to Yang, who is making her MSO debut after performing a solo recital several years ago at the Wisconsin Union Theater.
The Ear cannot find a link to the rave review by Bill Wineke for Channel 3000.
But here is the rapturous review that Michael Muckian wrote for Isthmus:
https://isthmus.com/music/joyce-yang-triumphs-with-prokofiev/
But you be the critic.
What did you think of Joyce Yang and the MSO?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: This weekend guest violinist Rachel Barton Pine solos with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in an all-Russian program
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend the acclaimed Chicago violinist Rachel Barton Pine (below) makes her debut with the Madison Symphony Orchestra playing Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D minor.
The concert by the orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) opens with Prokofiev’s Suite from Lieutenant Kijé and concludes with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9.
Performances will be held in Overture Hall, 201 State St., on Friday night, Oct. 18, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday night, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, Oct. 20, at 2:30 p.m. in Overture Hall. Tickets are $19-$95. See below for details.
“There will be great discoveries in our all-Russian concert, starting with the MSO debut of virtuoso violinist Rachel Barton Pine playing the Khachaturian Violin Concerto, a big, bold and beautiful work in its MSO premiere,” said MSO music director and conductor John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson). Lieutenant Kijé is sure to delight you with its wonderful melodies and infectious rhythms. Shostakovich has become a favorite with our audiences, and his ninth symphony is delightfully upbeat.”
Lieutenant Kijé is the fictional protagonist of an anecdote about the reign of Emperor Paul I of Russia. The story was used as the basis of a novella by Yury Tynyanov published in 1928 and filmed in 1934, with music by Sergei Prokofiev (below). The plot is a satire on bureaucracy and is often parodied in fictional works making fun of bureaucracies, most famously in the form of the M*A*S*H television episode “Tuttle,” featuring a fictional captain of similar provenance. (You can hear the popular “Troika” episode in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Many of the themes in Violin Concerto in D minor are evocative of the native Armenia of Aram Khachaturian (below). Although the folk melodies aren’t played explicitly, one can hear the Armenian roots through the oriental essence of the scales and the rhythmic range of the featured dances. The piece won the Stalin Prize in 1941, becoming one of Khachaturian’s favorites.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 is entirely unlike his other symphonies. In fact, it completely disregards the expectations for its programmatic elements. Shostakovich’s prior two symphonies are thematically tied to the ongoing war, therefore the public presumed that the ninth symphony would be a grand culmination to Stalin and mark the end of World War II. Instead, the composer (below) produced a short, neo-classical work that generated an abundance of controversy.
ABOUT RACHEL BARTON PINE
In both art and life, violinist Rachel Barton Pine (below) – who has performed in Madison before with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra — has an extraordinary ability to connect with people.
Celebrated as a leading interpreter of great classic and contemporary works, her performances combine her innate gift for emotional communication and her scholarly fascination with historical research. She plays with passion and conviction, thrilling audiences worldwide with her dazzling technique, lustrous tone, and infectious joy in music-making.
A prolific recording artist, she has also championed the works of female composers and African-American composers.
Pine was also recently named the recipient of the Cedille Records Musical Partnership Award for her Rachel Barton Pine Foundation. The Foundation was recognized as an organization that has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to the classical music community in Chicago. Cedille noted the Foundation’s “support of the Chicago musical community’s most valuable asset — its musicians and composers.”
Pine was presented with the award by U.S Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg whose son, Jim Ginsburg, founded Cedille Records. Pine began her Foundation in 2001 to provide instruments and instruction to children who might not otherwise be able to afford them.
You can read the Artist Story online about how Rachel Barton Pine overcame severe injuries and her own personal adversity to achieve her goals: https://madisonsymphony.org/19-20-artist-story-rachel-barton-pine-overcomes-adversity/
CONCERT, TICKET AND EVENT DETAILS
The lobby opens 90 minutes prior to each concert.
One hour before each performance, retired MSO trombonist and UW-Whitewater professor Michael Allsen (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) will lead a 30-minute Prelude Discussion in Overture Hall to enhance concertgoers’ understanding and listening experience. It is free to ticket holders.
The MSO recommends that concert attendees arrive early for each performance to make sure they have time to pass through Overture Center’s security stations, and so they can experience the Prelude Discussion.
Program notes for the concerts are available online: http://bit.ly/msooct19programnotes.
- Single Tickets are $19-$95 each and are on sale now at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/rachel-barton-pine-plays-khachaturian/through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online/phone sales.
- Groups of 10 or more can save 25% by calling the MSO office at (608) 257-3734. For more information, visit, https://www.madisonsymphony.org/groups.
- Student rush tickets can be purchased in person on the day of the concert at the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street. Students must show a valid student ID and can receive up to two $15 or $20 tickets. More information is at: https://www.madisonsymphony.org/studentrush
- Seniors age 62 and up receive 20% savings on advance and day-of-concert ticket purchases in select areas of the hall.
- Flex-ticket booklets of 8-10 vouchers for 19-20 symphony subscription concerts are available. Learn more at: https://madisonsymphony.org/flex
- Subscriptions for the 2019–2020 season are available now. Learn more at: https://madisonsymphony.org/19-20
Discounted seats are subject to availability, and discounts may not be combined.
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Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra is offering an unlimited, season-starting single ticket sale with 20 percent off, through this Saturday
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By Jacob Stockinger
For the first time ever, the Madison Symphony Orchestra (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) is offering a sale on tickets to the first three concerts this season.
You will get 20 percent off if you buy tickets through the Overture Center box office in person, by phone (608 258-4141) or online at https://www.overture.org/events
The discount code to say or use is FIRST3SYMPHONY.
Be forewarned: You will NOT find the ticket sale on the MSO website.
There is no limit of how many tickets you can buy, says MSO marketing director Peter Rodgers who also said the traditional holiday ticket sale, with two-tiered discount pricing, will take place as usual from Dec. 16 through Dec. 31.
The season-starting sale runs through this coming Saturday, Aug. 31. You can get discounted single tickets to the concerts on Sept. 27-29, Oct. 18-20 and Nov. 8-10 with performances on Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m.
Ticket prices range from $19-$95, up about 2 percent from last year to keep up with inflation, Rodgers added.
Why isn’t the sale on the MSO website?
“We did it digitally and in a printed brochure that we mailed out just to try and reach out to either season subscribers or people who have already bought single tickets before and have already been to the symphony,” says Rodgers. “We just wanted to give some people a little nudge. But anyone can take advantage of the sale.”
Rodgers also said that the inaugural sale is not being held because ticket sales are slow. “Ticket sales for this season are competitive with last season’s,” he said, adding that some buyers might use the sale to get tickets as birthday gifts or for other special occasions.
Although there is no limit to the number of single tickets an individual can buy, Rodgers said that once you get to 10, you are better off going with the usual 25 percent off group rate.
MSO music director John DeMain (below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) will conduct all performances of the first three concerts.
The September concerts open the season with MSO organ soloist Greg Zelek (below) and features the Overture to the opera “Tannhauser” by Richard Wagner; the “Toccata Festiva” by Samuel Barber; the tone poem “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” by Claude Debussy; and the Symphony No. 7 by Antonin Dvorak.
The October concerts feature guest violinist Rachel Barton Pine. The all-Russian and all-20th century program includes the Violin Concerto by Aram Khachaturian; the Symphony No. 9 by Dmitri Shostakovich; and the Suite from “Lieutenant Kije,” for trumpet and orchestra, by Sergei Prokofiev.
The November concerts feature guest pianist Joyce Yang. The program is the Symphony No. 2 by Robert Schumann; the Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev; and “Newly Drawn Sky” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Grammy Award-winning contemporary American composer Aaron Jay Kernis, who teaches at the Yale University School of Music. (You can hear “Newly Drawn Sky” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For more details about the three opening concerts and the entire 2019-20 season, including complete programs, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/concerts-events/2019-2020-symphony-season-concerts/
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Classical music: The experts said his music wouldn’t last. But Rachmaninoff and his fans proved them wrong. Hear for yourself this Wednesday night at this summer’s final Concert on the Square
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By Jacob Stockinger
The experts sure got it wrong.
Only 11 years after the death of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (below, 1873-1943) – also spelled Rachmaninov — the 1954 edition of the prestigious and authoritative “Grove Dictionary of Music” declared Rachmaninoff’s music to be “monotonous in texture … consist[ing] mainly of artificial and gushing tunes” and predicted that his popular success was “not likely to last.”
That opinion probably came from the same academicians who favored the atonal and serial composers at the time.
But Rachmaninoff’s music is so emotional, so beautiful and so easy for audiences to connect with that it can be a challenge to remember its serious backstory.
For example, much personal turmoil and anguish went into his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18, which headlines this Wednesday night’s final summer Concert on the Square by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
(Other works on the program, to be performed at 7 p.m. on the King Street corner of the Capitol Square, are the Overture to “The Magic Flute” by Mozart, the Firebird” Suite by Igor Stravinsky, the “Cornish Rhapsody” for piano and orchestra by Hubert Bath.)
For more information – including rules, food and etiquette — about the concert, go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/concerts-on-the-square-6-4/
The perfectly chosen soloist is the Russia-born and Russia-trained pianist Ilya Yakushev (below), who has appeared several times with Andrew Sewell and the WCO as well as in solo recitals at Farley’s House of Pianos, where he will perform again this coming season as part of the Salon Piano Series.
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (1901) may well be the most popular piano concerto ever written, one that has often been used in many novels, movies and popular songs. Some would argue that Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (1910) has surpassed it in the popularity and frequency of performance.
True or not, the second concerto is a triumph of the human spirit and individual creativity. (You can hear the dramatic and lyrical opening movement, played live by Yuja Wang at the Verbier Festival, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
It was written in 1900-01 after the composer’s first symphony had not succeeded with the critics and when personal problems had overwhelmed him (below, around 1910).
Rachmaninoff fell into a severe depression that lasted four years. During that time he had daily sessions with a psychotherapist whose cure used hypnosis and repeating to the composer that one day soon he would write a piano concerto that prove very good and very popular.
And so it was. The therapist was Dr. Nikolai Dahl (below) — and that is whom the concerto is dedicated to.
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is often considered the Mount Everest of piano concertos for the sheer physicality and stamina required to play it.
Yet the composer himself — who premiered, recorded and often performed both concertos — said he thought the second concerto, although shorter, was more demanding musically, if not technically.
For more information about Rachmaninoff and his Piano Concerto No. 2 as well as its place in popular culture, go to these two Wikipedia websites where you will be surprised and impressed:
For the Piano Concerto No. 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._2_(Rachmaninoff)
For general biographical details about Rachmaninoff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Rachmaninoff
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