The Well-Tempered Ear
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s new CD and Friday night concert champion racial diversity
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By Jacob Stockinger
“Musical Landscapes in Color” is a five-year initiative by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra with its award-winning, composer-in-residence Dr. William Banfield (below), who has produced a body of work in the past 25 years that includes music, books, teaching and creative work that contributes to contemporary arts leadership.
The cultural undertaking aims to elevate the voices of an array of living, diverse composers of color throughout the United States. The project represents a significant step towards diversifying the classical music landscape through compositions and audiences, according to the WCO.
The first of several installments (below) — “Harmony in Black” — has just been released by Albany Records.
The album is available in a physical format and for digital streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube, where you can sample it at the bottom.
Performed and recorded live on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, it features excerpts from three compositions: one by four-time Grammy nominee Patrice Rushen entitled “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory”; and two by renowned composer Banfield entitled “Testimony of Tone, Tune, and Time” and “Symphony No. 8: Here I Stand.”
Their three compositions do not quote spiritual melodies directly, but do embody the spirit of those songs by drawing either on direct quotations of speeches or writings.
Multi-Grammy-nominated artist Patrice Rushen (below) is admired by many for her groundbreaking achievements including serving as Musical Director for the 46th, 47th and 48th Annual Grammy Awards.
CONTENTS:
Patrice Rushen: Movement 1: ”Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory”
Dr. William Banfield: (starting at 8:10): “Testimony of Tone, Tune and Time” — Symphony No. 8
Performers are: retired City of Madison, Dane County and State of Wisconsin Judge Paul Higginbotham (below) as the narrator; saxophonist Matthew Sintchak; and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under conductor and music director Andrew Sewell.
For more background, including a release reception, go to a story in Madison 365:
A WORLD PREMIERE THIS FRIDAY NIGHT
The project continues with a concert that takes place this Friday night, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center features the WORLD PREMIERE of Banfield’s Symphony No. 14 “Revelation.”
Guest artists include the Madison Youth Choirs, the Festival Choir of Madison and the Edgewood College Chamber Singers. Soloists include soprano Angela Brown, tenor Ben Johnson and baritone William Volmar.
Opening the 90-minute concert is Symphony No. 1 in G major, Op. 4 (1901) by British composer Edwin York Bowen, whose music shows influences of Rachmaninov, Chopin and Tchaikovsky.
Tickets are still available and cost $34.50, $75 and $95. For more information and tickets, go to: https://wcoconcerts.org/
Have you heard Banfield’s music?
What do you think of it?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Why did obituaries for pop star Eric Carmen omit Rachmaninoff?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The American songwriter and pop singer Eric Carmen (below) died in his sleep at 74 last Sunday. The cause has still not been revealed.
I haven’t checked out all the obituaries for Carmen, who fronted as the lead singer for The Raspberries before striking out on his own prolific and profitable career.
In the obits I did sample, I heard how the 2001 movie “Bridget Jones’s Diary” used Carmen’s “All By Myself” (1975) — with Renée Zellwegger on drums in the staring role — at the beginning of the hit film.
I heard how Céline Dion scored a huge hit with her version of the same song.
I heard praise quoted from the American superstar horror author, and sometimes amateur rock band member, Stephen King.
But all the obituaries thatI read on the web, saw on TV and heard on the radio omitted a central element of Carmen’s career in soft rock: his “theft” or “borrowing” — depending on what you think of his justification and the results of the lawsuit he lost — of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff (below).
Indeed, Carmen’s two biggest hits owe their irresistible melodies and harmonies — their tunes, if you will — to the Russian late Romantic composer (1873-1943).
Carmen — who was a trained classical pianist — certainly had a good ear, as his year-to-year, back-to-back hits demonstrated.
And he wasn’t ashamed to use what that ear heard and what he liked.
“All By Myself” uses a theme from the second movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (1901). The main melody of the last movement also gave rise to the often recorded popular song “Full Moon and Empty Arms.”
Carmen’s “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” (1976) uses the main theme from the slow movement of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 (1907).
If you liked Carmen’s songs, you just might like the original Rachmaninoff works, if you don’t already know them.
Here is a link to a story by Cynthia Dickison for yourclassical.org that not only recounts what happened with the lawsuit but also — with YouTube videos — offers comparisons between the original Rachmaninoff and Carmen’s reworkings.
https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2024/03/12/eric-carmen-sergei-rachmaninoff
Chances are very good that you will also hear the complete Rachmaninoff works on radio stations and in live performance a lot sooner and certainly a lot longer than you will hear Eric Carmen’s music.
Did you know about Eric Carmen’s “use” of Rachmaninoff?
What do you think of it?
What do you think it was ignored in obituaries?
The Ear wants to hear.
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How do you rank Beethoven’s five piano concertos? Which is your favorite set of recordings?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Lately, The Ear has been listening to the five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven (below).
That, of course, is not counting the composer’s rarely performed piano transcription of his own violin concerto.
The five concertos are so different but so consistently great that they are always in demand for programming and always a pleasure to listen to as well, I imagine, to play.
Lately I have been sampling two new complete recordings that have received high praise from critics: one (below top) by the Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang, who won the Van Cliburn competition in 2009 and recorded his set, including a cadenza by him, with the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Nathalie Stutzmann; and the other, a complete live set (below bottom) by the American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, the winner of the 1970 Chopin competition, recently recorded at the Grand Teton Festival.
Both are fine recordings and well worth listening to.
They made me once again recalculate my personal ranking of the five piano concertos. I don’t mean a ranking by quality or which one is the best, but simply which individual concertos I prefer to listen to by frequency. Here is any order: 4, 3, 5 (Emperor), 1, and 2.
How would you rank these five masterworks?
There are so many excellent recordings of these glorious works. I have listened to individual concertos and complete sets by Claudio Arrau, Emanuel Ax, Alfred Brendel (who has recorded them three times), Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Daniel Barenboim, Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andnes, Glenn Gould, Arthur Rubinstein (who recorded them twice), Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jan Lisiecki, Rudolf Buchbinder, Krystian Zimerman, Yefim Bronfman; and on and on. It is hard to pick just one favorite and the idea of a “definitive” performance is impossible.
And truth be told, I generally turn to different performers for different concertos. Martha Argerich has not recorded all five but I love her performances of Piano Concertos 1, 2 and 3. I admire the late Nelson Freire in the Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”). And I am very moved by Krystian Zimerman’s playing of the inspired and unconventional middle movement of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in the YouTube video at the bottom.
But overall the most consistent sets I continue to like are classics by the late Leon Fleisher and Richard Goode, who completely understands and captures what is special about Beethoven, as he demonstrated in his pioneering complete set of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas.
How would you personally rank the Beethoven pianos concertos as your favorites by appeal and listenability?
Which pianist in Beethoven’s five piano concertos do you listen to and like the most often?
Is there a complete set you find irresistible and recommend to others? Or a particular recording of a particular concerto?
The Ear wants to hear.
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How will you celebrate World Piano Day today?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today — Tuesday, March 29, 2022 — is World Piano Day.
(Below is a restored vintage concert grand piano at Farley’s House of Pianos used for recitals in the Salon Piano Series.)
How will you mark it? Celebrate it?
It’s a fine occasion to revisit your favorite pianist and favorite piano pieces.
Who is your favorite pianist, and what piano piece would you like to hear today?
If you yourself took piano lessons or continue to play, what piece would you play to mark the occasion? Fo the Ear, it will be either a mazurka by Chopin or a movement from either a French Suite or a Partita by Johann Sebastian Bach. Maybe both!
What piano piece do you wish you could play, but never were able to? For The Ear, it would be the Ballade No. 4 in F minor by Chopin.
One of the best ways to mark the day is to learn about a new younger pianist you might not have heard of.
For The Ear, one outstanding candidate would be the Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson ( below), who has won critical acclaim and who records for Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
Olafsson has a particular knack for innovative and creative programming, like his CD that alternates works by Claude Debussy and Jean-Philippe Rameau.
He also seems at home at in many different stylistic periods. His records every thing from Baroque masters, to Mozart and his contemporaries in the Classical period — including Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach — to Impressionists to the contemporary composer Philip Glass.
But The Ear especially loves his anthology of Bach pieces (below) that include original works and transcriptions, including some arranged by himself. His playing is always precise and convincing, and has the kind of cool water-clear sound that many will identify with Andras Schiff.
You can hear a sample of his beautiful playing for yourself in the YouTube video at the bottom. It is an live-performance encore from his inaugural appearance last August at The Proms in London, where he also played Mozart’s dramatically gorgeous Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor (also available on YouTube.)
Final word: You might find some terrific pianists and performances on the Internet. Record labels, performing venues and other organizations are marking the day with special FREE recitals that you can reach through Google and Instagram.
Happy playing!
Happy listening!
Please leave a comment and let The Ear and other readers know what you think of the piano — which seems to be falling out of favor these days — and which pianists and piano pieces you will identify this year with World Piano Day.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Songs by Black composers trace their cultural realities in a free online UW performance TONIGHT of “Verisimilitudes.” Plus, the five winners of this year’s Beethoven Competition perform Sunday.
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ALERT: This Sunday, April 25, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. the five winners of this year’s Beethoven Competition at the UW-Madison will perform in a winners’ concert. Included in the program are the popular and dramatic “Appassionata” Sonata, Op. 57, and the famous and innovative last piano sonata, No. 32 in C minor, Op 111. Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMF0Hd1MJwMg. Click on “Show More” and you can see the full programs and biographical profiles of the winners.
By Jacob Stockinger
The concert could hardly be more timely or the subject more relevant.
Think of the events in and near Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S.; of the Black Lives Matter movement and social protest; of the political fight for D.C. statehood and voting rights – all provide a perfect context for an impressive student project that will debut online TONIGHT, Saturday, April 24, at 7 p.m.
The one-hour free concert “Verisimilitudes: A Journey Through Art Song in Black, Brown and Tan” originated at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. It seems an ideal way for listeners to turn to music and art for social and political commentary, and to understand the racial subtexts of art.
Soprano Quanda Dawnyell Johnson (below) created, chose and performs the cycle of songs by Black composers with other Black students at the UW-Madison.
Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/-g5hjeuSumw
Click on “Show More” to see the complete program and more information.
Here is the artist’s statement:
“Within the content of this concert are 17 art songs that depict the reality of the souls of a diasporic people. Most of the lyricists and all of the composers are of African descent. In large part they come from the U.S. but also extend to Great Britain, Guadeloupe by way of France, and Sierra Leone.
“They speak to the veracity of Black life and Black feeling. A diasporic African reality in a Classical mode that challenges while it embraces a Western European vernacular. It is using “culture” as an agent of resistance.
“I refer to verisimilitude in the plural. While syntactically incorrect, as it relates to the multiple veils of reality Black people must negotiate, it is very correct.
“To be packaged in Blackness, or should I say “non-whiteness” is to ever live in a world of spiraling modalities and twirling realities. To paraphrase the great artist, Romare Bearden, in “calling and recalling” — we turn and return, then turn again to find the place that is our self.
“I welcome you to… Verisimilitudes: A Journey Through Art Song in Black, Brown, and Tan”
Here, by sections, is the complete program and a list of performers:
I. Nascence
Clear Water — Nadine Shanti
A Child’s Grace — Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
Night — Florence Price (below)
Big Lady Moon — Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
II. Awareness
Lovely, Dark, and Lonely — Harry T. Burleigh
Grief –William Grant Still (below)
Prayer — Leslie Adams
Interlude, The Creole Love Call — Duke Ellington
III. The Sophomore
Mae’s Rent Party, We Met By Chance –Jeraldine Saunders Herbison
The Barrier — Charles Brown
IV. Maturity
Three Dream Portraits: Minstrel Man, Dream Variation; I, Too — Margaret Bonds (below)
Dreams — Lawren Brianna Ware
Song Without Words — Charles Brown
Legacy
L’autre jour à l’ombrage (The Other Day in the Shade) — Joseph Boulogne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges, below)
The Verisimilitudes Team
Quanda Dawnyell Johnson — Soprano and Project Creator
Lawren Brianna Ware – -Pianist and Music Director
Rini Tarafder — Stage Manager
Akiwele Burayidi – Dancer
Jackson Neal – Dancer
Nathaniel Schmidt – Trumpet
Matthew Rodriguez – Clarinet
Craig Peaslee – Guitar
Aden Stier –Bass
Henry Ptacek – Drums
Dave Alcorn — Videographer
Here is a link to the complete program notes with lyrics and composer bios. And a preview audio sample is in the YouTube video at the bottom: https://simplebooklet.com/verisimilitudesprogramnotes#page=1
Tags: #Americanhistory, #AppassionataSonata, #ArtSong, #BeethovenCompetition, #BeethovenPianoSonatas, #Blackcomposers, #BlackCulture, #BlackHistory, #Blacklife, #BlackLivesMatter, #BlackMusic, #BlackMusician, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CentralTime, #ChamberMusic, #CharlesBrown, #ChevalierdeSaint-Georges, #ChicagoIllinois, #Coleridge-TaylorPerkinson, #CoronavirusPandemic, #DukeElington, #DukeEllington, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FlorencePrice, #GreatBritain, #HarryT.Burleigh, #IrvingShain, #JacobStockinger, #JeraldineSaundersHerbison, #JosephBoulogne, #LawrenBriannaWare, #LeslieAdams, #LosAngelesGuitarQuartet, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MargaretBonds, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MinneapolisMinnesota, #MusicDirector, #NadineShanti, #OnlineConcert, #PoliticalProtest, #ProgreamNotes, #QuandaJohnson, #RomareBearden, #SamuelColeridge-Taylor, #SierreLeone, #SingWithoutWords, #SocialProtest, #SongCycle, #SopranoSinger, #StageDirector, #TheEar, #TheU.S., #TheUK, #TheUW, #UnitedStates, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VirtualConcert, #VocalMusic, #VotingRights, #WashingtonD.C., #WesternEuropean, #WilliamGrantStill, #YouTubeChannel, #YouTubevideo, African, agent, America, Appassionata Sonata, Art, art song, Arts, audience, barrier, bass, bassist, Beethoven, Beethoven Competition, big, biography, black, Black composers, Black culture, Black life, Black Lives Matter, black music, Blackness, blog, bonds, brown, call, Central Daylight Time, Central Time, Chamber music, chance, Charles Brown, Chevalier de Saint Georges, Chicago, Child, choose, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical music, Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, commentary, Competition, complete, composer, Concert, content, context, coronavirus, correct, Creole, culture, cycle, D.C., dance, dancer, dark, day, debut, depict, descent, diaspora, dramatic, dream, Dreams, drummer, drums, Ellington, Europe, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, famous, feeling, Florence Price, forward, France, free, grace, Great Britain, Guadeloupe, guitarist, Harry T. Burleigh, History, hour, ideal, impressive, information, interlude, Irving Shain, Jacob Stockinger, Jeraldine Saunders Herbison, Joseph Boulogne, journey, journeyt, lady, Lauren Brianna Ware, legacy, Leslie Adams, life, like, link, live, Love, lovely, Ludwig van Beethoven, lyricist, lyrics, Madison, man, Margaret Bonds, maturity, Mead Witter School of Music, Minneapolis, minstrel, modality, mode, moon, multiple, Music, Music director, Musician, Nadine Shanti, nascence, night, online, originate, other, package, pandemic, party, People, percussion, perfect, perform, performer, Pianist, Piano, Piano sonata, plural, political protest, popular, portrait, post, posting, prayer, preview, price, program, program notes, project, Quanda Johnson, racial, read, reality, recall, recital, Rent, resistance, right, Romare Bearden, sample, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, shade, share, show, Sierra Leone, singer, Singing, social protest, Sonata, song, song cycle, Song Without Words, sophomore, soprano, soul, speak, spiral, stage director, statehood, statement, Still, students, subtext, syntax, tag, Tan, team, The Ear, tonight, Trumpet, trumpeter, U.S., UK, understand, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, UW-Madison, veil, veracity, verisimilitude, vernacular, videographer, virtual, vocal music, voting, voting rights, Washington, water, way, Western European, whiteness, William Grant Still, winner, Wisconsin, year, YouTube, YouTube video
This Sunday at 4 p.m., the Salon Piano Series debuts an online recital by pianist Kangwoo Jin. He plays music by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Liszt and Schumann. It is up until May 9
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. CDT, the Salon Piano Series, hosted by Farley’s House of Pianos, will debut an online concert by pianist Kangwoo Jin (below, in a photo by Andy Manis).
The concert, which was recorded at Luther Memorial Church, costs $10 and will be available online through May 9.
The program is:
Scarlatti – Sonatas in D minor and D Major, K. 213 and 214 (ca. 1756-1757)
Beethoven – Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight” (1801)
Liszt – Transcriptions for solo piano of the songs “Widmung” (Dedication) by Robert Schumann and “Litanei” (Litany) by Franz Schubert
Schumann – Symphonic Etudes, Op.13 (1830)
Bishop – Home, Sweet Home
Tickets are only available online at eventbrite.com. Service fees apply. Complete program and concert information is at salonpianoseries.org
PROGRAM NOTES
Jin has written the following program notes for The Ear:
“As a musician, I am always eager to share music with the public. I am very excited to be able to reach out to the audience with this unprecedented Salon Piano Series Virtual Concert.
“I believe music soothes our mental health in difficult times regardless of age, gender or race. I very much hope my performance will contribute to this collective healing we feel through music.
“I wanted to include three different styles, as I usually do for recitals. This time I have Baroque, Classical and Romantic music.
“I chose one of the most famous Beethoven sonatas in order to celebrate his 250th birth year (2020), which I did not have a chance to mark last year.
“This piece is popular with the title of “Moonlight,” which Beethoven (below) never intended. Five years after his death, the German critic Ludwig Rellstab used the word “Moonlight” in order to describe the first movement. But it was really inspired by the funeral march in Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni.” I try to bring out the tragic color of the first movement. (You can hear Jin play the exciting final movement of the sonata in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“I also wanted to play the virtuosic masterpiece “Symphonic Etudes,” Op. 13, by Robert Schumann (below), including the beautiful posthumous variations 4 and 5.
I find this piece special in the sense that Schumann intended to make this piece “symphonic.” He created multiple layers of voices in various ways through each etude and created orchestral sounds. This polyphonic writing with multiple layers and a thick texture is what makes this piece difficult to play.
“I also specifically wanted to include one of the piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt (below) of Schubert’s Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen (Litany for the Feast of All Souls), D. 343.
“Schubert (below) used the poem “Litany” by Johann Jacobi (1740-1814). It is written for comforting the deceased. Robert Capell, the author of the book “Schubert’s Songs” (1929), said about this lied: There was never a truer or more touching expression of simple devotion and consoled grief … “The music rises from a pure well of affection and humility.”
“I would like to dedicate this piece to all the people who suffered from Covid 19.”
BACKGROUND
Here is a link to Kangwoo Jin’s impressive website where you can see many photos, learn about his extensive career as a teacher and hear many samples of his playing: https://www.pianistkangwoojin.com
Praised for his “refined tone quality with powerful energy” (Chosun Daily Newspaper), Jin (below, in a photo by Steve Apps for the Wisconsin State Journal) concertizes nationally and internationally, including performances in Germany, Italy, China, Indonesia and South Korea.
He gave his debut concert at the Sejong Arts Center in Seoul, South Korea, sponsored by the Chosun Daily Newspaper. He has given live performances on Wisconsin Public Radio and WORT 89.9 FM.
Jin appears frequently as a guest artist at music festivals, universities and various concert series. Recent invitations include UW-River Falls, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and Tongji University in Shanghai. Kawai Pianos USA has also invited him as a guest artist at the annual Piano Technicians Guild Convention and Technical Institute in Florida.
Jin completed the Bachelor of Music degree at Hanyang University in South Korea, then earned his Performer Diploma and Master’s of Music at Indiana University, where he worked as an associate instructor.
He is the recipient of the J. Battista Scholarship for performance excellence at Indiana University and received the Collins Distinguished Fellowship for his doctoral studies, completed last year, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied piano with Christopher Taylor and piano pedagogy with Jessica Johnson.
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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
Tags: #AcademicYear, #ArtisticDirector, #Beautifulmusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #CherylBensman-Rowe, #ChoralMusic, #CityofMadison, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FacultyMember, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #IntegralPart, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonWisconsin, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MEMFOnline, #MusicEducation, #Musicfaculty, #NewsUpdate, #PaulRowe, #PerformingArts, #PeriodInstruments, #SoundOff, #TheEar, #TheUW, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #UWSystem, #VocalMusic, #YouTubevideo, 2021, 2022, academic, academic year, administration, administrative, advance, Arts, audience, Bach, background, baritone, Baroque, beautiful, blog, budget, budgetary, cancel, cancellation, capacity, cause, celebratory, Cello, Chamber music, Cheryl Bensman Rowe, choral music, class, classes, Classical music, co-artistic directors, co-founders, collaboration, comment, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, consolidate, consolidation, coronavirus, coronavirus pandemic, current, details, disappoint, disappointment, discontinue, Early music, earlymusic, event, excite, excited, experience, Facebook, faculty, Feburary, festival, field, finalize, finalized, financial, fiscal, Focus, format, forward, friendship, funding, future, grateful, grow, healthy, helm, historically informed performance practices, Home, information, instrument, integral, international, involve, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, journey, know, leadership, lecture, like, link, Love, luck, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Mead Witter School of Music, MEMF, move, Music, Music education, music faculty, national, new, news, notice, offer, opera, opportunity, Orchestra, paerticpant, pandemic, part, past, Paul Rowe, performer, Performing arts, period instruments, plans, popular, possible, post, posting, presentation, professionals, program, progrramming, provide, reactions, realign, realignment, reason, recognized, refine, regional, reorganization, reorganize, retire, Retirement, revamp, sample, scene, schedule, share, sing, Singing, Sonata, sound off, Spring, Student, summer, support, tag, The Ear, thrill, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, update, UW, UW System, UW-Madison, vaccine, Viola, Violin, vocal music, way, Wisconsin, work, workshop, wring, year, you, YouTube
The New York Times names the top 25 classical recordings of 2020 and includes sample tracks
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FOWARD A LINK TO IT or SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
What did the holidays bring you?
Did Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa bring you a gift card?
A subscription to a streaming service?
Maybe some cash?
Or maybe you just want to hear some new music or new musicians or new interpretations of old classics?
Every year, the music critics of The New York Times list their top 25 recordings of the past year. Plus at the end of the story, the newspaper offers a sample track from each recording to give you even more guidance.
This year is no exception (below).
In fact, the listing might be even more welcome this year, given the coronavirus pandemic with the lack of live concerts and the isolation and self-quarantine that have ensued.
The Ear hasn’t heard all of the picks or even the majority of them. But the ones he has heard are indeed outstanding. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear a sample of the outstanding Rameau-Debussy recital by the acclaimed Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafssen, who scored major successes with recent albums of Philip Glass and Johann Sebastian Bach.)
Here is a link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/arts/music/best-classical-music.html
Of course not all critics agree.
The Ear has already listed the nominations for the Grammy Awards (a link is below), and more critics’ picks will be featured in coming days.
You should also notice that a recording of Ethel Smyth’s “The Prison” — featuring soprano Sarah Brailey (below), a graduate student at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music and a co-founder of Just Bach — is on the Times’ list as well as on the list of Grammy nominations.
What new recordings – or even old recordings — would you recommend?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #AlexanderScriabin, #AmazonMusic, #AmericanJazz, #AnnaThorvaldsdottir, #AnthonyTommasini, #AntoineForqueray, #ArchivMusic, #AshFure, #AvieRecords, #BangonaCan, #BarnesandNoble, #BaroqueDance, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOpera, #BavarianRadioSymphoyOrchestra, #BenjaminGrosvenor, #BlackAmericans, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CarolinWidmann, #CelloSuites, #ChamberMusic, #ChandosRecords, #ChoralMusic, #ChristmasHoliday, #ClaudeDebussy, #CorinnadaFonseca-Wollheim, #CoronavirusPandemic, #COVID-19, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DanillTrifonov, #DavidGreilsammer, #DavidHertzberg, #DeccaRecords, #DeutscheGrammophon, #DriftMultiply, #DukeEllington, #ElimChan, #EriksEsenvalds, #EthelSmyth, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FairyTale, #FergusonMissouri, #FranzSchubert, #FredericChopin, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgeLewis, #GiftCard, #GraduateStudent, #GrammyAward, #GrammyAwards, #HermannScherchen, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #HolidayGift, #HolidayGiftGuide, #IgorStravinsky, #InternationalContemporaryEnsemble, #JacobStockinger, #JanLadislavDussek, #Jean-EfflamBavouzet, #Jean-FéryRebel, #Jean-PhilippeRameau, #JohannNepomukHummel, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnnyGandelsman, #JosephC.PhillipsJr., #JosephWölfl, #JoshuaBarone, #JoyceDiDonato, #JustBach, #KarimSulayman, #KirillGerstein, #LiliBoulanger, #LincolnCenter, #LiveConcert, #LivingComposers, #LudwigVanBeethoven, #MariinskyOrchestra, #MariinskyTheaterOrchestra, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MeredithMonk, #Mezzo-sopranoSinger, #MirareRecords, #MusicalInterpretation, #MusicCritics, #Muzio, #NadiaBoulanger, #NaiveRecords, #NathalieJoachim, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #NewYorkTimes, #NicholasPhan, #OldClassics, #OlivierMessiaen, #PeriodInstruments, #PhilipGlass, #PianoConcerto, #PianoSonata, #PierreHantai, #RebeccaSaunders, #RichardWagner, #RoyalScottishNationalOrchestra, #SampleTrack, #SarahBrailey, #Self-Isolation, #Self-Quarantine, #SergeiProkofiev, #ShiverLung, #SilverAge, #SoloPiano, #SopranoSinger, #SoundSample, #StreamingService, #TenorSinger, #TheBeethovenConnection, #TheEar, #TheExterminatingAngel, #ThePrison, #TheUK, #TheUW, #ThomasAdès, #TopRecordings, #TristanPerich, #UnitedKingdom, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ValeryGergiev, #ViennaStateOperaOrchestra, #VikingurOlafsson, #VocalMusic, #WyntonMarsalis, #Yi-hengYang, #YouTubevideo, #ZacharyWoolfe, 2020, acclaimed, African American, Agrippina, Alexander Scriabin, Amazon, Amazon Music, amazon.com, America, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Anthony Tomassini, Antoine Forqueray, Archiv Music, Arts, Ash Fure, audience, Avie Records, award, Bach, Bang on a Can, Barnes and Noble, Baroque, Baroque music, Baroque opera, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven, Benjamin Grosvenor, Berceuse, black, blog, brilliant, BrowandBeige, Brown and Beige, Carolin Widmann, cash, Cello, Cello Suite, centuries, Chamber music, Chandos Records, chaos, China, Chinese, Chopin, choral music, Christmas, Classical music, classics, Claude Debussy, Clementi, coming, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, connection, conversation, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, coronavirus, dance, Daniil Trifonov, David Greilsammer, David Hertzberg, days, Debussy, Decca, Decca Records, Deutsche Grammophon, DG, drift, Drift Multiply, Duke Ellington, Dussek, Early music, Earth, Elim Chan, end, Eriks Esenvalds, Ethel Smyth, exception, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, fairy tale, Ferguson, fortepiano, Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, George Frederic Handel, George Lewis, gift, gift card, gigue, Glass, graduate student, Grammy, guidance, Handel, Hanukkah, harpsichord, hear, Hermann Scherchen, historically informed performance practices, Holiday, Hummel, Iceland, Icelandic, Igor Stravinsky, International Contemporary Ensemble, interpretation, isolation, Jacob Stockinger, Jan Ladislav Dussek, Jazz, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Jean-Féry Rebel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johnny Gandelsman, Joseph C. 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Library of Congress streams UW pianist Christopher Taylor’s online Liszt-Beethoven symphony recital for free this Thursday night
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Thursday night, Dec. 17, from 7 to 9 p.m. CST, University of Wisconsin-Madison virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor (below) will close the celebration of the Beethoven Year, marking the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, at the Library of Congress. After the concert’s premiere, it will stay posted online.
For the past several years, Taylor has been performing the solo piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies both in Russia and at the UW-Madison.
Here is more from the website of the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music:
“It takes extraordinary skill as an orchestrator to condense an entire symphony by Beethoven (below top) into a version for a solo instrument, but that is just what Franz Liszt (below bottom) accomplished in his piano transcriptions. (You can hear a sample, along with a visual representation, of the Fifth Symphony transcription in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Hear virtuoso pianist Christopher Taylor perform three of these transcendent symphony transcriptions, works he describes as a “new perspective on something familiar.” (The Ear, who has heard Taylor’s impressive performances of almost all nine symphonies, finds that comparing the two versions is like looking at the same photograph in color and then black-and-white. Color emphasizes details while black-and-white emphasizes structure. You hear new things by comparing the two.)
The performance was pre-recorded in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall of the Hamel Music Center.
The program is:
BEETHOVEN/LISZT
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
You can find more details at: https://loc.gov/concerts/christopher-taylor.html
You can Register on Eventbrite
Hailed by critics as “frighteningly talented” (The New York Times) and “a great pianist” (The Los Angeles Times), Taylor has distinguished himself throughout his career as an innovative musician with a diverse array of talents and interests.
He is known for a passionate advocacy of music written in the past 100 years — Messiaen, Ligeti and Bolcom figure prominently in his performances — but his repertoire spans four centuries and includes the complete Beethoven sonatas, the Liszt Transcendental Etudes, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and a multitude of other familiar masterworks.
Whatever the genre or era of the composition, Taylor brings to it an active imagination and intellect coupled with heartfelt intensity and grace.
Taylor has concertized around the globe, with international tours taking him to Russia, Western Europe, East Asia and the Caribbean.
At home in the U.S. he has appeared with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, the Madison Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony. As a soloist he has performed in New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls, in Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia and Aspen festivals, and dozens of other venues.
In chamber music settings, he has collaborated with many eminent musicians, including Robert McDuffie and the Borromeo, Shanghai, Pro Arte, and Ying Quartets.
His recordings have featured works by Liszt, Messiaen and present-day Americans William Bolcom and Derek Bermel.
Throughout his career, Taylor has become known for undertaking memorable and unusual projects. Examples include: an upcoming tour in which he will perform, from memory, the complete transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies by Liszt; performances and lectures on the complete etudes of Gyorgy Ligeti; and a series of performances of the Goldberg Variations on the unique double-manual Steinway piano (below) in the collection of the University of Wisconsin.
Numerous awards have confirmed Taylor’s high standing in the musical world. He was named an American Pianists’ Association Fellow for 2000, before which he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1996 and the Bronze Medal in the 1993 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In 1990 he took first prize in the William Kapell International Piano Competition, and also became one of the first recipients of the Irving Gilmore Young Artists’ Award.
Taylor lives in Middleton, Wis., with his wife and two daughters. He is a Steinway artist.
For more biographical information — including his piano teachers and his education as well as his interest in mathematics and engineering — go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/christopher-taylor-concerts-from-the-library-of-congress/
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
To celebrate Pride month, here are lists of LGBTQ+ composers, performers and musical ensembles
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By Jacob Stockinger
June is Pride month.
And this weekend will see Pride marches and celebrations in some major cities including New York City, Chicago, Paris and Rome.
As time passes, scholars are finding out more about the LGBTQ+ composers, performers and musical groups that have been hidden by history.
And some ironies emerge. One can only imagine the response of conservative, right-wing Evangelical Christians who find out that the composer of “Messiah” – George Frideric Handel (below) — was queer, at least according to some researchers.
For most listeners, surprises abound.
Here is a good place to start. It is the very large Wikipedia entry of LGBTQ+ composers and performers, both contemporary and historical. The Ear finds it very informative. It is organized by the kind of musicians they are and the category of their sexual identity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_musicians
If you want to be more selective, try these: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/greatest-lgbtq-conductors-you-should-know/. They include Marin Alsop (below top) and her teacher and mentor Leonard Bernstein (below bottom).
Here is longer essay that focuses on lesbian conductors as well as gay men and reaches back to the Middle Ages: http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/conductors_A.pdf
And here is one with some great photos or pictures of the individuals: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/great-classical-composers-who-were-gay/
Finally, here are some of the international music ensembles – with audio samples of their performances — made up of LGBTQ+ singers and instrumentalists, including the Rainbow Symphony of Paris (in the YouTube video at the bottom, performing the beautiful Gloria by the gay French composer Francis Poulenc in a benefit Concert Against Homophobia for UNESCO): https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/best-lgbtq-classical-music-ensembles/
Inevitably, some readers will react by asking: What difference does the sexual identity of composer or performer make? All that matters, they argue, is the music.
Here is a reply to that specious argument that focuses on Yannick Nézet-Séguin (below), the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the City Symphony of Montreal. It appeared in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/arts/music/yannick-nezet-seguin-met-opera-gay.html
Happy Pride – this month and every day of the year!
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