The Well-Tempered Ear
The UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra will provide a welcome break on Election Night
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By Jacob Stockinger
If you find yourself needing some relief or a short break from vote counting and the barrage of election news this coming Tuesday night, Nov. 3, the masked and socially distanced UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra (below) fits the bill.
The group’s refreshingly short, one-hour and intermission-free online video premiere begins at 7 p.m. CST on YouTube. There is no fee for watching the event in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the Hamel Music Center, although donations are welcome.
No in-person attendance is allowed.
The program features “Strum” (1981) by Jessie Montgomery (below, in a photo by Jiyang Chen); the famous and familiar Adagietto from the Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler (which you can hear with conductor Claudio Abbado in the YouTube video at the bottom); and the youthful Sinfonia No. 7 in D minor by Felix Mendelssohn, who wrote 13 of the string symphonies between the ages of 12 and 14.
Here is a direct link to the UW-Madison music school’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/TMNCy9qooCM
Just a personal note of appreciation and encouragement from The Ear: If you are a fan of orchestral music and pay attention to the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Middleton Community Orchestra, for example, then you owe to it yourself to become acquainted with the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra if you don’t already know it.
It is that good, as you can hear for yourself in this virtual concert during the pandemic. You will probably find yourself wanting to hear more.
The programs are outstanding and often feature neglected, modern and contemporary music as well as classic repertoire, and the playing is usually first-rate.
The orchestra sounds exceptionally good, often even professional, under its new conductor Oriol Sans (below), a native of Spain who arrived here last season from a post at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Sans has provided remarkable leadership both in the orchestra’s programs and in accompanying the University Opera productions and the UW Choral Union.
For more information, including the names of the orchestra’s members, go to: https://www.music.wisc.edu/event/uw-madison-symphony-orchestra-video-premiere/
If you listen to it, please let us know: What did you think?
Did the performances please or impress you?
Did you like or dislike the scheduling on Election Night?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: How does the Trump administration sound in mock-opera terms?
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By Jacob Stockinger
It has been quite the week for President Donald Trump (below top), what with the Senate Congressional hearing of fired FBI director James Comey (below bottom).
How would this week and other happening sound in opera lingo?
Here is a satire — a fake news send-up of Trumpland — done with a famous aria from “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini — that reminds The Ear of The Opera Man skits with comedian Adam Sandler many years ago on Saturday Night Live.
That’s when Sandler would sing the news headlines in opera terms with pseudo-Italian words.
Anyway, here is the video on YouTube, which has received a good number of hits.
If you like it, share it with friends – or even with enemies!
And tell us what you think of it.
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Adam Sandler, aria, Arts, Classical music, Congress, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Donald Trump, enemies, fake news, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, friends, headlines, Italian, Jacob Stockinger, James Comey, lingo, Marriage of Figaro, mock, Music, news, opera, Opera Man, Orchestra, President of the United States, President Trump, pseudo, Rossini, satire, Saturday Night Live, Senate, sing, Singing, skit, SNL, symphony, United States, United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, White House, YouTube
Classical music: Let us now praise women composers — with the help of a new history and recent political events
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By Jacob Stockinger
Politically, this has been a historic week and a week to remember for women.
Democrat Hillary Clinton (below), the former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State, became the first woman to win the presidential nomination – barring something unexpected or a surprising turn of events – of a major political party in the United States.
That victory was soon followed by an endorsement from President Barack Obama and from another promising woman in American politics: Senator Elizabeth Warren.
So it also seems a good time to take a long look back to the 17th century and discover women composers who were overlooked and who failed to crack the glass ceiling of artistic fame or sexism in the arts in their own lifetimes.
They include the Baroque composer Barbara Strozzi, the Romantic composers Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Clara Schumann (below top, in a photo from Getty Images), and the modern composers Lili Boulanger and Elizabeth Maconchy (below bottom).
(You can hear a lovely Romance for solo piano by Clara Schumann, a virtuoso pianist who championed the works of her husband Robert Schumann, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Ear doubts there is a better guide than Anna Beer (below top, in a photo by Jeff Overs) and her new book “Sounds and Sweet Airs: Forgotten Women of Classical Music” (below bottom):
The historian and writer recently spoke with Rachel Martin of NPR or National Public Radio, about her history. Here is a link to the blog site, which also has links to related stories:
Tags: Anna Beer, Arts, Barack Obama, Baroque, candidate, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, composer, composers, Democratic Party, Election, Elizabeth Warren, female, Getty Images, Hillary Clinton, History, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, modern, Music, National Public Radio, nomination, nominee, NPR, Pianist, Piano, President, presidential, Robert Schumann, Romantic, Romanticism, Senate, Sonata, Sounds and Sweet Airs, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, women, YouTube
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