The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: The Oakwood Chamber Players perform a mini-opera version of “A Christmas Carol” this Saturday night and Sunday afternoon
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By Jacob Stockinger
Over several deuces, the Oakwood Chamber Players have built a solid reputation for their top-notch performances of unusual and neglected repertoire.
So it comes as no surprise that the group will offer one of the newer, more unusual and promising takes on the holiday classic, “A Christmas Carol.”
Twice this weekend, the Madison-based, widely experienced musical theater actor and baritone Robert A. Goderich reprises his tour-de-force performance, last done in 2016, of Charles Dickens’ characters for the Oakwood Chamber Players’ presentation of the mini-opera “The Passion of Scrooge” by New York composer Jon Deak.
A dozen musicians, including ensemble members with special guest artists, provide the platform for Goderich’s characterizations on this coming Saturday night, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m., and Sunday afternoon, Dec. 8, at 2 p.m.
The concerts take place at Oakwood Village University Woods Auditorium at 6209 Mineral Point Road, on Madison’s far west side near West Towne Mall.
Tickets are available at the door and are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors, and $5 for students. Go to https://www.oakwoodchamberplayers.com for more information.
Members of the ensemble for this program are: Marilyn Chohaney (flute), Nancy Mackenzie (clarinet), Anne Aley (horn), Elspeth Stalter Clouse (violin) and Maggie Darby Townsend (cello), and guest musicians Hillary Hempel (violin), Emma Cifrino (viola), Brad Townsend (bass), Mike Koszewski (percussion), and Margaret Mackenzie (harp).
Over the past two decades, New York Philharmonic bassist and composer Jon Deak (below) has created a variety of “concert dramas” that tell stories through words and sound.
Performed annually at the Smithsonian, this two-act musical setting re-imagines Ebenezer Scrooge’s struggle to transform his past, present and future from a life of avarice to warmth and humanity.
As singer and narrator, Goderich, who plays all the parts, is the focal point; but the composer has given the instrumentalists an integral part in the story line, too. Conductor Kyle Knox (below) leads the ensemble through many facets of this humorous work filled with dramatic effects.
Deak requires the musicians to be nimble performers, juggling melodic lines while interjecting entertaining sounds into Dickens’ traditional tale. You can hear the opening introduction by the Storyteller in the YouTube video at the bottom.
One of the score’s important aspects is the varied use of percussion, which provides a broad range of instruments and sound effects. Audiences can enjoy both the aural and visual artistry of chains rattling, doors creaking and footsteps echoing in this holiday classic.
Additionally, the Oakwood Chamber Players will perform a suite of British reels and carols, including songs mentioned in the text of Dickens’ original story.
For example, when the Ghost of Christmas Past reminds Scrooge of his first employer Fezziwig, a fiddler plays the tune “Sir Roger De Coverley.” This Scottish-English country dance, arranged by composer Frank Bridge in 1922, is one of the tunes providing an engaging introduction to “The Passion of Scrooge.”
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Classical music: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director and conductor Marin Alsop lends her late parents’ valuable violin and cello as living memorials to them and as a way to help musicians in her orchestra.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Perhaps you have read about the rapidly escalating cost of great musical instruments.
That puts a lot of younger or less well-known, cash-strapped players in a difficult spot.
For quite a while, banks and other financial institutions as well as museums and historical institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution have been putting the investment-quality instruments on loan to younger players whose playing deserves the instrument.
But individuals can do so too.
Take the case of the pioneering conductor Marin Alsop (below), a protégée of Leonard Bernstein who now heads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Sao Paulo State Symphony in Brazil, and who is being mentioned as a prominent candidate to follow Alan Gilbert when he steps downs from the podium of the New York Philharmonic in 2017.
When both her parents, who were distinguished professional musicians, died last year, they left behind valuable string instruments — a violin and a cello.
Alsop didn’t want to sell the instruments.
But she also didn’t want them to lie unused and defeat their original purpose.
So Alsop (below, in a photo by Gabriella Dumczek of The New York Times) decided to turn the violin and cello into living memorials by placing them on loan with players in her Baltimore orchestra -– a move that has benefitted everyone and the instruments as well.
Here is a story from The New York Times:
It gives you ideas about what might be done on the local level, where some very fine instruments – including pianos — could benefit some very young but very fine local players who otherwise couldn’t afford to have them.
Tags: Alan Gilbert, Alan Gilbert (conductor), Arts, Baltimore, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Brazil, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, conductor, Jacob Stockinger, Leonard Bernstein, Marin Alsop, Maryland, Music, Music director, New York City, New York Philharmonic, New York Times, Orchestra, Piano, principal, Sao Paulo, Smithsonian Institution, The New York Times, United States, Violin
Classical music: It is “Early Music Weekend” as the Madison Bach Musicians open their 10th anniversary season with concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon of music by J.S. Bach, Telemann, Handel, Leclair, Pachelbel and Vivaldi. Plus, Ensemble SDG performs Bach, Corelli, Pisendel and Handel on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen.”
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ALERT: Two early music friends who perform together as the Ensemble SDG, baroque violinist Edith Hines and UW harpsichordist and organist John Chappell Stowe, write to The Ear: “Ensemble SDG (below) is pleased to invite the public to our FREE upcoming performance on Wisconsin Public Radio‘s “Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen.” The recital will be this Sunday, October 6, from 12:30-2 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery III at the Chazen Museum of Art (750 University Avenue, Madison). It will be broadcast live on WPR’s News and Classical Music network (in the Madison area, 88.7 WERN) and streamed online here.
By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend will witness a landmark: It marks the opening of the 10th anniversary season of the Madison Bach Musicians.
In only a decade, the accomplished baroque ensemble (below) has risen to the fore of the many early music group in the area.
The MBM, under director and founder Trevor Stephenson will give two performances – on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon of a concert that features the acclaimed guest baroque violinist Marilyn McDonald (below), who tours widely and also teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Stephenson is a masterful and humorous explainer and will also give a pre-concert lecture at each performance. Other MBM musicians include: Marilyn McDonald, Kangwon Kim, Brandi Berry, Mary Perkinson on baroque violins; Nathan Giglierano on baroque viola; Anton TenWolde on baroque cello’ and Trevor Stephenson on harpsichord. (You can hear MBM musicians play and talk in a News 3/Channel 3000 YouTube video from 2011 at the bottom.)
The program features: Georg Philipp Telemann’s Concerto in G major for Four Violins; George Frideric Handel’s Violin Sonata in G minor, HWV 364, and Trio Sonata in E major, Op. 2, No. 9, HWV 394; Jean-Marie Leclair’s Violin Duo in G minor; Johann Pachelbel Canon and Gigue in D major; J.S. Bach’s Contrapunctus 19 from The Art of Fugue (with B-A-C-H Fugue); and Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor for Two Violins, RV 522.
Performances are on Saturday, October 5, with a 7:15 p.m. lecture and 8 p.m. concert at the First Unitarian Society’s crisp Atrium Auditorium (below, in a photo by Zane Williams) at 900 University Bay Drive on Madison’s near west side; and on Sunday, October 6, with 2:45 p.m. lecture and 3:30 p.m. concert in Blessing Room of Madison’s Christian Community Church, 7118 Old Sauk Road on the far west side of Madison.
Advance tickets, cash or check only, are discounted and run $20 for general admission, $15 for students and seniors 65 and over; and are available at A Room of One’s Own; Farley’s House of Pianos; the east and west locations of the Willy Street Co-op; Orange Tree Imports; and Ward-Brodt Music Mall.
At the door, tickets are $25 for general admission and $20 for students and seniors.
For more information, call (608) 238-6092 or visit www.madisonbachmusicians.org
MORE ABOUT THE GUEST SOLOIST
Marilyn McDonald, a founding member of the Smithson Quartet and the Castle Trio, currently plays in the Axelrod Quartet in residence at the Smithsonian Institution; the Axelrod Quartet is named in honor of the donor of the decorated Stradivarius instruments on which the quartet performs.
She has toured world-wide as a chamber musician playing repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, appearing at Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, the Frick Gallery, the Caramoor, Utrecht and Mostly Mozart Festivals, Wigmore Hall, Disney Hall, Ravinia and the Concertgebouw, as well as appearing as soloist with the Milwaukee and Omaha Symphonies. Concertmaster positions include Boston Baroque and the Peninsula Music Festival.
She has been artist in residence at Boston University and has held visiting professorships at the Eastman School of Music and at Indiana University. She teaches each summer at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and has been honored with the “Excellence in Teaching” award at Oberlin, where she is professor of violin. McDonald’s recordings are heard on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Virgin Classics, Decca, Gasparo, Smithsonian and Telarc labels.
REST OF THE ANNIVERSARY SEASON
The Madison Bach Musicians’ 10th anniversary season also includes:
On December 14, the third annual Baroque Holiday Music program at the First Congregational Church.
On April 18 and 19, the season will conclude with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor, conducted by University of Wisconsin-Madison bassoonist Marc Vallon (below). The MBM will collaborate on this venture with the Madison Choral Project under Edgewood College choral director Albert Pinsonneault.
Tags: Albert Pinsonneault, Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, Art of Fugue, Axelrod Quartet, Baroque music, Baroque violin, Chazen Museum of Art, Classical music, Early music, Eastman School of Music, Edgewood College, Ensemble SDG, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frideric Handel, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Marie Leclair, Johann Georg Pisendel, Johann Pachelbel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Choral Project, Marilyn McDonald, SDG, Smithsonian Institution, Trevor Stephenson, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, wisconsin public radio, YouTube
Classical music news: U.S. House and Senate — plus President Obama — cut back on funding for the arts and humanities, even as Congress grows richer while we get poorer.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Well, guess what?
SURPRISE!!!!!
The U.S. House of Representatives (below) and the U.S Senate – both of which have been so-o-o-o popular and so in tune with the American public lately – last week passed a bill to cut back on the arts and humanities (specifically, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities) even though those organizations might benefit their own constituents and their own children.
Instead the House and Senate have favored a time-honored historical group that is more conservative and less adventurous about new and contemporary culture: The Smithsonian Institution (below). And it looks like President Obama will sign the bill into law as a compromise measure.
That venerable historical institution of course benefits the city of Washington, D.C. — the very area where the Congressmen and Congresswomen spend so much time dithering in inertia.
Well, they need some place to go unwind and to pretend to be cultured, don’t they?
Do you think it has to do with the anti-intellectualism and pseudo-populism of the Republican Party and the Tea Party?
Good question.
Do you think it has to with federal debt and spending, so many will no doubt say?
Or do you think maybe those same groups see independent or critical thinking skills or art and beauty as dangerous to their agenda and underlying ideology?
Certainly The Smithsonian seems a safer and less creative choice, although no one can deny it is certainly a deserving institution with great many valuable artifacts and exhibitions. (See the photo os its interior below.) And the new Museum of African American History is sure to add to its reputation.
But don’t these cuts also reek of the same know-nothing, take no prisoners partisanship that leads the House majority party to want to defund public radio and public television?
More good questions – especially for a Congress that, as we learned this week, has seen its net worth increase a lot while the average net worth of most Americans has declined.
Read all about it the citizen-politician wealth gap right here:
And here are links to read all about it the budget cuts to the arts and humanities:
Read it and then let me know what you think.
The Ear wants to hear.
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