The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Meet the “Stay at Home” Symphony Orchestra. How do they sound so close and tight? Plus, today is May Day. What music would you play to celebrate workers?
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ALERT: Today is May Day, a time to honor workers. What music would you play to celebrate and thank all the frontline workers — doctors, nurses, EMTs, police officers, firefighters, bus drivers, cleaners and janitors, grocery store workers, delivery people and others — who are now so indispensable?
By Jacob Stockinger
Many musicians — both singers and instrumentalists (below) — are self-isolating and doing their at-home best to keep those of us also sheltering in place entertained by performing virtual concerts.
It is something listeners can be grateful for. The players do an admirable and free public service during the COVID-19 crisis and coronavirus pandemic.
Of course, the virtual performances also have practical purposes.
The musicians keep their skills sharp during isolation.
And the virtual performances help to keep the names of individuals and groups, of composers and pieces, in the public’s mind at a time when live concerts have all been canceled or postponed.
There are many, many virtual concerts to choose from – made by local, regional, national and international musicians, some amateurs and some professional.
Many of them are solo performances given by an individual member of an orchestra, chamber music group or choral ensemble as well as big-name soloists such as pianist Emanuel Ax and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
The individual ones are appreciated and impressive, even if some of the performances seem amateur-like in the sound or awkwardness.
What really impresses The Ear is when large groups, such as symphony orchestras and choirs, perform something with all the players at home and yet somehow the whole finished product sounds incredibly tight in and incredibly professional.
Last Saturday, the Metropolitan Opera even held a four-hour online gala with singers and instrumentalists from all over the world.
It makes The Ear wonder why they sound so good. How they do it, with all the complications and variables of timing and tempo, of rhythm, pitch and dynamics?
Is it the planning?
The processing and editing?
In any case, a very good example comes from the “Stay at Home” Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart’s Overture to the opera “The Marriage of Figaro.”
You can hear the YouTube video of the performance below.
Are there other such performances that you can point out to The Ear and you would like to see posted on this blog?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The UW Choral Union, UW Symphony Orchestra and guest soloists took the audience on a memorable musical voyage in Ralph Vaughan Williams “A Sea Symphony”
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By Jacob Stockinger
It took a postponement of almost two months before the UW Choral Union (below) finally got to perform last Saturday night in the Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in the new Hamel Music Center.
But the wait was worth it.
The combined forces – conducted by the retiring choral director Beverly Taylor – proved convincing and accomplished in the challenging score of “A Sea Symphony” by the early 20th-century British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The performers did justice to the score’s vivid sound painting. You could hear the sea wind whistling through the rigging; you could feel the ship plowing through the swells and waves.
The American poet Walt Whitman (below) – whose epic-like poetry provided the text for this ambitious nautical and musical journey – would have been proud of the performance.
After all, like Whitman’s poetry, Vaughn Williams’ music — his first symphony — can be forceful and spacious at many moments, tender and reflective or even intimate at other times. The music matches the text, and the performers matched both.
The forces were precise under Taylor’s baton, with sharp attacks and no ragged stopping. True, there were a few moments when the balance seemed a bit off, when the UW Symphony Orchestra overpowered the large campus and community chorus, especially in the very brassy and thickly scored first movement. You just wanted to hear the words better and felt frustrated not to.
But for the most part, though, the student orchestra proved impressive. They were tight and crisp, accurate and transparent, allowing listeners to hear the inner part playing and even certain modernist harmonies of the generally conservative Vaughan Williams (below).
Moreover, the symphony, the chorus and the soloists blended especially well and movingly in the symphony’s quieter moments.
Those moments included the second movement, “On the Beach at Night, Alone”; and the quiet, understated ending where the idea of voyage and exploration becomes personal and metaphorical or spiritual as well as literal: “Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me … O my brave soul! O farther, farther sail!”
(You can hear a sample in the hymn-like opening of the fourth movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
In addition, the outstanding acoustics of the new hall – where the chorus sits above and behind the orchestra – brought the performance to life even more convincingly.
There were two soloists (below): soprano Chelsie Propst and baritone James Harrington.
Harrington possessed a pleasing tone, but he seemed to be holding back for some reason. He could have projected more confidence and been more energetic or assertive in his delivery. After all, neither Whitman nor Vaughan Williams is shy in this large-scale work.
Curiously, it was the woman soloist, Propst, who roared like the sea, whose big voice easily soared over the orchestra and chorus. Her singing was thoroughly beautiful and thoroughly engaging.
Unfortunately, the very successful concert was not sold out, but the audience proved attentive and very enthusiastic.
This debut performance in the new hall made one look forward all the more to another big piece and big performance by the UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra, one that will wrap up the season and end Taylor’s long tenure at the UW-Madison: the dramatic and operatic Requiem by Verdi on Saturday and Sunday, April 25 and 26.
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Classical music: Saturday night the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble will perform rarely heard works. Plus, tickets are still available for the Dec. 6 “Messiah” by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Festival Choir of Madison
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ALERT 1: Tickets are still available for the 11th annual performance of Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Festival Choir of Madison with guest soloists (below). The performance, under the baton of Andrew Sewell, takes place on Friday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. at the Blackhawk Church in Middleton. The critically acclaimed performance usually sells out. Tickets are $30. For more information about the performers and tickets, go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/messiah-2/
By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below) will perform a concert of varied and rarely performed baroque chamber music on this coming Saturday night, Nov. 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street, in Madison.
Performers are: Eric Miller, viola da gamba, baroque cello; Sigrun Paust, recorder; Chelsie Propst, soprano, Charlie Rasmussen, viola da gamba and baroque cello; Monica Steger, traverse flute and recorder; and Max Yount, harpsichord.
Tickets at the door only are $20, $10 for students.
The program is:
Marin Marais– Pieces for Viol, selections from Book 1
Tomaso Albinoni– Sonata for recorder and basso continuo, Op. 6, No. 5
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault– “Orphée” (Orpehus) a cantata
INTERMISSION
Antoine Forqueray – Pieces for Viol, selections from Suite No. 2
Anna Bon– Sonata No. 5 for traverso flute and basso continuo
Nicolas Métru– Duos for viols
Georg Philipp Telemann– Trio sonata in C major for two recorders and basso continuo, TWV 42:C1 (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom)
For more information, go to www.wisconsinbaroque.org
Tags: #AltoSinger, #AndrewSewell, #AnnaBon, #AntoineForqueray, #AntonTenWolde, #BaroqueCello, #BaroqueComposer, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOratorio, #BassBaritone, #BassoContinuo, #BlackhawkChurch, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #CharlieRasmussen, #ChelsiePropst, #ChoralMusic, #ChristianChurch, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #EpiscopalChurch, #EricMiller, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FestivalChoirofMadison, #Fridaynight, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GuestSoloist, #HarpsichordContinuo, #MarinMarais, #MaxYount, #MiddletonWisconsin, #MonicaSteger, #NicolasMétru, #SaturdayNight, #SigrunPaust, #SopranoSinger, #St.Andrew'sEpiscopalChurch, #TenorSinger, #TheEar, #TomasoAlbinoni, #TraversoFlute, #TrioSonata, #VioladaGamba, #WisconsinBaroqueEnsemble, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, #YouTubevideo, alto, Andrew Sewell, Anna Bon, annual, Antoine Forqueray, Anton TenWolde, Arts, audience, baritone, Baroque, Baroque cello, Baroque music, bass, basso continuo, baton, Blackhawk Church, blog, Book, Cantata, Cello, Chamber music, Charlie Rasmussen, Chelsie Propst, choral music, Christian, church, Classical music, composer, Concert, conductor, critically acclaimed, door, duo, Early music, Episcopal, Eric Miller, Facebook, Festival Choir of Madison, forward, Friday, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frideric Handel, guest soloist, Handel, harpsichord, hear, heard, information, Jacob Stockinger, like, link, Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, Madison, Marais, Marin Marais, Max Yount, Messiah, Middleton, Monica Steger, Music, Nicolas Métru, night, online, oratorio, Orchestra, Orpheus, performance, piece, post, posting, program, rarely, recorder, Saturday, Saturday night, selections, share, Sigrun Paust, singer, Singing, sold-out, soloists, Sonata, soprano, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Student, tag, Telemann, tenor, The Ear, ticket, Tomaso Albinoni, traverso, traverso flute, trio sonata, United States, varied, Viol, viola da gamba, vocal music, Website, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube, YouTube video
Classical music: Recorder virtuoso Piers Adams solos in baroque and contemporary concertos this Friday night with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
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By Jacob Stockinger
During his long and successful tenure with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below), music director and conductor Andrew Sewell has established a reputation for championing unusual repertoire and booking young or relatively unknown soloists as well as for offering insightful interpretations of classic masterworks.
But Sewell (below) seems to be surpassing himself with the concert he will lead this Friday night, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center.
For one, the concert features the British recorder virtuoso Piers Adams (below), who established his own reputation as a part of the unusual baroque quartet Red Priest, the nickname for Antonio Vivaldi, who was indeed a priest in Venice with flaming red hair. (In the YouTube at the bottom, you can sample Adams’ virtuosity as he makes bird calls on the recorder while playing a section of “Spring” from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”)
You can also go to the following websites for more information about Piers Adams:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Adams
The Ear can’t think of another time any major group in the area offered a soloist on the recorder – a baroque wooden flute-like instrument — except for the Madison Early Music Festival.
True to form, Adams will perform baroque music with the WCO – specifically, the Concerto for Recorder in C Major by Georg Philipp Telemann.
But to add to the more unusual aspects of the concert, Adams will also perform a contemporary work with the WCO – specifically, a 1994 recorder concerto by the English composer David Bedford (1937-2011, below) that was commissioned by Adams and has proven popular both on a recording and in concert.
For more information about Bedford, go to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bedford
To round out the program, Sewell has programmed two other rarely heard works: the “Brook Green” Suite by Gustav Holst, best known for “The Planets”; and the Serenade in E-Flat Major, Op. 6, by the Czech composer Josef Suk (below), a very accomplished violinist and composer who studied with Antonin Dvorak and then became his son-in-law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Suk_(composer)
For more information about the concert, including tickets ($12-$80) and notes on the performers and the program, go to:
https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-iv-4/
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Classical music: You be the critic. Was there a specific piece or an entire concert of holiday music that you especially liked – or disliked — this year?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Well, Hanukkah, the winter solstice and Christmas are over and we’ve just about made it through another holiday time, with Kwanzaa and New Year’s still to come.
Holiday music, especially choral music, is undeniably popular during holiday season.
Year after year, the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas program (below is a photo by Peter Rodgers) – which uses local and ethnically diverse talent and well as imported guest vocal artists — usually comes close to selling out three performances in Overture Hall.
And year after year for a decade, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and Festival Choir plus guest soloists (below) sell out their one performance of “Messiah” at the Blackhawk Church in Middleton.
Plus, there are lots of other holiday events – including the Madison Bach Musicians with Baroque chamber music favorites and the Madison Choral Project with spoken word narration and new music as well as programs of traditional carols and hymns– that drew good crowds or even full houses.
There are so many holiday music events, in fact, that it can often be hard to choose.
So here is what The Ear is asking: You be the critic.
Please tell us if there was a particular piece of music you especially enjoyed – say, Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” or George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” or violin concertos by Arcangelo Corelli – music you really liked or disliked?
For next year, what do you recommend that people should keep an eye and ear out for, including programs on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television as well as on other TV and radio stations?
Similarly, was there a specific program or event – an entire program or concert – that surprised you for better or worse?
Given the limited time that most people have during the holidays, what holiday concerts should people plan on attending or avoid next year?
Often the public trusts other audience members more than they trust professional critics.
So here is a chance for you to be a critic and to direct the public’s attention as well as to thank certain performers and groups for what you see as the Best Holiday Music of 2018.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet plays in Spring Green this Monday, then tours Germany during August. It will perform the same tour program in several Wisconsin cities, including Madison, in early September
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement about another Madison group – in addition to the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra’s tour of Peru and the Scotland concerts by the Madison Youth Choirs – that is bringing its music to international audiences.
The group is the Ancora String Quartet (below, in a photo by Barry Lewis), which will leave for a tour of Germany next week. From left are: violinists Wes Luke and Robin Ryan; violist Marika Fischer Hoyt and cellist Benjamin Whitcomb.
A sort of send-off concert is this Monday night in Spring Green. Here are the details:
The concert is for the Rural Musicians Forum and will take place on this coming Monday night, Aug. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Unity Chapel, located at 6597 County Hwy T, in Spring Green.
The program features works by Joaquin Turina, Franz Joseph Haydn and Samuel Barber.
Admission is by free will offering, with a suggested donation of $15.
Soon to start its 18th season, the Ancora String Quartet has an impressive and extensive resume. The four players have well-established individual musical careers as soloists, chamber musicians and orchestral players. They perform regularly in Madison and beyond, appearing in such ensembles as the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Bach Musicians, the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, and the Bach Collegium of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Here is what violist Marika Fischer Hoyt says about the upcoming tour to Germany:
“The Ancora String Quartet looks forward with eager anticipation to our first overseas tour.
“We are partnering with a fabulous mezzo-soprano, Melinda Paulsen (below), who serves on the voice faculty at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt.
“Together, we have selected a program of works by German and American composers, for mezzo-soprano and quartet, and for string quartet alone.
“The program includes: the beautiful Wesendonck Lieder by Richard Wagner; Melancholie by Paul Hindemith, Drei Lieder (Three Songs) by Victor Ullmann; and Dover Beach by Samuel Barber, as well as the iconic Barber String Quartet with the slow movement that was re-orchestrated as the “Adagio for Strings.” (You can hear Samuel Barber’s “Dover Beach” with a mezzo-soprano in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“The quartet will be in Germany (map is below) from August 17 to August 26, performing at the Rathaus in Nieder-Olm; the Musikschule Chroma in Vellmar (north of Kassel); the Lutheran Church in Schlitz (halfway between Frankfurt and Kassel); and at Phillipsburg in Braubach, as part of the festival in St. Goar. The concert at the music school in Vellmar will be a lecture-concert for students, so we’re brushing up on our German!
“Following our performances in Germany, we will all return to Wisconsin to perform this same program Sept. 4-9 in Germantown, Whitewater, Janesville, Beloit and Madison. That includes an interview with radio host Norman Gilliland on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Midday” at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 5.
“We have secured funding from several German organizations, and received a generous grant from the Kassel County-Dane County Sister County Taskforce.
“Melinda and the members of this quartet are thrilled beyond words that this project has taken shape. We look forward to sharing with our audiences a program exploring the intersections between two cultures that are quite distinct today, but which share deep, common roots.”
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Classical music: The UW Choral Union and UW Symphony Orchestra deliver outstanding performances of great music by Mozart and Brahms
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. Barker also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The program for the first concert this season by the UW Choral Union (below), mercifully, had nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas, and just offered great music.
There were only two works, one by Brahms and the other by Mozart. Surefire!
Johannes Brahms composed three relatively short works for chorus, without soloists, and orchestra. Of these, I wish conductors would get busy with two of them in particular. The Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) and Nänie are simply superb works by one of the greatest of all choral composers.
The third, the Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny), Op. 54, I would rate just a bit lower for musical content, but that is the one of the three that is more frequently performed, and that was the one we heard.
That said, there is much quite beautiful music in the piece, which sets a poem of Friedrich Hölderlin that moves from anxiety to desperation. Brahms (below) preceded the choral setting with a serene introduction that—to satisfy his aesthetics if not the poet’s—he repeats at the end to restore order.
Conductor Beverley Taylor (below) employed rather broad tempos, but this enabled her to bring out some of the melodic material with great beauty.
And, with a chorus of some 124 singers, she was able to give the music tremendous sonority, if a bit at the price of German diction. With the very good UW Symphony Orchestra in fine fettle, too, this was an excellent performance that should alert listeners to neglected treasures.
The main work was the unfinished “Great” Mass in C minor, K. 427, by Mozart (below). This is music inspired by the composer’s marriage and by the new (for him) artistic climate of Vienna. Even incomplete – it has a fragmentary “Credo” and is missing an “Agnus Dei”) — it still stands, with his also uncompleted Requiem, as a towering masterpiece of his sacred choral output.
Taylor displayed a fine feeling for both the overall and individual qualities of the work, projecting them with vigor and discipline.
There were four student soloists (below), with promising young voices.
But eventually the standout proved to be soprano Sarah Richardson (below). The operatic-style aria, “Et incarnatus est” from the “Credo” was apparently sung by Mozart’s wife in its preliminary performance, and is often heard as a separate solo number today. This was sung by Richardson (below) with skill and eloquence. (You can hear the aria in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
This chorus was really a bit oversized for a work like this, but Taylor made it the real star of the performance, in singing with both power and precision.
A truly rewarding concert!
Tags: aesthetic, Agnus Dei, American Record Guide, anxiety, aria, artistic, Arts, beautiful, Beverly Taylor, Cello, choral music, Christmas, Classical music, climate, composer, content, Credo, critic, desperation, diction, discipline, Early music, eloquence, emeritus, esthetic, feeling, fettle, fine, fragment, German, great, History, Holiday, incomplete, individual, introduction, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, John W. Barker, lecture, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Marriage, mass, masterpiece, material, Medieval, melodic, melody, Mozart, Music, musical, Nanie, opera, operatic, Orchestra, order, output, photo, photograph, piece, poem, poet, power, precision, preformance, professor, quality, Requiem, restore, review, rewarding, sacred, Season, serene, setting, short, singer, skill, soloists, Song of Destiny, Song of the Fates, star, Student, superb, Tempo, towering, unfinished, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW Choral Union, UW Symphony Orchestra, Vienna, vigor, Viola, Violin, vocal music, voice, wife, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Classical music: Globe-trotting conductor Edo de Waart bids farewell to Madison and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra this Sunday afternoon at the Wisconsin Union Theater with music by Mozart, Bloch and Elgar
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By Jacob Stockinger
Music director and conductor Edo de Waart is coming to the end of his widely praised eight-year tenure at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, after which he will become a conductor laureate of the MSO.
The busy and energetic 75-year-old de Waart (below, in a photo by Jesse Willems) started his career as a assistant principal oboist of the Concertgebouw and rose to become an acclaimed symphony and opera conductor. Currently, he is also the music director of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In the past, he held major posts in Hong Kong, San Francisco, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Santa Fe, New York, Houston, Sydney, Rotterdam and Amsterdam among many others.
For more on de Waart, go to his Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_de_Waart
Unless they go to Milwaukee on the following weekend — Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 26-28 — to hear de Waart conduct Gustav Mahler’s mammoth Symphony No. 3 as his final farewell, listeners in the Madison area will likely have their last chance to hear the formidable de Waart and the accomplished Milwaukee players (below, with concertmaster Frank Almond on the left) this coming Sunday afternoon.
At 2:30 p.m. in Shannon Hall at the Wisconsin Union Theater, de Waart and the MSO will perform the Overture to the opera “Don Giovanni,” K. 527, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Ernest Bloch’s “Schlomo: A Hebraic Rhapsody” with MSO principal cellist Susan Babini (below); and Sir Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 55.
There will also be a free pre-concert lecture at 1:30 p.m. by Randal Swiggum.
Tickets run from $15 to $49. For more information, including ticket prices and purchasing outlets, audiovisual links and links to reviews and background stories, go to:
https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/milwaukee-symphony-orchestra/
The Ear has always been impressed not only with the quality of de Waart’s conducting, but also with his choice of soloists and his creative approach to programming. He has fond memories of other performances in Madison by the MSO, which used to tour here regularly.
The distinguished de Waart, a native of the Netherlands, has enjoyed critical acclaim in his international career across Europe, Asia and North America. For a while, this acclaimed world-class musician who has made so many award-winning recordings and performed so many guest stints around the world, was even a neighbor who lived in Middleton, a suburb of Madison, where his wife is from.
Plus, de Waart has a fine philosophy of making music and leading an orchestra, as you can hear in the YouTube video below that was made when he first took over the reins of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra:
Tags: Amsterdam, Arts, Asia, Australia, Beethoven, Bloch, Cello, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, Concert, concerto, conductor, director, Edo de Waart, Elgar, Europe, farewell, globe, globe-trotting, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Houston, Houston Grand Opera, Jacob Stockinger, lecture, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Mahler, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Minneapolis, Mozart, Music, Netherlands, New York, New Zealand, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Oboe, opera, Orchestra, phiolosphy, principal, program, programming, Rotterdam, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Santa Fe Opera, Schlomo, soloist, soloists, St. Paul, Susan Babini, Sydney, symphony, tour, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, vocal music, wife, Wikipedia, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Theater, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, world-class, YouTube
Classical music: The Madison Symphony Orchestra announces its 2017-2018 season of nine concerts of “favorites combined with firsts”
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is the official announcement of the 2017-18 season by the Madison Symphony Orchestra:
The 2017-18 season of the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO, below, in a photo by Greg Anderson) presents nine programs that invite audiences to “listen with all your heart” and “feel the emotion, power and majesty” of great classical music.
Subscriptions are available now, and single tickets for all concerts go on sale to the public Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.
For more information about tickets and ticket prices plus discounts for new subscribers and renewing subscribers, go to:
http://www.madisonsymphony.org/17-18
MSO music director John DeMain, who will be marking his 24th season with the MSO, has created an exciting season that features favorites combined with firsts.
Says DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad): “I must point out two monumental firsts: the MSO debut of the great violinist Gil Shaham, renowned and sought after the world over, whose appearance Madison has waited for for many years; and the Madison premiere of the Glagolitic Mass by Czech composer Leos Janacek, a gargantuan work for chorus and orchestra with a prominent role for our “Colossal Klais,” the Overture Concert Organ.”
Performances are in Overture Hall of the Overture Center at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays; 8 p.m. on Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays.
The 2017-2018 subscription series concerts begin on Sept. 15, 16 and 17 with “Orchestral Brilliance”—proudly presenting the Madison Symphony Orchestra performing the Johann Sebastian Bach/Leopold Stokowski version of the organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor; Felix Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony and Hector Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” with MSO principal viola Christopher Dozoryst (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) as soloist. (You can hear Leopold Stokowski conduct his own transcription of the work by Bach, which was used in Walt Disney’s film “Fantasia,” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“From the New World” on Oct. 20, 21 and 22 features the return of beloved pianist Olga Kern (below), a gold medalist in the Van Cliburn competition, performing Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto, and the MSO performing Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” and Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite.
On Nov. 17, 18, and 19 “Troubadour: Two Faces of the Classical Guitar” features sensational guitar virtuoso Sharon Isbin (below) playing two works, one by American composer Chris Brubeck, and the other by the Spaniard Joaquin Rodrigo, with the MSO performing two Suites—Manuel DeFalla’s The Three-Cornered Hat and Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid.
The cherished kickoff to the holiday season, “A Madison Symphony Christmas,” returns on the first weekend in December — the 1, 2, and 3. Guest artists Emily Pogorelc, soprano, and Eric Barry, tenor, join John DeMain, the MSO, the Madison Symphony Chorus (below), Madison Youth Choirs and Mount Zion Gospel Choir on stage for the family-friendly celebration.
The MSO season subscription continues in 2018 with the long awaited appearance of violinist Gil Shaham (below) with the MSO—“Gil Shaham Plays Tchaikovsky” on Jan. 19, 20 and 21. This program features works by three of the most popular Russian composers of all time— Sergei Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges Suite, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 and Peter Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
“Richly Romantic” concerts take place on Feb. 16, 17 and 18 when one of MSO’s favorite cellists, Alban Gerhardt (below), returns performing the lyrical William Walton’s Cello Concerto, and the MSO presents Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and Gioachino Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide.
Spring arrives April 13, 14, and 15 with “String Fever” featuring Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 1, Spring, Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem and Grammy Award-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich (below) performing the Antonin Dvorak’s Violin Concerto.
The season finale, “Mass Appeal,” takes place on May 4, 5 and 6. Star of NPR’s From the Top, pianist Christopher O’Riley (below), will open the program with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22. The MSO premiere of the monumental Glagolitic Mass by Czech composer Leos Janacek features the Overture Concert Organ and the Madison Symphony Chorus, along with soloists Rebecca Wilson, soprano, Julie Miller, mezzo-Soprano, Roger Honeywell, tenor, and Benjamin Sieverding, bass.
The MSO’s 17-18 season includes the popular multimedia production of Beyond the Score®, “Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations,” featuring live actors and visuals in the first half, with the entire work performed in the second half. Joining the orchestra are American Players Theatre actors James Ridge (below), Colleen Madden and Brian Mani, along with Wisconsin Public Radio’s Norman Gilliland of Wisconsin Public Radio as the Narrator. This single performance takes place on Sunday, March 18, 2018*.
NOTE: *Advance tickets for Beyond the Score® are available only to MSO 17-18 season subscribers prior to single tickets going on sale to the general public on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Beyond the Score® is a production of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gerard McBurney, Creative Director for Beyond the Beyond the Score®
ABOUT THE MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Madison Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 92nd season in 2017-2018 and its 24th season under the leadership of music director John DeMain.
The MSO has grown to be one of America’s leading regional orchestras, providing Madison and south central Wisconsin with cultural and educational opportunities to interact with great masterworks and top-tier guest artists from around the world.
Find more information at madisonsymphony.org
Tags: Aaron Copland, Actor, Alban Gerhardt, America, American Players Theatre, Arts, Augustin Hadelich, Bach, Barber, Baroque, Berlioz, Beyond the Score, Billy the Kid, Brian Mani, Cello, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, choral music, Chris Brubeck, Christmas, Christopher Dozoryst, Christopher O'Riley, classical guitar, Classical music, Colleen Madden, Concert, concerto, Czech, Disney, Dvorak, Edward Elgar, emotion, Enigma Variations, Fantasia, Felix Mendelssohn, film, From the New World, From The Top, fugue, Gil Shaham, Glagolitic, Grammy, guitar, Harold in Italy, heart, Holiday, Jacob Stockinger, James Ridge, Joaquin Rodrigo, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John DeMain, Klais, Leopold Stokowski, Leos Janacek, Love of Three Oranges, Madison, Madison Symphony Chorus, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Madison Youth Choirs, majesty, Manuel de Falla, mass, Mother Goose, movie, Mozart, Mt. Zion Gospel Choir, multimedia, Music, narrator, New World Symphony, Norman Gilliland, NPR, Olga Kern, Orchestra, organ, Overture, Overture Center, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Piano, power, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Reformation Symphony, Rossini, Schumann, Semiramide, Sharon Isbin, singer, singers, soloists, soprano, Spring, string, subscription, Suite, symphony, tenor, Three-Cornered Hat, ticket, toccata, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, transcription, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Van Cliburn, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Viola, Violin, virtuoso, visual, vocal music, Walt Disney, William Walton, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: What concerts or performances in 2019 did you most like, and do you most remember and want to praise?
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PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD 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
The concert season’s winter intermission will soon draw to a close.
So this is a good time to recall favorite concerts and performances of last year.
But let’s be clear.
This is a not a request to name “The Best Concerts of 2019.”
Calling them the most memorable concerts doesn’t necessarily mean they were the best.
Perfection or “the best” sounds so objective, but can really be quite personal and subjective. So much can depend not only on the music and the performers, but also on your own mood and your taste or preferences.
So please share the concerts or performances that you most liked and enjoyed, the one that most still linger in your mind. And, if you can pin it down, tell us why you liked them so much and why they linger for you.
There are so many excellent groups and concerts, so much fine classical music, in the Madison area that there should be lots of candidates.
Here are several performances or complete concerts that The Ear remembers with special fondness.
The MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) held a season-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of John DeMain’s tenure as its music director and conductor. The big event came at the end: Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 8 – the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand” – that brought together the MSO and the MSO Chorus as well as the Madison Youth Choirs and the UW-Madison Choral Union.
It proved an impressive, overwhelming and moving display of coordination and musicianship, a testament to how far DeMain (below, in a photo by Prasad) has brought the orchestra.
(Also memorable on the MSO season were pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin in Ravel’s jazzy Piano Concerto in G Major and UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor in the Leonard Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” symphony during the MSO tribute to Bernstein, with whom DeMain worked closely.)
The WISCONSIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (below, in a photo by Mike Gorski), under its veteran music director Andrew Sewell, continues to test its own limits and surpass them. Particularly impressive was the last concert of the winter season with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 featuring two outstanding soloists: soprano Mary Mackenzie and bass Timothy Jones.
The playing of the difficult score was precise but moving, and the singing blended beautifully. It made one understand why during this season – when the orchestra marks 60 years and maestro Sewell (below, in a photo by Alex Cruz) marks his 20th season — the WCO has deservingly graduated to two performances of each Masterwork concert (one here on Friday nights followed by one in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield on Saturday night).
Also memorable was an impressive concert by the mostly amateur but critically acclaimed MIDDLETON COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA. The Ear likes amateur musicians, and for their 10th anniversary concert they really delivered the goods in Dvorak’s famous Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” and, with fabulous guest soloist J.J. Koh (below — principal clarinet of the Madison Symphony Orchestra — in Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto.
But it wasn’t only large-scale works that The Ear remembers.
Three chamber music concerts continue to stand out.
During the summer, the WILLY STREET CHAMBER PLAYERS and guest UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor (both below) delivered a performance of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major that would be hard for any group to match, let alone surpass, for its tightness and energy, its lyricism and drama.
The same goes for the veteran PRO ARTE QUARTET at the UW-Madison, which this fall started its complete cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets in the new Hamel Music Center to celebrate the Beethoven Year in 2020 when we mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
The quartet played early, middle and late quartets with complete mastery and subtlety. Treat yourself. Don’t miss the remaining five concerts, which resume in February and take place over the next year at the Hamel center and also at the Chazen Museum of Art, from where they will also be live-streamed.
Finally, The Ear will always remember the wholly unexpected and thoroughly captivating virtuoso accordion playing he heard last summer by Milwaukeean Stas Venglevski (below) at a concert by the BACH DANCING AND DYNAMITE SOCIETY. Venglevski performed music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Igor Stravinsky and Astor Piazzolla in a new and enthralling way.
Unfortunately, for various reasons The Ear missed many other concerts – by the Madison Opera and the University Opera among others – that promised to be memorable performances.
But perhaps you can fill him in as we start 2020 concerts next weekend.
What concerts in 2019 did you like most and do you most remember and praise? Why?
The Ear wants to hear.
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