The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Local groups stream videos to entertain home-bound listeners, and perhaps to promote their next seasons. Plus, the Madison Symphony Orchestra cancels and postpones its May concerts
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By Jacob Stockinger
Cancellations and postponements aren’t the only effects that the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic are having on the local classical music scene.
Many local ensembles – much like such national and international organizations as the Metropolitan Opera and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra — are also starting to offer free streamed performances, some of them archival and some of them are specially performed.
Bach Around the Clock even held a virtual festival this year that featured many different original recorded performances spread out over many days and continues.
Why are they doing so?
Certainly to help entertain the public while they weather the boredom and loneliness of social distancing and sheltering in place at home. Music can comfort.
Perhaps they are also doing so as a smart marketing move to stay in the public’s consciousness despite cancellations and to indirectly promote their upcoming seasons.
Here are some examples:
The Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is offering a link to a YouTube performance — by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra below) — of the Dvorak Requiem, which the MSO orchestra and chorus were supposed to perform this weekend but had to cancel.
The video also has a message from music director John DeMain; texts and translations from the Czech; a special pre-concert talk and program notes for the Requiem by J. Michael Allsen; and a link to the MSO’s 2020-21 season.
Here is a link: https://madisonsymphony.org/experience-dvorak-requiem-virtually/
In other MSO news: The concerts with pianist Yefim Bronfman playing the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Brahms on May 1, 2 and 3 and the open rehearsal on April 30 are now canceled, and the May 5 organ performance has been postponed.
For those who hold tickets for May concerts, the MSO will be announcing options for donation, exchange and refunds sometime this weekend or next week.
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO), which recently streamed its December concert in the UW’s Hamel Center, has started a special “Coucherto” series – it’s a pun on concerto and couch – of special at-home concerts by individual musicians in the WCO for those listeners who are staying at home.
The project uses social media including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo and at the WCO’s home website. Also included is an invitation by music director Andrew Sewell.
The WCO’s next season hasn’t been announced yet, but should be soon.
Here is a link: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/about/coucherto/
For its part, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, which is facing uncertainty about its June concert series, which focuses on Beethoven’s piano trios – is offering selected chamber music performances from its past seasons that are on BDDS’ YouTube channel.
It too has comments and the program lineup for its season this summer.
Here is a link: https://bachdancing.org/watch-listen/video/
Have you seen any of these videos?
What do you think of them?
Dp you think they work as marketing strategies?
Have you discovered sites for streaming classical music that you recommend to others?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: What music is helping you get through the Coronavirus by staying home? Help create a Pandemic Playlist
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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
Starting today, Wisconsin joins other states and countries in proclaiming a stay-at-home emergency condition to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
That means non-essential businesses and schools are closed; restaurants can only deliver food and do pick-up; and residents must stay at home except for essential services and travel such as buying food, seeing a doctor and getting medicine.
For a couple of weeks, many of us have already been spending almost all our time hunkering down at home.
And the Internet and other mass media are full of helpful hints about how to handle the loneliness, fear and anxiety that can come with self-isolation and self-quarantining.
For many, music proves a reliable coping strategy.
Since there are no live concerts to preview or review, now seems like a good time for The Ear to ask readers: What music helps you deal with the isolation of staying at home?
Is listening to music a part of your daily schedule, structure or routine?
Maybe you are using the time to discover new music or neglected composers, works and performers.
Maybe you are using the time to revisit old favorites by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.
Maybe you prefer darker and deeper, more introverted works such as symphonies by Mahler, Bruckner and Shostakovich?
Maybe you prefer the stories and drama of operas by Verdi and Puccini, oratorios by Handel and songs by Schubert?
Maybe, like The Ear, you find the music of Baroque Italian composers, such as the violin concertos by Vivaldi and Corelli, to be a great, upbeat way to start the day with energy and a good mood.
One more modern but neo-classical work that The Ear likes to turn to — a work that is rarely heard or performed live – is the beautiful “Eclogue” for piano and strings by the 20th-century British composer Gerald Finzi (below).
Finzi wrote it as a slow movement to a piano concerto, but then never finished the concerto. The “Eclogue” — a short pastoral poem — was never performed in his lifetime. So it continues to stand alone.
But like so much English pastoral music, the poignant Eclogue feels like sonic balm, some restorative comfort that can transport you to a calmer and quieter place, put you in a mood that you find soothing rather than agitated.
Hear it for yourself and decide by listening to it in the YouTube video at the bottom, then let The Ear know what you think.
Perhaps you have many other pieces to suggest for the same purpose.
But the series of reader suggestions is meant to be ongoing.
The idea is to build a collective “Pandemic Playlist.”
So right now and for this time, please post just ONE suggestion – with a YouTube link, if possible — in the Comment section with perhaps what you like about it and why it works for you during this time of physical, psychological and emotional distress from COVID-19.
What do you think of the idea of creating a Pandemic Playlist?
The Ear hopes that you like his choice, and that he and other readers like yours.
Be well and stay well.
Let’s get through this together.
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Classical music: Tickets to superstar soprano Renée Fleming’s recital at the Wisconsin Union Theater on Saturday, May 2, go on sale at 10 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 3 — unless you buy a $150 reception ticket before then
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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
Tickets for reserved seats at the 6 p.m. concert on Saturday, May 2, by superstar soprano Renée Fleming (below) in Shannon Hall at the Wisconsin Union Theater are $120 per person, with information about student tickets coming later.
Fleming will perform a variety of musical styles and genres, and will be accompanied by pianist Inon Barnatan (below).
General admission tickets for the 8 p.m. reception with food, music and an appearance by Fleming in the Great Hall – all in honor of the centennial anniversary of the WUT’s Concert Series — are separate and cost $150 per person.
Tickets to both events are available at Campus Arts Ticketing website where you can also find biographical details about Fleming.
But there is a catch.
If you buy a ticket to the reception now, you can also buy a ticket to the concert.
But if you want only a ticket to the concert, you must wait until they go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 3.
You can call 608 265-ARTS (2787).
You can also go online to make reservations and buy tickets to both events:
What do you think of the ticket prices for the concert and the reception?
And what do you think of the marketing strategy?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Can playing classical music quiet rowdy or drunken customers? Some McDonald’s restaurants say it works
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is some short good news on the classic music front.
Some McDonald’s restaurants are using classical music to calm late-night customers who are rowdy or drunk and prone to fighting as they wait for their fast food.
The international phenomenon started in Glasgow, Scotland. Then it apparently spread to Stockport, Liverpool and Gloucester in the United Kingdom. Finally, it ended up at several restaurants in Australia.
Several news stories specifically mention the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (portrayed below as Ronald McDonald Mozart).
Here is a link to one of the stories, published in The New York Post:
http://nypost.com/2017/07/05/mcdonalds-is-fighting-drunk-customers-with-mozart-and-bach/
The Ear wonders if any McDonald’s restaurants in Madison or the surrounding area, or in the state of Wisconsin or even anywhere in the U.S. have tried the same strategy and had the same experience, which seems grounded in neuroscience and the effect of classical music on releasing dopamine and other stress-lessening hormones.
If you hear of any or know of any, let The Ear now.
But maybe there is also a downside. The news reminds The Ear of Muzak, the motto of which used to be, “Not just a melody but a management tool.”
Oh well. If it fosters peace, who cares what came first – the chicken or the Egg McMuffin?
What do you think about all this?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: On Saturday, the UW-Madison hosts a FREE and PUBLIC day of workshops, master classes and performances for pianists and other keyboard players
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By Jacob Stockinger
Attention all pianists– amateurs, professionals and students — as well as other keyboard players.
This Saturday brings the first University of Wisconsin-Madison “Keyboard Day.” The focus is comprehensive, having the title “From the Practice Room to the Stage: The Pathway to Artistry.”(The official logo is below.)
The underlying reason may be to attract and recruit talented undergraduate students to the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. But the net effect is that a lot of wisdom about keyboard playing – from practicing to performing — will be on display to be shared with those who attend.
All events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
The event takes place in Morphy Recital Hall from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Here is a schedule:
9:30-10 a.m. Coffee and Pastries (Mills Lobby)
10 a.m.-noon UW-Madison Keyboard Faculty Workshops
Strategies for Learning a New Piece with Professor Martha Fischer (below top) and Professor Jess Johnson (below bottom)
Getting Inside a Composer’s Head with Professor John Stowe
Beyond Repetitive Drilling: Custom Exercises for Every Difficult Passage with Professor Christopher Taylor
Mindfulness and Self-Compassion in the Practice Room with Professor Martha Fischer and Professor Jess Johnson
1:30-3:30 p.m. Master class for high school students with UW-Madison keyboard faculty
Etude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3 by Frederic Chopin; Yunyao Zhu, a student of Kangwoo Jin
Sonata in G major, Op. 49, No. 2 by Ludwig van Beethoven. George Logan, a student of Liz Agard
Sposalizio, by Franz Liszt. Owen Ladd, a student of William Lutes
Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31, by Frederic Chopin. Jacob Beranek, a student of Margarita Kontorovsky
3:30-4 p.m. Reception in Mills Lobby
4-5 p.m. Recital featuring UW-Madison Keyboard Faculty
Sonata, Wq. 49 No. 5 by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788). From Sei Sonate, Op. 2 (1744). John Chappell Stowe, harpsichord (below top)
Quasi Variazioni. Andantino de Clara Wieck by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) from Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 14. Jess Johnson, piano. *Performed on a Steinbuhler DS 5.0 TM (“7/8”) alternatively-sized piano keyboard.
Don Quixote a Dulcinea (1933) by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Poetry by Paul Morand. Paul Rowe, baritone, and Martha Fischer, piano
The Banjo by Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869). Christopher Taylor, piano (below middle). You can hear the piece in the YouTube video at the bottom. Taylor will also play “Ojos criollos” (Creole Eyes) and “Pasquinade” by the American composer Gottschalk.
Nature Boy by George Alexander “eden ahbez” Aberle (1908-1895) Johannes Wallmann, jazz piano (below bottom)
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