The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Acclaimed native son Kenneth Woods returns this weekend to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He talks to The Ear about what Madison meant to him and his international career
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By Jacob Stockinger
This weekend, native Madisonian Kenneth Woods (below) returns from his home in the UK to conduct three performances of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The concerts feature two MSO debuts: the prize-winning young Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor; and the acclaimed guest conductor, Kenneth Woods, leading the orchestra for the MSO premiere of Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, “Miracle” plus Richard Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life).
Performances will be held in Overture Hall on Friday night, March 6, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday night, March 7, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday afternoon, March 8, at 2:30 p.m.
Single tickets are $19-$95 each and are on sale now, along with discounted tickets, at: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/the-miracle/; through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street; or by calling the Box Office at (608) 258-4141. Fees apply to online and phone sales.
You can view program notes for this concert online at http://bit.ly/msomar2020programnotes
A Prelude Discussion by Randal Swiggum will take place one hour before each concert.
Guest conductor Kenneth Woods is a busy and versatile musician. He is the Principal Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of both the Colorado MahlerFest and the Elgar Festival in England. (You can hear Woods conducting Carl Maria von Weber’s “Oberon” Overture in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Woods has won accolades for rediscovering and recording the music of the Austrian-British composer Hans Gàl. Woods, who has played guitar in a rock band, is also a professional cellist who solos with orchestras and plays chamber music. He writes a respected blog. And he currently plays and records in the Briggs Piano Trio for Avie Records.
For much more information about Kenneth Woods, including his blog “A View From the Podium,” go to: https://kennethwoods.net/blog1/
Woods recently spoke via email to The Ear about what Madison has meant to him and to his international career.
How did living in Madison play a role in your decision to become a professional musician?
Madison offered me a chance to hear music at an early age. I was taken to watch a rehearsal of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra as a very young kid, maybe three or four years old. That made a huge impression on me, especially seeing the rehearsal process. Later, my parents took us to all the UW Symphony Orchestra concerts for years.
There’s really no reason not to take young kids to concerts! For me, a love of live music led to a love of recorded music, listening to records at home, and from there, to an interest in playing music as a kid.
We were lucky to have a very strong music program in the Madison public schools when I was growing up here. The orchestras at Memorial High School played some really impressive repertoire under Tom Buchhauser (below top, in a photo by Jon Harlow). The UW Summer Music Clinic made being a musician social – it was a great immersion with one’s peers.
Most important, however, was probably the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO). Playing under Jim Smith (below bottom) was the most fantastic education in orchestral playing one could hope for. He and Tom are a big part of why I became a conductor.
Madison in those days wasn’t a super-pressurized scene, like one might encounter around the big pre-college programs in New York or LA. But what I might have missed in terms of conservatory-level instrumentalists in every corridor, one made up in terms of feeling like you could find your own path. By the time I was in high school, I pretty much knew music was that path.
How did your experiences in Madison help prepare you for that career?
I learned so much about rehearsing from Jim Smith. In his first year, we worked on Dvorak’s 8th Symphony pretty much all year. Every week, he opened our ears to new facets of the music. I’ve never forgotten that.
I went off to Indiana University to do my Bachelor’s degree, but returned to Madison for a Master’s, when I studied cello with UW-Madison professor Parry Karp (below top).
Those were wonderful years for me. I learned an enormous amount from Parry as both a cello teacher and chamber music coach (and especially as a person).
I played in fantastic chamber groups, did lots of wacky new music and had solo opportunities. UW Symphony Orchestra conductor David Becker (below bottom) even gave me my first meaningful chance to rehearse an orchestra when he had me take a couple of rehearsals on the Copland Clarinet Concerto.
And I played in both the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. I came away from that time with both new skills and new confidence.
What does returning to your hometown to conduct the Madison Symphony Orchestra mean to you?
It’s both very exciting and a little surreal. Under the leadership of John DeMain (below top, in a photo by Greg Anderson), the MSO (below bottom, in a photo by Peter Rodgers) has come so far since the time I was in it. And the new hall is such a treasure for all of Wisconsin – it’s practically a different orchestra.
I still have many friends and former mentors in the orchestra and it’s going to be wonderful to see them all and make music together again after so long.
But it’s more than a homecoming. It’s a chance to celebrate where we’ve all been and what we’ve all done the last 20 years or so. My musical life has mostly been in the UK for a long time, so to re-connect with my musical roots here is rather magical.
What are your major current and upcoming projects?
The English Symphony Orchestra (below) represents the biggest chunk of my musical life. This year we’re celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday and the orchestra’s 40th anniversary.
The ESO has a special commitment to new and unknown music, and right now we’re in the midst of something called the 21st Century Symphony Project, which involves commissioning, premiering and recording nine new symphonies by diverse composers. It’s one of the most ambitious commissioning projects I’ve ever heard of, let alone been involved in.
I’m also excited about this year’s Colorado MahlerFest in Boulder, where we’re focusing on Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” this May, which will crown a week of music exploring themes of color and visual art with music by Wagner, Messiaen and British composer Philip Sawyers.
Is the MSO program special to you?
I must say that it was incredibly generous of John DeMain to offer me such a fantastic program. Not every music director is gentleman enough to let a guest have Ein Heldenleben.
What would you like the public to know about your approach to music and about the specific works by Haydn, Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss?
Haydn’s music is maybe the richest discovery of my adult life. I didn’t get it as a kid, largely because most performances I heard were so dull.
His music is so varied, and his personality so complex, one mustn’t try to reduce him down to a simplistic figure. The late symphonies, of which this is one of the finest, are inexhaustible sources of wisdom, beauty, humor and sanity.
The Mendelssohn is really an astonishing piece. I’ve probably conducted it as much as any piece of music, with so many different soloists, all of whom had hugely different temperaments, personalities, sounds and approaches.
I’ve played it with some of the greatest violinists in the world and with young students. Somehow, whoever is playing, it always leaves me, and the audience, smiling. I’m pretty sure we can continue that streak with Blake Pouliot (below, in a photo by Jeff Fasano).
The Strauss is a rich, personal, wise, funny and moving work. It’s always a challenge, particularly bringing out all the astonishing detail in the score, but it’s also a real joy to perform. If the Mendelssohn always leaves me smiling, the Strauss always leaves me smiling with a tear in my eye.
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Classical music: The eclectic fusion group Mr. Chair plays music by Stravinsky, Satie and others on Monday night in Spring Green
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from the Rural Musicians Forum:
Mr. Chair looks like a jazz quartet, sounds sometimes like a rock band, but in actuality is a contemporary classical music group in the guise of a modern band.
Classically trained musicians who are well versed in jazz, the players in Mr. Chair create a new sound using both acoustic and electric instruments.(You can hear Mr. Chair perform the original composition “Freed” in the the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Rural Musicians Forum audience will have the chance to enjoy the soundscapes of this fascinating eclectic fusion group on this coming Monday night, Aug. 19, at 7:30 p.m. at Taliesin’s Hillside Theater (below) in Spring Green.
Members of Mr. Chair (below) are Professor Mark Hetzler, trombone and electronics; Jason Kutz, piano and keyboards; Ben Ferris, acoustic and electric bass; and Mike Koszewski, drums and percussion. All have close ties to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, where they also perform as an ensemble.
Mr. Chair’s compositions are long-form journeys, telling stories through sound by using and exploring the three pillars of music: melody, harmony and rhythm. Think cinematic, orchestral, surreal, romantic, emotional and gripping, and always equal parts dissonant and consonant. Their influences are far-reaching from classical, blues and rock to soul, funk, jazz and beyond.
For this concert, Mr. Chair will perform re-imagined excerpts from Igor Stravinsky’s Neo-Classical ballet masterpiece Pulcinella as well as music by Erik Satie and selections from their debut album, NEBULEBULA, which will be released on Thursday, Sept. 5, on vinyl, CD and digital streaming platforms.
The genre-bending quartet will perform in the beautiful Hillside Theater designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as part of his Taliesin compound. It is located at 6604 State Highway 23, about five miles south of Spring Green.
Admission is by free will offering, with a suggested donation of $15.
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Classical music: Looking for serious fun? The thoroughly successful opening concerts by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society bode well for the upcoming second weekend
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By Jacob Stockinger
After 28 summers, going to a concert by the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society still feels like attending a family reunion – the best kind of family reunion where everyone is familiar and friendly, where everything is fun, and where you always leave glad that you went.
That’s not by chance.
The first thing that co-founders and co-artistic directors Stephanie Jutt and Jeffrey Sykes did last Friday and Saturday nights was to thank the loyal audience. And the audience, full of longtime fans, returned the favor by being attentive to and appreciative of the first-rate music-making as well as responsive to the horseplay and antics – such as the surreal scene of virtuoso Axel Strauss playing “The Skater’s Waltz” on his violin while rollerblading around the stage (below).
BDDS players really mean it when they say that their audiences are in for something different, something they won’t find elsewhere and won’t forget.
Last weekend that meant the return of two longtime guest performers: San Francisco cellist Jean-Michael Fonteneau and Montreal violinist Axel Strauss (below, with pianist Jeffrey Sykes). Neither disappointed as they performed very varied music by Franz Joseph Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, Johannes Brahms, Gabriel Faure, Lili Boulanger, Maurice Ravel and Ned Rorem. And as always, the amazing pianist Jeffrey Sykes proved a chameleon who blended masterfully into the style of each period and each composer.
But for The Ear, the unexpected standout last weekend was guest accordion player Stas Venglevski from Milwaukee. Born in Russia and trained at the Moscow Conservatory, he is a virtuoso player, a sensitive arranger and a convincing composer – all done with good humor and a charismatic stage presence.
The Ear never thought of the accordion – the Russian bayan, to be specific – as an instrument for chamber music. But he does now, after hearing Venglevski play serious Russian, French and Latin American music that ran the gamut from a graceful waltz and a sprightly polka to torchy tangos. And then there were his flying fingers punching out “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” a real crowd-pleaser.
The large audience responded on both nights with wild applause and a standing ovation every time that Venglevski (below) played, and Jutt promised the audience that he will be back.
“As you can see, we have fun here,” Jutt deadpanned.
She is not exaggerating.
Which bodes well for the second weekend of three that will happen this coming weekend.
The second weekend — two programs in three venues — celebrates Jutt and Sykes, plus two of BDDS’ favorite guest artists: violinist Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio and Madison pianist Thomas Kasdorf.
Kasdorf (below) and Sykes are both featured in a program called “Rock the Sykes-o-delic Kas-bah.” Kasdorf is featured in Brahms’ Horn Trio with guest horn player Karl Kramer Johansen, and in the appealing and accessible Café Concertino by the contemporary Australian composer Carl Vine.
Sykes will perform another chamber transcription of a Classical-era symphonic work, which over the years has become a welcome specialty of BDDS. In this case it is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s snappy and appealing Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271, the “Jeunehomme” concerto. (You can hear the irresistible last movement of the piano concerto, used in the film “Amadeus,” in the YouTube video at the bottom.) Sykes will also perform in Robert Schumann’s “Fairy Tales” for clarinet and viola.
A Madison native, cellist Alison Rowe (below) — an artist from the Dynamite Factory, which is BDDS’ program for emerging talent — will be featured in the Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Major by Johann Sebastian Bach.
“Rock the Sykes-o-delic Kas-bah” will be performed at the Stoughton Opera House on Friday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. Braisin’ Hussies Food Cart will be parked outside the Opera House prior to the performance. The program will also be performed in Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 23, at 2:30 p.m.
Jutt (below top) and Sant’Ambrogio (below bottom, in a photo by Stephanie Ann Boyd) worm their musical way into the most unexpected places in the other program, “Steph Infection.” The Nocturne for flute, violin, horn and piano of Franz Doppler opens the program, which continues with Jutt’s own arrangement of Antonin Dvorak’s popular “American” String Quartet, with a flute substituting for one of the two violins.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Five Pieces for flute, clarinet and piano add spice to the program, and the evening concludes with Ernst von Dohnanyi’s epic Sextet for clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and piano. A work that ranges from stormy and turbulent to tender and funny, it features an all-star cast including audience favorite clarinetist Alan Kay, horn player Karl Kramer Johansen, violist Carol Cook (principal at the Lyric Opera of Chicago), and Madison’s own cellist of the UW-Madison’s Pro Arte Quartet, Parry Karp (below).
“Steph Infection” will be performed at The Playhouse, Overture Center for the Arts, Saturday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m.; and in Spring Green at the Hillside Theater, Sunday, June 23, at 6:30 p.m.
And of course there could also be some unannounced surprises – more door prizes, perhaps a mystery guest, or more shenanigans and antics that correspond to the “Name Dropping” pun theme of the programs.
For tickets ($43-$49) and more information, go to: https://bachdancing.org
Tags: "Amadeus", #AlanKay, #AlisonRowe, #AmadeusFilm, #AntoninDvorak, #ArtisticDirector, #AustralianComposer, #AxelStrauss, #BachDancingandDynamiteSociety, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #CarlVine, #CarolCook, #CastList, #CelloSonata, #ChamberMusic, #Classicalera, #ContemporaryComposer, #CPEBach, #DmitriShostakovich, #ErnstvonDohnanyi, #FamilyReunion, #FilmSoundtrack, #FlightoftheBumblebee, #FluteMusic, #FoodCart, #FrankLloydWright, #FranzDoppler, #FranzJosephHaydn, #FrenchMusic, #Fridaynight, #GabrielFaure, #HillsideTheater, #HornTrio, #Jean-MichelFonteneau, #JeffreySykes, #JeunehommeConcerto, #JohannesBrahms, #JohannSebastianBach, #KarlKramerJohansen, #LatinAmerica, #LatinAmerican, #LatinAmericanmusic, #LiliBoulanger, #LivingComposer, #LyricOperaofChicago, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MauriceRavel, #MilwaukeeWisconsin, #MontrealCanada, #MoscowConservatory, #MoscowRussia, #MovieSoundtrack, #Music-Making, #MusicReview, #NedRorem, #NewTango, #NuevoTango, #OvertureCenter, #ParryKarp, #PianoConcerto, #ProArteQuartet, #RobertSchumann, #RussianMusic, #SanFrancisco, #SaturdayNight, #SpringGreen, #StagePresence, #StandingOvation, #StasVenglevski, #StephanieJutt, #StephanieSant'Ambrogio, #StoughtonOperaHouse, #StoughtonWisconsin, #StringQuartet, #Sundayafternoon, #SymphonicMusic, #Taliesincompound, #TheEar, #ThePlayhouse, #TheSkater'sWaltz, #ThomasKasdorf, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #ViolaMusic, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, accordion, afternoon, Alan Kay, Alison Rowe, all-star, American, Antonín Dvořák, applause, appreciative, arrangement, arranger, Artistic director, Arts, attentive, audience, Australia, Axel Stauss, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Baroque, BDDS, blend, blog, born, cafe, California, Canada, Carl Vine, Carol Cook, cart, cast, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, chameleon, charismatic, clarinet, clarinetist, Classical, Classical music, composer, Concert, concertino, contemporary, CPE Bach, critic, Dmitri Shostakovich, Dvorak, dynamite, Early music, era, Ernst von Dohnanyi, everyone, everything, factory, familiar, Family, favor, fi ger, film, first-rate, Flight of the Bumblebee, flute, flutist, food, forward, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Doppler, Franz Joseph Haydn, French, Friday, friendly, fun, Gabriel Fauré, graceful, guest, Hillside Theater, Horn, horseplay, House, Humor, infection, irresistible, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Jeffrey Sykes, Jeunehomme, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Karl Kramer Johansen, Latin America, Latin American music, like, Lili Boulanger, link, Living composer, longtime, loyal, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, masterful, masterfully, Maurice Ravel, Milwaukee, Montreal, Moscow, Moscow Conservatory, movie, Mozart, Music, name, native, New Rorem, new tango, night, nocturne, opening, opera, Orchestra, ovation, Overture Center, Parry Karp, performer, period, Pianist, Piano, Piano concerto, player, please, polka, popular, presence, principal, Pro Arte Quartet, program, promise, psychedelic, pun, reunion, review, Robert Schumann, rollerblading, Russia, Russian, San Francisco, Saturday, sensitive, serious, sextet, share, Sonata, soundtrack, spectacular, spice, sprightly, Spring Green, Spring Green Wisconsin, stage, standout, Stas Venglevski, Stephanie Jutt, Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, stormy, Stoughton, Stoughton Opera House, String quartet, style, successful, summer, Sunday, surreal, symphonic, tag, talent, Taliesin, tango, tender, The Ear, The Playhouse, The Skater's Waltz, Thomas Kasdorf, torch, torchy, trained, transcription, trio, turbulent, unexpected, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, Viola, Violin, violinist, violist, virtuoso, Waltz, weekend, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, YouTube
Classical music: James Levine has been fired by The Met for sexual abuse. Plus, “Pulcinella Re-Imagined: An Evening of Music by Mr. Chair” will be performed at The Mineral Point Opera House this Friday night at 7 p.m.
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NEWS ALERT: James Levine was fired Monday night by the Metropolitan Opera for sexual abuse.
Here is a link to a story in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/arts/music/james-levine-metropolitan-opera.html
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been asked to post the following announcement:
“Pulcinella Re-Imagined: An Evening of Music by Mr. Chair” will be performed at The Mineral Point Opera House this Friday night at 7 p.m.
The Opera House is located at 139 High St. in Mineral Point.
Based in Madison, Mr. Chair (below, in a photo by Ryan Gilman) is a multi-genre group that plays a mix of rock, jazz, modern classical and improv-based styles.
This show will feature an arrangement of Igor Stravinsky‘s “Pulcinella” ballet as well as original music. It features beautiful, hip and surreal textures from whispering lyricism to thunderous wails in a gorgeous, historic theater. (You can hear the original version of “Pulcinella” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Members of the groups are UW-Madison professor Mark Hetzler on trombone, electronics; Jason Kutz on piano/keyboards; Ben Ferris on basses; and Michael Koszewski on drums
The concert will feature a special appearance by dancer/choreographer Amy Ryerson (below top) and narration by Buzz Kemper (below bottom).
Tickets can be purchased at the door or through BrownPaperTickets at https://m.bpt.me/event/3341686
Admission is $15 for adults, $5 for students and under 12 (at the door)
The program includes:
- “Mile of Ledges” 2. “Correction” 3. “Freed” 4. Three Views of Infinity, Mangalore to Bangalore Express”
Intermission
“Pulcinella”
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Classical music: This Saturday and on Wednesday, Nov. 29, “Live From the Met in HD” will feature the Thomas Adès operatic remake of Luis Buñuel’s film “The Exterminating Angel.” Here is background and a review of the production
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By Jacob Stockinger
Talk about the dinner party from Hell!
It may not be the most popular production this season staged by the famed Metropolitan Opera in New York City, but it is certainly the newest as well as the most unusual and interesting production.
It is an operatic remake of Spanish Surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel’s 1962 movie ‘The Exterminating Angel” (below is the poster).
You can see it in a live performance in the next “Live From the MET in HD” broadcast that will take place this coming Saturday afternoon with encore presentations on Wednesday afternoon and night.
On this Saturday, the show time is 11:55 a.m. at the Marcus Point Cinemas and the Marcus Palace in Sun Prairie. On Wednesday, Nov. 29 — postponed because next Wednesday is the day before Thanksgiving — the encore presentations at both cinemas are at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Running time is 2 hours and 40 minutes. The opera will be sung in English with surtitles in German, Spanish and English.
Tickets are $22, $18 for seniors.
Here is a link to the Met’s website with information about the production, including a cast sheet and a synopsis:
http://www.metopera.org/Season/2017-18-Season/exterminating-angel-ades-tickets/
Here are stories that provide some background.
The first is a general background piece about the opera (below, in a photo by Eamon Hassan for The New York Times) from the “Deceptive Cadence” blog written for NPR or National Public Radio:
Here are two guides, from The New York Times, with what you need to know about the opera and production:
And here is a rave review from Anthony Tommasini, the senior critic for The New York Times, who says if you only see one Met production this season, “The Exterminating Angel” should be it (below is a trailer on YouTube):
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/arts/music/exterminating-angel-review-metropolitan-opera.html
Tags: Anthony Tommasini, Arts, background, blog, Buñuel, cast, choral music, cinema, Classical music, composer, critic, Deceptive Cadence, dinner, dinner party, encore, English, film, German, HD, hell, interesting, Jacob Stockinger, live, Live From The Met in HD, Madison, Marcus Cinemas, Marcus Corporation, Metropolitan Opera, movie, Music, new, New Music, New York City, New York Times, NPR, opera, Orchestra, party, performance, photo, Poster, production, Radio, running time, Saturday, Season, senior, show, show time, Spanish, story, Sun Prairie, surreal, surrealism, surtitles, symphony, synopsis, The Exterminating Angel, theater, theatre, Thomas Ades, time, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, web site, Website, Wednesday, written, YouTube
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