The Well-Tempered Ear
The Madison Bach Musicians host a virtual online Baroque Tour starting this Saturday, April 24, and lasting through May 8
Leave a Comment
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 Ear has received the following notice from Trevor Stephenson, the founder and artistic director of the Madison Bach Musicians (MBM), who will debut their season-closing concert live and online this coming Saturday night, April 24:
Stephenson (below) writes:
Since travel has been so very limited during the pandemic, Madison Bach Musicians is elated to conclude its 2020-21 season with a musical journey through both space and time, and invites you to join us from the intimacy and safety of your own home.
A Baroque Tour is a musical travelogue of instrumental masterworks from 17th- and 18th-century Europe. Luminaries like Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell and Buxtehude are in the mix on this program with their brilliant though lesser-known contemporaries such as Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (below top), Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Andrea Falconieri (below bottom) and Francisco Jose de Castro.
A Baroque Tour will explore the glorious sonic landscapes of Italy, Spain, France, England and Germany.
Our ensemble for this program consists of five strings plus harpsichord, and we are thrilled that baroque bassoon virtuoso Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill), who teaches at the UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, will join us for Vivaldi’s exuberant Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat Major. (You can hear the opening movement in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
A Baroque Tour will be broadcast via live-streaming from the acoustically spectacular sanctuary of Grace Episcopal Church on this Saturday evening, April 24. (Rebroadcasts will be available on demand through May 8.)
Tickets are $15 and available online at: https://madison-bach-musicians.square.site/product/a-baroque-tour-april-24-2021-livestream-on-demand-until-may-8/57?cs=true&cst=custom
If you wish to purchase tickets through the mail, use this downloadable form: https://madisonbachmusicians.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MBM-2020-21-Live-Stream-Ticket-Form-A-Baroque-Tour.pdf
Here is the schedule for the concert and related events:
From 7:30-8 p.m., in a pre-concert lecture, MBM artistic director Trevor Stephenson will discuss the composers, the repertoire and the historical instruments.
The performance will run from 8 p.m. until approximately 9:15 p.m.
The evening will then conclude with a live Question-and-Answer session with the musicians who will be socially distanced on the concert platform.
Listeners should submit their questions—in advance or during the broadcast—via email to Karen Rebholz at madisonbachmusicians.manager@gmail.com.
THE MUSICIANS are:
Marc Vallon – baroque bassoon soloist
Kangwon Kim (below) – baroque violin
Emily Dupere – baroque violin
Micah Behr – baroque viola and baroque guitar
Martha Vallon – baroque cello and viola da gamba
James Waldo – baroque cello (and tambourine)
Trevor Stephenson – harpsichord
THE PROGRAM is:
HANDEL – Sonata in A major for Violin and Continuo, HWV 361
CHARPENTIER – Concerto for Four Viols, H 545
PURCELL – Trio Sonata in C major, Z 795
VIVALDI – Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, RV 503
GUILLEMAIN – Sonata in A minor for Two Violins, Op. 5, No.1
BUXTEHUDE – Trio Sonata in G major, BuxWV 271
DE CASTRO – Trio Sonata in C major, Op. 1, No. 6
FALCONIERI – La Folia (Folías de España)
Here is a link to some brief biographies and interesting facts about these remarkable composers: https://madisonbachmusicians.org/april-24-a-baroque-tour-a-livestream-event/
Tags: #AndreaFalconieri, #AntonioVivaldi, #ArtisticDirector, #BaroqueBassoon, #BaroqueContinuo, #BaroqueMusic, #BassoonConcerto, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChristianChurch, #CoronavirusPandemic, #DietrichBuxtehude, #EmailAddress, #EmilyDupere, #EnglishComposer, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranciscoJosedeCastro, #Frenchcomposer, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GermanComposer, #GermanComposers, #GraceEpiscopalChurch, #HarpsichordContinuo, #HenryPurcell, #HistoricallyInformedPerformancePractices, #HomeWebsite, #InstrumentalMusic, #italianComposer, #JacobStockinger, #JamesWaldo, #JohannSebastaianBach, #KangwonKim, #KeyboardMusic, #LaFolia, #LiveStreaming, #Louis-GabrielGuillemain, #MadisonBachMusicians, #Marc-AntoineCharpentier, #MarcVallon, #MarthaVallon, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #MicahBehr, #Musicfaculty, #OnlineConcert, #PeriodInstruments, #Pre-concertLecture, #RelatedEvent, #SaturdayNight, #SocialDistance, #SpanishComposer, #StringMusic, #TheEar, #TheUW, #TrevorStephenson, #TrioSonata, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VioladaGamba, #VirtualConcert, #WoodwindInstruments, #YouTubevideo, acoustics, Andrea Falconieri, Antonio Vivaldi, April, April Fool, Artistic director, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, bassoon concerto, biography, blog, brief, brilliant, Britain, Broadcast, Buxtehude, Castro, cellist, Cello, Chamber music, Charpentier, Christian, church, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, conclude, contemporary, continuo, coronavirus, cost, demand, Dietrich Buxtehude, downloadable, Dupere, Early music, elate, email, Emily Dupere, England, English, evening, event, exuberant, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, fact, Falconieri, form, forward, founder, Francisco Jose de Castro, French, George Frideric Handel, German, Germany, glorious, Grace Episcopal Church, Guillemain, guitar, Handel, harpsichord, help, Henry Purcell, historically informed performance practices, Home, home website, instrumental, intimacy, invite, Italian, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, James Walso, Johann Sebastian Bach, journey, Kangwon Kim, Keyboard, keyboard music, La Folia, landscape, like, limited, link, livestream, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, luminary, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, mail, Marc Vallon, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Martha Vallon, masterpiece, MBM, Mead Witter School of Music, Micah Behr, mix, Music, music faculty, musical, Musician, notice, online, pandemic, performer, period instruments, post, posting, pre-concert lecture, professor, Purcell, Q&A, question-and-answer, related, remarkable, repertoire, repertory, safety, sanctuary, Saturday, Season, session, share, social distance, Sonata, sonic, space, Spain, Spanish, spectacular, string, string music, tag, tambourine, The Ear, thrill, ticket, time, tour, travel, travelogue, Trevor Stephenson, trio, trio sonata, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW, video, Viol, Viola, viola da gamba, Violin, violinist, virtual, virtuoso, Vivaldi, Website, Wisconsin, woodwind, write, YouTube
Classical music: An outstanding concert by two harpsichordists explores the rich Baroque repertoire of arrangements and transcriptions. Let’s hear more!
1 Comment
ALERT: The will be NO free Friday Noon Musicale this week at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive. The musicales will resume on Dec. 4.
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 for 12 years hosted an early music show every other Sunday morning on WORT-FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
Trevor Stephenson (below left), the versatile founder, director and keyboard player of the Madison Bach Musicians, ventured another early music novelty last Saturday evening at the Madison Christian Community Hall on Old Sauk Road. (All performance photos are by John W. Barker.)
He and a colleague, Stephen Alltop (below right) from Northwestern University, braved our football traffic and our first snowstorm to bring their respective harpsichords for a joint program.
It was called “Music for Two Harpsichords,” but a better title would have been “Music for Two Harpsichordists.”
The fact is, only one item on the program was actually written for two harpsichords playing together. This was the Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C Major (BWV 1061), for which the string-ensemble parts are purely optional — and which were dispensed with in this case. (For the harpsichord-only version, see the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The two artists did play otherwise together, but in transcriptions.
They took several selections from Pièces de clavecin en concert by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which Rameau (below) himself adapted from purely harpsichord pieces into trios for harpsichord and two other instruments. But these were played in adaptations that turned the other instrument parts into a second harpsichord.
And there was a transcription for two harpsichords of the Fandango finale from the Quintet No. 4 in D Major by Luigi Boccherini (below) for guitar and string quartet.
In between these works there were solo keyboard segments. Alltop played three of the Preludes and Fugues from Book I of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” and Stephenson played three of Domenico Scarlatti’s 555 harpsichord sonatas.
For some extra spice, Tania Tandias (below), of local Flamenco dance activities, contributed some tambourine rhythms to a pair of the Rameau pieces, and she worked up a lot of castanet excitement in the Boccherini.
The two keyboard artists are each wonderful musicians, and obviously are compatible partners as well as gifted individual soloists. Alltop (below) matches Stephenson’s witty commentaries with wonderfully articulate and informed discussion.
Their two harpsichords are, inevitably, quite distinct in tone, so that it is possible to discern each player’s role. Fortunately, too, the Christian Community’s hall is moderate in size and intimate, a perfect acoustical setting for such keyboard playing.
The Stephenson-Alltop partnership deserves to continue. There is a lot of actual two-harpsichord literature out there. Francois Couperin wrote a good deal of music for the combination, as did a number of Elizabethan composers. It would be wonderful if such material could be explored in further ventures like this one, and by these two splendid artists.
Do remember the Madison Bach Musicians’ annual Baroque Holiday Concert, which features cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and music by Georg Philipp Telemann and Arcangelo Corelli. It will take place at 8 p.n. on Saturday, Dec. 12, at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, near Camp Randall. For more information, visit:
http://madisonbachmusicians.org/december-12-2015/
Tags: American Record Guide, arrangement, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Camp Randall, Cantata, castanet, Chamber music, Christian, Christmas, Classical music, community, composer, concerto, Corelli, Couperin, dance, Domenico Scarlatti, Early music, Elizabethan music, Fandango, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Flamenco, football, fugue, guitar, harpsichord, Harpsichord concerto, Holiday, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Sebastian Bach, John W. Barker, Luigi Boccherini, Madison, Madison Bach Musicians, Madison Early Music Festival, Music, Northwestern University, Orchestra, Piano, Prelude, quintet, snowstorm, Sonata, Stephen Alltop, String quartet, tambourine, Tania Tandias, Telemann, The Well-Tempered Clavier, traffic, transcription, Trevor Stephenson, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, Wisconsin, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube
Recent Comments
The Well-Tempered Ear 