The Well-Tempered Ear
Season 3 of the free monthly Just Bach concerts begins at noon TODAY virtual and online. Each concert will be available for the following week. Here is the 2020-21 schedule
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following announcement from the Just Bach monthly concert series – featuring singers as well as period instruments and historically informed performance practices — to post:
“We are thrilled to share the timeless beauty of Johann Sebastian Bach (below) with music lovers in Madison and beyond for another year.
“Our host venue, Luther Memorial Church at 1021 University Ave., has resumed their weekly ‘Music at Midday’ concert series: https://www.luthermem.org/music-at-midday/
“As part of this series, the one-hour Just Bach concerts will take place at noon on the third Wednesday of each month. Here are the dates for the new 2020-21 season: today Sept. 16; Oct. 21; Nov. 18; Dec. 16; Jan. 20; Feb. 17; March 17; April 21; and May 19.
“Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it is still too risky to have an in-person audience. So Music at Midday concerts will be virtual and online, posted on the Luther Memorial website.
“In addition, Just Bach concerts will be posted on the Just Bach website, the Just Bach Facebook page, and the Just Bach YouTube Channel.
“The concert footage should be available online for at least a week following the concert. At least that is the plan.
“Viewing the concerts is FREE, but we ask those who are able, to help us pay our musicians with a tax-deductible donation.
“Today’s concert program opens with the Pastorale in F, BWV 590, performed by organist Mark Brampton Smith (below).
“Violinist Kangwon Kim (below), concertmaster and assistant artistic director of the Madison Bach Musicians, will continue, with the Partita No. 2 in D Minor, with the famous Chaconne, for solo violin, BWV 1004 (see a brief preview in the YouTube video at the bottom).
“Co-founder and violist Marika Fischer Hoyt (below) will lead the final chorale sing-along, from Cantata 99, Was Gott tut, das isn wohlgetan (What God does, is well done).
“The chorale sheet music (below) will be displayed on the screen, and Mark Brampton Smith will accompany on the organ. Cantata 99 is a timely choice. It was composed for the 15th Sunday after Trinity, which is next Sunday, Sept. 20.
“We need this soul-centering music now more than ever. We invite the music community to join us today and other Wednesdays for a wonderful program of J.S. Bach.”
Sept. 16 program:
- Pastorale in F, BWV 590
- Partita in D Minor for solo violin, BWV 1004
- Chorale: Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (What God does, is well done)
Performers: Kangwon Kim, violin 1; Mark Brampton Smith, organ
For more information go to: https://justbach.org and Facebook.org/JustBachSeries
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Classical music: Today is Sept. 11, 2020. Here is music to mark the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks during the coronavirus pandemic. What would you choose?
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CORRECTION: The Virtual Gala fundraiser for the Handel Aria Competition started last night, and will end on Thursday, Oct. 1 – NOT on Oct. 11, as mistakenly stated in yesterday’s blog headline. Here is a link with more information: https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/09/10/classical-music-the-worldwide-virtual-and-online-gala-fundraiser-for-the-handel-aria-competition-starts-today-and-runs-through-oct-10-donations-will-be-matched-up-to-2000/
By Jacob Stockinger
Today marks 19 years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
For the basic information, here is a Wikipedia summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
There are many ways to remember and honor the dead and the injured in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and Shanksvillle, Pennsylvania. And in past years, The Ear has offered many different ones.
There are the well-known requiems by Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and Faure; passions by Bach; and other works.
There are also the pieces especially composed for the commemoration, including “On the Transmigration of Souls,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning work by John Adams that incorporates police tapes and phone calls, and Steve Reich’s “WTC 9/11.”
But this year there is the coronavirus to deal with and complicate the commemorations.
Here is a story from NBC News about how the official commemorations, both real and virtual, will be affected by the pandemic.
And somehow in such circumstances, it feels like back to basic is a good approach.
So here, in the YouTube video at the bottom, is the most universal piece of mourning that The Ear knows: American composer Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” as played by Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
It serves to mark 9/11 but perhaps also the more than 190,000 American deaths so far from the Covid-19 pandemic.
You can find other versions and other pieces on YouTube:
What piece would you want to hear to mark this sad and solemn occasion?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: This summer the Token Creek Festival goes online. The music starts TODAY at 4 p.m. Concerts run daily through Sept. 15 and remain up for this month
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By Jacob Stockinger
The annual Token Creek Chamber Music Festival normally occurs in the final weeks of summer, just before Labor Day, in the welcoming rustic comfort of the beautifully converted barn (below) located on the rural farm property of composer John Harbison and violinist Rose Mary Harbison.
With its normal concert season canceled due to Covid-19, the festival is pleased to announce an alternative for the summer almost ended.
Slightly later than usual, “MUSIC FROM THE BARN” is a two-week virtual season, a retrospective of concert compilations from 30 years of performances.
The topical programs will be released daily over the period Sept. 1–15 at 4 p.m. (CDT), and will remain posted and available to “attendees” throughout the month. From anywhere in the world, you can revisit whole programs or individual pieces.
The goal of the series has been to achieve the broadest possible representation of repertoire and artists who have graced the Token Creek stage since the series began in 1989.
To festival-goers, it will come as no surprise that the virtual season emphasizes music of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, vocal music, works by artistic director John Harbison and his colleagues, and, of course, jazz.
In addition to the welcoming beauty of the barn and festival grounds, with sparkling creek and abundant gardens and woods, and the convivial intermissions at every concert, one of the features most beloved by audiences is the concert introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient and MIT professor John Harbison (below) that begins each program. Happily, these remain a feature of the virtual season as well.
Season Schedule
Tues., Sept. 1: Welcome and introduction from the artistic directors (below and in the link to the YouTube video at the bottom)
TODAY, Wed., Sept. 2: Founders Recital
Thurs., Sept. 3: Haydn Piano Trios
Fri., Sept. 4: Bach I: Concertos
Sat., Sept. 5: A Vocal Recital (I)
Sun., Sept. 6: Beethoven
Mon., Sept. 7: Contemporaries
Tues., Sept. 8: Early Modernists
Wed., Sept. 9: A Vocal Recital (II): Schubert and Schumann
Thurs., Sept. 10: Jazz 2003-2019
Fri., Sept. 11: Neo-classicists: Pizzetti, Martinu, Stravinsky
Sat., Sept. 12: Schoenberg and His Circle
Sun., Sept. 13: Mozart
Tues., Sept. 14: John Harbison: Other Worlds
Wed., Sept. 15: Bach II: Preludes, Fugues, Arias, Sonatas
Programs will be posted on Token Creek’s YouTube Channel, accessible from the festival website (https://tokencreekfestival.org), which will also host concert details: works, artists, program notes and other information.
All concerts are FREE and open to the browsing public.
In addition to the virtual concert season, the Token Creek Festival is pleased to release two new CDs.
A Life in Concert (below) features music written for Rose Mary Harbison by John Harbison, and performances of diverse music by the two of them. It includes the world premiere recordings of Harbison’s Violin Sonata No. 1 and Crane Sightings: Eclogue for Violin and Strings, inspired by frequent encounters with a pair of sandhill cranes at the Wisconsin farm.
Wicked Wit, Ingenious Imagination (below) offers four piano trios by Haydn, a beloved genre the festival has been surveying regularly since 2000. CDs will be available at the festival website by mid-September.
For more information, go to: https://tokencreekfestival.org
https://tokencreekfestival.org/2020-virtual-season/welcome/#
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Classical music: On Fridays in July, the critically acclaimed Willy Street Chamber Players will offer both past performances and some new performances to be live-streamed
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following public announcement to post from the Willy Street Chamber Players (below), a terrific chamber music group that he named as “Musicians of the Year” in 2016.
For more details and to subscribe to their email list, go to: http://www.willystreetchamberplayers.org
WE MISS YOU!
Today — July 10 – would have been the day of our first concert of 2020.
Although it’s sad to think about what could’ve been, we look forward to new beautiful experiences with all of you in the years to come.
In the meantime, we have some exciting news!
We didn’t want you to go without your weekly Friday evening Willy Street Chamber Players fix this July, so we have put together some video memories that we’ll be sending out over the next few weeks.
Check your inbox on Fridays this month — you may want to add us to your email address book — for a weekly archived performance.
This week would’ve been one of our favorite events: our annual admission-free Community Connect performance at the Goodman Community Center.
In honor of that, we’d like to share a fun tidbit from 2017’s performance – Astor Piazzolla’s invigorating “Four, for Tango!” (Editor’s Note: You can see it and hear in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
We hope this short preview will get you excited for archived performances from Immanuel Lutheran Church in the coming weeks.
We’ll also be announcing some special live-streamed performances happening later this summer. We can’t wait to share what we have in store!
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Classical music: Today is the Fourth of July. Here are two extended playlists of American masterpieces
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Independence Day – the Fourth of July holiday.
It is a good occasion to listen to classical music by American composers (below), which you can hear much of the day on Wisconsin Public Radio.
But here are two other extended playlists of American classical music:
Here, thanks to a California radio station, is a list with complete performances of some of the best American masterpieces, including the “New World” Symphony by Antonin Dvorak, the “Afro-American” Symphony by William Grant Still (below), “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin and “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein:
And thanks to Minnesota Public Radio, here are four hours of patriotic music for the holiday: https://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2018/06/29/celebrate-the-fourth-of-july-with-our-4hour-patriotic-classical-playlist
Finally, in the YouTube at the bottom is the “American” String Quartet by Antonin Dvorak (below), who summered in Spillville, Iowa. He loved hearing and tried to capture sounds of nature, including bird songs, traditional Black spirituals and music by Native Americans.
The Ear especially likes it because it is proof that just as Americans have been influenced by European composers, European composers, European composers have been influenced by American composers.
Do you have a special or favorite piece of classical music to help celebrate the Fourth of July?
What do you like about it?
Leave a comment with a YouTube link if possible?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Today is the Summer Solstice. What music best greets summer during this odd year? Plus, here is information about Make Music Madison this Sunday
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today – Saturday, June 20, 2020 – is the Summer Solstice.
Summer officially arrives this afternoon at 4:43 p.m. CDT.
Is The Ear alone in thinking that the time since the winter solstice has passed both more slowly and also more quickly than usual, thanks to the pandemic?
And now the days will start getting shorter. Can that be possible? Is the year really half over?
Well, it has been an unusual spring and promises to be an unusual summer, to say the least.
So how about some unusual Vivaldi?
If you listen to Wisconsin Public Radio, chances are good that today or sometime soon you will hear the hyper-popular original version of “Summer” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.”
But The Ear finds this unusual contemporary version a welcome change from the over-programmed and too familiar original version, and more appropriate to the special summer that will follow the special spring.
It is a version that has been “recomposed” by British composer Max Richter (below top) with violin soloist Daniel Hope (below bottom), a protege of the legendary Yehudi Menuhin, who performed several years ago with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
The Ear finds the entire work very appealing, but here is the YouTube video of just the Summer section as it was being recorded.
If you don’t like this music, what music would you choose to listen to as you celebrate the coming of summer?
And if you like this excerpt, here is a link to the complete version of “Vivaldi Recomposed”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJnxPgT83rw
MAKE MUSIC MADISON
Today may be the Summer Solstice, but this year’s Make Music Madison will take place this Sunday, which also happens to be Father’s Day.
The eight annual Make Music Madison – which includes classical music but also rock, jazz, folk, blues, hip-hop and country — is part of Make Music Day, an international celebration of the Summer Solstice that this year will take place in some 1,000 cities in 120 countries.
Here is a helpful listing with locations, time, performers and programs as well as form (virtual and online, with links, or real): http://www.makemusicmadison.org
Here is a story with more background about the event: http://www.makemusicday.org
If you attend or hear some of the events, let us know what you thought.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: June is Gay Pride month. How many LGBTQ classical composers and performers do you know about? Which ones are your favorites or most surprise you?
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ALERT: This Sunday, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society’s Virtual Chamber Music Festival begins online. It is called “Bach’s Lunch” and will send out short concerts every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday through Sunday, June 28, when a grand finale is planned. It is FREE. But you have to sign up by emailing crownover@bachdancinganddynamite.org
By Jacob Stockinger
This past week the Rainbow flags (below) have started flying, including at the Wisconsin state Capitol.
Last year was the 50th anniversary of the riot or uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York City that eventually gave birth to a worldwide movement to insure that queer people deserve and will receive human rights.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Pride, which started with parades and marches to celebrate that initial victory and the start of a global gay liberation movement that continues and widens today.
On this first weekend in June 2020, it seems fitting to recall the many LGBTQ composers and performers in classical music.
The gay rights movement has opened the closet doors not only of individual lives today but also of historical figures. When The Ear was taking piano lessons and started going to concerts and listening to recordings, and learning about classical music, the subject remained shrouded in silence and secrecy.
You could read and hear about Tchaikovsky (below top) and Leonard Bernstein (below bottom, in a photo by Jack Mitchell) – to take a very popular composer and a renowned composer-conductor — but no one mentioned the role of homosexuality in their lives and careers.
So here are several lists that may teach you something new about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer musicians – both composers and performers.
Some of the calls seem very iffy to The Ear. For example, Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom) lived at a time when a homoerotic friendship did not necessarily mean a queer sexual identity. But one way or the other, historical proof and documentation can be hard to come by. And clearly there is much more to find out about the past.
Take a look. No longer is such information a rarity. From both the quantity and quality of the entries, at least you will see how scholars are taking new looks and undermining the heterosexual assumption that has wrapped so many historical and even contemporary figures in a wrong or mistaken identity.
Freedom, acceptance and respect are not zero-sum games in which one party can win only if another party loses. There is enough of each to go around.
So enjoy the information, whether it is new or not, and the respect it should inspire for the central role of LGBTQ people in the arts both past and present.
Here is a pretty comprehensive alphabetical list from Wikipedia of LGBT composers, both living and dead. It includes Chester Biscardi (below), who did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. You don’t have to click on each name. Just hover the cursor arrow over the name and you will see a photo and biographical blurb:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_composers
And here is a list, also in alphabetical order and also from Wikipedia, of LGBT musicians and performers, not all of them classical. It works by clicking on sub-categories that include nationality – though one wonders if musicians from extremely homophobic countries and cultures are included:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_musicians
Here is a similar list from QueerBio.com that also includes links to similar lists for rock, country, hip-hop, jazz, Christian music and more:
https://queerbio.com/wiki/index.php/LGBTQ_Classical_Music_Composers
Here is a more selective list from The Advocate, an LGBT magazine, of 18 queer composers who made history and you should know about:
And here is a similarly selective list from radio station WFMT in Chicago of 15 LGBT composers — including Corelli, Handel (below) and Lully — you should know about:
https://www.wfmt.com/2015/06/25/15-queer-composers-know/
From Arts Boston, here are 10 contemporary composers who are queer:
http://artsboston.org/2018/06/21/10-contemporary-lgbtq-composers-you-should-know/
Finally, here is a list from the Spotify streaming service that features many samplings of actual pieces by historical and contemporary queer composers:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX75gMjYMWCsk
Which names most surprised you?
If you have questions, comments or additional names and information to add — The Ear doesn’t see the acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk listed — please leave word in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Happy Pride, everyone!
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Classical music: Trevor Stephenson announces the new season of the Madison Bach Musicians on YouTube. It features smaller concerts and familiar comfort music
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By Jacob Stockinger
At a time when so many concerts are being canceled, it is especially welcome when a local ensemble announces plans for the 2020-21 season.
To announce the 17th season of the Madison Bach Musicians — a period-instrument group that uses historically informed performance practices — the founder and artistic director Trevor Stephenson (below), who also plays the harpsichord, fortepiano and piano, has made and posted a 13-1/2 minute YouTube video.
The season will also be posted on the MBM website in early June, and will also be announced with more details about times and ticket prices via email and postal mailings.
In the video, Stephenson plays the harpsichord. He opens the video with the familiar Aria from the “Goldberg” Variations and closes with two contrasting Gavottes from the English Suite in G minor.
As usual, Stephenson offers insights in the programs that feature some very well-known and appealing works that are sure to attract audiences anxious to once again experience the comfort of hearing familiar music performed live.
One thing Stephenson does not say is that there seems to be fewer ambitious programs and fewer imported guest artists. It’s only a guess, but The Ear suspects that that is because it is less expensive to stage smaller concerts and it also allows for easier cancellation, should that be required by a continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
If the speculation proves true, such an adaptive move is smart and makes great sense artistically, financially and socially given the coronavirus public health crisis.
After all, this past spring the MBM had to cancel a much anticipated, expensive and very ambitious production, with many out-of-town guests artists, of the “Vespers of 1610” by Claudio Monteverdi. Nonetheless, MBM tried to pay as much as it could afford to the musicians, who are unsalaried “gig” workers who usually don’t qualify for unemployment payments.
“Hope and Joy” is a timely, welcome and much-needed theme of the new season.
The new season starts on Saturday night, Oct. 3, at Grace Episcopal Church downtown on the Capitol Square, and then Sunday afternoon, Oct. 4, at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton.
The program is Haydn and Mozart: songs composed in English and German by Haydn plus songs by Mozart; the great violin sonata in E minor by Mozart; and two keyboard trios, one in C major by Haydn and one in G major by Mozart.
Only four players will be required. They include: Stephenson on the fortepiano; concertmaster Kangwon Kim on baroque violin; James Waldo on a Classical-era cello; and soprano Morgan Balfour (below), who won the 2019 Handel Aria Competition in Madison.
On Saturday night, Dec. 12, in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, near Camp Randall Stadium, MBM will perform its 10th annual holiday concert of seasonal music.
The program includes several selections from the “Christmas Oratorio” by Johann Sebastian Bach; a Vivaldi concerto for bassoon with UW-Madison professor Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill) as soloist; and the popular “Christmas Concerto” by Arcangelo Corelli.
On Saturday night, April 24, at Grace Episcopal Church and Sunday afternoon, April 25, at Holy Wisdom Monastery, the MBM will perform a concert of German Baroque masterworks with the internationally renowned baroque violinist Marc Destrubé (below).
The program features Handel and Bach but also composers who are not often played today but who were well known to and respected by Bach and his contemporaries.
Specifically, there will be a suite by Christoph Graupner (below top) and a work by Carl Heinrich Graun (below bottom).
There will also be a concerto grosso by George Frideric Handel and two very well-known concertos by Bach – the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and the Concerto for Two Violins.
Here is the complete video:
What do you think of the Madison Bach Musicians’ new season?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Today is May 5 — Cinco de Mayo. And here is a work by Mexican composer Gustavo Campa to celebrate the holiday
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is May 5 – the colorful Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo.
If you don’t know the origins of the holiday and what events sparked it, here is a link to the Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo
Usually the music that celebrates the holiday is popular music or folk music – including mariachi bands and guitar music.
But there is also a good amount of classical music by Mexican composers that can mark the occasion.
In past years, this blog has featured Mexican performing artists such as the terrific pianist Jorge Federico Osorio and the most famous Mexican composer, Carlos Chavez (below, in a photo by Paul Strand).
But there are many others.
Perhaps programming and performing more Mexican and Latin American composers and music would help attract Latinx listeners to concert halls once they reopen.
In any case, here is a link to a sampler or compilation of Mexican music found on Spotify:
https://www.classicalmusicindy.org/cinco-de-mayo-playlist/
And here, in the YouTube video at the bottom, is a lovely “Melody” for violin and orchestra, with a photo essay, by the Mexican composer Gustavo Campa (below) along with a link to his biography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Campa
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Classical music: Joel Thompson’s “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” is an eloquent and timely testament to Black victims of racism. It deserves to be performed in Madison and elsewhere
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By Jacob Stockinger
A reader recently wrote in and suggested that fellow blog fans should listen to “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” by the Atlanta-based American composer Joel Thompson (below).
So The Ear did just that.
He was both impressed and moved by the prescient piece of choral and orchestral music. It proved both powerful and beautiful.
The title alludes to the Bible’s depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but also to the musical setting of it that was composed by Franz Joseph Hadyn in the 18th century. But it stands on its own as a much needed and very accomplished updating, especially with the “last word” or phrase “I can’t breathe.”
It is hard to believe the work was written five years ago, and not last week or last month. But it couldn’t be more relevant to today.
It shows how deeply artists have been engaging with the social and political issues of the day, particularly the role of personal and structural racism in national life, and the plight of young Black men and women who face discrimination, brutality and even death at the hands of the police and a bigoted public.
The work was premiered by the Men’s Glee Club at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2015. This performance comes from the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
The SSO and featured guest University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Men’s Glee Club, led by conductor Eugene Rogers (below) – who directs choral music and teaches conducting at the UM — premiered a 2017 commissioned fully orchestrated version of “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.” You can hear it in the YouTube video below.
It is an eminently listenable and accessible, multi-movement work honoring the lives, deaths and personal experiences of seven Black men.
The seven last words used in the work’s text are: “Why do you have your guns out?” – Kenneth Chamberlain, 66; “What are you following me for?” – Trayvon Martin, 16; “Mom, I’m going to college.” – Amadou Diallo, 23; “I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.” – Michael Brown, 18; “You shot me! You shot me!” – Oscar Grant, 22; “It’s not real.” – John Crawford, 22; “I can’t breathe.” – Eric Garner, 43.
The Ear thinks that once live concerts begin again after the coronavirus pandemic is contained, it should be programmed locally. It could and should be done by, among others, the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Choir; or the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra and Choral Union; or the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra with the Festival Choir of Madison; or the Wisconsin Chamber Choir.
They have all posted messages about standing in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the protesters against racism. But will words lead to commitment and action?
It will be interesting to see who responds first. In addition to being timely, such a performance certainly seems like a good way to draw in young people and to attract Black listeners and other minorities to classical music.
Here is a link if you also want to check out the almost 200 very pertinent comments about the work, the performance, the performers and of course the social and political circumstances that gave rise to the work — and continue to do so with the local, regional, national and international mass protests and demonstrations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdNXoqNuLRQ&app=desktop
And here is the performance itself:
What do you think of the work?
How did you react to it?
Would you like to see and hear it performed live where you are?
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
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