The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Here are the world premieres of the sixth and seventh pieces of “pandemic music” commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress
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By Jacob Stockinger
The project has is now heading towards it end.
Last week was when the world premieres of the 10 short pieces — written for the U.S. Library of Congress’ “Boccaccio Project” — started going public and began being posted on various social media sites as well as the Internet.
This week will see the last five compositions and complete the project.
One performance is released each weekday night starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The project, funded by the federal government, is intended to capture some aspect of the unique culture brought about by the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19.
The first piece was “Sequestered Thoughts,” a solo piano work by composed Damien Sneed and performed by Jeremy Jordan.
The second was “shadow of a difference/falling” by composer Richard Drehoff Jr. and solo oboist Andrew Nogal of the Grossman Ensemble.
The third was “Intuit – a way to stay in the world” for solo cello composed by Miya Masaoka and performed by Kathryn Bates of the Del Sol String Quartet.
The first three were featured in two postings on this blog last week. Here are links:
The fourth and fifth pieces were premiered last Thursday and Friday, bringing the project to the half way point before the Summer Solstice, Father’s Day and Make Music Madison weekend.
They were posted on this past Monday. Here is a link:
The fourth work is “Bridges,” a solo piano work composed by Cliff Eidelman and performed at home by Jenny Lin. The title refers to the composer’s focus on finding bridges from the coronavirus pandemic to normal life.
The fifth piece is “Hello World” by composer by Erin Rogers, an exploratory work for solo flute, and is performed by Erin Lesser of the Wet Ink Ensemble.
And now the second half of premieres has started.
The sixth piece is “1462 Willard Street,” composed for solo viola by Luciano Chessa (below top, in a photo by Melesia Nunez) and performed by Charlton Lee (below bottom, in a photo by RJ Muna) of the Del Sol String Quartet.
The address refers to a place in San Francisco where the composer was staying on March 16, 2020 – the day the city enacted orders to stay at home because of the pandemic.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/chessa-lee.html
The seventh piece, premiered last night, is “Olcott Park” for solo piano composed by Aaron Travers (below top, in a photo by James Matthew Daniel) and performed by Daniel Pesca (below bottom, in a photo by Jay Morthland) of the Grossman Ensemble.
It is a recollection of the forest and birds the composer knows in a park near his home but which he hasn’t’ visited much during the pandemic.
https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/travers-pesca.html
On the same page as the performance you can read what the composer and sometimes the performer have to say about the new work and what it strives to mean or express.
You can use links to go to the past performances and premieres.
You can also follow links on the bottom of the page to see more information about both the composer and the performer, and to general background of the project.
If you would like some more background, along with some commentary and questions from The Ear, go to https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2020/06/13/classical-music-the-library-of-congress-has-commissioned-new-music-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-you-can-listen-to-the-premieres-from-this-monday-june-15-through-june-28/
What do you think of the individual pieces?
Do you have one or more favorites?
What do you think of the project?
How successful is it?
Will you like to hear more of the commissioned music?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: The Ancora String Quartet excels in music by Haydn, Dvorak and especially Ravel as it impressively opens its new season in two acoustically different venues
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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 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
The Ancora String Quartet offered a nicely balanced program last Saturday night to open its new season at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
The program began with Haydn’s String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 76, No. 4, known as the “Sunrise” quartet. A work of the composer’s maturity, published in 1799, it shows him straining the boundaries of Austrian Classicism and pushing close to the proto-Romanticism of his student, Beethoven.
Each work in the program was preceded by a spoken introduction, given by a member of the ensemble, and for the Haydn quartet violist Marika Fischer Hoyt did the honors.
Then came three (Nos. 2, 5 and 10) of the 12 arrangements for quartet that Antonin Dvorak made from his song cycle, Cypresses. The spoken introduction in this case was given by first violinist Wes Luke (below), who not only spoke but also sensibly read aloud — in English translation — the words of each song. Dvorak’s deeply personal lyric expression came through the more meaningfully for that.
Finally came the Quartet in F Major by Maurice Ravel. For this, cellist Benjamin Whitcomb (below) gave a cogent spoken introduction. Ravel’s work matches Debussy’s string quartet — to be played later this season — as a chamber music contribution to so-called French “Impressionism.” But it also is one of the last great demonstrations of how initially stated themes can be quoted or re-introduced in new characters and colors throughout all the movements.
This program had special value for me because it was one I was able to hear twice on two successive evenings. I particularly profited from a double hearing of the Ravel, which allowed me to listen how the various themes popped out here and there in ever-varied differences. (You can hear the String Quartet by Ravel in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The performances each time were beautifully precise and atmospheric, but the particular points of contrast involved instead a factor too often forgotten in evaluating a concert: the acoustic divergences of different performing sites.
The previous Friday evening, I heard the program in the Grand Hall of the Capitol Lakes Retirement Center. Its acoustics are tight and bright, bringing great clarity and immediacy to the playing.
By comparison, the sound at St. Andrew’s is bigger, richer and more reverberant, although differing in relation to how far up front or way back you sit—another variable to consider.
I spoke with the players about this, and it is clear that they must, and do, take account of such acoustic differences as they move from one performing site to another. Careful concert-goers, too, should always consider these differences as they listen.
A final thought: The Ancora String Quartet, which also includes Robin Ryan as second violin, has always played with splendid expertise and stylistic sense. But it seems clear to me by now that the settling in of Wes Luke as the new first violinist has brought added vigor and assertiveness to the group’s playing, making it an even more important ensemble than ever before in Madison’s musical life.
The concert will be repeated tonight in Janesville at 7:30 p.m. in the Kilmark Theatre of the UW-Rock County at 2909 Kellogg Avenue. The performance is FREE and OPEN to the public.
For more information about the Ancora String Quartet and its new season, go to the website: http://ancoraquartet.com
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