The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: On Saturday night, the Festival Choir of Madison will sing a program of modern Norwegian and Baltic music about the Northern Lights. Plus on Friday there is a FREE noontime concert of music by Mozart and Ernesto Nazareth and a FREE PUBLIC master class by pianist Richard Goode

ALERT I: This Friday’s FREE Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ernesto Nazareth. (Sorry, no specific works for either composer were named.) The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.

The performers in Mozart are: Joanne Schulz and Sarah Gillespie, horns; Elspeth Stalter-Close, violin; Melanie De Jesus and Shannon Farley, violas; Emma Downing, cello. The performers in Nazareth are: Chris Allen, guitar; Shannon Farley, viola; and Iva Ugrcic, flute.

ALERT II: On Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall, pianist Richard Goode will give a FREE and PUBLIC master class on Haydn, Beethoven and Debussy. For more about Goode’s recital on Saturday night at the Wisconsin Union Theater, go to:

https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2017/11/01/classical-music-master-pianist-richard-goode-performs-music-by-bach-beethoven-chopin-and-alban-berg-in-a-must-hear-recital-this-saturday-night-at-the-wisconsin-union-theater/

By Jacob Stockinger

This Saturday night, at 7:30 p.m., at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, the Festival Choir of Madison (below top) will perform under director and Edgewood College professor Sergei Pavlov (below bottom).

The program features contemporary Norwegian and Baltic choral music around the theme of the “Northern Lights” or Aurora Borealis (below, as seen in northern Norway).

For more information, go to: https://www.festivalchoirmadison.org/concerts/2017/11/northernlights

Admission is $20 for the public; $15 for seniors; and $10 for students. For ticket information, go to: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3054565?ref=349591

The voices will be supported by leading Madison-based musicians in a journey through the mystical soundscapes of the North with music by Ola Gjeilo (below top), Peteris Vasks, Trond Kverno, Eriks Esenvalds (below middle), and retired UW-Madison horn professor and composer Douglas Hill (below bottom).

The specific program includes: “Northern Lights” by Ola Gjeilo; “Dark Night of the Soul” by Ola Gjeilo; “Mate Saule” by Peteris Vasks; “Ave Maris Stella” by Trond Kverno; “Northern Lights” by Eriks Esenvalds (heard in the YouTube video at the bottom); and “Homage to Thoreau” by Douglas Hill.