The Well-Tempered Ear
Beethoven’s Ninth turns 200 today
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By Jacob Stockinger
Perhaps the only symphony more iconic than Beethoven’s Ninth is the Fifth Symphony by the same composer (below).
But today we celebrate the premiere of the pioneering Ninth Symphony that took place 200 years ago on May 7, 1824. Below is the original poster announcing the concert program with the premiere, which Beethoven conducted in his total deafness.
Here is a link to an anniversary story, with lots of historical background about the original performance, by the PBS affiliate WETA in Washington, D.C.:
https://weta.org/fm/classical-score/may-7-1824-200th-anniversary-premiere-beethovens-symphony-no-9
The 70-minute-long Ninth — also called the “Choral” Symphony — is a remarkable work in so many ways. It remains perhaps the most universal music ever written, meaningful to many different individuals and cultures.
Unlike most symphonies of the time, the opening does not immediately announce a theme. It seems to drift around until it finds a solid key and recognizable theme and rhythm. And then it takes off. It reminds The Ear of the depiction by Haydn, Beethoven’s teacher, in his oratorio “The Creation.”
The New York Times also has an essay by Daniel Barenboim about the meaning of Beethoven’s Ninth. No doubt that would be interesting and enlightening to read. But unfortunately the Times hides it behind a pay wall. Only subscribers get to see it right now.
Instead, here is a comprehensive look in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Beethoven)
The famous choral setting of German poet Friedrich Schiller’s 1785 “Ode to Joy” of the last movement is also the official hymn of the European Union. This was the first use of a chorus in a symphony but would not be the last.
In Japan, the same “Ode to Joy” is sung en masse with a chorus up to 10,000 in stadiums every New Year’s Day and on other special occasions, as you can see in the YouTube video at the bottom, an event that took place after a horrendous earthquake and tsunami. The idealistic music embodies the journey from despair to hope, and to brotherhood and solidarity with all people and all nations.
Leonard Bernstein directed it in Berlin to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall and the coming of German reunification.
As its theme, the nightly Huntley-Brinkley New Report on NBC used to use the percussive, pounding, rhythmically propulsive Scherzo movement — which is The Ear’s favorite movement.
The Ear also thinks that the soulful slow movement has strong suggestions of the lovely and well-known slow movement of Beethoven’s earlier “Pathétique” piano sonata. But it doesn’t seem to have been used as a theme or in a movie soundtrack. Does anyone know differently?
What does the Ninth Symphony mean to you?
What do you think of the Ninth and how do you rank it among other symphonies?
Do you have a favorite recording or performance?
What is your favorite movement of Beethoven’s Ninth?
What other uses of The Ninth do you know of?
The Ear wants to hear
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Pianist Yuja Wang’s new ‘Vienna Recital’ is another triumph
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By Jacob Stockinger
Yuja Wang remains the hottest pianist on the touring concert circuit — and not just for her daring, high fashion clothes and her sensuous legs and arms, and her especially expressive face.
Lang Lang might make more money.
Newcomer Yunchan Lim might inspire more anticipation.
And veterans Martha Argerich and Emanuel Ax might command more authority for their interpretations.
But the supremely talented China-born, U.S.-educated Wang remains in very high critical regard and high popular demand — something that the release just yesterday of her latest album “The Vienna Recital” is sure to sustain and increase.
The recital’s program features an eclectic and somewhat unusual mix of works by Beethoven, Scriabin, Isaac Albéniz, Nikolai Kaspustin and Philip Glass (whose Etude No. 6 you can hear Wang perform in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The Ear also likes seeing that Wang uses the music through a printed score on what appears to be an iPad.
Here is a link to a rave review by Tal Agam from the The Classic Review that is based in Tel Aviv, Israel:
What do you think of Yuja Wang?
Have you listened to The Vienna Recital?”
What do you think of it?
Do you intend to listen to it?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #YouTubevideo, Albeniz, Android, anticipation, Apple, Apple Music, Apple Music Classical, Argerich, arms, Arts, Arturo Márques, Asia, asian, audience, Austria, authority, Autumn, Ax, Beethoven, Bing, blog, born, Brahms, China, Chinese, circuit, Classical music, clothes, composer, Concert, concerto, critic, critical, Curtis Institute of Music, dance, danzón, daring, demand, Deutsche Grammophon, Devil, DG, duckduckgo, eclectic, Education, encore, etude, expressive, face, Facebook, fashion, German, Germany, gifted, Glass, Gluck, Google, Google Alert, Google Alerts, Google Search, hear, high, hot, hottest, Iberia, increase, intermezzo, interpretation, IOS, IPad, Isaac Albéniz, Israel, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Kapustin, Korea, Korean, legs, Ligeti, like, Lim, link, listen, Live Recording, Ludwig van Beethoven, melodie, melody, Mexican, Mexico, Microsoft, Microsoft Bing, mix, money, Music, Music education, music review, new, newcomer, Orfeo, Orfeo ed Euridice, OS, People's Republic of Chnia, perform, Philip Glass, Pianist, Piano, popular, PRC, Prelude, prestige, printed, program, rave, recital, recorded music, recording, regard, release, review, Russia, Russian, Safari, Schoenberg, score, Scriabin, sensual, sensuality, sensuous, share, Sonata, South Korea, South Korean, Soviet, Soviet Union, Spain, Spanish, Suite, sustain, tag, talent, talented, technique, Tel Aviv, The Classical Review, The Ear, The Vienna Recital, The Well-Tempered Ear, think, tour, transcription, triumph, Twitter, U.S., United States, unusual, US, use, Veteran, video, Vienna, virtuoso, Wang, Warsaw, Well-Tempered, welltempered, welltemperedear, Wisconsin, Wong, WordPress, Wordpress.com, X, yesterday, you, YouTube, Yuja Wang, Yunchan Lim
Revisit historical and forgotten pianists with Mark Ainley’s ‘Piano Files’
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By Jacob Stockinger
Who were Jascha Spivakosky, Gitta Gradova, Wilhelm Backhaus, Marcelle Meyer, Benno Moisiewitsch, Guitar Novaes (below), Eugen Indjic and Solomon — pianists from Russia/Ukraine, the United States, Germany, France, England, Brazil, Serbia/US and England, respectively?
Who was the Polish-American Josef Hofmann (below) and why did Sergei Rachmaninoff and others consider him the greatest pianist of his day while others considered him — and still do — dangerously radical?
Why was the early death of Dino Lipatti (below) such a major loss for classical music?
Most of all: How did these performers play the piano? What made them special? And what did they sound like?
Just ask Mark Ainley (below).
Ainley’s online Piano Files goes back to the earliest days of recordings and resurrects forgotten virtuosi on Facebook and the web.
His frequently posts entries — often on birthdays or anniversaries of deaths and certain concerts — offers concise, well researched and well-written summaries of their lives and careers.
And he finds the best surviving or available recordings by those pianists — usually on YouTube or reissued CDs and LOPs (below) — and links to them so you can hear differences and decide for yourself.
For example, The Ear found the 1930 recording of Chopin mazurkas that Polish pianist Ignaz Friedman (below) recorded (on YouTube at the bottom) quite revealing about historical stylistic and rhythmic differences — freer rubato and hands not always played together — compared to more mainstream interpretations by, say, Arthur Rubinstein or Vladimir Horowitz or Martha Argerich.
You can also learn much about the Big Names, including pianists who studied with students Chopin and Liszt. Ainley celebrates well-known piano virtuosi like Rubinstein, Horowitz, Gina Bachauer, Claudio Arrau, Jorge Bolet and Dame Myra Hess as well.
Ainley’s Piano Files save you a lot of time and searching on your own, and are available for you to subscribe to for downloads and sharing on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ThePianoFilesWithMarkAinley
You can also go to his online website — which I prefer — and bookmark it if you like. There is a lot to explore, to read and listen to. The archives of past entries go back to March of 2011:
https://www.thepianofiles.com/author/Mark
And here is email if you have or a tip or suggestion for Ainley, or a reaction to his site and his written and recorded postings:
What do you think of the Piano Files?
Do you learn anything from them?
Will you use them and enjoy them?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Why did obituaries for pop star Eric Carmen omit Rachmaninoff?
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By Jacob Stockinger
The American songwriter and pop singer Eric Carmen (below) died in his sleep at 74 last Sunday. The cause has still not been revealed.
I haven’t checked out all the obituaries for Carmen, who fronted as the lead singer for The Raspberries before striking out on his own prolific and profitable career.
In the obits I did sample, I heard how the 2001 movie “Bridget Jones’s Diary” used Carmen’s “All By Myself” (1975) — with Renée Zellwegger on drums in the staring role — at the beginning of the hit film.
I heard how Céline Dion scored a huge hit with her version of the same song.
I heard praise quoted from the American superstar horror author, and sometimes amateur rock band member, Stephen King.
But all the obituaries thatI read on the web, saw on TV and heard on the radio omitted a central element of Carmen’s career in soft rock: his “theft” or “borrowing” — depending on what you think of his justification and the results of the lawsuit he lost — of music by Sergei Rachmaninoff (below).
Indeed, Carmen’s two biggest hits owe their irresistible melodies and harmonies — their tunes, if you will — to the Russian late Romantic composer (1873-1943).
Carmen — who was a trained classical pianist — certainly had a good ear, as his year-to-year, back-to-back hits demonstrated.
And he wasn’t ashamed to use what that ear heard and what he liked.
“All By Myself” uses a theme from the second movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (1901). The main melody of the last movement also gave rise to the often recorded popular song “Full Moon and Empty Arms.”
Carmen’s “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” (1976) uses the main theme from the slow movement of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 (1907).
If you liked Carmen’s songs, you just might like the original Rachmaninoff works, if you don’t already know them.
Here is a link to a story by Cynthia Dickison for yourclassical.org that not only recounts what happened with the lawsuit but also — with YouTube videos — offers comparisons between the original Rachmaninoff and Carmen’s reworkings.
https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2024/03/12/eric-carmen-sergei-rachmaninoff
Chances are very good that you will also hear the complete Rachmaninoff works on radio stations and in live performance a lot sooner and certainly a lot longer than you will hear Eric Carmen’s music.
Did you know about Eric Carmen’s “use” of Rachmaninoff?
What do you think of it?
What do you think it was ignored in obituaries?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Real-time online playlists return to Wisconsin Public Radio
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By Jacob Stockinger
Good news!
Really good news!
Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) has finally returned to posting real-time playlists on both its online website and its mobile app.
Now you can see and identify what has been played and what is being played (below, displayed in yellow) — AS it is being played as well as after it has been played.
The only recent exception was Saturday when there was nothing posted until later in the day when all-day programming was listed at the same time. No reason has been given for the suspension or tardiness.
The playlists are especially good given the many unknown composers and compositions that are increasingly being aired.
The Ear also finds the playlists helpful to see what is playing and who is performing — along with the record label and catalogue number when you click “More” — when he hears part of a piece and is interested but didn’t hear the introductory information or can’t complete listening to it.
Please leave kudos and congratulate WPR for serving its listeners and supporters.
Try it and see.
Will you find the online real-time playlists helpful and use them?
The Ear wants to hear.
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This ‘body percussion” version of Beethoven will make your day!
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By Jacob Stockinger
Here is something that easily outdoes Bavarian thigh-slapping in Lederhosen!
It features 157 school children playing the opening theme of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony using “body percussion.”
That is, they use their hands, feet, knees and chests with various pressures and degrees of loudness, rhythm, speed and dynamics.
It is a performance practice and method of music education that has roots in folk music.
It was performed in 2020 — hence the covid masks — and was recently posted on Instagram by ClassicFM.
Here is a fuller definition from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_percussion
The kids are amazing. They are so synchronized and precise.
It took five months of practicing and rehearsing, so the persistent music teacher who organized and executed this must be amazing too.
It all seems very French in its combination of the physical and the emotional.
Take a look and listen. Here is a link to the one-minute video:
Does anybody else wonder if an American parent might have protested or even filed a lawsuit alleging inappropriate touching by classmates?
What do you think of this “body percussion” Beethoven?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ClassicFM, #COVID-19, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FolkMusic, #InstagramPost, #InstagramVideo, #MusicEducation, #OpeningTheme, #TheEar, #YouTubevideo, American, Arts, audience, Bavaria, Bavarian, Beethoven, Beethoven's Fifth, blog, body percussion, chest, children, Classical music, classmate, composer, COVID19, degree, dynamics, Education, emotional, execute, Facebook, feet, folk, Folk music, France, French, hand, hands, human body, inappropriate, Instagram, Jacob Stockinger, knee, knees, lawsuit, link, listen, look, loudness, Ludwig van Beethoven, mask, method, Music, Music education, music teacher, opening, organize, Parent, percussion, physical, play, practice, pressure, protest, rehearsal, rhythm, share, slap, slapping, speed, Student, symphony, tag, The Ear, theme, tight, touching, use, volume, Wikipedia, YouTube
Does Wisconsin Public Radio play too much harp music?
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PLEASE NOTE: Due to a technical glitch, the following commentary was posted briefly yesterday and then withdrawn. That also disabled the commentary function temporarily. Once the glitch is solved, The Ear will post it again. That means some of you will get it twice. I apologize for any inconvenience. And to the fans who have kindly greeted my return, heartfelt thanks. I will be posting more details about the use and frequency of this blog in the near future.
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
Can’t help it.
The harp always reminds The Ear of a giant egg slicer.
Still, The Ear loves the sound of the harp — in the right works.
That usually means when it is blended into orchestral works (Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Mahler come to mind) and chamber music works (Debussy and Ravel come to mind).
But when it comes to solo harp and harp concertos, no thanks. Barring some Baroque music and Classical works — Handel’s concerti grossi and Mozart’s “Brunch” Concerto for Flute and Harp — he’ll pass for the most part.
So much harp music, both original and arranged, just sounds second-rate or worse. Can anyone name a masterpiece for the solo harp written by a great composer? And I don’t mean Louis Spohr who composed for his harpist wife.
The solo harp repertoire is very small, hence the need for so many transcriptions.
That’s a problem.
The harp tends to make music for other instruments sound so .. so … so pleasant! Even when the original is dramatic, it’s all pluck pluck, twang twang, zing zing. Just listen to the YouTube video at the bottom of J.S. Bach’s mighty Toccata and Fugue in D minor for Organ played on the harp.
So, The Ear asks, why has Wisconsin Public Radio started playing so much harp music on almost every show? (Below is WPR host, accomplished harpist and harp evangelist Ruthanne Bessman, who often includes harp music in her Saturday Morning program “Classics by Request.”)
Is it because the public really loves hearing the harp so much?
Is it because the radio show hosts do?
Do listener surveys indicate a preference for the harp?
Does the covid pandemic play a role in seeking bland but soothing music?
What do you think?
Do you like or even crave harp music?
Do you think WPR is programming too much harp music these days?
Too little?
Or the right amount?
Leave a comment, please.
The Ear wants to hear.
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Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) will build a new $25 million home on East Washington Avenue
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following major announcement to post:
The Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) has announced plans to construct a new $25 million-building in the 1100 block of East Washington Avenue in Madison, Wisconsin.
The new home will occupy three lots and will replace the historic Avenue Bar (below)
The new music center will continue WYSO’s vision to expand instrumental music education and performance opportunities for young people of diverse backgrounds and inspire excellence and a lifelong connection to music.
More than 500 young musicians from communities throughout southern Wisconsin currently participate in WYSO’s programs.
This 500 percent growth in student numbers since the organization’s founding is driving the need for facilities large enough to support both the organization’s programs and its mission of providing transformational musical experiences and opportunities.
For more information about WYSO, go to its home website: https://wysomusic.org
The purchase of the property and the kick-off of WYSO’s capital campaign have been made possible by two lead gifts totaling $18 million from Pleasant Rowland and Jerry Frautschi, who have long been supporters of the organization.
The planned 40,000 sq. ft- building will provide state-of-the-art rehearsal spaces sized for full orchestras; a room designed for percussion including a world-class array of percussion instruments; rehearsal rooms perfect for ensembles and chamber music; a piano laboratory; and small teaching studios for private lessons.
The building will also hold all of WYSO’s current orchestra and Music Makers programs, administrative offices, a music library— and provide opportunity to grow.
But the building will NOT contain public performance spaces. WYSO will continue to rent and use venues that already exist.
Since the fall of 2020, the organization – which used to be located in the UW-Madison School of Music — has been without a home base and has pieced out its program in different facilities throughout the Madison area. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the WYSO Youth Orchestra give a virtual and socially distanced performance last year of the finale of Rossini’s Overture to “William Tell.”)
This new building will allow all of WYSO’s programs to thrive under a single roof and provide the space, location, resources and connections necessary for WYSO to become a key collaborator in a growing youth arts community.
WYSO’s new home will be around the corner from the newly constructed Madison Youth Arts (My Arts), creating a vibrant youth arts synergy on the near east side. (An architect’s renderings of the exterior and interior theater are below.)
Located on a major transit corridor for easy access with adequate parking, the building will be in proximity to area performing arts venues, with space for WYSO’s programs and community events.
Says WYSO’s Executive Director Bridget Fraser: “Thanks to the incredible generosity of Pleasant Rowland and Jerry Frautschi, musicians of all ages will have state-of-the-art rehearsal facilities to call home. It’s a dream come true!”
WYSO has partnered with Urban Assets, city planners with experience in real estate development; Strang, an integrated architecture, engineering, interior design and planning firm with a history of designing for the civic and cultural sectors; Talaske Sound, experts in architectural acoustics; and J.H. Findorff & Son, a local construction firm passionate about youth education and the arts.
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The Well-Tempered Ear 
Apple Music Classical is now available for iPads
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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
Apple Music Classical (logo is below) continues to make headway in the streaming service market.
Originally, it was only available on iPhones with an OS operating system. Then it became available on Google’s Android phones.
As of this week, it is now available on iPad, programmed for bigger formats.
The Ear finds the app particularly useful and cheap for checking out new releases. IT offers more than 5 million recordings.
Some critics complain, however, that the app is still not available for other Mac computers and Apple devices. But one imagines Apple is working on that too even as it continues to buy up other classical music labels.
The recordings on the Hyperion label are now fully available on the app, thanks to that label’s decision to finally offer streaming. (The Ear particularly likes having accessibility to the recordings of prolific pianists Marc-André Hamelin and Stephen Hough as well as those of violinist Isabelle Faust and cellist Steven Isserlis.)
The app also now has the complete catalogue of the critically acclaimed Swedish label BIS as well as the Pentatone label it started with.
Here is a story from MacRumors about the technical update, with almost 70 comments and some very good background and tips about how to use it — which you can also find in the YouTube video at the bottom:
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/11/16/apple-music-classical-comes-to-ipad/
And here are links to previous posts about Apple Music Classical and its release and expansion:
What do you think of Apple Music Classical?
Do you use it or plan to subscribe?
Like it or dislike it?
Why?
The Ear wants to hear.
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