The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: There was so much to like about the Grand Tour finale of the 2019 Madison Early Music Festival. But where were the high notes in Allegri’s legendary “Miserere”?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Fair is fair.
Before he talks about last Saturday night’s conclusion of the successful 2019 Madison Early Music Festival – which marked its 20th anniversary — The Ear has a confession to make: He generally prefers later Baroque music and he generally prefers instrumental music to vocal or choral music.
That said, he nonetheless had a memorable and very enjoyable time on the “Grand Tour” during the well-attended All-Festival concert. There was so much to like and to admire.
The concert used the conceit of a Grand Tour by a composite 17th-century traveler going to London, Venice, Rome, Naples, Paris and Dresden to take in the local sights and local music, and included lesser-known composers such as William Lawes and William Child as well as such famous figures as Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli , Jean-Baptiste Lullyand Heinrich Schütz.
Like most journeys, this one – once again assembled in an ingenious scissors-and-paste job by early music specialist Grant Herreid (below) – had many entertaining and uplifting moments.
But it also had one big disappointment.
The Ear really looked forward to hearing a live performance of the famous “Miserere” by Gregorio Allegri (below) as a high point. But those haunting, ultra-high descant notes that give you goosebumps and that you never forget hearing just never materialized.
Maybe it had to do with the different ornamentation that the MEMF forces used. Maybe it was based on a different manuscript or score. Maybe there was no one capable of singing those spellbinding and unforgettable high notes.
Whatever the reason, The Ear’s hope for a live performance of the dramatic and iconic work were dashed and the famous, even classic, recorded versions – the 1980 recording by the Tallis Scholars is heard in the YouTube video at the bottom — remain for him the unsurpassed standard.
The evening also had its ironies. That same night on the NBC TV news The Ear saw a story about “overtourism” in Europe and China. Venice, for example, has now shrunk to only about 50,000 unhappy residents who put up with some 20 million tourists a year.
But centuries ago, travel was a rare and exotic luxury of the wealthy and well-educated, not an affordable indulgence or curiosity by ever-expanding middle classes. And this metaphorical trip proved an ideal vehicle to sample 16th- and 17th-century music in England, France, Germany and Italy.
Combining high culture and low, Herreid chose witty and detailed travelogue texts that gave the audience the rich flavor of various cultures at the time.
Details mattered to the four sharp-eyed travelers on which this tour was based. So as “our hero” wandered, we got to hear about the “libidinous ladies” of Naples and the musical talented courtesans of Venice as well as the richly attired archbishop of Paris attending a feast day service in the newly finished Notre-Dame cathedral.
Such descriptions were well delivered by unnamed narrators (below) from the chorus and proved a refreshingly earthy and entertaining counterpoint to the more serious spiritual and religious music of the era.
Another big satisfaction was the exceptional quality of the ensemble playing – exhibited even in large amounts of less interesting music — by the many singers and instrumentalists on the stage of Mills Hall, and, at one point, in the hall’s balcony.
Whether the players and singers were conducted by Herreid or by assistant conductor Jerry Hui — a UW-Madison graduate who is now a tenured professor at UW-Stout — the music sounded tight, authentic and expressive.
As for more superficial pleasures, it is great visual fun watching such early versions of modern string, wind and percussion instruments being played — trombone-like sackbuts, oboe-like shawms, flute-like recorders and lute-like theorbos. (Below are cello-like viols.)
The players, both faculty and students, were particularly convincing on their own in the sound painting done to depict battle scenes and political upheaval. And who will ever forget the surprise of loud foot-stomping by all the performers and conductor?
Herreid was absolutely spot-on to keep the program to about 80 minutes with no intermission. It helped the audience stay in the spirit of the Grand Tour and added cohesion to the program.
The Grand Tour, in short, proved outstanding in concept and excellent in execution.
But was The Ear alone in missing to those high notes?
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Classical music: What is your favorite Easter music? There is so much to choose from. Here are two samplers.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is Easter Sunday, 2016.
You don’t have to be a believer to know that the events of Easter have inspired great classical music, especially in the Baroque era but also in the Classical, Romantic and Modern eras.
Of course, there is the well-known and much-loved oratorio “Messiah” by George Frideric Handel, who wrote it for Easter, not Christmas as is so often assumed because of when it is usually performed. (NOTE: The Madison Bach Musicians will perform “Messiah,” with period instruments and historically informed performance practices, at the First Congregational United Church of Christ on Friday and Sunday, April 8 and 10.)
There is a lot of instrumental music, including the gloriously brilliant brass music by the Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli and the darker Rosary sonatas for violin by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and the “Lamentation” Symphony, with its sampling of familiar tunes and intended to be performed on Good Friday, by Franz Joseph Haydn.
Easter music cuts across all kinds of nationalities, cultures and even religious traditions: Italian, German, English, Scottish, American, Russian, French and Austrian.
But the occasion — the most central event of Christianity — is really celebrated by the huge amount of choral music combined with orchestral music – perhaps because the total effect is so overwhelming and so emotional — that follows and celebrates Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and then ultimately to Easter and the Resurrection from death of Jesus Christ.
For The Ear, the pinnacle is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (below), especially his cantatas, oratorios and passions.
But today The Ear wants to give you a sampler of 16 pieces of great Easter music, complete with audiovisual clips.
Here is one listing that features music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Thomas Tallis, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Gustav Mahler, Francis Poulenc and James MacMillan:
http://www.classical-music.com/article/six-best-pieces-classical-music-easter
And here is another listing that features music by Antonio Vivaldi, Hector Berlioz, Gioachino Rossini, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Bach’s “Easter Oratorio” (rather than his “St. Matthew Passion” or “St. John Passion”) and “The Resurrection” oratorio (other than “Messiah”) by Handel.
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2015/04/ten-classical-music-pieces-for-easter.html
Curiously, no list mentions the gorgeous and haunting “Miserere” (below) by Gregorio Allegri. It was traditionally performed in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on the Wednesday and Good Friday of Holy Week, but was kept a closely guarded secret. Publishing it was forbidden. Then a 12-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart heard it and copied it down from memory.
Finally, The Ear offers his two favorite pieces of Easter music that never fail to move him. They are the passion chorale and final chorus from the “St. Matthew Passion” by Johann Sebastian Bach:
What piece of music is your Easter favorite?
Do you have a different one to suggest that you can leave in the COMMENT section, perhaps with a link to a YouTube video?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Choosing a new Pope? There’s a play list for that! But is the Vatican listening? Plus, the UW Bands perform a FREE concert on Sunday afternoon.
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REMINDER: This Sunday, March 10, at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall on the UW-Madison campus, the University Bands will perform a FREE concert under conductors Justin Stolarik (below) and Matthew Mireles.
By Jacob Stockinger
An old friend and co-worker of The Ear saw the posting I did last week about Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI (see him in the photo below, at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim at La Scala opera house in Milan). Benedict has a passion for playing the piano and listening to classical music, especially for the works of Mozart and Beethoven (composers right in keeping with his conservative theology, no?).
Here is a link:
Well, now as the papal conclave in the Vatican starts slowly toward getting underway (NEWS FLASH: The Vatican has announced the conclave will begin Tuesday) to elect a new pope, it appears that a playlist has been put together – by an American theologian at Notre Dame University at the request of the website Spotify — of classical music to help the cardinals (below, in an Associated Press photo) choose a new pope.
Most of it is, of course, choral music, usually with sacred themes — but not all of it.
Some of it is familiar to me; much of it is not.
Some of its is well known and popular; some of it is not.
But the list is catholic rather than Catholic and sure has a lot of excellent and memorable music.
Whether listening to this excellent music would lead to an excellent new pope is another question.
Here is a link:
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/02/28/choosing-a-new-pope-theres-a-spotify-playlist-for-that/
Can any one of you think of other pieces of classical music that might be added? I thought of three pieces by Franz Liszt (below), who was quite the handsome and rakish youth and young man but who became a Franciscan monk later in life. (Below, a photo of Liszt in 1870 by Pierre Petit.)
The works are “Benediction of God in Solitude” from his “Poetic and Religious Harmonies” series, and his two “legends” about Saint Francis of Assisi: “St. Francis Preaching to the Birds” and “Saint Francis Walking on the Waves” (below, in a great YouTube video by Lise de la Salle with some incredible shots of the keyboard and her fingers walking on the rolling WAVES of notes.)
The Ear wants to hear.
And just maybe the Vatican’s conclave of 142 cardinals, to say nothing of the new pope, also wants to hear.
Classical music: As the newly retired Pope Benedict XVI faces his new life, he looks forward to playing the piano and to hearing classical music, especially Mozart and Beethoven. Plus, UW clarinetist Les Thimmig performs music by Schubert, Verdi and others for FREE on Sunday afternoon.
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ALERT: An apology is in order. Somehow, in Thursday’s round-up of FREE chamber music events at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this weekend, I left out the performance on the Faculty Concert Series on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall by The Thimming-Johnson Duo. UW clarinetist Les Thimmig (seen below with a saxophone) and UW pianist Jessica Johnson will perform the Sonatine in G minor, D. 406, by Franz Schubert; “Rhapsodie Dobrogeana” by Paul Jelescu; and two arias from Giuseppe Verdi‘s “Il Trovatore,” among other works. The duo will be joined by UW percussionist Anthony DiSanza on marimba.
By Jacob Stockinger
He plays the piano well.
He adores Mozart above all (see the YouTube video at bottom), followed closely by Beethoven.
He attends a lot of live performances and is a discerning listener.
He has a brother, who was a professional church choir conductor and a composer.
And now he is a retired ex-Pope or “pope emeritus,” as the Vatican has baptized Pope Benedict XVI, seen below at a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with conductor Daniel Barenboim at La Scala in Milan.)
The outstanding classical music blog, “Deceptive Cadence,” which you can fin don the website of National Public Radio, has a terrific and very detailed story about the retired pope and classical music.
Here is a link:
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