The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Soprano Sarah Brailey and nine UW-Madison cellists team up for the FREE concert of songs at Grace Presents this Saturday at noon
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Saturday, Sept. 21, at noon, a FREE one-hour program in the Grace Presents series will feature soprano Sarah Brailey (below) in “My Loyal Heart,” a recital of songs by Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Guillaume de Machaut, Dmitri Shostakovich and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
The concert is at Grace Episcopal Church (below), located downtown on the Capitol Square at 116 West Washington Avenue.
Brailey is an acclaimed professional singer who often tours and who is doing graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music.
Brailey will be joined by friends and colleagues. They include UW baritone Paul Rowe and members of the UW Madison Cello Ensemble, featuring nine local Madison cellists who include Grace Presents program coordinator James Waldo. (Below is a summer cello choir at the UW-Madison from several years ago.)
The works will be sung in Russian, Portuguese, and both modern and medieval French.
Here is an introduction from Waldo:
“It is often said that the cello is the instrument most like the human voice.
“My Loyal Heart,” devotes an entire program to music for soprano Sarah Brailey and cello from the 14th century to the 20th century.
“It opens with Arvo Pärt’s L’abbé Agathon about the legend of Father Agathon from the 4th century book “The Desert Fathers,” followed by a new arrangement by Brailey for soprano and cello trio of Guillaume de Machaut’s elegant love song Se quanque amours puet donner.
“This intimately ardent piece is followed by a more tragic love story, that of Shakespeare’s Ophelia, in the opening movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok.
“The program continues in Russian with Sir John Tavener’s powerful and darkly spiritual Akhmatova Songs with poetry by Russian-Soviet Modernist poet, Anna Akhmatova.
“The concert concludes with the hauntingly beautiful and famous first movement and the playful concluding dance of Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bach Suites) No.5 for soprano and eight cellos by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. (You can hear the Villa-Lobos aria in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
“Text and translations will be provided.
“This program will not be performed anywhere else in Madison.”
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Classical music: This Saturday, Aug. 31, at 11 a.m. in Overture Hall is the last FREE Farmers’ Market organ concert of the season. On Sunday afternoon, guitarist Steven Meyer performs at the Chazen Museum of Art
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ALERT: Madison guitarist Steven Meyer will perform a FREE concert on “Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen” this Sunday, Sept. 1, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Brittingham Gallery 3. The program features music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Gustav Holst, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Fernando Sor, himself and others. Also included is music by the Beatles, jazz and folk music. For more information about the series, go to: https://www.chazen.wisc.edu/index.php?/events-calendar-demo/event/sunday-afternoon-live-at-the-chazen8/
This Sunday’s performance will, as always, be live streamed starting at 12:30. Here is a portal link for streaming: https://c.streamhoster.com/embed/media/O7sBNG/OS1C0ihJsYK/iqf1vBMs3qg_5
By Jacob Stockinger
This Saturday morning, Aug. 31, will see the last FREE Farmers’ Market organ concert of the season.
The 45-minute concert, sponsored by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and played on the Klais concert organ, takes place in Overture Hall at 11 a.m. No tickets or reservations are needed and the public is welcome.
The performer is David Ball (below), who was trained at the Juilliard School in New York City and who is based in Orange County, California, at the Christ (formerly Crystal) Cathedral.
The program features music by French composer Jean Langlais, French composer Camille Saint-Saens, German composer Max Reger, British composer Herbert Howells, Argentinean composer Norberto Guinaldo, French composer Leon Boellmann, French composer Jeanne Demessieux, contemporary American composer Alan Terricciano and American composer John Philip Sousa. (You can hear David Ball playing a different work by Herbert Howells in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
For the specific works and much more background about the performer, go to: https://madisonsymphony.org/event/free-farmers-market-concert-2019-david-ball/
Tags: #AmericanComposer, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BritishComposer, #CamilleSaint-Saens, #ChazenMuseumofArt, #ChristCathedral, #ChristianChurch, #ClassicalGuitar, #ClassicalGuitarist, #ConcertOrgan, #CrystalCathedral, #DaneCounty, #DaneCountyFarmers'Market, #DavidBall, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #Farmers'Market, #FernandoSor, #FolkMusic, #Frenchcomposer, #GreatBritain, #GuitarMusic, #GustavHolst, #HeitorVilla-Lobos, #HerbertHowells, #HomeWebsite, #JazzMusic, #JeanLanglais, #JesusChrist, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnPhilipSousa, #JuilliardSchool, #KlaisOrgelbau, #LeonardBernstein, #LeonBoellmann, #LiveStreaming, #LivingComposer, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MaxReger, #NewMusic, #NewYorkCity, #NorbertoGuinaldo, #OrangeCounty, #OrganMusic, #OvertureHall, #RockandRoll, #RockMusic, #SaturdayMorning, #SchoolofMusic, #StevenMeyer, #SundayAfternoonLiveattheChazen, #TheBeatles, #YouTubevideo, American, American composer, Argentina, Arts, audience, Bach, background, Baroque music, Beatles, blog, Boellmann, Britain, British, California, Camille Saint-Saëns, cathedral, Chazen Museum of Art, Christ, Christ Cathedral, Christian, church, classical guitarist, composer, Concert, contemporary, Crystal Cathedral, Dane County, Dane County Farmers' Market, David Ball, event, Facebook, farmer, Farmer's Market, Fernando Sor, folk, forward, France, free, French, Guinaldo, guitar, guitarist, Gustav Holst, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Herbert Howells, Holst, Howells, information, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Jean Langlais, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Philip Sousa, Juilliard School, Klais, Langlais, Leon Boellmann, Leonard Bernstein, like, link, live streaming, Living composer, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, market, Max Reger, Music, New Music, New York City, Norberto Guinaldo, Orange County, Orchestra, organ, Overture Center, Overture Hall, performance, performer, portal, post, posting, program, public, reader, reservation, rock and roll, Saint-Saens, Saturday morning, School of Music, share, Sor, Steven Meyer, subscriber, Sunday Afternoon Live at the Chazen, Sweden, Swedish, tag, ticket, United States, video, Villa-Lobos, Website, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Is Prokofiev more Romantic than modernist? Hear for yourself at the concert Friday night by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and violinist Giora Schmidt. Plus, the UW Symphony Orchestra performs a FREE concert Thursday night
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ALERTS: This Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra will perform a FREE concert under the baton of alumnus and guest conductor Mikko Rankin Utevsky, the founder and director of the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO). The program features the Symphony No. 5 by Franz Schubert; “Entr’acte” by Caroline Shaw; and the “Holberg Suite” by Edvard Grieg.
The week’s FREE Friday Noon Musicale at the First Unitarian Society of Madison, 900 University Bay Drive, features guitarist Steve Waugh and flutist Sridhar Bagavathula playing music by Frederic Chopin, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Astor Piazzolla, Francisco Tarrega, Francois Morel and Jerome Kern. The concert runs from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
By Jacob Stockinger
Sometimes the frame helps to define the picture, to reveal or at least reinforce the picture’s meaning.
Such is the case with this Friday night’s appealing and stand-out concert by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra with conductor Andrew Sewell and Israeli violin soloist Giora Schmidt (below, in a photo by David Getzschman).
The concert is at 7:30 p.m. in The Capitol Theater of the Overture Center, 201 State Street.
Tickets are $15-$80 with student tickets available for $10. For more information about the performers and the program, as well as how to obtain tickets, go to: https://wisconsinchamberorchestra.org/performances/masterworks-ii-3/
The program features the “Petite Symphonie” (Small Symphony) for winds by the Romantic French composer Charles Gounod (below), who is much better known for and more often performed for his operas “Faust” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
Then there is the melodic, popular and often performed Serenade for Strings by the Russian arch-Romantic Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (below). Like so much Tchaikovsky – both his Piano Concerto No. 1 and his Violin Concerto, now staples of the repertoire, were deemed unplayable when first composed – the Serenade can sound less challenging than it really is.
In between comes a modern masterpiece that The Ear is especially fond of: The Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor by the Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev (below).
And that is where it gets especially interesting.
Prokofiev is often lumped together with his Russian contemporary Dmitri Shostakovich (below). Both were virtuoso pianists. Both faced hardships from the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. And while it is true that some of Prokofiev’s music shares a certain spikiness as well as harmonic darkness and dissonance with that of his contemporary, the pairing can be misleading.
To The Ear, much more — maybe even most — of Prokofiev’s music shares a lot more with the late Russian Romantics, including Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Roughly and with some exceptions, he sees Prokofiev as modern Russia’s Mozart for his melodic clarity, and Shostakovich as modern Russia’s Beethoven for his harmonic thickness.
The Ear doesn’t know if that same point is intended and was in mind when maestro Andrew Sewell (below) set up the concert, but he suspects it was because Sewell is a canny and intelligent programmer.
But intentional or not, no matter: the point stands.
If a single moment offers proof, The Ear would single out the opening of the slow movement of the Prokofiev concerto.
It has a beautiful melodic line, moving harmonies and a hypnotic clock-like rhythm to a theme-and-variation development that sounds unmistakably modern but accessibly modern in the same way that the never-fail Violin Concerto by the American composer Samuel Barber does.
You can hear the second movement in a YouTube video at the bottom and make up your own mind. It is performed by the way by the great David Oistrakh for whom Prokofiev composed the concerto.
Suffice it to say that The Ear has never heard that movement without the little hairs on the back of his neck standing up, much like happens with the famous 18th Variation in Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” or the opening of the first and second movements of the Barber Violin Concerto.
If you know that music by Prokofiev, you will be happy you hear it again. And if you don’t already know it, you will be forever grateful to have made its acquaintance.
Anyway, The Ear will assume that the programming was deliberate and establishes for the audience a context for the Prokofiev, which is the most important and substantial work on the program.
And Giora Schmidt (below),k who is making his Madison debut, certainly sounds like the kind of virtuoso who will do justice to the work. Just read the critics’ raves on his website:
Tags: #AndrewSewell, #AstorPiazzolla, #CharlesGounod, #DmitriShostakovich, #FluteMusic, #FranciscoTarrega, #FrancoisMorel, #FranzSchubert, #FredericChopin, #FrenchMusic, #GioraSchmidt, #GuitarMusic, #HeitorVilla-Lobos, #JeromeKern, #JosefStalin, #OvertureCenter, #PeterTchaikovsky, #PeterTchaikowsky, #RomanticMusic, #RomeoandJuliet, #RussianMusic, #SamuelBarber, #SergeiProkofiev, #SergeiRachmaninoff, #SovietMusic, #UnitarianSociety, #ViolinConcerto, #ViolinMusic, #WisconsinChamberOrchestra, 18th Variation, Andrew Sewell, Arts, audience, Capitol Theater, Caroline Shaw, Cello, Chamber music, Chopin, clarity, Classical music, Clock, composer, concerto, conductor, context, critic, dark, darkness, David Oistrakh, debut, dictator, dissonance, Edvard Grieg, Faust, First Unitarian Society of Madison, flute, frame, France, free, French, Friday, Giora Schmidt, Grieg, guitar, harmony, Holberg Suite, intelligent, Israel, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, justice, Madison, Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra, masterpiece, MAYCO, meaning, melodic, melody, Mikko Rankin Utevsky, Mikko Utevsky, modern, modernism, movement, Music, musicale, night, opera, Orchestra, Overture Center, performer, Piano, Picture, program, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, rhythm, Romantic, Romanticism, Russia, Samuel Barber, Shostakovich, solo, soloist, Soviet, Stalin, Student, symphony, ticket, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USSR, Villa-Lobos, Viola, Violin, virtuoso, Website, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, YouTube
Classical music: Saturday night brings the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet to the Wisconsin Union Theater and a concert of chamber works by the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble. Plus tonight’s concert by the Madison Choral Project is at 8:30 p.m. — NOT 7:30 as originally announced.
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URGENT CORRECTION: The time for tonight’s performance of “Privilege” by the Madison Choral Project has been moved from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. due to noise from a nearby football game in Camp Randall Stadium. For more about the concert, go to:
THIS JUST IN: Hi Jake: We’ve got cellist Karl von Huene and bassist John Dowling at the Malt House, at 2609 East Washington Avenue on the corner of Milwaukee Street, again this Saturday, from 3-5 p.m. Karl says the pieces they’ll play are by J.S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, Arcangelo Corelli, S. Lee, F. J. Haydn, G.F. Handel, Dmitri Kabalevsky, and Francesco Durante. It should be fun! Cheers, Bill Rogers
BIG ALERT: This is a reminder that, in this busy week of music, one stand-out concert is by the Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. It will perform the annual Fan Taylor Memorial Concert this Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Shannon Hall of the Wisconsin Union Theater. (You can hear a sample of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 they will play in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
The acclaimed quartet will perform music by Bach, Bizet, Debussy, and Villa-Lobos as well as 17th-century Spanish music from the age of the novelist Cervantes For more information about the group, the program and tickets ($10-$48), go to: https://union.wisc.edu/events-and-activities/event-calendar/event/los-angeles-guitar-quartet/
By Jacob Stockinger
The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble will give a concert of baroque chamber music on Saturday night, April 22, at 7:30 p.m.
It will take place in Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street.
Members of the WBE are: Mimmi Fulmer, soprano; Nathan Giglierano, baroque violin; Brett Lipshutz, traverse flute; Eric Miller, viola da gamba; Sigrun Paust, recorder; Monica Steger, traverse flute and harpsichord; Anton TenWolde, baroque cello; and Max Yount, harpsichord.
The program includes:
Georg Philipp Telemann – Quartet for two traversi, recorder and basso continuo, TWV 43:d1
Mr. De Machy – Pièces de Violle, Suite No. 3 (Pieces for Viol)
Francesca Caccini – “Lasciatemi qui solo” (Leave me here alone)
Quentin – Trio Sonata for two traversi and basso continuo, Op. 13, No. 3
INTERMISSION
Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger – “Interrotte Speranze” (Vain Hope)
Johann Christoph Pepusch – Trio Sonata for recorder, violin and basso continuo
Georg Philipp Telemann (below) – Nouveaux Quatuors (Paris Quartets), No. 6 in E minor
Giulio Caccini – “Odi, Euterpe” (Hear, Euterpe)
Tickets at the door are $20, $10 for students.
A post-concert reception will be held after the concert at 2422 Kendall Ave, second floor.
For more information, go to: www.wisconsinbaroque.org
Tags: Arcangelo Corelli, Arts, Bach, bar, Baroque, bass, Beer, Bizet, Brandenburg Concerto, Caccini, Cello, Cervantes, Chamber music, classical guitar, Classical music, Compact Disc, continuo, Corelli, Debussy, double bass, Early music, Episcopal, Euterpe, Fan Taylor, flute, Francesca Caccini, Francesco Durante, Georg Philipp Telemann, Grammy Award, guitar, Handel, harpsichord, Haydn, hope, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kabalevsky, Kapsberger, Le sieur de Machy, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Madison, malt, Malt House, Mozart, Music, Paris, Pepusch, Quartet, Quentin, recorder, Sonata, soprano, Spain, Spanish music, St. Andrew, tavern, Telemann, traverso, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vain, Villa-Lobos, Viol, Viola, viola da gamba, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble, Wisconsin Union Theater, YouTube
Classical music: Don’t miss tango weekend at the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society
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By Jacob Stockinger
If there was ever a genre of music created specifically for the talented, eclectic and fun-loving musicians of the Madison-based Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, it is surely the tango.
It is hard to imagine a more perfect kind of music because it seems so suited to the temperament of the BDDS and its participants. The tango and BDDS simply seem made for each other.
The sexy and sensual tango has become both a popular and populist form of South American dance music. It started in brothels and then went mainstream. Then it crossed over into the classical repertoire, thanks to composers Astor Piazzolla, Carlos Guastavino and others.
If you have heard the BDDS perform tangos before, you know how captivating the performances are.
This weekend, the BDDS Silver Jubilee season will feature two programs with tangos, arranged by Pablo Zinger (below), a Uruguayan native who now calls New York City home.
Last time they performed, Zinger and his BDDS colleagues were absolutely terrific. The Ear will never forget the BDDS version of Piazzolla’s “Oblivion,” a fantastic, soulful and heart-breaking piece of music. (You can hear another version of “Oblivion” in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Here are links to the program with tango this weekend to be performed at the Playhouse in the Overture Center and in the Hillside Theatre (below) at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin compound in Spring Green:
http://www.bachdancinganddynamite.org/schedule.php
Besides tangos, there will also be music by Maurice Ravel (Piano Trio); Arnold Schoenberg (Chamber Symphony); Franz Schubert (Piano Trio No. 1); Joseph Haydn (Piano Trio No. 25, “Gypsy Rondo”); and movie music by Nino Rota, Henry Mancini and Luis Bacalov.
But featured prominently are tangos by Uruguayan composer Miguel del Aguila (below top) and by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla (below bottom), who turned to the tango of his native land at the advice of Nadia Boulanger, the famous French teacher of Aaron Copland, Philip Glass and others.
If you are looking for a preview sample, you can of course go on YouTube. But you could also listen to the new CD of South American tangos by BDDS co-founder and co-artistic director Stephanie Jutt, who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and who is also principal flute of the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Not long ago, Jutt (below) spent a sabbatical year in Argentina, if The Ear recalls correctly. She clearly fell in love with tango music and is anxious to share her enthusiasm with others. That enthusiasm and her flair for the dance form show in the terrific performances on the CD.
The new CD (below), on the Albany label, features pianists Elena Abend and the versatile arranger-pianist Pablo Zinger, whom you can hear live this weekend. It features 20 modern Latin American and Spanish works by Piazzolla and Guastavino as well as by Angel Lasada, the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Basque composer Jesus Guridi. (It is on sale at BDDS concerts for $15.)
Dance has always inspired classical music. Historically, the tango seems a natural modern progression from the Baroque minuets and allemandes of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Classical landler of Haydn, the Romantic waltzes of Franz Schubert and Frederic Chopin, the Hungarian Dances of Johannes Brahms and the Slavonic Dances of Antonin Dvorak.
But don’t take The Ear’s word for it.
Go listen for yourself. And be captivated, be transported. You won’t be disappointed.
Tags: Aaron Copland, Albany Records, allemande, Angel Lasada, Argentina, Arnold Schoenberg, Arts, Ástor Piazzolla, Bach, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Baroque, Basque, BDDS, Carlos Guastavino, CD, Cello, Chamber music, Chamber Symphony, Chopin, Classical, Classical music, Compact Disc, dance, film, Film score, France, Frank Lloyd Wright, Franz Schubert, Haydn, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Henry Mancini, Hungarian Dances, Jacob Stockinger, Jesus Guridi, Johann Sebastian Bach, landler, Latin America, Libertango, Luis Bacalov, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, menuet, minuet, modern, movie, Music, Nadia Boulanger, New York City, Nino Rota, Philip Glass, Piano, Piano Trio, Ravel, Romantic, Schubert, sensual, sex, sexy, Slavonic Dances, Sonata, soul, South America, Spain, Spring Green, symphony, Taliesin, tango, trio, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Uruguay, Villa-Lobos, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Waltz, waltzes, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: A FREE musical tribute to the French avant-garde composer and conductor Pierre Boulez is this Friday night at 8 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall. Plus, Saturday brings the Winterfest concerts by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO)
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ALERT: This Saturday will see the annual Winterfest concerts by the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Some 400 student musicians will take part. The special guest is bassoonist Nancy Goeres (below), an alumna of WYSO from 1966 to 1970, who now performs professionally with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Music by Johann Stamitz, Francois Joseph Gossec, Franz Joseph Haydn, Jean Sibelius, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Emmanuel Chabrier, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Witold Lutoslawski and Duke Ellington will be performed, Here is a link to the lists of impressive programs and performers:
http://www.wysomusic.org/dianne-endres-ballweg-winterfest-concert-series/
By Jacob Stockinger
UW-Madison faculty members bassoonist Marc Vallon and saxophonist-composer Les Thimmig will lead a FREE musical tribute to the French avant-garde composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (below) this Friday night a 8 p.m. in Morphy Recital Hall.
Boulez, who frequently conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and served as music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, died recently.
Here is a link with more background about Boulez, including an essay by UW professor Marc Vallon (below, in a photo by James Gill), who worked with Boulez:
https://welltempered.wordpress.com/?s=boulez
![Marc Vallon 2011 James Gill (baroque & modern)[2]](https://welltempered.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/marc-vallon-2011-james-gill-baroque-modern2.jpg)
Called “Le Domaine Musical,” the event will also feature other UW-Madison faculty members and student musicians.
They include violist Sally Chisholm, violinist Soh-Hyun Park Altino, flutist Stephanie Jutt, organist/keyboardist, John Chappell Stowe, hornist Daniel Grabois, pianist Christopher Taylor as well as cellist Martha Vallon, Micah Behr, Thalia Coombs, Ivana Ugrcic, Joanna Schulz, Dave Alcorn, Kai-Ju Ho, Sarah Richardson, Michel Shestak, Rosalie Gilbert and the Hunt String Quartet (Paran Amirinazari, Clayton Tillotson, Blakeley Menghini and Andrew Briggs)
Music will include the following composers: Pierre Boulez, Anton Webern, Claude Debussy and Johann Sebastian Bach
Here is the complete program:
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) – Dérive 1 for 6 instruments (1984) — Heard in a YouTube video at the bottom as performed by the same group, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, that Boulez founded and led for many years in Paris.
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) – Notations for piano (1946)
Anton Webern (1883-1945) Six Bagatelles for string quartet, Op. 9
Anton Webern (1883-1945) – Drei Gesänge (Three Songs) aus “Viae inviae” von Hildegard Jone, Op. 23
Claude Debussy (1962-1918) – Three Poems of Stéphane Mallarmé
Claude Debussy (1962-1918) Sonate for flute, viola and harp (1904). Pastorale: Lento, dolce rubato; Interlude: Tempo di Minuetto; Finale. Allegro moderato ma risoluto
Short Webern style intermission
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (no marking) –Adagio ma non tanto- Allegro
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) Mémoriale (…explosante fixe… Originel) for solo flute and eight instruments (1985)
Tags: Arts, arts education, avant-garde, Bach, bagatelle, Baroque, Bassoon, Boulez, Brandenburg Concerto, Cello, Chabrier, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Taylor, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, conductor, Debussy, Duke Ellington, Education, faculty, flute, Gossec, harp, Haydn, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Lutoslawski, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mallarme, Music, Music education, New York City, New York Philarmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra, Piano, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, poem, Pro Arte Quartet, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Saxophone, Sibelius, Sonata, song, Stamitz, String quartet, Student, Tchaikovsky, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Villa-Lobos, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Webern, Winterfest, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, YouTube
Classical music: Today is Veterans Day in the U.S. and this week brings Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth nations including Great Britain, Canada and Australia. To honor veterans -– both military and civilian — The Ear plays the “Nimrod” section from Sir Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” What music would you play?
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ALERT: On this Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of UW-Madison professor Javier Calderon, will give a FREE concert of music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Gilbert Bibarian and others.
By Jacob Stockinger
He may be wrong, but The Ear does not think that Veterans Day — and Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth nations of the former British Empire — is just about war. And there is plenty of music one could play that aims to depict war and conflict.
But Veterans Day -– which was originally Armistice Day and was intended to mark the end of that vicious meat-grinder World War I that started 100 years ago this year and officially ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 –- is more about people and loss. So is Remembrance Day.
Given the way “total war” has evolved and been waged since World War I — just look at the Middle East and ISIS these days — one has to wonder: Shouldn’t civilians, including women and children, also be honored? When war is waged, usually all suffer and all sacrifice.
Not that the armed forces don’t come at the head of the line and hold a special place in our thoughts.
But these days a Requiem for All seems fit and appropriate.
That is why The Ear can’t think of a more moving and quietly appropriate piece of music than the “Nimrod” section from the Edwardian era British composer Sir Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations.
That is probably why the prize-winning and popular documentary filmmaker Ken Burns also used the same music, arranged for solo piano, in his 2007 epic film about World War II called, simply, ‘The War.”
Here it is, played by conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a popular YouTube with more than 2.5 million hits — as a salute to all those who suffered and who served:
Tags: A World Requiem, armed forces, Arts, Australia, Canada, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, children, civilians, classical guitar, Classical music, Commonwealth, Commonwealth of Nations, Daniel Barenboim, documentary, Edward Elgar, England, Enigma Variations, film, First World War, Great Britain, guitar, Heitor Villa-Lobos, ISIS, Jacob Stockinger, Javier Calderon, Ken Burns, Kenneth Burns, Madison, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Middle East, Music, Orchestra, Remembrance Day, Remembrance Sunday, Second World War, soldiers, The War, total war, United States, Veterans Day, Villa-Lobos, women, World War I, World War II, YouTube
Classic music: Today is World Cup Sunday. As Argentina and Germany battle to win the soccer championship, here is another installment of the music by the great Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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By Jacob Stockinger
As loyal blog readers already know, The Ear has been using the FIFA World Cup (below) competition in soccer — or football, as the rest of the globe knows the sport – as a fine occasion to explore and to hear the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
After all, the World Cup has taken place since June 12 in some dozen stadiums (below) throughout Brazil. And today’s championship match between Argentina and Germany will take place in Rio de Janiero.
And after hearing the music of Villa-Lobos performed by the Cello Choir at the National Summer Cello Institute (below) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, The Ear is more convinced than ever that this great but neglected 20th-century composer deserves a wider hearing and more live performances.
Villa-Lobos (below) attempted an ambitious and ingenious task: To reconcile and incorporate the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and concert hall music in general with the folk songs and folk dances of his native Brazil. Before Astor Piazzolla and his “new tangos,” there was Villa-Lobos and his Bachianas Brasileiras and Choros.
Here are links to the previous installments:
This is the link to the Cello Choir concert of the annual National Summer Cello Institute that is held each summer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music and that inspired my Villa-Lobos video postings from YouTube.
And here are the links to the first two installments that feature the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 and No 1, which both deserve repeated hearings:
And here is the third installment that featured Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire performing the chorale prelude-type opening of the Bachianas Brasilerias No. 3 for solo piano:
Villa-Lobos was championed by none other than the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who performed his suite “Prole do bebe”:
And his well-known piece “The Little Train From the Caipira,” from “Bachianas Brasileiras” No. 2, which Walt Disney was attracted to for possible use in a second “Fantasia” film and which imitates the sounds of a rural choo-choo, as played by a youth orchestra in Great Britain:
Now here is a link to Installment No. 4: A beautiful movement from one of his 17 string quartets — this one is No. 5 and is available on YouTube. It once again shows the lyrical songfulness and folk music vigor of Villa-Lobos. It is even more beautiful than the perfect soccer kick or dribble, pass or goal, and it is more long-lasting:
Tags: Argentina, Arthur Rubinstein, Arts, Ástor Piazzolla, Bach, Bachianas Brasileiras, Brazil, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Fantasia, FIFA World Cup, folk dances, Folk music, folk songs, Germany, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Nelson Freire, Piano, soccer, Sport, Sports, tango, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Villa-Lobos, Walt Disney, World Cup, YouTube
Classical music: The United States advances in the World Cup of soccer and The Ear advances to another great moment in music by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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By Jacob Stockinger
After its one-point loss to Germany, the U.S. soccer team will advance to the knockout round of the FIFA World Cup, which is being held in Brazil until July 13.
The next game for the U.S. is against Belgium on Tuesday.
Loyal fans of The Ear may recall that a week or so ago he decided the global soccer event being held in Brazil was a good opportunity to explore the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (below), whose music is beautiful and much too under-programmed and under-played here and elsewhere.
Here is a link to the original post that also featured the gorgeous Cantilena movement for soprano from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 that has been recorded by folk singer Joan Baez as well as opera divas Kiri Te Kanawa, Barbara Hendricks, Victoria de los Angeles and Kathleen Battle.
Here is another great moment in Villa-Lobos that I heard at the Cello Choir concert by the National Summer Cello Institute that was held this month at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
This moment comes from the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 in a YouTube video below. It is the third movement, the finale, that happens in fugal form and again shows how Heitor Villa-Lobos tried to adapt the compositional techniques of Johann Sebastian Bach to the folk music and native dance rhythms of Brazil. That was an ambitious project, to be sure, and one in which The Ear thinks the composer was surprisingly successful.
Enjoy as you prepare to root for Team U.S.A.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Bachianas Brasileiras, Barbara Hendricks, Baroque, Brazil, Brazilian music, Cello, cello choir, Chamber music, Classical music, counterpoint, dance, diva, FIFA, folk, Folk music, football, fugal, fugue, harmony, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Jacob Stockinger, Joan Baez, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kathleen Battle, Kiri Te Kanawa, Music, National Summer Cello Institute, opera, rhythm, singer, soccer, soprano, Sport, Sports, tune, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Victoria de los Angeles, Villa-Lobos, YouTube
Classical music: The FIFA World Cup of soccer is a perfect time to become acquainted with the astonishing music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Go ahead. Forget the scores.
I know, I know.
In the 2014 World Cup of championship soccer (below), this week the U.S. beat the odds-makers and won against favored Ghana while Spain disappointed the odds-makers when it lost to underdog Chile.
Nonetheless, The Ear is no jock.
But he knows a lot of people here and around the world will spend this weekend watching the competition.
So he got to wondering.
What would be good classical music to post in honor of the World Cup soccer championships that are taking place in Rio de Janeiro and many other stadiums (below) throughout Brazil between June 12 and July 13?
And then last Saturday I went to the Cello Choir concert (below), a free concert given by the “the National Summer Cello Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, and BAM!!! there was the answer.
Here is a link to the positive review I did of the concert:
It was there that I heard two totally absorbing works by the 20th-century Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Villa-Lobos (below) was a very prolific composer, writing over 2,000 works in his lifetime (1887-1959). Given such productivity it is not surprising that some works seems second-rate. What is more amazing is how many seem so memorable and so first-rate.
Boy, did that man ever have a sense of melodic line, of poignant harmonies, of contagious and fiery Latin African rhythms. His music seems as robust and straightforward as the portraits that show the beefy composer chomping away on big cigars.
The Ear suspects that Villa-Lobos would have been a lot of fun to know and pal around with. He seems as outsized and rich in natural resources as his native country.
And so does his body of work.
So why isn’t Villa-Lobos better known and more often performed outside his native country? I can’t think of the last time a work of his was performed by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra or by pianists and chamber music groups at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. Maybe some readers can.
And Villa-Lobos used his native land to inform his work and the effect can be enthralling and even magical. He is a sure remedy to Eurocentric programming, and especially with a growing Hispanic population. (I know: Portuguese, not Spanish, is the colonial culture and language of Brazil. But still.)
Anyway, there I was, sitting in Mills Hall and listening to two outstanding works performed by the choir of 16 cellos and one soprano in works designed to “Brazilian-ize” Johann Sebastian Bach and update his Baroque musical style -– which I think they succeed in doing. Bach goes ethnic!
The first work was the famous Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 –- with its soaring aria-like Cantilena that has been recorded by great singers from folksinger Joan Baez (below top) to opera divas such as Victoria de Los Angeles, Anna Moffo (below bottom), Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle and Barbara Hendricks.
The performance that I heard live featured the UW-Madison soprano Anna Whiteway, who was absolutely exquisite. She had fabulous pitch, big volume, smooth vibrato, great diction and lovely tone. She was superb, and the cellists and conductor thought so too.
Then there was the less famous Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1, which included a gorgeous second movement and fabulous fugal finale.
So below is a sample from YouTube, where you can find quite a lot of quality performances of music by Villa-Lobos.
And I think that during the month-long World Cup play in Brazil, we can’t do better than to listen to other samples of beautiful music by this prolific composer who seems to The Ear way, way underplayed and under-appreciated.
Personally, these days The Ear is checking out the Bachianas Brasileiras, the Choros and the chamber music, especially the cello sonatas and the string quartets.
But there is also much more in the way of piano music, guitar music and vocal music.
So from now to the end of the World Cup, I will periodically offer examples of music by Villa-Lobos.
And what do you think of Villa-Lobos?
Do you have a favorite piece that others should listen to?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Anna Moffo, aria, Arts, Bach, Bachianas Brasileiras, Barbara Hendricks, Baroque, Brazil, cantilena, Cello, cello choir, Chamber music, Classical music, ethnic, Euro-centric, Eurocentric, FIFA, fugue, guitar, harmony, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Hispanic, Jacob Stockinger, Joan Baez, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kathleen Battle, Kiri Te Kanawa, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, melody, Music, National Summer Cello Institute, opera, Piano, Portugal, Portugese, rhythm, soccer, Spanish, String quartet, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Victoria de los Angeles, Villa-Lobos, vocal music, voice, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, World Cup 2014, YouTube
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