The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Two noteworthy baroque concerts by Just Bach and the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble are on tap this Wednesday afternoon and Saturday night

October 15, 2019
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By Jacob Stockinger

Fans of Baroque music have two noteworthy events this week to look forward to.

Both concerts feature period instruments and historically informed performance practices.

WEDNESDAY AT NOON

This coming Wednesday, Oct. 16, from noon to 12:30  p.m. at Luther Memorial Church, 1021 University Avenue, the second FREE Just Bach concert of the semester will take place.

The concerts by Just Bach (below, in a photo by John W. Barker) are now a regular feature of the Music at Midday at Luther Memorial Church.

Organist Mark Brampton Smith opens the program with a brief Fantasia on the melody of “Christ lag in Todesbanden” (Christ Lay in Death’s Bonds). That tune will reappear at the very end of the program, in the final chorale of Cantata 158.

The next piece on the program was also written for solo organ, but will be heard in an arrangement for violin, viola, cello and organ. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote six organ trio sonatas, apparently for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann.

The C Minor Sonata, the second in the set, is full of fiery drama in the outer movements, framing a dreamy, peaceful Largo.

UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe will lead the chorale sing-along, a beloved audience-participation feature of these programs.

The program closes with Cantata 158, “Der Friede sei mit dir” (Peace Be with You), with solo bass-baritone Jake Elfner. Elisheva Pront provides the luminous “cantus firmus” (an existing melody used in a polyphonic composition) in the second movement, which also features a beautiful violin solo played by Kangwon Kim. The Cantata ends with a chorale on the tune of “Christ lag in Todesbanden.”

You may bring your lunch and beverage.

The concert is FREE and open to the public, with a goodwill offering collected.

Other Just Bach concerts this fall, all Wednesdays at Noon, are: Nov. 20 and Dec. 18.

Performers this week are: Jake Elfner, bass-baritone; Elisheva Pront, soprano; Kangwon Kim, violin; Leanne League, violin; Marika Fischer Hoyt, viola; James Waldo, cello; and Mark Brampton Smith, organ.

For more information, go to: https://justbach.org or https://www.facebook.com/JustBachSeries/

SATURDAY NIGHT

This Saturday night, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 1833 Regent Street in Madison, the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below) will perform a concert of varied chamber music.

Performers include: Mimmi Fulmer, UW-Madison soprano; Nathan Giblierano, baroque violin; Eric Miller, viola da gamba and baroque cello; Chelsie Propst, soprano; Charlie Rasmussen, viola da gamba and baroque cello; Consuelo Sañudo, mezzo-soprano; Anton TenWolde, baroque cello; and Max Yount, harpsichord.

Tickets are at the door only: $20 for the public, $10 students. After the concert, a reception will be held at 2422 Kendall Ave, second floor.

The program is:

Henry Purcell: Three Fantasias

Giacomo Carissimi: “Scrivete, occhi dolente” (Write, Sore Eyes)

George Frideric Handel: Violin Sonata, HWV 372 (heard in an animated graphic depiction the YouTube video at the bottom)

Claudio Monteverdi: “Baci soave e cari” (Soft and Dear Kisses)

INTERMISSION

Luzzasco Luzzaschi: “O dolcezze amarissime” (O Bitter Sweetness)

Martin Berteau: Trio for violoncellos

Giulio Caccini: Excerpts from “La liberazione di Ruggiero” (The Liberation of Ruggiero)

For more information, go to: www.wisconsinbaroque.org


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Classical music: On Saturday night, UW-Madison pianist Christopher Taylor continues his virtuosic Liszt-Beethoven symphony cycle along with music by Kapustin and Schubert

February 5, 2019
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IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event.

By Jacob Stockinger

The Ear has received the following press release, researched and written by Katherine Esposito, concert manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, about a noteworthy upcoming concert:

Franz Liszt (below, 1811-1886) was a superstar pianist. He was a virtuoso who invented the orchestral tone poem, taught 400 students for free, conducted and composed.

Musicologist Alan Walker wrote a definitive three-volume biography of Liszt, shedding light on all of Liszt’s work but especially his genius for transcription.

Writes Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times : “The best of these works are much more than virtuosic stunts. Liszt’s piano transcriptions of the nine Beethoven symphonies are works of genius. Vladimir Horowitz, in a 1988 interview, told me that he deeply regretted never having played Liszt’s arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies in public.”

Few pianists have tackled all nine Beethoven transcriptions.

UW-Madison professor and Van Cliburn Competition medal winner Christopher Taylor (below in a photo by Michael R. Anderson) is one of them. On this coming Saturday night, Feb. 9, at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, Taylor will perform his sixth transcription — Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93.

Saturday’s concert will also include: six preludes (Nos. 19-24) from 1988 by Nikolai Kapustin (below), whose works span both classical and jazz; and the Fantasy in C Major, D. 760 (based on the song “The Wanderer”) of Franz Schubert, a piece so virtuosic that the composer himself had to give up playing it  before finishing. (You can hear Kapustin’s Prelude No. 23, which Taylor will play, in the YouTube video at the bottom and can follow the intimidating-looking score to it.)

In 2020, Christopher Taylor will celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with performances of the Franz Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies, in Madison and elsewhere.

In Boston, Taylor will perform the entire set of nine in five concerts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Tickets for Taylor’s Feb. 9 concert at the UW are $17 for adults, and $7 for children and students. They can be purchased online or in person.

Purchasing options are here: https://www.music.wisc.edu/about-us/tickets/

Or, purchase online directly at this link.


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