The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Today is the Winter Solstice. It’s a good time to listen to Schubert’s “Winterreise” (Winter Journey) — this year in English translation
2 Comments
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
Winter starts today – Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019 – when the Winter Solstice arrives tonight at 10:19 p.m.
That means tonight — the longest night of the year — we turn the corner. The days start getting longer and the nights shorter.
It is also the day when The Ear likes to listen to the best winter music ever written: the cycle of 24 songs called “Winterreise” (Winter Journey) by Franz Schubert (1797-1828).
Over the years, The Ear has heard many fine versions. Among his favorite singers are Ian Bostridge, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Matthias Goerner and Thomas Quasthoff.
Next year, you can probably expect to see a new release of the performance this past week by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and the pianist-conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
But this year, he is listening – even as he writes – to a 2018 version by the critically acclaimed British baritone Roderick Williams (below top) with pianist Christopher Glynn (below bottom) on the Signum Classics record label.
The real and unusual appeal is that all the songs are sung in English — not the original German.
And The Ear finds it very appealing not to have to read translations but instead to sit back and listen directly to the meaning of the stories in the songs — all sung with excellent diction — in the austere, subtle and outstanding translation by theater director and writer Jeremy Sams (below).
It makes The Ear want to hear more Lieder or art songs sung in English translation — both live and recorded — just as he likes the translation, used by the Metropolitan Opera, done by the late American poet J.D. “Sandy” McClatchy of Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”
Try it and see what you think.
Here is the first song on YouTube, where the audio proceeds through the remainder of the 70-minute cycle after the end of each song.
Enjoy. And let us know what you think of the English translation:
Tags: #ArtSong, #AustrianComposer, #BaritoneSinger, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChristopherGlynn, #CollaborativePianist, #CriticallyAcclaimed, #DietrichFischerDieskau, #EnglishTranslation, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FranzSchubert, #IanBostridge, #J.D.McClatchy, #JeremySams, #JoyceDiDonato, #LiveMusic, #MatthiasGoerner, #MetropolitanOpera, #Mezzo-sopranoSinger, #OriginalEnding, #PianoAccompaniment, #PianoAccompanist, #RecordLabel, #RoderickWilliams, #SaturdayNight, #SchubertLieder, #SignumClassics, #SongCycle, #TheEar, #TheMagicFlute, #ThomasQuasthoff, #ViennaAustria, #VocalMusic, #WinterJourney, #WinterSolstice, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YannickNezet-Seguin, #YouTubevideo, American, art song, Arts, austere, Austria, baritone, blog, British, Chamber music, Christopher Glynn, Classical music, Compact Disc, composer, Concert, conductor, corner, critically acclaimed, day, diction, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, director, English, excellent, Facebook, forward, Franz Schubert, German, good, hear, Ian Bostridge, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Sams, Joyce DiDonato, label, lieder, like, link, listen, live, live music, Madison, Metropolitan Opera, Mezzo-soprano, minute, Mozart, Music, new, night, opera, original, performance, Pianist, Piano, poet, record, recording, release, rhyme, Roderick Willliams, Saturday, Schubert, Schubert Lieder, share, Signum Classics, sing, singer, Singing, solstice, song, song cycle, start, subtle, sung, tag, The Ear, The Magic Flute, theater, theatre, think, Thomas Quasthoff, time, today, translation, turn, unusual, version, Vienna, vocal music, winter, Winter Journey, winter solstice, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, write, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, years, YouTube
Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra impresses in a concert of “non-holiday” music for the holidays. Plus, what music is best to greet the Winter Solstice today?
Leave a Comment
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.
ALERT: Today we turn a corner when the Winter Solstice arrives at 4:23 p.m. Days will start getting longer. What music would you celebrate it with? Antonio Vivaldi’s “Winter” section of “The Four Seasons”? Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” or “Winter Journey”? Let The Ear know in the COMMENT section with a YouTube link if possible. Here comes the sun!
By Jacob Stockinger
Here is a special posting, a review written by frequent guest critic and writer for this blog, John W. Barker. Barker (below) is an emeritus professor of Medieval history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also is a well-known classical music critic who writes for Isthmus and the American Record Guide, and who hosts an early music show once a month on Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. For years, he served on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison. He also took the performance photos.
By John W. Barker
On Wednesday night at the Middleton Performing Arts Center, the mostly amateur Middleton Community Orchestra (below) proudly presented an alternative Christmas program of music, none of which had any connection whatsoever with that otherwise inescapable holiday.
It was a program of great variety, full of novelties.
It began soberly with Gustav Mahler’s early song cycle, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). This venture into German orchestral song (with a folk song background) provided symphonic inspiration for his First Symphony, the so-called “Titan,” so it unites many strains in the composer’s work.
Baritone Paul Rowe (below), of the UW-Madison’s music faculty, sang these songs. Rowe has a strong feeling for German, and he used clear diction to capture the dramatic meanings of the four song texts.
A contrast then, and a particular novelty, was the appearance of Matthew Coley (below), of the percussion ensemble Clocks in Motion, playing the cimbalom, the intensely Hungarian version of the hammered dulcimer.
He was joined by the orchestra for a fancy arrangement of the Hungarian dance, the popular Czardas by Vittorio Monti. (You can hear Matthew Coley play the same piece on the cimbalom in the YouTube video at the bottom.) He followed this with an encore, a hand-me-down arrangement of a movement from one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo cello suites.
More contrast came with the mini-ballet score by Darius Milhaud Le Boeuf sur le toit (The Ox on the Roof) of 1919. This was one of the French composer’s trailblazing introductions of American jazz styles into European music.
It really works best with a small orchestra, so Middleton’s was a bit overblown for the assignment. But the elaborate solo role for violin was taken by Naha Greenholtz — concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and wife of the evening’s guest conductor, Kyle Knox, who is the music director of Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and the Associate Conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. There are some fiendish passages in the solo work, and Greenholtz brought them off with unfailing flair.
The final part of the program was devoted to the orchestral suite that Zoltan Kodaly derived from his Singspiel of 1926, Hary Janos, in which a comic Hungarian soldier upstages even Napoleon.
This is a satiric and highly colorful assemblage that offers wonderful opportunities for all of the instruments and sections to show off. And Coley was back with his cimbalom for Hungarian spice. The players clearly were having a great frolic, and conductor Knox drew the best out of them in a bravura performance.
Ah yes! Christmas without “Christmas” music. A wonderful idea to refresh the ears in December!
Tags: #AmateurMusicians, #AmericanJazz, #AmericanRecordGuide, #AntonioVivaldi, #AssociateConductor, #BalletScore, #BaritoneSinger, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #BlogReview, #ChristmasMusic, #CimbalomMusic, #ClocksinMotion, #Czardas, #DariusMilhaud, #EmeritusProfessor, #Europeanmusic, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FolkMusic, #FourSeasons, #FranzSchubert, #Frenchcomposer, #GustavMahler, #HaryJanos, #HolidaySeason, #HungarianComposer, #HungarianMusic, #IsthmusNewspaper, #JohannSebastianBach, #JohnW.Barker, #KyleKnox, #LeBoeufsurleToit, #MadisonEarlyMusicFestival, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MatthewColey, #MedievalHistory, #MiddletonCommunityOrchestra, #MiddletonPerformingArtsCenter, #MusicalStyle, #MusicCritic, #Musicfaculty, #MusicReview, #MusicSchool, #NahaGreenholtz, #PaulRowe, #PercussionEnsemble, #PercussionMusic, #PopularMusic, #SoloCelloSuites, #SongCycle, #SongsofaWayfarer, #SundayMorning, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VittorioMonti, #VocalMusic, #WinterJourney, #WinterSolstice, #WisconsinYouthSymphonyOrchestras, #WORT-FM89.9, #YouTubevideo, #ZoltanKodaly, amateur, American, American Record Guide, Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, associate conductor, Bach, ballet, baritone, Baroque, blog, bravura, Cello, Christmas, cimbalom, Classical music, Clocks in Motion, comic, composer, Concert, concertmaster, conductor, critic, days, December, diction, drama, dramatic, Early music, ears, European, Facebook, folk song, folksong, forward, Four Seasons, France, Franz Schubert, French, frolic, German, Hary Janos, History, Holiday, host, Hungarian, Hungary, husband, Isthmus, Jacob Stockinger, Jazz, Johann Sebastian Bach, John W. Barker, Kyle Knox, lecture, like, link, Madison, Madison Early Music Festival, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Mahler, Marriage, married, Matthew Coley, meaning, Medieval, Middleton Community Orchestra, Middleton Performing Arts Center, Milhaud, Music, music review, Naha Greenholtz, Napoleon, Orchestra, Paul Rowe, percussion, photo, popular, post, posting, program, refresh, review, Season, singer, soldier, solo, Solo Cello Suites, song, song cycle, Songs of a Wayfarer, spice, style, Suite, Sunday, symphony, tag, text, The Ox on the Roof, today, United States, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, violinist, Vittorio Monti, vocal music, wife, winter, winter solstice, Winterreise, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, work, WORT-FM 89.9, Writer, YouTube, Zoltan Kodaly
Recent Comments
 | samanthacrownoversbc… on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Ronnie on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
 | Polly Kuelbs on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
| welltemperedear on How do post-pandemic concert a… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 
Today is the Winter Solstice. Here is a piece to make you look forward to longer days, warmth and the Summer Solstice next year
1 Comment
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
Today – Monday, Dec. 21 — is the Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It arrives at 4:02 a.m. CST.
The Ear expects that Wisconsin Public Radio, among other media outlets, will be marking the event with traditional, often austere, winter music. That includes “Winter” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”; maybe some songs from Schubert’s “Winterreise” (Winter Journey); Peter Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons” and “The Nutcracker”; and, of course, plenty of winter holiday music, including carols and the Baroque oratorios, cantatas and concertos by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Corelli and others.
But many people – strained by the coronavirus pandemic –are already eagerly looking forward to the days growing longer, which will culminate in the Summer Solstice at 10:31 p.m. CST on Sunday, June 21, 2021.
Who needs to celebrate the season’s cold and darkness? So The Ear thought that we could all use a little sonic sunlight, tonal warmth and musical hope, especially at the end of this Plague Year.
There are standards and favorites such as Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” and Vivaldi’s “Summer.”
But to The Ear that work that really lifts one’s spirits, and captures the kind of joyful abandon and youthful energy of the mid-summer event, complete with animal noises and romance, is the “Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream” by a 17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn (below).
You can hear it below in a YouTube performance by the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig conducted by the late, great German conductor Kurt Masur, whose son, Ken-David Masur, is the new music director and conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
The Ear hopes you enjoy it.
What music would you like to hear or play to mark the Winter Solstice?
Leave a suggestion with your reason and, if possible, YouTube link in the Comment section.
The Ear wants to hear.
Share this:
Like this:
Tags: #ALittleNightMusic, #AMIdsummerNight'sDream, #AntonioVivaldi, #ArcangeloCorelli, #BachCantatas, #BaroqueMusic, #BaroqueOratorio, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #CentralTime, #ChamberMusic, #ChoralMusic, #ChristmasConcerto, #ChristmasMusic, #ChristmasOratorio, #ClassicalMusician, #CoronavirusPandemic, #DanielHope, #EineKleineNachtmusik, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FelixMendelssohn, #FranzSchubert, #GeorgeFridericHandel, #GeorgPhilippTelemann, #GewandhausOrchestra, #Handel'sMessiah, #HolidayMusic, #JacobStockinger, #Ken-DavidMasur, #KurtMasur, #LeipzigGermany, #MessiahOratorio, #MilwaukeeSymphonyOrchestra, #MusicDirector, #NorthernHemisphere, #PeterIlyichTchaikovsky, #PeterTchaikovsky, #PlagueYear, #StringMusic, #SummerSolstice, #TheEar, #TheFourSeasons, #TheSeasons, #TraditionalMusic, #VocalMusic, #WilliamShakespeare, #WinterJourney, #WinterSolstice, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YouTubevideo, A Little Night Music, A Midsummer Night's Dream, abandon, animal, Antonio Vivaldi, Arcangelo Corelli, arrive, Arts, audience, austere, Bach, Baroque, Baroque music, blog, Cantata, capture, Carol, celebrate, Central Time, Chamber music, choral music, Christmas Concerto, Christmas music, Christmas Oratorio, Classical music, classicalmusic, cold, comedy, comment, composer, concerto, conductor, Corelli, coronavirus, culminate, darkness, day, December, Early music, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, energy, enjoy, event, expect, Facebook, Facebook post, Facebook posting, favorite, Felix Mendelssohn, forward, Franz Schubert, Georg Philipp Telemann, George Frederic Handel, German, Germany, great, Handel, heavy lifting, hemisphere, holiday music, hope, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, joyful, June, Ken-David Masur, Kurt Masur, late, Leipzig, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, like, link, longer, Madison, mark, media, Mendelssohn, Messiah, midsummer, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Monday, Mozart, MSO, Music, Music director, musical, night, noises, Northern Hemisphere, oratorio, Orchestra, outlet, Overture, pandemic, performer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Peter Tchaikovsky, plague, Plague Year, play, post, posting, Radio, reader, Romance, Schubert, Season, Shakespeare, share, short, shorter, solstice, songs, sonic, spirit, standard, strain, string music, subscriber, summer, Summer solstice, Sunday, sunlight, symphony, tag, Tchaikovsky, teenager, Telemann, The Ear, The Four Seasons, The Seasons, today, tonal, traditional, United States, use, Vivaldi, vocal music, warmth, we, winter, Winter Journey, winter solstice, Winterreise, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, work, year, youthful, YouTube