The Well-Tempered Ear
Superstar maestro Gustavo Dudamel to leave LA for the New York Philharmonic
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By Jacob Stockinger
It will probably be the biggest music news story of the year, perhaps even the decade.
Gustavo Dudamel (below), the Venezuelan-born maestro of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will become the music director of the New York Philharmonic starting in 2026.
The news was announced late yesterday afternoon on both coasts. The New York Philharmonic post is probably the most prestigious music post in the United States, a podium once occupied by Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Kurt Masur.
In what one imagines is a very, very expensive coup — the financial terms were not disclosed — the New York Philharmonic recruited the 42-year-old superstar maestro who is known for giving passionate and fiery performances and for innovating music education programs, both of which have brought in bigger and younger audiences.
He also built a reputation for championing new music, Latin music and musicians of color. (In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear Dudamel conducting Mexican composer Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2, a Latin American piece he made famous and which is now often used by other orchestras on full programs or as an encore. In the video, he is conducting the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra, the senior orchestra of “El Sistema” and the post that Dudamel held before heading to Los Angeles.)
Dudamel has guest conducted the New York Philharmonic more than two dozen times. The musicians there have greeted him warmly and enviously, especially since their CEO Deborah Borda originally signed Dudamel to the Los Angeles post in 2009 when he was 26.
Born into a musical family, Dudamel himself became a professional musician by rising through the ranks of “El Sistema,” the national youth music organization in his native country. He studied violin and composition before turning to conducting with global success and fame.
In Los Angeles he has been nominated for and won many Grammys for his many recordings. He also been the music director of the Paris Opera.
It is worth noting: New York will soon have two of the most charismatic and recognizable conductors in the world: Dudamel; and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is the music director of the Metropolitan Opera as well as the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal.
Here are stories from both sides now: from the West Coast he is leaving and the East Coast he will be going to.
Here is the story by The New York Times:
And here is the story from The Los Angeles Times:
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This weekend, starting Friday night, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra finishes up its winter season of online chamber music
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By Jacob Stockinger
This is the time of the year when music groups generally announce their next season while finishing up the current one.
But of course the pandemic continues to shroud plans for the new upcoming season in uncertainty and whether it will be online or in-person.
Meanwhile, groups are in the final stretch of finishing up this season.
This Friday night, April 16, at 7:30 p.m., the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO, below in photo by Mike Gorski) will debut the fourth and last online chamber music concert of its curtailed and substituted winter season.
The varied program includes works, both well-known and neglected, by four composers — from Italy, Russia, France and Austria — who come from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The concert begins with the complete Concerto for Four Violins in B minor, RV 580, by Antonio Vivaldi (below). The string accompaniment will be scaled down.
Then comes the complete Septet for Winds, Strings and Piano by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (below).
The first and third movements of the Nonet by the rediscovered 19th-century French composer Louise Ferenc come next. (Here is the Wikipedia link to Ferenc (below):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Farrenc
The final music will be the first, fourth and fifth movements – including the famous theme-and-variations – of the famously tuneful “Trout” Piano Quintet by Franz Schubert (below).
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear the namesake theme-and-variations movement — based on one of Schubert’s songs — played by Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Daniel Barenboim, Jacqueline du Pre and Zubin Mehta, with a graphical depiction of the score.
The concert lasts 60-75 minutes.
Tickets are $30.
Here is a link to program notes by WCO music director and conductor Andrew Sewell (below, in a photo by Alex Cruz) and to purchasing a ticket through the Overture Center box office.
The ticket is good for one viewing between Friday night and Monday night, April 19, at 7:30 p.m.
https://wcoconcerts.org/events/winter-chamber-series-no-iv
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Classical music: Pianist Alon Goldstein and the UW’s Pro Arte Quartet perform Scarlatti, Mozart and Brahms this coming Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Farley’s
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By Jacob Stockinger
Acclaimed Israeli pianist Alon Goldstein (below, in a photo by Cigna Magnoli) returns to Madison this weekend for a Salon Piano Series concert in which he will be joined by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s own Pro Arte Quartet.
There will be two performances: on Saturday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m.; and on Sunday, March 11, at 4 p.m. Both performances are at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side neat West Towne Mall.
Tickets are $45 in advance or $50 at the door, with $10 admission for full-time students. You can buy tickets by calling Farley’s at (608) 271-2626 or going online at www.brownpapertickets.com
An artist’s reception follows each concert and is included in the ticket price.
Goldstein will begin the concert with solo Scarlatti sonatas, one of which he’ll play on a clavichord built by Tim Farley. (A half-hour before each concert, a video about the restoration of the 1908 Chickering concert grand that Goldstein will play on will be screened.)
Then the Pro Arte Quartet (below top, in a photo by Rick Langer) and UW-Madison double bassist David Scholl (below bottom) will join him on stage for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, in a chamber music arrangement, and the Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34. (You can hear the opening movement, with an engaging graphic display of its structure, of the Brahms Quintet, played by pianist Stephen Hough and the Takacs String Quartet, in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
According to a press release: “Alon Goldstein is one of the most original and sensitive pianists of his generation, admired for his musical intelligence, dynamic personality, artistic vision and innovative programming.
“He has played with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Toronto and Vancouver symphonies as well as the Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles and Radio France Orchestra. He played under the baton of such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Jurowski, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Peter Oundjian, Yoel Levi, Yoav Talmi, Leon Fleisher and others.
“The New York Times’ senior music critic Anthony Tommasini wrote of Goldstein’s performance: “Here was a beautifully balanced approach to the score, refined yet impetuous, noble yet spirited.” The Philadelphia Inquirer stated “Such performances take a kind of courage so seldom heard these days you want to hear him at every possible opportunity.”
About the Salon Piano Series
Now in its fifth season, Salon Piano Series was founded by Tim and Renée Farley to continue the tradition of intimate salon concerts at Farley’s House of Pianos.
The setting replicates that experienced by audiences throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and offers audiences the chance to hear artists whose inspiring performances are enhanced by the setting and the fine pianos.
Concerts take place at Farley’s House of Pianos and feature historic pianos restored in the Farley’s workshop. For more information, go to: www.SalonPianoSeries.org
Tags: #ChamberMusic, #ChicagoSymphonyOrchestra, #DomenicoScarlatti, #Farley'sHouseofPianos, #HerbertBlomstedt, #JohannesBrahms, #LeonFleisher, #LondonPhilharmonic, #MeadWitterSchoolofMusic, #PeterOundjian, #PianoConcerto, #PianoMusic, #RafaelFrühbeckdeBurgos, #ScarlattiSonatas, #TakacsQuartet, #UniversityofWisconsin, #UniversityofWisconsin-Madison, #VladimirJurowski, #WolfgangAmadeusMozart, #YoavTalmi, #YoelLevi, #ZubinMehta, 18th century, 19th century, Alon Goldstein, Anthony Tommasini, arrangement, artist, artistic, Arts, audience, Baltimore, Baroque, bass, bassist, Cello, Chamber music, Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chickering, Classical music, clavichord, composer, concert grand, concerto, conductor, critic, Dallas, display, double bass, dynamic, Farley's House of Pianos, France, generation, graphic, historic, Houston, innovation, innovative, intimacy, Israel, Israeli, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, London, Los Angeles, Madison, movement, Mozart, Music, New York City, New York Times, opening, original, performance, personality, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Enquirer, photo, Pianist, Piano, Piano Quintet, Pro Arte Quartet, quintet, Radio, Radio France, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, reception, restoration, restored, salon, San Francisco, Scarlatti, score, sensitive, solo, Sonata, St. Louis, stage, Stephen Hough, symphonies, Takacs, Takacs Quartet, Takacs String Quartet, The New York Times, ticket, Toronto, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vancouver, video, Viola, Violin, vision, weekend, West Towne Mall, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, workshop, YouTube, Zubin Mehta
Classical music: The Middleton Community Orchestra draws its largest crowd yet as it rings in the New Year with Viennese waltzes, ethnic dances and violin showpieces
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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. 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, the mostly amateur Middleton Community Orchestra (below) had the last word of the December holiday season with a distinctly non-Christmas program.
To be sure, it was not a typical concert devoted to a tiny handful of major works. Rather, conductor Kyle Knox (below) devised something a cut above simplistic “pops” programming, with a clutch of nearly a dozen short works, each one of charm and substance—more like what Sir Thomas Beecham used to call “lollipops.”
The opener was a group of three selections from Tchaikovsky’s score for the ballet Swan Lake. There followed three of the Hungarian Dances by Brahms intermingled with two of the Slavonic Dances by Dvorak, in their orchestral versions.
The first half then closed with the first of two pieces featuring the conductor’s wife, violinist Naha Greenholtz (below), who is also the concertmaster of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. This was a kind of mini-concerto tidbit by Tchaikovsky, his Danse Russe.
The high point of the program’s second half was the second violin solo for Greenholz. Ravel’s Tzigane is a contemplation of Gypsy style. It begins with a wild unaccompanied solo for the violin, to which the orchestra then joins in a colorful set of variations. Here the playing by Greenholz was simply dazzling.
(You can hear Ravel’s virtuosic “Tzigane” — played by superstar violinist Itzhak Perlman with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta — in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Otherwise, the second half of the program was a bit of old Vienna, via Johann Strauss II, perhaps hinting at that city’s famous New Year’s Concert.
Setting the scene was the overture to Die Fledermaus. Knox’s direction throughout showed a lot of hard work to bring off all the selections with precision, but I often felt that he strove mainly for exuberance at the cost of subtleties. Notably in this overture, it seemed to me that the strings, especially the violins, sounded a bit coarse, certainly below their best ensemble polish.
But doubts were certainly dispelled with one Strauss miniature, the Persian March, followed by that noblest of the composer’s achievements, the Kaiserwalzer or Emperor Waltz.
All in all, this worked as a responsible seasonal treat. It seemed to me that it drew the largest audience that the Middleton Community Orchestra has yet had, and this audience simply loved everything.
So, if you will, Happy New Year!
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Classical music: The Festival Choir of Madison performs under famed choral conductor Joseph Flummerfelt this Saturday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has received the following timely and important announcement:
The Festival Choir of Madison (below) and its new artistic director Sergei Pavlov – who teaches at Edgewood College — will close the current season with a special concert this Saturday night, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Christ Presbyterian Church, located at 944 East Gorham Street in downtown Madison.
The performance features one of the legendary American choral conductors, Maestro Joseph Flummerfelt (below right, with Sergei Pavlov). You can hear a long Q&A interview with Joseph Flummerfelt in the YouTube video at the bottom.
The program with the Festival Choir includes music by German composers Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, British composer Herbert Howells, Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, Polish composer Henryk Gorecki and Scottish composer James MacMillan. Sorry, no word on individual works to be performed.
Tickets for the evening concert are available at the door and cost between $9 and $15.
Since 1971, Joseph Flummerfelt (below) has been responsible for most of the choral work of the New York Philharmonic, working closely with its music directors Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel and Alan Gilbert. Until 2004 he was Director of Choral Activities in the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
Joseph Flummerfelt (below) with the Westminster Symphonic Choir and New York Choral Artists has been featured in 45 recordings, including a Grammy Award-winning CD of the Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler with Leonard Bernstein. His collaboration with the great American composer Samuel Barber includes the Grammy Award-winning recording of Barber’s opera “Anthony and Cleopatra.”
In 2004 Flummerfelt was awarded a Grammy for the New York Choral Artists’ recording of “On the Transmigration of Souls,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning composition written by John Adams in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
A master teacher, Flummerfelt’s many former students occupy a number of major choral positions throughout the world. Yannick Nezet-Seguin (below) — the current music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, who, as a teenager, studied with Dr. Flummerfelt in two advanced conducting summer workshops — cites him as one of the two major influences in his life as a conductor. A 2009 New York Times article said, “Mr. Nezet-Seguin called those sessions with Flummerfelt the only significant conducting lessons he ever had.”
Flummerfelt has a special connection with Madison as well. As an undergraduate student in De Pauw University in Indiana, he was deeply inspired by a performance of a visiting choir, and the conductor of this group was Robert Fountain, the legendary Director of Choral Programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music.
Also on Saturday, May 7 at 11 a.m. there will be a question/answer session for all who would like to meet the Maestro Flummerfelt. The host is Edgewood College, and the session will be at the Washburn Heritage Room in the Regina Building. This is a FREE event.
Tags: 9/11, Alan Gilbert, Anthony and Cleopatra, Arts, Brahms, Britain, choral music, Classical music, Compact Disc, conduct, Edgewood College, England, Felix Mendelssohn, Festival Choir, German music, Germany, Grammy, Great Britain, Gustav Mahler, Henryk Gorecki, Herbert Howells, Jacob Stockinger, James MacMillan, Johannes Brahms, John Adams, Joseph Flummerfelt, Kurt Mas, Kurt Masur, Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Madison, Met, Metropolitan Opera, Music, New York City, New York Philharmonic, On the Transmigration of Souls, opera, Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, Poland, Polish music, Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninov, Robert Fountain, Russia, Russian music, Samuel Barber, Scotland, Scottish, Sergei Pavlov, singer, Singing, symphony, terrorism, terrorist attack, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, UW-Madison, vocal music, Westminster, Wisconsin, YouTube, Zubin Mehta
Classical music: Dance into 2015 this morning and tonight with waltzes and more from Vienna on public radio and TV.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Just a holiday reminder.
Today is New Year’s Day. That brings the annual “Great Performances” presentation of the “New Year’s Day From Vienna” celebration — with waltzes, polkas, gallops and more by the Johann Strauss Family – on PBS and NPR (National Public Radio).
It will all be performed in the Golden Hall (below top) by the Vienna Philharmonic with former Los Angeles Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic conductor Zubin Mehta (below middle) this year, along with the usual help from the Vienna State Ballet and Broadway and Hollywood star host Julie Andrews (below bottom).
And it will be broadcast TWICE today:
ON WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO (WPR): THIS MORNING at 10 a.m. New Year’s Concert from Vienna – The Vienna Philharmonic presents its annual New Year’s celebration.
ON WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION (WPT): TONIGHT from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on the main channel Channel 21/Cable 600 the program will also be run, with dancers and scenic landscape shots. (The Wisconsin Channel will run it from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.) It comes, by the way, after an all-day marathon that starts at 9 a.m. and features all eight episodes of Season Four of “Downton Abbey.” Season Five starts on Sunday night.
And the concert’s typical ending is the poplar clap-along, audience-pleaser: The Radetzky March, heard below in a performance from New York’s Day in Vienna in a popular YouTube video.
Tags: Arts, ballet, Broadway, Classical music, Downton Abbey, gallop, Golden Hall, Great Performances, Hollywood, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Strauss, Johann Strauss II, Julie Andrews, Los Angeles Philharmonic, march, Music, Musikverein, New York Philharmonic, Orchestra, PBS, polka, Vienna, Vienna New Year's Concert, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna State Ballet, Waltz, Weib und Gesang, Wein, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Public Television, YouTube, Zubin Mehta
Classical music: Twenty years ago, The Three Tenors created “popera” and changed the history of opera singing. Did it help or hurt opera? And who was the greatest tenor of the three? Plus, Madison Opera’s FREE Opera in the Park is Saturday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
This past Wednesday marked the 20th anniversary of The Three Tenors phenomenon -– a blockbuster “crossover” concert (below) that was held outdoors on July 16, 1994 in Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles to mark the FIFA World Cup final.
The concert, which featured a mix of light, popular and serious music, took something of a drubbing from the serious classical music critics.
But it didn’t matter.
The public loved it –- and then some.
And the public kept on loving it and still does. Which is while you still see it on TV and hear it on radio, even two decades later, and why it has spawned so many imitators.
The event turned opera singing into a rock concert-like stadium event for the masses and the popular media, and brought to singing a huge global audience. Talk about genius in marketing and branding!
The event no doubt also helped pave the way for such mass outdoor concerts as the Madison Opera’s 13th annual FREE “Opera in the Park” (below),” with this year John DeMain conducting soloists plus members of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Opera Chorus. It will take place this coming Saturday night, July 26, at 8 p.m. in Garner Park on Madison’s far west side.
Here is a link to the upcoming Madison Opera event, which previews the coming season and which usually attracts more than 10,000 listeners each summer. You can find information about directions, seating, artists and repertoire:
http://madisonopera.org/performances-2013-2014/park/
The 1994 event also dramatically changed the careers of the original Three Tenors -– Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.
It brought all of them – and also conductor Zubin Mehta – unbelievable amounts of money for a one-night stint. And that, in turn, translated into astronomical fees for future individual tours by each of them.
You can relive the 1994 event through a sound sample in the story as well as through a YouTube video, which has almost 3 million hits, at the bottom of The Ear’s favorite aria, by Giacomo Puccini, from the event. It is in a terrifically comprehensive story, filled with lots of facts big and small, that Anastasia Tsioulcas researched and wrote for the outstanding “Deceptive Cadence” blog on NPR or National Public Radio.
Here is a link:
What do you think of The Three Tenors and its impact on the classical music scene and the opera scene? On the culture in general?
Did it help or hurt the cause of great singing and staging serious opera?
And who do you think was the greatest tenor of the three?
The Ear wants to hear.
Classical music: Longtime New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow retires to teach. The Ear remembers him from TV and sees why the media jumped on his leaving.
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By Jacob Stockinger
I have seen him live in concert and in person only once.
But over decades I have seen him many times in The New York Times and especially on PBS, particularly on “Live from Lincoln Center” and, if I recall correctly, “American Masters.”
I have heard him in regular subscription concerts and also, I think, in Mainly Mozart concerts. I think I have even heard him solo at least once or twice, maybe more.
And chances are, so have you.
He is violinist Glenn Dicterow (below), the longtime concertmaster of the world-class New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Ear is not surprised that the retirement of Glenn Dicterow this past weekend made the media in a major way.
He is a smart, talented, humorous, good-natured and articulate man and musician who has a lot to say about music and about working with some celebrated figures, including conductors Leonard Bernstein (below), Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel and Alan Gilbert.
The stories about Dicterow also give us a renewed and expanded appreciation of the role of a concertmaster, and how a concertmaster can affect an entire orchestra and how the orchestra sounds and how its members get along with each other and with the maestro.
Dicterow played his swan-song concert this past weekend.
Here are backstories and a review of his final “New York Phil” concert:
Here is the story that appeared on the outstanding “Deceptive Cadence” blog on NPR:
And here is a similar story, with lots of facts, including his incredible salary, from The New York Times:
Here is the story that ran in the Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-york-philharmonic-legend-nears-his-last-performance-1403313764
Here is a review of his last concert with the New York Philharmonic performing the Triple Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven with New York Philharmonic principal cello Carter Brey and guest pianist-in-residence Yefim Bronfman, who played two Beethoven piano concertos (Nos. 2 and 5, the “Emperor”) this past season with the Madison Symphony Orchestra under John DeMain.
Finally, and in case you thought ensemble players were necessarily less virtuosic than soloists, here is a YouTube video of Glenn Dicterow playing the fiendishly difficult “Carmen” Fantasy by composer Franz Waxman (below), who is better known for the Hollywood movie scores he wrote after he fled Nazi Germany. Dicterow plays it with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta. (You can also see him perform other works and talk about his role as concertmaster on YouTube.)
Sounds like Glenn Dicterow will be a fantastic teacher at the same school in Los Angeles, California where the legendary violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz taught for so many years:
Tags: Alan Gilbert, American Masters, Arts, Beethoven, Carmen, Classical music, concertmaster, Franz Waxman, Glenn Dicterow, Jacob Stockinger, John DeMain, Kurt Masur, Leonard Bernstein, Live From Lincoln Center, Lorin Maazel, Los Angeles, Madison, Mozart, Music, New York Philharmonic, New York Times, Orchestra, PBS, public television, Television, TV, United States, Violin, Wall Street Journal, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, YouTube, Zubin Mehta
Classical music: Under guest conductor Kevin McMahon of Sheboygan, the Middleton Community Orchestra rises to guest string soloists Daniel Kim and Eleanor Bartsch in Mozart, then warms up the winter with colorful Rimsky-Korsakov and lyrical Brahms.
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ALERT and REMINDER: Just a reminder that the Pro Arte Quartet will perform a FREE concert this Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall. The program features the WORLD PREMIERE of the quartet’s fifth of six commissions to mark its centennial. (Also on the work is Franz Jospeh Haydn’s Quartet, Op. 20, Np. 4, and Anton Bruckner’s Viola Quintet with guest Samuel Rhodes of the Juilliard School and formerly of the Juilliard String Quartet.) The new work is the String Quartet No. 3 by Belgian composer Benoit Mernier, who is in Madison to coach the quartet and attend the premiere, where he will be interviewed by John W. Barker preceding the concert at 7:15 p.m. And here is a link to a review of the new CD recording (below) of the first four commissions by Greg Hettmansberger, who writes Madison Magazine’s classical music blog “Classically Speaking.”
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 every other Sunday morning on WORT FM 89.9 FM. He serves on the Board of Advisors for the Madison Early Music Festival and frequently gives pre-concert lectures in Madison.
By John W. Barker
The third program in the current season of the Middleton Community Orchestra (below), on Wednesday night at the comfortable Middleton Performing Arts Center that is attached to Middleton High School, was a rich and ambitious one.
For this concert, the regular MCO conductor Steve Kurr retired modestly to the viola and percussion sections, and yielded the podium to a visiting maestro, Kevin McMahon (below), a University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music alumnus who directs the Sheboygan Symphony.
Of three works on the program, the first was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sublime Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. Well-known, especially from many recordings, the work is in fact rarely performed in concerts, perhaps because of the demand for two soloists of high and equal merit.
In this case, it got them.
Local violin star Eleanor Bartsch and Juilliard-trained violist Daniel Kim of New York City — but both distinguished and prize-winning former students in the UW School of Music — have known each other since childhood. They were clearly on a shared wavelength in this performance, paired beautifully in music that makes one glad to be alive. (At bottom, you can hear a popular YouTube recording of the work with violinist Itzhak Perlman and violist Pinchas Zukerman under the baton of Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.)
The orchestra, a sturdy accompanist in the Mozart, came into its own in the next piece, the flashy “Capriccio espagnol” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (below). It is really a short five-movement concerto for orchestra, showing off a kaleidoscope of colors, and demanding a performance of virtuosic capacity.
Clearly, guest maestro McMahon had drilled the orchestra thoroughly, so that the performance was a stellar achievement for the MCO. And it also gave the concertmaster, Alice Bartsch, sister of the violin soloist in the Mozart, her own opportunities for some brilliant solo moments.
Finally came the longest work of the night, the Symphony No. 2 in D Major of Johannes Brahms (below).
This is perhaps the most genial of the composer’s four symphonies, but its lyricism conceals some challenging demands made on the orchestra. Brahms requires absolute perfection of technique and fully polished sonorities. And so, precisely because it is a very well-known score, it really puts an orchestra like the MCO to the test.
The group met the test quite creditably. Perhaps out of mercy, McMahon dropped the first-movement repeat. He had some very good ideas about phrasing and nuances throughout, and the players worked hard to put them to good effect.
Indeed, the performance gave one a chance to assess the community orchestra’s progress in no more than its fourth season of existence.
Well, there are still concerns to be faced. There are rough elements in the brass playing, but the woodwinds provide a secure and reliable anchor for the orchestra. The strings still lack that full sheen we might crave, but they are growing in security and discipline, especially the violins.
And so, after not that much time in the growing yet, music director and usual conductor Steve Kurr (below) has succeeded in building the MCO into a treasure for the city of Middleton and a genuine asset to the musical life of the Madison area. It deserves all possible support and encouragement — and attendance.
Tags: American Record Guide, Arts, Benoit Mernier, Brahms, Classical music, Compact Disc, Greg Hettmansberger, Israel Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Itzhak Perlman, Jacob Stockinger, Johannes Brahms, John W. Barker, Juilliard School, Juilliard String Quartet, Madison, Madison Magazine, Middleton High School, Mozart, Music, New York City, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Orchestra, Pinchas Zukerman, Pro Arte Quartet, Samuel Rhodes, String quartet, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WORT-FM 89.9, YouTube, Zubin Mehta
Classical music: Cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley open Lawrence University’s guest artist concert season this Saturday night.
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By Jacob Stockinger
APPLETON, WIS. — Combining individual virtuosity into a musical collaboration that blends classical and pop music genres, cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley (below) open Lawrence University‘s 2012-13 Artist Series this Saturday, Oct. 27, at 8 p.m. in the historic Lawrence Memorial Chapel (exterior photo is below top; interior, in a photo by Frank S. Hada, is below bottom), located in Appleton, about 90 miles or a two-hour drive from Madison.
Tickets, at $22-$20 for adults, $19-$17 for seniors, and $17-$15 for students. Tickets are available through the Lawrence Box Office in the Music-Drama Center, or by calling 920-832-6749.
The concert will showcase the award-winning talents of Haimovitz and O’Riley as collaborators and soloists in an eclectic program featuring works ranging from J.S. Bach to Astor Piazzolla, Igor Stravinsky to Radiohead.
Since making his musical debut at the age of 13 with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic, Haimovitz (below) has established himself as a musical pioneer and visionary, widely known for his trademark solo cello recitals, performed with many of the world’s most prestigious musical ensembles, among them the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra.
Performing on a 1710 Venetian cello made by Matteo Gofriller, Haimovitz drew raves for his Bach “Listening-Room” tour in which he took Bach’s beloved cello suites from the concert hall to clubs – incluing the Cafe Carpe in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, and the High Noon Saloon in Madison — across the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
O’Riley, who subscribes to the Duke Ellington adage, “there are only two kinds of music, good music and bad,” is one of the leading interpreters of popular contemporary music. His discography includes two CDs of his own versions of Radiohead songs, a tribute to the works of singer/songwriter Nick Drake and 2009’s “Out of My Hands,” which was inspired by the works of Nirvana, REM, Pink Floyd, Tori Amos and Portishead, among others.
O’Riley (below) began classical piano studies at the age of four but his interests eventually shifted to pop music and in the sixth grade he started his own band.
In addition to touring, O’Riley hosts the weekly National Public Radio program “From the Top” (below), which spotlights rising young classical musicians. (The NPR show airs on Wisconsin Public Radio on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.wpr.org. And Riley performed a recital of Shostakovich and Radiohead several years ago at the Wisconsin Union Theater.)
About Lawrence University
Founded in 1847, Lawrence University uniquely integrates a college of liberal arts and sciences with a world-class conservatory of music, both devoted exclusively to undergraduate education. It was selected for inclusion in the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2013 and the book “Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About College.” Individualized learning, the development of multiple interests and community engagement are central to the Lawrence experience. Lawrence draws its 1,450 students from nearly every state and more than 50 countries. Follow Lawrence on Facebook.
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