Today’s post is a review by guest blogger Mikko Utevsky (below). A freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the School of Music, Utevsky may be familiar to you as a loyal reader and commenter on this blog; as the former East High School student who founded and conducts the Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra (MAYCO); and as a former member of Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras (WYSO) who, talented and articulate, also blogged last summer about WYSO’s tour to Prague, Budapest and Vienna. The MAYCO concerts will be at 7:30 p.m. this year (NOT 7), both in Music Hall, on June 21 and August 9. He filed his review after attending the final dress rehearsal as part of the Madison Opera’s “Blog it! Tweet it! Night” Wednesday night. All color photos of “Don Giovanni” are by James Gill for the Madison Opera.

By Mikko Utevsky

“What a barbarous appetite!”

What indeed! Don Giovanni, the famous seducer of Spain, has made conquests of more than 1,800 women, according to his servant’s catalogue. But in one of Mozart‘s latest and finest operas, three of them finally get the best of him, and he receives his comeuppance at the hands of a hellish visitor from his past.

In this wonderful production by the Madison Opera, one of the master’s most powerful works is realized to excellent effect.

The opera blurs the line between comic (“buffo”) and serious (“seria”) opera — two very distinct genres in the 18th century, each with its own rules.

Certain characters belong to each world: the servant, Leporello, is a basso buffo role straight out of comic opera, and the nobles – Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Don Ottavio – are entirely serious. Others, like the Don himself, have a foot in each world — he’s a nobleman, but not a terribly noble one, undermining the aristocratic sensibilities of opera seria.

Whatever else you may think of him, this Don knows how to party. The centerpiece to his extravagant ballroom set is a large bed, on which he enters, and to which he later finds himself tied .

He’s also, as other advance reviews warned us, dangerously good-looking. He practically oozes seductive sexuality, and the women swarm around him like flies to honey – small wonder, looking like that! No opportunity is spared to have him shirtless, either: he works out something fierce.

But his sex appeal isn’t just visual. Kelly Markgraf has a voice to die for (or at least to lose your clothes for), and he shines both in solo numbers (especially the famous “Champagne Aria,” which in a YouTube video at the bottom) and ensembles, where his powerful baritone is always immediately present. And yes, that’s a hookah you see there.

Don Juan’s seduction of Zerlina (Angela Mennin) in “La ci darem la mano” was alluring without going as far over the top as some productions, and his counterpart gave as good as she got.

Mannino’s portrayal of Zerlina was at once charmingly innocent and wickedly self-aware. (Fans of the long-running sci-fi program “Doctor Who” may find the characterization reminiscent of the Doctor’s current companion, Clara Oswald — or maybe that’s just me.) “Vedrai, carino” and “Batti, batti o bel Masetto” were both exquisitely turned and well-acted to boot.

Her husband, Masetto (John Arnold, who played a compelling and hilarious Leporello last spring with the University Opera) was also well-characterized — in the final scene, they and Leporello migrate towards the Don’s abandoned dinner table rather than wax philosophical on his downfall. His “Ho capito, signor sì” was a tad mild for me (he’s stealing your wife, for goodness’ sake) but picked up nicely. His reactions during “Vedrai, carino” and the beating he receives before it were excellent, and the choreography for the latter was terrifyingly realistic even to an actor’s eye.

Don Juan’s servant Leporello (Matt Boehler) was also top-notch, and looked appropriately worn ragged from chasing after the Don day and night. He and the Don are frequently heard together also, and they alternately blended and contrasted excellently. The “Catalog Aria” was well done: I heard a few impressed murmurs after “E la grande maestosa.”

The two Donnas — Anna and Elvira — were both well-represented as well; neither role is easy, and both singers met their challenges with robust tone and clear singing.

Elvira’s promises in “Ah, chi mi dice mai” to carve out the Don’s heart seemed a bit tame, but her characterization came to life quickly. Elvira (Caitlyn Lynch, below) is in some ways the hardest to sympathize with, since her good nature constantly overrides her better judgment where her erstwhile lover is concerned.

The grief of Donna Anna (Elizabeth Caballero) was convincingly rendered, though Don Ottavio’s responses always seem a bit wooden (a fault of the writing, not of Wesley Rogers’ lovely singing). His aria “Il mio tesoro” was lovely, and for once I didn’t wonder when we’d get back to the plot. Having heard him sing this, I almost wished “Dalla sua pace” hadn’t been cut. Almost.

The orchestra’s playing was to its usual high standard: guest conductor Joseph Mechavich (below) elicited clean articulation and cogent phrasing from the group, accompanying deftly (if once or twice a bit too energetically for the singers, it can be forgiven). He conducted from the harpsichord, providing his own sophisticated and expressive continuo — not something one sees often, but done very well here.

Highlights of the whole opera, apart from those mentioned already, are the peasants’ wedding, noticeably more energetic and fun than anything with the Donnas who are somewhat dour – again no fault of the singers); the Don’s ball; his gluttonous dinner, complete with food fight; and the striking entrance of the Commendatore (Nathan Stark) risen from the dead, which I’ll not spoil for you.

My only complaint about the staging is that occasionally it seems too dark — the singers’ faces fall into shadow for long periods, and I found myself wishing for footlights once or twice. The lighting apart from that is evocative and expressive.

I also wished for more complete supertitles. The set of translations used seemed a bit perfunctory: many lines were left out that would have made it easier to follow (and funnier!).

But the singing was uniformly excellent, as was the acting and the staging by Elise Sandell (below).

This Don Giovanni is one to see — sexy, dark, gorgeous, musically compelling, and brilliantly sung. What more could you ask?

The production (sung in Italian with English surtitles and running 3 hours with one 20-minute intermission) has two performances in Overture Hall of the Overture Center; on Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., respectively, in Overture Hall. For more information and tickets, call the Overture box office at (608) 258-4141 or visit:

http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2012-2013/don_giovanni/

I had a few criteria when looking, one being it should cost as little as possible. Another criteria was the time frame. I lead a strange life at times when it comes to work load, so I didn’t want one requiring me to work furiously at for a few weeks or a few months. My chosen course, http://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/lsa/online/writing/creative-nonfiction.htm will allow me to work at my own pace in my own time for up to a year. This sounds my kind of course.

What am I hoping to learn from this? Well, having just published my 1950s school memoir I’m looking for support and guidance as I branch out beyond my comfort zone to write a little local history coupled with memoir about the old swimming pool I grew up with, almost in, during the 1960s. I’m hoping the course will keep me motivated as well as provide me with feedback along the way.

I did this last time, participated in a couple of little courses to help me along the way. They proved useful in keeping me on task over a journey that took longer than it should. I’ve allowed myself more research and writing time for this latest project, but decided a course might be more useful at the beginning of the journey than further down the track.

So, thank you to all those who’ve shared posts about the courses you’re undertaking. You are my inspiration. Now all I need do is sit back and wait for the first module to roll in. What have I let myself in for?

Transparency: Reputable NGOs are accountable to their donors, volunteers, and communities. Does the NGO keep public reports or documentation of how their funding was spent in years past? Are their goals and their strategies to achieve them clearly articulated?

Teamwork: How are duties and power shared within the organization’s structure? Are power and responsibility shared amongst senior staff members or a board of directors? Or is power hierarchical and primarily concentrated in one individual? NGOs with the best chance at sustainability will have a shared vision reflected in several committed, senior staff members with shared decision-making power. NGOs with a relatively lateral structure are also more inclined to compromise and listen to new ideas simply because they have a greater diversity of perspective. As an intern or volunteer, you will get more feedback on your work and ideas.

Do you want to travel throughout the country or would you prefer to remain in one community for the duration of your stay? Many NGOs encourage students to explore the country during weekends and breaks. Pictured here: Cape Coast, Ghana.

Accommodation: What sort of benefits will this particular organization offer you? What sorts of skills are you hoping to learn through this experience? I strongly encourage students to talk with a representative of the NGO before applying and/or feel free to bring up these questions in an interview. What goals does the NGO have for you? Do they align with your personal goals for this experience? 

Working abroad is an incredible experience, offering the opportunity for personal growth while contributing to a project you believe in. The key question for selecting an NGO is where to best invest your energy. Finding an organization with a long-term, sustainable impact in the community will allow you the best opportunity to contribute. NGOs with a relatively lateral structure of decision-making power have the greatest diversity of perspective and thus offer greater opportunities for you to share your ideas. Match your personal goals with the goals of an organization to increase the likelihood that you will both be satisfied with your exchange. Don’t be shy to contact NGOs and former interns and volunteers to seek out the information you need to make the best decision you can.

http://www.wisconsingazette.com/music/dueling-mozartsbreaktwo-operas-show-contrasting-sides-of-the-master.html

http://www.madisonopera.org/performances-2012-2013/don_giovanni/

By Jacob Stockinger 

Today’s posting is by guest blogger Jerry Hui (below).

Few young musicians in Madison, or anywhere for that matter, are as talented or as diverse in their interests as Jerry Hui. He directs and sings in an early music vocal group Eliza’s Toyes and also sings with the Madison Bach Musicians. He is a founding member and director of New MUSE (New Music Everywhere), a University of Wisconsin-Madison student group that performs and promotes new music and stages flash mobs. And he is a composer who wrote and produced an Internet opera, “Wired For Love,” as his doctoral thesis at the UW School of Music. He also incorporates the more modern aesthetic of using art to promote social progress.

For more information about Jerry Hui, visit: http://jerryhui.com

Jerry recently offered to write a preview of the concert by Eliza’s Toyes this weekend – an offer too good to refuse. Here is it, complete with links to YouTube videos so you can sample much of the repertoire:

By Jerry Hui

This weekend, the Madison-based early music group Eliza’s Toyes (below) will be presenting a new and ambitious early music concert that will showcase secular music by various composers from Venice of the early 17th century, all tied together in dance and semi-improvisatory comedy theater, in a program titled “Casino Royale: A Venetian Music-Comedy.”

Two performances will take place on the same weekend: On this Saturday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Gates of Heaven Synagogue (below) in downtown Madison at James Madison Park, 302 East Gorham Street; tickets at the door are $15 for the public, $10 for students); and the on Sunday, April 28, at 4 p.m. at the Chocolaterian Café, 2004 Atwood Ave.; free admission, with donations accepted accepted).

Venice (below, in a map from the 17th century) was a thriving city-state. Its unique geographical location in the Mediterranean guaranteed its success from maritime trade, and the wealth that was bestowed upon countless merchants.

As the capital city of the Republic of Venice — a state so prosperous that it was known as La Serenissima (“the most serene”) — Venice was well-known for its treasures and splendors. Naturally, this city of riches would attract people from all walks of life: merchants, bankers, aristocrats, artists, craftsmen, thieves and gamblers.

Gambling is an ancient activity as old as human history. Some civilizations, like the Romans, permitted social gambling during holidays and festivities, and otherwise forbade it. But who was to forbid what many desired? More than a friendly diversion, it could be a shortcut to luxury, a chance to change, an opportunity to enter the highest of society. (Below is a painting by Caravaggio portraying a dishonest card game.)

Venice, being the city of all things sumptuous, was among the first in Europe to be swept by the popularity of playing cards and lottery. Dice games were played on the squares, in street corners, in stores, and in private homes. Noblemen, even when gambling was explicitly banned, ran games in their private spaces, known as the “ridotti” (from ridurre, meaning to reduce, close or make private).

In 1638, after decades of inability to rein in the betting, the Venetian Great Council finally chose a creative solution. Not only would they legalize gambling, they would also open the Ridotto: the first legal, state-sanctioned public gambling house ever in Europe.

Our program draws its inspiration from the opening of Ridotto. All musical pieces were written by composers working in Venice in the first few decades of the 17th century, including: Ippolito Baccusi, Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Salamone Rossi and Marco Uccellini.

We are performing two pieces from Monteverdi’s Eighth Book of Madrigals, subtitled the “Madrigals of War and Love,” published in 1638:  “Non partir ritrosetta” (http://youtu.be/C31WBUOax3M) is a passionate trio, imploring a lover to stay. “Dolcissimo uscignolo” (http://youtu.be/njOBmL1DBCM), on the other hand, is an introspective lament of unrequited love.

Giovanni Gabrieli (below), the composer and famous organist of San Marco, needs no introduction. However, our selection comes not from his more frequently performed sacred music. Instead, we chose his lesser-known secular madrigals. “Quand’io ego giovinetta” is a funny story about an old man’s misadventure in love. “O che felice giorno” (http://youtu.be/khXVHY7k3No?t=7m20s) depicts a celebratory wedding party, written with splendid double-choir counterpoint that is more common in his sacred music.

Many pieces in our program are by Salamone Rossi, a Jewish-Italian composer and violinist. (Below is a score by Rossi from Venice, the same city where Shakespeare set “The Merchant of Venice” with it theme of how Jews were treated in Renaissance Italy.) Whereas music history classes often bring up his unusual polyphonic setting of Song of Solomon in Hebrew, we will showcase many of his short madrigals written for 2-3 voices (such as “Volò ne tuoi begli’occhi” http://youtu.be/0MkUOVuWWvw). His instrumental pieces are playful and fiery; we’ll be playing many of his dances and sonatas, such as this “Gagliarda detta la Turca” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrkWHxpvibw&feature=share&list=PL9CECBC6113A4F7F9), or “Sonata settima sopra ‘Aria di un Baletto” (http://youtu.be/3jpNlwJTb7M).

In addition, we are venturing into the uncharted area of comic theater: all the music is tied together in a skit, semi-improvised in the Italian street-performance tradition of commedia dell’arte (below).

In this style, drama is driven by stock characters in masks: Pantalone the miser; Il Dottore the know-it-all; Harlequin the deviant servant; the young lovers and so on. Our scene takes place in one of the ridotti of Venice. Come to our concerts, and join them in their wild and funny adventures through music, comedy, and dance!

Eliza’s Toyes (below) is a small ensemble of singers and instrumentalists focusing on sharing the joy of early music in unusual and creative programs.

Started as an ad-hoc group during Madison Early Music Festival (http://madisonearlymusic.org), Toyes has recently performed at Wisconsin Public Radio’s  “Sunday Afternoon Live From the Chazen” series, and is now in its fifth season as a regular performance ensemble.

The musicians include: Deb Heilert (soprano); Chelsie Propst (soprano; as “Isabella” in this production); Sandy Erickson (alto, recorder); Peter Gruett (alto/tenor; as “Il Dottore”); Jerry Hui (director, tenor/bass, recorder; as “Ottavio”); Mark Werner (bass; as “Pantalone”); Melanie Kathan (recorder; as “Harlequin”); Doug Towne (lute/theorbo); and Eric Miller (viol).

For more information, visit: http://toyes.info

By Jacob Stockinger

This coming weekend will see two performances of Robert Kyr’s “The Passion According to Four Evangelists” by the campus-community UW Choral Union, the UW Chamber Orchestra and four soloists, all under the baton of UW choral director Beverly Taylor.

The soloists are soprano Anna Slate, mezzo-soprano Jennifer D’Agostino, tenor James Doing and baritone Paul Rowe.

The concert are in Mills Hall on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. (NOT at 3:30 p.m. as mistkenly first printed in yesterday’s post.) Tickets are $15 for the General Public and $8 for students and seniors. Call the 
Box Office: (608) 265-2787. Remaining tickets are sold at the door.

Also: The American composer Robert Kyr will do half-hour pre-concert lectures in Mills Hall for TICKETED patrons one hour before each concert. UW students are NOT admitted free to these concerts. Saturday’s lecture 7-7:30 p.m. with the concert at 8 p.m. Sunday’s lecture is 6:30-7 p.m. with the concert at 7:30 p.m.

For background, here is a link to a fascinating NPR story about and interview with Robert Kyr:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/06/01/132089851/robert-kyrs-songs-from-a-desert-monastery

The composer — who is personally and artistically committed to social justice  and non-violent activism for peace — graciously agreed to an email Q&A with The Ear. Yesterday’s post offered Part 1; here is Part 2.

How would you describe your musical style overall and especially in that work?

My work features what I like to call a “spectrum of harmony” that is primarily consonant, but also dissonant as required for specific expressive purposes.

The engine of my music is counterpoint—the composing of musical line against line. Almost all of my music is an interweaving of melodic lines (in the manner of Bach, for instance), as opposed to the musical currency of our day, which is textural music or homophony (chords, or a melodic line accompanied by chords).

Although I was born in the 20th century, I have always felt (from my teen years onward) that I was a 21^st century composer, and I’m more in tune with the eclecticism and vitality of the current 20-something and 30-something composers than my own generation.

In that sense, I am a composer who strives to synthesize many artistic concerns and interests into an organic musical expression. In regard to influences, I am most deeply connected to the music of the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods (the “contrapuntal periods”), especially the music of Guillaume Dufay (the isorhythmic motets), Josquin (his motets and masses), and above all, J. S. Bach.

You have worked and partnered with Beverly Taylor (below, in a photo by Katrin Talbot) before. Can you talk about how the two of got to know each other and what you think of her as a performer and interpreter of your works (she has done several, I believe) .

Bev and I met at Harvard University, where she was the director of the Radcliffe Choral Society when I was a doctoral student. She commissioned me to create a work for a cappella women’s chorus for RCS, which was entitled “Toward Eternity.” We became friends through our first collaboration, and shortly thereafter, Bev invited me to create a large-scale work for her Boston community chorus, the Back Bay Chorale.

Together, Bev and I hatched the plan of co-creating The Passion according to Four Evangelists for her ensemble, and she continually inspired me with her insights and wise musical advice. I’m extremely grateful to her for her vision and artistry, and I’m deeply moved by her performances, which convey a profound understanding of the interior life of a musical expression, as well as a complete “living out” of its sonic architecture and emotional depth.

 I think you were in Madison for the last performance of this work. Will you be here this time and do you have any impressions of Madison and the UW Choral Union and choral and orchestral programs you would like to share?

Without a doubt, the UW Choral Union is one of the finest choruses in the country and is distinguished by its rich, vibrant, and clear sound, as well as its ability to express the emotional and psychological intricacies of large-scale works. The collaboration of Bev and the chorus is a “marriage made in heaven,” an ideal merging of artistic vision, poetic imagination, and true musical inspiration. (Below is a YouTube video of Kyr discussing his Holocaust Project work “The Unutterable,” which was premiered by Chorus Austin.)

I am thrilled that I’m able to come to Madison — a city that I love —and the University of Wisconsin (my father’s alma mater) for rehearsals and both performances of my Passion. I very much look forward to collaborating again with Bev, the soloists, the Choral Union, and the UW Symphony Orchestra.

Laura also has some very exciting news: one of her papers is going to be published!!!  The title of her paper is The Role of Child Support in the Economic Wellbeing of Custodial-Mother Families in Less Developed Countries: The Case of Colombia and it will be published in the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family.  So exciting!!

What are your classes like?

I have taken two types of classes, seminars and lectures.  Seminars are small classes (between 10 to 12 people) in which students and instructors meet every week to discuss a topic.  Every week students are expected to read approximately 5 to 6 articles (each about 20-30 pages long) so they can contribute to the discussion.  Sometimes students are asked to lead the discussion.  Assignments for seminars include paper critiques, presentations, and a final paper about a topic on the student’s area of interest.

Lectures are large classes (between 40 to 50 people) in which students are mostly listening to the instructor.  Every week participants are expected to read either a book chapter or a couple of articles on a given topic.  Assignments may include problem sets or reviews of readings for the given week.  Sometimes lecture courses include both midterm and final exams.

What do you like about your university?

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a top research university in the United States (and the world!).  As a result, I have been able to 1) receive mentoring from outstanding scholars, 2) take courses with renowned faulty, 3) access to countless resources to improve my research skills, and 4) present original work in top research conferences in my field (within and outside of the US).

On a more personal experience, I have met wonderful mentors and colleagues that make this experience so much more special than any other thing I have experienced in my life.  You will not believe the awesomeness of the faculty, staff and students at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Social Work!

What do you like to do when you are not studying?

PhD students do not get much free time!  But, whenever I can, I like to meet with friends to watch a movie, dine out, or have a drink.  I do exercise every other day at the UW facilities.  I love biking in the summer!

How does life as a college student in the US compare to life as a WESLI student?

Being in a PhD program is definitely much more challenging that being a WESLI student.  However, I’d also say that challenges that I experienced in WESLI were different from the challenges that I experienced as a graduate student.  As a WESLI student, I experienced the difficulties of living abroad for the first time ever, and learning a second language.  As a graduate student, I deal with the challenges related to the training that I need to become a good scholar.

Do you have any advice for WESLI students who want to go to college?

Social Work Building of the UW-Madison campus. Photo courtesy of socwork.wisc.edu

Definitely!  Try to avoid talking in your native language as much as you can: the only way to learn English is speaking/writing/reading in English!  You will appreciate very much not having to deal with ESL issues when you are a college student.  You are supposed to perform as well as native speakers, and having communication difficulties makes the learning process so much more difficult than it needs to be.

What are your future plans?

I’m currently in my third year (out of 5).  By the end of the the Spring semester I will be done with coursework, and by the end of the summer I will be a PhD Candidate.  The following two academic years I will be working on my dissertation.  Hopefully, I will graduate in May, 2015!

Tell us more about your paper being published!

My paper is co-authored with Professor Daniel R Meyer.  We examine the extent to which child support is helping custodial-mother families move out of poverty or move closer to the poverty line in Colombia.  Our results show that child support brought out of poverty 32% of custodial-mother families receiving this transfer in 2008.  We also find that child support helps to reduce the poverty gap by about a third.  Comparisons with developed countries suggest that single parents in Colombia are doing much worse than single parents in Scandinavian countries, but about the same with respect to those in some Anglo-Saxon countries like the US.  You can check out more about my research here.

The 56-bell carillon at the University of Wisconsin is the latest ridiculous way people have decided to cover the Game of Thrones theme song. It’s performed by UW’s carilloneur and amateur Jeor Mormont impersonator Lyle Anderson.

FYI, I’m pretty sure this leaves wine glasses and milk jugs as the only instruments that haven’t been used to play the GoT theme. For the moment.

[Via Geeks Are Sexy]

[via io9]

Related articles

• ‘Game of Thrones’ theme played from university bell tower – VIDEO (popwatch.ew.com)
• Game of Thrones Theme Played on a Bell Tower (neatorama.com)
• University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bell Tower Plays ‘Game of Thrones’: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
• This College Campus REALLY Love ‘Game of Thrones’ (huffingtonpost.com)

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 88.9 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

In its program on Saturday night (repeated Sunday afternoon), Trevor Stephenson’s Madison Bach Musicians took a bold step forward.  Certainly so in chronology, going beyond their usual halting point at Bach’s demise (1750) to sample music of the later 18th century.

The composers represented were the two giants, Haydn and Mozart (below top and bottom respective): a concerto and a symphony for each.

This move is partly an expansion of Stephenson’s growing new collaboration with Marc Vallon, the world-class bassoon virtuoso on the UW Music School’s faculty, who has plunged into earlier literature for his instrument, but who has also ventured into conducting. (Below is Marc Vallon conducting Haydn.).

Examining the program by genres rather than composers, we find one concerto featuring each of the two leaders.

Stephenson opened the program with Haydn’s familiar Keyboard Concerto in D, notable for its Hungarian Rondo finale.

The work was probably written for harpsichord, but is today misrepresented on the modern piano. Stephenson took a middle road, using a fortepiano, a predecessor of the modern piano, and one with tone coloring and character of its own.

Further, Stephenson played discreet keyboard continuo in the Haydn Symphony and the Mozart Concerto that followed–certainly correct for Haydn, who would have led his ensemble from the keyboard to keep everybody together.

Vallon (below) gave a fruity and colorful rendition of the solo part in Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-flat, leading the orchestra along the way.  In the two Symphonies, he took over full conducting functions, using enthusiastic body language, but contributing phrasing and agogics that revealed fine musical insight.

The Haydn Symphony was No. 45 in F-sharp minor, known as the “Farewell.” Written in a willfully weird key, it is full of wild, even angry music, until its epilogue, in which the composer makes a plea to his employer, on behalf of his overworked musicians, for a long-deferred vacation.

This is done by the clever touch of having members of the orchestra drop out and leave one by one until only two violins remain. This game was played out with relish by our performers. (At bottom is a YouTube video of the finale of Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony played by another group.)

The Mozart Symphony, his No. 29 in A major, is a work of youthful brio and charm, one of his earliest masterpieces in the form.

All these works are marked by elements of humor. The two concertos, especially that for bassoon, pokes gentle fun at the solo instrument in musical gamesmanship.  Aside from the “departure” joke in Haydn’s Symphony, both of them featured the same use of surprise, in the Menuet movements for each, with comically abrupt endings.

Above all, however, this concert was an important landmark of sorts: the first time (if I am right) that anybody has assembled in Madison a working recreation of a late-18th century orchestra. One feature of this fact is numbers: 12 string players plus pairs of players on oboes and horns.  Moreover, these were period-style instruments, the strings made of gut and played without vibrato.

The total result was a lean sound drastically different in tone, texture and balances from that we are accustomed to in the “modern symphony orchestra.” The players were all quite expert in their skills, many coming from widely scattered points around the country–such is Trevor Stephenson’s far-reaching network by now.

I could have wished for just a little tighter ensemble from the violins (as might come with more regular and consistent working together), but the playing was committed and artistic.

The texture allowed the sometimes ferocious discords in Haydn’s Symphony to sound with powerful effect, while the overall balances allowed the horns to ring out, even dominating at times, instead of being buried under lush string sound. In the Mozart Symphony, one could hear the clever harmonic and rhythmic material the composer gave to the violas (an instrument he himself loved to play).

This was, as I say, a landmark event in Madison’s musical history, and more.  The program, played at the new Atrium Auditorium (below, in a photo by Zane Williams) of the First Unitarian Society, was preceded, as always, by a witty and informative talk by Stephenson.  The quite large audience (I would guess at least 250 attendees on Saturday) was enthusiastic, and justly so at a concert both significant and wondrously enjoyable.

The shows can be heard at 91.7FM in the Madison area or can be streamed live online (click one of the Listen Up! links on the top right of the page). I hope you enjoy the broadcast. Once it has appeared on the radio, I’ll also post a link to the file in the media section of the Writers in Prisons Project website. Please share this information widely and encourage anyone you know who might be interested to listen to the men as they share their work.

If you’re interested to know more about the classes at Oakhill Correctional Institution and how you can support the work being done there, please visit our website or consult this document.

By Jacob Stockinger

Before we get to the events I want to talk about, let us get to the people who made them possible.

Specifically, I want to give well-deserved shout-outs to two retired research chemists who love classical music.

And who put their money where their mouths are – or, more specifically, where their ears and hearts are.

I am talking about Dr. Kato Perlman (below), an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

And I am talking about Dr. Irving Shain (below), a retired chemist at the UW and a former Chancellor at the UW-Madison who was also a talented amateur flutist.

Each person has funded wonderful programs at the UW School of Music, and both events annual events will take place this weekend on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, putting these two figures and friends-colleagues side by side – which is so appropriate and natural.

HERE ARE THE EVENTS:

On Saturday, April 20, 3:30 p.m. in Morphy Hall, the Perlman Piano Trio will perform a FREE and PUBLIC concert.

Members this year (below in a photo by Kathy Esposito for the UW School of Music) are pianist Jeongmin Lee (first row), violinist Alice Bartsch (second row on the right), and cellist Taylor Skiff (second row on the left). They will perform an all-masterpiece program: the Piano Trio in G Major (“Gypsy Rondo”) by Franz Josef Haydn and the Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 66 by Felix Mendelssohn.

Then group will be joined by violinist Madlen Breckbill (top row right) and violist Daniel Jacobs (top row left) in a performance of Johannes Brahms’ dramatic and lyrical Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34.  (Below is a photo of all five members.)

(The Perlman Piano Trio Fund provides annual awards for a violinist, cellist and pianist and stipulates that they will present “an annual concert of the great masterpieces of the piano trio (or on occasion, quartet or quintet) literature.”  The selection of students is made under the guidance of faculty from the piano and string areas.  Their concert is the culmination of a year in which they are coached, as an ensemble, by faculty members.)

Then on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. — also in Morphy Hall — is a FREE and PUBLIC recital by the winners of the annual Beethoven Sonata Competition (it also allows Beethoven’s Variations and Bagatelles).

The event is now in its 28th year, and each year’s winners seem to get more impressive.

This year’s winners (below in a photo by Kathy Esposito for the UW School of Music) are: Sara Giusti (left), who will play Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3; Hazim Suhado (middle), who will play Sonata in F Major, Op. 54; and Evan Englestad (right), who will play Sonata in F-Sharp Major, Op. 78 (at bottom played by Daniel Barenboim in a YouTube video).

It is a great event for Beethoven fans and especially – parents and families, Take Note! — for young aspiring piano students who might be looking for inspiration which they are sure to find at the winners; recital. A reception for and with the Beethoven Sonata Competition winners follows the concert.

Want more information? Here are capsule bios of the winners, which impresses one with the high quality of the students at the UW School of Music:

An Indonesian pianist, Hazim Suhadi was born in Bandung, Indonesia. He began piano lessons at the age of seven at Yayasan Musik Jakarta (YMJ) with Yola Mathilde, and later advancing his studies with the late Soetarno Soetikno. He received his B.A in French and Francophone Studies and B.M in piano performance where he studied with Catherine Kautsky at Lawrence University. He also previously studied with Luba Poliak, Dmitri Novgorodsky, and Vadim Serebryany. His other interests include chamber music and collaborating, where he has received coaching with Wendy Warner, Gilbert Kalish and Dale Duesing. He has also served as the opera accompanist and was involved in several productions, including Bernstein’s “Candide,” Chabrier’s “L’étoile” and opera scenes. His recent accomplishments include his winning performance at the LSO Concerto Competition in 2010 with Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos. He also received the Theodore L. Rehl Prize, which recognizes excellence in the performance of chamber music. He is currently finishing his Master’s at UW-Madison with Christopher Taylor.

Evan Engelstad grew up in Eugene, Oregon and graduated in 2010 from Willamette University in Salem with a double major in Music and Physics. Currently a second-year Master’s student in Piano Performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Evan enjoys teaching piano lessons and accompanying soloists and ensembles. A student of Professor Todd Welbourne, Evan plans to continue his studies at UW-Madison next year in pursuit of a DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy. In addition to his studies, Evan works as the musician at Christ The Solid Rock Baptist Church in Madison. Outside of music, Evan’s interests include nutrition, cooking, and watching college football.

Sara Giusti was born in Italy in 1983. She studied piano for eight years under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo at the Conservatorio “Nino Rota” of Monopoli. She also studied with Lazar Berman, Andrea Lucchesini, Nelso Delle Vinge-Fabbri, Riccardo Risaliti, Paolo Bordoni and Pierluigi Camicia. Sara attended Robert Levin’s course at Gargano International Festival, focusing on Beethoven’s piano works. A prize-winner of several Italian national competitions, Sara was awarded first prize, 100/100, at the 2003 Igor Stravinsky National Music Competition in Bari. She has also been particularly active in chamber music, playing concerts in duo, trio and quintet ensembles, including performances at the Conservatorio of Lugano in Switzerland. In 2013, she was a winner of the Irving Shain Woodwind-Piano Duo Competition at UW-Madison. Sara is currently a first year Master’s student in Piano Performance at the UW-Madison where she studies with Professor Christopher Taylor.

Writing sample? Check.  Business casual outfit? Check.  Positive, can-do attitude?  Double check.  I was barely 20 years old, I was at the Wisconsin State Capitol, and I was about to interview for a position with the office of the Lt. Governor of Wisconsin.

There was the typical ranking order of interns who had the coveted “favorite” status.  I vowed to win the trust of my superiors and become one of them.  My eyes would linger upon the sight of them laughing it up with the Chief of Staff like old friends while I scanned constituent mail to the wrong server (no, Mitra!  Save files to LTGOV, not GOV!  You’re so stupid!) and freaked out about whether my sweater vest was crooked that day.

Buried in the work of governance, I was pleased as could be.  I read with avaricious interest the penned notes of outstate fish farmers urging my elected official to do something about the nefarious exotic carp population.  “These fish don’t stand a chance against me,” I thought, and responded: “Dear Sir, our office has received your query.  We appreciate your concern and will investigate the matter as soon as possible.”  TAKE THAT, CARP!

One day, I heard the voice of my supervisor: “Mitra, the Lt. Governor is here and would like to introduce herself to you!”

I froze.  Oh. My. Gosh.  SHE’S HERE.  I had never, ever met the LT GOV.  I was nobody!  I was but a happy, toiling, invisible peon in this democratic industrial complex.  I swiveled slowly around.

I will never forget her coral suit, million-dollar smile, perfectly coiffed hair, and matching lipstick.  “HELLO!” she chimed, towering at least 5 feet over me seated in my chair, and she extended a noble hand to me.  Oh, crap!  Do I stand up first, but in doing so, shoot down her handshake?  Do I awkwardly shake her hand while I’m seated and she is standing?  Maybe I should just stay here and keep talking to her stomach.

“He – hello, Lieutenant Governor,” I stammered as I clamored to my feet and darted out my hand with the force and swiftness of a panicked carp.  “I – It’s a pleasure to m-meet you!  Thank you for this opportunity!”

s an adult, I now work in politics and have a little more self-awareness around the big fish, but it is always good to remember where you came from.

By Jacob Stockinger

This weekend brings one of the major and memorable events of the current season: Performances in two parts of the complete original works for cello and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).

The performances will take place this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and this Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. (NOT 3:30 p.m. as mistakenly first listed) in the concert hall at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side, near West Towne Mall.

The performers are longtime collaborators: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of cello and Pro Arte Quartet cellist Parry Karp and UW-Oshkosh professor of piano Eli Kalman, who received his doctoral degree from the UW-Madison School of Music.

Tickets are $25 for each individual concert or $40 for the package of two. For more information call (608) 271-2626, go to Farley’s website. Here is a link:

http://www.farleyspianos.com/pages/events_main.html

Here are the programs for the two concerts:

Friday at 7:30 p.m.: Sonata In C Major, Op. 102 No. 1 (1815); Sonata in F Major, Op. 5 No. 1 (1796); Seven Variations on a theme “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, WoO 46 (1801); Sonata In D Major, Op. 102 No. 2 (1815)

Sunday at 4:30 p.m.: Twelve Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Oratorio “Judas Maccabeus,” WoO 45 (1796); Sonata In G Minor, Op. 5 No. 2 (1796); Twelve Variations on a theme “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, Op. 66 (1798); Sonata in A Major, Op. 69 (1807-8)

Both Parry Karp (below left) and pianist Eli Kalman (below right) agreed to answer a wide-ranging email Q&A. This is the second of two parts. The first part was posted yesterday and covered the evolution and development of Beethoven writing for the cello and piano throughout his career.

Do you both have favorite works among Beethoven’s sonatas for cello and piano? Which ones and why?

Parry Karp: It sounds like a cliché, but whatever work I am playing at the moment is my favorite. A week and a half ago Eli and I played three of the works for the Music in Performance class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

We played an early sonata, a sets of variations and a late sonata. We were both struck by how completely different each work was and how magnificent they all were. The range is extraordinary. As my father (retired UW pianist Howard Karp) is fond of saying about Beethoven (below is a print of the young Beethoven): “He was great from the beginning, he just kept changing.” Probably the first Cello Sonata is the least performed, but when you are performing it, it is an overwhelming experience.

Eli Kalman: The one you are playing has always to sound like your favorite -– that is so true. But personally, I have a very strong connection to the fourth sonata, Op. 102, No. 1 (at bottom, in a YouTube video), and I am happy to overlook the words for the reasoning.  I could advocate for any sonata as for the first favorite in a rational manner, but I choose to go with my strongest emotional reaction regarding the fourth sonata.

What would you like audiences to listen for or hear in your performances of these works? Are there neglected works you would especially like people to pay attention to?

Parry Karp: In general, I don’t like to tell audiences what to listen for in performances. I think these works can be enjoyed and understood in many different ways and on many different levels. In fact every time I play, listen or study them I find new things.

However the works do demand intense concentration from the listener as well as the performer! This music doesn’t work as background music.

In addition to the sonatas, we are performing the three sets of variations that Beethoven wrote for piano and cello. The variation form is one that also held interest for Beethoven from early in his compositional career right through to the huge “33 Variations on a Theme of Diabelli” at the end. He was a master at writing variations and these three sets show that well. (Below is a manuscript sketch of Beethoven’s most popular Cello Sonata, Op. 69.)

Eli Kalman: It is fascinating to follow the composer’s mind at work along with the musically beautiful of many sorts. Instrumental musical treatment is usually of abstract nature but can turn also operatic at times. The singing and the interplay are worth listening to and the passion and the dedication with which the potential of the duo unfolds.

The collaboration is complex, exciting and never really predictable.  It is like a mountain of piano sound and one happy hiker — the cello climbing towards the highest peak.

You have played together a lot. Can you recall first getting together and tell us what makes your partnership – or any partnership — so successful?

Parry Karp: I first met Eli Kalman through a door! I walked by a studio and heard a pianist practicing Schumann’s Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor, a work rarely heard. I knocked on the door to find out who this excellent pianist was, and it was Eli.

It turned out he was in Madison auditioning for the graduate program in Collaborative Piano. He arrived in Madison the following fall in the graduate program and had an immediate impact on our string program.

He was very generously making it possibly for all of our advanced string students to perform the great piano-string duo repertoire of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Respighi, Bartok, Rachmaninoff, etc.

After a year Eli asked if we could do some playing together. I was only too happy to oblige. We have been performing together since that time, some 11 years. We have explored both much of the well-known repertoire as well as many works that we consider unjustly neglected works. It is always a great treat to have Eli as a duo partner.

Eli Kalman: Parry was the most inspiring musical figure of my last musical decade starting from his own recitals in which he was never letting go easily of any note and all the way to the his insatiable appetite for music. I never met somebody hanging on with so much passion to every measure — quite a model to follow!

How did we start? As a student, I told him once about my dream of including Rachmaninoff’s cello sonata and Ravel piano trio in my repertoire and he commented warmly: “You had a dream, let’s make this happen” – and this is how it started. Ten years later, we have shared so many wonderful and often challenging stage experiences in which we stay together serving music the best we can and continue to marvel about its powers.

Is there anything else you would like to say or add?

Parry Karp: We are very excited to be performing these seminal works at Farley’s House of Pianos, a beautiful intimate space, and a perfect environment for hearing these pieces. Eli and I rehearsed there yesterday and it was a wonderful treat.

There was a plethora of great pianos to chose from, “an embarrassment of riches” as it were. We picked an 1877 “Centennial” Steinway Concert Grand (below), lovingly and magnificently rebuilt by Farley’s. It seemed perfect for these two upcoming recitals.

Eli Kalman: One is fortunate if the repertoire, the partner and the concert series are special. In this case, Farley’s unique restoration of this piano is a significant addition to other aspects. Performing Beethoven’s complete cycle of piano and cello works is one of the most exciting moments of my musical life. We are looking forward to it very much!

Tomorrow is the day!

The Makeup Social founder, Lisa Estrella, will be dining with two other persons from the University of Wisconsin Asian American Student Union (AASU) with Lisa Lee, the Diversity Program Manager of Facebook, cofounder of Thick Dumpling Skin, and past publisher of Hyphen Magazine. Why is she so amazing? We’ll tell ya.

Lisa Lee cofounded Thick Dumpling Skin with actress Lynn Chen, an online community platform about body image, self-esteem, and eating disorders in the Asian American community. Using their personal experiences with eating disorders and issues with self-image, these two ladies launched a website that help others who are also struggling with body image and eating. Thick Dumpling Skin was named one of the top blogs out there in 2011 by Audrey Magazine.

Although this site is targeted toward the Asian American community, all are welcome to join in on the forum and give your opinions. Many need your warm support! If you need support as well, this is the place to be.
:)

Updates on our dinner and workshop with Lisa Lee will be up tomorrow! XOXO

Her blog.

ThickDumplingSkin.com

*This event is proudly presented and funded by UW-Madison AASU, an active student organization that serves to meet the needs of the growing and diverse Asian American community in Madison by organizing political, social, cultural and community activities, events and interventions.

(Photo courtesy of UW-AASU)

This weekend brings one of the major and memorable events of the current season: Performances in two parts of the complete original works for cello and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).

The performances will take place this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and this Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. (NOT 3:30 as mistakenly first announced) in the concert hall (below) at Farley’s House of Pianos, 6522 Seybold Road, on Madison’s far west side, near West Towne Mall.

The performers are longtime collaborators: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of cello and Pro Arte Quartet cellist Parry Karp and UW-Oshkosh professor of piano Eli Kalman, who received his doctoral degree from the UW-Madison School of Music.

Tickets are $25 for each individual concert or $40 for the package of two. For more information call (608) 271-2626, go to Farley’s website. Here is a link:

http://www.farleyspianos.com/pages/events_main.html

Here are the programs for the two concerts:

Friday at 7:30 p.m.: Sonata In C Major, Op. 102 No. 1 (1815); Sonata in F Major, Op. 5 No. 1 (1796); Seven Variations on a theme “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from Mozart‘s opera, The Magic Flute, WoO 46 (1801); Sonata In D Major, Op. 102 No. 2 (1815)

 Sunday at 4:30 p.m.: Twelve Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Oratorio “Judas Maccabeus,” WoO 45 (1796); Sonata In G Minor, Op. 5 No. 2 (1796); Twelve Variations on a theme “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, Op. 66 (1798); Sonata in A Major, Op. 69 (1807-8)

Both Parry Karp (below left) and pianist Eli Kalman (below right) agreed to answer a wide-ranging email Q&A. Their responses will run in two parts today and tomorrow. Today is Part 1:

Where would you place the Beethoven cello sonatas and his other works in the overall cello repertoire? What makes them challenging individually and as a whole?

Parry Karp: The Beethoven Cello Sonatas are amongst the most important works in the cello-piano duo repertoire. These are seminal works, in that up until the time that Beethoven wrote the first two Sonatas, Op. 5, there had really never been works written for this combination of instruments in which both instruments had important music to play and were equal partners.

Before that, the duos for cello and keyboard had the cello performing the important music and the keyboard part was basically accompanying. However, Beethoven changed that for good with his generous duo compositions for piano and cello. While there was a wonderful precedence for duo repertoire by Mozart for keyboard and violin (well over 30 compositions) Mozart managed only 11 measures of a Sonata for piano and cello and then stopped!

Because there wasn’t a history of duo sonatas for piano and cello, I think Beethoven (below) felt freer to experiment when he wrote the Cello Sonatas. He wrote them throughout his entire career and with the exception of the great A Major Sonata, Op. 69, they are revolutionary works.

The first two Sonatas of Op. 5 were written in 1796 when Beethoven was a brilliant young performing pianist and composer. These two Sonatas were written for the only “concert tour” Beethoven ever took. They are dedicated to King Frederick of Prussia who gave Beethoven a gold snuff box for his efforts.  The form of these early Sonatas is very unusual. Both of them are in two movements, and the first movements have very lengthy slow introductions.

As far as I know, no sonata allegro movement written up until these two Op. 5 Sonatas had a slow introduction that approaches the size and emotional scope of the ones found in these works. Also, the first movements of these two Sonatas are a bigger canvas than the first movement of any Haydn or Mozart Symphony, or previous work written by Beethoven up to this time.

The late Op. 102 Cello Sonatas are virtually the only works that he wrote in 1815 and are basically the first works completely in his  “late style.” If you know and love the five late Beethoven Piano Sonatas and haven’t heard these late Cello Sonatas, you are in for a treat getting to know them. The Op. 102 Cello Sonatas were actually written just before the Op. 101 Piano Sonata.

Most striking for me is how the relatively smaller Op. 102, No. 2, Cello Sonata seems to lead to the great and grand-scale “Hammerklavier” Piano Sonata, Op 106. Both works have incredibly profound and personal slow movements that lead into wild and thrilling last movement fugues; and there are even motivic similarities between the two works. It is as if Beethoven experimented with these new ideas initially with his new ensemble (the piano-cello duo) and then went to town with these ideas and expanded them in the Op. 106 Piano Sonata.

These works, as a whole, inspired composers from this time forward to the possibilities of writing outstanding works for this duo combination and the influence was immediate; both Mendelssohn and Hummel wrote Cello Sonatas that are strongly influenced by Beethoven’s Op. 69 Sonata. This influence has continued to the present day.

Eli Kalman: It is in some way confusing that although the cello and piano repertoire starts with Beethoven, the complete cycle of these works makes it sound more like the genre starts and ends at the same time. Playing all the works grants a sense of totality and the gratification of a complete journey.

The confusion is only enhanced by the unusual shapes and ideas of the early sonatas because of the formal eccentricity and the variety of what Beethoven deliberately planned to sound fresh and “unpredictable.

How does the writing for the two parts – cello and piano – evolve separately and together from the first works to the last? Do the cello works show the same kind of musical and spiritual development as, say, the piano sonatas and string quartets?

Parry Karp: The works do evolve in a similar way to the piano sonatas and string quartets, but I am not sure they get better. The early works are amazing and compelling on an ultimate scale.

Eli Kalman: If the fugue of the last sonata would not contradict my statement, I would be comfortable saying that the composer moves each sonata towards the idea of “less is more” in the way he treats the piano writing. The later works prefer lesser notes and more transparency serving a very different affect.

Moving away from great classical principles of Op. 69 (the first movement is performed by pianist Glenn Gould and cellist Leonard Rose in a popular YouTube video), which is the ultimate expression of duo-sonata “perfection,” must have felt like a compositional necessity. Beethoven defines an unmatched and new type of musical sophistication.

Tomorrow: Do the performers have favorite cello sonatas by Beethoven? What should audiences listen for? How did the performers first get together?

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 88.9 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

Conductor and director Robert Gehrenbeck’s annual April concerts with his Wisconsin Chamber Choir (below) have come to be important events on our musical scene, and his latest one, held at Luther Memorial Church on Saturday night, set new standards of enterprise.

The essential point of the program was to observe the impact of music by Johann Sebastian Bach on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s creativity, as illustrated in works composed in the final months of the latter’s foreshortened life.

After a prologue of Mozart’s late motet, “Ave verum corpus,” we were given Bach’s glorious motet, “Jesu, meine Freude” to represent music that Mozart discovered among the works by the Leipzig master.

The first half ended with a march and the trial-by-fire scene from Act II of The Magic Flute.  Then, after the intermission, came the pièce de résistance, Mozart’s great Requiem.

For the program’s first half, Gehrenbeck (below) limited himself to his own group, the Madison-based Wisconsin Chamber Choir, which is 48 members strong.

Scholars and musicians argue over how to treat this particular chorale-motet masterpiece — whether all of its 11 sections should be for full choir, or whether it should be done with a single singer per part, or whether some of its sections might be reserved for a consort of soloists.

While Gehrenbeck chose to give one section to a very tiny mini-chorus of eight singers, he opted otherwise for full five-part chorus throughout. Though the work comes to us as an a cappella piece, it is thought that instrument doublings were used by Bach (below).

Gehrenbeck avoided that approach, but he added a basso seguente, a doubling of the bass line by cello and organ, that was really not necessary musically, though it probably helped the singers on pitch.

Given the church’s acoustics, different parts of the very large sold-out audience received a varied choral sound, somewhat blended at the rear but still quite clear where I sat, up front, and given a beautiful glow in a careful but very satisfying performance

The March of the Priests and then the “Armed Men” scene, both from Mozart’s last opera, are full of spiritual and Masonic meaning. Here Gehrenbeck drew not only on some young solo singers, but also a small orchestra of 22 seasoned local players.  While some parallels with Bach might be traced in these excerpts, the real influence for such material, not properly recognized, was Gluck (below).  (Mozart never used trombones in his operas, save when he was drawing inspiration from Gluck’s techniques for solemn and ceremonial music.)

For the second half, devoted to the Requiem, Gehrenbeck added to the scene the 31 members of the Chamber Singers (below) of his home base, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He did, at least at one point, pare things down to his smaller local group, but otherwise he took the opportunity to create a very full and ample choral sound.

To be sure, his tempos were judiciously cautious, designed so as not to push the pulses or strain the total bulk, but there was fine discipline throughout.

The conductor produced some subtle nuances along the way.  I particularly appreciated his clever pattern of decrescendo-to-crescendo on the repetitions of the words “quam olim Abrahae” in the Offertory.

Instead of having a single vocal quartet, Gehrenbeck used constantly changing groups of singers drawn mainly from the choir ranks.  This gave rotating opportunities to lots of singers, some of them really good–I want to hear more of contralto Sarah Leuwerke–though at the price of constant parading of bodies on and off of the scene.

This performance had some very special qualities, however. An acknowledged and beloved masterpiece, Mozart’s Requiem nevertheless has textual problems that keep generation after generation of musicologists and editors in business. (Below is a manuscript of the Dies Irae from Mozart’s Requiem with annotations by Joseph Eybler).

Mozart died before he could complete this last score, as is well known. His widow, desperate to have it finished to win the needed fee, first tried to have one Mozart student, Joseph Eybler, complete the work, but he soon pulled out, and her second choice was a lesser student, Franz Xaver Süssmayer, who carried out the task. (Below is an etching of Sussmayer at Mozart’s death bed.)

Süssmayer’s version of the score long stood as its “standard” performing version, but in recent decades editors have been seeking ways to overcome its weaknesses and get closer to what Mozart himself would have done.

Thus, Franz Beyer has cleaned up the orchestration, and has added notes to the end of the “Hosanna” refrains to the Sanctus and Benedictus which bring Süssmayer’s abrupt conclusions more into line with Mozartean style.  Other editors have gone much further into rewriting what are understood to be just Süssmayer’s own contributions.

Robert Gehrenbeck (below, conducting) has now entered these lists on his own merits.  He has basically used the Beyer edition, but replaced the wind and timpani parts in the Dies irae with those that Eybler had originally proposed. Gehrenbeck has also interpolated a short passage in the Benedictus to allow for an appropriate change of key.

In all these respects, Gehrenbeck’s educated guesses are as good as anybody else’s. In this uniquely personal collation, he has created a fully plausible text for a fully convincing performance.

What a refreshing, thought-provoking, and inspiring concert!  Remember, Madisonians, how lucky we are.

video

Adas Israel Congregation located in NW DC hosted its 3^rd annual NATIONAL COLLEGIATE JEWISH ACCAPELLA COMPETITION motzaei Shabbat, exiting Sabbath concert. This year? A first. The concert held after the new work started at sundown Saturday night. Cantor Arianne Brown joined with the rabbi, a Steve Carrell dopplanger, leading the packed University of District of Columbia UDC auditorium in Havdalah, the ceremony welcoming the week as the Sabbath has ended- fire, spice and wine. Song, song and more song, the perfect warmup for the outstanding music evening to come.  A Capella, music without  an instrument included hymns, the earliest form of singing in the churches and synagogues. While Gregorian chant was early Christian acapella music, Renaissance and Reformation composers introduced complicated musical works sung without musical instrument accompaniment for their hymns and choirs.

Adas Israel, the Adas Israel Mens Club, volunteers, staff, YP@AI committee, donors and sponsors hosted six talented college Jewish Acapella groups from Indiana University, University of Wisconsin Madison, Binghamton University, Princeton University, University of Maryland competed for prizes and categories of Best Arrangement, Best Beat Boxer and Audience Favorite starting with Sabbath at Adas followed with a night of celebration of Jewish History month. MC Brian Brandler intrpduced, Mezumenet- University of Maryland’s only all girl acapella group on campus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaXaAT8345s , Jewop, Kaskeset http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Q5kohLSY0 , Hooshir http://iuhillel.org/hooshir/ , Rak Shalom (only peace) http://www.youtube.com/user/rakshalom, Koleinu (our voices) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScjBeryfKto  with a guest moment from Tizmoret, winner of 2012’s competition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGKr62nwGu0 . The audience was asked to text their winner choice to numbers printed in the program while the Judges stepped out to make their choices.

The students change year to year. The legacy of their rich traditions live on in their Jewish words. Mezumenet is a 4 year old group at University of Maryland- one of three. Madison Wisconsin’s Jewop traveled from 800 miles away singing Lemon Moon and a Yiddish classich. Kaskeset is a 17 year old group moving in sync and polished as an acapella team.  Hooshir is the Bloomington Indiana contribution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykmbvULkcE . Rak Shalom was the 2^nd University of Maryland participant present. Koleina traveled from New Jersey. Tizmoret, Queens College’s pride in Jewish Joy fundraised on Kickstarter to secure funding for their CD.

Brandler said the contemporary Acapella Society of Israel is in talks for hosting an International competition.

HOOSHIR walked away with the evening. One of their singers announced HOOSHIR has not won anything. They won the heart of the audience coming back on stage to thank their audience with a rousing rendition of JERUSALEM OF GOLD. Hooshir is University of Indiana’s only Jewish A cappella group. Hooshir has performed at the White House Hannukah party. The group was formed in 2006. Their CD entitled Knock Knock Hooshir was released last winter. The A Capella songs were Mishaela arranged by Gloria Bangiola, and Lecha Dodi arranged by Mike Boxer.

The breakout star of the evening was Rak Shalom, only peace, a co-ed Jewish acapella group at the University of Maryland singing Eishert Chayil and Shoshanim Atzuvot- Kiss from A Rose Mashup- Davids in a world of Goliaths, they keep Judaism alive in song.

Conductor Beverly Taylor (below, the choral director at the UW-Madison and assistant conductor of the Madison Symphony Orchestra) and the Madison Symphony Chorus invite SINGERS OF ALL LEVELS to sing Carl Orff’s famously dramatic and popular modern oratorio “Carmina Burana” (the well-known opening, based on Medieval songs and texts)  is at the bottom in a YouTube video that has more than 10 million hits) at a community open sing on this April 16.

This is an opportunity for singers to have fun performing one of the most iconic works written for chorus; audiences have heard parts of it in many commercials over the years. (Below is a photo of composer Carl Orff.)

Anyone who has a little choral singing experience can come to the Wisconsin Studio (below, in a photo by Del Brown) at Overture Center for the Arts at 201 State Street on Tuesday, April 16 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Music scores will be provided, and soloists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music will join in the celebration.

New voices are always welcome in the Madison Symphony Chorus, and the community open sings are an ideal time to see how it feels to sing with the chorus that performs with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in Overture Hall each season.

Those with questions can contact Dan Lyons at daniel.lyons1908@gmail.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD3VsesSBsw

Dr. Gary Goshgarian, a.k.a. Gary Braver

Dr. Goshgarian is the author of eight critically acclaimed suspense novels including Tunnel Vision (2011), Atlantis Fire (2012) and Flashback (2007).  His mysteries are known for their clever and effective use of science and  medical technology – it helps that he started out with a degree in physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute before going on the earn an MA (University of Connecticut) and then a PhD (University of Wisconsin, Madison) in English. How does he think this stuff up? Find out when he joins Tumblehome Learning’s own Penny Noyce as she moderates the “Writing a Science Mystery Adventure” panel at the Cambridge Science Festival’s First Annual Book Fair this coming Monday, April 15, 2013, 11am – 3pm at the First Parish Church, 3 Church Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Henry Mackaman, 21, was an economics and English double major, known for his love of music.

His family chose to remove him from life support today. They’re donating his organs.

The university says meningococcal disease is not highly contagious, adding that there is likely no health risk to others on campus.

It would be hard to name a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music who has served his students and his art better than oboist Marc Fink (below).

Fink has been on the faculty for 40 years. His students sit in principal chairs of orchestras and chamber music groups, in studios and classrooms, all around the country and the world. And talk about melding clarity with beautiful tone: Just listen to the recent YouTube video at the bottom of Fink rehearsing Mozart’s gorgeous Oboe Concerto with the UW Chamber Orchestra under James Smith.

Marc Fink, who is also a member of the Wingra Woodwind Quintet and the principal oboist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, has had an international career, and has the CDs of Russian music he discovered to show it.

All the more reason, then, to celebrate Marc Fink’s retirement. He has surely earned it.

On this coming Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Mills Hall, Fink will give his last faculty recital – admission is, as always, FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC — with friends and colleagues. We should all show up en masse and pack Mills Hall.

After the concert – called “A Few of My Favorite Things” — there is a special retirement dinner in Marc Fink’s honor. What a terrific combination to go out on, no?

Here is a link to an earlier post I did about Fink’s retirement and post-retirement plans, and his local “farewell” tour that included a chemistry lab (below) to show his support for linking the arts and sciences:

http://welltempered.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/classical-music-oboist-marc-fink-retires-after-40-years-of-teaching-at-the-university-of-wisconsin-madison-and-announces-his-local-farewell-tour-this-spring/

Here is the appealing program for Sunday’s concert: “Pan” (from Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op. 49) by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976); arias by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) including “Ich Habe Genug” (from Cantata 82) and “Sich üben im Lieben” (from Cantata  202) with baritone Paul Rowe; soprano Mimmi Fulmer; Suzanne Beia, violin; Alice Bartsch, violin; Katrin Talbot, viola; Parry Karp, violoncello; and Bruce Bengtson, organ.

Also included on the program are the Quartet in F, KV 370 (368b) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) with Suzanne Beia, violin; Katrin Talbot, viola; and Parry Karp, violoncello; “Variations on the theme ‘Là ci darem la mano’ by  Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)  from Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni”) with Andrea Gross Hixon, oboe; Kostas Tiliakos, English horn.

But the concert still isn’t over: Add in “Three Folksongs from the County of Csík” by Bela Bartok (1881-1945), arranged by Tibor Szeszler; Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1962) by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963); and the “Romance” from the “Snowstorm Suite” Gyorgy Sviridov (1915-1998), arranged for oboe and piano by Victor Gorodinsky, with Todd Welbourne, piano.

The Ear loves it all, but especially the Bach, the Mozart, the Bartok and the Poulenc.

Gee, do you think this is a man and a musician who loves to perform and to share his art?

The audience is invited to a reception honoring Marc Fink in his retirement immediately following the recital in the Mills Hall lobby.

And don’t forget to leave your tributes to Marc Fink in the COMMENTS section of this blog.

The Ear suspects there are a lot of stories and a lot of affection for this world-class musician as performer and teacher.

And The Ear wants to hear about all of it.

In “The Wasteland,” poet T.S. Eliot wrote that “April is the cruelest month.”

Well, for classical  music-lovers, the cruelty lies in the abundance of riches. It is hard to keep up with it all this month, or even this week.

I have already posted some big events. But there are other concerts to attend – almost all FREE — especially at the UW-Madison School of Music.

Here is a round-up of ones I haven’t yet covered:

FRIDAY

The weekly FREE Friday Noon Musicale Friday from noon to 1:15 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society Meeting House, 900 University Bay Drive, features Mozart’s Divertimento in E-flat, K. 563, with Eugene Purdue, violin (below); Rami Solomonow, viola; and Tom Rosenberg, cello.

SATURDAY

Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. in Grace Episcopal Church (below), “Grace Presents” will offer a FREE concert featuring the Madison-based wind quintet “Black Marigold.”

The program will feature excerpts from the program for the three Spring concert dates: Anton Reicha’s Quintet in E-flat, Op. 88, No. 2; Robert Muczynski’s Quintet for Winds; György Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles; and Bill Douglas’ “Suite Cantabile.”

For the Madison dates (April 13 at Grace Episcopal and Friday, April 19, the FREE Noon Musicale from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive) the group will be selecting from this program. For the Platteville concert at 7:30 p.m. on April 22 at the UW-Platteville, the program will be performed in its entirety. The Overture EngAGES programs are still To Be Determined but the dates are May 15 at Madison Senior Center at 1:30 p.m.; May 16 at Attic Angels West at 10 a.m.; and May 17 at Oakwood Village West, 7 p.m. 

Members of Black Marigold are Elizabeth Marshall, flute; Laura Medsiky, oboe; Bethany Schultz, clarinet; Kia Karlen, horn; and Cynthia Cameron Fix, bassoon.

Find more information at www.blackmarigold.com

On Saturday night at 8 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW Concert Choir (below), under Beverly Taylor and her assistant Brian Gurley, will present its Spring Concert. Admission is FREE. 

The concert will include a motet group of works by Philips, Mouton, Bruckner and Vulpius,  a group of Debussy works, Britten works, Poulenc works and a mixture of Americana including works by Barber, Copland, and folksong arrangements.

The top-tier choir of 45 members sings a variety of primarily a cappella choral literature from all eras. Singers in Concert Choir have significant vocal and choral experience, as well as high sight reading ability, and many are voice majors. In late May, the group will embark on a performance tour of France.

The Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble will close out its current season this Saturday night at 8 p.m. in the historic Gates of Heaven Synagogue (below) in James Madison Park, 300 East Gorham St., in downtown Madison.

The program features music of the 17th and 18th centuries, specifically Baroque vocal and instrumental chamber music.

Tickets are at the door only: $15 for the public, $10 for students.

The musicians in the Wisconsin Baroque Ensemble (below) are: Eric Miller – viola da gamba, cello; Chelsie Propst – soprano; Monica Steger – harpsichord; Anton TenWolde – cello, viola da gamba.

The program includes selections from “Pieces de Viole,  Book 2” by Main Marais; “Dulcis amor” by Isabella Leonarda; Sinata in E minor for cello and basso continuo by Giovanni Battista Bononcini; “Susanne” by Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre;

Madison: “Canzon prima a 2 bassi” by Giralamo Frescobaldi; and “L’Astratto” by Barbara Strozzi.

For more information, call (608) 238-5126 or visit

www.wisconsinbaroque.org

SUNDAY

This week’s “Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen” – broadcast live by Wisconsin Public Radio from 12:30 to 2 p.m. from Brittingham Gallery 3 of the Chazen Museum of Art — features the Wisconsin Brass Quintet (below), which is celebrating its 40th anniversary as artists in residence at the UW-Madison.

The program includes Gesualdo’s Suite of Madrigals, arranged by Mark Hetzler; John Harbison’s “Magnum Mysterium”; Macmillan’s “Adam’s Rib”; and Daniel Grabois’ “Grabois: Gravilord.”

Founded in 1972, the Wisconsin Brass Quintet is a faculty ensemble-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Music.

The quintet’s musical expertise has been acknowledged by Verne Reynolds, Jan Bach, Karel Husa, John Harbison, Daron Hagen and many other composers.

In addition to performing with the WBQ, the players have also been members of the American Brass Quintet, Empire Brass Quintet and Meridian Arts Ensemble.

Quintet members John Stevens and Daniel Grabois and former member Douglas Hill have also composed many works for the group.

With extensive performances throughout the Midwest and nationally, including appearances at New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall, the quintet’s educational programs and master classes have been presented in such prestigious settings as The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music.

Members of the Chazen Museum of Art or Wisconsin Public Radio can reserve seats for Sunday Afternoon Live performances. Seating is limited.

All reservations must be made Monday through Friday before the concert and claimed by 12:20 p.m. on the day of the performance. For reservations or membership information contact the Chazen Museum at (608) 263-2246.

A reception will follow the performance with coffee, tea, and treats donated by local businesses. Donors this semester include Fresh Madison Market, Steep & Brew and the University Club.

A free docent-led tour in the Chazen galleries begins every Sunday at 2 p.m.

On Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the Trio Antigo will present a FREE concert of music by Shostakovich and Mendelssohn.

This trio (below) is comprised of cellist Stefan Kartman of UW-Milwaukee; Felicia Moye, UW-Madison Professor of Violin; and pianist Jeannie Yu.

(Note: Kartman and Moye also will present a master class on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Humanities Building, Room 1341.)

The program will include Piano Trio, Op. 67 by Dmitri Shostakovich and Priano Trio in C minor, Op. 66 by Felix Mendelssohn. (A sample of the beautiful Mendelssohn trio performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Emanuel Ax can be heard in the YouTube video below.)

This concert is part of a reciprocal residency between UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee, funded in part by a Bolz grant for Faculty Research. The trio will be in residence at UW-M April 19-21, and will present a concert at the Peck School of the Arts on April 21.

The trio also received a Dane Arts grant to present outreach concerts in Dane County, which will be taking place on April 27 and 28. In fact, the April 28 concert will be a fundraiser to benefit local nonprofit Music Con Brio, Inc., which provides high-quality, low-cost music lessons to underprivileged children on Madison’s East Side.

Felicia Moye (below) is currently Professor of Violin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of Trio Antigo. She has also served as Professor of Violin at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada, the University of Oklahoma, the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida and the pre-college division of The Juilliard School as Ivan Galamian and Margaret Pardee’s assistant.

Stefan Kartman (below) has served on the faculties of Drake University, Illinois Wesleyan University and Rutgers University, and is currently Associate Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Here is a link to his site:

http://stefankartman.com/Stefan_Kartman_Website/Concert_Schedule.html

Pianist Jeannie Yu was awarded first prize in the Frinna Awerbuch Piano Competition in New York, the Flint Symphony International Concerto Competition, the Portland Symphony International Concerto Competition, and the Kingsville Piano Competition in Texas. She also earned the prestigious Gina Bachauer Memorial Scholarship Award, a full scholarship for the master’s degree program at The Juilliard School of Music where she also received the bachelor’s degree. Subsequently she was awarded an accompanist fellowship at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.

I came to St. Paul’s on 1 October 2008 and I anticipate formally leaving by 29 May 2013.  Spending the past 5 academic years with the students and the last 1651 (as of today) days with the Staff of St. Paul University Catholic Center has been a great challenge, a great joy and a great privilege   My gratitude to God for making me a priest knows no bounds.

My new assignment will be to study.  Sometime near the end of this summer I will move to the city of Rome where I will begin the pursuit of a doctoral degree in liturgical theology at one of the Roman ecclesiastical universities.  I will post more information as it becomes official.

Please offer prayers for me and especially for the priest who will take my place at St. Paul’s.