February 1, 2019
News and Events from the Mead Witter School of Music
University of Wisconsin-Madison
455 North Park Street, Madison Wisconsin 53706
http://www.music.wisc.edu/
UW-Madison alumni form 3/4 of new strings education quartet in Door County
Executive director also an alumna
The first time UW-Madison’s Hunt Quartet played in Door County for Midsummer’s Music, a Door County summer chamber music festival, it was in response to an emergency.
The renowned Pro Arte Quartet had long been booked to play, but the quartet had to cancel. Midsummer’s artistic director James Berkenstock scrambled to fill the void.
David Perry, violinist with the Pro Arte, had a solution: Hire the Hunt, the graduate string quartet at UW-Madison. “David said that this particular configuration of the Hunt Quartet was superb,” says Berkenstock. “He said they already had a program and would do a great job.”
Read the full story here.
Classical pianist Christopher Taylor continues his Liszt/Beethoven cycle
Franz Liszt was a superstar pianist. He was a virtuoso who invented the orchestral tone poem, taught 400 students for free, conducted and composed. Musicologist Alan Walker wrote three volumes about Liszt, shedding light on all of Liszt’s work but especially his genius for transcription. Writes Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times, “The best of these works are much more than virtuosic stunts. Liszt’s piano transcriptions of the nine Beethoven symphonies are works of genius. Vladimir Horowitz, in a 1988 interview, told me that he deeply regretted never having played Liszt’s arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies in public.”
Few pianists have tackled all nine Beethoven transcriptions. Christopher Taylor is one. On Saturday, February 9, at 8:00 PM in Mills Hall, Taylor will perform his sixth transcription – Beethoven’s 8th Symphony. Saturday’s concert will also include six preludes by Nikolai Kapustin, a whose works span both classical and jazz, and the Fantasy in C Major, D. 760 (“Der Wanderer”) of Franz Schubert.
In 2020, Christopher Taylor will celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with performances of the Franz Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies, in Madison and beyond. In Boston, Taylor will perform the entire set in five concerts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Tickets for Taylor’s Feb. 9 concert ($17 adults, $7 children) may be purchased online or in person.
Purchase options here:
https://www.music.wisc.edu/about-us/tickets/
Or, purchase online directly at this link.
Pro Arte Quartet this Saturday
February 2 @ 8:00 pm, Mills Concert Hall, 455 N. Park St.
Program: String Quartet D Major, Op. 50 No. 6 “The Frog”(1796) – Franz Joseph Haydn String Quartet No. 9 in Eb Major, Op. 117 (1964) – Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartet in A Major, Op. 41 No. 3 (1842) – Robert Schumann
“Schubertiade” charms audience once again
Isthmus’s John Barker wrote, “A carefully prepared program and a multi-page handout with the full German song texts, with English translations, allowed the audience to become fully immersed in the music.
“And what absolutely wonderful music!”
Check our Facebook page for images from the January 27 concert.
Upcoming Concerts
Jazz Composers Group and Afro-Cuban Jazz Ensemble February 1 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Tandem Press, 1743 Commercial Avenue
Wingra Wind Quintet in Richland Center February 3 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 26625 Crestview Dr Richland Center, WI Members of the Wingra Wind Quintet in concert, presented by the Richland Concert Association at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Richland Center.
UW Jazz Orchestra & the Billy Childs Quartet February 9 @ 8:00 pm Memorial Union-Shannon Hall, 800 Langdon Street WI Jazz pianist Billy Childs, the 2018 Grammy Award winner for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, will join the UW Jazz Orchestra on stage for an exciting opening act prior to his appearance with the Billy Childs Quartet.
UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra, with composer Augusta Read Thomas February 14 @ 7:30 pm Mills Concert Hall. With Chad Hutchinson, conductor, and graduate conductors Michael Dolan and Ji Hyun Yim. Program: Jean Sibelius- Valse Triste; Augusta Read Thomas- Of Paradise and Light; Augusta Read Thomas- Prayer and Celebration; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart- Symphony No. 39 in Eb. Major, K. 543. Augusta Read Thomas will be in residence at UW-Madison for this concert. Join us for a master class with Ms. Thomas, Feb. 14, 2:00 to 5:00 PM, Music Hall.
The School of Music offers a smorgasbord of performances each year; we invite you to visit our website and click on our events calendar. We also publish a season brochure that is mailed every August. To receive the brochure, please send your postal address to the School of Music.
You received this newsletter because you either signed up at join-somnews@lists.wisc.edu or directly at this blog. You can also follow us on our very active Facebook page and hear our music on our SoundCloud page.
