Thursday, February 7 at 7:30 pm at the Verona High School Performing Arts Center, 300 Richard Street, Verona. The Verona Area Concert Band.
Program includes:
A.B.A. Symphonic March (Cheetham)
Courtly Airs and Dances (Nelson)
Huapango (Moncayo trans. Osmon)
Linden Lea (Vaughan Williams)
Pageant (Persichetti)
Sleep (Whitacre)
Friday, February 8, 12:15 at the First Unitarian Society, 900 University Bay Drive, Madison
Noon Musicale présents thé Madison Bach Musicians. Music of Bach, Biber, Vivaldi and Scarlatti
Friday, February 8, 7:30 pm (repeated Saturday 2/9, 8 pm and Sunday 2/10, 2:30 pm) at Overture Center-Overture Hall 201 State St. , Madison.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra and Alban Gerhardt
Works by Prokofiev, Ravel & Beethoven.
John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) welcome German cellist Alban Gerhardt to the MSO stage to play Prokofiev’s expansive Sinfonia Concertante at the February 8, 9 and 10 concerts. Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole will open the concerts with four scenes of Spanish life and Beethoven’s lyrical Symphony No. 4 will lift winter spirits as a conclusion.
Full concert details, music samples and links to buy tickets can be found on the MSO website at madisonsymphony.org/gerhardt.
One of Prokofiev’s last completed works, the Sinfonia Concertante is also called a Symphony-Concerto, with an expanded role for the orchestra and many of the characteristics that define the work of one of the great 20th century composers. Soloist Gerhardt recently said of the concerto, “written for and partly by one of my great heroes, Rostropovich, this is for me the most impressive cello concerto because it combines pyrotechnics with gorgeous melodies, wit with drama, and poetry with sports. And…the last five minutes are just the best, with the most spectacular ending of any cello piece.”
This will be Gerhardt’s third performance with the MSO, of whom BBC Music Magazine recently wrote, “this is cello playing of exquisite sophistication and bold imagination…Gerhardt has a honeyed, liquid tone all his own.”
MSO program annotator Michael Allsen best describes the closing work: “The Symphony No. 4 is one of Beethoven’s shorter and more ‘Classical’ symphonies, particularly in comparison to the massive works that surround it…the third (‘Eroica’) and fifth symphonies.” In this gem audiences will hear all of the composer’s lyrical brilliance and his sly good humor.
The concerts take place in Overture Hall at 201 State Street on Friday, February 8 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, February 9 at 8:00 PM and Sunday February 10, at 2:30 PM. Concert tickets are $16.50 to $78.50, available at www.madisonsymphony.org and through the Overture Center Box Office at 201 State Street, 608.258.4141
Saturday February 9, 8 pm at Mills Hall, 455 N. Park, Madison.
The Knights with Wu Man. Music of Strtavinsky, Debussy, Milhaud and Lou Harrison.
Collaborative classical orchestra The Knights, and Wu Man, virtuoso of the Chinese folk instrument the pipa, will perform together on Saturday, February 9th, at Mills Hall as part of the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Concert Series. Call the Box Office at 608-265-ARTS (2787) for more information. Tickets are: $25 General Public, $21 Union Members, UW-Madison Faculty & Staff, and non UW-Madison Students, $10 UW-Madison Students, $14 youths age 6-18 (up to two youth tickets with purchase of an adult ticket). Buy online, call the Box Office at 608-265-ARTS (2787), or purchase in person at the Campus Arts Ticketing box office in Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave. Please note that there is a Men’s Hockey and a Men’s Basketball game on Saturday, February 9th, so audience members should plan extra time to find parking.
The program includes work from Igor Stravinsky, Concerto in E Flat (Dumbarton Oaks), Lou Harrison, Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra, Claude Debussy, Prelude a l’apres-midi d’une faune, Darius Milhaud, La boeuf sur la toite, Op. 58, and Wu Man, Blue and Green (arranged for Pipa and Orchestra).
In their own words, The Knights are “an orchestra of friends” whose collaboration began at late night chamber music parties in New York. Many of the orchestra members, graduates of the world’s elite music schools, belong to the nation’s best symphony orchestras, but performing with The Knights, they say, is an opportunity to have fun, and for each member to contribute something to the music. They play a wide range of music, from classical to jazz to Klezmer to pop and indie rock.
Wu Man is a virtuoso of the pipa, a Chinese lute. The stringed instrument has a nearly two-thousand year history, making it an important aspect of Chinese musical culture. Wu Man is cited as the artist most responsible for bringing the pipa to the western world, and she is also the first Chinese musician to perform at the White House. Besides performing with The Knights, Wu Man has also collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Sunday February 10, 12:30 om at the hazen Museum of Art-Brittingham Gallery III 750 University Ave. , Madison.
Sunday Afternoon Live presents the Madison Bach Musicians.
Sunday, February 10, 8 pm at Mills Concert Hall, 455 N. Park, Madison.
The Percussion ensemble Clocks in Motion presents a concert titled “Loose Ends”
Clocks in Motion invites violinist Evan Kleve to the stage in an exciting performance of Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra. Harrison’s music is often influenced by the sounds of Javanese Gamelan and his percussion instrumentation frequently includes “found objects” such as car parts and flower pots. This concerto promises both of the above. You might want to watch out for a particularly unconventional use of the string bass. This program will also include Herbert Brun’s “At Loose Ends:, Charles Wuorinen’s Percussion Quartet, and Edison Denisov’s Three Pieces for Percussion.
Tuesday February 12, 7 pm at the Skaalen Retirement Community Chapel, Stoughton.
The MSO’s Rhapsodie String Quartet. Music Music of Mozart and Brahms, featuring MSO’s principal clarinetist Nancy Mackenzie.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra’s (MSO) Rhapsodie String Quartet will play music by Mozart and Brahms in a free concert on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Skaalen Retirement Community Chapel in Stoughton. Free-will donations will be welcome at the door.
The quartet brings together some of the brightest stars of the MSO: Co-concertmaster Suzanne Beia, Principal Cellist Karl Lavine, Principal Violist Christopher Dozoryst and violinist Laura Burns
The concert will include Mozart’s String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421, and Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 155, featuring MSO clarinetist Nancy Mackenzie.
The Rhapsodie String Quartet is the resident quartet of the MSO’s HeartStrings Community Engagement Program which reaches beyond traditional learning environments to bring live, interactive performances by some of the MSO’s best players into healthcare and residential facilities.
Major funding for the 2012-2013 HeartStrings program is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts; The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation & the League of American Orchestras; The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times; and UW Health. Additional funds come from the Alliant Energy Foundation; Madison Arts Commission; Wahlin Foundation, Inc. on behalf of Stoughton Trailers; JoAnn Six Plesko; Wisconsin Solar Design; and An Anonymous Friend. This project is also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the League of American Orchestras for their generous support of this program.