All That Glitters Isn’t Gold

2017 Van Cliburn silver medalist makes local debut at Salon Piano Series   Among the things I’m thankful for this year is that I have my own blog site—and that even when I’m shamefully late in reporting on an event, it can still be read and shared. In other words, I’m apologizing to Kenny Broberg,…

“4 on the Floor” Kicks It into High Gear

Farley’s House of Pianos takes the Salon Piano Series about as far as it can go Several years ago four of the world’s great pianists came up with what might sound like little more than a stunt that could well be more fun for the players than for the audience: a quartet of grand pianos…

“Simple Gifts” Provides an Instant Getaway

New CD from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is an exquisite experience Even if we manage to “get away from it all” once or twice a year on vacation, most of us would say that we wish we could catch our breath a little more often. Here’s a prescription that should work for…

Northern Winds That Leave a Warm Feeling

Stockholm Chamber Brass opens Brass Fest III with a model performance One of the most exciting and steadily growing events of recent years at UW-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music is the annual Brass Fest. Now in its third season, the two days spent on an October weekend continues to present a wonderful panoply of…

John DeMain “Launches” His 23rd Season with Madison Symphony

With an assist from NASA, the MSO’s first program is literally “out of this world” From a personal standpoint, watching an HD NASA video of our solar system while hearing the Madison Symphony play Gustav Holst’s The Planets brought to mind the first line of Psalm 19 (so gloriously set by Haydn in The Creation),…

Token Creek Restored—and at Flood Stage, Musically Speaking

27th season of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival overflows (artistically) in opening concert One of Madison’s sweetest farewells to summer always occurs at the Festival Barn, the former residence of Rose Mary Harbison’s family dating back to the 1930s. During that decade the ecological gem known as Token Creek was ruined by short-sighted commercial…

Willy Street Chamber Players Are As Advertised

Closing concert of their second season is two parts brilliant, all ambitious For a group that has so short a season, the Willy Street Chamber Players have certainly managed to create quite a stir in Madison.  Last Friday night I finally had the chance to hear what all the fuss was about. In just five…

Madison Savoyards Ups the Ante

Production of The Gondoliers features a payday for all roles   Many faithful attendees over the last half-century-plus of summers of the Madison Savoyards, Ltd. productions of the beloved canon of Gilbert and Sullivan might not have felt that the company needed to grow in any particular direction. But chances are that, while undoubtedly all…

Delayed But Not Drowned, “Opera in the Park” Celebrates Its 15th Event

Minus Maestro DeMain (and the rain), the winning formula delivers another “Grand Night for (and of) Singing”   It was perhaps inevitable that Saturday’s storms would mean that Sunday night’s 15th annual Madison Opera in the Park event would fail to draw the usual throng of 15,000 or so. But all that mattered to the…

Madison Early Music Festival Continues to Weave a Spell

The Baltimore Consort brings magic to music from Shakespeare I feel a little like the native New Yorker who finally visited the Statue of Liberty—Tuesday night was my long-delayed opportunity to fall under the spell of a local tradition that has for some time enjoyed national recognition. The Madison Early Music Festival’s 17th season is…