Lisa Marie Mazzucco
Emanuel Ax, soloist with MSO.
The Madison Symphony celebrated a landmark in 2018: John DeMain’s 25th season as conductor. In November, the orchestra performed a tribute to his mentor, Leonard Bernstein. Christopher Taylor, soloist for that concert, also contributed Mozart’s great Concerto No. 22 to the year’s most exciting event, MSO’s performance of Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass in May. Another fine soloist was pianist Emanuel Ax, who performed the Brahms Concerto No. 2 in September.
The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra under Andrew Sewell continued to combine small-scale works with mainstream items. Most striking was the all-Beethoven program in May with pianist John O’Conor (who also appeared in the Farley’s Salon Piano Series).
An even more ambitious David challenging the Goliath masterworks was the Middleton Community Orchestra, performing a bold combination of Schumann’s Piano Concerto (Thomas Kasdorf, soloist) with the Symphony No. 1 of Brahms.
James Gill
Pietro Mascagni’s "Cavalleria Rusticana."
Mikko Utevsky’s Madison Area Youth Chamber Orchestra showed further bravery by presenting Mozart’s Piano Concerto No, 9, with soloist Trevor Stephenson, and Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
In lyric theater, the Madison Opera proved imaginative in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, and met the highest of standards with Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio. Madison Opera also presented the double bill of Cavalleria Rusticana with I Pagliacci in November.
The University Opera achieved remarkable results with the contrasting productions of Puccini’s La Bohéme in February and Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea in November.
The 2018 Handel Aria Competition on June 8 was the best yet.
The annual “Schubertiade,” presented by UW-Madison faculty and music students in January was another delight.
Don Sylvester
Con Vivo!
In chamber music, the Pro Arte Quartet continued its outstanding campus concerts, but also joined Israeli pianist Alon Goldstein for some wonderful Mozart and Brahms at Farley’s House of Pianos as part of the Salon series. Mezzo-soprano Melinda Paulsen joined Ancora Quartet in a program featuring music of Samuel Barber and Richard Wagner in September, following the ensemble’s first venture to Europe.
The Mosaic Chamber Players were outstanding in a combination of piano trios by Beethoven (the “Archduke”) and Brahms. Con Vivo! closed its season with a graceful Clarinet Quintet by Brahms in June.
Of the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society’s six festival concerts, a standout was one presenting soprano Emily Birsan in Barber songs along with the Schumann Piano Quintet. And, of the Willy Street Chamber Players’ four summer programs, most striking was the last, which included works by Boccherini, Prokofiev and Johann Strauss.
In early music, the Madison Bach Musicians scored a remarkable success with a sensitively sung and staged version of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Marika Fischer Hoyt continued to celebrate the viola in a new instrumental ensemble, Sonata à Quattro. This ensemble presented stimulating programs in July and November. And Fischer also performed her “Just Bach” afternoon program at Luther Memorial Church in September.
Choral music abounded. The five-voice Mendota Consort gave a superb program of Johann Schein’s Israelsbrülein. On a larger scale, UW’s Choral Union sang an impressive concert of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in April, and the Madison Summer Choir provided an uplifting version of Anton Bruckner’s rare Mass No. 1 in D minor in July.
