Daily Archives: April 10, 2015

MADELEINE FESTIVAL STARTS 27TH SEASON SUNDAY

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The Madeleine Festival gets underway this weekend with a performance by Brady Allred and his Salt Lake Choral Artists.

Also appearing at the festival will be a trumpet/organ duo, a folk music ensemble, the cathedral choir and orchestra as well as a tribute to Roland Hayes.

This year’s Madeleine Award recipient is Mauricio Mixco, professor emeritus at the University of Utah. Mixco has worked tirelessly to preserve highly endangered Native American languages.

Below is a schedule of events. Concerts are held in the Cathedral of the Madeleine, and unless otherwise noted, begin at 8 p.m. and are free of charge.

  • April 12 — Salt Lake Choral Artists, Brady Allred, conductor; Alexander Gretchaninoff, Passion Week. The work is an a cappella setting of 13 Russian Orthodox liturgical texts for Holy Week (Passion Week).
  • April 19 — Robert Sims and Christopher Brooks present “Roland Hayes: The Legacy of an American Tenor.” Sims and Brooks discuss their new book on Roland Hayes, who was the first African-American man to reach international fame as a concert artist. After the discussion Sims will perform a selection of spirituals arranged by Hayes.
  • April 26 — Ghislain Leroy and Romain Leleu. Music for trumpet and organ. The program will span works for trumpet and organ from the renaissance to today.
  • May 3 — Danza Azteca de Salt Lake City Grupo Quetzalcoatl and Mariachi de Mi Tierra. Aztec Dance is one of the most basic expressions of artistic and cultural spirit of the native people of Mexico. For the Aztecs this tradition was a part of life, the dance represents the eternal search of man for cosmic harmony and integration of body and spirit and is considered a form of prayer.
  • May 10 — The Choir and Orchestra of the Cathedral of the Madeleine; Charles Gounod, Messe solennelle de Sainte-Cécile. This setting of the Mass was selected by Bishop Lawrence Scanlan, the Cathedral of the Madeleine’s builder and first bishop, for the Cathedral Rite of Dedication in August 1909. The concert commemorates the 100th anniversary of Scanlan’s death.
  • May 27 — The Madeleine Award Dinner in Honor of Mauricio Mixco. Please call the cathedral office at 801-328-6941 for information and reservations.

NEW CD SHOWS ONCE AGAIN THAT WU HAN IS ONE OF TODAY’S MOST REMARKABLE PIANISTS

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WU HAN, PIANO; Wu Han Live: From Music@Menlo (ArtistLed) **** 

Pianist Wu Han’s newest CD, Wu Han Live, puts her remarkable artistry and versatility on full display, and the album shows she is equally at home with baroque as she is with romantic music. Time and again Wu Han has proved she is one of today’s finest interpreters, and this new release reaffirms her position.

The four works on the album make a wonderful collection and lets her shine as a soloist as well as a collaborator.

In the opening work, J.S. Bach’s French Suite No. 5, BWV 816, Wu Han gives a fabulously articulated account that is notable for its clean phrasings and remarkably nuanced use of dynamics and touch. Her finely honed expressions bring depth to her playing. It’s not an easy task playing baroque keyboard music on a modern grand piano, but in her hands the suite sounds as if Bach had conceived it for a 9-foot concert grand.

The other early work on this disc is Haydn’s Keyboard Concertino in C major, written in 1760, making it one of his earliest compositions. For this brief work, Wu Han is joined by some of her Music@Menlo colleagues: violinists Erin Keefe and Jorja Fleezanis and cellist David Finckel. There is a wonderfully crafted balance between Wu Han and the ensemble and their playing is tight and on the mark.

The rest of the CD is devoted to Mendelssohn.

Wu Han has chosen a short set of four Songs Without Words from op. 62 and 67 for this disc, which she plays with beautifully fluid lyricism that captures the exuberant romanticism of the music. These delightful vignettes are gorgeously expressed and bring out the vocal characteristics of each.

The other Mendelssohn is his Double Concerto in D minor for Violin, Piano and Strings, written when the composer was just 14 years old. It’s a marvelous blend of baroque and romantic stylistic elements; a finely crafted piece, these divergent influences are well integrated into the overall musical fabric.

Wu Han and solo violinist Benjamin Beilman, together with their musical partners — violinists Kristin Lee and Sunmi Chang, violist Richard O’Neill, cellist Dmitri Atapine and bassist Scott Pingel — bring out the romantic passion and the somewhat dark mood of the work with their solidly crafted and wonderfully executed reading. The music is powerfully expressed and yet underscores the youthful vigor and sweet lyricism that is Mendelssohn’s trademark.

Wu Han Live is a captivating album and deserves a special place in any music lover’s collection.