Let the Games Begin

If you’ve ever feared that attending a chamber music concert would be dull, you obviously have never taken in a Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society performance!

Indeed, for eighteen years, the group has offered “chamber music with a bang” in its three-week summer festivals that prove year after year that chamber music can be fun and playful, in addition to beautiful and interesting.

Says Jeffrey Sykes, co-artistic director with Stephanie Jutt, “As audience members, we often have a ‘museum mentality’ about classical music. Like many museums, concert programs are often filled with a line-up of masterpieces, and the audience is expected to approach these masterworks with awestruck silence. The museum mentality is a perfect formula for self-seriousness.”

That seriousness must accompany top-notch performances is an idea the BDDS has successfully turned on its head. So it’s fitting that this year’s festival is titled Haydn Seek in honor of the two-hundredth anniversary of the passing of Franz Joseph Haydn, “the greatest musical jokester of all time,” according to the BDDS.

All six programs in the festival—which runs June 12–28—feature a work by Haydn. And to further celebrate his sense of play, the BDDS has named each program after a popular game. Here’s a look at what’s in store:

Week 1, June 12–14, brings about the programs Leapfrog and The Dating Game, and features Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio on violin, Parry Karp on cello, Jutt on flute, Sykes on piano, and Timothy Jones and baritone and narrator.

Leapfrog showcases works by French composers of different generations—thereby “leaping” from one to another—including Haydn, François Couperin, Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ravel. (June 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Stoughton Opera House in Stoughton and June 14 at 2:30 p.m. at the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.)

The Dating Game offers music exploring the games people play in relationships. It opens with a Haydn trio based on the song “Trust not too much,” and continues with variations on Franz Schubert’s song cycle “Die Schöne Müllerin.” This performance also will showcase photographs by Madison photographer Katrin Talbot. (June 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Overture Center and June 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.)

Week 2, June 19–21, features Catch Me if You Can and Three Card Monte with Carmit Zori on violin and Randall Hodgkinson on piano, plus Karp, Jutt and Sykes.

Catch Me if You Can highlights works with high-speed musical chases, such as Haydn’s “Gypsy Rondo” piano trio and the “Dumky” trio by Antonín Dvořák. (June 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the River Arts Center in Prairie du Sac and June 21 at 2:30 p.m. at the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.)

Three Card Monte is named after the card game played by con artists and showcases works for three instruments that are full of tricks and turns of phrase. They include a Haydn trio for flue, cello and piano, Bohuslav Martinu’s jazzy trio for flute, violin and piano, and Felix Mendelssohn’s piano trio in D minor. (June 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Overture Center and June 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.)

Week 3, June 26–28, highlights London Bridge and Pin the Tail on the Donkey, programs featuring Ellen dePasquale and Suzanne Beia on violin, Ara Gregorian on viola, Anthony Ross on cello, and Jutt and Sykes.

London Bridge focuses on works written in Britain, including Haydn’s “London” Symphony, Rebecca Clarke’s sonata for viola and piano, and Edward Elgar’s piano quintet. (June 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Stoughton Opera House in Stoughton and June 28 at 2:30 p.m. at the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.)

Pin the Tail on the Donkey features works with notable codas—as “coda” is the Italian word for “tail.” It includes “Fountains of Fin,” written this year by Iranian composer Behzad Ranjbaran, as well as Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony and Johannes Brahms’ popular piano quartet in G minor with a finale that has “the most exciting coda in all of chamber music,” according to the BDDS. (June 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Overture Center and June 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green.)

Executive director Samantha Crownover says audiences should expect “a thrilling evening experiencing the music in a very intimate way” in any of the six programs.

“We hope to give them an emotional journey filled with ups and downs but at the end of it all, leaving a different person than the way they came in,” she says. “Our audience gains a fuller understanding of the composer who wrote the music, the musicians and possibly even themselves. I know, a tall order, but it happens!”

Concerts are held at the Playhouse at Overture Center, the Hillside Theater at Taliesin in Spring Green, the Stoughton Opera House in Stoughton and the River Arts Center in Prairie du Sac. Tickets are $32, $10 students, $84 for three concerts, $108 for four concerts, $130 for five concerts, $150 for six concerts. 258-4141. For more information, visit bachdancinganddynamite.org.

Photos courtesy of the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society.