WCM’s ‘Music and Times of Jane Austen’

Among classical composers, there are many whoachieved widespread fame only after their deaths. For the most part toiling inrelative obscurity, their works came to be known to a few close friends, perhapsa patron or fellow composer or two during their lifetimes. But among writers,there were those who purposely avoided the limelight, for whatever reason,adopting a pseudonym, publishing anonymously. Among these was English novelistJane Austen (1775-1817), whose four great novels certainly earned her a living,but brought no great fame until well after her death, this apparently of herown choosing. Indeed, her name and life story didn’t become familiar to thepublic at large as the writer of Sense and Sensibility (1811), Prideand Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815)until the publication of her nephew’s A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869.Today, her name is well known and her fans legion. Jane Austen has the fame shenever sought on her own.

Acknowledging the strong ties between classicalmusic and literature, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music presents aspecial concert, “The Music and Times of Jane Austen,” welcoming CynthiaKartman from the Jane Austen Society of North America to connect thenovelist’s life and works to the music. Both the concert’s setting andsubstance will attempt to recreate a chamber music and song recital that couldeasily have taken place during Austen’s adulthoodeven, perhaps, in her verypresence.

The Prometheus Trio performs the Adagio fromBeethoven’s Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 11, and Haydn’s Trio in A Major. VocalistMarlee Sabo joins them for Beethoven’s lied The Sweetest Lad Was Jamie.Likewise, Ms. Sabo, fellow soprano Jenny Gettel and baritone J. Mark Baker singseveral additional airs (with accompaniment by pianist Fumi Nishikiori),including Haydn’s O Tuneful Voice and She Never Told Her Love, atrio of Italian songs by Mozart, John Braham’s The Death of Nelson, andothers. Guitarist Raymond Mueller strums his way through five etudes and theWaltz in E Major, Op. 32, No. 2 by Fernando Sor. Adding yet another tastyelement to this ambitious undertaking will be a post-concert “tea” that servesas the capstone of this journey back to Austen’s time.

At Helen Bader Hall of the Wisconsin Conservatory ofMusic on Oct. 4.