One of the most successful aspects of Boston Early Music Festival’s production of L’Incoronatione di Poppea is the palpability of the characters. In addition to being top-notch singers, the cast is constantly teeming with persona, humor, and pathos. Concertmaster Robert Mealy leads a small chamber ensemble that produced a beautifully undiluted and genuinely early-Baroque sound. Additional performances at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at Boston Center for the Arts are on June 9, 10 and 12 (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights} at 8 pm. Co-directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs delivered a far-from-ordinary, excellent production, although a substitution for the opera originally proposed. At the end of the night, BEMF’s presentation of Poppea seemed like anything but a compromise. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

The Consulate General of Italy in Boston, Liborio Stellino, was on hand to observe the anniversary of the foundation of the Italian republic for Concerto per la Repubblica at Jordan Hall on June 3. Il Canto degli Italiani and The Star-Spangled Banner began Concerto per la Repubblica which featured revered works of Italian composers performed by the celebrated New England String Ensemble along with young soloists from the Boston area, all winners of NESE’s 2009 Youth String Concerto Competition. Thrilling it really was to behold four young and accomplished fiddlers aged 14-17 performing in a movement from Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor. Each of these third-place winners had a distinctive voice turning Vivaldi into a most fascinating musical dialogue. No real red flags flying during this celebration. There were intonation flare-ups; solo-orchestra interplay once in a while went missing. Cortese, New England String Ensemble, youth soloists and music of Italian composers all made for a totally enjoyable evening. If only young students from the Boston area could have been present to see and hear-be inspired by-such sparkling role models. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

Turandot is a cipher of an opera. Chorus pro Musica concluded its 60th season with a semi-staged production at Jordan Hall on Sunday afternoon, May 31. The opera’s exoticisms certainly invite a grand staging, but it seemed better off without it. Othalie Graham’s Turnadot projected a mystery befitting the character. Special mention should go to David Kravitz (Ping) for his acting during Liù’s death scene. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

The Boston Chamber Music Society provided plenty of satisfaction in their concert at Sanders Theater last Sunday, May 17. Haydn’s Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano in G major, Hob. XV:15 was expertly played, but the stylistic approach was more 19th-century sturm und drang than 18th-century classical elegance and lightness, and this little masterpiece almost broke under the weight. Their tempo for Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D major, op. 70 was ideal, and the entire work came across as refreshing and exciting. The highlight of the concert was the Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor, op. 5, magnificently performed by Ida Levin, Wilhelmina Smith, Mihae Lee and violist Marcus Thompson (the new director of the BCMS). The finale first Vienna performance in 1862 “was obviously designed to bring the house down, and it did.” The same thing happened at Sanders Theater in 2009. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

Cappella Clausura, a women’s chamber chorus founded and directed by Amelia LeClair, has worked tirelessly in the last five years to bring to the public’s attention music written steadily by women for 12 centuries. Of the six composers represented in last Sunday’s concert, I had not heard of four, much less heard a note of their music. And I call myself a music historian. Most importantly, the pieces of the four “unknowns” have nothing of the amateurish about them, despite the fact that all four composers would – officially, at least – have to be styled “amateurs.” But if the pieces on the program are any indication, they were, in one way or another, intimately connected to the developments of their own day. Moreover, the material is masterfully handled. The music of mid-century Italy seems to make no distinction between sacred and profane love; and the quality of voice of the members of the ensemble who sang the respective solos seemed exactly right for the protagonist in question. The Cappella Clausura and its programming radiate good judgment and imagination. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

The Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston wrapped up their 2008-09 season series with a program of spirits voices ecstatic at the Goethe-Institut Boston on Sunday, May 17. The dreamy and highly personal syntax of Robert Schumann’s inimitable Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, became, instead, a very respectable but nearly lackluster reading. Kelli O’Conner’s ultra pure sound on clarinet was everything one could imagine Arvo Pärt wanting for his Spiegel im Spiegel or “Mirror in the Mirror.” The Ensemble presented the world premiere of Zikhr: Songs of Longing for soprano, flute, string trio, harp, tabla and percussion by Shirish Korde. A melting pot of musical cultures, Zikhr was sometimes overripe and oftentimes congested. Takemitsu’s fine Rain Spell for flute, clarinet, piano, vibraphone and harp, cast its spell through the artful interplay of the musicians. The Chameleons wound up their program with a smashing performance of the Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 45 by Gabriel Fauré. It was, in my view, one of the best performances of anything I have heard around Boston during the entire 2008-09 concert season. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

A large and enthusiastic audience was on hand at Sanders Theater on May 16th for the 35th Anniversary concert of the Back Bay Chorale. Conductor Scott Allen Jarrett was joined by soloists Arianna Zuckerman and David Kravitz in the world premiere performance of Julian Wachner’s Come My Dark Eyed One and Brahms’ German Requiem. [click title for full review]    [continued]

A rousing event of this year’s concert season was the re-enactment at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall on May 10 of a major musical and social event in 19th-century Boston – the November 3, 1863 inauguration of the great organ built in Germany by Walcker Orgelbau for the Boston Music Hall on lower Washington Street (now the Orpheum Theater). The organ was rededicated at Methuen Memorial Music Hall (built as Serlo Hall in 1909). Its centennial celebration will take place in September.
see http://www.mmmh.org [click title for full review]

Musicians from Marlboro’s concert at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s “Sunday Concert Series” on May 10 consisted of compositions from three centuries, beginning with Nielsen, followed by Haydn, and after a brief intermission, Schubert. Clarinetist Pascal Archer exhibited a great range of musical skill in Nielsen’s Serenata in vano. Also impressive was the synchrony between the bassoon, played by Jennifer Collins Monroe, and the clarinet. With its peculiar grouping of instruments, this piece certainly had a unique sound – not one that I am persuaded I was drawn to. Violinists Sarah Kapustin and Lily Francis, along with violist Julianne Lee and cellist Peter Wiley, gave a solid presentation of the Haydn Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 76, No. The hero of this performance was Wiley, who steadily provided strong support to the ensemble, yet when given the opportunity, played beautifully moving melodies. The highlight of this concert was certainly the performance of Schubert’s Octet in F Major for winds and strings. The ensemble enhanced the inherent drama in the sixth and final movement through their repetitive full crescendos. They also did a magnificent job in hitting unresolved chords with great pitch accuracy, afterwards leaving a breath in the music as the audience begs for these sounds to resolve. Rewarded with a standing ovation, this performance of Schubert’s Octet was presented with great musical stamina and skill on behalf of this ensemble of accomplished musicians. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

I’m guessing that a fair number of you aren’t familiar with the Longwood Symphony, an admirable local group, which is a pity. Longwood Symphony is dedicated to community service and raising awareness for under-funded medically-related programs. Each concert is a benefit for one of these deserving causes. This particular performance on May 9 benefited the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. Conductor Jonathan McPhee oversees the group with a fluid and attentive style; extremely capable and musical. Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony, written at the close of World War II, got things off to an optimistic start. George Antheil’s McKonkey’s Ferry, a musical portrayal of Washington’s surprise crossing of the Delaware, plays very much like a dramatic film score. All in all, an extremely uplifting evening featuring optimistic music passionately performed by multitalented caregivers. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

Juventas new music ensemble focused on two new chamber operas for its latest concert on May 10 at the Cambridge Family YMCA. Matthew Vest’s The Hourglass, adapting Danilo Kiš’s book of the same name, appeared to be the portrayal of chaos, but it ended up being literal instead of depicted. Erin Huelskamp’s The Year of the Serpent associated different characters with different genres: pentatonic chinoiserie for Li Chi, steamy jazz for the serpent. The choices were a bit familiar, but fit into the opera’s campy vibe. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

The Cantata Singers concluded their Britten season last Friday, May 8th at 7:30 in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall with two works by Britten, the premiere of Andy Vores’s Natural Selection, a single choral movement by Bach, and a collaborative “cantata” by fourth-graders from the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester. Britten’s The Company of Heaven employs two speakers, soprano and tenor soloists, chorus, and an orchestra of strings, organ, and timpani. Speakers Marya Lowry and James Petosa delivered narrative and poetic texts with equal clarity and conviction, while rhythmicize choral recitation to orchestral accompaniment of the final battle between Michael and Satan from the Book of Revelation demonstrated Britten’s mastery of this dramatic technique. Students from Cantata Singer’s “Classroom Cantatas” program were joined by the Boston Children’s Chorus in a performance of their songs with the Cantata Singers orchestra. Andy Vores skillfully incorporated the children’s tunes into his own choral settings,for his newly commissioned cantata Natural Selection a “celebration of the natural world and of Charles Darwin.” Under Hoose’s direction, Cantata Singers delivered a spirited performance of Bach’s Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft, although the complex fugal texture might have been better served by a smaller choral ensemble. [click title for full review]    [continued]

One of the most prevailing criticisms of the opera world today is how common it has become for opera companies to take gratuitous, and often anachronistic creative license in the production of pre-20th-century operatic works. Yet after all of the reworking of the setting, translation of the text, and modernization of the characters, Opera Boston’s production of Bedrich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride was magnificent. The orchestra, lead by Gil Rose, not only played beautifully, but captured the essence of the Czech folk roots of Smetana’s score. Jennifer Aylmer and Patrick Miller were fantastic, and opera veteran James Maddalena truly made this comic opera an actual comedy. Act III was nothing short of spectacle, with fantastic choreography and direction by Daniel Pelzig. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

Conductor Martin Pearlman and concertmaster Daniel Stepner brought Boston Baroque’s 35th anniversary season to a brilliant close in Jordan Hall with performances May 1st and 2nd of works by Mozart and the two Haydns. Pearlman’s skillful direction in Michael Haydn’s Requiem Mass was rewarded by crisp articulation and flexible dynamics from the 21-voice choir and the orchestra of top-notch players on period strings. Soprano Hyunah Yu, mezzo Ann McMahon Quintero, tenor Kerem Kurk and bass-baritone Kevin Deas sang with focused tone and stylistic sensitivity. The second half of the program included two concert arias by Mozart and concluded with Joseph Haydn’s Symphony no. 102 in Bb major, in which Pearlman made the most of displaced accents and rhythmic displacements that constantly jolted the listener’s expectations. In the hands of skillful players and conductors, period instruments’ focused tuning, precise attack, and agility can peal away layers of post-romantic performing traditions to reveal the wit and subtlety of music that we too often take for granted. Count Boston Baroque as yet another jewel of Boston’s musical scene. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

Colin Davis, now in his eighties but conducting with the zeal of a tyro, led three remarkable concerts last week of Mozart and Berlioz, two polar-opposite composers for whom he exhibits a very special affinity. Sir Colin had programmed Mozart’s, Piano Concerto #25 in C, K. 503 with soloist Imogen Cooper, and Berlioz massive Te Deum. These were the final concerts of the orchestra’s 128th season. I was fortunate to hear the three concerts in succession, and it was instructive to follow the arc of interpretation and expression which was carried through the performances. By Saturday, venerable Symphony Hall virtually levitated. [click title for full review]    [continued]

The New England Conservatory celebrated the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth on May 4 at Jordan Hall, as the final performance of the 24th season of their “First Mondays” concert series with Mendelssohn’s Nocturno for Winds (sometimes performed under the title Overture for Winds), excerpts from Mendelssohn’s four-hand piano arrangement of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and his Quintet No. 2 in Bb Major, Op. 87. The Nocturno for Winds (1824) was performed by a promising student ensemble of 11 musicians led by conductor Hugh Wolff. Originally arranged as evening entertainment music for amateur pianists, Mendelssohn’s piano four-hand version of his famed incidental music A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is a faithful reduction of the orchestral piece, but leaves much to be desired nonetheless. After the intermission, established musicians and teachers Miriam Fried, violin; Annie Rabbat, violin; Kim Kashkashian, viola; Paul Biss, viola; and Paul Katz, cello, gave a strong performance of Mendelssohn’s four-movement Quintet No. 2 in Bb Major, Op. 87 (1845). [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

The youthful Moët players did not fail to impress- the “Champagne of trios’ ” obvious passion spilled over. With more time spent together, Moët could very well be on its way. [click title for the full review]    [continued]

Bass drums, marimbas, water gongs, sheet metal, and various other miscellanies filled the Boston Conservatory Theatre stage on April 26, a veritable truckload of equipment that could only suggest a percussion ensemble performance. The Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, directed by Keith Aleo and Samuel Z. Solomon, performed a gratifying program of five 20th- and 21st-century percussion pieces. The performances were highly varied in styles, diverse in sounds, and wickedly difficult. [click title for full review]    [continued]

Peter Child introduced the concert with “we love you John – and what better way to express it than for us all to hear a concert with your music”. After the concert Harbison made a few brief comments of his own, to the effect that he loves his teaching at MIT, and speeds up with eagerness whenever he is heading to work with his students. “This is MIT”, he said, “We invent things, try new things out, see what works.” In spite of his busy schedule of teaching, conducting, and composing, the concert revealed that what he writes works very well, and keeps getting better. [Click Title for Full Review]    [continued]

Guest conductor Susan Mälkki evinced a clear, authoritative beat on the podium last week for three concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, deputizing for Yuri Temirkanov who has cancelled all of his U.S. appearances. I attended the April 25 concert. The BSO responded with an uncommon clarity of line and transparency of texture, ideally suited to the program the maestra had brought with her: Stravinsky’s Suite from Pulcinella (1920) in its 1947 revision, the same composer’s Symphony in C (1940), Büsser’s 1907 orchestration of Debussy’s Petite Suite (1889, originally scored for piano four-hands), and Ravel’s 1919 orchestration of four movements of his beguiling Le Tombeau de Couperin, written originally for piano solo two years earlier. The Ravel opened the program, and signaled an evening of virtuosic oboe playing from the orchestra’s first desk player John Ferrillo. Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite followed, and had the affect of a bracing cold shower, as music from this period of Stravinsky’s neo-classical creativity can often engender. Careful dynamic shading, pungent accents of dissonance, abrupt tempo changes were all handled expertly. Ms. Mälkki and the BSO gave a performance Claude Debussy’s Petite Suite, of this pleasant hybrid that was probably as good as one could hope for. The program closed with a probing performance of Stravinsky’s Symphony in C. The BSO’s playing here was spot-on – strong, incisive, and calm when required. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

Handel’s Saul – Sunday April 26, 2009 An Appreciation The Harvard University Choir was founded by John Ferris in 1958. During the 10 years I was a member, it was a constant source of inspiration, learning, and companionship. Rehearsals and performances (which were weekly and sometimes daily) were always impassioned. John had a deep understanding of both the music and the people he inspired. At his memorial service last fall, 120 grateful alumni of the choir, most of whom have managed to keep both music and singing a large part of their lives, gathered to sing their hearts out under the new Harvard Organist and Choir Master, Edward Elwyn Jones. [Click Title for Full Review]    [continued]

Modernity and Mozart might appear paradoxical, but in the Boston Lyric Opera Company’s presentation of Don Giovanni, under Artistic Director Esther Nelson, they have never been in such agreement. Set in 1950s Italy, this production, which runs until May 5 at The Shubert Theatre, does not hide behind grandiose and elaborate sets and costumes but employs simplicity effectively, leading the audience more intently to focus on each character and to relate with the opera’s story. The outstanding orchestra, led by Anthony Barrese, provided solid musical support throughout the opera. The The scenery and costume changes were not missed, especially with the innovative lighting provided by Robert Wierzel. The consistently excellent cast was led by Christopher Schaldenbrand in the title role, with other standouts being Matthew Burns as Leporello and Kimwana Doner as Donna Elvira. [click title for full review.]    [continued]

Pianist Katherine Chi appeared at the Gardner Museum on Sunday April 26 with a different kind of line up. A refreshing one at that, it included the stoic to the grandiose-Boulez to Busoni. Sonata No. 1, by a 19-year-old Pierre Boulez, is not something you often bump into at concerts these days in Boston. Chi did a fairly good job of it. Pointillism, not gesture, dominated Chi’s approach, a static state emerging instead of one more forward-moving. Ferruccio Busoni’s Fantasie on Two Motives from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, probably just as rarely heard these days as Boulez, allowed Katherine Chi to really show her stuff: high-speed arpeggios, even higher-speed cascades of handfuls of sounds over the extent of the keyboard. Three short pieces commemorating the death of Haydn that were composed 100 years after his death in 1809, Ravel’s Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn, Reynaldo Hahn’s Thème Varié sur le nom Haydn, and Debussy’s Hommage à Haydn could well have been a first for most Boston concertgoers. Chi was most at home with Hahn, moderating the volume just right. Both Ravel and Debussy were given gorgeous surfaces, except for some notes punched out. Of the three, it is the imitative nod to Haydn that flows so naturally into the irresistible sonorous universe of Ravel that truly leaves one in wonderment. In Sonata No. 27 in E minor Op. 90 by Beethoven, Chi’s is a strong sound but not a full one. Between the very loud and very soft there were few gradations. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

The most interesting thing about the New England Philharmonic’s last concert of the season, at BU’s Tsai Performance Center on April 25, was the group itself. The group’s attitude is casual, but not to the detriment of any professionalism. The overall effect is of greater community and intimacy than one often gets from orchestral music. The selections were anything but stale, but it was hard to tell why they shared the bill. Henri Dutilleux’s L’arbe des songes, is certifiably French. This was a violin concerto (Danielle Maddon played with the appropriate voluptuousness and ease), tracing the titular tree from its roots to a full flowering. The most involved piece was a commission from Peter Child, Louisa’s War, with chorus and narrator (Joyce Kulhawik). The piece ends with Louisa describing a victory parade after the war: “Saw the great procession, and though colored men were in it, one was walking arm in arm with a white gentleman and I exulted thereat.” The note says this is an “ambivalent” moment with a backdrop of “controlled chaos” related to “Louisa’s diseased delirium.” Unfortunately, the music at this point sounded too much like an Ivesian populist victory for this ambivalence to come through. Against the text, it came off as an unearned climax. After intermission came Dvorák’s 8th Symphony (an oddball in a program of oddballs). Pittman drew out the less tried-and-true aspects of the music, playful phrasings and rhythmic quirks, giving freshness to the composer’s work. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]

Boston Classical Orchestra presented a delightful selection of early Romantic works in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall on Saturday, April 18, 2009. Violinist Eva León, a native of Spain’s Canary Islands, made her Boston debut as soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Her interpretation of this virtuoso showpiece was free of elaborate ornamentation and emphasized playful contrasts of articulation. The simple recitativo accompaniment in the center of the first movement recalled Mendelssohn’s interest in and revival of Bach’s orchestral works. This simple halo of sound, recalling Bach’s recitatives for Jesus in his Passions, showcased Ms. León’s strengths as a recitalist After playing a supporting role in the first half of the concert, the woodwind choir emerged in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, with a vibrant, warm sound that focused the timbre and power of the ensemble. The French horns and rotary-valve trumpets blended masterfully through this work, evoking a Viennese serenade in the second movement and an Austrian Ländler in the third. [Click title for full review.]    [continued]