a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston
Robert Levin, editor; Bettina A. Norton, executive editor; Lee Eiseman, publisher
News & Features
February 1, 2012
Silence, Random Sound and Other Cagisms
by BMINT STAFF
When the centennial of John Cage’s birth arrives next September 5th, it will no doubt occur to many to celebrate with a moment of silence, or more properly, 4’33” thereof, the title of his most infamous “composition.” If you have no convenient instrument at hand on which to “perform” the piece, rest assured that you [...]
January 28, 2012
Tanglewood’s Triumphant 75th Year
by Zoe Kemmerling
Three-quarters of a century and going strong: “Tanglewood 75” will make a triumphant return to the Berkshires this summer with the customary line-up of some of the classical and jazz worlds’ brightest stars. Fireworks and gala receptions abound, but music-lovers seeking quieter thrills will be sure to find something to please as well from among [...]
January 26, 2012
More Music for Monadnock Region
by Bettina A. Norton
Two recent disappointments for area musicians have, in the past few days, spawned two developments that stand only to benefit classical-music concertgoers to the Monadnock region. Jonathan Bagg and Laura Gilbert, who had been let go as artistic directors of Monadnock Music, have started a new venture, Electric Earth, that already has six concerts planned [...]
January 21, 2012
Heloise and Abelard Debuts as “Church Opera”
by BMINT STAFF
The 12th-century saga of Heloise and Abelard comes to us from many sources, though most importantly from the actual correspondence of the protagonists. The tale has been set in many literary, musical and theatrical forms, including a long-running Broadway play in the early 1970’s and at least twice before as an opera, but next week, [...]
January 17, 2012
BCMS 2012 Winter Festival and Forum
by Marcus Thompson
The Boston Chamber Music Society and the MIT Music and Theater Arts faculty’s joint presentation on Saturday afternoon, January 21 at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium will address the topic Exiled to Hollywood: Outcast Artists in Southern California. The presentation allows us to explore the contributions of six composers (plus one) — Arnold Schoenberg, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Hanns [...]
January 16, 2012
Distractions from Gardner’s Visceral Mission?
by John Tittmann
The new addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in Genoa, Italy, was completed in this month and opened with much fanfare. A bit about the 1902 Palace is in order, to start. We know that Isabella Stewart Gardner was literate, well traveled, and deeply interested in art. [...]
January 11, 2012
Calderwood Hall at ISGM: An Acoustician’s Report
by David Griesinger
This report is my preview of the eagerly awaited new music hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The new Calderwood Hall is replacing the Tapestry Gallery as the site for concerts. My observations are based partly on a guided tour a few weeks ago during which we heard no music, and partly on my [...]
At first blush: A Far Cry at Calderwood Hall
by Sarah Darling
Some weeks ago, A Far Cry, the Gardner Museum’s resident chamber orchestra, got to do an early sound-check on the soon-to-be-opened Calderwood Hall that inhabits the Museum’s new Renzo Piano designed wing. Violist Sarah Darling’s musings follow. If there had been a documentary film about that morning, it would almost certainly have begun with shots [...]
December 31, 2011
Metcalfe’s Monteverdi Vespers to Arrive in Cambridge
by BMINT STAFF
The long and lofty barrel vault of St. Paul’s Church in Cambridge will resonate with music of Monteverdi and his contemporaries on January 7, when Green Mountain Project presents as a free concert, Scott Metcalfe’s reconstruction of a vespers service from 1640. The New York Times called GMP’s performance in that city of the 1610 [...]
December 23, 2011
Opera Lovers Stunned by Opera Boston’s Closing
by Bettina A. Norton
Opera Boston Board Chair Winifred P. Gray and Board President Gregory E. Bulger announced today, two days before Christmas and halfway through Hanukkah, that the company, facing an insurmountable budget deficit, is closing its doors on Jan. 1, 2012. The news has stunned the Boston opera-loving community, as it was widely believed that Opera Boston [...]
Reminiscences on the Musical Year Past
by Lee Eiseman
As the old year wanes, many of us are subject to bouts of introspection. The several BMInt writers who are not immune to that tendency have each submitted lists of three of their favorite CDs and concerts of the last season. We thank them for their reflections. Some have chosen to nominate concerts they have [...]
December 22, 2011
Another Week, Another BSO Cancellation
by BMINT STAFF
According to the BSO press office, conductor Andris Nelsons is cancelling his forthcoming appearances on January 5, 6, and 7, in order to be with his wife in preparation for the imminent arrival of their first-born child. BSO Assistant Conductor Marcelo Lehninger has agreed to substitute with the proviso that Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 replace [...]
December 17, 2011
BSO Announces Replacements for Conductor Chailly
by BMINT STAFF
The players of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will be performing without a conductor for the first half of the subscription series concerts running between January 19 and January 24. This is a first, we believe. Due to the cancellation of the indisposed Riccardo Chailly and necessary program changes, sections of the orchestra will be showcasing [...]
December 2, 2011
Music in Boston from Three Immigrants
by Teresa F. Mazzulli
In an earlier article here Teresa F. Mazzulli related the story of the founding in late 1800 of a “Conservatorio” of music in Boston by François Delochaire Mallet of France, Gottlieb Graupner of Germany, and Filippo Trajetta of Italy. Within a year of the establishment of the Conservatorio, however, Trajetta left Boston. His fascinating life with musical [...]
November 27, 2011
Mahler Misnomer Not to be Missed
by BMINT STAFF
“Mahler in Chinatown” is an ambiguous title for a promising free concert in the penultimate week of New England Conservatory’s ambitious “Mahler Unleashed” series. It takes place at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, November 29. The program’s organizer, Anthony Coleman, derived the title from his reading of Mahler’s experiences venturing into New York’s Chinatown with the [...]
November 23, 2011
Music Abroad: London and Germany
by Bettina A. Norton
While BMInt’s Esteemed Leader with two assistants held down the fort for a bit over two weeks in October, your executive editor and her spouse were in London and Germany (Leipzig, Dresden, then Berlin), attending to the Nortons’ four main food groups: music, architecture, history, and politics. Boston connections could be the excuse, if one [...]
November 17, 2011
Schoenberg’s 1908 Breakout From Tonality
by BMINT STAFF
The year 1908 was important for Arnold Schoenberg. Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten (The Book of the Hanging Gardens) and The String Quartet No. 2 were both composed in that year. Both also were set to poetry of Stefan George. The Ludovico Ensemble will be presenting a program entirely devoted to these two works of [...]
November 15, 2011
Storm at Monadnock Music
by Bettina A. Norton
An email sent recently to Lee Eiseman, Boston-area classical music presenter for close to 40 years who is also publisher of The Boston Musical Intelligencer, for a recommendation for an artistic director for Monadnock Music as part of the restructuring “that better serves our community”(read posting here) was met with surprise by BMInt staff. As [...]
November 11, 2011
Explicating, Playing Electroacoustic
by BMINT STAFF
The Goethe-Institut Boston in collaboration with the Cultural Services of the French Consulate, Harvard University, and Northeastern University will be presenting a very interesting three-day festival of electroacoustic music. Sound in Space Festival, bringing together prominent representatives of top-notch institutions in Germany, France, and the USA, will create performance opportunities for composers enrolled in North [...]
November 10, 2011
“Tasting Menu” of Operas Sets Off New Venture
by Joel Schwindt
Dylan Sauerwald and Zoe Weiss, co-directors of the newly-founded Helios Early Opera group, are planning to introduce the ensemble to the public with a concert of opera scenes from works of Handel, Rameau, Strozzi, Purcell and Mozart on Saturday, November 19th at 7:30 at Friends House (5 Longfellow Park) in Cambridge. The singers include: Erika [...]
November 3, 2011
To HD Or Not To HD
by Lee Eiseman
Last year when I attended a Met HD Broadcast at the Regal Fenway Theaters, I was disappointed that the image was projected using the OSA (On Screen Advertisements) projector rather than the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) projector. The result was a dim fuzzy image with blown highlights. That experience has prompted me to investigate alternative [...]
October 29, 2011
Discovering Classical Music, New Music
by BMINT STAFF
Boston’s bright young Discovery Ensemble, a chamber orchestra of forty players, will be presenting, at its second concert of its fourth season on November 6 at Sanders Theatre, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite; Julian Anderson’s new Khorovod; Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with Boston Symphony Principal Clarinet William R. Hudgins; and Haydn’s Symphony No. 90. The programming bears [...]
October 28, 2011
Memorials Scheduled for James Yannatos
by Bettina A. Norton
Composer and long-time director of Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, “Dr. Y,” as James Yannatos was known fondly by generations of Harvard and Radcliffe members of the orchestra, died at his home in Cambridge on October 19. For over 40 years, he led the students with a courtly, gentle demeanor and superb musicianship. The most recent local performance [...]
October 27, 2011
Tony Schemmer, the Toney Composer
by Lee Eiseman
A certain gentleman composer of long standing in Boston is inviting the public to the third of his annual chamber concerts, Salon d’un Refusé, dedicated exclusively to his own very accessible œuvre. Tony Schemmer, whose life in the arts is unusual, though not without precedent, would like to be your host at the Oval Room [...]
October 24, 2011
Organist Christian Lane Wins Major Competition
by Tamar Hestrin Grader
Christian Lane, assistant organist and choirmaster at Harvard University (see a laudatory BMInt review here) and coordinator of last July’s Pipe Organ Encounters (covered by BMInt here and here) has won first prize at the 2011 Canadian International Organ Competition in Montreal. A triennial competition, and the only international organ competition in the Americas this [...]