Boston Camerata artistic director Anne Azéma in an earlier Camerata performance. Dan Bursler photograph
By Keith Powers
Boston Camerata, Les Miracles de Notre Dame, Cambridge, Nov. 6
The Boston Camerata is the most thoroughly international of all area performers. Anne Azéma’s 68-year-active ensemble thrives as an artistic influence in multiple homelands, creating programs that address all humanity for audiences in America, Europe and beyond.
Look no further than this: after the disastrous fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in 2019, the French Consulate in Boston turned immediately to Azéma. The fundraising program she created then, Les Miracles de Notre-Dame, will be staged again on Nov. 6 at Harvard Memorial Church.
“Miracle tales, minstrel turns and student songs,” Azéma calls the program. She not only curates music that may have been sung while the cathedral was built, but also music that was sung all about the Isle de la Cité in the 12th century.
At the same time, the Sorbonne was founded across the Seine. “The focus is the cathedral, and what happened when it was built in the 12th century,” Azéma says. “But it’s also connected with the other side of the Seine, and the rise of the university. So it’s not only the church that has something to say about mankind.
“I want to show what these singers are feeling,” Azéma says about her program. “The music is my purpose, or where there is poetry and music.”
The Camerata has become an unwitting case-study for performing organizations. The pandemic restricted live audiences, but ensembles that could create compelling videos, and then stage shorter programs for more modest audiences—multiple audiences—managed the isolation more effectively.
“Early music was always in a league of its own, with shorter programs,” she says. “We’ve been at the forefront of performing live,” noting that the Camerata returned to the stage in Nov. 2020.
“Audiences have been smaller, and a little cautious. In America it’s hard to gauge. When we toured in Germany and Holland in Sept. 2021 the public had very much returned. We also have virtual audiences, but at the same time there is a fatigue of virtual performances.
“But each of our projects has a potentially different audience,” she says. “Videos, and shorter segments, happily provide for one audience.”
This brief video of Azéma introducing the program, with a scaffolded Notre-Dame de Paris in the background, aide à ressentir le voisinage des Miracles de Notre-Dame.
The Boston Camerata sings Les Miracles de Notre-Dame at Harvard Memorial Church on Nov. 6.
Radius, Lin/Overton, Parker: Chamber Music Events, Nov. 3–6
Radius Ensemble has a sharp-looking program on Nov. 3 at Longy: Shadle world premiere, Weir and Ewazen wind music, Debussy piano trio. Peter Sykes gives a midday Bach recital Nov. 3 at Busch Hall in Cambridge. Violinist Joshua Peckins plays Bach, Hosokawa, Montgomery and Paganini Nov. 3 at the East Branch of the Somerville library, Nov. 5 in Falmouth, and Nov. 14 in East Providence.
Not chamber music but sort-of: a one-off BSO program Nov. 3 (to be taken on the upcoming Japan tour) including the music of Caroline Shaw. A preconcert event at NEC features Shaw and some of her own musical choices—chamber music connected to the performance of her Punctum later that evening.
Violinist Lucia Lin and harpist Charles Overton give recitals Nov. 4 (Cambridge) and Nov. 6 (Boston), continuing Lin’s “In Tandem” commissions. Jennifer Curtis (violin) and Niloufar Shiri (composer/kamancheh) play Songs from Aktamar—exploring Shiri’s Iranian heritage, and women’s rights—at Longy Nov. 4 (free).The Chamber Orchestra of Boston plays Simon, Wijeratne and Schubert at Boston’s First Church on the 4th. There’s a free BSO community concert at the Fenway Center on the 4th, quartets by Coleridge-Taylor and Brahms. Argento Chamber Ensemble plays music of Haas Nov. 4 at BU Center for New Music.
Parker Quartet plays Korngold sextet with Marcus Thompson and Raman Ramakrishnan on the Blodgett series at Paine Hall Nov. 6. Parker plays two nights previous as well, as a quartet (Beethoven, Shaw, Bartok), on Nov. 4 in Newport. Boston Early Music Festival hosts Vox Luminus (Monteverdi) at Jordan Hall on Nov. 4.
Guitarists Zaira Meneses and Tomomi Kohno perform solo and duo on 11.5 (6:00 p.m. start) at Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. Mezzo Anne Sophie von Otter shares the Jordan Hall stage with Kristian Bezuidenhout Nov. 5, part of Celebrity Series. Arneis Quartet wins the weekend: on the 5th they play Haydn “Joke” and Brahms quintet (pianist Victor Cayres) at Boston’s First Church; on Nov. 6 the quartet collaborates with Coro Allegro, music of Clearfield, Perera and Gjeilo, at Old South Church.
Lydian String Quartet premieres Eric Chasalow’s second quartet at Brandeis’s Slosberg Music Center Nov. 5. Cherry Street Players perform with soprano Indra Thomas Nov. 5 at the Allen Center in West Newton. Elena Ruehr’s ninth string quartet, “Keweenaw,” pairs with Hadyn and Ravel, performed by QuartetES in its debut Nov. 5 at Killian Hall.
French violinist Blake Pouliot plays Saariaho, Schumann, Rózsa and a Derek Skye world premiere at the Gardner the afternoon of the 6th. Boston Artists Ensemble plays Mendelssohn and Schumann trios on Nov. 6 in Brookline. Musicians from Marlboro represent at Longy Nov. 6 (Mendelssohn, Orth, Respighi). Seven Times Salt sings Hallowmas music Nov. 6 at Harvard-Epworth Church. First Monday on the 7th in Jordan Hall: Saariaho, Poulenc, Messiaen.
Michael Lewin, founder and director of the Boston Conservatory Piano Masters series. Liz Linder photograph
Cecile Licad, at Boston Conservatory’s Piano Masters series, Seully Hall, Nov. 15
“These are pianists that you can’t hear anywhere in Boston,” says artistic director Michael Lewin of the long-running Boston Conservatory Piano Masters series. “Our audience knows it. We’ve been back in person since last September (2021), and our hall has been filled for every concert.”
The monthly Tuesday evening recitals at Seully Hall have welcomed many notable performers: Kirill Gerstein. Till Fellner. Ursula Oppens. Awadagin Pratt. Anne-Marie McDermott. Lewin himself.
“Our piano students are almost expected to come,” Lewin says, “but we get piano students from other schools as well. For students who play, it’s always invaluable. The best of them show up with the score, listening closely. It reinforces what they’re already doing.
“There are actually limited choices for giving piano recitals in Boston,” he points out. “The city is international in some ways, but in other ways it’s closed off.”
Pianist Cecile Licad adds to the list of visiting artists on Nov. 15, performing Beethoven, Ravel, Beach and Chopin.
Mistral, Taylor, Arts in the Village: Chamber Music Events, Nov. 10–15
The Boston Baroque X-tet—all principals of the orchestra—perform Mozart, Kummer (Rossini and Bellini arias arranged for strings), Beethoven and Winter on Nov. 10 at the Lyman Estate in Waltham. Mistral leader Julie Scolnik teams with guitarist Jason Vieaux on Nov. 12 (Andover) and 13th (Brookline). Celebrity Series presents Solo(s) Together—works of Bitran, Desenne, Coleman, Roumain, Joachim—Nov. 12 at Harvard-Epworth Church. Music returns to Rehoboth’s Arts in the Village Nov. 12 with Ekstasis Duo. Christopher Taylor concludes his four-concert survey of the Liszt piano arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies (8 and 9) Nov. 13 on the Gardner Museum afternoon series. Singers for the 9th Symphony—a spectacular transcription—include Davóne Tines. Pianist Terrence Wilson performs Nov. 13 on the Ashmont Hill Chamber Music series. Pianist Kyoka Minami plays Brahms and Mussorgsky (Pictures) on Nov. 14 (afternoon) at Nordic Hall in West Newton.
Matthew DiBattista (l) and Omar Nadjmi in Enigma Chamber Opera’s Prodigal Son, Oct. 21. Ashlee Rose Scott photograph
NOTED: Enigma Chamber Opera performed Benjamin Britten’s Prodigal Son Oct. 21. These productions—Kirsten Z. Cairns’s third Britten chamber opera—have established a baseline for smart, accessible stagings. All male voices: Matthew DiBattista, Omar Najmi, Aaron Engebreth and David McFerrin led a compelling cast. Horn/harp/strings/organ/perc sounded terrific (Edward Elwyn Jones conducted), in this thoughtful, direct and expressive performance.
Announced at the Boston Symphony Chamber Players Oct. 23 performance: principal horn James Sommerville retires this fall—this was his final performance with the chamber players. Anyone remember his premiere of the Elliott Carter horn concerto (2006)?