Mistral Music (artistic director Julie Scolnik, front left) takes a happy stroll. Seungoh Ryu photograph
Julie Scolnik’s Mistral Music has made music, and friends, for 26 years. Scolnik’s ensemble opens a new season in its dual homes this weekend, Sept 24th in Andover, and the following evening in Brookline.
Scolnik has been busy with a new memoir, Paris Blue. “Up to my eyeballs,” she says. But the Mistral chamber season almost plans itself, to hear her describe it.
“We keep it simple administratively. No more putting up posters. We have the same group of loyal fans, and it’s not about the numbers. We’ve been here 26 years, and we’ve never tried to move up to Sanders or Jordan Hall.
“Last year was a full season, about half capacity,” she says. “We had a small audience, and we were fine with that. We gave some concerts for ten people.”
Scolnik stayed connected during the pandemic break to the Mistral audience—at least the ones who lived nearby—with Music in the Window concerts.
Mistral stayed engaged with that core audience during the pandemic in multiple ways: concerts in a Brookline park (“We had 150–200 people”); Music in the Window concerts (“It was adorable,” she says, “my husband took out the whole window on the street and we sight-read”); and professional video, offered free, which will continue.
First program has lots of Mozart, including Scolnik playing a flute arrangement of the C major viola quintet, and Gloria Chien soloing in a chamber setting of the K.414 piano concerto.
SEPT. 24–27
Elsewhere this weekend: Borromeo String Quartet gives a free concert (Haydn/Bartok series, part one) in Burnes Hall at NEC on the 25th. Violist Mai Motobuchi sits in with the quartet one last time (Mozart viola quintet), as she leaves the group after 22 years. Melissa Reardon replaces her.
Gardner Museum Sunday series begins on the 25th, with Olmstead Quartet (Trout, with quartets by Bologne and Müller-Hermann). Transient Canvas performs “Crossroads” Sept. 25 at BoCo.
A new series, Tuesday Night New Music, begins on the 27th in Jordan Hall. Student curated, student composers. On the South Coast, Janice Weber’s South Coast Chamber Series starts on Sat. 24th in Marion and the next afternoon in South Dartmouth (Tailleferre, Popper, Franck, Piazzolla).
CHAMELEON ARTS ENSEMBLE
“We’re considering our path forward as wavy, not a straight line,” says Chameleon Arts Ensemble’s artistic director Deborah Boldin. Aptly put; Chameleon’s path has never been a straight line, as the ensemble’s stalwart audience knows from 25 years of eclectic chamber music.
The anniversary season begins Oct. 1 with programs that evening and the next afternoon at First Church in Boston. The repertory has a Viennese thread, cleverly woven through pieces by Mozart, Schoenberg, Brahms, Kernis and Schwartz.
Every concert presenter is wondering if audiences will return; Boldin is no different. “Last year audiences waxed and waned depending on the case counts,” she says. “The truth is, we’re charting a new path, staying flexible and with gratitude for the opportunity to make music, art that means something to us.
Some Chameleons, in an undated performance (from left): violinists Grace Park and Stephanie Zyzak, pianist Mika Sasaki, cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer, violist Scott Woolweaver. Matt Wan photograph
The repertory makes Chameleon stand out: “Contemporary, old, in-between, strings, vocals, mixed—we are not one thing at any given time,” she says. “I’m obsessed with chamber music, and I have been for more than 25 years. There are so many programs prepared that I haven’t gotten to yet.
“What makes chamber music great is the energy of the individuals,” she says. “In the hall—both the audience, and the players.”
SEPT. 29–OCT. 4
By the end of September most groups will have begun their seasons. Palaver Strings opens an extensive performance year at Longy Sept. 29, with an alluring early music program. Palaver also performs at its base in Portland, ME during the season, and travels throughout New England. Ensemble 44 revisits the Orpheus story on the 30th at First Church in Cambridge. Radius Ensemble begins its season Oct. 1 at Longy (Saariaho, Child, Morris). Ya-Fei Chuang’s piano recital at Jordan Hall on the 1st includes Chopin, Ravel and Rachmaninov.
Boston Chamber Music Society features the world premiere of Scott Wheeler’s piano sextet in its opening program Oct. 2 at Jordan Hall. Jordan Bak and Friends continue Gardner Sundays on Oct. 2. Ashmont Hill Chamber Music presents the first part of Reginald Mobley’s Bach Project on the 2nd in Dorchester. The Sheffield Chamber Players open Oct. 2 at the Lyman Estate in Waltham. Music includes Quinn Mason’s second quartet. Period ensemble Seven Times Salt performs music and poetry of Scott Harney in Watertown Oct. 2.
The Summer Star Wildlife Sanctuary hosts the Balourdet Quartet, playing Barber, Brahms and Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade Oct. 2. The West Boylston location is an intimate place for music, but also perfect for a gentle hike if weather permits.
Lawrence Lesser’s First Mondays begin Oct. 3 at Jordan Hall. Pianist Meng-Chieh Liu gives a free recital (big program, includes Chopin, Granados, Liszt) Tuesday, Oct. 4 at Jordan Hall.
EXTRA CREDIT
Non-chamber music calendar notes: How does staging La Bohème count as innovation for Boston Lyric Opera’s season opener? When it’s Yuval Sharon’s “backwards Bohème.” The run starts Friday, 23rd at the Emerson Colonial. Can’t wait; covering for Opera News.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has the glorious Lorelei Ensemble onstage with them for Sept. 22nd opening night (Holst “Planets”). Lang Lang plays the BSO gala (Sept. 24, Saint-Saëns’ second), and Yuja comes to town for both Shostakovich concertos (starting Sept. 29).
NOTED: ARPEGGIONE, CONCORD CMS, ROSENBAUM, LIBRETTOS
Chamber concerts in Gloucester (Arpeggione Ensemble, Sept. 10, Manship Artists Residency) and Concord (Concord Chamber Music Society, Sept. 11, Concord Academy) were well attended—basically sold-out.
The packed house at Victor Rosenbaum’s farewell-to-NEC recital (Sept. 17, Jordan Hall) was a tribute to the elegant, insightful pianist. Rosenbaum at the keyboard, investigating Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart—two imperturbable hours, personal moments from a musical life.
Rosenbaum leaves NEC, but hardly retires. He’s accomplished many other things—president of Longy, for one—and he’s never stopped performing and recording. And certainly has plenty of that (and teaching) left.
Still, to think about coming to Boston in the ’70s, joining Gunther Schuller’s faculty (“I never thought I would be at my first job for my entire professional life”), with Russell Sherman then piano chair—what an era that was for NEC. Rosenbaum’s legacy at NEC rests comfortably, judging by the loving packed house, and the record-setting line to the green room after the recital. Thanks for everything.
By rights I can’t include the entire Opera News review here, but this excerpt sums up what many other writers and concertgoers have experienced. From a forthcoming report on Elena Ruehr’s beautifully scored and performed Cosmic Cowboy, which ran Sept. 16–18, opening Cerise Lim Jacobs’ White Snake Projects season:
This music, and these impressive artists, deserve a more idiomatic narrative. Apart from some unintended humor, characters and situations are tritely portrayed. The IRL social issues that White Snake Projects so ably addresses in its inclusive casting and thematic concerns, are poorly explored with this unimaginative libretto.
Jacobs hires accomplished composers, and lets them work. Nobody can doubt that future operas will incorporate some of WSP’s technical innovations. Her casting and artistic concepts cannot be overpraised. White Snake Projects has a history of outstanding opera premieres that are advancing the field in artistry, onstage techniques and offstage social issues.
Each one of WSP’s memorable premieres has had the same problem: Jacobs needs to hire a librettist.
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Leonore Overture, Chamber Music America and Opera News. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.