Deborah Boldin, founder and artistic director of Chameleon Arts Ensemble: “I’m obsessed with chamber music.” Matt Wan photograph
“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.
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.
NOTED: Not chamber music: Yuval Sharon’s Backwards Bohème
By rights I can’t include the entire Opera News review until after publication, but this excerpt shows what side of the discussion—gimmick or innovation—I’d lean toward. From the forthcoming report on Yuval Sharon’s La Bohème, which opens the Boston Lyric Opera’s season, and runs through Oct. 2 at the Emerson Colonial. And best fortune to Bradley Vernatter, who assumes the permanent role of BLO’s CEO. It’s a tough job.
The meta experience not only transforms this narrative, it comments on how audiences can encounter Bohème. Notable works can withstand radical approaches: the audience anticipates so much, that confusing those expectations fosters introspection rather than misunderstanding.
Investigating that aspect more thoroughly, and helping the audience along the way, Sharon invents a narrator, the Wanderer (Marshall Hughes). At a half-dozen moments the Wanderer stops the action and interrogates the character’s possibilities (“What if Mimi doesn’t turn around?”). The Wanderer’s addition was another insightful change, easing along any inconsistencies in the flow.
Sharon creates a memorable revisitation of an opera whose music alone brings repeated enjoyment. A concise and fascinating discomposure of a well-known narrative, this Bohème reverses time, re-energizing its reception.