Chamber Music Events, Feb. 14 through 28
By Keith Powers
Skylark Vocal Ensemble has five upcoming dates, singing from a new release, La Vie en Rose, Feb. 15 through 19 in lots of places people can get to: Ukrainian Institute of America (New York), Bedford NY, Weston, Newburyport and Falmouth.
Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez comes to Newport Classical to play music of Mazzoli, Shaw, Viet Cuong, Villa-Lobos and others Feb. 17 at Emmanuel Church in Newport. Sergey Schepkin’s Glissando series continues Feb. 17 at First Church in Boston with three pianists (Erin Lindsey, Ian Lindsey, Schepkin) and lots of Brahms. Winsor Music plays a sweeping program from Bolcom to Mozart Feb. 17 at Wayland High School. H&H presents the complete Brandenburgs at Jordan Hall Feb. 17 and again at Sanders Feb. 19.
Rehoboth’s Arts in the Village hosts its first concert of the new year Feb. 18, with violinist Emil Altshuler and pianist Mana Tokuno playing music of composers who studied in Paris, including Vivaldi, Franck, Sarasate, Wieniawski, Piazzolla, and Yoshimatsu. BoCo has a Silk Road collaboration—students playing with Silk Roaders Edward Perez and Maeve Gilchrist—Feb. 18 in Studio 401. Music for Peace concert series performs Feb. 18 at Harvard-Epworth Church; pianist Meng-Chieh Liu joins series director Carol Ou and others in French music—the Boulangers, Ravel, Fauré.
Hub New Music returns to the Ashmont Chamber Series Feb. 19 with a typically inviting program: Diaz, Dai Wei, Kaminsky, Negrón and Shurman, mostly new works. The Boston Symphony Chamber Players return to Jordan Hall Feb. 19, with guest pianist Alessio Bax. Program includes Coleman’s “Umoja” and Prokofiev wind quintet. Fermata Chamber Soloists present a Wagner send-up—“Wagner’s Nightmare”—Feb. 19 at Goethe Institut. Music for Food regroups for British compositions (Bray, Britten, Morley, Dowland) Feb. 19 at NEC’s Brown Hall. The Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra brings Harwich Port to life Feb. 19, with pianist Ana Glig soloing in a Bach concerto, along with music by Xenakis, Still and Shostakovich.
Chamber Music Events, Feb. 22–28
Arneis Quartet and other BU faculty/students perform the music of Gabriela Lena Frank on Feb. 22, the culmination of a residency for Frank’s Composing Earth project. Arneis also performs Frank’s “Quijotadas” that afternoon in the CFA’s Stone Gallery. Celebrity Series presents violinist Alexi Kenney at Pickman Hall, pairing new works (Esmail, Wiancko, others) with Bach sonatas and partitas.
BoCo’s Artistry in Action series continues at Seully Hall Feb. 24 with faculty playing a span of composers from Bach to Crumb. The ICA hosts Sound Icon Feb. 24, performing Haas’s score to HYENA, the story of Mollena Lee Williams-Haas, Haas’s wife, narrated by her.
Mezzo Lori McCann sings “Plastic Lives”—new works exploring plastics and the environment—Feb. 25 at BoCo’s Studio 106. Convivium Musicum sings Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices Feb. 25 at Harvard-Epworth Church, marking the 400th anniversary of the composer’s death. Cellist Leo Eguchi brings his Unaccompanied project to the Granoff Music Center at Tufts Feb. 25. The Black Student Association at BoCo sings spirituals in the Robert Honeysucker Memorial Concert Feb. 25 at Seully Hall.
The Boston Chamber Music Society returns to a 2017 Rakowski commission—“Entre nous,” for oboe and strings—and pairs it with Mendelssohn and Dvorak, Feb. 26 at Jordan Hall. Anne Howarth (horn) joins Julia Scott Carey (piano) and Valerie Thompson (cello) to present a free concert, music of Lane, Poulenc, Dunker, Knudson and York, Feb. 26 at Granoff Center at Tufts. Busy guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan performs a typically wide-ranging program (“Looking Bach, Listening Forward”), a free concert Feb. 26 in the Robbins Library in Arlington.
The South Coast Chamber Music Series doubles up (Marion, Feb. 25; South Dartmouth, Feb. 26) a program of Mazzoli, Borodin and d’Indy, performed by artistic director Janice Weber and SCCMS regulars.
TEASING TANNHAUSER
Marina Prudenskaya, Amber Wagner (seated), Andris Nelsons, Klaus Florian Vogt, and Christian Gerhaher sing Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Feb. 2 in Symphony Hall. Aram Boghosian photograph
Selected from the forthcoming Opera News review of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tannhäuser, semi-staged Feb. 2 and 4.
Excerpting just the final act, after the instrumental introduction from Act 1, works exquisitely in performance. The focus shifts subtly from Wagner’s intense theatrics to subtleties of the libretto, and the ingenuity and richness of the instrumental score.
Tannhäuser has faced his choices, without conclusion. Torn between the carnal love of Venus and the pure love of Elisabeth, his vow to be absolved of the flesh and find forgiveness has been rejected. After his papal humiliation he returns home, unbalanced and uncertain.
Tannhäuser’s extended “Rome narrative”—“Inbrunst im Herzen” (With such devotion in my heart), when he recounts his long pilgrimage to the pope and his return in shame—serves both as a “previously on Tannhäuser” summary, but also as a vehicle for the dramatic power of tenor Klaus Florian Vogt.
Vogt sang as a suitably unhinged seeker. In fiery fashion, he nearly overpowered the house with volume, while exemplifying the role. His instrument, stormy and unpredictable, often showed appropriately rugged tonal edges.
Vogt’s was not the only voice that could have filled a vaster chamber. Gerhaher fulfilled Wolfram’s role with a forceful lyric baritone, his accessible, open tone mimicking his character’s generosity of spirit. His exquisite “O du, mein holder Abendstern” (Oh you, my fair evening star), emphasizing his devotion to Elisabeth, was the evening’s most thoroughly realized aria. Gerhaher sang compassionately, whether ppp over gentle pizzicato accompaniment, or in full voice while confronting his irresolute friend.
Amber Wagner, another powerhouse instrument, nearly overwhelmed her role as Elisabeth. Her brokenhearted prayer, “Allemacht’ge Jungfrau, hor mein flehen” (Almighty virgin, hear my prayer), yearned for empathy but sounded far too stridently forceful.
Prudenskaya sang only “Willkommen, ungetreuer Mann!” (Welcome, unfaithful man) in Act 3, a fleeting, mirage-like return of the temptress Venus. But it stood out. Prudenskaya added her own startling colors with another powerful instrument, obliterating the lines between mezzo, contralto and soprano.
The nimble Tanglewood Festival Chorus sang superlatively. In this unstaged version, the theatrical power of the chorus’s entrances remained exclusively in the imagination. But both men’s and women’s voices—separately and together—filled the recurring Pilgrims’s Song and other moments with nostalgia and warmth.