Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra

Bach’s Brandenburgs

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:18:53 +0000

The Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra wraps up its season and salutes Arts First with a salvo of the last four magnificent Brandenburg Concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach.

We’ll start with the Third, which features a subset of the ensemble – one on a part – allowing us to get all that great dialogue out with a maximum of clarity and virtuosity. Then the Fifth, where Sarahs Darling and Paysnick will wistfully duet
while Matthew Hall will creates a brand new universe using only a harpsichord and two hands. In the Sixth, mirror violists Lucy Caplan and Claire Roberts-Thomson will make you see double, backwards, and even cross-eyed, and finally, in the Fourth, Apollo (aka Jesse Irons on violin) has an explosive face-off with two-fluted Pan (Emily O’Brien and Mufan Chan on recorder).

If you like Bach… come join us!

Brandenburg Concertos nos. 3, 4, 5, and 6
Memorial Church Sanctuary
Saturday, April 28, 4:00 PM
Free admission

Bach and His Worlds

admin — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:38:50 +0000

The Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and the Harvard University Choir
combine for an afternoon of Bach at his most dynamic and energetic.
Whether embodying the sacred world of his motets and cantatas, or the
secular one of his celebrated Brandenburg concerti, Bach pushes
himself and his musicians to the limit, in search of power and
brilliance of expression.

Brandenburg Concerto nos. 1 and 3
Motet: “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” BWV 225
Cantata: “Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild” BWV 79

Memorial Church Sanctuary
Sunday, March 4, 4 PM

Musikalische Malerei

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:25:44 +0000

On November 6, join us on a journey through the wild and wonderful music of 17th and 18th-century Austria, where composers became fascinated with representing scenes from life in their compositions. Biber’s “Battalia” and Schmelzer’s “Fechtschule” both experiment – in strikingly modern ways – with creating ferocious musical battles on stage, while Vivaldi’s “Al Santo Sepolcro” and Biber’s “Pauenkirchfahrt” evoke the atmosphere of a cathedral and the image of approaching churchgoers. The concert ends with pure music speaking for itself – Georg Muffat’s beautiful Armonico Tributo and W. A. Mozart’s Missa Brevis in D (featuring the Harvard University Choir).

The Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra
featuring The Harvard University Choir

Join us for an evening of 17th and 18th century “musical paintings” from Salzburg and Vienna
… from the battlefield to the cathedral, the flamboyant to the sublime …

Sunday, November 6th, 7 PM
Memorial Church, Harvard Yard
$10 general admission | $5 students and seniors
Tickets available at the Harvard Box Office and at the door

PERFORMING

BIBER: Pauenkirchfahrt, Battalia
CALDARA: Concertante
SCHMELZER: Fechtschule
MUFFAT: Sonata V: Armonico Tributo
VIVALDI: Al Santo Sepolcro
MOZART: Missa Brevis in D, with the Harvard University Choir

Nicholas McGegan

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:12:35 +0000

Hailed by the London Independent as “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” and The New Yorker as “an expert in 18th-century style,” Nicholas McGegan McGegan website, music director of the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, will lead a master class with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and the University Choir on Monday, November 7th at 4 p.m in Memorial Church.

Through nearly 25 years as its music director, Nicholas McGegan has established the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra as the leading period performance band in America—and at the forefront of the “historical” movement worldwide thanks to notable appearances at Carnegie Hall, the London Proms, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the International Handel Festival, Gottingen where he has been artistic director since 1991.

In Gottingen and with the Philharmonia Baroque McGegan has defined an approach to period style that sets the current standard: probing, serious but undogmatic, recognizing that the music of the past doesn’t belong in a museum or in academia but in vigorous engagement with an audience, for pleasure and delight on both sides of the footlights. Active in opera as well as the concert hall, McGegan was principal conductor of Sweden’s perfectly preserved 18th-century theatre Drottingholm from 1993-1996, running the annual festival there. And he has been a pioneer in the process of exporting historically informed practice beyond the small world of period instruments to the wider one of conventional symphonic forces, guest-conducting orchestras like the Concertgebouw, Suisse Romande, Halle, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia, St. Louis, Toronto, and Sydney Symphonies, and the New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong Philharmonics, as well as opera companies like Covent Garden, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Washington.

McGegan’s discography of over 100 releases includes the world premiere recording of Handel’s “Susanna,” which attracted both a Gramophone Award and Grammy nomination, and recent issues of the same composer’s “Solomon,” “Samson,” and “Acis and Galatea” (a rarity in that it unearths the little-known version adapted by Felix Mendelssohn). He is also credited with the first performance in modern times of Handel’s masterly but mislaid “Gloria.” And he has broken new ground in experimental dance-collaborations with Mark Morris, notably at festivals like Edinburgh, Ravinia and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. McGegan is committed to the next generation of musicians, frequently conducting and coaching students in residencies as part of the music programs at Yale and Juilliard.

Born in England, McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford and taught at the Royal College of Music, London. In 2010 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to music overseas.” His awards also include the Halle Handel Prize, an honorary professorship at Georg-August University, Gottingen, and an official Nicholas McGegan Day, declared by the Mayor of San Francisco in recognition of two decades’ distinguished work with the Philharmonia Baroque.

Image credit: Josef Astor

Jean-Babtiste Lully

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 04:09:17 +0000

Lully, son of a working-class miller, was born in Florence, Italy. Lully had little education, but he learned basic techniques on the guitar, originally taught by a Franciscan friar of Florence. Later in France, he learned how to play the violin, and to dance. In 1646, he was discovered by Roger de Lorraine, the chevalier de Guise, son of Charles, Duke of Guise, and was taken to France, where he entered the services of Mademoiselle de Montpensier (la Grande Mademoiselle) as a scullery-boy and Italian-language teacher. With the help of this princess, his talent increased. He studied the theory of music under Nicolas Métru. It has been said that a scurrilous song on his patroness (the doggerel he set to music refers to a “sigh” she produced while at stool) resulted in his dismissal. It is far more likely that he did not want to moulder out in the provinces with the exiled princess.

Gut strings

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 04:03:46 +0000

For a long period, catgut was the most common material for the strings of harps, lutes, violins, and violas, as well as other stringed musical instruments, as well as older marching snare drums; however, most musical instruments produced today use strings with cores made of other materials, generally steel or synthetic polymer. Gut strings are the natural choice for many classical and baroque string players, and catgut strings are still most commonly preferred in concert-tension pedal/grand and some lever harps because they give a richer, darker sound as well as withstanding high tension within low alto, tenor, and high-bass ranges.

HBCO: Back to Bach

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:10:49 +0000

I’m so excited to be starting in on the great St. John Passion of J.S. Bach! I’ve been wanting to perform this work ever since 1992, when as a young boy I went wandering in the forest one day. The pale sunlight seemed to retreat through the oak branches, driven back by dusk’s onslaught. Shivering, I wrapped my traveling cloak tightly around me and quickened my pace towards grandmother’s cottage. Dry leaves crunched loudly under foot, the noise seeming to grow louder with each nervous step, until I could hear nothing but the dead leaves, imagined stalking predators, and my own heartbeat. And then… what was that? A new sound appeared at the edge of my awareness, as if it had always been there but never quite been noticed. I turned from the familiar path, following an instinct I hadn’t known I had, and crept up a small knoll, the other side of which revealed a great gathering of people, sound, and warm light. There were violins (though they sounded quite different from my own half-size Suzuki), cellos, recorders, oboes, and a choir singing the most magnificent, angelic music I had ever heard.

Links

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:39:46 +0000

Here are some of HBCO’s friends on the web:

Philharmonia Baroque

Bach Society Orchestra

Audio

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:25:20 +0000

A Vivaldi Concerto 1. Allegro

(performed by Europa Galante)

Photos

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:17:04 +0000

Look at these great photos! These were taken by the wonderful Teresa Tam – check out her gallery by following the link. More stuff about photos. More stuff about photos. More stuff about photos. More stuff about photos. More stuff about photos.