2017 SoHIP Summer Concert Season
June 20-22 [CANCELLED]
7 Hills Renaissance Wind Band
Juxtapositions
This Somerville-based ensemble explores the ways that composers took secular tunes and built sacred music around them, leading to juxtapositions that - at least to the modern mind - seem incongruous, irreverent, or strikingly resonant. The King on earth mingles with the King of Heaven, the monk's whore comes through the same window as the Holy Spirit, and the soldier readying himself for war lies alongside the Lamb of God.
Barbara Allen Hill & Catherine Stein, voices; Elizabeth Hardy, Daniel Meyers, Catherine Stein, Matthew Stein & Daniel Stillman, reeds & recorders; Matthew Groves, Motoaki Kashino, Liza Malamut, Daniel Meyers & Daniel Stillman, brass.
June 27-29
James Williamson, Cello & Viola da Gamba
Bach's Circle: German Unaccompanied Bass Music
An accomplished viol player and cellist, James Williamson explores the German repertoire for unaccompanied bass instruments. The program includes three of the newly-discovered Fantasias for solo viol by Telemann, found just last year in a private collection, and taking full advantage of the viol as a chordal and harmonic instrument. These are contrasted with one of the great works of the Baroque – J.S. Bach's Suite in C Major for Solo Cello.
July 11-13
Twa Corbies
Out of the Mist: Early Medieval Music of the British Isles
Born out of a linguistic, historical, and musicological fascination with early medieval Britain, and a desire to illustrate the development of the English language through the music and poetry, the program includes songs and poetry of the Norse and Anglo-Saxon raiders and settlers, chants of the Celtic monks, and songs in the emerging Middle English language, as well as instrumental music of medieval England.
Brian Kay, voice, lute, & harps & Peter Walker, voice, bagpipes, & harps.
July 18-20
Ensemble ad Libitum
Breaking Boundaries
Continuing their exploration of the repertoire for clarinet and strings, Ensemble ad Libitum presents a program that stretches into the Romantic era. Mendelssohn's first string quartet serves as a balance point between the formal structure of the classical era and the deliberate rejection of constraints by the early romantics. Brahms was inspired to write his clarinet quintet after hearing Mozart's work, and it exhibits motivic and compositional similarities to that earlier masterpiece, while maintaining a distinctive Romantic flavor. Soloist Thomas Carroll performs on a very special instrument - a clarinet that was used in Brahms' own orchestra!
July 25-27
Seven Times Salt
Up Merry Mates: Revels at the Inns of Court
London’s Inns of Court, where lawyers have trained for centuries, held lavish winter festivities during Queen Elizabeth I's reign. Nightly revels gave law students a welcome break from their studies. Masques with ornate sets and fantastical costumes spared no expense and concluded with rambunctious country dances for all. The program includes comic and dramatic songs by Elizabeth’s court composers, a variety of vigorous masquing tunes, and ceremonial court dances.
Karen Burciaga, violin & tenor viol; Daniel Meyers, recorder, flutes, & percussion; Josh Schreiber Shalem, bass viol; & Matthew Wright, lute. Guests Agnes Coakley, soprano; Michael Barrett, tenor; & Nathaniel Cox, bandora & theorbo.
August 1-3
Tutti Bassi
Have Cello, Will Travel: Two Baroque Cellists Journey Through Europe
Two of Boston's favorite cellists, Colleen McGary-Smith and Sarah Freiberg, explore the rich and varied repertoire for baroque cello by sampling works from across 18th century Europe. With them, we will visit the forests of Germany, the elegant palaces of France, sunny Italy, and foggy London Town, to hear the fascinating differences and similarities of these works, and to appreciate the variety within them.
