2018 SoHIP Summer Concert Season
June 12-14 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 enters 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, Liza Malamut, Daniel Meyers, Mack Ramsey & Daniel Stillman, brass.
June 19-21 The Franklin Quartet
Northern Lights
Explore Scandinavia in this program of rarely heard treasures for string quartet from the land of the midnight sun. Curated by the Franklin Quartet's resident Finn, Marika Holmqvist, Northern Lights presents music by Haydn's neighbors to the north, including Joseph Martin Kraus, nicknamed "the Swedish Mozart", and Johan Wikmanson, whose quartets were greatly admired by none other than Haydn himself.
The Franklin Quartet: Daniel Elyar, violin & viola; Rebecca Harris, violin; Marika Holmqvist, violin & viola; Rebecca Humphrey Diederich, cello
New Comma Baroque: Phillip Serna, viola da gamba, & Alastair Thompson, harpsichord
June 26-28 New Comma Baroque
The Twilight Kingdom: The Waning of the Viol in Europe
New Comma Baroque presents a program of rare gems from the twilight years of the viola da gamba, with works from well-known master Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach as well as Johann Gottfried Mente, Christian Wilhelm Podbielski, Carl Friedrich Abel, and Franz Xavier Hammer. Join Phillip Serna and Alastair Thompson on a virtuosic exploration of late repertoire for the viola da gamba - including a newly-discovered work by Abel, found in Poland in 2016!
July 3-5 chapter house
Lancelot: Sword and Sorrow
Explore the life of the legendary Sir Lancelot in this program of Medieval music and Arthurian tales. Follow the greatest knight's journey from King Arthur's round table, through the Grail quest and his tragic love affair with the queen, to the death of Arthur and the fall of Camelot. The music includes selections from the troubadour, trouvere, and Middle English repertoires, as well as Latin hymns, while readings are primarily drawn from Sir Thomas Malory's 15th-century Le Morte d'Arthur.
Peter Walker, voice, harp, hurdy-gurdy & bagpipe, & Sarah Walker, narration
Newton Baroque: Susanna Ogata, violin; Alison Gangler, oboe; Stephanie Corwin, bassoon; Sarah Freiberg Ellison, cello; & Andrus Madsen, harpsichord
July 10-12 Newton Baroque
Best of the Besties: Music by Close Friends
Bach, Telemann, Zelenka, and Pisendel met early in their careers and stayed in touch throughout their lives. They collaborated on both musical and personal projects - Telemann was godfather to CPE Bach - and influenced each other's works. This program focuses on those collaborations and influences, including sonatas and concertos, as well as works for unaccompanied violin, a genre in which Pisendel led the way for the more famous works of Bach and Telemann.
July 24-26 In Stile Moderno
Dilettare e Muovere: Virtuoso Instrumental Music of the 16th Century
Repertoire for solo cornetto did not appear until the 1620s, so what did the earlier virtuosi perform? They made their own repertoire by adapting vocal polyphony, popular tunes and dance music, and improvising their own recercare and sonate. The musicians of In Stile Moderno continue this practice with their own adaptations of sixteenth century vocal and dance music, thereby creating something new and modern.
In Stile Moderno: Nathaniel Cox, cornetto, & John McKean, harpsichord
The Berry Collective:
Julia McKenzie, violin; Rebecca Shaw, cello; Barbara Allen Hill, soprano; & Sylvia Berry, fortepiano
July 31 - August 2 The Berry Collective
Haydn and the Ladies of London
During his second London season in 1794-95, Haydn wrote some of his most beloved music for three accomplished women. The sonatas and trios written for esteemed pianist and composer Therese Jansen are monumental masterworks that would not exist were it not for her talent. The "Gypsy" trio, written for talented amateur pianist Rebecca Schroeter, is a perennial favorite, and Haydn's settings of poet Anne Hunter's texts reveal a true creative partnership between the two. Ms. Berry performs on a Broadwood fortepiano built in London only a decade after Haydn's sojurn there.