Two different programs, and two largely different casts, kicked off Camerata’s 2010 holiday season, on December 5 in Cambridge and December 12 in Schenectady. “The Sacred Bridge” and “An American Christmas” each played to large and enthusiastic halls, and at each venue the audience rose to its feet, cheering, at concert’s end.

In our photo from December 5, Anne Azéma and Mehmet Sanlikol channel the great Turkish-Jewish singer Haim Effendi as they sing “La Rosa Enfloresce,” a Sephardic love song.

The other shot, from December 12, shows cast members Frederiksen, Wilkinson, Hershey, Rentz-Moore, Azéma, and Sheldon warming up with a William Billings hymn at Union College.

“The Sacred Bridge” is now history, for 2010 at least.

But Boston-area music lovers can still capture the American magic and a superb cast on:
Dec.16 (Lexington), Dec 17 (Cambridge), Dec 18 (Boston) and Dec 19 (Newbury)
by contacting our office for tickets.

Just in time for the holidays comes this 10th anniversary CD reissue of The Golden Harvest, the now-classic collaboration between The Boston Camerata and the Shaker family of Sabbathday Lake, Maine. Widely praised at its initial release, this program, recorded on location by Camerata’s soundmaster-in-residence David Griesinger, contains many transcriptions from original manuscripts at the Shaker Library, including many beautiful songs brought to light and sung again for the first time in 150 years.


Our photo, taken just before Thanksgiving, shows Joel Cohen and the Shakers, at their Maine home, celebrating the reissue. They, and we, invite you to join!

We were fortunate indeed to have David and Harriet Griesinger present last November when Camerata, under Anne Azéma’s direction, and assisted by the Choral Fellows of the Harvard University Choir, gave a superb season-opener concert in Harvard’s Memorial Church. The Griesingers’ video recording of that beautiful event is now, ten months later, available to Camerata friends and supporters as a special, limited edition.


A Symphony of Psalms is a tribute to Jean Calvin, whose anniversary was celebrated in 2009. The Renaissance and early Baroque musical selections are superb, ranging from melodies of the Geneva Psalter to Claude Goudimel to John Dowland, Heinrich Schütz, Salamone Rossi Ebreo, and others. David and Harriet managed to capture the unique, sunlit afternoon ambiance in the church, the wonderful performances by Camerata’s soloists and instrumentalists, and their captivating interactions with the youthful Harvard voices.

It’s quite a document in sound and image, and available ONLY through this website, or by phoning your order to the office (616-262-2092). Price is $20 for a DVD, and $30 for an eye-popping BluRay disc, plus $3 for postage. The elegant cover design and informative program booklet makes this new release a fine gift item, as well.

Dear Friends,

Oof! A number of you have said to me, à propos of the recently finished in-town season, that the Boston Camerata and its music are “hot” these days. I tend to agree, but the imagery, contemplated right now in the middle of a major-league heat wave, is just a little intense. May I counter with another kind of adjective? You are, all of you, a pretty cool bunch. And we send a fresh, minty shower of notes in your general direction.

Thanks again for your fidelity towards our unique, duplicated-nowhere-else brand of music making. It was your support that helped breathe sacred fire into centuries-old psalms at Harvard in November; that raised temperatures during near-blizzard conditions at Christmas; that helped warm the penance of the Magdalene during The Maria Monologues; and that made new sparks fly as we retold the Alexander legend in French, Hebrew, Latin, and Turkish.

We were also delighted to note that the critics, in print and online, added their own, glowing plaudits to your cheers and applause.

And so, even as beaches beckon during this hot spell, Camerata and I are hard at work shaping the season to come. A great deal of what will make the next fall and winter’s music possible, happens right now, when, theoretically, things are “slow.” We can assure you, they are not!

That’s why many of you have received a special “early bird” subscriber offer, with a limited-time pricing structure for those of you who subscribe NOW, before the new season gets underway. For those of you who did not get our email, you can consult the offer, and take advantage of it,
here.

We very much want you with us, during this period where there are no public events to bring in funds. By subscribing now you’ll get a pricing break for yourself, and you’ll help us to keep Camerata’s air conditioning on!

We also welcome your tax-exempt gift to The Boston Camerata, as more than ever, our trailblazing work in early music needs your support.

We look forward to more beautiful music-making, just a handful of weeks forward, in your presence.

With best wishes to all,

Anne

Camerata’s final 2009-2010 season presentation, “Alexander the Great,” once again won kudos from the press and a prolonged ovation from our loyal Boston audience. By now, and after several recent productions built around medieval and ancient narratives-in-music we like to think that Artistic Director Anne Azéma has established herself as Boston’s storyteller laureate. But praise must also flow to all in this trailblazing production, with a special mention for Mehmet Sanlikol and his Dunya colleagues for the shared ebb and flow of music and poetry from European, Middle Eastern, and Turkish traditions.

As this production, and the recent feature spread in Early Music America magazine indicate, Camerata is now the leading North American ensemble in this kind of cross-cultural enterprise. Look for more music-making along these lines from us, both in-town, and on tour nationally and internationally.

 
More reviews at the Boston Globe and the East-meets-West symposium.

Actually, the metamorphosing horse Fauvel went thataway several centuries back. Whoever wrote the lavish “Roman de Fauvel” manuscript in Paris, circa 1310, got a head start on today’s HTML mavens by about 700 years. The 14th century scribe/programmer combined text, musical notation, and imagery on each page to produce a multisensory blast of a work….one that Camerata has been reinterpreting with success for a number of seasons, on video, on CD, and live, most recently in Jackson, for the Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music.

What pleased us most about our Jackson friends was their support in bringing the fabulous illustrations from the “Fauvel” manuscript onstage, just behind the performers. We hadn’t had this pleasure since a run in Paris a few seasons back, at the Cité de la Musique, so thanks to the Academy our “complete” Fauvel show had its U.S. première. As always, Michael Collver outdid himself in equine cool, and our newest cast member, Michael Barrett, acquitted himself elegantly on tenor and coconuts. Our grab shot from the afternoon tech rehearsal will give you an idea.

Meanwhile, presenters, the medieval miniatures are vividly digitized for the 21st century, and Camerata’s unique “Fauvel” production, with a made-for-today’s-economy cast of six, is hot to trot right into your concert series….

“Glorious and life affirming”

“A vibrant artistic experience….exquisite”

Anne Azéma did not require the budget of Avatar with which to produce The Maria Monologues, but thanks to her unique gifts, and to a stellar cast of Deborah Rentz-Moore, Lydia Brotherton, and Robert Mealy, Camerata earned ovations in Boston and New York (two shows at the Cloisters), and the kinds of reviews, in print and online, that musicians dream about getting. Night becomes day, the news cycle turns, and we were pleased that on Oscar evening, with so many minds and eyes focussed on Hollywood, our Boston media were also lavish in their praise of this intense, intimately involving musical program based on centuries-old material. And above all that our audiences, who needed no special gadgets to take in the show, other than their ears and hearts, were so deeply appreciative.

To read the reviews that have come in so far, try these links:

Vibrant portraits of two icons in Boston Camerata’s ‘Maria Monologues’ – The Boston Globe

Mary in the Middle Ages in Glowing Program by Boston Camerata – The Boston Musical Intelligencer

photo: The Maria Monologues in concert. Deborah Rentz-Moore as Mary Magdalen, Lydia Brotherton as the Angel, a scene from the Origny Mystery Play.

This article, introduced and moderated by Camerata Music Director Emeritus Joel Cohen, explores the common bonds between Western and Eastern musical traditions, dating all the way back to its roots. Featuring input from Karim Nagi, Anne Azéma, Kareem Roustom and Mehmet Sanlikol, this mini-symposium presents a cross-cultural exchange between today’s Medieval and Near Eastern Musicians.