The Boston Camerata’s overseas fall touring season began in October with two performances of Anne Azéma’s original program, “The Spark of the Soul,” based on the life and writings of the medieval German mystic, Meister Eckhardt.

Azéma and viellist/lutenist/reader Susanne Ansorg sang, spoke, and played their way through an original mini-anthology of thirteenth century works before audiences in Rosheim, Alsace, and Paris. The first concert took place in the medieval church of Rosheim and the
second in the spectacular, newly-restored Roman frigidarium at the Abbey/Museum of Cluny.

The Paris concert was the inaugural musical event in the world-famous, freshly renovated Cluny space.

In November, a larger Camerata cohort travels to Germany for a performance of the ensemble’s famed “Tristan and Iseult” production, presented under the auspices of the West German Radio. Anne Azéma will once again incarnate Iseult the Blonde, a role for which she shared the Grand Prix du Disque, with Aaron Engebreth, who first undertook the challenging part in 2008, cast in the role of Tristan.

This is going to be a busy, musical fall!

Anne Azéma and the Camerata begin the 2009 season with a series of medieval music presentations in France and in Germany.

Anne’s program around the life and thought of the German mystic Meister Eckhardt will be heard twice in France in October. “L’étincelle de l’âme”, with Camerata soloist Susanne Ansorg, will be performed in the bilingual border region of Alsace, where Eckhardt once lived, on October 3 (Rosheim, Festival Voix et Routes Romanes), and then October 7 in Paris (Musée National du Moyen Age, Thermes et Hotel de Cluny). Continue reading →

In the best tradition of wandering minstrelsy, Camerata is literally all over the map this fall. We told you about European activity in the previous post…here’s a rundown of our early-autumn activity in our own country.

On October 30, seventeen of Boston’s finest early music performers, directed by Anne Azéma, will appear onstage at Calvin College, Grand Rapids Michigan, as that distinguished institution extends its third invitation to The Boston Camerata. On November 1, the same consort is welcomed to the Cathedral Concerts Series of Saint Louis, Missouri. On November 6, we are in Dordt College, Iowa. And finally, on November 8, we return home with a performance at Memorial Church, Harvard University. Continue reading →

Late last summer the New York Times solicited summer travel photos from its readers, and Joel Cohen, rising to the challenge, submitted a couple of digital snapshots for eventual inclusion. We are happy to report that his image of Anne Azéma and Susanne Ansorg, preparing for our June concert, “Chanson du Désert,” at Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, was selected, and is now online on that august journal’s website. Here it is, and you can also view it via the Times, with an explanatory text, by clicking here.

The medieval village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert is one of the most beautiful places you can imagine. And, on a hot weekend in late June, it was the setting for two days of intense music making and dialogue around the theme of music in the Mediterranean world. The Boston Camerata gave the first concert, a narration in music and poetry around the legend of William of Orange, the patron saint of the village and a major figure of medieval legend. The second concert was dedicated to the wonderful Cantigas of King Alfonso el Sabio — the pioneering program that was named “Best of the Year” by the Boston Globe a few seasons back — with an international cast from France, Germany, the U.S., Spain, Morocco, and Turkey.

During the day, in the newly dedicated museum of medieval art at the Abbey of Gellone, scholars and performers presented fascinating papers on various aspects of Mediterranean music making. All of the events were conceived and organized by Joel Cohen and the Camerata Mediterranea. You can find out much more about the concerts and colloquium on their web site.  It was Cam Med’s big public event since it incorporated as a French non-profit association two years ago. We wish the Mediterranea all the best in its future endeavors, some of which, Joel tells us, will be taking place State-side as well.

More projects at Saint Guilhem, involving both Cameratas, are also in the works. Please check back here for future developments!

Camerata’s next homeside appearances will take place in November, 2009, but for those of you who simply must have more over the summer, we invite you, on June 26, to the village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert, in the Languedoc region of France. As part of a two-day celebration marking the opening of a museum in the magnificent 12^th century abbey of Saint Guilhem, Camerata will be retelling the legend of warrior-saint William of Orange in poetry and music of the Middle Ages. This program has previously appeared at the Cloisters museum in New York, where a big piece of Saint Guilhem’s abbey cloister got whisked away one fine day by a certain John D. Rockefeller. We are happy to return to the original geographic source of that great art (one of the most beautiful villages in France, by the way), and to bring the legend with us. More information is available here.

Anne Azéma’s final concert of her maiden, 2008-2009 season, took place last March. “A Distant Haven” turned out to be the subject of an over-the-top review in our local paper of record (“Flawless…inexhaustible…exuberant…radiant” waxed the critic), as well as a beautiful and touching event in and of itself. You can read the review here. In case you missed it, do not (overly) mourn: Anne assures us that the programs for her second season, now in preparation, will be even more enthralling than the first.

Perhaps in celebration of a new chapter in American history, Warner Classics in London has undertaken a handsomely designed, coordinated reissue series of Camerata’s classic American music programs, made in the 1990’s for Erato Disques. The three titles in the January, 2009 release are The American Vocalist, Trav’ling Home, and Liberty Tree.

These anthologies of early American songs, hymns, anthems, marches, and dances won critical acclaim on their initial releases (including an American Critics’ Circle award for American Vocalist), and we are delighted to see them back in circulation once again.

In celebration of these releases, Anne Azéma and Joel Cohen appeared on France Musique, the French national music station, to talk about American life and American music. Since the extended interview took place the day after the presidential inauguration, there was some interesting chat about that event, as well. You can listen to the program (en français, of course) by clicking here. Anne was also interviewed on the subject of American music by Public Radio International, and the segment was broadcast on Inauguration Day on the program Performance Today (link to audio stream, to be provided)

Warner tells us that these three albums, originally distributed in the U.K. and continental Europe, are soon to be available in the U.S. If you therefore have trouble finding these superb titles down at the WalMart, you can complain to the manager there….but you are also are welcome to order them from us.

January: The original “Tristan and Iseult” CD, rewarded with the Grand Prix du Disque on its initial appearance in 1986, is reissued by Warner Classics. In the opening days of the year 2008, we also present “Tristan and Iseult” for the first time ever in Paris and the Paris region. Joel, who has gotten mellower over the years, remarks that this twenty-two year hiatus was but the blink of an eye, or something of the sort. We are pleased by the reissue, and that the Paris show sold out four months early.

February: “Tristan” plays on our local series, with original cast members Azéma, Lepkoff, and Cohen recreating their original roles, alongside some gifted newcomers. In a reception at the French Library following the Boston performace, Anne Azéma is presented to longtime friends and supporters as Camerata’s newly appointed Artistic Director. An emotional moment.

Late February, eight singers plus Joel rendezvous with the Tero Saarinen Dance Company of Helsinki for an extended tour of “Borrowed Light” in Australia and New Zealand. An awesome experience, we opine collectively. Besides observing koala bears, kangaroos, and kookaburras, we give ten performances, including eight dance shows and some American music concert-only events.

March: We return midmonth from the last performances in New Zealand, victims almost to a man and woman of a truly monster, day-for-night jetlag. We console ourselves at 3 A.M. by reading over our press clippings.“Stunning,” said the Sydney critic. “Ravishingly beautiful,” said the Wellington paper. Ultimately, we readjust to Eastern Standard time, and we are looking forward to another tour Down Under in 2010.

April: “Alla Turca,” presented in collaboration with the Dünya Turkish Music Ensemble, is Joel Cohen’s last production as Camerata’s Music Director. The concert, and Joel’s tenure, end with his in-your-face arrangement of the Mozart “Rondo alla Turca,” for early music ensemble and janissary band, and with a gale of laughter.

August: Camerata friends and donors crowd onto a lovely ketch for a tour of Boston harbour. But Aeolus is acting up, and all present, supporters and musicians, remain dockside. This does not prevent us from downing a few, and singing a lot.

October: We celebrate marriage, Italian-style, with a new production at the Gardner museum, our fourth exhibition-related commission from this estimable institution. “Vieni Imeneo” reprised at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida in March, 2009. In the center ring, as it were.

November: Five days after the presidential election, Anne débuts as Camerata’s Artistic Director with “Land of Pure Delight: In Search of the American Soul.” The fifers fifed, and the drummers drummed; we all needed something like this. Just about everyone in the audience joins us for a celebratory, post-concert dance.

December: Warner Classics issues a special, three CD compilation, “A Boston Camerata Christmas.” We tour with “The Brotherhood of the Star: A Hispanic Christmas.” In the last days of December, an English critic opines: “Azéma is an inspired choice as new Artistic Director.” Invited by American Public Radio and by France Musique, we start to prepare some special event programming, around the January 20 presidential inauguration, for national audiences at home and in France. A very happy 2009 to you all!