Live Performances

"Illuminessence: prayers for peace" In Concert

Sunday, September 11, 2011
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New England Conservatory partners with Mayor of Boston Thomas M. Menino to present a concert in remembrance of 9/11, sponsored by John Hancock Financial Services, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and BNY Mellon.


The world premiere of Illuminessence: prayers for peace, an interfaith oratorio by Silvio Amato (left), highlights the concert conducted by Benjamin Zander.  The NEC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra with chorus and vocal soloists perform the piece, commissioned by the Vatican and which touches on the commonality of human aspiration and the universal spiritual impulse as expressed in the prayers of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, along with other works.

To hear the concert, click on "Listen" above.

Benjamin Roe talks with composer Silvio Amato:



On the program:

Key:  The Star-Spangled Banner

Barber:  Adagio for Strings

Massenet:  "Meditation" from Thaïs with violin soloist Yuki Beppu (NEC Preparatory School student)

Amato:  Illuminessence: prayers for peace
chorus composed of singers from:
NEC Youth Chorale, Jonathan Richter, director
Young Men’s and Young Women’s Choruses from the
Handel & Haydn Society Vocal Apprenticeship Program,
Joseph Stillitano and Alyson Greer, directors
Kirsten Scott '08 Prep, soprano
Cristina Bakhoum '12 G.D., mezzo-soprano
Michael Kuhn, '12 M.M., tenor

Beethoven:  "Ode to Joy" from Symphony No. 9
with chorus and soloists


 

Last Night Of The Proms!

Thursday, September 8, 2011
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Classical New England brings you one of the world's great music traditions on Saturday at 9pm, as violinist Nicola Benedetti headlines the Last Night of the Proms from Royal Albert Hall in London.


The Scottish violinist burst onto the scene in 2004 as the BBC Young Musician of the Year. Now she joins conductor Jirí Belohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britain's biggest musical party of the year, performing the gorgeous Violin Concerto No. 1 by Max Bruch.

Also on the program, tenor Joseph Calleja brings an uncommon grace and elegance, rooted in his Maltese heritage, to arias by Verdi, Massenet, and Puccini.

The program also pays tribute to Belohlávek's Czech background as the conductor closes his tenure as Chief Conductor, with works by Antonín Dvorák and Josef Suk.

And, of course, no Last Night of the Proms would be complete without British traditions, including Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 ("Land of Hope and Glory"), Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry's "Jerusalem," and "God Save the Queen."

Join Brian Newhouse at 9pm, following Classical New England's own tribute to Belohlávek with an encore broadcast of the conductor's Boston Symphony Orchestra appearance in December of 2011, beginning at 7pm.


Royal Albert HallFull program:

Mark Simpson - sparks
(BBC Commission, World Premiere)

Suk - Towards a New Life

Delius - Songs of Farewell

Verdi - Un ballo in maschera: ‘Forse la soglia attinse … Ma se m’è forza perderti’

Massenet - Werther: ‘Pourquoi me réveiller?’

Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor

Puccini - Tosca: ‘E lucevan le stelle’

Puccini - Turandot: ‘Nessun dorma’

John Williams - Olympic Fanfare and Theme

Dvorák - Overture 'Carnival'

Shostakovich - The Gadfly: Romance

Brodszky - The Toast of New Orleans: ‘Be my love’

Lara - Granada

Rodgers - Carousel: ‘You’ll never walk alone’

Henry Wood - Fantasia on British Sea-Songs

Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major ('Land of Hope and Glory')

Parry, orch. Elgar - Jerusalem

Traditional - The National Anthem

Nicola Benedetti, violin
Joseph Calleja, tenor
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jirí Belohlávek, conductor

(image of Nicola Benedetti by Simon Fowler, courtesy of Decca; image of Royal Albert Hall by Marcus Ginns)

 

The Healing Power of Music

By Ben Roe   |   Thursday, September 8, 2011
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The tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001, brings a day of special programs from 99.5 All Classical


Full schedule for September 11 on 99.5 All Classical



Ralph Vaughan Williams once wrote, “The art of music, above all other arts, is an expression of the soul of a nation.”

Ten years ago, while working at NPR on a bright September morning, I felt the immediacy and poignancy of the English composer’s words first-hand.

As network journalists and producers, it was our job to report, reflect, comment, and contextualize a series of calamitous events that we could scarcely explain to ourselves. For our colleagues in the NPR newsroom the task at hand was seemingly simple and undeniably urgent. But what role could music play? Every public radio station in the country wrestled with the same question.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to the newscast. The soul of the nation was in shock, and needed the therapy that only music can provide. I have chosen to follow a path in music because I feel it is unique among the arts; that is both a deeply personal experience (ask anyone around you with earbuds on), as well as an act of community (ask anyone of the 65 million Americans who have ever sung in a choir).

In those immediate days after 9/11, we witnessed abundant examples of both. For the news producers at NPR, it quickly became apparent that the interstitial music – the “connective thread” between features that are part and parcel of the public radio sound – was as important and necessary as the news itself to millions of listeners; the only way for them process such unrelentingly grim events.

That unconscious national need to come together in the concert hall was evident the first Sunday after 9/11. I will never forget producing a marathon day of memorial concerts from across the nation, a day filled with profound musical utterances, from soloists, choirs, orchestras, all seeking to “express the inexpressible”. Mozart’s searing Requiem from scarred and sooty Trinity Church in New York, hard by Ground Zero. Branford Marsalis’s plaintive soprano saxophone invoking Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday in the cavernous Cathedral of St. John the Divine. A hushed piano solo in McKeesport, Pennsylvania for the heroes of Flight 93. And, yes, a soaring, in-the-moment rendition of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending to an Atlanta audience streaked with hot, wet tears.

It’s been said that artists are merely reporters with a longer deadline: They witness, they interpret, they create…and ultimately tell us a little bit more about ourselves. In those darkest days, I learned a lot about hope, charity, humanity and forgiveness…thanks to the transformative, healing power of music.

Join us on Sunday, September 11, for a day of reflection, commentary, and music, including live performances from Jordan Hall in Boston and our own Fraser Performance Studio, as well as highlights from commemorative concerts from Trinity Church in New York and the New York Philharmonic.

Full schedule for September 11 on 99.5 All Classical

 

Boston Baroque's Les Indes Galantes

Friday, September 2, 2011
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Hear Boston Baroque in Rameau's Les Indes Galantes

Click on "Listen" above.  Download program information and see a slideshow from the production below.



In May of 2011, Boston Baroque and music director Martin Pearlman (left), capped off their 38th season with a production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Indes Galantes at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall.  Not exactly opera as we think of that term now, but rather an extravagent bringing-together of music, drama, and dance particular to its time, Les Indes Galantes includes lyrical music-making, spectacular tableaux, and infectious, toe-tapping dance.

The prologue sets things in motion: Hébé, goddess of youth, laments seeing the young men of Europe lured by the goddess of war’s promises of glory, and asks Cupid to go abroad, to exotic, faraway lands (“les Indes”), in search of love.

There follow four acts, each a self-contained love story: Le Turc généreux (The Generous Turk), Les Incas du Pérou (The Incas of Peru), Les Fleurs – fête Persane (The Flowers – Persian Festival), and Les Sauvages d’Amerique (The Savages of America). The libretto and music reflect Parisian society’s fascination with the New World and the Near East. For example, two Native Americans from French colonial Louisiana were brought to Paris in 1725 and performed, inspiring Rameau to write a set of harpsichord pieces called Les Sauvages, some of which he adapted here.

Tune in to Classical New England on 99.5 WCRB in Boston or 88.7 WJMF in Providence, or stream the performance here at classicalnewengland.org at 6:30pm on Sunday, Nov. 18. The cast includes sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Nathalie Paulin, tenors Aaron Sheehan and Daniel Auchincloss, and baritones Sumner Thompson and Nathaniel Watson.

Download notes on the production

Download synopsis and cast bios

More World of Opera


Film Night With Keith Lockhart From The Proms

Thursday, September 1, 2011
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Boston's own Keith Lockhart leads the BBC Concert Orchestra in classic film music by John Williams, Ennio Morricone, William Walton, and more, from an August 2011 performance at Royal Albert Hall in London during the BBC Proms.

Hear the program:




On the program:
Bernard Herrmann - Four Works (from "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Citizen Kane," "North By Northwest," and "Psycho")
Ennio Morricone - Theme from "Cinema Paradiso"
William Walton - Suite from "Henry V"
John Williams - Three Works (from "Star Wars," "Schindler's List," and "Harry Potter")
Jonny Greenwood - Three Pieces from "Norwegian Wood"
Richard Rodney Bennett - Overture, Waltz, and Finale from "The Orient Express"
John Barry - Love Theme from "Out of Africa"
John Barry and David Arnold - Music of James Bond

Beethoven's Ninth, From Tanglewood

Friday, August 26, 2011
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