Boston Baroque Pops the Cork
Concerts to Celebrate the New Year
By: Baroque - Dec 03, 2013
Boston, MA--Following its annual tradition, Boston Baroque will once again "pop the cork" in grand style on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! This year's celebratory concerts feature a rousing all-Bach program with Brandenburg Concertos No. 3 & No. 4 and Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Coffee Cantata) BWV 211 along with champagne and chocolates at intermission.
Music Director Martin Pearlman has announced that Bach's Wedding Cantata (Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten) will also be performed featuring soprano Courtney Huffman.
"Our New Year's concerts have some of Bach's most festive music along with our champagne intermissions," notes Pearlman. "The popular Wedding Cantata opens with an amazing cloud of sound depicting the world coming back to life. Coffee Cantata, the closest Bach ever came to writing an opera, is a comic scene with a blustery father who doesn't want his daughter drinking this improper new beverage. Soloists for the Coffee Cantata will include some of Boston's favorites: soprano Courtney Huffman, tenor Matthew Anderson and Boston Baroque regular performer, baritone Andrew Garland. And the Brandenburg Concertos are some of our most popular recordings. The concertos will feature our concertmaster Christina Day Martinson along with virtuoso recorder soloists Aldo Abreu and Christopher Kruger."
The previously announced soprano soloist Kristen Watson advised Boston Baroque this week that she be unable to perform at these concerts as she is still recovering from a recent illness. Boston Baroque is delighted to announce that soprano Courtney Huffman, who appeared in Boston Baroque's 2012 production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, will appear in her stead.
WCRB Classical New England, the classical music media source for audiences from Rhode Island to New Hampshire and beyond through 99.5 WCRB Boston and 88.7 WJMF Providence, has just announced that it will be producing a live broadcast of Boston Baroque's entire New Year's Day performance [3 PM Wednesday, January 1, 2014] from Sanders Theatre across the nation via PRI, Public Radio International. The program will be hosted by Classical New England's Cathy Fuller. Tune in to 99.5 FM or go to http://www.classicalnewengland.org.
Both concerts include champagne and chocolates at intermission and will take place at Sanders Theatre (45 Quincy Street, Cambridge) at 8 PM on Tuesday, December 31 and again at 3 PM on Wednesday, January 1.
Tickets from $65-$86, including a champagne and chocolates toast at intermission, are available now at www.bostonbaroque.org or by calling: 617-987-8600. Discounts are available beginning at 6:00 PM on the day of the concert at the box office (1:00 PM on January 1st; student tickets are $10.00, for those under 30 years old, tickets are $30.00, and senior tickets are $20.00. Sanders Theatre is wheelchair accessible.
About Courtney Huffman:
Recognized as a singer of exceptional artistry and versatility, soprano Courtney Huffman is a captivating and inspiring young artist who is already generating excitement in the professional musical world. After taking First Place in the NATS 2008 Artist Award Competition in Nashville, Tennessee, Ms. Huffman made her New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall in June, 2009. The soprano was hailed for her stellar performance as Motezuma’s daughter, Teutile, in the Long Beach Opera’s U.S. Premiere of Vivaldi’s Motezuma. “Teutile . . . brilliantly sung by a young soprano, Courtney Huffman, just entering the professional arena, is treated as a supercilious young starlet . . . She sings and steals the stage . . . I hope opera talent scouts were on hand…” (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times).
About Matthew Anderson:
Matthew Anderson has been praised for the warm tenor voice and polished musicality he brings to oratorio, opera, and musical theater. An accomplished interpreter of the music of Bach, Mr. Anderson sings regularly as a soloist in Boston’s renowned Emmanuel Music Bach Cantata Series. He has appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival as a soloist in the Saint Matthew Passion and spent several summers at the Carmel Bach Festival, where he was featured as a 2010 Virginia Best Adams Fellow and a 2011 festival soloist in the Saint John Passion. Mr. Anderson is a two-time prizewinner in the American Bach Society Competition and winner of the second prize in the Oratorio Society of New York Solo Competition, in which he also won the Westenberg Award for 18th Century Stylistic Interpretation.
About Andrew Garland:
A regular with Boston Baroque, Andrew Garland was saluted by The New York Times for having a "distinctively American presence" baritone Andrew Garland is known for his engaging performances, and particularly for his interpretations on the recital stage. His recent recital debut at Carnegie Hall, where he debuted several works by living American composers, was praised for his "grace, fervor and intelligence" in Seen And Heard International and for his "lean, fine-grained, vibrant baritone" in Opera News Online.
About Boston Baroque:
Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America, and is widely regarded as "one of the world's premier period-instrument bands." (Fanfare). The ensemble produces lively, emotionally charged, ground-breaking performances of Baroque and Classical works, for today's audiences, performed on instruments and using performance techniques that reflect the eras in which the music was composed.
Founded in 1973 by Music Director Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque's orchestra is made up of some of the finest period-instrument players in the U.S.; they are frequently joined by the ensemble's professional chorus and by instrumental and vocal soloists from around the world. The ensemble presents an annual subscription series consisting of five programs that are performed at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, or Harvard University's Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2012-13 the ensemble inaugurated New Directions: a chamber music series mixing music of the baroque and modern eras played on modern and period instruments.
Voices of Celebration!
New Year's Eve and First Day Concerts
Tuesday, December 31 at 8:00 PM
Wednesday, January 1 at 3:00 PM
Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos No. 3 & No. 4
Bach: Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten (Wedding Cantata) BWV 202
Bach: Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Coffee Cantata) BWV 211
Courtney Huffman, soprano
Matthew Anderson, tenor
Andrew Garland, baritone
www.bostonbaroque.org
tickets: $65 - $85; discounts for students and seniors