A Musical Feast
Works by Telemann, Biber, Schein, and Rameau, drawn from collections of courtly "table music" written for feasts real or imagined.
Schein: Suite II from “Banchetto Musicale”
Biber: Pars III from “Mensa Sonora”
Telemann: Concertos from “Tafelmusik”
for oboe (Gaia Saetermoe-Howard)
for three violins (Sarah Darling, Clara Ross, Morgan Heissenbuettel)
for flute and recorder (Thomas Conrad and Jung Hyun Yoo)
Rameau: Chaconne from “Dardenus”
Acis and Galatea
Handel: Acis and Galatea
With the Ferris Choral Fellows, Ed Jones, dir.
Acis and Galatea - Cape Cod tour
Handel’s Acis and Galatea
With the Ferris Choral Fellows, Ed Jones, dir.
Water Music
Telemann: “Hamburger Ebb und Flut”
Vivaldi: Summer and Winter from “The Four Seasons”
Geminiani: The Enchanted Forest
Handel: Water Music
Chamber music concert
Featuring music of Handel, Telemann, Janitsch, and Bach.
Free admission
Music of J. S. Bach
Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182
Trauerode, BWV 198
With the Harvard University Choir, dir. Ed Jones
Concert is free and open to the public.
A Bach Offering
"Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben” BWV 8
“Jesu der du meine Seele” BWV 78
Noted Bach scholar and Adams University Professor Emeritus Christoph Wolff will lead the Harvard University Choir, the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, and the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra in a masterclass performance featuring two beloved cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach. Admission is free and all are welcome.
All attendees must be masked.
All attendees will be asked to present either their Harvard ID at the door
- or to show proof of vaccination
- or to show a proof of negative COVID-19 test (taken within 72 hours)
Handel's Italy
A selection of works celebrating Handel's time in Italy! We’re thrilled to return to the Memorial Church Sanctuary with this joyful program on the other side of the pandemic year.
Featuring Benjamin P. Wenzelberg and Phoebe Carrai
Handel: Overture to “Rodrigo”
Porpora: Selected arias
Porpora: Cello concerto
Dall' Abaco: Concerto Grosso in D Major
Handel: Selected arias
Free and open to the public.
All attendees must be masked.
All attendees will be asked to present either their Harvard ID at the door
- or to show proof of vaccination
- or to show a proof of negative COVID-19 test (taken within 72 hours)
Chamber music concert
Our annual chamber music concert is - you guessed it - online!
Featuring works by Rolla, Zelenka, Finger, Vivaldi, Handel, Barbella, Barriere, Telemann, and Boccherini.
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/V-BEeiD-vtU
Bach's Magnificat
Bach’s Magnificat
JS Bach’s masterpiece closes out the year with the voices of the University Choir and a full orchestra in an online collaboration.
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQqmtUgttm8
Handel's Messiah
Experience Handel’s Messiah – the timeless story of finding ultimate joy and hope – with the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra in a historic all-virtual performance on January 30th at 8pm EST. Our socially conscious performance, informed by a panel discussion with Messiah experts, will also feature filmography, photography, and artwork from Harvard affiliates; solos from Collegium members; and a special appearance from our alumni. As we come together from different corners of the world to unite in love of music, this piece keeps us looking forward to our day of reconnecting amidst our isolation.
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/jnkDXoYU_nU
Messe en cantiques
Christoph Wolff Distinguished Visiting Scholar Pedro Memelsdorff directs the University Choir and members of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra in Messe en cantiques. A reconstruction of a mass as it would have been sung by enslaved Africans in colonial Guiana.
Open rehearsal Thursday, Feb. 27 at 5:00pm, Memorial Church
Both events are free and open to all.
Chamber music concert
Our annual chamber music concert features works of JS and CPE Bach, Zelenka, Marais, Leonarda, Biber, and Mozart.
O Sing Unto The Lord
Visiting Director Murray Forbes Somerville leads members of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and the Choral Fellows in a performance of Purcell’s “O Sing Unto The Lord” during the Memorial Church Sunday Service
Magnificat
Joseph Haydn: Overture to L’infidelta delusa
W. A Mozart: Vespers
C.P.E. Bach: Magnificat
In collaboration with the Harvard University Choir
Edward Jones, conductor
Judas Maccabeus
Handel's great oratorio, featuring the Harvard University Choir, and directed by Edward Jones.
Free and open to the public.
Featuring Gene Stenger (Judas Maccabaeus) and soloists from the Harvard University Choir.
Introductory remarks by Rabbi Jonah Steinberg.
Cambridge Society for Early Music January tour
We'll be taking our program of new music for old instruments on tour to five New England locations, presented by the Cambridge Society for Early Music!
Jan. 17 - Carlisle
Jan. 18 - Weston
Jan. 19 - Salem
Jan. 20 - Ipswich
Jan. 21 - Cambridge
Fall Concert: Everything New is Old Again
A selection of new compositions for baroque orchestra, paired with classic works that inform their style and structure.
Overture in D Minor - Philipp Heinrich Erlebach
Mutability - Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg (world premiere)
Passacaille d’Armide - Jean-Baptiste Lully
La Follia - Francesco Geminiani
Outside Voices - Carson Cooman (world premiere)
Concerto in G Minor - Johann Christian Bach (arr. Martin Bernstein - world premiere)
Overture and Aria from the Goldberg Variations - Johann Sebastian Bach
The Monteverdi Vespers
Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610.
Featuring the Harvard University Choir, conducted by Ed Jones.
Chamber music concert
Our annual celebration of chamber music, featuring works by Lully and Rameau for the full orchestra as well as a variety of pieces for smaller ensembles.
Fall concert: The Perils of Passion
Harvard Baroque's fall concert highlights several works that deal with the "collateral damage" of love - jealousy and rage! Featuring soprano Amanda Forsythe.
Rameau: Suite from "Hippolyte et Aricie"
CPE Bach: Symphony in E Minor, Wq 178
Telemann: "Ino" cantata
Orfeo
Claudio Monteverdi's "musical fable" that changed the course of history. Featuring the Harvard University Choir conducted by Ed Jones.
Alcide al bivio
The Harvard Early Music Society The Harvard Early Music Society is excited to present the Boston premiere of J.A. Hasse’s opera Alcide al bivio (“Hercules at the Crossroads”) in collaboration with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra.
Written in 1760, but performed only once in the United States, Alcide al bivio is a festa teatrale that represents a period of innovation for late baroque opera. The rich orchestration, extensive accompanied recitatives, and climactic choruses that Hasse employs in this work anticipate the dramatic operatic writing of his most renowned successors, including Gluck and Mozart. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera tells the coming of age story of the young hero, Alcide. Warned by his tutor, Fronimo, that his father, Zeus, has prepared a test for him, Alcide stumbles upon a crossroads and realizes that he must choose between two opposing paths. The goddess Edonide woos Alcide, attempting to seduce him into following the path toward pleasure, while the goddess Aretea urges Alcide to instead embark on the path toward virtue. Accustomed to relying upon his unparalleled strength and bravery to succeed, Alcide struggles to surmount this challenge with the power of reason alone.
Elias Miller ‘16, executive director and conductor
Christopher Grills, music director
Emily Bishai ‘17, stage director and producer
Erin Olivieri ‘19, producer
Maddie Studt ‘16, mezzo
Andy Troska ‘17, tenor
Charlotte McKechnie ‘15, soprano
Samantha Harrison, soprano
The opera will be sung in Italian with projected titles.
Friday, April 21st, 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 22nd, 7:30 pm
First Church, Cambridge, 11 Garden St
$5 student admission
$10 general admission
Alcide al bivio
The Harvard Early Music Society The Harvard Early Music Society is excited to present the Boston premiere of J.A. Hasse’s opera Alcide al bivio (“Hercules at the Crossroads”) in collaboration with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra.
Written in 1760, but performed only once in the United States, Alcide al bivio is a festa teatrale that represents a period of innovation for late baroque opera. The rich orchestration, extensive accompanied recitatives, and climactic choruses that Hasse employs in this work anticipate the dramatic operatic writing of his most renowned successors, including Gluck and Mozart. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera tells the coming of age story of the young hero, Alcide. Warned by his tutor, Fronimo, that his father, Zeus, has prepared a test for him, Alcide stumbles upon a crossroads and realizes that he must choose between two opposing paths. The goddess Edonide woos Alcide, attempting to seduce him into following the path toward pleasure, while the goddess Aretea urges Alcide to instead embark on the path toward virtue. Accustomed to relying upon his unparalleled strength and bravery to succeed, Alcide struggles to surmount this challenge with the power of reason alone.
Elias Miller ‘16, executive director and conductor
Christopher Grills, music director
Emily Bishai ‘17, stage director and producer
Erin Olivieri ‘19, producer
Maddie Studt ‘16, mezzo
Andy Troska ‘17, tenor
Charlotte McKechnie ‘15, soprano
Samantha Harrison, soprano
The opera will be sung in Italian with projected titles.
$5 student admission
$10 general admission
Telemann And Bach: A Musical Friendship
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Georg Philipp Telemann, with a focus on his stylistic diversity and his abiding ties with the entire Bach family.
Telemann: Suite “La Bizarre” TWV 55:G2
JS Bach: Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060R
Sarah Darling, violin, and Fiona Last, oboe
CPE Bach: Symphony in B Minor, Wq 182/5
-
Telemann: Recorder Concerto TWV 51:F1
Martin Bernstein, recorder
JS Bach: Orchestral Suite no. 1, BWV 1066
Telemann in Cape Cod
We take our spring concert program, "Telemann And Bach: A Musical Friendship," to the Sandwich Village Concert Series, sponsored by the Sandwich Arts Alliance (www.sandwichartsalliance.org)