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Germania
The Boston Early Music Festival, plus new music in Rockport
BY DAVID WEININGER

The German Baroque is in these days, at least around here. Musica Sacra has just given a concert exploring the 17th-century German motet; now the Boston Early Music Festival devotes its annual weeklong series of concerts and exhibitions to German music of the Baroque and the wide array of European influences it absorbed and refracted along the way.

The festival’s main attraction will be nine fully staged performances of the opera The Beautiful and Faithful Ariadne by Johann Georg Conradi. Conradi’s name is now largely forgotten, though in his day he was an important composer in the thriving opera scene in Hamburg. Ariadne premiered in 1691 at Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt Theater, the first public opera house outside of Venice. It was revived there in 1722, but the manuscript disappeared soon after, not to be rediscovered until 1972 in the Library of Congress by musicologist George Buelow.

According to Buelow, Conradi’s score is distinguished by the "highly expressive and cosmopolitan" mix of national styles it displays. French influences are evident in the dotted rhythms of the overture and the many dances, while Venetian and German elements dominate in the recitatives. The libretto, by Christian Heinrich Postel, also displays a complex assortment of styles; according to Buelow, his librettos were patterned on Italian models but were also "full of complex German Baroque imagery." A six-person dance troupe participates as well. Ariadne should thus provide listeners with a fascinatingly direct view into Baroque musical culture as a whole, without the layers of hindsight that intrude on works more familiar to us. Six performances will take place in the newly refurbished Emerson Majestic Theatre, June 10 through 15; the production then moves west for three performances in Great Barrington at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, June 20 through 22.

The cosmopolitan theme informs many of the festival’s other events. Baroque violinist Giuliano Carmignola, who’s already made a name for himself as a masterful Vivaldi player, offers a program detailing the Italian influence on Bach. The June 11 program includes works by Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Corelli, Vivaldi, and Bach. Harpsichordist Andrea Marcon accompanies. The Tölzer Knabenchor, one of the best boys' choirs in the world, devotes an entire concert to selections from Heinrich Schütz’s Geistliche Chormusik of 1648. This outstanding collection of motets represents the pinnacle of Schütz’s choral writing, which includes not only his German heritage but the influences of Gabrieli and Monteverdi as well. That’s on June 13. And the redoubtable Tallis Scholars, familiar faces around here, give a concert exploring the influence of Josquin des Prez on his German-speaking contemporaries. In addition to Josquin and Heinrich Isaac, the concert includes an Ave Maria by the rarely heard Swiss composer Ludwig Senfl. Music director Peter Phillips conducts the June 14 concert. (All of the above take place at Jordan Hall at 8 p.m.)

In addition, a series of late-night concerts (starting at 11 p.m.) will feature even more adventurous fare. On June 11 the New York–based early-music ensemble ARTEK takes over Emmanuel Church for a program of German Baroque chamber music, including such under-the-radar composers as Johann Philipp Krieger and Philipp Heinrich Erlebach. And the next night, at Jordan Hall, tenor Jan Kobow and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout explore the beginnings of the German Lied tradition in a program of little-known 18th-century songs. Finally, the wealth of unusual music shouldn’t obscure the exhibition part of the week, which includes symposiums and lectures on instrument making, performance practice, and much else. It should be a full week of both edification and entertainment. For more information, call (617) 424-7232 or visit www.bemf.org.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL. The Rockport Chamber Music Festival, now in its 22nd season, hosts a "Meet the Composers" evening, including discussions with John Heiss, Yehudi Wyner, and Fred Lerdahl, as well as performances of works by all three. Lerdahl’s piece, commissioned for the festival, features the piano quartet Sonos and oboist Peggy Pearson. That’s on June 13 at 8 at the Rockport Art Association, 12 Main Street, in Rockport. Tickets are $10 to $30; call (978) 546-7391.

Issue Date: June 6 - 12, 2003

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