Letter from Boston
| Autor: | Howard Schott |
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| Rok vydání: | 2003 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Early Music. :472-475 |
| ISSN: | 1741-7260 0306-1078 |
| Popis: | Boston can fairly lay claim to the title of Early Music Capital of the Americas. In its earliest days this city, founded in 163o, was dominated by Puritans, a fact that might summon up an image of a dour, cheerless and antimusical little world. However, as Percy Scholes and others demonstrated long ago, secular music actually thrived in colonial New England. It was only in the church that musical practice was restricted to the singing of hymns and the chanting of psalms. When, in the early 19th century, interest in the music of past generations began to assume greater importance, Boston saw the founding in 1815 of the Handel and Haydn Society, an organization that continues to flourish. The earliest American performances of such classics as Handel's Messiah and Haydn's Creation were offered by this venerable presenter. Generations later, with the advent of Christopher Hogwood as artistic director in 1986, H & H, as it is known, slimmed down its chorus of professional singers and decided that henceforth its orchestra would perform only on period instruments. This policy continues under Hogwood's successor, the current director, Grant Lewellyn. Programmes still include works of the Baroque and Classical periods, presented with meticulous attention to appropriate performance practice. However, H & H has increasingly ventured into the Romantic era, offering early to mid19th-century works well established in the repertory of modern instrument symphony orchestras. There is doubtless much to be learned thereby. However, even in Symphony Hall, renowned for its perfect acoustic, but with 2,6oo00 seats, the H & H's smaller and less powerful instrumental forces do not sound to best advantage, certainly not in this later repertory. Happily, a number of concerts requiring even smaller forces are also given in Jordan Hall, also acoustically ideal for its size, seating a mere 1,ooo listeners. H & H resumed touring when Hogwood became director and made a number of fine recordings under his baton. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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