Thursday, November 15, 2007

Weekend Concert Calendar, 11/15/07

It's still technically Thursday, and time for the Weekend Choral Concert Calendar!

Well, Friday is looking a little scanty, so perhaps you will have nothing to do. Oh, no, but wait! HMS Pinafore at MIT is still going on! This is your last weekend to see yours truly conducting a G&S classic! Friday at 8 pm and Saturday at 2 pm – details here!

On Saturday, however, you are spoiled for choice. Let’s take a look.

I think my top pick would be the Spectrum Singers. They will be kicking off the Christmas season a little early, it’s true, but just look at the program. "Sound the Trumpets!": A festive celebration of the Christmas season with organ, brass, and percussion. Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms; Schutz's Psalm 150: Alleluia, Lobet dem Herrn, SWV 24; Boulanger's Psaume 24; Daniel Pinkham's Christmas Cantata, and more. A good time, indeed (and they get mad points for performing Boulanger. That would be Lili, btw, the composer sister of the more famous Nadia. She died at a young age, or she might have been better known.) The performance will be at 8 pm at First Church Congregational in Cambridge. More details here.

The Brookline Chorus is performing Carmina Burana! Always a good time! They are doing the two piano version. 8 pm at All Saints Parish in Brookline – more info is here.

The Mystic Chorale, under Nick Page (local choral celebrity!) is performing at 8 pm in Lexington at Cary Memorial Hall. The highlight will be a premiere of a Beatitudes setting by Jonathan Singleton. Support new music! More details here. They will also perform on Sunday at 3:30.

The Newton Choral Society will perform music of Daniel Pinkham at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newton at 8 pm. More info is here.

The Cantemus Chamber Chorus is performing at 7:30 pm in Hamilton – works of Pfautsch, Bass, Bach, Górecki, Schuman. (I’ve never even heard of Pfautsch and Bass – a true opportunity to educate yourself in some lesser-known composers! Górecki, if you are unfamiliar, has some great choral pieces.) More info here. They will perform again on Sunday in Newburyport at 4 pm.

And what about Sunday?

My top pick here is for the Sounds of Stow. They will perform Haydn’s Creation at 3 pm in Stow Center. Good things are being said about the soloists, and I was quite impressed at a SoS concert a few years back. And let’s not forget that any brilliant trumpet-playing you here will be my father! More information is here.

I mentioned Cantemus and Mysic above, of course – in addition, you can hear the Fine Arts Chorale at 4 pm in South Weymouth (I know nothing about this group) or the Heritage Chorale at 4 pm at Babson College performing Gabrieli, Bruckner, and Pinkham.

And the weekend ends late – at 8 pm on Sunday the MIT Chamber Chorus will perform in Kresge Auditorium…and this concert is FREE! More information is here.

Also, let’s carry on a little further, shall we? Because ironically, the most highly anticipated event of the weekend falls on Monday night. At 8 pm at Symphony Hall, Thomas Quastoff is performing with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in Boston’s Celebrity Series. I try to only report choral music concerts, b/c it takes enough time to just do that, but hey, this deserves an exception. Hie the over there – tickets are still available! And then on Tuesday, Renée Fleming joins the BSO…I really must stop and get to bed.

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