Baroque Venice in Boston

Venice, built out of the sea, was devoted first to commerce and second to religion. Its musical tradition developed later, and was centered on church music. By the 16th century, Venice was an important center of music, and its best-known composer to modern audiences is Giovanni Gabrielli. On Friday and Sunday, Handel + Haydn brought to Jordan Hall a feast of Venetian Baroque music, featuring works by Gabrielli and composers previously unknown to us, including Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, Giovanni Fontana and Michaelangelo Rossi. The works were clearly historically-correct. In addition to the organ, harpsichord and violins, we heard a trombone, dulcian and theorbo. Leading the ensemble was Richard Egarr, directing from the keyboard as well as playing a harpsichord solo. The instrumentalists took turns coming and going, with one piece featuring violinist Aisslinn Nosky on stage and the other two playing an echo from just off-stage. This was clearly chamber music with the small groupings of instruments, and was better suited to the smaller confines of Jordan Hall. The playing, as one would expect from H+H musicians, was superb, and Mr. Egarr’s obvious enthusiasm for the works and his brief introductory comments added to the enjoyment.

Vive La France, Vive La Piaf!

Since 2015 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Edith Piaf, it is an appropriate year to have a touring company present “Piaf! Le Spectacle,” which we saw at the Zeiterion on Sunday. The show is done in two halves. The first does Piaf as street musician, getting by on hand-outs from the crowd. The cast are dressed in a manner reminiscent of the era, and the giant backdrop screen has a marvelous series of montages showing Paris of the 1930’s and 1940’s. After intermission, the second half showcases Piaf as international star, and the singer is now in a little black dress while her band members have changed into tuxedos. The visuals show us Piaf on magazine covers, a montage of her famous lovers, and Piaf in glamorous locales. Marvelous as are the photos and visuals, the show succeeds because of the music. Anne Carrere IS Edith Piaf, though with perhaps a slightly better voice! The songs of the first half were less familiar, while the second half featured all of the Piaf signature songs (La Vie en Rose, Je ne Regrette Rien, Padam, etc). The band includes a piano, bass, accordion and percussion, and while at times a bit too loud, was generally excellent. Ms Carrere has a sparkling personality to go along with her magnificent voice. She got the audience to sing along for one song, and pulled men out of the audience to join her as props for a few songs. A great show.

Tabor goes Green

Tabor Academy hosted an evening of traditional Irish music at the Firemen Center Friday night. Leading off were the Buzzards Bay Buccaneers, a duo playing Irish jigs and reels on the Irish Bouzouki and autoharp. These instruments made the music sound better than the traditional fiddle, though their playing was a bit off-key at times. Next up were husband and wife Jay and Abby Michaels, “The Harper and the Minstrel.” They play an astounding variety of instruments, including harps, of course, and flutes and whistles. Abby’s gentle soprano and Jay’s baritone are also used to good effect. They got a well-deserved ovation after their set. Headlining the program was Irish balladeer Gerry O’Beirne, who was artist-in-residence at Tabor this past week. He captured the audience with his voice, masterful guitar playing and puckish personality. He agreed to do “Danny Boy” at audience request “as long as you do NOT sing along.” For an encore, he did an acoustic guitar piece that displayed his mastery of the instrument. If you missed this show, you can catch Jay and Abby at the Wepecket Salon Series concert in December

Elijah soars with the New Bedford Symphony

Mendelssohn’s Elijah was modeled after the great Baroque oratorios of Handel, Haydn and Bach and is a sublime work. It features four soloists, chorus and large orchestra augmented by an organ. Sunday’s performance by the New Bedford Symphony did it justice. The four soloists were uniformly excellent, with a special bow to baritone Philip Lima. As Elijah, he had the greatest share of time and was magnificent. Not only does Mr. Lima possess a glorious voice, but he had a great stage presence. He WAS an Old Testament prophet – at times commanding and others sorrowful. It would not have surprised me had he brought down hail and brimstone. The chorus, which was the Rhode Island College Concert Chorus augmented by members from the Sippican and Greater New Bedford Choral Societies, started off somewhat tentatively but gained in strength as the performance went on. Several members of the RICCC were called out to join the soloists in some sections and displayed excellent voices. The orchestra performed flawlessly, and the organ sections blended in perfectly without dominating. The English lyrics (the piece was first performed in Birmingham in its English edition) made it easier for the audience to follow the biblical tale. A sublime afternoon at the Z.

Fredheads gather in the basement

It has been many decades since we were last in that subterranean shrine to folk music, the Club Passim. In fact, the last artist we saw there was probably Joan Baez when she was one step up from street busker. Nowadays the Club runs concerts just about seven nights a week. Little has changed – it is very small and very crowded, with 4 to a table barely big enough for two. The food is casual hearty – burgers and fries style, with a lengthy drink menu. With a small kitchen, service tends to be slow. We were there to see Fred Eaglesmith, Canadian troubadour of cars and trains and unrequited love. This time Fred added a back-up singer, a big-haired Texas gal who opened and then sang harmony on many songs. He kept his drummer, bass player and guitar player of many years. Fred is one of those artists you either love or hate. His gravelly voice is a bit reminiscent of the early Bob Dylan, and his stage repartee is heavy on insults and irony. He doesn't get this way often, so the evening was a must for fans.

A Number: solid acting, weak story at New Rep

The story line (I hate to call it a plot) of A Number is thus: father loses his wife to suicide, tries to raise infant son alone but fails miserably, at least in part due to alcohol and drug use. Son shipped off somewhere unspecified but to try again, father has him cloned and apparently does a better job the second time. Unknown to him, multiple clones are made ?why? The cloned son discovers this and is very upset. The original son appears, angry and bitter. One of the other clones shows up at the end. The dialog never really hangs together, and too many lose ends are left to make this plausible. The theme is supposedly “nature versus nurture,” but we never really know enough about the second son to know how much he differed from the first. The set is spare and modernistic, and neither adds to or detracts from the play. The acting is excellent. Nael Nacier uses simple changes of costume and accent to pull off being the three different clones. Dale Place over acts at times but is an effective father who has made many wrong choices. The play is mercifully short at just about one hour. As a Black Box, little theatre, presentation, one’s expectations would have been lower, but as a Main Stage piece, this is simply not worth your time.

Russia invades Symphony Hall

Our first BSO concert of the new season featured two contrasting works. The first half was Prokofiev’s Cantata Alexander Nevsky, and the second, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. The great Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein created Alexander Nevsky in large part due to the propaganda need of the Soviet government in the late 1930’s. Stalin feared an invasion by the Nazis and wanted a film that would raise Russian morale. The story of a 13th Century Russian folk hero was designed for that purpose. Despite its genesis, Alexander Nevsky is considered one of the great films of all times. Prokofiev was enlisted to write the movie score, and he turned this score into a free-standing Cantata for chorus and orchestra. Like the Marseillaise, the cantata has stirring music and blood-curdling lyrics best not translated. Each movement of the Cantata depicts a portion of the film, though in a much more flowing coherent musical rendition than can be done with a film score.The full Tanglewood Festival Chorus filled Symphony Hall with rich sound. A short solo section was beautifully sung by Russian mezzo-soprano Nadezhda Serdyuk, making her BSO debut. At the end of the piece, we were ready to serve the defense of the Motherland! After intermission we were treated to a sweet melodic and pastoral contrast. Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances was written in America, and sounds much more American than Russian. A beautiful section is played by the woodwinds alone without strings, and the finale includes brass fanfares. Both pieces showed off the splendid acoustics of Symphony Hall and led to standing ovations