By Caldwell Titcomb
June 4: The Old West Organ Society presents Yuko Hayashi in an organ recital celebrating the 40th anniversary of the C. B. Fisk organ. Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston, 7 p.m.
June 6: The Chorus Pro Musica, led by Betsy Burleigh, performs Carl Orff’s popular “Carmina Burana” and Dominick Argento’s “Odi et Amo” (“I Hate and I Love”), using texts from the ancient Roman poet Catullus. The Orff will use the composer’s own arrangement for two pianos and percussion. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 3 p.m.
June 10: The Rockport Chamber Music Festival opens its season in its new venue, The Shalin Liu Performance Center. The first concert features the world premiere of the Piano Trio No. 4 by Scott Wheeler (b. 1952), commissioned by the Festival. Also on the program are the original versions of Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” (1870) and Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” (1944). 37 Main Street, Rockport, MA, 8 p.m.
June 11: The Rockport Festival celebrates the composer’s 200th birthday with an all-Chopin piano recital by Garrick Ohlsson. On the program are the Impromptu No. 2, the Ballade No. 3, two nocturnes, the Scherzo No. 3, the Barcarolle, and the monumental set of 24 Preludes, Op. 28. 37 Main Street, Rockport, MA, 8 p.m.
June 11: The Choir of the Church of the Advent, conducted by Mark Dwyer and Ross Woods, performs two large works: the “Missa da Cappella ‘In illo tempore’” (1610) by Claudio Monteverdi and the Mass for Double Choir, Op. 44 (1964) by the late British composer Kenneth Leighton. Church of the Advent, 30 Brimmer Street (Beacon Hill), Boston, 8 p.m.
June 12: The Longwood Symphony Orchestra presents Carl Nielsen’s wonderful Symphony No. 4 (“The Inextinguishable,” 1916), the premiere of “Albert Schweitzer Portrait” by Gene Scheer (b. 1958), and Debussy’s masterly “La Mer.” Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 8 p.m.
June 15: Organist Barbara Bruns joins five brass players for a concert of music by Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, Humperdinck, Campra, Gabrieli, Hindemith, and Gigout. Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston, 8 p.m.
June 17: As part of the Aston Magna Festival, Daniel Stepner, first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet, will take up the baroque violin for a concert of Bach’s Partitas Nos. 1, 2, and 3 for unaccompanied violin—No. 2 in D-minor concludes with the greatest chaconne ever written. Slosberg Recital Hall, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA, 8 p.m. (This concert repeats on June 18 at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY at 8 p.m. and on June 19 at Simon’s Rock College, Great Barrington, MA at 6 p.m. There will be a pre-concert lecture one hour before concert time at all three venues.)
June 24: The Aston Magna Festival offers an all-Mozart program including the lovely quartet for oboe and strings, K. 370; an 18th-century arrangement for string sextet of the Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364; and the quintet for basset clarinet and string quartet, K. 581. There will also be a performance of a movement for basset clarinet and string quartet recently completed by Harvard professor Robert Levin, who has been finishing incomplete Mozart works for decades and understands Mozart’s style better than any other person alive. Classical oboist Stephen Hammer and basset clarinetist Eric Hoeprich join six string players. (This concert repeats on June 25 at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson NY at 8 p.m. and on June 26 at Simon’s Rock College, Great Barrington MA at 6 p.m., with a pre-concert lecture one hour before concert time at all three venues.)
June 29: It would be worth the effort to travel to Portland, Maine, to hear the dazzling 24-year-old, German-born organist Felix Hell, now a resident of the U.S. He began organ lessons at eight and started concertizing at nine. He has the entire organ works of Bach in his repertory and has already released eight CD recordings. He has widely been proclaimed the world’s foremost young organist. Merrill Auditorium, City Hall, 389 Congress Street, Portland, ME, 7:30 p.m. (with a pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m.)
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