Classical Music Sampler: August 2010

By Caldwell Titcomb

callithumpian

The avant-garde Callithumpian Consort, founded and headed by Stephen Drury, will play on a boat in the Boston Harbor this month.

August 3: The Old West Organ Society presents the award-winning, young organist Jacob Street in a program including works by Buxtehude, J. S. Bach, and Mendelssohn. He will also play music by Jean Langlais (1907-91) and Gaston Litaize (1909-91). At Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, 8 p.m.

August 4, 11, 18, and 25: The free Wednesday afternoon series continues throughout the month with violinist Jodi Hagen and pianist Heinrich Christensen playing works by Korngold, Schnittke, and a world premiere by Robert Edward Smith (Aug. 4), and Pei-yeh Tsai offering solo piano works by Haydn, Scriabin, Albeniz, and Carl Vine (Aug. 18). In honor of the composer’s bicentennial, the August 11 and 25 concerts will be devoted entirely to vocal pieces by Schumann; participating will be soprano Meena Malik, mezzos Emily Oak and Christina English, countertenor Yaacov Zamir, and baritone Sepp Hammer. At Church of St. John the Evangelist, 35 Bowdoin Street (Beacon Hill), Boston, MA, 5:30 p.m.

August 7, 14, 21, an 28: The Boston Chamber Music Society presents four Saturday concerts. All four include music by Chopin and Schumann in honor of the composers’ bicentennial. In addition the programs contain music by Liszt (Aug. 7), Kodaly (Aug. 14), Brahms (Aug. 21), and Beethoven (Aug. 28). At Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA, 8 p.m.

August 11: The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, led by Charles Ansbacher, offers a free concert featuring two of Beethoven’s greatest works, the “Egmont” Overture and Symphony No. 7. At the Hatch Memorial Shell, Charles River Esplanade (rain location: Church of the Convenant), Boston, MA, 7 p.m.

Pianist

Pianist Pei-yeh Tsai plays at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Boston this month.

August 17: The Old West Organ Society concludes its summer series with a recital by award-winning Christian Lane, Harvard’s Assistant University Organist and Choirmaster. He will play music of J. S. Bach and Schumann along with Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937), Nico Muhly (b. 1981), and Carson Cooman (b. 1982). At Old West Church, 131 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, 8 p.m.

August 18: The Longwood Symphony Orchestra, under Jonathan McPhee, performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 along with Bill Boston’s “On Eagle’s Wings.” Also on the free program is Gershwin’s celebrated “Rhapsody in Blue,” with the solo piano part by the winning student of the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts Concerto Competition. At the Hatch Memorial Shell, Charles River Esplanade, Boston, MA, 7 p.m.

August 20: The Institute of Contemporary Art sponsors the avant-garde Callithumpian Consort, founded and headed by Stephen Drury, in a performance of Gavin Bryars’s “The Sinking of the Titanic.” Five musicians will be positioned on a boat in Boston Harbor. Their playing will be amplified and fed through a computer, the result being audible and visible from the Putnam Investments Plaza outdoors and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater indoors. The intent is “to create an atmospheric, ocean-themed sound installation.” At Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Street, Boston, MA, 7 p.m.

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