In the wake of Opera Boston’s sad demise, the appointment of Gil Rose, who had led the company so brilliantly, as Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music came as cheering news. With the 2012 summer season beginning, we can look forward to the fruits of the board’s wise decision. The summer schedule is an eclectic masterpiece which accurately reflects the taste of the more sophisticated music-lover of today, especially in Boston. In comparison, other festival programs seem stodgy. Its mix of modern, contemporary, classical and opera continues the tradition established by James Bolle, who is primarily a composer himself, extended by a few programs of baroque music on period instruments, a significant strain in contemporary performance. Some of the participants like James Maddalena will be familiar to long-time festival goers, while others are new. The combination of free (now called “voluntary”) local concerts around the Monadnock region and more formal ticketed concerts in the Peterborough Town House continues. By perusing the schedule, I get the impression that the quality of the voluntary concerts has improved.
This appetizing menu is too diverse to summarize, but a few characteristic examples should convince you that it’s a good idea to stay close to Peterborough this summer.
The season will begin with an orchestral concert by the Monadnock Sinfonietta of music commissioned by Martha Graham, including works unfamiliar today, like dello Joio’s Diversion of Angels and Hindemith’s Herodiade alongside Copland’s beloved Appalachian Spring. Huang Ruo’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 (2000) will provide a more contemporary interlude. The young musicians of the Claremont Trio, by now a fixture in our region and elsewhere, will play a late trio by Mozart, with Brahms’ soulful Op. 8 with Donald Crockett’s Night Scenes. A Sunday concert for winds at the Francestown Meeting House by the Monadnock Players will bring together Gandolfi, Mozart, Barber, Schuller, Villa-Lobos, and Harbison. An organ and trumpet recital will combine contemporary Americans with Telemann, Handel, and Haydn. The most traditional program, of works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert for keyboard and violin will be played on period instruments by the F.A.E. Duo.
The opera program, to be conducted by Gil Rose, will be a Dominick Argento double bill: A Water Bird Talk and The Boor, sung by Heather Buck (soprano), James Maddalena (baritone), Frank Kelley (tenor), Aaron Engebreth (baritone), all of whom have been warmly praised in these pages. A first-rate performance of Argento should be one of the highlights of the season.
Krista River, who has distinguished herself in Bach’s B Minor Mass and Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at Emmanuel Music this past season, will sing Virgil Thomson, Arthur Berger, and Frank Martin with the Monadnock players, and Sanford Sylvan will sing Schubert’s Winterreise, with David Breitman on fortepiano. This will surely be one of the events not to be missed this summer.
There is much else to enjoy. The concert listing itself is the best guide.
2012 Summer Concerts
Friday, July 6, 7:30 pm – Peterborough Town House
Town House Concert, order tickets here.
OPENING NIGHT
Monadnock Sinfonietta performs music commissioned by Martha Graham
Norman Dello Joio – Diversion of Angels
Huang Ruo* – Chamber Concerto No. 1 “Yueh Fei”
Paul Hindemith – Herodiade
Aaron Copland – Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
Sunday, July 8, 3:00 pm – Harrisville Community Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Players
Virgil Thomson – Portraits for Violin Alone
Virgil Thomson – In a Bird Cage for Solo Cello
Reza Vali – Persian Folk Songs Set #9
Virgil Thomson – Sonata for Flute Alone
Max Reger – String Trio No. 2 in d minor, Op141b
Virgil Thomson – Sonata for Flute & Violin
Dan Welcher – Zephyrus
Wednesday, July 11, 7:30 pm – Deering Community Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Guest Artists: Irina Muresanu (violin), Rob Auler (piano)
Johannes Brahms – Scherzo
Virgil Thomson – Waltz
Virgil Thomson – Five Ladies
Ludwig van Beethoven – “Kreutzer” Sonata
Franz Liszt – Mephisto-Waltz
Virgil Thomson – Sonata
William Bolcom – Graceful Ghost
Griforas Dinicu – Skylark
Friday, July 13, 7:30 pm – Peterborough Town House
Town House Concert, order tickets here.
Guest Artist: Claremont Trio
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Trio in C Major, K. 548
Donald Crockett – Night Scenes
Johannes Brahms – Trio in B Major, Op. 8
Sunday, July 15, 3:00pm – Wilton Center Unitarian Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Players
Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata in F Major for Horn and Piano Op. 17
Arnold Bax – Clarinet Sonata in Bb Major
George Antheil – Sonata for Trumpet and Piano
Stjepan Sulek – Sonata for Trombone and Piano
Johannes Brahms – Sonata for Viola and Piano in F Minor
Virgil Thomson – I for Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone & Viola
Wednesday, July 18, 7:30 pm – Keene Ahavas Achim Synagogue
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Guest Artists: Hirsch-Pinkas Duo (pianos),
Jonathan Hess, Robert Schulz (percussion)
John Bergamo – Piru Bowle
Luciano Berio – Linea
Johannes Brahms – Walzes, Op. 39
Bela Bartok – Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
Stewart Wallace – Gorilla In a Cage
Friday, July 20, 7:30 pm – Peterborough Town House
Town House Concert, order tickets here.
Guest artist: Alan Feinberg (piano)
Domenico Scarlatti – 4 Sonatas
Frederic Chopin – Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise, 3 Etudes
Franz Schubert – Impromptu Op. 90 #3
Mauricio Kagel – An Tasten
Franz Schubert – Wanderer Fantasy
Sunday, July 22, 3:00 pm – Francestown Old Meeting House
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Players
Michael Gandolfi – Preludes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Five Divertimenti for Winds in Bb Major
Samuel Barber – Summer Music
Gunther Schuller – Suite for Woodwind Quintet
Heitor Villa-Lobos – Quinteto em forma de chôros
John Harbison – Wind Quintet
Wednesday, July 25, 7:30 pm – Temple Community Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Guest artists: Terry Everson (trumpet), Scott Jarett (organ)
Johann Sebastian Bach – “Zurücke, zurücke, geflügelten Winde” from Cantata 205
Georg Frideric Handel – Suite in D major
Georg Phillip Telemann – Concerto in D major
David MacDonald – Voices * MacDowell Colony Fellow
Petr Eben – Okna
Franz Josef Haydn – Concerto in Eb Major
Thursday, July 26, 7:30 pm – Sullivan Congregational Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Guest Artists: F. A. E. Duo, Nicholas DiEugenio (violin), Chi-Chen Wu (fortepiano)
Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata for Piano and Violin in D major, op. 12, no. 1
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Sonata in E-flat major, K. 282
Franz Schubert – Sonata for Violin and Piano in D major D. 384
Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata for Piano and Violin op. 30, no. 2
Sunday July 29, 3:00 pm – Keene Colonial Theatre
Opera Celebration, order tickets here.
Guest Artists: Heather Buck (soprano), James Maddalena (baritone), Frank Kelley (tenor), Aaron Engebreth (baritone); directed and conducted by Gil Rose
Dominick Argento – A Water Bird Talk
Dominick Argento – The Boor
Wednesday, August 1, 7:30 pm – Hancock Congregational Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Players with Krista River
Kate Moore – Red Flame, Blue Flame
Virgil Thomson – Four Songs to the Poems of Thomas Campion
Luciano Berio – Chamber Music
Paul Ben-Haim – Chamber Music
Arthur Berger – Words for Music, Perhaps: Three Poems of Yeats
Frank Martin – Quatre Sonnets a Cassandre
Claude Debussy – Sonata for Flute, Viola & Harp
Thursday, August 2, 7:30 pm – Washington Congregational Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Players
Ben Hjertmann – Bhyxe
Franz Danzi – Trio in E Minor
Ingolf Dahl – Concerto a Tre
Zoltan Kodaly- Duo for Violin & Cello
Saturday, August 4, 7:30 pm – Peterborough Town House
Town House Concert, order tickets here.
Guest Artists: Sanford Sylvan (baritone), David Breitman (fortepiano)
Franz Schubert – Winterreise
Sunday, August 5, 3:00 pm – Walpole Unitarian Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Players
Luigi Boccherini – Trio in d minor, G. 117
Paul Hindemith – String trio #1 op. 34
Andrew Norman – A Companion Guide to Rome (2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist)
Wednesday August 8, 7:30 pm – Jaffrey Center
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Quartet
Virgil Thomson – String Quartet #1
Sebastian Currier – Quiet Time
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – String Quartet #3
Friday, August 10, 7:30 pm – Peterborough All Saints’ Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Guest Artists: Lorelei Ensemble
Kassiane – I en polles amarties (The Fallen Woman, 9c. Greece)
Sungji Hong – Kyrie, from Missa Lumen de Lumine
Francisco Guerrero – “O Virgen” from Villanescas y Canciones Espirituales
Cristóbal Morales – O Magnum Mysterium
Robert Kyr – “Song of the Virgin to Her Son (upon his death and resurrection)” from From the Circling Wheel
Sungji Hong – Agnus Dei from Missa Lumen de Lumine
Heather Gilligan – Dona Nobis Pacem
David Lang – “I lie”
Mary Montgomery Koppel – “A la lune”
Maggi Payne – Desertscapes
I. Pyramid Lake
II. Bryce Canyon
III. Death Valley
IV. Devil’s Playground
Carson Cooman – Golden Callings
Saturday, August 11, 3:00pm – Dublin Emmanuel Church
Village Concert, voluntary admission.
Monadnock Quartet
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Adagio & Fugue
Arthur Shepherd – Triptych for High Voice and String Quartet
Virgil Thomson – String Quartet #2
Virgil Thomson – Stabat Mater
Maurice Ravel – String Quartet
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*MacDowell Colony Fellow
