Solace & Joy: Music in the Time of a Pandemic

Since I’ve been featuring books in my blog posts, I thought I’d include my photo of the beautiful program book provided by BEMF as part of my subscription. This book was chock full of information about the festival, the performers, the instruments, and the music.

For years I've been wanting to attend the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF), but I've never been able to travel to Boston in June. So I was delighted to learn that this year the biennial festival would be entirely online, with a very reasonable subscription rate to attend all of the events. You could watch the events at any time, as often as you wished, until July 11th.

Attending the virtual BEMF, “Music of Solace & Joy”, was an amazing experience. There were two archival performances of operas made available to view: Le Carnaval de Venise by André Campra (original performance in 2017) and the double bill of La Serva Padrona and Livietta e Tracollo, both by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (original performance in 2014), all beautifully performed with gorgeous costumes, clever sets, excellent staging, and wonderful singers, dancers, and orchestra. The music was so lovely, and there was so much joy! There was also an archival concert (from 2016) by Juilliard415, a period-instrument ensemble from the renowned New York City school, performing a “Baroque dance mix” of music by Henry Purcell, Jean-Baptiste Lully, André Campra, George Frideric Handel, and Jean-Philippe Rameau. (Yes, there were dancers, too.)

It was a very moving and intimate experience watching the concerts by performers from the United States and Europe, all pre-recorded (mostly in 2021; there was one from December 2020). No audience, just the performers and the camera crew. In some respects it was even better than having a front-row seat: we were given close-ups of the instruments and performers (including their hands and, in the case of the organist, feet) as well as views of the performing space and the surrounding area; the sound recording was also excellent. I saw ensembles performing in France at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris (Ensemble Correspondances), at the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise (Doulce Mémoire), and at the Château de Lunéville (L'Achéron); a vocal sextet (Cinquecento) singing music by Josquin des Prez and Jean Richafort in the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna, Austria; Leo van Doeselaar playing the organ in the Martinikerk, Groningen, the Netherlands; Catalina Vicens playing an organetto in a church in Basel, Switzerland; Benjamin Alard playing two recitals on the chamber organ and the clavichord in the Musée de Provins et du Provinois, Provins, France; Francesco Corti playing his brand-new harpsichord in his apartment in Basel, Switzerland, and Carmen Leoni playing a fortepiano in her home in Lavagna, Italy; Erik Bosgraaf playing Telemann recorder sonatas (with Francesco Corti, harpsichord) in the Säulenhalle of the Musikbrauerei in Berlin, Germany. The BEMF ensembles were represented by a couple of wonderful concerts of music by Handel and assorted Italian composers, and Paul O'Dette played an absolutely beautiful recital of Elizabethan lute music.

For some of the concerts, the instrumentalists wore masks, and the singers were unmasked but socially-distanced. For the other ensemble concerts, the performers explained that they had all quarantined and tested for Covid-19 before coming together to rehearse and perform. There were pre-concert talks in which the performers and other experts discussed the music and the instruments. So many of the performers commented on how grateful they were to be performing, and how much they were looking forward to performing once again for a live audience in the future.

There were also a Baroque dance class, a lecture-demonstration by Laura Jeppesen (viola da gamba), and two masterclasses, one by Erik Bosgraaf (recorder) and one on 17th-century accompanied solo song with Ellen Hargis, Paul O'Dette, and Stephen Stubbs. I'll be writing about the masterclasses in my next blog post! The performances for the masterclasses had been pre-recorded; the recordings were played, and then the clinicians and performers connected via Zoom to work on various aspects of technique and performance practice. It was interesting to hear both performers and clinicians talking about their pandemic music-making: for example, the piccolo player who took up the recorder as a pandemic project, and the husband-and-wife team of Stephen Stubbs and Maxine Eilander editing collections of solo songs and recording accompaniment tracks on Baroque guitar and harp.

How much solace and joy has been provided by music during the past 18 months? Students and teachers have found ways of connecting remotely; ensembles have learned how to create videos assembling remote performances by individual members; some people have taken up new instruments, reconnected with old ones, or used the time to brush up on theory or musicianship skills; and most of us have enjoyed listening to recordings and watching videos on the internet. I think we all have an increased appreciation for the richness that the arts provide in our lives.

Here are a few Youtube links to performances by some of the performers I enjoyed hearing via the Boston Early Music Festival:

Selections from the Mure of Rowallan’s Lute Book, Rowallan Castle, Scotland (1620), played by Paul O’Dette, lute

G.P. Telemann: Sonata in C Major, TWV 41:C2, played by Erik Bosgraaf, recorder, and Francesco Corti, harpsichord

Jean Richafort: Introitus from Requiem à 6, sung by Cinquecento

Dieterich Buxtehude: Toccata in D minor, BuxWV 155, played by Leo van Doeselaar, organ

And here’s a link to the masterclass with Ellen Hargis, Paul O’Dette, and Stephen Stubbs. Many thanks to BEMF for posting these videos on their Youtube channel!