Boston Baroque Presents The World Premiere of Finnegans Wake: An Operoar, Act 3
Performance is part of New Directions Series at Longy School of Music
Boston Baroque is pleased to present its next chamber concert entitled “Monologues” as a part of its ongoing New Directions Series, bringing together Baroque and Contemporary music. The concert will take place on Saturday, March 29, 2014 at 8 pm at the charming Pickman Hall located inside Longy School of Music at 27 Garden Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Tickets at $40 and $20 can be purchased here or by calling: 617-987-8600.
Paula Plum
For “Monologues,” Music Director Martin Pearlman will present a world premiere of the final act of his composition, Finnegans Wake: An Operoar, Act 3, based on James Joyce’s masterpiece.
Christina Day Martinson, photo courtesy of wgbh.org
In this final installment, Pearlman focuses on the famous final monoloque of the female character of Anna Livia Plurabelle–Annie or ALP as she is also known. Boston’s award-winning actress Paula Plum will serve as the narrator for Pearlman’s music.
“Monologues” also will include Handel’s gripping soliloquy in Agrippina condotta à morire which portrays the empress Agrippina’s emotions on her way to her place of execution: she is torn between hatred of the tyrant who has ordered her death and her love of her son, whose career she sought to advance by murdering her own husband! Soprano Julianne Gearhart will sing the role of the emotional Agrippina.
Finally, in a monoloque for unaccompanied violin, Boston Baroque’s own heroine ~the brilliant concertmaster Christina Day Martinson ~ will take the stage when she is showcased in a performance of Bach’s challenging Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, his unaccompanied sonata for violin.
About Martin Pearlman:
Martin Pearlman is the founder and Music Director of Boston Baroque, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Over that time, he has directed Boston Baroque’s orchestra and chorus in the ensemble’s annual subscription series in Boston, has toured with the ensemble in the United States and Europe, and has made numerous recordings, three of which have been nominated for Grammy® awards.
Among the modern-instrument ensembles he has conducted are The Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Utah Opera, Opera Columbus, Boston Lyric Opera, San Antonio Symphony, the New World Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Alabama Symphony and others. He is also the only conductor from the period-instrument field to have performed live on the internationally televised Grammy® Awards show.
Martin Pearlman studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in The Netherlands and Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University. His work and degrees in composition were with Czech composer Karel Husa at Cornell University and Yehudi Wyner at Yale. In addition to Finnegans Wake — an Operoar, his recent works include chamber music, piano pieces and The Creation According to Orpheus for solo piano, harp and percussion with string orchestra. His music for three Samuel Beckett plays (Words and Music, Cascando, and … but the clouds ...) was commissioned by the 92nd Street Y in New York for its Beckett centennial and produced there and at Harvard University.
Pearlman is a professor at Boston University, where he directs Baroque ensembles and teaches in the Historical Performance department of the School of Music.
About Boston Baroque:
Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America, and is widely regarded as “one of the world’s premier period-instrument bands.” (Fanfare). The ensemble produces lively, emotionally charged, ground-breaking performances of Baroque and Classical works, for today’s audiences, performed on instruments and using performance techniques that reflect the eras in which the music was composed.
Founded in 1973 by Music Director Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque’s orchestra is made up of some of the finest period-instrument players in the United States; they are frequently joined by the ensemble’s professional chorus and by instrumental and vocal soloists from around the world. The ensemble presents an annual subscription series consisting of five programs that are performed at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, or Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, MA. In 2012-13 the ensemble inaugurated New Directions: a chamber music series mixing music of the baroque and modern eras played on modern and period instruments.
Saturday, March 29, 2014 – 8 PM Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music “Monologues”
Pearlman: Finnegans Wake, Act 3 (World premiere), Paula Plum, Actress
Bach: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, Christina Day Martinson, violin
Handel: Agrippina condotta à morire, HWV110, Julianne Gearhart, soprano