by Marvin J. Ward

Northampton, MA, 21 December 2008. Arcadia Players’ offering for the holiday season this year was the Vespro della beate Vergine by Claudio Monteverdi, first performed in 1610 in Mantua, where he was employed by Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga.  He used it again in 1613 in Venice (where it was also published) as his audition piece of sorts, successful since he was hired as maestro de cappella at St. Mark’s Cathedral, succeeding Giovanni Gabrieli in that post, because Francesco Gonzaga succeeded his father in 1612 and left Monteverdi unemployed.

by Marvin J. Ward

Worcester, MA, 20 November 2008. Pianist Sarah Grunstein, member of the faculty of the College of the Holy Cross, presented J. S. Bach’s “Aria mit verschieden Veränderungen fur Cembalo mit 2 Manualen” (30 Variations on an original theme), known as the “Goldberg Variations,” S. 988, in a recital this evening in Brooks Concert Hall, the college’s former chapel.  This past summer, she presented them in Italy at the XIV International Music Festival at Rocca Grimalda, Allesandria.

by David Perkins

Springfield, MA, 13 October 2008. At an age when “firsts” seem to come a little less often for me – though I have a few to go: my first view of the Taj Mahal, my niece’s first performance on Broadway, my first Nobel Prize – it was a pleasure to have a first encounter with the Springfield Symphony on Saturday night.

by Marvin J. Ward

Northampton and Ashburnham, MA, 11 and 12 October 2008. There aren’t too many places outside major metropolitan areas where one can hear historically informed performances by 1st rate musicians with any frequency, but Western Mass is blessed with regular opportunities to do so.  Yet the possibility of a weekend full of this kind of Beethoven playing is rare even here.