Word: cantata
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...enormous success of the cantata series started as a grassroots student endeavor. Craig Smith took over as music director at Emmanuel in 1970, while still a piano student under Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory. The church's choir director became ill and Smith was asked to temporarily fill in. He notes, "I sort of started one week and never stopped." At the beginning of his tenure, Smith decided to incorporate the performance of Bach's cantatas, which he loved passionately, into the liturgy...
Lenny Matczynski, executive director of Emmanuel Music, says, "When we started, we were all hippies. Back then it was radical to go into a church service." Matczynski believes that the power of the cantata series comes from the focus on one musical form; the musicians are able to exercise "sheer tenacity and determination" in order to explore the artistry of sacred music in depth...
Sick or just tired, Yeltsin is due to emerge into the public eye on Aug. 9, the day he will be inaugurated--crowned might be a better word--in a sumptuous ceremony. The Order for Services to the Fatherland will be draped around his neck. Our President, a cantata commissioned for the occasion and performed by artists of the Bolshoi Theater, will urge Yeltsin to "bear the light of freedom down the years to the world...
Given the difficulty of the music, the performances on Sunday night were all the more impressive. The Cantabrigian String Quartet, composed of Harvard students Akiko Tarumoto '98, Rebecca Baumann '98, Philip Kim '98, and Ellis Verosub '98, gave a clear, intelligent rendition of Harbison's quartet. In the Chorale Cantata, which concluded the evening, soprano Awet Andemicael '96 displayed her usual lovely tone and crisp diction. She was accompanied by an ensemble composed of Salley Koo '97 and Stephanie Misono '98, violins; Peter Kim '96, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan '98, cello; and Andrew Cowan '96, bass. Oboist Daniel...
These strong scenes, however, are disrupted by the occasional vignette that does not fit in with the rest. For example, a few of the lengthy computer animations and camera pans of inanimate objects bear a strong resemblance to Sesame Street scenes. Accompanied by a fugue or well-chosen cantata, these vignettes aim at artistry, but instead seem to be trying too hard. The visual images are not arresting enough to match the cerebral music that Gould worked so hard to create...