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James Doyle
James Doyle
ne way to celebrate orchestral anniversaries, especially those with double zeroes, is by reprising notable works the orchestra has premiered in the past. If the orchestra is not one but two centuries old, and has been fundamentally committed to choral music since its inception, that list of notable works can include repertoire of epochal significance to the classical canon. That this music was new to American ears when the orchestra first performed it lends special significance to the anniversary. Last fall, as a cornerstone of its bicentennial season, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society presented three performances of Handel’s Messiah at Symphony Hall
H+H string players, some wearing Halloween headgear, performed at Jordan Hall on October 31, 2014. Concertmaster Aisslinn Nosky (downstage center) was both leader and soloist in a program of Baroque concertos and Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” sonata.
Led by Artistic Director Harry Christophers, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society kicked off its bicentennial season in October with a “Baroque Fireworks” program at Symphony Hall.
All photos courtesy of the Handel and Haydn Society americanorchestras.org
Program for the Handel and Haydn Society’s first concert, which took place at King’s Chapel, Boston, on Christmas Day in 1815. It included selections from Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Creation.
under Artistic Director Harry Christophers. Sounds festive enough. But H+H gave that work its United States premiere on Christmas Day in 1818, and has performed it annually for 161 consecutive seasons. This March, H+H will perform Mendelssohn’s Elijah, which it introduced to Boston in 1848, just two years after the oratorio’s world premiere. Also in March comes Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, given its first American performance by H+H in 1879, at a time when Bach’s choral music was still relatively unfamiliar in the U.S. A final historical highlight of H+H’s anniversary season happens in May, when it will honor one of its signature composers, Joseph Haydn, with two performances of The Creation. H+H had given that work its U.S. premiere back in 1819. But the organization is not just celebrating its his-
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