Organists and Organ Playing

The Boston Early Music Festival

Yesterday we boarded the plane right after church and flew to Los Angeles, stopping only to change planes to Boston. We arrived this morning at 7 am and took an airport shuttle to our friend, Edith Ho’s house, where we ate breakfast and took showers before heading into town.

Lunch was at our favorite restaurant in Boston, Legal Seafoods, then we did a little shopping before going to THREE concerts today.The first was a harpsichord recital of all of Bach’s 2- and 3-part inventions, and even the program notes said that Bach probably would not have programmed all of them in one sitting. It was a little like eating an entire box of chocolates by yourself, and they were all the same flavor.

The second recital was at First Lutheran Church and was a concert of themes and variations for organ and baroque violin. The organist was John Chappell Stowe, who I believe sings in Bruce Bengtson’s choir in Madison, Wisconsin. The organ was by Richards, Fowkes and was very nice.

We just got back from the THIRD concert of the day, and it’s nearly 11 pm. It was a concert of early vocal and instrumental music, extremely well-played and well-sung. It took place at Jordan Hall, which is the home of the public radio program, “From the Top,”
and we met up with Ian Capps and Jeannette Johnson, occasional LCH choristers.

Guess who we ran into!

Of course, all this means is that we have not slept in a bed since Saturday night, so we’re pretty tired. We have three concerts tomorrow, too, but the first one doesn’t start until 3:30 pm, so we hope to sleep in.

Les Voix Baroques at Jordan Hall
Les Voix Baroques at Jordan Hall, conducted by Stephen Stubbs

1 thought on “The Boston Early Music Festival

  1. […] Boston Early Music Festival A musical banquet A little break today (musical instrument exposition) Six concerts in one day! Another six concerts Chance encounters of the close kind The crown jewel (the opera, Niobe, with Philippe Jarrousky, countertenor) Sharing BEMF with the world […]

Comments are closed.