| John Harbison, Principal Guest Conductor Craig Smith, Founder |
Emmanuel Music in the News
2010-2011 Season
No Idle Hands in Emmanuel’s Excellent Rake
Geoffrey Weiting, The Boston Musical Intelligencer | April 19, 2011
Emmanuel Music ventured a bit off their “beaten path” on Saturday, April 16, presenting Igor Stravinsky’s famed opera, The Rake’s Progress, inspired by a series of paintings and engravings of that name by eighteenth-century artist William Hogarth. Ryan Turner expertly led a fine cast, orchestra, and chorus, and the performance was a virtually unqualified success. more ...
Honoring a lyrical lament of love lost
Matthew Guerrieri, The Boston Globe | April 18, 2011
In the first act of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress,’’ Tom Rakewell, a fledgling libertine, grieves for lost love. “How sad a song,’’ a chorus of prostitutes replies, “but sadness charms.’’ It took a little while, but Emmanuel Music’s concert performance of the opera on Saturday night eventually achieved that balance of charismatic, exuberant woe. more ...
Emmanuel’s Final Beethoven
Larry Phillips, The Boston Musical Intelligencer | March 3, 2011
The final Beethoven concert of the Emmanuel Music season took place in the Parish Hall of Emmanuel Church on the afternoon of Feb. 27. Unlike the others in this chamber music series, this one was all instrumental, taken from the composer’s early years. In his introductory remarks, Emmanuel Music Director Ryan Turner explained that these pieces reflected different aspects of Beethoven’s character: the street smart, the Mozartean, and the most popular piece in the composer’s lifetime (even though he disparaged it.) more ...
Focus on Beethoven’s Early Years in Vienna
Virginia Newes, The Boston Musical Intelligencer | February 15, 2011
The first of two concerts in Emmanuel Music’s Sunday afternoon Winter Beethoven Chamber series, on February 13 in the Parish Hall at Emmanuel Church, was devoted to songs and chamber works from Beethoven’s first years in Vienna. Having arrived there at the end of 1792, Beethoven set himself the task of mastering all the then-current musical genres. more ...
Attend the Service for Emmanuel’s Bach Cantata
David Schulenberg, The Boston Musical Intelligencer | January 19, 2011
Boston’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Newbury Street became famous among music lovers during the 1970s for the performances of Bach cantatas led by the late Craig Smith during its Sunday services. The tradition continues under Ryan Turner, Smith’s successor as church Music Director and Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music, the church’s resident ensemble. more ...
Harbison has faith in Bach translation
David Weininger, The Boston Globe | January 14, 2011
John Harbison’s first experience of singing Bach cantatas came in the early 1960s, when he was a student in Berlin. There he sang with a church school choir called the Spandauer Kantorei and was an assistant to its director, Hanns-Martin Schneidt. Harbison remembers Schneidt’s insistent focus on the cantatas’ words, and the impression those words made on his fellow singers, all of whom spoke German as a native tongue. more ...
Unusual Beethoven at Emmanuel
Larry Phillips, The Boston Musical Intelligencer | November 17, 2010
Emmanuel Music presented their second Beethoven chamber series at Emmanuel Church on Sunday afternoon, November 14. In the words of Artistic Director Ryan Turner, this series is “somewhat chronological” and ended with the “recreational” Beethoven, selections from the Scottish songs, op. 108. more ...
Felicities and Gloomy Songs from Emmanuel
Larry Phillips, The Boston Musical Intelligencer | November 2, 2010
Emmanuel Music, under new artistic director Ryan Turner, began its chamber music series on Sunday afternoon, October 31, at Emmanuel Church. In a nod to the late Craig Smith, founder of Emmanuel Music, the concert featured early works by Beethoven surrounding the somber Gellert songs, when the composer was experiencing deafness. more ...
Alexander’s Feast at Emmanuel, an Impressive
Introduction for Ryan Turner
Christopher Greenleaf, The Boston Music Intelligencer | November 17, 2010
After the shock of losing visionary founder Craig Smith in 2007, Emmanuel Music eyed its future with commendable restraint and, after a good think, placed the shaping of its course in the hands of another thinking man’s choral conductor, Ryan Turner. more ...
2009-2010 Season
Season Announcement
Emmanuel emerges from founder's shadow
David Weininger, Boston Globe | June 5, 2009From its creation in 1970, Emmanuel Music has been associated inextricably with the artistic spirit of its founder, Craig Smith. Even after Smith's death, in 2007, his influence has lingered. The organization's last two seasons had been planned by Smith prior to his passing. more…
2008-2009 Season
J.S. Bach - St. Matthew Passion
A mighty night for Emmanuel
Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe | April 4, 2009Since Craig Smith's death in 2007, composer John Harbison has been in a caretaker role at Emmanuel Music, serving as acting artistic director. This season, Emmanuel has been honoring Smith's legacy with a series of Bach concerts culminating this weekend with two performances of the composer's mighty "St. Matthew Passion." more…
Lindsey Chapel Series: Bach’s Cello Suites
Cello Mid-day Treats at Emmanuel
Larry Phillips, Boston Musical Intelligencer | April 3, 2009Emmanuel Music gave the Boston musical community a splendid present by presenting all six Bach cello suites by different cellists in free midday concerts on successive Thursdays in Back Bay’s intimate Leslie Lindsey Chapel. Performing between February 26 and April 2 were Rhonda Rider, Shannon Snapp, Joshua Gordon, Michael Curry, Beth Pearson, and Rafael Popper-Keizer. more…
A gold mine of six cello suites
David Weininger, Boston Globe | February 21, 2009 more...
Schumann Chamber Series: Final Year
Emmanuel Music Continues Schumann Concerts with Intensity, Balance, and Grace
David Griesinger, Boston Musical Intelligencer | February 2, 2009This week’s Schumann offering from Emmanuel Music, now in its fifth year of presenting all of Robert Schumann’s compositions, featured two guest artists, Ya-Fei Chuang and Robert Levin, with Emmanue Music regulars. The program consisted of Wilhelm Meister Lieder, Op 98a, with Kendra Colton, soprano, Mark McSweeney, bass, and Ya-Fei Chuang, piano. It was followed by the composer’s Toccata in C Major, Op. 7, Ya-Fei Chuang at the piano. The final piece was the Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63, with Rose Mary Harbison, violin, Rhonda Rider, cello, and Robert Levin, piano. more...
CD: Lorraine at Emmanuel
Jeremy Eichler’s top CD picks of 2008
Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe | December 14, 2008From the archives of Emmanuel Music comes this moving disc of performances by the revered mezzo-soprano, mostly led by the late Craig Smith, a pillar of the local music community. more...
J.S. Bach – Brandenburg Concertos
Taking Bach in a clever direction
David Weininger, Boston Globe | September 20, 2008Emmanuel Music's 2008-09 season is the last to have been planned by its late founder, Craig Smith, and is dedicated to his memory. Smith was not a man to do things halfway; comprehensiveness was his mantra. So it comes as little surprise that he would have programmed all six of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos for Thursday's opening-night concert. more...
2007-2008 Season
Collaboration with Mark Morris Dance Group: Dido and Aenas
Morris’s next step is with a baton
David Weininger, Boston Globe | May 23, 2008 more...
Bach: Mass in B minor
Emmanuel’s Bach B-minor Mass
Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix | April 15, 2008 more...Difficult season ends on the right note
David Weininger, Boston Globe | April 14, 2008 more...
Bach: St. John Passion
Great Gifts
Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix | March 12, 2008 more...A Passion to rouse and soothe the spirit at a time of loss
David Perkins, Boston Globe | March 11, 2008 more...A passion to carry on
After the death of founder Craig Smith, Emmanuel Music looks to the future
David Weininger, The Boston Globe | March 7, 2008 more...
Craig Smith Memorial
Recalling a conductor who built grandly at home
Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe | February 2, 2008 more...Love and loss, Classical: 2007 in review
Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix | December 18, 2007 more...Craig Smith, 60; with Emmanuel, he created a nexus of joy and music
Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe | November 15, 2007 more...
Russell Sherman: J.S. Bach – English Suites
Unconventional Bach of the highest order
David Weininger, Boston Globe | January 29, 2008 more...
Schumann Chamber Series, Year 4
A lovely showcase for Schumanns’ work
David Perkins, Boston Globe | October 17, 2007 more...
Bach: Art of Fugue
The art of … Bach at Emmanuel
Lloyd Schwartz, Boston Phoenix | October 16, 2007 more...