* TENET Performs “Portraits in Song” To Mark the Exhibition The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini
* Pacifica Quartet Performs Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 132, the “Heiliger Dankgesang”
* AND: Additions to the 2011-2012 Season Feature Max Raabe & Palast Orchester on March 3, and Philip Glass on April 21
For tickets, visit www.metmuseum.org/tickets or call 212-570-3949.
Tickets are also available at the Great Hall Box Office, which is open
Tuesday-Saturday 10-5:00 and Sunday noon-5:00.
Student and group discount tickets are available for some events; call 212-570-3949.
Tickets include admission to the Museum on day of performance.
Friday, February 3, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. - TENET - “Portraits in Song: Renaissance Italy from Ciconia to Petrucci”
One of New York’s pre-eminent ensembles devoted in great part to early music, TENET, performs “Portraits in Song: Renaissance Italy from Ciconia to Petrucci,” a program of songs and instrumental music by 15th-century Italian composers. Jolle Greenleaf, soprano and the ensemble’s artistic director, is joined by Ryland Angel, countertenor; Jason McStoots and Aaron Sheehan, tenors; Jesse Blumberg, baritone; Grant Herreid, plectrum lute; Scott Metcalfe, vielle and harp; and Debra Nagy, recorder, douçaine, and harp.
This concert is inspired by The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini, on view December 21, 2011 – March 18, 2012. The exhibition brings together paintings, medals, drawings, and sculpture that testify to the new vogue for and uses of portraiture in 15th-century Italy. The exhibition is made possible by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund, the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund, and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. The exhibition was organized by Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
The program of Italian songs and instrumental music by composers contemporary to the artists featured in the exhibition is drawn from 15th-century sources and ranges from works by Johannes Ciconia (c. 1370-1412) to the pioneering collections issued at the turn of the 16th century by the first great printer of music, Ottaviano Petrucci. The concert will present various combinations of voices with 15th century instruments, including medieval fiddle or vielle, recorders, and the typical plucked pairing of lute and harp. Jolle Greenleaf says, “The repertoire might be called ‘Songs After Supper,’ in the words of the late Howard Mayer Brown: lyric poetry on themes of love, desire, and more, set to wonderfully expressive music, for the enjoyment of listeners and performers alike.”
Under artistic director Jolle Greenleaf, whom the New York Times called “a major force in the New York early-music scene,” TENET is winning acclaim for its innovative programming, virtuosic singing, and command of repertoire that spans the Middle Ages to the present. It is the ensemble in residence at the historic St. Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church on New York City’s Upper West Side. Recent seasons have included critically acclaimed performances from Claudio Monteverdi’s collection of sacred music, Selva Morale e Spirituale; an eclectic program featuring music by the Renaissance master Nicolas Gombert and 20thcentury groundbreaker Francis Poulenc; a concert led by noted organist and choirmaster John Scott in a program of musical tributes and elegies from the Renaissance through the 20th century; and explorations of works from Renaissance Spain in a special program commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of Tomás Luis de Victoria.
Highlights of the 2011–2012 season include the release of A Feast for the Senses, TENET’s first CD; the group’s annual performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers in January; and a collaboration with New York Polyphony and Spiritus Collective at the Five Boroughs Music Festival in April to honor the 400th anniversary of Giovanni Gabrieli’s death. www.tenetnyc.com
Tickets: $40
Saturday, February 25, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. - Pacifica Quartet
The Pacifica Quartet, called “one of the fastest rising ensembles today” by The New York Times, will perform the complete string quartets of Beethoven in six programs, each of which features early and later works.
This fifth program features the Quartets No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18; and No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132, “Heiliger Dankgesang.” The final concert takes place on March 10.
This series is supported in part by the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund.
Having performed the complete Shostakovich string quartets at the Metropolitan Museum last season, the Pacifica has embarked on a four-volume series of studio recordings. The Soviet Experience: String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries. Volume 1, just released, offers Shostakovich’s Quartets Nos. 5-8, plus Nikolai Miaskovsky’s String Quartet No. 13. Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has carved out a compelling and critically lauded musical path. In addition to the Musical America Ensemble of the Year 2009 Award, and a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, the Pacifica Quartet has swept top awards in the U.S. and abroad, including the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006, making the Pacifica only the second chamber music ensemble ever to be selected. Formed in 1994, the ensemble quickly began to win top prizes in leading international competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award.
The members of the Pacifica Quartet live in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, where they were appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois in 2004 and now serve as Faculty Quartet in Residence. They are also resident performing artists at the University of Chicago and the Longy School in Boston. The Pacifica Quartet was instrumental in creating the Music Integration Project, an innovative program that provides musical performances and teacher training to inner-city elementary schools. The quartet originated on the West Coast, where it first performed together, and takes its name from the Pacific Ocean. Throughout their journey as a string quartet, its members continually strive to be “Distinct as the billows/yet one as the sea” (James Montgomery). www.pacificaquartet.com
Tickets: $45
AND: JUST ADDED TO THE 2011-2012 SEASON:
Saturday, March 3, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. –Max Raabe & Palast Orchester: “One Cannot Kiss Alone”
This new show from the übersuave Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester presents the elegant high style and musical glory of the 1920s and 1930s, and songs from their new album One Cannot Kiss Alone. Weimar-era classics will be performed alongside modern love songs, and all will be imbued with the ensemble’s signature consummate mix of irony, melancholy, and wit. Blended throughout is Max’s narrative banter and playfully imperious charm that have wooed audiences worldwide.
www.palast-orchester.de/en
Tickets: $45
Saturday, April 21, 2012, at 7:00 p.m. -“Philip Glass at 75” – Glass Chamber Works at The Temple of Dendur
The Metropolitan Museum celebrates the 75th birthday of Philip Glass with an evening of his chamber music, performed by the composer with violinist Tim Fain. This is a rare opportunity to hear the composer perform some of his latest – and intensely personal – works in a dramatic setting.
www.philipglass.com
The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing
Tickets: $50
PLEASE NOTE that the event “Glass at 75: A Birthday Sing” previously announced as taking place on Saturday, January 21, at 5:00 p.m., is being postponed to a date later in the season, to be announced.
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January 9, 2012
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