LAKEVILLE, Conn.—Crescendo, an award-winning music organization in the Berkshires, has announced its 22nd season, offering a collection of nine concerts and recitals that cross genres and continents.
The season will open with “The South’s Breath,” a performance combining Andean and European music on Latin American instruments Sunday, Oct. 19, at Trinity Lime Rock, 484 Lime Rock Road, Lakeville.
The concert will consist of an exploration of South America’s colonial music through a blend of indigenous, European, and African musical elements.
Performers Gonzalo Cortés, Carlos Boltes and Christine Gevert will present transcriptions and arrangements of early compositions and folk themes, alongside contemporary fusion pieces by composers and artists such as Manuel de Zumaya, Antonio Sarrier, Illapu,and Los Kjarkas.
On Saturday, Nov. 22, at 4 p.m. at Trinity Lime Rock, acclaimed international countertenor Nicholas Tamagna will offer a career retrospective showcasing works by Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Purcell and Broschi. He will be accompanied by Crescendo founding director Christine Gevert on the harpsichord. Tickets are $50 to $100.
With Christmas on the horizon, Crescendo will move on to “The Bach Experience—Choral Music for the Spirit,” featuring “Sweet Comfort” BWV 151, a Christmas cantata and a rarely performed mass, Mass in G minor BWV 235, by Johann Sebastian Bach on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 4 p.m., also at Trinity Lime Rock in Lakeville.
Also on the program are festive 16th-century double choir motets by Bach’s German predecessors Schröter, Weissensee, Otto and Schein, exploring the convergence of Italian polychoral music and the venerable German chorale tradition.
“A Tapestry of Traditions, Unraveling the History of Christmas Carols” follows on Sunday, Dec. 21, at 4 p.m. at Saint James Place in Great Barrington, Mass., exploring the origins and development of carols and Christmas songs that evolved over the centuries and were adapted to different cultures.
The busy season continues with A New Year’s Concert, “A Baroque Portrait: Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre,” on Sunday, Dec. 28, at 4 p.m., at Trinity Church. The program will present sonatas for solo violin and basso continuo, and Suite in D minor for harpsichord by the French Baroque composer Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre.
She is a unique figure in the history of music, recognized as one of the few prominent female composers of her era.
The season’s schedule continues in the spring with “LaCecchina” (“The Songbird”) a second Female Composers program presenting the works of 17th-century Italian composer Francesca Caccini; “Stepping into Song,” a choral performance of tango’s rhythmic spirit”; “Choral Sounds of Latin America”; “Baroque Brilliance: Bach’s Motets in Concert,” and “Wanda Landowska’s World,” a solo recital honoring a legendary female musician.
For ticket sales and more information, visit Crescendo’s website, or call 860-435-4866. Tickets range from $15 to $100 and are available online and at the door before performances.
