Handel and Haydn Society's BAROQUE CHRISTMAS Concerts Celebrate the Season

Make the season bright with the beauty of Baroque music as the Handel and Haydn Society welcomes Ruben Valenzuela, Founder and Artistic Director of Bach Collegium San Diego to lead this year's ‘Baroque Christmas' concerts at NEC's Jordan Hall, Dec 19 and 22.

‘Baroque Christmas' features sacred and festive works for the holidays by J.S. Bach and Christoph Graupner and three Latin American composers programmed by H+H for the first time: Antonio de Salazar, Francisco Lopez Capillas, and Juan de Araujo. The H+H Youth Choruses Concert Choir will open the performances with two songs to herald the winter season.

A hallmark of H+H is its dedication to historically informed performance to give audiences the experience of hearing the music as it was composed and heard by its original listeners. The wind instruments played in ‘Baroque Christmas' are made from wood and string instruments have gut strings instead of steel. Baroque or natural brass instruments do not have valves; musicians change pitch by controlling the air flow entirely with their lips. ‘Baroque Christmas' also features the theorbo, a large plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a curved-back sound box.

‘Baroque Christmas' Program Highlights

• Bach's Cantata, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, composed for the first Sunday of Advent 1724 was one of Bach's favorites. The cantata opens with an extended movement for chorus and features oboe and strings in the orchestra.

• Scored for a double chorus, the interplay of eight voices set the opening text of Antonio de Salazar's Conceptio Gloriosae, written for the feast of the Immaculate Conception in Puebla, Mexico in 1688. 

• Known for the complexity and beauty of his music, Francisco Lopez Capillas was the first major composer born in New Spain. His Canticum Beatae Mariae Virginis: Magnificat a 8 recounts Mary's response to the announcement that she would be the Mother of Jesus in a four voice monet.

• The concert ends with Ay andar, a tocar, a cantar, a baylar, one of Juan de Araujo's lively “villancicos” composed to accompany festive processions with singing and dancing  outside the cathedral on special occasions, such as Christmas. The chorus sings joyfully, “a cantar todo gargüero,” or sing with your whole being!

“This program of music of the German high baroque alongside a diverse array of music from Mexico and South America will refresh and inspire you this holiday season,” said David Snead, Philip and Marjorie Gerdine President and CEO of the Handel and Haydn Society. “Baroque music from Latin America is rarely programmed in the United States, and it's even rarer to hear this music played on period instruments. We're delighted to welcome Ruben Valenzuela, a masterful interpreter of this repertoire, to lead H+H and share this extraordinary music in Boston.”

Ruben Valenzuela, Conductor

Conductor, keyboardist, and musicologist Ruben Valenzuela is “well known for his masterful Baroque music interpretations” (The San Diego Union Tribune). Under Valenzuela's leadership, Bach Collegium San Diego (BCSD) has achieved international acclaim through virtuosic performances of iconic repertoire, in addition to lesser-known works. Valenzuela and BCSD were the recipients of Early Music America's 2023 Laurette Goldberg Award for achievement in early music engagement. ‘Baroque Christmas' is Valenzuela's first appearance with H+H.

“Meet” the Music

 

Forty-five minutes prior to each performance all ticket holders are invited to Musically Speaking in Williams Hall. Hosted by H+H's Christopher Hogwood Historically Informed Performance Fellow Teresa Neff, Ph.D., this lively talk provides context about the music and composers on the program.

Concert Information

The Handel and Haydn Society presents Baroque Christmas at NEC's Jordan Hall (30 Gainsborough St, Boston) on Thursday, December 19 at 7:30pm and Sunday, December 22 at 3:00pm. Individual tickets and subscription packages are still available for purchase by calling 617.262.1815 or visiting handelandhaydn.org.

About the Handel and Haydn Society

Boston's Grammy-winning Handel and Haydn Society performs Baroque and Classical music with a freshness, a vitality, and a creativity that inspires all ages. Called “one of the most exciting ensembles of historically informed performances in the world” (OperaWire), H+H has been captivating audiences for 210 consecutive seasons (the most of any performing arts organization in the United States), speaking to its singular success at welcoming new audiences to this extraordinary music, generation after generation.

H+H performed the “Hallelujah” Chorus from Handel's Messiah in its first concert in 1815, gave the American premiere in 1818, and ever since has been both a musical and a civic leader in the Boston community. During the Civil War, H+H gave numerous concerts in support of the Union Army (H+H member Julia Ward Howe wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”) and on January 1, 1863, H+H performed at the Grand Jubilee Concert celebrating the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation. Two years later, H+H performed at the memorial service for Abraham Lincoln.

H+H's Orchestra and Chorus delight more than 76,000 listeners annually through concerts at Symphony Hall and other leading venues as well as radio broadcasts. Through the Karen S. and George D. Levy Learning and Education Program, H+H supports seven youth choirs of singers in grades 2–12, and provides thousands of complimentary tickets to students and communities throughout Boston, ensuring the joy of music is accessible to all. H+H has released 16 CDs on the CORO label and has toured nationally and internationally. In all these ways, H+H fulfills its mission to inspire the intellect, touch the heart, elevate the soul, and connect all of us with our shared humanity through transformative experiences with Baroque and Classical music.

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