Folger Consort to Present A MASS FOR CHRISTMAS EVE: BAROQUE MUSIC OR THE SEASON

Folger Consort will continue its beloved DC holiday tradition, hosting eleven concerts of A Mass for Christmas Eve: Baroque Music for the Season from Friday, December 6 through Sunday, December 15. Performances will take place at the historic Elizabethan-styled theater, adorned for the season to create an immersive holiday ambiance. 

This year’s centerpiece is Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël, a Christmas Mass composed in 1694. Known for his beguiling blend of baroque dance rhythms and sophisticated harmonies, Charpentier drew inspiration from traditional French noels, creating a work rich in folk-inspired melodies that resonate with the joy and reverence of the season. In addition to Charpentier's captivating Mass, the Consort will present a selection of seasonal pieces to be performed by the Consort’s ensemble of eight instrumentalists and eight vocalists.

“We are delighted to offer a December program this season featuring some of the most lovely and tuneful holiday music from France, Italy and England,” says Folger Consort co-Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein. “We’ve centered the program on Charpentier’s Midnight Mass for Christmas Eve—a wonderful work for choir, strings, and flutes. Along with Charpentier’s Mass, we’ll perform his seldom heard suite for four viola da gambas and three unique arrangements of the sixteenth-century Scottish Nativity lullaby Balalulow, each bringing fresh life to this beloved carol.”

Folger Consort’s ensemble for this seasonal event is composed of seven celebrated instrumentalists, each bringing their mastery of period instruments to the program. Wade Davis will perform on cello, basse de violon, and bass viol; Folger Consort co-Artistic Director Robert Eisenstein will play violin, treble viol, and recorders, and Leslie Nero will be featured on violin, viola, and treble viol. Nina Falk (viola), Paula Maust (organ), Dan Meyers (recorders), and Patricia Ann Neely (violone, bass viol) round out this talented instrumental group.

Eight outstanding guest vocalists will add their voices to the performance. Sopranos Crossley Hawn and Susan Lewis Kavinski, mezzo-sopranos Hannah Baslee and Rhianna Cockrell, tenors Patrick Kilbride and Oliver Mercer, and baritones Mark Duer and Corbin Phillips will bring Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël and other selections to life.

Opening each half of the program are festive concerti by Antonio Vivaldi—his Concerto for Two Trumpets (or recorders) and Concerto for Violin "Il Riposo per il S.S. Natale,” respectively—with Giuseppe Torelli’s Concerto “In forma di Pastorale per il Santissimo Natalea" bringing the first half to a spirited close. The first half will also include Charpentier’s elegant dance suite, Concert pour quatre violes, interspersed with three contemporary British settings of the old Scottish lullaby “Balulalow” by Frances Potts, Peter Warlock, and Oliver Tarney. The concert culminates in Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit.  

“No question there’s a special resonance in early music at holiday-time, maybe because it gets us closer to beloved, ancient traditions that date back before the earliest music we perform,” shares Folger Consort co-Artistic Director Christopher Kendall. “The folk sources of Charpentier’s Midnight Mass take us back, and so too, do the recent British settings of the old lullaby Balulalow. In this context, the brilliant baroque concerti will seem positively modern, all celebrating the spirit of the season.” 

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