Showing posts with label moyse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moyse. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Bach's Cantata BWV 30 performed by the Brattleboro Bach Festival under Blanche Honegger Moyse




Here's my second posting from Vermont: Blanche Honegger Moyse conducting soloists Benita Valente, Mary Burgess, Seth McCoy and Leslie Guinn along with the orchestra and chorus of the Brattleboro VT Bach Festival in Bach's Cantata BWV 30. The recording on the Ars Nova label dates from the early 70's.

Moyse was a longtime participant and fixture in Vermont musical life. Along with directing the Brattleboro Bach Festival she was closely associated with the Marlboro Music Festival and with the college where the festival takes place. Among her admirers, and close colleagues were Rudolf Serkin, Alexander Schneider and Pablo Casals to name a few. She was, I believe, a niece or cousin of Arthur Honegger and she was married to the great flutist Louis Moyse, son of another great flutist Marcel Moyse.

Moyse was one of the pioneers in performance of Bach cantatas in the Northeast United States. Along with Craig Smith at Emmanuel Church in Boston, she introduced the masterpieces of Bach during a time when much of his body of work was unknown. Though her chorus in Brattleboro is decidedly on the amateur side and much of the orchestra is pickup in nature, the fervor and commitment of her work is readily apparent. This is inspired music making.

LINK

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