“The new Early Music Festival: NYC, which ended last week, gives reason for cautious hope,” writes James Oestreich in Monday’s (6/23) New York Times. The director of EMF: NYC is soprano Jolle Greenleaf, artistic director of the vocal ensemble Tenet and its Monteverdi-themed offshoot, the Green Mountain Project. “To a critic who used to lament with some regularity the lack of a vibrant early-music scene in New York … the last decade has proved astounding. Performance standards have risen markedly, thanks in large part to the Juilliard School’s establishment of a curriculum in historical performance.… And early music is no longer a niche concern…. It has powerfully influenced the classical music mainstream with its concern for period style…. Last week, to crown the festival, Green Mountain [Project] performed both the 1610 Vespers [of Monteverdi], on Wednesday, and a compilation, a ‘Vespers for the Feast of St. John the Baptist,’ on Thursday…. Other concerts in the festival gave a good representation of the current varied activity in the field…. All of these events were well attended and enthusiastically applauded, often with calls for encores. Early music lived in New York with special ebullience for a delightful week. For now, that is accomplishment enough.”
Posted June 24, 2014
