Eighth Notes

With the holiday season well-heralded by two Green Bay Symphony Orchestra programs, we offer an additional gift suggestion for the dedicated music lover. First, though, some quick remarks about two weekends’s worth of GBSO music-making.

Saturday night, December 1 brought some horrid weather for the Christmas Classics concert held at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, but, despite the mess outdoors, a good turnout was observed. Those who braved the weather were rewarded with a richly satisfying program of works from the Baroque and Classical periods, vigorously, sensitively interpreted by Music Director Bridget-Michaele Reischl and meticulously played by a twenty-three member GBSO ensemble. Haydn’s Symphony No. 26 in D minor (Lamentation), Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, Vivaldi’s Magnificat and excepts from Handel’s “Messiah” formed a rewarding program and, with excellent work from the Green Bay Symphony Chorus prepared by Dr. Randall Meder, soprano Jennifer Jakob and tenor Benjamin Brecher, the results big league start to finish.

Last weekend, two performances of Dudley Birder’s annual holiday extravaganza brought people in droves to the Weidner Center. Friday night, the Birder Chorale was in excellent form (when is it not?), Birder’s choice of arrangements was, as always, exemplary (especially those of Mack Wilberg and Randol Bass) and the support of the GBSO was both well-tooled and luxuriant. We also heard Bass’s setting of Psalm 96, commissioned by the Chorale to celebrate Birder’s eightieth birthday; nice piece.

With classical music releases from the so-called major record companies slowing to a trickle, serious listeners have long since turned to alternative labels to satisfy their desire for challenging repertory and authoritative interpretations. Harmonia Mundi, perhaps the largest and most comprehensive of these, is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with “’50,” an exceedingly impressive 30-CD set, sturdily boxed, accompanied by a large, posh booklet, holding extensive information about the works contained within and the artists who perform them.

The contents are staggering. Complete performances of Purcell’s “King Arthur,” Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Lully’s music tragedy “Atys,” Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Reinhard Keiser’s music drama “Croesus” (a real discovery), Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s Lute Book (another gem, here played superbly by Paul O’Dette), Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (performed smartly by Fretwork) and other items too many to list here. The works are drawn from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, forward to the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic periods and on to the twentieth century, finally arriving at the present age.

The performances by internationally-honored solo artists and performing groups are all impressive, not always outright best, but all of an order that commands both respect and, more often than not, affection. For example, Argentine Mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink’s performance of Schumann’s “Frauenliebe and -Leben” is perfection.

We’ve seen this available from various sources priced at $75 to $95. What a great gift!