Folger Consort's German Christmas

Read my review today on the Washington Post Web site:

Charles T. Downey, Folger Consort roughs it with German Christmas
Washington Post, December 14, 2009

The Folger Consort unveiled its new Christmas concert program Friday night in the Folger Shakespeare Library's festively decorated Elizabethan Theater. Recently this concert's theme has rotated through the early music of various European national traditions: After Italy and France, England (including a stunningly effective "Second Shepherds' Play" in 2007), and Spain, it was Germany's turn.

Disappointment with the results cannot be attributed to the programming. Both perpetual favorites and new discoveries were produced by pairing Michael Praetorius's vocal music with instrumental selections by Samuel Scheidt, Johann Schein and Heinrich Scheidemann. The Cantate Chamber Singers, who provided both the choral and solo parts, were a little rough-hewn in sound by comparison to the smaller, more refined vocal ensembles who have partnered with the Folger Consort in the past. There were enough voices to make the necessary distinction in sound mass between soloists and tutti and in the double-choir selections, but infelicities in intonation and quality of vocal tone were too noticeable. [Continue reading]

In Dulci Jubilo: A German Christmas
Folger Consort and Cantate Chamber Singers
Folger Shakespeare Library

SEE ALSO:
Andrew Lindemann Malone, Oh, That We Were There…For This Entire Month: The Folger Consort (DMV Classical, December 13) -- a review of the third performance