Reviews

Seconds after the Handel and Haydn Society stopped playing Mozart’s “Masonic Funeral Music” at the Boston Symphony Hall on Sunday, 9-year-old Ronan Mattin was so swept away by the music that he loudly exclaimed — for the whole auditorium to hear — “Wow!”

David Snead, CEO of the Handel & Haydn Society orchestra, tells As It Happens host Carol Off the moment a child issued an audible ‘Wow!’ during a performance of Mozart’s Masonic Funeral is proof that classical music can touch the hearts of anyone, young or old.

A little boy with autism from New Hampshire was so moved by the music at a classical concert this weekend that he uttered an enthusiastic ‘wow’ as one song came to an end — and his word of wonder could be heard all over the auditorium.

In 1770, Wolfgang Mozart sat with his father in the papal chapel to hear Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere mei, Deus. Stories about this immaculate setting of chant and polyphony had attracted listeners to Rome for centuries. Louis Spohr heard it, and years later Charles Dickens attempted to enter the Sistine chapel to experience its musical serenity, …

On Saturday mornings at Boston Latin School from September through May, the halls echo with the voices of about 200 young singers, the students of Handel and Haydn Society’s Vocal Arts Program. They range in age from 8 to 18 and come from as nearby as surrounding Boston neighborhoods and as far away as Warner, …

Banish sorrow, banish care, when Purcell prances with such flair! Conducted by artistic director Harry Christophers, Handel and Haydn Society filled Jordan Hall Sunday afternoon for the last of three performances featuring the 17th-century English composer. (You can read about H+H’s whirlwind there-and-back-again run-out to the Metropolitan Museum’s Temple of Dendur in the Boston Globe …

Handel and Haydn Society assembled both a must-hear program and an extraordinary cast of singers.

How do you perform an opera in Boston, New York, and back in Boston again in under 48 hours — and do it well?

Accessible programming is a dangerous game. Landmark works in the classical canon come loaded with decades of interpretations, which not only heighten the listener’s expectations, but wear on the ear. Each tension and resolution slowly transforms a musical experience into familiar transaction — undemanding, but perhaps less rewarding too. The Handel and Haydn Society confronted …

From March 25 to 31, 2019, WHRB hosted their inaugural Boston Week/Harvard Weekend. During this week, they featured over 20 ensembles from Harvard, Boston, and Massachusetts, showcased musicians, conductors, and composers who are making great contributions to the Boston classical music scene, and gave listeners over 40 tickets to concerts in the Greater Boston area. The Handel and Haydn …