Three-time Grammy nominee Boston Baroque was the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America. Founded in 1973 as “Banchetto Musicale” by the American conductor and harpsichordist Martin Pearlman, the ensemble has been in the vanguard of the period-instrument field for almost thirty years, and was recently described by the U.S. classical music journal Stereo Review as “…Perhaps the outstanding period-instrument ensemble in this country."
Boston Baroque presents an annual subscription concert season in Boston, tours in the U.S., and reaches an international audience with its critically acclaimed series of recordings on Telarc. Highlights of the ensemble’s performance history include the American premiere of Rameau’s Zoroastre; the American period-instrument premieres of Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony; illuminating performances of the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven; and landmark productions of the dramatic works of Monteverdi, Purcell, Gluck and Mozart, including Boston’s first complete cycle of the three surviving Monteverdi operas, in new performing editions by Martin Pearlman. The ensemble received international attention for its modern premiere and recording of The Philosopher's Stone (Der Stein der Weisen), a 1790 Singspiel recently discovered to have been composed, in part, by Mozart. Boston Baroque helps to train the next generation of professional period-instrument performers in its role as the resident ensemble for Boston University’s Historical Performance Program.
Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman have received particular acclaim for their interpretation of Handel’s Messiah, which is performed annually in Boston and was greeted with standing ovations in Carnegie Hall. The ensemble’s 1992 recording of Messiah was nominated for a Grammy Award, and has been named “The Number One Recording of Messiah” by the British journal Classic CD.
Boston Baroque’s recordings with Telarc are heard regularly on classical radio stations throughout the United States, and have garnered widespread critical acclaim. The first period-instrument recording of Robert Levin’s completion of the Mozart Requiem was named one of the three most important classical CDs of 1995 by CD Review. Early Music America magazine said of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride: “…So dynamic and moving that lovers of opera and early music will find themselves transported…” The recording Music of the Moravians was of particular historical and cultural interest. Three of Boston Baroque’s recordings have been Grammy finalists: Handel’s Messiah (1992); Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (1998); and Bach’s Mass in B Minor (2000).
Boston Baroque is proud to make its European debut in these concerts of the Seventh Annual Beethoven Easter Festival. The ensemble will celebrate its 30th Anniversary Season next year with performances of the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 in Boston, and on tour to major venues in the U.S. and Canada.