concert

NYC early-music group TENET, which has traditionally centered its efforts around Monteverdi and his contemporaries, decided for this year to do a series of three concerts centered on Machaut: early (and predecessors), middle (and his well-known contemporary Anonymous), and late (and followers). Last night was the "middle" concert, and like the "early" concert a few months ago, it was extremely well done. Somewhat remarkably, none of the pieces on the program were Machaut's "greatest hits", such as "Douce Dame Jolie" or "Quant je suis mis au retour". And everything was held together beautifully by director Scott Metcalf's spoken commentary, which touched both the intellect and the heart.

The concert was in a tiny art-gallery space in the Village, seating maybe forty people, so they did two shows back to back (7:00 and 9:00), which I think were both sold out. We bought tickets too late to get the 7:00 seating, so we went to the 9:00, getting to bed after midnight.

I should have more to say about this concert, but I need to feed the dogs.