http://classical-scene.com/2009/11/11/musica-sacras-50th-anniversary-concert-offers-brahms-requiem-with-the-boston-cecilia/ a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:55:37 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://classical-scene.com/2009/11/11/musica-sacras-50th-anniversary-concert-offers-brahms-requiem-with-the-boston-cecilia/comment-page-1/#comment-1140 Joe Turbessi Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:59:56 +0000 http://classical-scene.com/?p=1890#comment-1140 This is a rather forgiving review. I was unable to attend the first half, but the Brahms was mediocre at best. Although there was some very fine singing from choir and soloists, Beekman's conducting effectively ruined the work. Tempi were odd and poorly informed, the program notes were badly written, long-winded, frequently simply untrue, and demonstrated a poor understanding of the work. Many of the cutoffs simply didn't happen, leaving the choir to scatter helplessly at cadences. I appreciate that she clearly is very passionate about the work- this came through in her conducting- but this was not enough to carry the concert. I am sorry to say that I did not join in the applause and cannot agree that it was "thoroughly well-deserved." This is a rather forgiving review. I was unable to attend the first half, but the Brahms was mediocre at best. Although there was some very fine singing from choir and soloists, Beekman’s conducting effectively ruined the work. Tempi were odd and poorly informed, the program notes were badly written, long-winded, frequently simply untrue, and demonstrated a poor understanding of the work. Many of the cutoffs simply didn’t happen, leaving the choir to scatter helplessly at cadences. I appreciate that she clearly is very passionate about the work- this came through in her conducting- but this was not enough to carry the concert. I am sorry to say that I did not join in the applause and cannot agree that it was “thoroughly well-deserved.”

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