Music

What better time to present music written by and for women? Christine Gevert and Crescendo will do it this coming weekend in a pair of concerts focusing on the soprano voice.
“Concerto delle Donne—Consort of Ladies,” features the early Baroque music of Luzzasco Luzzaschi, court composer to the Duke of Ferrara in late 16th-century Italy. At the time, the Duke had in his court three female sopranos—the eponymous “Consort of Ladies”—whom he supported as professional singers. They were likely the first such ensemble in Western history.

Christmas Angelicus, Holiday Schedule 
Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m., St. Michael’s Church, 25 South St. Litchfield, Conn.
Dec. 15, 4 p.m., Collinsville Congregational Church, Collinsville, Conn.
Dec. 16, 4 p.m., Salisbury Congregational Church, 30 Main St., Salisbury, Conn. 
 
Dec. 21, 7:30 p.m.,  St. Patrick - St. Anthony Church, 285 Church St., Hartford, Conn. 
Dec. 22, 4 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 220 Prospect St., Torrington, Conn. 

A beautiful trumpet solo introduces the Kyrie from Simon Perkins’ “New England Requiem.” 
Those notes are both immediately familiar — the sound of wide spaces associated with American composers like Copland — and something new. Woodwinds join in with tighter spacing, mixing in seconds and thirds, adding complexity and pain. Soon comes the chorus, first echoing the trumpet entrance, then breaking out in rich chords. The placid, comforting mood of this mass for the dead remains dominant.

Two more weeks of chamber music and jazz remain in the Music Mountain season, Falls Village’s bucolic concert getaway.
I caught up with the hyperactive artistic director, Oskar Espina-Ruiz, as he was flying back to his home base in North Carolina, where he teaches clarinet in the UNC music school, for a brief stay. He immediately turned his attention to the celebrated American String Quartet, which makes its Music Mountain debut on September 16.