Handel and Haydn at Symphony Hall

By Ron Knepper, SRFS Board Member

The SRFS was privileged to be offered a 20 percent discount on the price of tickets to attend a concert by the well-known Handel and Haydn Society orchestra and chorus at Symphony Hall in Boston last March. We chose to attend the concert on Sunday, March 30, at 3p.m., which included a 45 minute pre-concert information Q&A session by Teresa Neff. Dr. Neff is the Handel and Haydn Society’s “Christopher Hogwood Historically Informed Performance Fellow” and is also on the faculty at MIT as a Senior Lecturer in Music.

Our group really enjoyed hearing this classical, historically informed, music directed by conductor Jonathan Cohen and played on instruments, some of which originated from the 18th century. We were honored to hear the Handel and Haydn musicians and chorus perform the magical “The Seasons” by Haydn and Beethoven’s well-known “Mass in C Major” along with several other numbers written by Haydn and Beethoven. I found the music totally enjoyable and rewarding and am so glad we were able to come to the concert as a group from our SRFS community.

Even though we attended the H&H as a group, we were not able to sit together as a group. Due to time constraints, purchasing a block of tickets in advance was not possible, so each person purchased their own ticket(s) and chose their seat location. Because we couldn’t all sit together, we decided to meet prior to the Q&A session. We wish we had more time for the meet and greet, but we did have time to say “hello” to everyone!

The attendees all thought the concert was very enjoyable and worthwhile! We hope to organize something like this again next year for either an H&H concert or a concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.