The heart and soul of Camerata's work is to be found in this area. We offer many, extraordinary musical programs, spanning centuries, continents, and different style periods. A number of them, in recorded form, have won international prizes and honors, including the Grand Prix du Disque, the Edison Prize, and the American Critics' Circle Award.

If you are interested in presenting a live performance by the Boston Camerata, you are invited to Contact Us. Fee support for The Boston Camerata may be available to nonprofit organizations through the New England States Touring (NEST) program of the New England Foundation for the Arts. Visit www.nefa.org for more information.

We try to make available, to the best of our ability, Camerata's extensive catalog of sound recordings. You may purchase available recordings by clicking "SHOP" where applicable, or you may go directly to the shopping cart .


Medieval

Renaissance

Baroque

Christmas

New World

Special Projects





The Night’s Tale:
 A Tournament of Love
 

The Night’s Tale, as staged and directed by Artistic Director Anne Azéma, is not a decorous concert of “early music.” It’s a theater piece, with lights, movement, gesture, and lively interaction among the cast members. The Boston Globe called it “something hot — raucous, gleeful, impulsive, rowdy.” A leading French critic says that “it may well alter the way we look at the Middle Ages.
 



Play of Daniel


The Ludus Danielis, or Play of Daniel, is a powerful medieval mystery play composed eight centuries ago in Beauvais, France.
 
The Boston Camerata's recent new production of The Play of Daniel, edited, staged and directed by Anne Azéma, renews and transforms this classic work of early music theater. It brings together music and movement, theater and liturgy, light and shadow, to retell the biblical story of the young prophet for today's audiences. Acclaimed by the public and selected as "best of the year" by Boston critics, Camerata's Daniel is now being offered for a 2016 tour.
 
"Lyrical and poignant ... timeless spiritual message."
   –- The Boston Globe
 
"Unexpected energy and immediacy ... memorable"
   –- The Boston Musical Intelligencer
 
"Enchanting ... a pure delight"
   –- The Boston Classical Review
 



Machaut's Magnificent Mass


The Boston Camerata returns to one of the great masterpieces of Medieval musical art,  the monumental Messe de Notre Dame of Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300 – 1377)...



Heaven's Gate/Portes du Ciel


Sung by a celestial trio of female voices, accompanied by vielles and harp, “Heaven's Gate” opens the portals to an abundant treasure of song in French...



Ah, Sweet Lady/Douce Dame Jolie:

Guillaume de Machaut's Last Affair


About two years before he composed his famous Mass, the aging master and churchman Guillaume de Machaut fell in love with the too-young noblewoman Péronne d'Armentière...



Gallery Of Kings


The Kings of France were crowned at Reims, and a majestic Gallery of Kings dominates the Cathedral's façade. This program of medieval music and poetry sings of David, Salomon, Arthur, Marc Alfonse, Rodolp, Thibaut...



The Distant Haven:

Voyage and Encounter in Medieval France


Music and poetry recounting legendary quests, spiritual pilgrimage, and chivalric adventure: beautiful chants,songs and lais of the troubadours and trouvères...



The Maria Monologues


An exploration of the “eternal feminine” in the Middle Ages, via songs and poems around two women named Mary: Mary Magdalen, the repentant sinner and intimate of Christ and Mary the Mother, source of grace and mercy to the human race.



Gothic Pleasures


Some historians see the late Middle Ages as a “waning” period. Here at the Camerata, we hear incredible beauty, sensuality, and tenderness in the magnificent music of Dufay, Binchois, Josquin, and other...



Tristan & Iseult


"Tristan and Iseult," Camerata's most honored production of recent seasons, was originally conceived as a recording project. At the request of Erato records, intense literary and musical research took place during winter and spring 1987.




The Sacred Bridge:

Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe


Much of the music you are about to hear was produced in the saddest and most shamefully cruel corners of old Europe - its ghettos. Yet the Jews and Christians, though forced to live apart, were in many ways...



Lo Gai Saber:

Troubadors and Minstrels 1100-1300


Astonishing in their diversity and grace, the circa-four thousand poems of the Occitanian and Catalan troubadours survive by the forsight of a few enlightened patrons who, sensing the end of an epoch, began...



Le Roman de Fauvel


In the year 1310 manuscript copies of a scurrilous satirical poem, the Roman de Fauvel, began circulating around Paris. Corrosive, pitiless, the poet, a mid-level government functionary named Gervais de Bus...



Le Fou Sur Le Pont:

Bernatz de Ventadorn, Troubador Songs


Every since the middle ages, the troubadours of Provence have exerted a special kind of fascination for historians, poets, and lovers of music and literature. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries...



Carmina Burana


The ages-old manuscript, that lay in the vaults of the Benediktbeuren monastery in Bavaria, did not begin with the usual devotions. On the contrary, the opening song -- meant as some satirical mime, or a dance perhaps...



Cantigas de Santa Maria:

Alfonso X el Sabio, King of Castille (1221-1284)


High among the many achievements of the Spanish King Alfonso X, called "El Sabio" -- the Wise (1221-1284) is the superb collection of more than 400 sacred songs to the Virgin Mary, the celebrated Cantigas de Santa Maria.



anne azema

The Unicorn


This program of old French music and poetry explores a very important but-little known aspect of the Middle Ages: the art of story-telling. Centuries ago, the frontier between the musical and literary worlds was much...



Le Jeu d'Amour (The Game of Love)


Love is a game, and every game has its rules. In medieval France, the rules are new and give the woman, the dame, a novel status. And the game of love, thus played out with the consent of all those involved, takes...



Provence Mystique


The region now referred to as the south of France was in the Middle Ages known as Proenza (that is, Provence), and was truly a crucible of creative activity that was to change for ever the relationship between men...



Étoile du Nord


This is not the first CD to explore music devoted to the Virgin Mary, but it's unquestionably one of the most beautifully conceived and performed. French soprano Anne Azéma and Berkeley-based string player Shira Kammen breathe warmth and humanity...



The Night's Tale: A Tournament Of Love


In 1285 a French minstrel wrote down an eyewitness account describing a magnificent courtly celebration in the Lorraine region of France. The songs, dances, and games described in his text have inspired this delightful production.





Vieni Imeneo!

Marriage and Music in the Italian Renaissance


A musical invocation of Hymen, Roman god of marriage! At the intersection of family power, pomp, religion, and raging youthful hormones, the celebration of marriage in Italy ca. 1500-1600 produced, among other things, an incredibly rich harvest of magnificent music.



A Symphony Of Psalms:

Honoring Jean Calvin


Camerata presents a garland of psalm settings across the centuries, with special attention to Renaissance Europe, the birthplace of Protestantism. The musical settings will be grouped around important themes/motifs of the texts...



The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Series


This series of three Italian Renaissance concert programs, originally commissioned by the Gardner Museum, Boston, around their special exhibitions, is now available for touring. These programs are available individually and as a group...



Pierre Certon: Chansons & Messe


We salute the CD reissue, on Harmonia Mundi HMA 1901034, of a classic Boston Camerata program, recorded in France in 1979.




Farewell, Unkind

Songs and Dances - Dowland


Review of John Dowland: Farewell Unkind ( Erato CD) from Le Monde de la Musique (Paris, France), May 1996 rating: Choc (highest possible)...



Douce Beauté:

Pierre Guédron et l'air de cour


Like all true Latins, the French have always adored a good show. The splendors of opera and ballet at the court of seventeenth-century Versailles were famous all over Europe in their day -- and this century's "early music" revival in France...



What Then is Love?:

An Elizabethan Songbook


Want to hear some wonderful songs that the real Shakespeare probably knew? Check out this wonderful Boston Camerata CD, an anthology of ravishing vocal and instrumental pieces from Elizabethan England, featured in...



Musique Judéo-Baroque


The words you will be hearing on this recording are sung in Hebrew, a language evolved and first sopken in the Holy Land; yet the music which accompanies these liturgical texts is European through and through...



Requiem:

Jean Gilles


The name of Jean Gilles, which had been forgotten for more than a century and a half, emerged from obscurity in the 1950's, thanks largely to the rediscovery of his Messe des Morts. Yet this musician, whom his contemporaries considered to be...




Lamentations:

Holy Week in Provence


Joel Cohen may well be the best precisely where, a priori, you least expect him to be. If anyone is a many-faceted talent, it is surely he, since he undertakes, with the Boston Camerata, seven centuries of music, including, a few years back...



The Brotherhood of the Star:

A Hispanic Christmas 1300-1700


A rich holiday celebration from the Spanish speaking parts of the globe: from Spain...



A Boston Camerata Christmas


"Beautifully crafted" - Musiccriticism.com

3 CD box set.



Sing We Noel:

Christmas Music from England and Early America








A Medieval Christmas


The midwinter date of the festival of Christ's nativity coincides with many pagan celebrations of the winter solstice, and most particularly with the Roman Dies sol invictus ("the day of the unconquered sun")...



A Renaissance Christmas








A Baroque Christmas








Noël, Noël:

A French Christmas


An extremely rich recording, procuring constant enchantment on repeated hearings. Once more, the intelligence of Joel Cohen and his musicians ravishes us. The voices are superb, among others those of Anne Azéma... -Compact (Paris)



An American Christmas


An extremely rich recording, procuring constant enchantment on repeated hearings. Once more, the intelligence of Joel Cohen and his musicians ravishes us. The voices are superb, among others those of Anne Azéma... -Compact (Paris)



A Mediterranean Christmas








With Joyful Voice








Land Of Pure Delight:

In Search Of The American Soul


The Boston Camerata has pioneered in the rediscovery of American musical roots. We propose, for our moment in history, a unique communal celebration, including some of the best that we as a nation have to offer.



New Britain:

Roots of American Folksong


American civilisation came in large part from old Europe. So we all know -- but do we? For the myth of modern, industrial America, that brand-new, technology-driven, rootless place is strong in the contemporary mind. American music...



The American Vocalist:

Spirituals and Folk Hymns 1850-1870


This is a recording about a surprising phenomenon: The vigorous survival, in the Northern part of the United States, of folk-inspired religious hymnody. It is well known that the "folk" element in American church...



Nueva España:

Close Encounters in the New World 1590-1690


The Age of Exploration! In our school days, we were told it was a time of heroes, and of high adventure. Later, we came to understand what terrible suffering and injustice the Spaniards had wrought in their drive for fame...



Trav'ling Home:

American Spirituals 1770-1870


As urban America of the nineteenth century grew and prospered, it became anxious to show itself civilized and "cultured" along the lines of established European culture. And so it was that the music of America's...



Liberty Tree:

Early American Music 1776-1881


Our view of the American past is shaped by many things -- dimly remembered history lessons from our earliest school days; the posturings of present-day public people; and, perhaps most importantly, by the popular media...



Simple Gifts:

Shaker Chants and Spirituals


The United Society of Believers, commonly known as the Shakers, have best been described as a Protestant Monastic Community. An old hymn of ours states "at Manchester in England this blessed fire began"...



The Golden Harvest:

More Shaker Chants and Spirituals


Sabbathday Lake, Maine (about half an hour north and west of Portland) is home to the world's last functioning Shaker community. Despite that solitary-sounding description, Chosen Land is a vital, cheerful, and active place...



Borrowed Light


This stunning music and dance production integrates authentic Shaker music, sung by the Boston Camerata, with audacious modern dance from the Tero Saarinen Dance Company . Borrowed Light has been performed more than sixty times in Europe, North America, and Australasia since its 2004 première, generating cheers and ovations at almost every venue. Further touring plans are underway for performances in Europe and America in 2013, 2014, and 2015. An extensive pressbook is available on request to interested presenters.



Alexander the Great:

Hero, Warrior and Lover


Alexander's deeds, both real and legendary, inspired bardic poetry and song both East and West.



Alla Turca:

Europe And The Ottomans 1400-1800


Four centuries of curiosity and emulation as Turks and Europeans engage with each others’ manners and music! The Dünya ensemble, featuring an array of traditional Turkish instruments, joins with the singers...



Angels:

Voices from Eternity








Kurt Weill:

Music for Johnny Johnson


As urban America of the nineteenth century grew and prospered, it became anxious to show itself civilized and "cultured" along the lines of established European culture. And so it was that the music...



Music & Memory