An apt performance to celebrate a city treasure
Way back in 1984, before most of the current undergraduate class of the New England Conservatory was born, cellist Laurence Lesser had the simple idea of assembling NEC faculty members into ensembles to perform chamber music concerts on the first Monday of the month, when most performing organizations took the night off. Dinner was the only payment the performers received, so Lesser had to rely on the good will of his colleagues and their genuine desire for artistic collaboration (which is not a bad place to start for chamber music). Admission was free.
The idea took.
Twenty-five years later, First Monday remains both a treasured institution for local chamber music fans and something of a well-kept secret for the city at large. Last night in Jordan Hall, a large crowd turned out for the first concert of the anniversary season but the balconies still had room for plenty more.
Lesser spoke warmly from the stage, reminisced a bit and even solicited audience input on seating arrangements, inviting anyone there to send him an e-mail.
Part of the fun at First Mondays is that you never know quite what you’re going to get. Lesser’s programming is highly eclectic but also contingent on which players happen to be free on a given date. This year’s concerts dart over four centuries of music, from Gabrieli to Gunther Schuller.
It was music by the former (“Canzon Septimi Toni’’ No. 2) that opened last night’s concert in an aptly celebratory manner, with groups of brass players perched in opposing balconies, dispatching antiphonal volleys under the direction of Charles Peltz. After more Gabrieli, both from the balconies and the stage, an assembly of NEC faculty and alumni (including soprano Lisa Saffer and Boston Symphony Orchestra oboist John Ferrillo) gave a beautiful and shapely performance of Bach’s “Wedding Cantata’’ (BWV 202). To end the program, Lesser was joined by violinists Miriam Fried and David McCarroll as well as violists Roger Tapping and Paul Biss for Mozart’s G-minor Viola Quintet, a sad and sublime work that received a vibrant reading true to its pathos. Ad hoc ensemble performances of this nature are always somewhat loose-limbed affairs but these were also sensitive and intelligent, a duly festive way to open the anniversary season.
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com. 
