Critic’s Choice

January 22, 2019 at 1:35 pm

By Aaron Keebaugh

Birthday festivities for composer John Harbison continue with Emmanuel Music presenting the Boston premiere of his String Quartet No. 6. Photo: Tom Artin

Birthday festivities for composer John Harbison continue with Emmanuel Music presenting the Boston premiere of his String Quartet No. 6. Photo: Tom Artin


John Harbison’s 80th birthday celebration continues this week as Emmanuel Music presents a program dedicated to some of the composer’s newest and most recent works.

In two performances on Saturday, the Lydian String Quartet will offer Harbison’s humorous Thanks, Victor and the Boston premiere of his String Quartet No. 6. As pianist, Harbison himself will accompany singers such as Charles Blandy, Carrie Cheron, Lynn Torgrove, Ryan Turner (Emmanuel’s artistic director), and Dana Whiteside in the world premiere of his Towards a New Popular Song, a reimaging of six popular tunes that featured the composer “writing in the margins” of the original source material.

Performances will take place 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday at Emmanuel Church. emmanuelmusic.org

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