by Daniel Hathaway

In 1815, Wellington and Blücher defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, John McAdam was building roads in Britain out of crushed stone, and the US launched its first steam warship, the U.S.S. Fulton. And on Christmas Day of that year, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society gave its inaugural concert. Two hundred years later, after reinventing itself more than once, H+H (as it’s now known) has the honor of being the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the country. H+H is celebrating that milestone with a variety of activities, including a handsome exhibition of historical artifacts at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square, and two performances of J.S. Bach’s Matthew-Passion at Symphony Hall.

I joined a group of fellow members of the Music Critics Association of North America in Boston last weekend to learn more about the history of Handel and Haydn, and we all attended the Passion concert on Friday evening, March 27. [Read more…]