Winning bidder will receive a certificate for two tickets to a 2010/2011 concert season performance, located in Horticultural Hall on Mass Avenue in Boston.  Tickets not valid for the Messiah or Mozart's Requiem.

Handel and Haydn Society, America's Premier Chorus and Period Orchestra:

The mission of the Handel and Haydn Society is to perform Baroque and Classical music for chorus and period-instrument orchestra at the highest level of artistic achievement. Founded as a choral society in 1815 by a group of Boston merchants, Handel and Haydn is among the oldest continuously performing arts organizations in the country. From its earliest years, the Society established a tradition of innovation, performing the American premieres of Handel’s Messiah in 1818, Haydn’s Creation in 1819, Verdi’s Requiem in 1878, and Bach’s B Minor Mass in 1887. The Society began performing Handel’s Messiah annually in 1854. Throughout its history the Handel and Haydn Society has brought the world’s most beautiful music and its greatest artists to local audiences, setting a standard for orchestral and choral performances that remains unparalleled.

The Handel and Haydn Society Period Orchestra plays on instruments from and in the style of the period in which the music was composed. This produces a unique sound and style. Handel and Haydn Soprano Gail Plummer Abbey notes: “the instruments compliment one another and blend together in a way that the result is something more than the sum of its parts. Their tone is so clear and pure that the intricacies of the music are allowed to come through. The Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra plays with a great deal of heart, and the instruments project that very directly to the audience.”

Some of the instruments played by members of the Period Orchestra were actually made during the Baroque and Classical eras. Others are modern replicas, painstakingly produced by master instrument makers from period examples. The Handel and Haydn Society Period Orchestra includes some of the finest period instrument musicians in the country, some traveling from New York, Washington, or Europe to perform.

Link is www.handelandhaydn.org