Reviews
with the Handel + Haydn Society - 2019
Symphony Hall, Boston - photo by Sam Brewer (Handel and Haydn Society)
March 2023 - The Bach Project’s “St. John Passion” was reviewed here: “…Soprano Elise Groves highly melismatic vocal line sat on this texture. This aria, more than any other, felt as though it would never end, and the audience did not want it to.” Also praise for the translation and program notes, which you can read here!
December 2022 - The NYT reviewed the collaboration between the NY Phil and Handel + Haydn Society Chorus - “…the choristers of the Handel and Haydn Society make evocative use of timbral contrast…the tenors offered a sense of wonder; the altos, excitement; the basses, appreciation; the sopranos, confidence.”
December 2020 - Handel + Haydn Society’s collaboration with GBH to produce “Handel’s Messiah for Our Time” is discussed here in BMINT and also in the Boston Globe (including a photo of Elise in the recording studio)!
November 2020 - Seven Times Salt has released a compilation of their last several December shows, including “Down in Yon Forest” featuring Elise as soloist! Check it out here!
August 2020 - Write up about the “Beauty of Baroque” concerts in Provincetown, one of a few series to do virtual concerts during the pandemic. Elise spoke with the reporter about performing Baroque music on modern instruments. Read more here!
December 2019 - The NYT reviewed Handel + Haydn Society’s “Messiah” with the New York Phil!
”Poised and warm, its sopranos silvery and its sibilants fresh, the group was an engaging and evocative presence, its sound suffused with mystery and mournfulness at the end of “All we like sheep.” The last note of “He trusted in God” seemed to hang in the air several seconds; the rich counterpoint of the work’s final “Amen” was, from the mouths of these 40 or so singers, a lovely mixture of intimacy and grandeur.” Another review can be read here.
with The Tallis Scholars - 2019
Pierre Boulez Saal - Berlin, Germany
November 2019 - Handel + Haydn Society’s “Every Voice” concerts are profiled in the Globe - read more here!
March 2019 - A preview of Miryam’s Esther is here, and the reviews are here and here!
June 2018 - Reviews of The Tallis Scholars in Cadogan Hall (Elise's UK debut) are here and here.
December 2015 - Review of Musica Nuova/Weckmann Project's "Schütz Christmas Story" - Boston Musical Intelligencer
Read the full review here.
November 2015 - Review of Tramontana's "Songs of the Oracle" - Boston Musical Intelligencer
Praise for Elise's "clarion tone". Read the full review.
Hildegard’s “Ordo Virtutum” with Cantoris - 2015
photo by Alex Zelenty
June 2015 - Review of Prière on the SoHIP Concert Series - Boston Musical Intelligencer
Praise for Tramontana's "unusually good blend and superior musicality", their "well-designed program", and the "spectacular performance of Charpentier's Litanies de la Vierge". Read the full review.
November 2014 - The voices and viols of "Prière" - Boston Musical Intelligencer
Praise for Tramontana's "well-blended but individually distinctive voices". Read the full review.
August 2013 - Review of Meravelha's "The Road Less Traveled: Music of the Camino de Santiago" - Boston Musical Intelligencer
"imaginative programming" and "impeccable intonation". Read the full review.
December 2011 - Orontea at the Longy School of Music - Boston Musical Intelligencer
"[the character of] Amore was given playful innocence by Elise Groves." Read more here.