This year's Boston Early Music Festival was full of exciting performances, and in the first of our traditional highlights series, we will mention music from Camerata Trajectina, Tragicomedia and Friends, fortepianist Kirstian Bezuidenhout, and Ensemble Européen William Byrd.  Our new release of the week is a collection of 17th century French music performed by soprano Elizabeth Belgrano and lutenist Lucas Harris.

Camerata Trajectina specializes in Dutch music from the 16th and 17th centuries.  The theme of their performance was "The Perfect and Well-equipped Ship: Dutch Sea-Shanties from the Seventeenth Century," which included pieces such as "A Sailor's Farewell," "To all Sailors" and "The Sailor's Counter Round," which speaks of the time of the Dutch wars against England.

The centerpiece of the festival was the world-premiere of the opera "Boris Goudunov," by German composer Johann Mattheson, written in 1710, one-hundred and sixty-four years before Modest Mussorgsky composed his opera of the same name.  Mattheson was a leading theorist of his time, and his opera was not discovered until 1998, after it was believed to have been destroyed in 1943.  It had, in fact, been carried by Russian soldiers to Armenia.  Tragicomedia and Friends gave the premiere performance of the opera once-thought lost.

In 2001, South African Keyboardist Kristian Bezuidenhout received not only the first prize at the prestigious Bruges Fortepiano competition, but the audience prize as well.  He teaches at the Eastman School of Music.  Bezuidenhout's stunning performance at this year's festival featured fortepiano music from the classical and early romantic perios, in a concert entitled "From Salzburg to St. Petersburg: A Fortepiano Travel Diary," including pieces by a composer much admired by Mozart, Georg Benda, born in 1722.

"Composers working in Denmark and Sweden in the 17th Century" was the title of a concert by the Ensemble Européen William Byrd, directed by Graham O'Reilly.  The program featured music from a 17th century collection that was begun in the 17th century by the musical Düben family.

Our new release of the week is by Elizabeth Belgrano and lutenist Lucas Harris.  It paints a musical portrait of French singer Anne Chabanceau de la Barre, born in 1628, whose beautiful and passionate singing made her one of the most sought-after performers in the courts of 17th century Europe.  The CD is entitled "Eclatante amarante," available on the web at www.elibelgrano.org.