5/26/10

Tonight we saw the Holst singers perform in the Temple Church.  Come Jesus Come was such a powerful work.  I got the sense that these singers really understand what they are singing about.  They can feel just as well as the audience the pleading in the opening lines of the piece "come, come, come Jesus, come".  We talked about this piece in class and there was some discussion of how the music aids the text in the pleading prayer to the converging of the different parts on the second page.  I think that maybe the converging voices represents the praying/ pleading individual growing nearer to the Savior or perhaps drawing nearer to his rest.  Such would be the case if the individual was dying.  I also noticed that as we get further into the piece we loose the energy and dynamic contrast from the beginning.  The blend also seems a bit more lazy.  I'm thinking that this may be an intentional reflection of the text speaking of weariness and a longing for death but, then we move into a rejoicing/ dance like section which is full of live and energy.

The concert was interspersed with cello solos which was an absolute delight.  I want to study what it is about stringed instruments that really just seem to penetrate right to the heart.  Interestingly enough, the cordae tendonae pull down on the valves that bring blood from the atriums to the ventricles.  These valves play a major part in creating the pressure necessary for the heart to pump.  Well I digress.  I just wonder if these strings vibrate at a frequency similar to the frequency of low stringed instruments.  It might sound "way out there" but something really happens to me when I hear beautiful cello and violin music.  I nearly cried as the cellist played his first piece, Bach's "Cello Suite no. 1".  This is a well loved piece featured in diamond commercials and car commercials.  It is a lovely piece that, aside from it's pop culture use, can stand it's own among great suites for solo instrumentalists.  I was overcome with emotion hearing this piece in this setting.  It took my breath away. Sadly to say, after the initial effects wore off, I wished the cellist played into his instrument more.  It just felt sort of lack luster by the end.

The Holst Singers came back on with a few German motets that I felt lacked performance qualities like musical nuance but it did have beautiful clarity of tone.

"Sing Ye to the Lord" I felt had great performance quality on the part of the conductor and the choir.  There were some fun stylistic things going on such as trills.  I was impressed by the agility of the choir in the melisma lines; the kind of agility we heard in the London Bach Choir.  By the time we reached the climax of the melismatic-ness in the first section of the piece, things were a mess.

Overall, I was impressed to see this group move from rehearsal mode to concert mode shortly after.  The gave an emotionally charged concert.