Heart-breakingly beautiful (all kidding aside)

[Daddee]

I joke a lot and post a lot of weird links - but I had to share something beautiful today.

Marci and I went on a date last Saturday night. When we got back into the car I had 89.5 FM playing on the stereo in the car. Playing at the time was a choral piece I had never heard - but it immediately grabbed me by the heart and pulled me in. I was entranced and completely immobile.

Ye, Gods - I had never heard anything so hauntingly beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes as I listened.

Marci evnetually convinced me we needed to get home and relieve the baby-sitter, so I reluctantly divided my attention and tried to drive home. It took us 5 minutes to drive home - and I'm not sure I was even driving, but we made it safely home and the piece was still going when we pulled into the garage. I immediately ran in and grabbed the phone and called the DJ at KBAQ.

"Hello? Yes, you NEED to tell me the name of whatever choral piece is playing right now!" I took the information and immediately went to Amazon.com to order it.

It is even better than I hoped.

The piece that caught my attention was a Lux Aeterna choral piece written by Morten Lauridsen and performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale directed by Paul Salamunovich. I have worked with Paul Salamunovich before so I knew the quality of the recording was going to be top-notch, but, as with any recording, the music is what makes or breaks it. The music on that CD is incomparable.

Paul brings out the best in his choir. He pulls and stretches the music like taffy, thickening and building it until each note simply seeps emotion - he makes it sound as though his singers love each and every note they voice. He highlights the texture in the music and weaves a tapestry of sound that envelops you and carries you away. The sound is so exquisite that the music simply floats into existence, you forget that you're affected by gravity for a few brief moments.

If you are a fan of choral music, or of classical music in general, I cannot recommend this recording strongly enough. I immediately e-mailed the conductor of a choir I sing with and threatened his life if he doesn't have us perform that piece in the very near future.
_________________
"Only small minds want always to be right."
- Louis XIV

"...haven't you lived long enough to know that two men may honestly differ about a question and both be right?"
- Abraham Lincoln

[Hikngrl]

Daddee, that is beautiful! Thanks for sharing it with us!
_________________
~~~Diane~~~

I want to shine!

[GeorgAz]

Daddee, about 15 years ago, I heard a perfomance of Mahler's" Symphony of a Thousand" at the Phoenix Symphony with the Phoenix Boy's Choir, 2 sopranos, a tenor and and alto and performed by Sejii Ozawa, completely unwired, awesome and so emotionally and vocally beautiful....I still think about that performance to this day!

[cakewalk]

You can listen to samples on Amazon.com - scroll down from the link posted in Daddee's post.

[Hikngrl]

Yes, yes I know, thats how I knew it was beautiful.
_________________
~~~Diane~~~

I want to shine!

[Daddee]

Music is something that I'm (obviously) incredibly passionate about.

I’ve had a number of truly remarkable musical experiences. Once I got to hear Samuel Ramey (a VERY good operatic bass/baritone) at Phoenix Symphony Hall. The concert was absolutely incredible. There was one piece he sang (in English), that had such passion and emotion, his performance had nuance and power at the same time. You could see the passion in his posture, hear the emotion in his voice – that marvelous, rich, full voice. Almost at the end of the song there was this remarkable moment where he dropped his voice down to very subtle tones and started to slowly walk forward to the front of the stage. His performance was so captivating that everyone started to lean forward in their chairs as he was inching closer. Then the song ended; there was about a 3 second pause where the whole audience just soaked in the moment – then, all at once, you could literally hear the collective sigh of release and amazement. We had all been sucked in, held, and wrapped up in the song so tightly, and we didn’t even know it. It took a few seconds for all that to register, and for us to recover, then Marci and I looked at each other and just said “Wow. Did you feel that?” Easily one of the most amazing musical experiences of my life.

Needless to say – after the performance was done we had him do 5 curtain calls, 2 encores and 5 more curtain calls. We could not get enough.

Another time I got to see Yo-Yo Ma in concert with the Phoenix Symphony. That was my first real exposure to a Master performer. The main concert was very impressive (a Sibelius concerto) – but the truly amazing part was his performance for the 2nd encore. For the first encore the symphony joined him for a Bach piece. For the 2nd encore he came out and did a solo piece and it floored everyone. The same effects I described for the Samuel Ramey performance were there for Yo-Yo Ma’s performance. When he finished the audience simply exploded with applause. We made him do another 6 curtain calls. My hands hurt for days afterward.

There is simply nothing to compare to a truly virtuoso performance by a masterful artist. There are definitely reasons for why people like Yo-Yo Ma enjoy such notoriety. They are the best at what they do and it is easy to recognize it – just go and listen to them.
_________________
"Only small minds want always to be right."
- Louis XIV

"...haven't you lived long enough to know that two men may honestly differ about a question and both be right?"
- Abraham Lincoln

[cakewalk]

Anyone going to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra this year? They will be at Glandale Arena on Dec 9th. Tickets arent available yet. This will be my 3rd year. Im all giggly with excitment.

[Hikngrl]

cakewalk! Post it as soon as you see they are available. I wanna go really bad!
_________________
~~~Diane~~~

I want to shine!

[cakewalk]

Tickets went on sale this morning....

I got Section BBB row 5 Woo-hoo