I’m falling a bit behind in my blogging. I would claim that it was, indeed, another busy weekend with concerts, birthday parties, family illness, and all the other things that go into keeping a person hopping. Actually, I thought about giving up blogging all together since the world was supposed to end last Saturday, but that’s a different story…
…or is it?
Despite Harold Camping’s goofy claims for a “rolling Rapture” starting at 6:00 pm in whichever time zone one happens to find themselves, we were involved in something truly rapturous, as my friend Ken reminded us. Saturday night the Greenville Chorale presented Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the Peace Center, along with the Greenville Symphony.
We had been working on the piece for months. Even then, I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to pull it off. As director Bing Vick constantly reminded us, this was a marathon. The piece is extremely demanding, with tricky rhythms, incredible tempi, and notes at the extreme ends of the vocal range. More than once after rehearsal I came home with very little voice left.
Eventually, though, we began to pull it together. Rehearsing with orchestra did help, as we were able to hear our voice parts doubled in the instruments. However, even the orchestra struggled at times. Fortunately, the culmination did come with the concert Saturday evening, and everything went without a hitch. Afterward we had a nice reception to celebrate the Chorale’s 50th anniversary season and Bing Vick’s 30th year as its director.
So, this time next year it’s more Beethoven, but at least it’s a bit more familiar. We’ll be doing one of my favorites, the 9th Symphony. I’m looking forward to it.
I’ve never sung the 9th. The challenge will be to do so without completely tearing up due to the associations of that music with the reunification of Germany and the revival of hope in Eastern Europe.