ASU Choral Union Concert

The spring concert for ASU Choral Union (Chris, Paul Jr. and me being members) was Thursday evening, April 26. The performance included the ASU symphony orchestra and various other choirs (per usual for the spring performance).

The concert was the culmination of a series of events focused on Jewish music (with the organizers being upfront throughout in saying that this is a somewhat loose concept). I thought the series was very worthwhile (and educational); we attended a lead in concert (described here) and a symposium (described here).

First piece was the orchestra performing Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 (Jeremiah) - this actually was quite beautiful. As you might expect, it's based on Jeremiah's lamentations; the third movement (with soprano soloist) was really mournful. I liked it more than I expected to.

Then the choirs, with orchestra, performed the Sacred Service by Ernest Bloch (described here). I think it came off very, very well. The baritone soloist was good; the idea to project a translation of the Hebrew text onto a screen over the choir was very well received.

We appreciated our fans who showed up to support. This included Patrick, who drove up from Tucson and then had to return immediately after. One additional benefit of him showing up was that he took a movie of the entire Bloch performance - which is great to have.

Top photo = four performers; bottom photo = Linda Prideau with her Chaparral HS vocal music alums.

Patricia took the short movie shown here of the first 2 1/2 minutes of the first movement. I love how the piece sounds at the beginning; over the balance of the 50 minute performance, the initial themes keep coming back. It's delightful.



After (and during) something like this, I'm left with a sense of wonder at why good music works on us the way that it does. But I suppose its power, or magic, depends in large part on the fact that we cannot rationalize or verbalize its effects. This was very good music, with a very strong effect. I was grateful to be a part of a performance like this, for folks that show up to listen (including Patricia also showing up for the Tuesday rehearsal), for being able to do this with two of my sons.