11.22.2008

Lacrymosa

A three hour rehearsal followed by an evening concert is not my idea of a fun Saturday. But it's what I did. The organ part of the orchestral score for Mozart's Requiem is boring with a capital yawn. Combined that with a performance by a chorus that can best be described as well-meaning, and I'm very glad to be home, curled up with you, my dear readers. To be honest, I just don't get the Mozart thing. Much of his music is so relentless, so tedious. The sound of any one of his symphonies just makes me want to lay my head down on my desk and wait for it to be over. And MPR insists on playing Eine kleine Nachtmusik every hour on the hour. Every time I hear it, I resolve anew NEVER to give MPR one red cent.

P.S. The best part of the evening was the Sous Blogger Deb and ever-game Phil showed up. It's always nice to peer out and see familiar faces suffering along with me.

2 comments:

deb said...

And since I'm not tired of Mozart, I had a nice evening.

We sat toward the back, on the left, where the sound was quite good. The vaulted arches gave a wonderful roundness to the music. And I learned from Mr. Sous (who spent 3+ years in architecture school before he regrouped and graduated with the prestigious BS in Fine Art from Stout Institute of Manual Training) that they were groin vaults.

I thought telling you that would make a nice tie-in with biology.

The first piece they did, which had more organ than the Requiem, was in honor of St. Cecilia. I love learning saint facts. Cecilia's saintliness is based on remaining a virgin, making her "unwemmed, lest confounded be." She took the fifth century equivalent of a chastity vow (maybe with a pinky ring?), and on her wedding day her husband said he was totally down with that. Later, he and his brother stayed with their original bad decision and were put to death. Then Cecilia was parboiled. When that didn't kill her, she was inexpertly beheaded, lived three more days so she could give away all her stuff to the poor, and then finally, oh blessed relief, died and turned into a saint.

Also I got some knitting done.

All good.

Elise said...

Yeah, I can't get behind the Mozart dissing, 'cos he's still my favorite, but I do think that bad Mozart is on a level with bad Shakespeare - i.e. very, very, very bad. Maybe even worse if you're playing it instead of just listening. Glad you survived.