I'm back from Vail now (some of us don't play the final two concerts), and I was happy to read Don's review of our all-Mozart concert (see link at bottom of page), since it certainly will live in my memory as one of the most special performances I've participated in. The "Jupiter" was a blast, from beginning to end. The Requiem was very powerful, and especially moving was our encore, the Ave Verum Corpus.
The Requiem is a lengthy work, and I wondered whether the audience was really going to welcome another serious Mozart piece right after it, but from the first sound the choir made, there was complete, almost breathless silence, and I've never felt such utter concentration from a group of people listening to music. It affected everyone on stage, and it seemed like our playing and singing were transformed.
The choir, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Chorus under the direction of Roger Melone, was absolutely superb. I have never heard people sing so softly, with perfect intonation and deep feeling. I hope Maestro Seaman won't mind if I tell you that he cried during the Ave Verum, it was so beautiful. I was told later that half the choir was in tears, as a result. I've never seen nor heard of such a thing, and it was incredibly moving. I'm sure most of us were thinking about the Schubert quote mentioned in Don's "postcard."
I'm a little embarrassed to tell you that, until recently, I was never a musician who was very interested in composers' lives and the historical context in which they wrote. I regularly fell sound asleep reading Grout, the music history text we used in college. That has changed because of the RPO's "Symphony 101" Series, at which I've learned countless things that have helped me to understand and appreciate the music we play, on a different level.
Our conductor is an absolute master at bringing long-dead composers to life -- he's got the facts of a music historian at his fingertips, coupled with a magical gift for storytelling. The musicians and the audience alike benefit.
You know that question you always hear suggested as a good dinner table conversation starter -- "If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be?" I always thought it was kind of dumb, but it's been several years now since I've started wishing I could talk to Mozart for an hour, or just listen to him. When we played the Ave Verum, I felt like he was still alive. It's a humbling experience, to be a conduit for someone's immortality.
-- Ingrid Bock Yang, Cello
RPO member since 1979
