I didn't manage to spot
tssandwich and ratphooey out in the audience, but I hope they got good acoustics! I did see ericaceous, who was ushering and listened through some of the warmup; she was up in the balcony during the actual performance, and apparently the sound was great up there.I didn't feel perfectly settled into the Elgar-with-organ we sang for opener, which was a showcase for the ginormous Rodeph Shalom organ. It seemed to start too quickly, and I sang it fine, and I imagine it all sounded fine out in the audience, but it didn't have any strong emotional power that I could find. The Panufnik commission went very well. I'm never sure how many people in the audience really like the commissions and how many are just waiting for the Mendelssohn...but Roxana liked it, and she's the one who matters. In the intermission, I had a chance to speak to her briefly; she was clearly full of pleased energy. The Mendelssohn was a fitting end, I think. That one, I did feel the rush of it, energy pouring out of my mouth, a kind of ecstasy. If you can think very fast and count and all that while ecstatic. All in all, a most satisfying performance. Now for the hard part: saying goodbye to it.
Wednesday, new music.