A Musical Weekend

Everyone scheduled their Christmas parties for Friday night, so I went to the one that was most likely to feature riotous dancing. The music was actually somewhat less conducive to dancing than I anticipated... but on the upside, I was invited to a concert Saturday night.

I quickly scuttled my original plans for Saturday because the concert was pretty much one-of-a-kind: a concert for the composer Elliott Carter's 102nd birthday. I am not particularly plugged into the world of modernist classical music, but I just happened to know about Mr. Carter, in particular, by sheer happenstance. (A year or two ago, I once randomly ran into a friend on the subway late at night, and she told me she'd been at an event for Mr. Carter and explained who he was. It made quite an impression!)

This particular "community orchestra" is made up of professionally trained, professional caliber musicians - most of whom are pursuing other high-profile careers. So when they convinced Mr. Carter to show up as the guest of honor, they pretty much pulled out all the stops. The location was both swank and intimate (the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center). At the entrance, there was a lovely chocolate cake, home-made by one of the orchestra members and hand-decorated with metric modulation motifs. After the show, each concert-goer could take a cupcake (in a nice cupcake box) in honor of the birthday boy.

The program was more challenging than I'm used to (I take my classical music very classical, thank you very much), but I really enjoyed the Carter works in the first half of the program. The clarinet concerto was playful and even funny at times. Mr. Carter was sitting two rows behind me, so I went up to him at intermission and just smiled and said Thank you, I'm really enjoying your works. The Carter works in the second half were equally interesting but more lugubrious. They were flanked by Stravinsky and Ives, which I liked.

All in all, an extraordinary evening.

So that was Saturday night. Sunday morning I was up bright and early for a service of lessons and carols at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. I went there with friends since I'll probably miss the Travelers' Christmas Eve service at my church this year. I didn't know what to expect, but imagine my delight when I walked in and saw the Redeemer Symphony Orchestra on stage. A full orchestra and a chorus to sing Christmas carols with us and perform Christmas anthems for us. Yes!

After that, I caught up with some folks from my church to sing Christmas carols for the homeless at my church's party. We sang two sets, including secular and sacred favorites ranging from Jingle Bells to Joy to the World. (Hmm. That sounds like we only sang songs that began with a "J", doesn't it?) Probably Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer would have gone over well with the crowd, too, but we didn't sing those.

Three big musical events in one weekend? Sheer bliss.