If you’re in the Bay Area, you can give yourself a holiday treat
Bookworm on Dec 17 2007 at 12:35 pm | Filed under: Uplifting stories
We went on Saturday to the Christmas concert given by the Grammy award winning San Francisco Boys Chorus. It was an auditory delight. The SFBC doesn’t pretend to any PC Christmas white out, but instead, inundates you with truly beautiful Christmas and Christmas music. This year’s program included Oh Holy Night, I Saw Three Ship, and Joy to the World. In addition, the boys sang Ava Maria, led by a soprano and an alto doing a duet so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes and ran chills up and down my spine. If you like choral music, the SFBC is one of the best groups performing today.
And if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can hear a replay of their concert from last year. As the SFBC website says:
KQED-TV will broadcast the San Francisco Boys Chorus in concert on Sunday, December 23rd at 1:30pm and again Monday 24 7:30pm. In the special 30-minute program recorded in 2006, the Chorus will perform selections from Marc Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum and other holiday favorites, under the direction of Maestro Ian Robertson. KQED Life (Comcast channel 189) will air Monday December 24th at 1:30pm.
Having attended last year’s concert, I can assure you that you will be delighted with what you hear.
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5 Responses to “If you’re in the Bay Area, you can give yourself a holiday treat”
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I must say, when I read the name “San Francisco Boys Chorus,” the image that flashed through my mind was something like a peewee Village People.
Oh, no! It’s a classical chorus a la The Vienna Boys Choir. It was formed almost 60 years ago as a companion to the San Francisco Opera, and a lot of the boys are regularly used in the opera, most recently in The Magic Flute.
I’d say go to *any* Boy’s Choir performance if ever you get the chance wherever you live. There is really something unique about the instrument.
Also, I’m almost disappointed they did carols because carols are not written for *choirs*. Ava Maria is trancendant and classical choir arrangements written as a Christian religious expression (or because that’s what the composers were expected to do!) are meant, many of them, to be performed by human voices without accompaniment. (Trying to avoid the overtly Christian for a choir is a bit like trying to do the same for a pipe organ.) Voices are not tied to preset intervals so the harmonies can be more pure when sung without accompaniment.
Book,
Christian Christmas music has a way with the emotions. But in SF? Amazing!!
You said “the boys sang Ava Maria, led by a soprano and an alto doing a duet so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes and ran chills up and down my spine. ”
Are you quite sure you are not a closet Christian? If so, come on out and you will be welcomed, but if not — we love you anyway.
Have a great holiday and a wonderful New Year!!
In Christ eternally,
ExP(Jack)
The thing is that when it’s Christian in a different language it’s just the music.
I had a CD of Jewish choral music that was in the classical style (of some sort or other… old, you know) and I think it was mostly in Hebrew and Italian.
I don’t speak Hebrew or Italian.
So the religion associated with it was incidental. Since I don’t speak Latin either something like Ava Maria is simply *music*.