Q. What is a 100%, sure fire guaranteed way to have your audience give your concert a standing ovation?
A. Program the Hallelujah Chorus as the final piece. Better yet, invite the audience to sing along!
Whether or not the audience did join the singing, the Oahu Choral Society concert did indeed end with a standing ovation. I am so so sorry that I was unable to get a photo of this—for one thing, I was standing by the organ with the choir (next to Jeremy Wong!) and secondly, I forgot to bring my phone!
It was surely a sight to see—so you’ll have to look at the picture above and use your imagination to add in a large choir of nearly sixty people, the women wearing long black dresses with bright red scarves, and the men with dark slacks, white shirts, red bow ties and red cummerbunds.
Here are some pictures from last year’s concert to give you a better picture of what the choir wore, although we were at St. Andrew’s Cathedral rather than LCH.
Add in an absolutely full audience standing and cheering and you’ll have a small inkling of the scene Saturday night.
Here is the page from the program booklet listing the order of pieces.
I was pleased with my performance of the Bach—I used the zimbelstern in the last eight bars of the Fantasia and received several comments about it. Many people didn’t know what it was, so here is a picture:
I explained that the back of the star is a round circle of wood with bells attached, and when I press the “magic button,” the circle turns round and round, resulting in a tinkling bell effect. Some people thought it was just a visual, but then I explained how I “reserve” using the zimbelstern for special occasions such as Christmas and Easter. In many respects, the tinkling bells add a special sparkle to the ensemble, somewhat like adding another high-pitched mixture stop.
Erin Richardson Severin asked me how I was able to stop the zimbelstern so precisely, right on the dot of my cut-off, and I said I have to press the pedal exactly 1/16th of a beat BEFORE so the bells stop turning on my cutoff. Her husband, Steven, said that the answer was that I practiced!
People clapped and cheered after the first movement of the Rutter—I was hoping that they could save some of that enthusiasm for the end of the work, which they did. I got a huge rush of adrenaline from the exciting climax, and then I started the intro to the Hallelujah Chorus. To my surprise, the brass and timpani joined in, even though we had rehearsed it with only me playing the accompaniment. For me, it just added an extra flair of celebration and excitement.
Sunday morning found me at the console of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church where I subbed for Karl Bachman who had taken the morning off to watch his sister run the Honolulu Marathon. I overheard a few people in the congregation wonder if Karl also ran the Marathon, and everyone laughed! The three Bach settings of “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland” went very well. Luckily I made no boo-boos during the service, even though the liturgy was unfamiliar to me—I felt like I was just hanging by the skin of my teeth! As you may remember from my previous subbing at Our Redeemer, the congregation is so fortunate that they have a resident trumpeter, Roger Koopman, who plays along on all the hymns with descants on the final verses. Oh what fun!
Right after church, though, I had a rehearsal with the Iolani Chorus for their Christmas concert, so I was pretty much wiped out the rest of the day. Friday night is the concert, and then I’ll fly to Kona on Saturday afternoon for the weekend with the Kona Choral Society.
Over the weekend I took the time to decorate my apartment for Christmas even though I’ll be spending both Christmas and New Year’s in California!
