Hey, I bet you didn’t know what “friggatriskaidekaphobia” was —right? It’s “fear of Friday the 13th !” Today is Friday, May 13, and tonight is the opening night of Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. It’s Carl Crosier’s “swan song,” if you will, his final concerts as Cantor after 38… Read More No “friggatriskaidekaphobia” for us!
Tonight Carl and I hosted a reception for the patrons of the Bach B-Minor Mass and the Abendmusiken Concerts—individuals and organizations who have given contributions of $1,000 or more. I guess it was Carl who came up with the name “Bach Crest Circle.” Five years ago, Carl said he would have fixed all the food… Read More Bach Crest Circle
Those were Carl’s words at the end of tonight’s dress rehearsal for the Bach Mass in B Minor. Tonight was the first time we went straight through the piece, from beginning to end, and did not stop except where we will have an intermission in the concert. Carl got so excited, though, in the final… Read More We did it!
Those were Carl’s words after the rehearsal with the orchestra tonight. “The orchestra is finally responding to me, and is getting into the style.” Tonight we worked primarily on Part II, beginning with the Credo. Everything seemed a little easier tonight. Even the sopranos popped their high Bs with ease. Carl said, “There are… Read More “Finally settling in”
On Sunday after the 10:30 am service, we began the transformation of the church into a concert hall. The first step was to bring the extra platforms down from over the Board Room, and to move the continuo organ off the elevated floor. Yes, that means I will not be playing the big organ and… Read More Bach Week begins
Our historic performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor are only a week away, and I thought I’d give you some instructions and explain our personalized system of ticketing. First of all, I would like to encourage everyone to arrive early so that you’re not looking for parking at the last moment. We are asking… Read More Your program is your ticket
Carl asked this question of the choristers after tonight’s rehearsal. “Are you ready to meet the orchestra next week?” Everyone shook their heads together, “NOOOO!” What was scheduled to be the last choral rehearsal before meeting the orchestra on Monday is going to turn out to be the “next to the last” rehearsal. We will… Read More “Are you ready?”
It’s less than two weeks until LCH’s upcoming performances of Bach’s “Mass in B Minor,” May 13 and 14, 7:30 pm. Here is a status report on what’s happening around the LCH campus: 1. The choir will resume rehearsals tomorrow night after having a “break” for Holy Week and Easter. We’ll see if everyone remembers… Read More The countdown begins!
When we presented Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in the year 2000, I wrote a series of articles for the church newsletter. One of them was titled “Bach the numerologist” and asked whether it was merely coincidence or intentional that Bach wrote music which had numerological significance. For example, the phrase “Lord, is it I” was… Read More Bach the numerologist
A few days ago, in response to a FaceBook comment about having trouble booking tickets for the upcoming performances of Bach “Mass in B Minor,” I erred in saying that Preferred Seating was sold out. I was just given this message from our Webmaster: There are still a few preferred seating tickets left for each… Read More Sorry ’bout that!