[slideshow]

We had a wonderful audience for today’s season-opening Bach at Noon.  Listeners were treated to a fantastic performance of Bach’s E-Major Harpsichord Concerto, played with elan by Charlotte Mattax-Moersch. Additionally, members of The Choir were delighted to sing repertoire from our New York concerts for our beloved hometown audience.  Audience members were able to purchase our new recording, Songs of Hope.  I’ll be writing more about that, soon, but know that the best place to pick up a copy is at the Bachhaus, our new home, at 440 Heckewelder Place (I’ll be writing more about that soon, too).  In his always-fascinating remarks about the pieces we performed, Greg mentioned the music of Maurice Duruflé, whose beautiful setting of Ubi Caritas, we sang in New York, as well as this afternoon.   Duruflé was also mentioned in the Times review, in which James Oestreich said of the Ubi Caritas, “I heard it seven times and missed an eighth only when, because of the ripple effect from a late-running Eucharist service at Trinity, I was late getting to St. Paul’s for the Master Chorale program. Few tunes come to mind that I would rather hear seven times in a day.”  Hear, hear.  Greg encouraged audience members to give Duruflé’s wonderful setting of the Requiem, and the Sanctus in particular, a listen.  If you’d like to give your speakers a workout, here’s a link to Robert Shaw’s seminal recording on YouTube.  Greg also gave this blog a kind mention – welcome to Bach at Noon attendees new to the blog!