I haven't played a Christmas concert in years. The community orchestra I play in, the Waukegan Symphony, gives a holiday concert every December, always featuring part of Handel's Messiah. This oratorio is a popular piece, though it is rarely presented in its entirety, with good reason. It's really long. In recent years "do-it-yourself" Messiahs have become popular. The audience gets to be the chorus. (I haven't played it until this year because it only calls for two (French) horns. This year neither of the regular players wanted to play.)
Everybody probably knows the final piece in the Messiah -- the Hallelujah chorus. The entire piece is really long and is in two parts, the first being about Christmas and the second about the Crucifixion and Resurrection. This being the Christmas season, our orchestra was playing part one plus the Hallelujah chorus. We (the orchestra) had a chorus on stage with us, and several soloists The audience was invited by our conductor to sing along on all the choruses.
I didn't know exactly what to expect, but it was really fun! Everyone was upbeat (it is the Christmas season after all). Our conductor, Alexander Platt, has a warm personality and is great at talking to the audience at every concert, in addition to being a very fine conductor. The concert started with some light Christmas music -- the theme from Elf and a medley of holiday songs that the audience could also sing along to. That was followed by Part 1 of The Messiah. And we ended (of course) with the Hallelujah Chorus, orchestra, audience, and chorus all participating.
Happy Holidays to all of my fellow bloggers!
You describe so well all that was heard and seen. I felt like I was there. You also remind me that by giving (in this case, a performance) you yourself got so much joy! Happy Holidays to you too!
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