Friday, July 4, 2008

AGO Thursday: Closing Concert



The closing concert was an incredible experience. It included music by Messiaen, Stephen Paulus ("Pilgrim's Hymn" from the opera The Three Hermits), and John Taverner. The crowing work, however, was the U.S. Premiere of Te Deum by German composer Siegfried Matthus (born 1934). An epic work of praise, war, re-building, and finally again, praise, it was written to celebrate the reopening of Dresden's Frauenkirche which was destroyed by Allied Forces during WW II. The work featured soloists, the Minnesota Boys Choir, an orchestra, and an SATB choir (at least 200 voices strong) all under the direction of Phillip Brunelle. If you ever get a chance to hear this work, do not miss it. It will make you weep. It was an incredible way to finish a week of great concerts and education!

Picture: St. Paul's Roman Catholic Cathedral, site of the closing concert.

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