Music To Go With The Words

For anyone who was intrigued by my last post about Stephen Paulus's oratorio, but didn't get a chance to see it live this week at Orchestra Hall, there's one more chance to hear it before the CD we're currently making comes out late this year. Minnesota Public Radio taped Tuesday's performance, and will be airing it tonight in our normal Friday night slot on all MPR Classical stations across Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. (The flagship is KSJN 99.5fm in the Twin Cities, and if you're outstate, or in many parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, either Dakota, the Michigan UP, or Idaho, you can find your local affiliate here. MPR also streams live 24/7, so you can hear the broadcast online as well.)

The concert starts at 8pm Central, and includes a stirring first half featuring clarinetist Burt Hara performing a movement from Olivier Messaien's Quartet For The End Of Time, cellist Janet Horvath soloing in Bruch's Kol Nidrei, and the string section of the Minnesota Orchestra playing Steve Heitzeg's tribute to the victims of war and genocide, Wounded Field.

A few blogs have written about the performance as well, which also happened the last time we played this piece. Over at MSP Mag, Lani Willis called it "a gut-wrenching experience I expect to be digesting for a very long while." (She meant it in a good way, I think.) And those of you music diehards who double as Twins fans (as I do) may have been surprised to see an extended post from the one and only TwinsGeek describing his daughter's experience as a member of the children's choir performing the oratorio with us. (Full disclosure: the Geek is an old friend of mine, and I've been known to pen articles on baseball and hockey from time to time in one or another of his various online and print publications.) His daughter's favorite part of the experience? "When Osmo pointed to us, and we standed up alone, and everyone clapped extra hard.” Well, naturally.