CaRmInA BuRaNa aT LaSt!

Saturday, October 25th (contd.)

We walked over to Royal Albert Hall, and met up with Shawn underneath the statues to eat our sandwiches and cheesecake before the show. The hall is absolutely beautiful, but even moreso lit up at night. We made our way inside, and I was nearly breathless by the time we got inside to take our seats. The hall is absolutely gigantic! Cody and I sat in the back, upper circle, in the middle. We had a great view of the entire hall- absolutely massive! The stage itself held three galleries of choirs, a full orchestra, and an organ as big as my house! What a huge orchestration!
The concert itself was amazing. Absolutely moving, and so powerful. Carmina Burana is by far the most powerful piece I have ever played, and when I performed it, it was in a high school band arrangement- no choirs, and no professional musicians. I cant imagine how it must have felt when Point performed it a few years ago, let alone in a professional setting such as this. The tenor and bass put on a rather comical performance, really getting into it. The tenor actually collapsed during one scene, and remained lying there for the rest of the concert. I also thought it was rather funny that an entire boys choir was singing during such ranchy parts… if you translate the lyrics. Carl Orff was a genius, but the piece itself is rather dirty… haha.

I was nearly in tears at the end of the performance, due to the impact of the hall, and the incredible music making that was in front of me. The power of a massive organ, and three stories of choirs, plus an incredible symphony, had an incredible impact. I will not be able to effectively put into words the amazing-ness of the evening.

However, I was a bit sad that during the performance; I wasn’t completely submerged into the music, as I had hoped to be. It was still incredible, and amazing at that, however I feel that I have been so busy and things have been so fast paced that it distracted me during the performance. I couldn’t completely concentrate, and I tried filming a few parts, which distracted me as well. I’m glad I did film, even though it wasn’t allowed (there was no one to stop you…), because I have watched the clips many, many times since the concert. It was just sad that this was the highlight of my trip, what I have been waiting for since July, and I don’t feel like I was fully able to appreciate it due to all of the craziness running through my head.

However, what an incredible, powerful experience. Oh Carl Orff, you exhaust me with your brilliance.

Above: Mvmt. I of Carmina Burana: O Fortuna

Below: View of Royal Albert Hall. Note: the organ is about as big as my house... no joke.