Pretoria has 70 000 jakaranda trees and a number of small choirs worthy of note. The Pretoria Bach Choir is one of them. On a misty damp Sunday afternoon the choir inspired an enthusiatic audience with a sensitive and polished performance of JS Bach's Sleepers awake (Mt 15:1 -13); WA Mozart: Vesperae Solennes de Confessore and Handel's Psalm 112 at the Musaion at the University of Pretoria. I was transported by the singing of the familiar Scriptures. A programme with translations into English and Afrikaans allowed one to follow the German. Congratulations to Leone and Petro and to Gerben Grooten, the elegant and dedicated young conducter. Gerben is our worship leader at Hatfield Christian Church and I am more accustomed to see him in a T-shirt sitting behind the drums in the church band. He did us all proud and his obvious dedication to making music to the glory of God, whether contemporary or classical is refreshing!
8 comments:
What a lovely church choir singing beautiful rep. I would have thoroughly enjoyed this, too.
Thank you for this beautiful poem in honor of veterans and also my father in law! Let us not forget.
Ah, how I wish I had been there.
There is nothing more beautiful than grand choral music, is there? We were fortunate to grow up with the late Robert Shaw as the conductor of our symphony. He was known for his choral work and we were spoiled by the wonderful concerts he gave.
Are those jakaranda trees pictured in your header photo?? Magnificent!
Beautiful post and certainly a day for music and angels.
I love choir music too.
Hi Eleanor, sounds like the concert was really good. I also liked the poem you posted.
Thanks for your comments on my remberance day post. That was the first one I have ever attended and found it to be a very moving experience.
My experience of war was to try and put it behind me and move on, but once you have been through it you can't - the names and faces of all those I knew (friends and family), who were killed in action, will remain with me forever and I guess it is good to honour their memory.
My father and fatherinlaw also fought with the SA forces in WWII.
Such events do so much for the soul.
I like the Wilfred Owen piece. I posted a Charles Hamilton Sorley Poem myself, not just because he's Scottish but because his poem chimes with some of the questions I have about the way we remember the war dead.
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