My woman and I took part in some traditional (and traditional I can refer to early 1800s music, or the whole act) New York experiences. We attended an evening classical concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Thursday. We arrived shortly after work, and settled into the Medieval Sculpture Hall of the MET for the concert. An intimate setting in front of the classically decorated Christmas tree and a vivid 18th-century Neapolitan Baroque crèche. The embellished with a profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant figures and hovering, silk-robed angels, adorns the candlelit spruce. Aside from the Nautica dressed brats in the rows in front of me, the scene took me back to a 1700s church reception for the birth of Christ.
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Official site) played two sessions of Johann Sebastian Bach’s, Cantata No. 133, Ich freue mich in dir, and Cantata No. 40, Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes; each if you can’t tell by name were sung in German. We attended the latter performance at 8:30 with a few friends.
Ordinarily I’m put off by classical music, primarily because I don’t listen enough to it, to understand it. Although when I do hear it, my experience with vocal-less composures of modern dance music, have trained my ear to hear the nuances of each cord, expressions in each beat, and melodies of the pieces so as to understand the difference between typical composures and great ones. I tend to close my eyes to hear better at times, and of course my girlfriend took this as napping but none the less, I did enjoy the performance and it was well worth my time.
I had intended to take pictures, however, after taking just this first one, I was reprimanded by museum staff that photography was prohibited. Notice the no camera sign in the picture below.
The serpent that in paradise
Upon all Adam’s children
The bane of souls did cause to fall
Brings us no danger more;
The woman’s seed is manifest,
The Savior is in flesh appearéd
And hath from it removed all venom.
Take comfort then, O troubled sinner!