Steve Schwartz: >Last Sunday, a friend asked if I'd like to hear a Bach cantata at >Emmanuel Church in Boston, something the church apparently does every >week, usually under the direction of Craig Smith ... service contained >two motets by John Harbison (also on Emmanuel's music board) This has been going on, with Smith and Harbison included, for decades. I heard the premiere of Harbison's Violin Concerto there about twenty years ago, with Harbison's wife the soloist in a version, if I am not mistaken, significantly different from the one eventually recorded. >The choir blew me away. It handled the score's difficulties as if >they simply didn't exist. The music, at low dynamic and thickly packed, >separated into cogent lines and dramatic argument. Intonation was superb, >the tone light, clear, and of a piece. No one just planted both feet >and wailed. No one singer stuck out, not even soloists. Every part >knew when to come forward in the texture and when to step back. Indeed, >I've heard choral CDs that didn't come up to Emmanuel's technical level >live....The bottom line is Emmanuel does this sort of thing every week. >The more I think about it, the more mysterious it becomes. I don't have any recent information, so I don't know this for sure, but I assume those same singers have been going at this together so long that they sing together as a long-standing string quartet plays. >Maybe Boston really is the hub of the universe. You should stick around there a while. There are tons of music of all sorts and it will not cost you a fortune. Jim Tobin