from screeching to sublime...

 I've had two musical experiences this weekend, one excellent and one not so great.  Surprisingly, the one I thought would be great, a program in the Philharmonic Pops series, was very disappointing while the church hymn sing turned out to be beautiful.  The Pop performance starred the "Queens of Soul" a three woman singing group.  The program said they would be singing songs "as recorded by" Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Adele, Tina Turner and more.  I was all set to hear some of my favorites.  'Natural Woman', 'Respect', 'What's Love Got to do With It?' and 'Proud Mary' were all on the list.  And they did sing those and more and they had good voices.  Sounds great, right?  The problem was they were backed up by the full orchestra (who were great as always).  To compensate, they had mics turned way up so they could be heard over the musicians.  Not a bad idea except the singers seemed to think the had to sing even louder and the combination made for painfully loud music and lyrics that could not be understood.  I know I'm old and there were a few, very few, younger people standing up, as in a rock concert, and swaying and clapping to the music.  I was very disappointed in the whole production.  In case you're wondering, I have been to concerts, Lady Gaga and Maroon Five fairly recently, and they were never painfully loud. This morning I spoke to a friend who had also attended and had the same reaction. They were very disappointed.  Another friend, who ushered last night, said that many people complained that it was too loud.  I'm not surprised.

Happily, this weekend ended on a high note (no pun intended), musically speaking.  This afternoon, as part of their music series, First Presbyterian Church presented a program titled "Will You Come and Follow Me" the guest organist, choir director, preacher Tom Trenney put this program together.  It included several beautiful hymns, each preceded by short readings from the Bible.  The hymns included familiar classics such as "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" and "How Firm a Foundation" and some I didn't know like "Spirit, Open My Heart" which was lovely.  Tom Trenney is nationally known, and has an impressive musical background.  I highly recommend him and this program to any group looking for a spiritually uplifting hour long service of simply beautiful music.