Last night we had the privilege
of attending G.F. Handel’s Messiah, with
members of the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra and the Rosa Barocca – Chorus &
Baroque Orchestra. The Peter and Jeanne Lougheed Performing Arts Centre concert
hall was filled to capacity—and for good reason, almost three hours of ‘heaven
on earth’ music, celebrating the Incarnation, life, death and resurrection of
Jesus the Messiah.
I have seen Handel’s Messiah several times, and heard it on record, cassette and CD a
host of times—yet I never get bored or tired of it. There’s always something
beautiful about it that so movingly proclaims ‘the holy’ and fills one for an
all-too-brief time with the joy, love and peace of God in the midst of a troubled
and all-too-often evil world that would rob us of every God-given gift.
This time round, Isaiah’s prophecy in
chapter nine, verse six, keeps playing in my head: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests
upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of peace.” (NRSV) He is the one who is coming to
set all things, all peoples, right with the world.
Here is Sir Colin Davis and the London
Symphony Orchestra with the Tenebrae Choir. I love some of the expressions on
Colin’s face, he seems captivated by the joy of this marvelous music.
Wishing all of you, my readers, a very
blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!
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