Arvo Part - Songs of Repentance

Last night Kerry and I saw the Melbourne Chorale perform Arvo Part’s Songs of Repentance at St Patricks Cathedral. It was a beautiful concert and one I’ll not forget in a hurry.

The music began with Allegri’s Misereri which blew us both away, but the music continued to improve (IMHO) with the Part part. The choir sang in that gorgeous subsonic Russian orthodox christian style with edgy dissonances that fixate your attention. The atmosphere was electrifying not only because we were in a gothic cathedral with an electric storm going on outside making the whole edifice creak and sigh. The rain was pouring and the lightening periodically shone through the stained glass windows. We were listening to doleful songs of repentance and the atmosphere was one of a millenial mass for a collapsing world - thunder and lightening going on outside, the tolling of a bell in the cathedral and the distant sounds of police sirens…

Absolutely incredible! I could go on.