150 years!

Saturday
May Festival, the longest running choral festival in North America, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The festival extends over two consecutive weekends in May each year. This evening was the concluding concert, Mahler’s 8th Symphony, sometimes referred to as Symphony of a Thousand, due to the large numbers it requires. The May Festival chorus was joined by the Cleveland Orchestra chorus, the May Festival Youth Chorus, Cincinnati Boys choir and Cincinnati youth choir. Although called a symphony, the work doesn’t follow a traditional symphony pattern, but is rather in two parts, the first inspired by the medieval Christian Hymn, “Veni Creator Spiritus” (Come, Creator Spirit), and the second part sets the text of Goethe’s final scene from his epic poem “Faust”. Whilst not a thousand, the combined forces were still impressive, approximately 250 singers, 8 soloists and 120 orchestral musicians, including piano and organ! It’s not a work I’m overly familiar with, though I certainly recognize the opening section. It was the only item on the program, lasted about 90 minutes and received an immediate and lengthy standing ovation. My collage show the adult choirs and orchestra on stage, the youth choirs in the front of the balcony, and the elegant lobby, decorated with garlands for the occasion.
Earlier in the day, we had been out walking at Winton Woods, for the first time in a while, and I have added a collage from that in extras.