Last night the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra with two combined choruses gave its annual Christmas concert at the First United Methodist Church before a sold out audience. They played real music – no Rudolph, no Santa, no cute kids running amok. The program concluded with Bach’s Magnificat.
As an encore conductor Thomasz Golka led everyone in the Hallelujah Chorus. As soon as the piece was recognized by the audience everyone jack-in-the boxed to their feet. Texans will stand for a sneeze and applaud for two, so Handel’s great chorus was an irresistible impulse to bipedalism. Old ladies who hadn’t left their wheel chairs for decades were on their feet. It was better than Lourdes. Hell, they were even standing in Amarillo.
If the audience had known that New Yorkers don’t stand during the Hallelujah Chorus they would have started to run in place. I’m going to ask Maestro Golka to take his army of musicians to the orthopedic clinic. They can probably get hundreds of people back on their feet. I don’t think this would work in Oklahoma, though.
