Rocktober 28th - Choral Arts Society of Washington@The Kennedy Center

Geez. Will Rocktober end already? I'm so sick of these horrible music reviews I keep writing. Can I get an Amen on that one? I believe this is the last one, unless you count the High Heel Drag race I went to last night wherein a concert was playing in my head of Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman (its all in meeee)". But we won't count that.

So, yeah Teen Heartthrob knows what I like apparently. He surprised me and bought tickets to see the Choral Arts Society of Washington on Sunday night and that was even BEFORE I watched Dr. Zhivago, so he totally knew what was on my mind. Russia. Dismal, harrowing despair. Minor keys. English horns. Resonating baritone voices. HUGE opera lady in pink flowing gown past the floor, I don't even know how she walked around without tripping. Composers names whom I cannot spell.

Anyway, TH played this game with me and made me guess where we going, and it took me three hints. First he gave me a picture of this:

I thought the game was to figure out what it was. So me and my untold skills of search engines found the name of the place within an hour. The Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. I'm awesome. No, seriously. Give me a picture of anything and I will FIND IT ON THE INTERNETS(sic).
Then he gave me a few other pictures that led me to a Russian cultural events of DC website, which is where I discovered that he was treating me to a night of culture and hobknobbing with DC's finest Soviets. I'm so lucky. What more could a girl ask for, besides a nice bowl of borscht?

Russian music has always been one of my favorite genres. Most of my favorite composers are Russian, including Rachmoninoff, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Bach(haha just kidding Johann!). The music is so powerful and chill-inducing. The concert was amazing and guest conductor was a great flamboyant spectacle. They first performed The Bells from Rachmoninoff. That was amazing. Apparently it wasn't performed for a long time because it wasn't initially well received when it was introduced in Russia in the early 20th century. The choir then followed the intermission with different popular pieces from Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and others. It was great. I loved them all.

I think my favorite part of the concert was at the end, after a standing ovation, the conductor asked everyone to stick around for a Hymn to be sung in dedication of very religious Rostropovich, who recently passed (the entire concert was actually dedicated to his name). The choir sang an acapella version of Ave Maria. It was overwhelming, I honestly felt like his spirit was in the room with us and a voice in my head kept repeating "I believe in God". It was very strange. I felt very loved. Tears were flowing. TH and I left the concert, barely able to speak because of the overwhelming feeling. It seriously blew me away. I love that music can do that to you. I am so affected by music, so perhaps I should listen to more uplifting music that does testify these amazing truths.

So - Choral Arts Society of Washington, way to drive the point home that we are all loved and you can, in fact, leave a very lasting impression on this earth.

Rocktober gives The CAS 10 out of 10 stars, because I can't feel the way I did and not give out a perfect. Job well done.