Christmas under the dome

Tonight's program cover: "Hallelujah!" original oil by
Southwest parent, Scott Lloyd Anderson.

The Basilica of St. Mary in downtown Minneapolis hosted the Southwest High School in its Holiday Concert tonight and we were there to see our grandson take his part. The acoustics are magnificent in this awe-inspiring edifice, a serene worship center surrounded by the bustle of freeways, traffic noise and city lights.
The school concocted a most remarkable display of laser-focused talent, discipline and music. . . brewing all the magic that makes it Christmas again. The kids were really good. Really good. There was no applause after the numbers, making it possible to hear the final notes reverberate gloriously overhead, soaring into the far reaches long after each piece had ended.
The most musical offering was probably the full orchestra's masterful performance of Tschaikowsky's Nutcracker Suite, specifically the Waltz of the Flowers and the March of the Nutcracker.
But the most memorable part for Stan was when the director invited choir alumni and friends to come forward and join the massed choirs for the final number: The Hallelujah Chorus.
So with encouragement from his pewmates, Stan headed up the aisle to stand with the basses in the far-reaches of the upper sanctuary, (see photo) with nothing but his memory to sustain him through the old Christmas Concert standby.
"Wow," he said afterward. "There I was, standing in the Basilica of St. Mary, belting out the bass notes to G.F. Handel's Messiah, accompanied by a full orchestra, and listening to our Hallelujahs echo off the far-away dome. All in traditional, familiar harmony with a big section of full-throated men I had never met.. . and my dear baritone grandson. Now THAT's Christmas."
And Heaven and Nature Sing, and Heaven and Nature Sing.