Mormon Tabernacle Choir touring Midwest

Last night the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed in Kansas City, their
fifth city on a seven city tour of the Midwest United States. They
perform Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma and then next week in Denver
before returning home to Salt Lake City. http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/

I heard the Tabernacle Choir live for the first time forty-one years
ago when I attended my first General Conference of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. I've attended their concerts and
broadcasts on Temple Square in Salt Lake City numerous times since
then and in 2005 I heard the choir on tour in Boise, Idaho. Their
Sunday morning CBS broadcast (now in its 80th year) focuses mainly on
sacred music. These tours (like last night's concert) combine the
sacred and secular in a mix of music that will suit most everyone's
taste.

Ten years ago the Mormon Tabernacle Choir began performing with the
Orchestra at Temple Square. On previous tours and previous occasions
the choir might have joined with other orchestras for one or two
concerts. However, this is a permanent situation. Although the
product is excellent, I think the arrangement has changed the nature
of the choir presentation. At times the orchestra takes over and
becomes the dominant feature, dwarfing the choir. For example, when
the music reached a crescendo in last night's presentation, the force
of the orchestra dominated the choir, so at times they could barely be
heard. Nothing is more beautiful as when the voices in a choir show
true range and flexibility as was demonstrated on several of their
pieces last night which were sung acappella such as "Rock-a-My Soul."
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic," their signature number, was weak
in comparison because the orchestra overshadowed the choir.

This problem may have been increased because we sat on the top row in
the back of the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The Sprint Center seems
to have acoustical problems. We had to rely on a poor public address
system rather than hearing the true sounds of the choir and orchestra.
My experience in Boise was much better, probably because the venue at
Boise State University was smaller and we sat closer to the choir and
musicians.

4 weeks fly when in Europe

I've just returned from four weeks and a day in Europe. The time went
by too quickly, although I must say it is nice to come home. I should
have done a better job keeping up posts on my blog. However, the
Internet was not always reliable and I did have some more interesting
things to do. During the next couple of weeks I will post some
suggestions for traveling in Europe and share some tidbits about some
of the places we went to.

I'm now waiting for my wife's plane to get into the Kansas City
airport. She decided while I was in Europe that she would join me.
She found some excellent fares within a week of leaving, but couldn't
arrange to travel with me but once. (This is a great year to go
overseas - fewer tourists and lower fares.)

Our paths crossed in Barcelona, Spain. And this was a surprise to me.
She had sent her itinerary, but somehow I missed it in my email. I
kept asking how we would meet up and she told me she would find me.
Our final destination was Sevilla. I was sitting reading, waiting for
my flight in Barcelona, and someone called my name. I looked up and a
camera flashed. Melanie arranged to be on the same flight from
Barcelona to Sevilla. What a nice surprise. We were able to spend
three great days in Seville and another five days in Paris.