Concert A: Holding Wonder

The beauty and fragility of life and the wonder of the natural world are explored in a concert of “big-heart” music highlighted by Johannes Brahms’ lush, mini-masterpiece, Nänie; Latvian sensation Ēriks Ešenvalds’ evocative “Northern Lights” for choir and tuned water glasses; Lucy Walker’s lyrical setting of Sara Teasdale’s anti-war poem “There Will Come Soft Rains”; crossover music by Dolly Parton and Jacob Collier; and Jodi French’s poignant “Life has Loveliness to Sell,” which sets Sara Teasdale’s lovely poem “Barter,” reminding us that beauty is all around and exhorting all to: “Spend all you have for loveliness, buy it and never count the cost… and for a breath of ecstasy, give all you have been, or could be.”