Holy Thursday was lovely for me. As I mentioned, I went to hear the Johannes-Passion performed at the Beethoven Halle, conducted by the world-famous Raymond Leppard. Anyone who ever has the chance to hear Bach, played live, should take up on it. As wonderful as it is to listen to recorded music at home, there isn't anything that really compares with the energy of a live performance. There is a hypnotic sort of communion that can take place between the singers, orchestra and the audience. If you're lucky, for a short while, you can forget everything in the world but the sound.
Here are two pictures from the end of the concert, during applause and curtain calls, where the lead singers receive their flowers. (Also, a cultural tidbit: Germans clap for at least twenty minutes straight after the performance, through several curtain calls. Applauding your performers becomes a performance in itself. You can sneak out early, but somehow it just feels wrong.)








And as a bonus, Claudia. This is Claudia hard at work correcting an essay of mine. To chop through so thick a forest of errors requires nothing less than Zen-like concentration.