Conjured up by love a 70-piece orchestra and 30-member chorus, all volunteers, concerted Karl Brosch and Ralph Thomas at their wedding on Saturday June 5, themed The Magic of Music.
Michael Finckel and Victor Klimash were the conductors. Every orchestra within a two hundred mile radius was represented.
How loved by the music community are two people to be celebrated by such an ensemble and 300 more congregants? -Very much loved and respected.
My love for Karl came through my stomach as well as through music. He is a fellow FOCM board member . Also he roasts perfectly timed beef tenderloin.
Cooking and serving this at an after concert reception, Karl met Ralph in our kitchen.
The setting for their wedding was the Hildene House in Manchester, Vermont, summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln.
The turn of the century mansion, surrounded grandly by the Green Mountains was alive with peonies blooming profusely and with people animated by good will and love for the couple.
THE PROGRAM
Hornpipe no. 6 by Handel
The Cloths of Heaven by Dunhill
(Victor Klimash, vocalist with instrumentalists Joseph Shor, Ellen Shapiro and Cathie-Jo Brun)
Polovetzian Dances by Borodin
Escorted by friends and relatives Karl and Ralph processed sequentially to
Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Britten.
Then:
Oh How Amiable by Vaughn Williams with orchestra and chorus
Turkish March by Wiessenborn
Adagio for Strings by Barber
Simple Gifts by Copland (vocal by Victor Klimash)
Variations on a Shaker Melody by Copland
Reverend David J. Bort officiated exchanges of intentions and vows. Amusingly bungled by all three, this did not go as smoothly as the music but still conveyed the sincerity of their commitment.
Karl and Ralph then put the icing on the cake (cupcake) by performing Concerto for Bassoon and Stringsby Walker. Players were Ralph -bassoon, Karl-viola, Michele Woodley-violin, Jeff Young -violin and Ellen Gunst– cello.
The quote of the day came from Bob Scher. “ Maybe there is a God. “ This he immediately retracted.
Reverend Bort said it best.” Those that are here bear witness to the love of God in this room.”
Bravi, Karl and Ralph. May you live happily ever after.
Myra, thanks for noting my iconoclastic self. The quote referred to the fact that, in spite of a dire weather forecast, the day couldn’t have been more beautiful for Karl and Ralph’s wedding.
Reverend Bort has his own way of looking at this very special day; but my way is to feel great joy in realizing how far (at least in part) our society has advanced within a relatively few years. It was heartwarming to to feel the love and goodwill that was so omnipresent. And the 300 or so of us all connected in one way or another by music!
Someday, events like this will be commonplace — such is my optimistic view of the future of our country.
When I read your blog about this love I was reminded of my favorite sonnet. That being Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning but I am sure she had no music so beautiful in mind when she wrote her now famous work.
“How much do I love thee,
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height….
And my very favorites – Adagio for Strings by Barber – and Variations on a Shaker Melody by Copland – oh my goodness!!!