The performance wasn’t big and bold when Trinity Lutheran in Lynnwood presented organist, Norma Aamodt-Nelson, to celebrate the sixth day of Christmas on Saturday night, Dec. 29. The message was about quiet joy. But you had to open to it for it to get through.
To make The Annunciation of Advent light and happy, that was the stated intent of Saturday’s concert according to Aamodt-Nelson.
Maybe so, but a sense of serious austerity shot through me when I first took my place in one of the pews.
Others there — most of them church members, I assume — sat sedately talking, if talking at all. Straight lines, glass and stained walnut characterized the abstract nature of the church’s architecture. Very high, steeply angled, vaulted ceilings centered me in a vast, intellectual space that shrunk me to insignificance. I felt small.
The famed Pasi positioned east of the pulpit didn’t help any.
This standing organ of 1,600 pipes – some of lead-and-tin alloy, others of poplar – took away most of what little breath I had left. It was an imposing sight to see.
Things lightened up when Aamodt-Nelson brought the showpiece to life. The woman has a way with the pedals and keyboard. It’s as though the angels in heaven reveal themselves through her. I heard the music.
We heard four of Scheidemann’s organ versets and a fifth from Bach’s “Miscellaneous chorales.” We heard von Biber’s “Nativity” from his “Mystery Sonatas” and carols from around the world by Walcha, Uehlein, Reger, Lind, Held, Farlee and others.
Violin solos by Begin Judd Scarset and duets by Sarah Pizzichemi on violin and Tim Pizzichemi on cello treated us to what the upcoming generation can do. Their places on the world stage may be a ways off but not that far off, and the exuberance of their youth filled the church to overflowing.
This was not an overtly gala, festive affair. There was none of the fierce passion and merrymaking abandon that characterizes some Christmas celebrations.
However, the unseen force that animated Aamodt-Nelson on the Pasi and the featured artists on the strings won over even those of us who are attuned to what is big and bold. It did, me.
Upcoming events at Trinity Lutheran in Lynnwood include: mezzo soprano, cantata soloist, Julie Johnson; organist, James David Christie; and organist, Les Martin, and baroque violinist, Kim Zabelle, together. For information, contact: 425-778-2159 or www.trinitylutheranchurch.com
Comments? Reactions? E-mail Dale Burrows at grayghost7@comcast.net or entopinion@heraldnet.com.
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