Concertos de Natal
Since Nov 14th, there are free Christmas Concerts all over the municipality. Mostly they are in churches, On Saturday and Sunday afternoons; different amateur choirs singing traditional Portuguese and international Christmas musics. This weekend I attended the one closest to home: a children's choir singing at the church of S. Martinho in the Historical Center.
They started a few minutes late. I was impressed by the diversity of the children's ages - the youngest must have been 4 years old, and the oldest about 14! They were accompanied by a man playing the guitar, one of the older children the piano - and the rest of the children different percussion instruments. There was not a lot of harmonizing going on, and some of the voices of the children were not well heard in the beautiful, old church. But there were other things. There was enthusiasm by the choir director and the parents in the audience; there were tourists peeking in at the door in the middle of the program, and deciding to stay when they heard the choir. There were the clear, high voices of the children, familiar tunes, candles and calm, while it was raining outside. There was feeling, emotion: the familiar feeling that Christmas is approaching and that it belongs to children, families.
The night before I attended with some of our English guests a different concert but belonging to the series of free Christmas Concerts, at the Cultural Center of Olga Cadaval: a concert by the Sintra Chamber Orchestra, playing some modern Portuguese classical and the 40th of Mozart. Very different from the children, very good and appropriate.
Congratulations for the tourism bureau for offering such a complete program! And a note to our guests - there are 3 more concerts next weekend, and a whole lot more next year!
They started a few minutes late. I was impressed by the diversity of the children's ages - the youngest must have been 4 years old, and the oldest about 14! They were accompanied by a man playing the guitar, one of the older children the piano - and the rest of the children different percussion instruments. There was not a lot of harmonizing going on, and some of the voices of the children were not well heard in the beautiful, old church. But there were other things. There was enthusiasm by the choir director and the parents in the audience; there were tourists peeking in at the door in the middle of the program, and deciding to stay when they heard the choir. There were the clear, high voices of the children, familiar tunes, candles and calm, while it was raining outside. There was feeling, emotion: the familiar feeling that Christmas is approaching and that it belongs to children, families.
The night before I attended with some of our English guests a different concert but belonging to the series of free Christmas Concerts, at the Cultural Center of Olga Cadaval: a concert by the Sintra Chamber Orchestra, playing some modern Portuguese classical and the 40th of Mozart. Very different from the children, very good and appropriate.
Congratulations for the tourism bureau for offering such a complete program! And a note to our guests - there are 3 more concerts next weekend, and a whole lot more next year!
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