The Voice of God

It turns out that San Diego isn't a total cultural wasteland. I spent last Sunday afternoon at a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor.

When I was a teenager my folks took me to a performance of it by the LA Philharmonic and some enormous choral group. Awesome, in the proper sense of the word. This week's show was a small orchestra using period instruments and just about two dozen singers. Vivid, beautiful, and moving.

I'm inclined to agree with the folks who say that Mozart was the greatest of the Western composers. And I actually spend more time listening to Vivaldi ... Gershwin ... the Beatles ... Chuck Berry ... Portished ... and countless others. But only when I listen to Bach do feel the awe of it seeming impossible that an actual human being could have just sat down and invented something so perfect.

They recorded the performance, and you can hear it on the other side of the link.