Music Live with Lunch

So soon (just three days) after the Mack and Mabel performance at C-CM, and here comes another great musical experience. This week it was Music Live with Lunch, a series hosted by Christ Church Glendale, usually on the second Wednesday of each month. These are short concerts, starting at 12:05 and over by 12:35 or so. Some of the ladies of the church prepare an easy-to-eat, but hot and nutritious lunch, that you may purchase for a few dollars and eat during the performance, if you are truly on a lunch hour. I am not, and 12:00 noon is early for my lunch, so after the first one earlier this year, I've just showed up for the performance. It really is an opportunity to be able to leave my desk at 11:45, drive to the next town, park, hear a half hour or so of good music, and be back at my desk (after taking my lunch out of the refrigerator) by 1:00. You can almost do that without telling anyone you are taking time off. And you come back refreshed, inspired, and/or at peace.

Last Wednesday's musical menu featured Michael Unger playing the fabulous new organ in the chapel at Christ Church. Not all the performances are held in the chapel, but all three that I have been to have been in this modern, multi-purpose room with flexible seating and a multi-level pipe organ as center focal point. It was particularly fitting for the four organ pieces played by Mr. Unger, who is, among other roles, Assistant professor of Organ and Harpsichord at UC's College-Conservatory of Music. I wish I was more educated about organ music, or even music in general; all I really know is that this was grandiose in the good sense, and Unger clearly appreciated this great organ and venue. The program:

Concerto del Sigr. Torelli in A minor, arr. J.G. Walther (1684-1748)

[Allegro]

Adagio

Allegro

Herzlich tut mich verlangen, Johann Peter Keller (1705-1772)

Andante with Variations in D Major, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Fugue No. 2 on BACH Op. 60, No.2, Robert Schumann (1810-1856)