cathedral of the sacred heart

There is something about a beautiful space that makes beautiful music pierce the soul with more passion and more grace. Last night I went to the Cathedral Of The Sacred Heart to hear my uncle perform with the Cathedral Choir and the Richmond Symphony. On the program: Bruckner's Requiem and Mahler's "Resurrection." Honestly, I closed my eyes during much of the performance and thought that I was in heaven. It made me think, if God gave Man the ability to sound like this and to write music like this, how incomprehensible and magnificent must be a choir of angels? And what a perfect venue for such pieces - a cathedral that is almost a hundred years old and that is so breathtaking. The strings just soared and they inspired me to get my grandmother's violin fixed as soon as I can so that I can learn how to play the violin. I know my description of the experience is a bit syrupy, but honestly, my extensive adjective list is failing me. :)

Gustav Mahler's "Resurrection" (Symphony No.2 in C Minor):

Rise again, yes you shall rise again, my dust, after brief rest! Immortal life will be given by Him who called you! You are sown to bloom again. The Lord of the harvest goes and gathers sheaves of us, who have died. O believe, my heart, believe: Nothing is lost to you! All you have desired is yours, yes, yours! Yours, what you have loved and fought for! O believe, you were not born in vain! All that is created must perish. All that has perished rises again. Cease trembling! Prepare to live! O Pain, all-pervading, I have escaped from you! O Death, all-conquering, now you are conquered! With wings which I have won in love's ardent striving, I shall soar upwards to the light which no eye has penetrated! I shall die in order to live! Rise again, yes, you shall rise again, my heart, in an instant! Your beating shall lead you to God!