By: LPJ
Starting worship with Mozart’s Etude
Music simply delights the heart and the soul. Especially if it’s from someone so dear to me as my 13-year-old grandson Eliott. Last Sunday, he performed Mozart’s Rondo/Etude (Turkish Dance) at the beginning of service at First Presbyterian Church, Cal Berkeley campus. It was a performance with calmness and confidence so fitting in a place where hearts are readied for worship and praise of the One Most High.
One of my favorite pieces played to excellence (not because this Lola’s biased), Eliott was able to work through its dynamics with ease, taking his listeners along in joyfully exploring various nuances of the composition from light and cheerful allegro to solemn legato and urgent staccato. I went on for the ride and found myself awed at not just how my grandson gained the skill and talent for music and the genius of Mozart the composer – but most of all, at how God created majestic beauty in all its forms for us to enjoy, music being one of them.
Eliott’s piano performance surged a worshipful spirit buoyed by the magnanimity of God’s love and power – through His son Jesus and the Holy Spirit – and on that Sunday, with Eliott’s gifted interpretation of Mozart’s Etude.
*****************
Broadway’s Lion King enthralls
Nearly three decades after Lion King was first introduced on film and stage, I finally watched the Broadway version at San Jose Center of Performing Arts over a week ago. It was mesmerizing – in props, dramatic presentation, music and dialogue.