Rach II for Mother's Day

It has long been the tradition at St. John’s to offer on Mother’s Day special monumental works of music as part of our Sunday liturgy, usually a Cantata by J. S. Bach. This year, with the continued Coronavirus pandemic, we thought it a bad idea to try to mount a Bach Cantata, but we did not want this significant tradition to pass us by, especially given our renewed commitment to great music under the new leadership and direction of our new Director of Music, Jun Kim.

This Sunday St. John’s will offer a special performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto as our musical offerings at 10 AM.

The Second Piano Concerto was composed by Russian pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff between 1900 and 1901 premiering in November of that year with the composer himself as the featured pianist. The concerto, scored for piano and orchestra, has been popular since its premiere and signaled the return to health of its previously ailing composer. Our offering comes after a significant national period of poor health and comes as we begin to return to a fuller program following the easing of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Originally scored for symphony orchestra, our performance will feature Mr. Kim on the piano and Dr. Weitner harnessing the full orchestral power of our Casavant Freres Organ (Opus 3897).

We hope you will join us on Sunday on Zoom or Facebook Live for this special service.