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Live! From Carnegie Hall

Recognized nationally for innovative programming, the Durango Choral Society has been invited to Carnegie Hall to perform under the baton of world-renowned conductor, composer and arranger - Britain's John Rutter. Eighty Durangoans join nearly 100 other singers from five American and Canadian choral groups. Four soloists and the New England Symphonic Ensemble fill the shell-shaped stage.

Characteristically, Rutter has sent us three sheets of meticulous notes in advance and asked us to number every one of the more than 600 measures so that we're literally all on the same page. Thanks to thorough preparation under Choral Society Artistic Director Linda Mack Berven, we know this music. Add our five weeks of rehearsals to 10 hours of practice with Rutter - not to mention our home-schooling with iPods and computer-assisted Cyberbass accompaniment - and the result is complete confidence in our music mastery.

But this is no ordinary music. Mozart composed his "Requiem (k626)" as he lay dying of rheumatic fever, legendarily haunted by a supposed angel of death but surely tormented by fear of the final judgment. In fact, the ink on his score was still wet on the words "guilty man" as he dropped his pen for the last time.

As if we're not already on enough of an emotional high, we're transported into this magnificent space known for its superb acoustics. Though this is his 100th Carnegie Hall appearance over a 20-year span, Rutter still calls this "the most marvelous place on the face of the Earth to make music."

We're greeted by more than 2,000 concertgoers laced throughout the elegant white-and-gold leaf interior. Plush claret carpet and seat cushions line the five-tier Isaac Stern Auditorium. Scalloped loge lights dot the circumference, and a circular super nova illuminates the cupola.

Yet no amount of practice could have prepared us for the transformative experience that approaches. From the first heart-stopping, knee-wobbling, tear-welling moment when the maestro lifts his baton, we're buoyed along on the crest of a wave building intensely toward its eventual crash on the shore. Rutter hovers above us like a huge gull, gliding over the smooth passages, plucking notes like little minnows from our throats, drawing mysterious voices from the watery deep.

Little by little, we race toward shore, running fugues like bubbles breaking along the frothy edge then marching resolutely toward the promised rest of the beach head.

Mozart's anxiety never lets up. Alternatively, he pleads for mercy, begs for perpetual light, offers prayers of supplication and trembles in the presence of the mighty king. He's chased by menacing little forked-tongue devils wielding three-pronged spears. He summons a merciful god in his closing ambiguous chord, still uncertain of his fate.

The audience is with us all the way, sensing the musical tension, riding each rise, retreating at every release and briefly suspended in solemn silence as we reach the climactic conclusion.

But, ah yes - even at Carnegie Hall - a spine-tingling standing ovation.

marynowotny@earthlink.net Mary Nowotny is a freelance writer in Durango.