December 20th to 22nd I went to Valencia, to visit family and for a couple of business meetings.

As usual, the weather was much better than in Ontario (Canada), and the food was much better than… anywhere else. I even had lunch at a Michelin guide restaurant for 12 euros. Go beat that, NY!

I also attended a concert at the Palau de la Musica where Nicholas Kok directed Valencia’s Cathedral Chorus, and Valencia’s Orchestra, along with Berit Solset (soprano), Catherine Hopper (contralto), Andrew Kennedy (tenor) and Nicholas Mogg (bass), in a performance of Messiah (HWV 56), the English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel.

I guess its many melismas were not as annoying as they would have normally been, after reading a bit about the elaborate controversy that polyphony has played in sacred choral music for centuries.