A while back (two years, so quite a while) I wrote about our experience at a LA Philharmonic concert. The concert that time was a avant-garde, modern, and interesting in the not so complimentary sense. Today we saw another fine concert at Disney Hall, and I was worried it might be interesting in the same sense.

The piece today was La Pasión según San Marcos, composed by Osvaldo Golijov. This is St. Mark’s Passion of Christ set to music. I was worried that a piece composed in 2005 by an Argentine Jew who had an atheist father might fall into the unpleasant side of avant-garde. I could not have been more wrong.

This piece, with strings, percussion, horns, a chorus, and soloists, was beautiful. The use of Latin rhythms fit well in places that were surprising. The music fit this important subject. The aria of St. Peter, his lament after realizing he had denied Jesus three times was very moving. It needed the screens that provided a translation to follow it, but with that it was a great musical experience.

This would make an excellent Good Friday concert. P.S., iTunes has it too.