So I am still amazed by the wonderful experience that I had in Saint Louis. Meeting fellow fans from this forum was tremendous fun; especially to hear, in person, the impressions others had of songs, recordings, and other concerts on this tour was most enjoyable. It is certainly true that being a Libera fan practically requires one to be a nice person (usually lol) because everyone I met was super kind and lots of fun. It is my theory that the type of beautiful music that Libera delivers is not the sort that caters to the cold-hearted. But I am getting off topic now.
The point I am underscoring here is just how much meeting other fans, many of whom I have been reading here for years, meant to me personally and how much fun I had with you all! Those of you who I met and got to spend some time with either at dinner or at the show: Thank you, you were all so great to talk to! And a special apology to Libera Snow. I did not hear you properly when you told me your nickname on Libera Dreams, but I certainly know who you are and enjoy your posts. Thank you so much for the fun conversation in the autograph line
Although this tour has been heavily reviewed I wish to add my own commentary about the concert. Many other reviews have described how fabulous Taichi, with his amazing stage presence, was; or Alex on his solos (I was totally unprepared for how well he performed his solo and other lead parts); or Camden on “Angel”. All of this is true and all of these were well performed and I loved every minute, but I am unable to add anything that was not already said about those songs or performances aside from acknowledging that they did great. Of course I do not mean to focus exclusively on the soloists as the choir as a whole put in a great effort into all of the songs.
So I will instead focus on personal, and maybe surprising, highlights which for me were “Angele Dei” and “Exultate” neither of which I expected to blow me away the way that they did. “Angele Dei” was performed very well and Rocco’s voice on the solo parts had a power behind it that was absolutely amazing. We were all impressed by his solo on “Salve Regina” from the album; well, I can tell you that our impressions were not overestimated. He is fantastic as a soloist and that song performed live blew me away. He was incredible on “Amazing Grace” too although I personally like that song less than “Angele Dei”. The song itself requires a good soloist and the choir as a whole in tip-top shape to sound just so; and they absolutely did!
As for the concert as a whole, there were definitely some rather technical issues with microphone volume and crackling microphones in the first half of the concert. Much of those seemed to be resolved in the second half, but in some cases the errant microphone was rather jarring. Having said that the boys powered through it very well. In fact, Robert, while in the middle of conducting the group, and in the middle of “From A Distance”, actually stood up from his chair and walked up to Merlin so as to redirect him to an on-stage microphone so that his solo parts would be picked up properly. He was a real trooper through it all not getting thrown off the way that someone would be expected to in a similar situation. You can tell how well trained they are to make do in such situations because he even leaned down a bit to make sure his voice was going into the microphone – understanding without being told that they were remediating a technical issue. This situation was minimally disruptive and was due entirely to the errant equipment. Merlin’s solo on that was beautiful by the way which brings me to his other solo “Exultate”.
Now, I know that many people don’t like “Exultate” and, while I always have, I never for one second thought it would be my #1 for this concert. It has never been a top favorite for me and I personally thought that one of the other songs that I adored from the more recent recordings would affect me. But I was so so very wrong. Merlin’s voice is so very pure and he sang with great poise the entire time with no issues. I cannot emphasize enough how well he sang that song and how much I loved his voice on both solo parts he had in the concert. I knew I enjoyed his solos from "Venite Adoremus" and was looking forward to hearing him live....and wow, I was not disappointed! As I walked out of the concert that song was playing in my head over and over again. Just to be clear, that almost never ever happens to me unless I am struck in a concert by a brand new song (or arrangement) - I felt this way about "Joyful Joyful" after the 2014 Washington concert which was the first time I heard Libera sing this piece and which is now one of my top favorites. Well, this song was not new and I had heard it countless times before on recordings so something else about the performance affected me.
I do not know what it was but this was in the second half of the concert with the technical glitches forgotten and the choir sounding their best. Maybe it was the power with which they delivered it too? Because the choir as a whole sounded great on it. Anyway, I am not sure why I enjoyed it so much, but Merlin’s solo was definitely a major part of it. I was able to express that to him in the autograph line afterwards in far fewer words than I have written here though
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Worth mentioning was that the show ended with a bang on “America” which was absolutely flawless too and certainly noteworthy because it was so well done.
In summary:
- I loved meeting my fellow fans and that alone was worth the trip.
- I enjoyed my second ever concert.