The concert tonight featured 2 musicians–a female soprano and a classical guitarist. Nadav Lev, the guitarist was Israeli and he was fabulous. The soprano, Julia Binek was from Salzburg. They performed beautifully together. It was peaceful and reverent, starting with Ave Maria, then Strauss, Schubert, Bach, some classical Spanish Guitar numbers, and some favorite Christmas carols in English and in German. They ended with Silent Night, the original version.
The lights were low–just the lights from a Christmas tree, the music was beautiful and heavenly. Just before they started to sing Silent Night, we heard commotion down in the street. Loud noises, yelling and shouting, things being thrown. The musicians weren’t sure whether to proceed or not, but they did. One of the hospice men slipped out to go check on what was happening, to be sure we were safe. The noise was right below the chapel window, out on the street in front of the hospice. It was quite a contrast to the message of the carol, silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright. We were reminded that we are in a turbulent city where there is lots of conflict.
The concert ended after that song and the commotion died down. The police had come to break things up. We went to the front desk to see what had happened. They have several security cameras and screens and the boy at the desk said it was 2 Arab families fighting. The area was all blocked off and people from the concert were worried about going out to get home. We looked down over the top of the building. Just a bit of excitement to end our day here in the Old City on this Christmas night.
Listen to this incredible classic guitar, and beautiful Silent Night.