"Let me embrace you, O millions! This kiss is for the whole world!"

We finally got to see the inside of the glamorous Overture Hall, as the Madison Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert in its new home. Why shouldn't the orchestra play the single greatest piece of music in the history of the world? It looked like this today as the orchestra prepared to play Beethoven's Ninth Symphony:







We were lucky to get tickets, two of the last available in this audience of 2,251.

Even to the worm ecstasy is given,

and the cherub stands before God.