Sacred Music in a Sacred Space: Saint Ignatius Loyola Church, Upper East Side, Mahattan

This past weekend we went with friends to the Upper East Side of Manhattan to The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, located at 980 Park Avenue at 84 Street, to attend one of its highly acclaimed "Sacred Music in a Sacred Space" concerts, now in its 20th year.

The Christmastime concerts in the concert schedule are very popular, and usually become sell outs very quickly as they are this year, but there are other events still available for later winter and spring of 2009.

The Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola has been ministering to residents of Manhattan since 1851. The church was designed in 1898 by the prominent architectural firm of Schickel and Ditmars, and was declared a Landmark of the City of New York in 1969. Entrusted in 1866 to the administration of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius Loyola Parish today continues to be staffed by Jesuit priests and lay men and women.

The Sacred Music in a Sacred Space director is Kent Tritle, one of America’s leading choral conductors and organists. The program we attended was called "Fantasia on Christmas Carols."

Information from the web site:

"A New York City holiday tradition! This year we celebrate the Christmas Carol with Vaughan Williams’ holiday classics Fantasia on “Greensleeves” and Fantasia on Christmas Carols and James Bassi’s Carol Symphony, a joyful setting of Ukrainian, Irish and English carols.

All this, plus carol favorites, for all to sing – these concerts are a joyous way to revel in the Christmas season!"

A biography about Saint Ignatius Loyola can be read on the church's website.

The church is absolutely stunning in design and architecture and is renowned for its acoustics.

It comfortably seats 1,200, but has been known to accommodate more for its very special events and concerts.

The church is composed in Baroque fashion, of polished pink granite columns, marble pilasters, supporting the arches of the side aisles, and European and African marbles. The mosaics are made with both Tiffany Glass' famous delicate opalescent Favrile glass, and bold Venetian glass.

The marble mosaic Stations of the Cross form the panels which comprise the majority of the wall space in the church. These murals were designed by Professor Paoletti for Salviati & Company of Venice.

A close up of one station mosaics (all photos can be clicked on to enlarge):

An extensive description of the church's history and beautiful architecture can be read on its website.

The church's Mander Pipe Organ is world renown. The new organ’s debut was on April 27, 1993, and it is 45 feet tall, weighs 30 tons, and consists of 5,000 pipes. It can be heard on a dozen CD recordings that feature world renowned ensembles. As the largest tracker-action pipe organ in the New York Metropolitan area, it holds special appeal for organists and lovers of organ music.

The organist of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Olivier Latry, personally chose the organ and church as the American site for his acclaimed cycles of Messian’s complete organ works in 2000, along with Notre Dame and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

More information about the the magnificent organ can be read here.

Photos above and below: the orchestra and choir gathered on the altar to begin the concert. It was wonderful evening of both listening to, and joining in the singing, of many familiar traditional carols and unique and modern carols.

After the concert our group went to Vicino Firenze, an Italian restaurant at
1586 2nd Ave, known for its great food, gracious staff, soft lighting and fresh flowers.

Dinner was relaxed and delicious. Instead of the usual butter or olive oil they offer a trio of authentic Parmesan cheese, oil cured olives, and homemade sun dried tomato butter with the bread basket, and everyone was very please with the entrees they ordered. You can read the restaurant's dinner menu here.

Many of us had a slice of this scrumptious "President's Cake" for dessert!

A close up of some of the tablescape's pretty dishes, which had different hand painted scenes of Florence, Italy on them.

The restaurant was beautifully decorated for Christmas with a live tree and potted poinsettia plants, and live orchid plants were on every table.

It was a wonderful place to dine and I highly recommend it, or its companion restaurant called "Firenze," a few doors away.

It's getting close to Christmas and I have been busy baking. Next blog I'll share some of my favorite cookie recipes!