Talcott Mountain Music Festival

Simsbury is on the other side of Talcott Mountain from West Hartford.  They have built a stage in a park near the Farmington River.  It is the summer home of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. 

On Friday evening, the HSO and the choir of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church performed an annual concert of patriotic music.They announced a crowd of about 7,000 but it felt bigger to me.

The concert began with the pledge of allegiance, with colors presented by the First Company Governor's Foot Guard.  The Foot Guard was organized in October 1771 and is

 the oldest military organization in continuous existence in the United States.

The orchestra played pieces like a compendium of American folk songs by Morton Gould, the official songs of the five American armed forces, the suite from Oklahoma, and some movie music

 (Dances with Wolves, Raiders March and Titanic Suite).

By nine o'clock, the sky was completely dark.  The orchestra and choir concluded with
God Bless America, a stirring rendition of the 1812 Overture, and Stars and Stripes Forever.

The concert ended, as a Fourth of July concert always does, with fireworks.

I didn't want to disturb other guests by bringing my big elephant gun camera,

so I used my iPhone.  An acceptable compromise, I thought.

Yesterday was the start of the tenth year of this blog.