Well the Missus and I trundled downtown yesterday to catch the Handel + Haydn Society’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the Boston Globe/WGBH Summer Arts Weekend and, say, it . . . swelled.

Thanks to the incomparable Brian O’Donovan and No Other, we had excellent seats for the stirring performance that featured:

Ian Watson, conductor
Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus
Harvard Summer Chorus
Vocal Arts Program Choruses
Joélle Harvey, soprano
Margaret Lias, mezzo-soprano
Stefan Reed, tenor
Andrew Garland, baritone

The concert ended with a fabulous “Ode to Joy” that had the crowd on its feet.  A memorable event indeed.

From there we moseyed over to the South End’s Calderwood Pavilion for a table reading of Mia Chung’s new play Catch As Catch Can, part of the Huntington Theatre Company’s 2015 Summer Workshops, “a two-week new work retreat culminating in public readings of the plays in development.” (Chung, a Huntington Playwriting Fellow, is also the author of You for Me for You, This Exquisite Corpse, Skin in the Game, an adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao, and We Spend Our Lives.)

Catch As Catch Can, we can report, is developing quite nicely. The play is funny, tricky, and engaging. And the actors who read it were outstanding in dual roles: Marianna Bassham, who played a father and daughter; Denny Dale Bess who played a mother and son; and Matthew Boston, who also played a mother and son. Director John Steber did a fine job of bringing the whole effort together.

Last but certainly not least, both of the events above were free. Our thanks to all involved.