Heaven and Earth became as one last night when the Trinity Church‘s Baroque Orchestra performed their last concert for the summer. Breathless and sticky from the spontaneous sprint downtown, I was ushered gently into a padded pew, from where phones and photographs were politely non grata. The focus was the music – the strings, the oboes and the harpsichord, and the beauty of their interplay rose into the spectacular space with refreshing joy. What a venue, what music! Alexander Hamilton, celeb du jour, may be buried in the churchyard, and his name may be hip hopping all over Broadway, but no doubt he rests all the more peaceably courtesy of the ministerings of Bach.

The Trinity Church is almost as old as New York itself. It has been built three times, has the only set of tuned bells in the United States, and survived September 11 without even a scratch to the stained glass windows. Last night as the performance ended and concert goers poured out onto the busy, balmy streets, two lights followed the tradition skyward in acknowledgement of the anniversary. Much has happened since then. Riding home along the cool waterfront of the East River, fisherman patiently reset their lines, the sound of people partying in Brooklyn wafted over the water, a class of Chinese women waltzed together, kids raced past on their skateboards and the smell of barbecues and dope was in the air. Bach is with me still, his soaring symphonies at once a salve and an inspiration in the city that doesn’t sleep…