Tagged with 'oratorio'

Bach inspires. This is the motto of the 2024 Münster Bach Festival, which has commissioned its composer in residence Stefan Heucke to compose a new cantata. His Cantata of Fire (original Title ‘Kantate vom Feuer’) will be premiered at the opening concert on 17 May 2024 in Münster Cathedral. Golo Berg will conduct the Philharmonic Choir and the Münster Symphony Orchestra, with Gerhild Romberger (alto), Thomas Laske (bass) and Gerhard Mohr (narrator) singing.

Shipwreck at the airport: Hans Werner Henze's oratorio Das Floß der Medusa (‘The Raft of the Medusa’) opens the new season at the Komische Oper Berlin. In Hangar 1 of Tempelhof Airport, Tobias Kratzer stages the great question of humanity, which revolves around the calculated drowning of underprivileged people on the high seas. The premiere will take place on September 16, 2023 under the musical direction of Titus Engel.

On 13 January 2017, Jörg Widmann’s new oratorio ARCHE will receive its premiere, marking the opening of the new Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg. Soprano Marlis Petersen and baritone Thomas E. Bauer will perform alongside the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano, with the combined choral forces of the Staatsopernchor, the choir of the AUDI Jugendakademie and the Hamburger Alsterspatzen.



ARCHE centres on mankind’s pleas to an indifferent god, vulnerably revealing all their wishes, fears and hopes for a better world. Widmann selected a variety of texts from different centuries, including from poets Matthias Claudius and Friedrich Schiller, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Bible. Scored for two soloists, three choirs, organ and orchestra, the music is similarly varied, ranging from intimate tonal passages to complex choral textures that make full use of the work's impressive forces.

Jörg Widmanns ARCHE – Let There be Sound!

ARCHE begins with the first act “Fiat Lux/ Es werde Licht” (“Let there be Light”), in which two child narrators chronicle, with factual innocence and at times ironic alienation, the act of creation. In the second act “Die Sintflut” (“The Flood”) vast cascading masses of sound evoke the power of the flood, rendering the violence of its destruction almost physically perceptible. This is followed by a gentler third act “Liebe” (“Love”), but even before the praise of love has faded away a double murder of jealously is reported – a reminder that mankind is not even capable of protecting the precious resource of love from evil. An apocalypse ensues in the fourth act, wherein Widmann sets “Dies Irae” alongside with Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, exploring life, death and hope for salvation; appealing for divine intervention. The “Dona eis requiem” changes in the last act to “Dona nobis pacem”, but the children’s choir demands that man assumes the responsibility for his survival himself, and only then will peace be possible with a loving God.

The Elbphilharmonie’s location overlooking the water, and its architecture reminiscent of ships and sails, inspired Widmann:

It is an ‘ark of culture’, where we as humans may find refuge with our happiness but also our suffering, especially in this very turbulent time. It is a refuge in a politically stormy sea, where art takes place, and where music takes place. I think it is fantastic that it was built; it also contains something sacred. – Widmann

During the three-week festival of events for the opening of the hall, another of Widmann’s works, Sonatina facile, will be premiered by Mitsuko Uchida on 18 January.

• Jörg Widmann - Profile


• ARCHE - Details


• Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

 

 

Photos:
- Elbphilharmonie Hamburg: Maxim Schulz, 2016.
- Jörg Widmann (right) and Kent Nagano: Hannes Rathjen, 2016.

On 30 July, Peter Eötvös’ Halleluja - Oratorium balbulum will receive its world premiere at the Salzburg Festival as part of the ‘Ouverture Spirtiuelle’ series, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and Hungarian Radio Choir under Daniel Harding.



Halleluja is Eötvös’ first symphonic vocal work, scored for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra, and will be dedicated to his close friend, the late author Péter Esterházy, who collaborated with Eötvös on the oratorio’s libretto.

Choir, angels, narrator and a stuttering prophet

Esterházy and Eötvös devised Halleluja as a 'meta-oratorio', in which the characters demonstrate self-awareness of their parts, recognising their roles are constructed and exist within an artistic performance. Throughout, Eötvös includes fragments of existing hallelujahs from a variety of musical periods ranging from baroque cantatas to gospel music. Examples include Bach’s Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, Handel’s Messiah, and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. For his prophet protagonist, Esterházy drew upon the figure of Notker Babulus, a monk also known as Notker the Stammerer. The oratorio explores themes of personal identity intended to resonate with contemporary political environments. Eötvös renders Notker, a figure from the dark ages, into a symbol of our time:

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to be a prophet because everything is unpredictable, and so the oratorio is not really a portrait of Notker, but rather a reflection of our time. As the work unfolds, the chorus as representative of the masses becomes increasingly assertive and critical. – Peter Eötvös

Harding will conduct two more performances of Halleluja on 23 November in Vienna and 24 November in Budapest. Next year, Eötvös will preside as ‘Creative Chair’ at Tonhalle Zürich and on 22 March, he will conduct the Tonhalle Orchestra in the Swiss premiere of Halleluja alongside his percussion concerto Speaking drums. On 1 August, he will conduct his chamber work Sonata per sei with Klangforum Wien at the Salzburg Festival.

• Peter Eötvös - profile


• Halleluja - Oratorium balbulum - workdetails