Bach Choir Bonn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bach Choir Bonn
Seat: Bonn , Germany
Founding: 1949
Genus: Concert choir
Founder: Gustav Classens
Head : Markus Mostert
Voices : 80 ( SATB )
Website : www.bach-chor-bonn.de

The Bach Choir of Bonn is a great concert and oratorio - choir and for over 60 years an integral part of the Bonn music scene. Until 2012, the registered association was named Bonner Bach-Gemeinschaft .

history

In 1949 Gustav Classens , the then municipal music director and head of the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, founded the Bonner Bach-Gemeinschaft eV to maintain the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and to introduce his works. Initially consisting of a choir and orchestra, the association soon expanded its repertoire to include other high-ranking European composers. The orchestra, which played most of the concerts in the first few years after it was founded, lasted until 1971. The choir of the Bonn Bach Community developed over time into a concert and oratorio choir, whose work is based on artistic engagement with Bach's work includes European choral literature through to contemporary compositions. In 2012, the association changed its name to Bach-Choir Bonn , under which it was already known on the Internet and while traveling in previous years.

Roland Bader and Herbert Ermert were choirmasters to Classens . From 1991 until his death in November 2006 the choir was led by the composer and conductor Franz Xaver Gardeweg . His successor was Jürgen Böhme , who was replaced by Horst Meinardus in 2010 . Markus Mostert has been leading the choir since April 2017 .

Under Ermert, the choir gained an international reputation through numerous guest performances in Belgium , Luxembourg , Italy and 14 trips to France alone . Gardeweg led the choir several times to Italy, where he a. a. participated in the Viterbo Baroque Festival in September 1999 with Bach's B minor Mass and in April 2000 performed Bach's St. Matthew Passion as part of the “La Bibbia nella Musica” project in Lombardy . In September 1995 the choir sang Johannes Brahms' Requiem together with the choir of the State Philharmonic Orchestra Kraków in a solemn concert commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz 50 years earlier. In the summer of 2006 he traveled to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Poland . Romantic choral music was performed as an a cappella program in Prohn, Cammin and Stargard . The choir gave a total of 34 concerts from 1957 to 1983 in Steinfeld Monastery , 21 under Classens, 8 under Bader and 5 under Ermert.

Todays situation

Today the choir has over 80 members. His program includes orchestral concerts in Bonn 's Beethoven Hall or as a guest in other cities and countries, as well as a cappella concerts and performances with a small cast. An annual benefit concert with the Kiwanis Club Bonn e. V. in favor of disadvantaged children in Bonn.

Choirmaster

repertoire

Since 1949 the Bonn Bach Choir has compiled over 130 different works - masses , oratorios , requies , psalms , cantatas , hymns, etc. a. - Developed and performed by 40 high-ranking European composers . The namesake Johann Sebastian Bach alone has more than 40 works, including the St. Matthew Passion , the B minor Mass , the Christmas Oratorio , the St. John Passion and the Magnificat . In addition to the popular, great choral literature, the choir also ventures into the more unknown - such as the oratorio Die Himmelfahrt Jesu Christi by Albert Lortzing - and rarely performed compositions - such as the Harmony Mass by Joseph Haydn or Benjamin Britten's War Requiem .

In the 16 years under Gardeweg's leadership, u. a. the following works have been prepared and performed: the oratorios The Seasons and The Creation and the Creation Mass by Joseph Haydn ; Masses No. 5 in A flat major and No. 6 in E flat major by Franz Schubert ; the oratorios Judas Maccabäus and The Messiah by George Frideric Handel ; the Christmas Oratorio , the B minor Mass and the St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach ; the Missa solemnis in D major op. 123 by Ludwig van Beethoven ; the sequence Stabat mater by Gioacchino Rossini ; Gabriel Fauré's Requiem ; A German Requiem op. 45 by Johannes Brahms ; the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten ; the Mass in D major op. 86 by Antonín Dvořák ; the Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi ; the oratorio Gurre-Lieder by Arnold Schönberg ; the Requiem D flat major by Robert Schumann .

Concert tours

  • 1977 France (Sedan, Paris, Dijon, Mâcon, Thonon)
  • 1978 France (Epernay, Thono, Annecy, Privas, Istres)
  • 1979 Italy (Padua, Rimini)
  • 1980 France (Sedan, Paris, Paris-Créteil)
  • 1982 France (Chambéry, Istres, Annecy, Sochaux, Dijon)
  • 1983 France (Nice, Thonon, Auxerre, Paris, Tournai, Mons), Belgium (Tongeren)
  • 1984 Belgium (Mons), France (Mons, Annecy, Thonon, Dijon), GDR (Quedlinburg)
  • 1985 Belgium (Tongeren), France (Bourges, Dijon, Annecy)
  • 1986 France (Annecy, Sochaux, Dijon, Bourges)
  • 1987 France (Annecy, Bourges)
  • 1988 GDR (Quedlinburg)
  • 1989 Belgium (Tongeren), France (Dijon)
  • 1990 New Federal States (Wernigerode, Quedlinburg)
  • 1991 Potsdam (Sanssouci Music Festival)
  • 1992 Potsdam
  • 1994 Braunschweig
  • 1995 Potsdam, Poland (Krakow "In memoriam Auschwitz 1945–1995"), Italy (Rome, Citta di Castello, Frascati, Assisi)
  • 1996 Italy (Lecco, Milan, Grosio, Bergamo; CD recording)
  • 1997 Quedlinburg, Potsdam
  • 1998 Italy (Abano Therme, Bozen, Rovereto)
  • 1999 Italy (Lecco, Como, Bergamo "La bibbia nella musica", Tarquina "Barockfestival Viterbo")
  • 2000 Italy (Brugherio, Lecco, Villasanta “La bibbia nella musica”), Arnstadt
  • 2001 Italy (Canzo, Verbania Intra, Santa Maria Maggiore)
  • 2002 Italy (Mirandola, Grosio)
  • 2004 Italy (Rome)
  • 2006 Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Poland (Prohn, Cammin, Stargard)
  • 2009 Italy (Lucca, Civitavecchia, Acquaviva, Casamassima)
  • 2016 Poland (Gliwice "Musica pro Europa")

Other highlights

  • 1978 Luxembourg: RTL radio production ( Psalms Symphony )
  • 1980 Cologne: WDR radio recording (Peter Cornelius, Mass in D minor)
  • 1980 Record production (Anton Bruckner, Requiem)
  • 1988 Bonn: German Bundestag, memorial service for the Reichspogromnacht (live broadcast by WDR)
  • 1989 Cologne: WDR radio recording (Haacke Waldkantate , Distler An der Natur )
  • 1989 Bonn, Beethovenhalle: Awarding of the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal 1989 to Sir Yehudi Menuhin (live broadcast by ARD )
  • 1990 Bonn, Marktplatz: Welcome! The five new federal states
  • 1996 Bonn: joint performance of Mendelssohn's Elias with the Tel Aviv Philharmonic Choir
  • 2007 Bonn, Wuppertal, Solingen: "Musica sacra dal mondo"
  • 2013 Zwickau: Participation in the opening concert of the 18th German Choir Festival of the Association of German Concert Choirs VDKC

Discography

  • Anton Bruckner : Requiem in D minor. Siegerland Orchestra, conductor Herbert Ermert; Aulos record production, Viersen; Distribution: Fono-Schallplattengesellschaft, Münster (Westphalia), 1981.
  • Johann Simon Mayr : Samuele. Orchestra Accademia di Stato di Minsk, conducted by Pierangelo Pelucchi (first recording worldwide); Fono-Schallplattengesellschaft, Laer (1997).
  • Luigi Cherubini / Anton Bruckner : Requien . Head of Herbert Ermert; Musikado Cologne (2004).

literature

  • Bonn Bach Community 1949–1999. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the choir. Bonn 1999.

Web links