Wupperfeld evening music
The Wupperfelder Abendmusiken are a concert series of sacred music that was founded in 1953 by church music director Winfried Pesch (until 1970 as sacred evening music ). The fixed venue for the concert series was the Old Church Wupperfeld , which is known nationwide due to its church music profile , and since the church was sold by the parish of Gemarke-Wupperfeld, the evening music has been taking place in the Luther Church since 2017 .
Historical background
The Lutheran congregation in Wupperfeld achieved an important position in the musical life of the Wuppertal soon after it was founded in 1744. One of the largest organs in the Rhineland was built in 1786 by the workshop of Jacob Engelbert Teschemacher . In 1866, Pastor Emil Frommel , who later became royal court and garrison preacher in Berlin , founded a mixed church choir , which is one of the oldest in the German-speaking area. Frommel's ideas were inextricably linked with the liturgical movements of the mid-19th century and the artistic reconsideration of the works of Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach , which had been passed over a good century. After Munich and Duisburg in 1910, Dresden in 1911, Aachen and Vienna in 1913, the church master Friedrich Geß founded a Bach club next to the existing church choir on October 8, 1914 at the Alte Wupperfelder Church in Wuppertal . Cantor Elisabeth Potz was the first female choir director. She was followed in 1920 by Gottfried Deetjen, who worked in Wupperfeld until 1926. Since 1923 concerts have been held under his direction in a more regular cycle, and he has performed numerous Bach cantatas in the Old Wupperfeld Church. Compositions by Liszt and Reger were also part of the repertoire. Deetjen continued his activities in his hometown Hamburg from 1926 .
He was succeeded in 1926 in Wupperfeld by the Schütz admirer Gottfried Grote . Thousands of visitors came to the 3rd Heinrich Schütz Festival in Wupperfeld. Concerts became a regular feature under his direction. In 1935 he took over the management of the church music school in Berlin-Spandau . Grote became a professor at the Conservatory and also took over the direction of the Berlin Cathedral and State Choir , which was invited several times to Wupperfeld Abendmusiken in Wuppertal by the later director Winfried Pesch in the 1950s and 1960s . Grote's successor was Fritz Bremer in 1935. He continued the tradition of Grote, but with an emphasis on the music of Buxtehude , Distler and Pepping . There was also close cooperation with the Church Music Institute in Leipzig , from which artists often made guest appearances in Wupperfeld. Bremer was sent to war and died on December 27, 1941 on the Eastern Front. His successor was Hans Hulverscheidt from Cologne until the bombing night in 1943 . The church was completely destroyed in the war, and with it the entire church music documentation. On June 21, 1953, the Old Wupperfeld Church was inaugurated again during a festival week. Pastor Diening wanted to continue the church music tradition of the community and recommended the young church music student Winfried Pesch, who had been leading the new choir of the old church since 1952 . On October 5, 1953, he was unanimously elected as the new choirmaster and organist . While still a student at the Cologne Conservatory , he began working on December 1, 1953.
founding
Pesch continued the great church music tradition of the Wupperfeld Church. Lying in ruins months earlier, there have been evening series of concerts since December 1953. In the spirit of Buxtehude, Johann Sebastian Bach and his predecessors Grote and Bremer, the Wupperfeld evening music became a regular institution in Wuppertal, primarily, but not only, during Advent and Passion . In addition, there were numerous special concerts outside the Advent and Passion times and regular organ matinees in the 50s and 60s (including introductions to the sound worlds of Widor , Dupré and Messiaen ), which were intended to attract new audiences. Wupperfeld regained a leading role in church music in the region, so that all concerts were regularly reviewed in four different daily newspapers.
Numerous well-known choirs such as the Lübeck and Detmold Kantorei, the Berlin Cathedral and State Choir or choirs from the United States, Sweden or the Netherlands gave guest performances as well as numerous international soloists. The Wupperfeld evening music became internationally known. Even Peter Schreier and Ludwig Güttler competed in GDR times for concerts in Wupperfeld. From the early 1950s ( Theo Altmeyer ) to the early 1990s (Maria Zedelius and Gerd Grochowski ) numerous well-known soloists made guest appearances in Wupperfeld. The community choir, the Wupperfelder Kantorei , had around 100 members in the 1980s, including numerous church musicians and many singers from all over North Rhine-Westphalia. Winfried Pesch worked regularly with the members of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra for over four decades . Other orchestras included the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, members of the Gürzenich Orchestra , the Remscheid Symphony Orchestra, Collegium musicum from Düsseldorf, Discorsi-Musicale-Ensemble Berlin and Odhecaton. Most of the Wupperfeld evening music took place with free admission. The main task and focus of the Wupperfeld evening music was the proclamation of the word of God. Until 1992, the basis for this was the integration of high-quality artistic activity into community base work and thus a strong identification of the community in church music work.
meaning
Numerous world premieres and premieres (including works by Distler , Pepping , compositions by Marks, Fehres, Hollfelder, Honickel, Jacques Ibert , Olsson, Stockmeier ) took place as part of the Wupperfeld Evening Music (and the previous Spiritual Evening Music in Wupperfeld).
In the period between 1953 and 2000 alone, more than 100,000 visitors came to a total of over 500 concerts. In the Advent season 1977, for example, there were over 3,000 visitors at four consecutive concerts. Overall, the entire spectrum of music was presented: from the time of Gregorian chant to the avant-garde . Great oratorios , chamber music , a cappella chorus music, organ symphonies , orchestral works , gospel , blues or combinations such as organ and saxophone , harpsichord and vibraphone or organ and two speakers - very different line-ups were played. In addition to the Kantorei Barmen-Gemarke , the Wuppertaler Kurrende , the concert company, the Volksbühne, the opera and the organ days, all of which also performed in Wupperfeld, the Wupperfeld evening music had become an integral part of musical life in Wuppertal and in the entire region.
NRZ 1972: " High level of Pesch's church music - Winfried Pesch's church music celebrations in the Alte Wupperfeld church on the weekends, recently presented to the ever-growing audience for the 100th time, have become an indispensable part of the church music area of our city thanks to their pronounced selection of works . "
In addition, the WZ wrote on December 28, 1978 under the heading “Open for anything new: The Wupperfeld evening music, always finely tuned to the church year, is an indispensable part of the cultural life of our city today. Its founder, Winfried Pesch (50), can look back on 25 years of fruitful work at the Alte Wupperfeld Church these days ”… W. Pesch:“ My leisure activity is actually the basic development of the interpretation, because music cannot be isolated to be seen and always requires new intellectual and cultural location analyzes. "
The main focus was on integrating high-quality artistic work into the congregation's message of preaching . The task was cross-community and interdenominational . In addition to numerous collaborations with other congregations throughout the region, there was also close collaboration several times with the Catholic choir of the St. Antonius Church . With over 150 choir singers and the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra , for example, in 1991, at the 125th choir anniversary of the Wupperfelder Kantorei, the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms was performed on two consecutive days at two different locations with two different interpretations.
The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote about this in December 1991: “One of the oldest German church choirs is the choir at the Alte Wupperfeld Church. Founded in 1866 by the pastor Emil Frommel, this year it can look back on 125 years of tradition. Johannes Brahms 'A German Requiem' was on the program of the anniversary concert of today's Wupperfelder Kantorei. KMD Winfried Pesch was in charge. .... In these two extremes, the very elaborate and expressive performance polarized. The united choirs convinced with an espressivo in all voices that was also sonorous in the piano and never seemed impersonal. The members of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra played colorfully and extremely succinctly. In the Alte Wupperfeld Church a great performance by Johannes Brahms, rhythmically and harmonically very complex 'German Requiem' could be heard ... / ... They managed to do it on two consecutive days with the same ensemble according to their intuition - Winfried Pesch in Wupperfeld more dramatic, Engelbert Brendel internalized more in St. Antonius - designing the work ... It was another masterpiece of the two choir directors to unite amateurs and professionals in the different musical arrangements and to elicit a very high level of skill from all those involved ... unique in the entire European music history, that this great work by Brahms could be heard on two consecutive days with different interpretations in the same city with the same ensemble. How lucky the citizens of this city can consider themselves to have experienced this unique cultural event. "
Almost without exception all concerts in Wupperfeld were reviewed. From the 1950s to the 1970s they appeared in up to four different daily newspapers. By the mid-1920s at the latest, the activities of church music in Wupperfeld helped to assume a leading role in the entire region. In addition, over 250 church musicians were trained in Wupperfeld by 1992. In December 1992 Winfried Pesch retired after 40 years of service.
Carsten Zündorf (1992–2005) continued the great tradition of Wupperfeld evening music . The Wupperfeld Chamber Choir, founded by him , also became known nationwide and performed throughout Germany. The activities concentrated increasingly on concerts; For example, several great works were performed in Bach in 2000, such as all six cantatas of the Christmas Oratorio in one evening or the B minor mass . In contrast, the number of choir members in the Wupperfelder Kantorei decreased continuously. In 2001 they merged with the Unterbarmen choir. This gave up a 135 year old choir tradition in Wupperfeld. The establishment of the Oberbarmer community association Gemarke-Wupperfeld-Heidt in 2002 marked the end of the decline of Wupperfeld church music. The community association, which is now clearly dominated by the financial interests of the parish of the parish, completely stopped financial support for the Wupperfeld church music, mainly in favor of the city church work in the parish church, regardless of the unchanged strong identification of the presbytery and the parish of Wupperfeld with the church music tradition. Also at Gemarke's efforts, Wupperfeld's A cantor position was terminated in 2005, making Wuppertal the first major German city without an A cantor position. In the next few months the Wupperfeld evening music was discontinued for the first time, as well as a radical cut in the range of services, in which the Wupperfeld ensemble was always involved. One of the most traditional places for church music in the region was thus given up. A few months after the rapid decline of his life's work, the founder of Wupperfeld Abendmusiken, KMD Winfried Pesch, who worked in Wupperfeld for over half a century, suddenly and unexpectedly died on the night of June 17, 2006. Shortly after Pesch's death, Matthias Lotzmann became the new artistic director of the Bergische Kantorei and has since performed the concert series with great dedication in the original scope.
future
Thanks to the great commitment of the church musician Matthias Lotzmann, director of the Bergische Kantorei and part-time church musician of the Gemarke-Wupperfeld community, church music in Wupperfeld was sustainably rebuilt. Until the final closure of the old church, the basis was again the integration of church music into community work. In 2007 the “German Requiem” by Johannes Brahms as well as the cantatas I-III from JS Bach's Christmas Oratorio were performed. In 2008, the Bach cantata Christ was in death bands and the “Dixit Dominus” by Georg Friedrich Händel as well as the cantatas IV-VI from JS Bach's Christmas Oratorio were heard . Musical "even song" devotions are held regularly. The response from visitors shows how much people in Wuppertal want concerts to be continued at this traditional location. Chamber orchestras from Heidelberg and Bensheim made guest appearances as part of the 7th German Orchestra Competition, including the award winner under the direction of Thomas Kalb. Thanks to numerous donations and benefit concerts, the organ, which was in excellent condition until the beginning of the 1990s, was restored thanks to the commitment of Matthias Lotzmann and the Neuhaus organ builder. Numerous organ concerts took place again. In 2010, under the patronage of Wolfgang Stockmeier, a 20-part cycle "With Bach through the year" took place. In addition, an association "Musik und Kirche eV" was founded, whose goal is to provide professional church music along the valley axis of the Wupper focusing Gemarke - Wupperfeld promote. This created the conditions for church music to be continued at this traditional site.
With the closure of the old church in Wupperfeld by the parish of Gemarke-Wupperfeld, the future of the newly established church music in Wupperfeld was still uncertain. Until 2017, the Old Church in Wupperfeld was able to alternate with the Luther Church on Heidter Berg as a venue for evening music even after its abandonment as a place of worship; after the church was finally sold, the evening music finally moved into the tradition of its church music tradition at the turn of the year 2017/18 Nationally known Luther Church, where attempts are made to continue the tradition from Wupperfeld in its old abundance.
The Schimmel concert grand of the Old Church in Wupperfeld, which has been owned by the Bergische Kantorei since 2008, was moved to the Lutherheim am Heidter Berg as a venue when the Old Church in Wupperfeld gave it up, its future use is uncertain.
literature
- Joachim Dorfmüller : Wuppertal music history from the beginning of the 8th century to the reopening of the town hall in 1995 . Wuppertal (Born) 1995, ISBN 3-87093-074-8
- Johannes Hübner: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation Barmen-Wupperfeld . Wuppertal 1953
- Heinrich Lücke: Episodenbilder Figures from 200 years of history of the Evangelical Lutheran parish Wupperfeld in Wuppertal-Barmen . Wuppertal 1978
- Joachim Dorfmüller : 300 years of organ building in Wuppertal . Wuppertal 1980.
- Joachim Dorfmüller: 250 evening music and before that a whole century . Wuppertal 1988.
- Fritz Mehnert (ed.): Oberbarmer community history . Wuppertal 2002.