Bern Choir

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Bern Choir
Bern Minster, main place of activity of the Bernese Kantorei
Seat: SwitzerlandSwitzerland Bern
Carrier: Evangelical singing community
Founder: Martin Flämig
Head : Johannes Günther
Website : ESG choirs

The Berner Kantorei is a concert choir in Bern that rehearses and performs works from choral music. Her main task is the musical arrangement of the half-hour Saturday evening Vespers in the Bern Minster . She also sings in other church services and organizes several concerts every year (Christmas concert, passion music, evening music) with larger works of church music from all stylistic epochs in different cast. She sings individual concerts together with the Zürcher Kantorei zu Predigern both in the Bern Minster and in the Zurich Predigerkirche .

history

The Berner Kantorei came into being shortly before 1960 when the organist Kurt Wolfgang Senn wanted to introduce the Saturday evening Vespers in the Bern Minster . On one of his concert tours in Germany, he had heard a Saturday evening Vespers and decided to introduce something like this in Bern. In the beginning, a choir made up of former participants in the singing weeks of the Engadin Cantorei took part . From 1961 the choir was led by Martin Flämig . In 1962, the three choirs led by Martin Flämig founded the Evangelical Singing Community (ESG) in Bern, Basel and Zurich . With the name Berner Kantorei, the choir became part of this association.

In 1971 Flämig was appointed Kreuzkantor to Dresden. Klaus Knall was elected as his successor in 1972 . From 1981 to 1996 he was also director of the Institute for Church Music in Zurich. After his resignation in 1997, Johannes Günther was elected in 1998 , who has since headed the Bernese Kantorei and the Zürcher Kantorei as preachers . Since 2003 there is also the Berner Münster Children's Choir , which is also directed by Johannes Günther.

repertoire

The repertoire for the Vespers comes from all times of church music, in particular from the Renaissance to the Baroque period and Romanticism to church music of the 20th century.

In the concerts the Berner Kantorei sings classical works of sacred music, so by Johann Hermann Schein , Heinrich Schütz (motets, psalms , Opus ultimum), Claudio Monteverdi ( Vespers ), Dieterich Buxtehude ( Psalms of David ), Johann Sebastian Bach (passions, masses , Cantatas), Georg Friedrich Händel ( Messiah , Israel in Egypt ), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( Requiem , Mass), Johannes Brahms (Motets, German Requiem ), Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Anton Bruckner , Peter Cornelius , Josef Gabriel Rheinberger .

The Berner Kantorei also often sings works of the 20th century by Ernst Pepping (Passion report of Matthew, Christmas story of Luke), Hugo Distler (Choral Passion, Christmas story ), Willy Burkhard ( Isaiah , The Little Psalter , The Flood , The Year ), Frank Martin (Mass, In Terra Pax , Golgotha ), Arthur Honegger ( La dance des morts ), Luc Balmer (Mass), Hans Studer ( God is Tenant , Apostolic Motet), Walter Kraft ( Christ ), Ernst Pfiffner ( Maranatha ), Ronald Bisegger (Kohlet, Triptychon), among others

She strives to perform contemporary music again and again, sometimes as a composition commission. Examples come from R. Waldmeier (Whitsun cantata VENI ), Iris Szeghy ( humanity ), Pierre Funck (Psalm 139), Kurt Widorsky ( Türmische Träumereien ), Elvira Garifzyanova ( Seek my face ), Ulrich Gasser ( Transcredo ), Christian Henking ( Ich I'm so tired of sighing ), Kurt Meier ( Singet Gott , Magnificat ) and Daniel Glaus .

Discography (selection)

  • Adolf Brunner : Markus Passion. Regula Zimmerli, Dieter Agricola, Martin A. Bruns, Ulrich Studer; Berner Kantorei; Heiner Kühner (organ); Collegium musicum of the Evangelical Singing Congregation. Dir. Klaus Knall 2. CDs. The Swiss music scene, Federation of Migros Cooperatives 1985/2001.
  • Ernst Pepping : The Christmas story of Luke. For 4-7 part a cappella choir. Pan, 1981
  • Music from the minster in Bern: Saturday evening party. Works by Paul Müller-Zürich and Antonius Scandellus. Berner Kantorei, Berner Kammerchor; Kurt Wolfgang Senn (organ); Martin Flämig (head). Fono, Luzern 1964. (In a row from Swiss monasteries, cathedrals and churches. )

literature

  • 25 years of the Evangelical Singing Congregation. Festschrift for the 25th anniversary. February 1987
  • Who are we? In: Music and Worship. No. 4, 1978, volume 32.
  • Anna Katharina d'Uscio-Hegg (Red.): 40 years of the Evangelical Singing Community 1962–2002. Festschrift. August 2002.
    • From this: Johannes Günther : Lending a voice to the present (s) - The Evangelical Singing Congregation and New Music. In: Music and Worship. 66th vol., 2012. pp. 127-138. ( Digitized version )
  • Fragment mosaic, commemorative publication 50 Years of the Evangelical Singing Community 1962–2012. June 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Wolfgang Senn. In: Festschrift 25 years of the Evangelical Singing Community. Page 15.
  2. ↑ Professor Martin Flämig. In: Festschrift 25 years of the Evangelical Singing Community. Page 22.
  3. ^ Cantor Klaus Knall. In: Festschrift 25 years of the Evangelical Singing Community. Page 23.
  4. ↑ Johannes Günther. In: Festschrift 40 years of the Evangelical Singing Community. Page 31.
  5. ↑ a b In: Concert programs 1987–2002. Festschrift 40 years of the Evangelical Singing Congregation. Page 19.
  6. ↑ a b c Chronology 2001–2011. In: Festschrift 50 years of the Evangelical Singing Community. Page 70.
  7. ↑ Norbert Rüdeli: Review at Klassik Heute , accessed on May 9, 2014.