The Sistine Madonna

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First open-air performance of the Sistine Madonna by electra in August 2014 in Dresden

The Sistine Madonna is a rock suite by the Dresden group electra , recorded in 1979 and released on record in 1980 .

history

The painting Sistine Madonna

In 1512 the painter Raffael (1483–1520) received the order from Pope Julius II to paint the Sistine Madonna . The work was completed in 1513 and has been in Dresden since 1754. During the Second World War it was rescued by soldiers at risk of death and thus escaped destruction. It is considered the most famous work of the Dresden Old Masters Picture Gallery .

In 1978 the band electra was commissioned by the Central Council of the FDJ to write a musical work for the National Youth Festival of the FDJ in 1979. It should "make a contribution that has an essential aspect of our social life as its content". The band suggested the theme of the Sistine Madonna because the Madonna works “in a humanistic sense”. The Central Council and other relevant bodies agreed. Kurt Demmler then wrote the lyrics, while band leader Bernd Aust was responsible for the composition and arrangements.

The world premiere took place in 1979 for the tenth anniversary of the electra group. After several small changes, the work was performed at the DT 64 youth concert in East Berlin's Palast der Republik . The radio of the GDR produced the record from it. On the B-side of the Amiga record, which was released in the GDR , there are the pieces Divorce Day, Fair and Remembrance, which thematically have nothing in common with the Sistine Madonna .

Electra subsequently performed the suite several times. Instead of the choir, band members took over the vocals .

The Amiga record The Sistine Madonna became Electra's most successful album. Around 130,000 copies were sold.

On May 20, 2009, a concert to mark the 40th anniversary of the band electra took place in the Dresden Kulturpalast . Among other things, the Sistine Madonna was performed again. In addition to the band, the participants included the "Große Chor Hoyerswerda", soloists from the Neue Elbland Philharmonie and the tenor Jens-Uwe Mürner. On August 16, 2009 the concert was repeated. On August 26, 2012, the same musicians performed the rock suite on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the commission to Raffael at the Dresden theater . For the last time and for the first time open air , the piece was performed by electra at the opening of the Dresden City Festival on August 15, 2014 in front of the Semperoper , again with the - newly structured - Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen, the “Great Choir Hoyerswerda” and Jens-Uwe Mürner . This concert was part of the “Farewell Tour 2014”.

description

Gisbert Koreng (l.) And Peter Ludewig (r.), Who were involved in the recording
Bernd Aust played a. a. Saxophone, flute and clarinet

The piece was recorded for the record with the following line-up: Bernd Aust (saxophone, flute, clarinet, choral singing), Rainer Uebel (keyboard), Gisbert Koreng (guitar, choral singing), Wolfgang Riedel (electric bass, choral singing), Manuel von Senden (vocals, synthesizer, percussion) and Peter Ludewig (drums, choral singing).

The rock suite consists of the three movements The Painter, The Image and The Viewer . The painter describes the painter's feelings at work. The woman depicted is equated with God, her divinity is described as worldly. The picture describes what went on around the painting in times of war, when soldiers gave their lives to save the picture. The woman depicted is adored again. By preoccupation with the Madonna man even rises above God (“Man created God on the sixth day”). The viewer directs the gaze to other women, whose divinity can sometimes not be recognized. But even before her one should fall on one's knees.

The pieces are consistently held in "song-like rock" with a dominant singing voice. The transition from the first to the second movement is formed by the madrigal Io ti voria by Orlando di Lasso (1532–1594), which is sung by the Heinrich Schütz Chamber Choir of the “Carl Maria von Weber” Academy of Music in Dresden . The viewer is less melodic at the beginning, sometimes chanting to show the lack of attention to his “own” wife (“If you rush along, forget yours, don't forget yours”).

The track is 26 minutes and 10 seconds long on the Amiga record; the recording from the 2009 anniversary concert is a little shorter.

Albums

  • 1980: The Sistine Madonna ( Amiga )
  • 1980: The Sistine Madonna ( Pool / Teldec )
  • 2000: The Sistine Madonna & Adaptations ( Buschfunk )
  • 2006: Adaptations & The Sistine Madonna (Buschfunk)
  • 2009: 40 years of electra: The anniversary concert (Buschfunk; also as DVD)

literature

  • Jürgen Balitzki: Electra. Lift. Stern Combo Meißen: Stories from the Saxon three . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3896023230 , pp. 316–322

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Interview with Bernd Aust on the cover of the Amiga album
  2. ↑ a b Concert on August 16, 2012 in Dresden ( Memento from July 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR. 2nd Edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-303-9 , p. 89.
  4. ↑ Dresden City Festival (PDF file; 50 kB), accessed on September 19, 2012
  5. ↑ Report at electra-music.de , accessed on February 7, 2016
  6. ↑ Never before and never again: "electra KLASSIK" with the rock suite "The Sistine Madonna" open air ( Memento from May 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Title list of the electra album for the 40th anniversary concert , accessed on September 18, 2012