Essen Bach Choir

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Essen Bach Choir
Seat: Essen / Germany
Founding: 1894
Genus: Concert and oratorio choir
Founder: Gustav Beckmann
Head : Stephan Peller
Voices : 120 ( SATB )
Website : www.essener-bachchor.de

The Essen Bach Choir is a large oratorio choir in the Ruhr area . The approximately 120 singers in the choir are primarily dedicated to the performance of great sacred works, and a cappella works of old and new music are also performed. The choir gives guest performances at home and abroad and participates in recordings and radio recordings.

repertoire

The choir worked regularly new oratorio literature, including Christmas Oratorio , St. John and St. Matthew Passion , Magnificat and Ascension Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach , by Felix Mendelssohn Elias and Paul , the Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , the Messiah and Saul by George Frideric Handel, Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi, by Max Reger Der Einsiedler , Requiem and The 100th Psalm as well as the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten and The Dream of Gerontius by Edward Elgar . The repertoire is supplemented by a cappella literature.

history

The choir was founded in 1894 by Gustav Beckmann as the Evangelical Church Choir Essen . On the 25th anniversary of the choir in 1919, the choir was renamed the Essen Bachverein . Since its inception, he has been the choir of the Kreuzeskirche . After its destruction in the Second World War, since 1951, the choir is located at the Erlöserkirche and has been called the Essen Bach Choir since 1961 .

Choirmaster

  • Gustav Beckmann, 1894–1935
Born in Bochum in 1865, singing teacher at the Realgymnasium in Essen, 1894–1935 director of the Evangelical Church Choir Essen-Altstadt, appointed Royal Music Director in 1906, publisher of several choir hymn books for schools.
  • Walther Grau, until July 1939
In 1939 called up for military service. After returning from war and imprisonment, he was a religious teacher at vocational schools in Essen and a cantor at the Johanneskirche in Essen-Bergerhausen.
  • Paul Wenderoth, 1935–1938
In 1939 drafted for military service, killed in France in 1944.
  • Edith Schormann, 1939–1943
Head of the Bach Association until the end of 1943. Moved to Koblenz after the Church of the Redeemer was damaged. First female music director in the Rhineland.
  • Otto Helm, 1945–1951
Born in Mettmann in 1884, teacher at the Bredeney Realgymnasium in 1914, scholarship from the city of Essen for music studies, appointed church music director in 1927, head of the Paulus Choir made up of male and boy's voices from 1916–1945, appointed in 1945 as the new head of the Bach Association, which integrated the Paulus Choir. Retired in 1951, died in Bonn in 1956.
  • Gerhard Herwig, 1951–1978
Born in 1912 in Nikolai (Upper Silesia), studied church music in Breslau (A-exam), university music teacher in Erlangen, full-time cantor in Berlin, 1948 city cantor in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 1951–1978 director of the Essen Bach choir, appointed church music director in 1958, 1978 retired. Afterwards organ concerts at home and abroad for many years.
  • Hans-Joachim Meyer-Pohrt, 1978–1992
Born in 1950 in Würzburg, 1966–1974 studied church music, music education and musicology in Bayreuth, Heidelberg and Erlangen (A-exams). 1974 cantor at the Reformation Memorial Church and district cantor of the parish of Nuremberg-North. Since 1978 cantor of the Erlöserkirche Essen. Founding of the “ensemble pro musica antiqua essen” and a motet choir made up of members of the Bach choir. Numerous performances with the youth and children's choir. Composer of numerous song movements and motets. Services with cantatas by Joh. Seb. Bach as well as in different line-ups in the series “Church Music in Worship”. Concerts at home and abroad as well as radio, television and record recordings. Regional chairman of church musicians in the Rhineland. Numerous publications and lectures. State-approved speech therapist in his own practice in Essen since 1999.
Born 1944 in Recklinghausen, 1963–1974 studied church music in Essen and Düsseldorf (A-exam), 1975–1977 vocal studies (bass) in Hamburg, 1963–1977 cantor in Essen-Rüttenscheid, Bottrop, Recklinghausen, 1977–1985 head of the municipal department Chores, Recklinghausen, 1979–2006 cantor at St. Maximilian, Düsseldorf, since 1989 lecturer for singing and conducting at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf, between 1992 and 1995 provisional director of the Essen Bach choir, performances as a soloist in Germany and abroad. He died in January 2018.
  • Stephan Peller, since 1995
After studying church music and graduating as Kapellmeister at the universities of Essen and Utrecht (Netherlands), Peller became cantor at the Erlöserkirche and director of the Essen Bach Choir in 1995. In addition, he performs chamber music activities and obligations as a conductor, juror, lecturer and tutor (including theaters in Bern, Gelsenkirchen, Freiburg).

Concert tours (selection)

  • 1957: GDR (Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Tangerhütte, Stendal)
  • 1963: East and West Berlin
  • 1967: France (Lille, Paris), performance of the B minor Mass by JS Bach with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra
  • 1968: France (Lille), Mozart's Requiem with the Orchester Radio-symphonique De Lille
  • 1970: France (Lille), performance of a German Requiem by Johannes Brahms with the ORTF orchestra
  • 1972: Denmark (Kolding, Esbjerg, Aarhus)
  • 1973: Belgium (Couvin, Chimay)
  • 1975: Belgium (Chimay), performance The Creation by Joseph Haydn with the Great Symphony Orchestra of Radio Brussels and the soprano Agnes Giebel
  • 1975: France (Paris), performance of The Creation at the “Festival de Paris” with simultaneous radio recording under the direction of Leonce Gras
  • 1975: England, a cappella concerts in London (St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Martin in the Fields) and Coventry (Reconciliation Cathedral)
  • 1976: Israel (Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv) at the invitation of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. A cappella concerts conducted by Lukas Foss .
  • 1976: Greece (Athens, Piraeus)
  • 1980: Belgium (Chimay)

Discography

  • Essen Bach Choir and Hans-Joachim Meyer-Pohrt (conductor): Sacred choral music of the 15th to 16th centuries. LP. Dabringhaus and Grimm, Detmold / EMI-Electrola ASD (sales), Cologne [1983]. DNB 351363076
  • Essen Bach Choir and Gerhard Herwig (conductor): JS Bach, famous motets. LP. DA Camera-Schallplattenedition / Sastruphon SM 007 025, Neckargemünd around 1970. Proof in Worldcat

literature

  • 100 years of Essen Bach Choir. Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the choir. Essen 1994

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marion Beyer: Review of Essen Bach Choir (Erlöserkirche Essen): Geschwinde jauchzende Engelschöre. Review of a concert on December 21, 2008. Online at klassik.com
  2. ↑ Homepage of the city of Essen: Sound space Kreuzeskirche ; last viewed on July 8, 2010.