Mixed choir Zurich
| Mixed choir Zurich | |
|---|---|
| Seat: | Zurich , Switzerland |
| Founding: | 1863 |
| Genus: | Oratorio choir |
| Head : | Joachim Krause |
| Voices : | 100–120 (SATB) |
| Website : | www. Mischter-chor.ch |
The Zurich Mixed Choir was founded in 1863 and has since performed as one of Zurich's great oratorio choirs in the Zurich Tonhalle , sometimes together with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra .
history
Together with other choirs, the Zurich Mixed Choir played a key role in the founding of the Tonhalle Zurich, in 1868 in the founding of the first permanent orchestra (Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich), in 1872 in the construction of the organ (as the " old Tonhalle organ " today in the Church Neumünster (Zurich) ) and in 1895 on the construction of the concert halls with their famous acoustics.
The concert activity began with Haydn's creation in December 1863. The traditional Good Friday concerts have been held since 1864 until today. Soon all the passions, the great oratorios and the requiem, as they do today, were part of the repertoire. In the autumn concerts, the performance of contemporary music was a concern from the start: Johannes Brahms tried out several of his works with the choir, premiered them and conducted them again later. Other guest conductors of his own works were Max Bruch , Camille Saint-Saëns and Richard Strauss .
Today's formation
The choir singers are amateurs who enjoy singing and have trained voices, with around 100 to 120 participants in the concert line-up.
Conductors
- 1865–1901: Friedrich Hegar (1841–1927)
- 1901–1902: Hermann Suter (1870–1926)
- 1902–1949: Volkmar Andreae (1879–1962)
- 1950–1975: Erich Schmid (1907–2000)
- 1975–1996: Räto Tschupp (1929–2002)
- since 1996: Joachim Krause (born 1957)
The first permanent conductor was the composer and conductor Friedrich Hegar , who led the choir until 1901 and was also the first chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra from 1868 to 1906. In the following two years, the Basel composer Hermann Suter took over the association, followed by Volkmar Andreae's long term as a conductor . Under him the choir sang the Italian premiere of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at La Scala in Milan in 1911 .
Erich Schmid succeeded Andreae in 1949 and directed the choir until 1975. The choir gave various concerts abroad, for example in Strasbourg, Prague, Rome and Salzburg. Schmid's successor was Räto Tschupp , who led the choir until 1996. In addition to large and well-known works, Räto Tschupp also repeatedly brought seldom heard and contemporary compositions into the program. Concert tours with the Tonhalle Orchestra led to the Alte Oper in Frankfurt (with Le laudi di San Francesco d'Assisi by Hermann Suter in 1984 and with Golgotha by Frank Martin in 1987), as well as with Handel's Jephtha in 1985 to Prague.
The choir has been directed by Joachim Krause since 1996 . Since then he has focused on the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, French composers (including French-speaking Switzerland) and the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition to the traditional Good Friday concerts (since 1996 four rehearsals of Beethoven's Missa solemnis , two each of Bach's St. John Passion and his Mass in B minor ), Krause presents more unknown or rarely performed works to the audience in the autumn concerts, such as the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, The Face of Isaiah by Willy Burkhard and Le Roi David by Arthur Honegger . In October 2006 the world premiere of the commissioned work Au-delà du regard by Martin Derungs based on poems by the Lebanese poet Nadia Tuéni took place. In autumn 2010 the choir performed Jüngst and once von Paul Suits, a work commissioned by the Basel Bach Choir. For the 150th anniversary in autumn 2013, the choir sang the world premiere of the commissioned work D'un pays lointain by Edward Rushton .
Soloists
Right from the start, the choir also engaged internationally active soloists. The German hero tenor Heinrich Vogl (1845–1900) sang as a soloist with the Zurich Mixed Choir between 1872 and 1885 in 9 concerts.
We also find long-term engagements in the 20th century. The contralto Ilona Durigo (1881–1943) from Budapest was a soloist in over 40 concerts between 1911 and 1943. From 1920 to 1938, the German tenor Karl Erb (1877–1958) sang in 12 concerts, and when he was prevented the choir was postponed Passion performances in the summer months to engage him as an evangelist.
Ernest Bauer, tenor (Geneva), took part in 26 performances between 1923 and 1941, seven of which were in Beethoven's 9th Symphony .
The bassist Felix Loeffel (1892–1981) sang 16 performances between 1922 and 1937, including the Italian première of Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Milan in 1929 and in 1932 in The Incessant by Paul Hindemith, the year after the world premiere in Munich.
The tenor Ernst Häfliger (1919–2007) made his debut as an evangelist in JS Bach's St. John Passion at the choir's Good Friday concerts in 1943 and sang here regularly in 38 concerts until 1984.
Kurt Widmer (born 1940), bass, was a soloist in 24 concerts between 1967 and 1992, for example in Arthur Honegger's Dance of Death in 1970 and in Bach's B minor Mass in 1971 , which one week later again with the Tonhalle Orchestra was performed in Rome, then in 1973, 1975 and 1987 in Golgotha by Frank Martin and in Hermann Suter's Laudi di San Francesco 1973 and 1984, most recently in the Johannes Passion in 1992, where he sang the role of Pilatus, his son Oliver Widmer that of Christ.
Further soloists of the 20th century: Ursula Buckel (S), Lisa della Casa (S), Elsa Cavelti (A), Sylvia Gähwiller (S), Ria Ginster (S), Christoph Homberger (T), Kurt Huber (T), Edith Mathis (S), Heinz Rehfuss (B), Hermann Schey (B), Elisabeth Speiser (S), Maria Stader (S), Jakob Stämpfli (singer) (B) and many others.
Archival material
The archive of the choir has been deposited in the Zurich Central Library since 1980 and is accessible there: manuscript department, signature GChorZ: letters, minutes, invoices, files, contracts, lists of members, concert programs, Varia, 4.4 linear meters; Music department: signature mixed choir, sheet music library, music prints, 36.5 linear meters.
literature
- 150 years of music for Zurich: the Zurich Mixed Choir, 1863–2013. Contributions by Martin Derungs, Margrit Eugster and others; Editor Luzi Schucan. Kommissionsverlag Hug, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-905847-74-1 . (Festschrift 2013, contains concert chronicles by composer, works and performance years 1863–2013; literature including a list of the published Festschriften 1888, 1913, 1938, 1963 and 1988).