Giessen Concert Association

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Giessen Concert Association
Seat: Giessen / Germany
Founding: 1792
Genus: mixed choir
Founder: Georg Thom
Head : Jan Hoffmann
Voices : 60 ( SATB )
Website : giessener-konzertverein.de

The Giessen Concert Association is one of the most traditional associations in the central Hessian city of Giessen . According to the statutes, its task is to promote and maintain sacred and secular choral music by a mixed choir. It has played an important role in the city's cultural life for many years.

Musical society

The association goes back to the musical society that the music lover Professor Georg Thom founded in March 1792. This makes it one of the oldest civil concert clubs in Germany. (The oldest, the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin , was founded in May 1791.) Initially, the Musical Society was active as an orchestral association, and in 1819 it was supplemented by an Academic Singing Association . Important composers such as Carl Maria von Weber and famous soloists gave their concerts in Gießen in the 19th century in collaboration with the Musical Society .

Concert association and city theater

In 1863 the name was changed to the name Gießener Konzertverein , which is still valid today, with over 100 members at the time. In order to secure its existence in the Third Reich , the board of directors wrote a letter to the city administration on October 11, 1933, written entirely in Nazi jargon, requesting them to participate in the redesign of the concert club in the National Socialist sense. With the affirmation of National Socialist ideas and the promotion of its own conformity in the sense of National Socialism, the association consciously and actively positioned itself as a representative of the Nazi ideology. The demand for a “culture-conscious and German-conscious supervision of musical life guided by a uniform will of the leader” was personally and handwritten signed by Otto Eger as deputy chairman together with three other members. The first chairman of the concert association, the theologian Gustav Krüger , however, did not sign. The precise circumstances and motives that led to this letter are not yet known. In 1935, the close cooperation between the Stadttheater Gießen and the concert association was established, which is continued as a successful partnership to this day. Joint symphony and oratorio concerts were held regularly. After the Second World War, a philharmonic choir was founded in 1946 , which merged with the concert association in the late 1940s.

Boom after the Second World War

Since the concert association was reactivated after the Second World War in 1946, over 250 large choral works have been performed (see web links). While after the Second World War up to 1966 the music directors of the Giessen University initially rehearsed and performed the works, since then the choir directors or general music directors (GMD) of the Giessen City Theater have taken over the rehearsals and performances. This emphasized the close cooperation between the concert association and the city theater.

The association currently has around 60 members, almost all of whom are active in the choir. According to the statutes, the association's task is “ to promote and maintain sacred and secular choral music from the Renaissance to the modern through a mixed choir ”. Since 1971 in choir community with the Singakademie Wetzlar and in permanent cooperation with the Stadttheater Gießen and its Philharmonic Orchestra, two large productions are usually rehearsed and performed annually.

Head of choir concerts since 1946

  • Karl-Heinz Eckert, University Music Director, 1946–1951
  • Kurt Utz, university music director, 1951–1966
  • Gerd Heidger, GMD Stadttheater, 1966–1991
  • Walter Hamel, choir director and Kapellmeister, 1971–1992
  • David De Villiers, GMD City Theater, 1991–1996
  • Martin Gärtner, Kapellmeister, 1992–1993
  • Andreas Ortwein, choir director, 1994–1995
  • Bernhard Steiner, choir director, 1995–1998
  • Michael Hofstetter, GMD Stadttheater, 1998–1999
  • Stefan Malzew, GMD Stadttheater, 2000–2001
  • Carlos Spierer, GMD City Theater, since 2004
  • Jan Hoffmann, choir director and conductor, since 1999

Performances in recent years

Since 1999 the choir director of the Stadttheater, Jan Hoffmann, has taken over the rehearsal and later regularly also the conducting. Under his rehearsal or musical direction, the following works were performed (in chronological order by composer):

Chamber choir Gießen-Wetzlar

The Gießen Concert Association and the Wetzlar Singakademie jointly established the Gießen-Wetzlar Chamber Choir in 1995 in order to expand the existing repertoire to include a cappella music and smaller ensembles. Under the direction of Jan Hoffmann, the chamber choir specialized in the maintenance of sacred and secular vocal works in small cast. It consisted of committed members of the concert association and the singing academy as well as other singers. With the performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion on April 3, 2012, the choir ceased.

literature

  • Katja Sonkeng: And on Mondays there is a rehearsal. The Giessen concert association from 1792 to 2008. Verlag der Ferberschen Universitätsbuchhandlung, Giessen 2009. ISBN 3-932917-94-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Eger: New overall assessment -. Press release. Justus Liebig University Giessen, August 29, 2014, accessed on September 30, 2014 .