Helge castle grave

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Portrait of Helge Burggrabe, composer and flautist (2013)

Helge Burggrabe (born June 17, 1973 in Magstadt near Stuttgart ) is a German composer , recorder player , set designer and seminar leader. He lives in Fischerhude .

Life

As a child, Burggrabe lived for several years in the East Asian Burma ( Myanmar ). Later he had lessons with Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen and studied at the University of Music and Theater Hamburg with Evi Pfefferle-Darmstadt and Peter Michael Hamel . His diploma thesis dealt with the proportions and their reflection in music and architecture using the example of Chartres Cathedral .

Burggrabe has been performing its own concert series across Europe since 1993, especially in Germany , France , Switzerland and Austria . Burggrabe works in different ensembles, u. a. as "Duo3" with the pianist Christof Fankhauser and as the duo "Resonatus" with the singer Victoria Walker .

Since the mid-1990s, several projects have dealt with the symbol and the cultural history of the labyrinth, as well as with Chartres Cathedral , where the Burial Marian oratorio Stella Maris was premiered in 2006 . As a set designer and landscape artist , Burggrabe u. a. several labyrinths, two of which are permanent in northern Germany.

Musical work

Burggrabes concert programs are mostly themed and often combine music with various other arts, e.g. B. with poetry , with architecture , with photography and live painting , with dance performances .

Burggrabes compositions can be roughly divided into two areas. In the joint work with Christof Fankhauser, his music is primarily characterized by a novel combination of classical and jazz , often interspersed with improvisational elements that also reveal influences of folk , klezmer and pop music . Examples include the concert composition Rose - homage to a myth (2003) and the Children's Musical Theater Project Kids Planet / Planet Bunterkunt (1999 and 2006) a joint tour with the crossover cellist and Jost H. Hecker from the Modern String Quartet (2008).

Since 2004, Burggrabes engagement with the cathedral of Chartres as well as with philosophical and spiritual topics has been increasingly reflected in his music. For the Resonatus project , performed mainly in Romanesque churches, Burggrabe combined elements of Gregorian chant and own compositions for flute , voice and monochord . Burggrabe wrote the libretto with the Benedictine monk Anselm Grün , with whom he later published the joint book and CD project Zeiten der Stille .

Stella Maris , Blue Oratorio 2006

Picture of the performance of the oratorio Stella Maris by Helge Burggrabe in Cologne Cathedral on May 2, 2008

Burggrabe developed a musical language of its own with the Stella Maris oratorio of Mary , which was commissioned for the 1000th anniversary of Chartres Cathedral and premiered there on September 8, 2006. Inspired by the coloring of the windows in Chartres, it is also called the Blue Oratory . Burggrabe, who is also responsible for the libretto, combines texts by Fulbert von Chartres with modern poetry and, on the musical side, medieval compositions with a very contemporary musical aesthetic (influenced by György Ligeti , among others ).

Participants in the premiere, which was designed as a “concertante Gesamtkunstwerk for music, space, language, water and light”, included a. Graciela de Gyldenfeldt (soprano), Hiam Abbass (recitation), Emanuelle Bertrand (cello), Patrick Delabre (organ), the Harvestehuder chamber choir and a choir from Chartres as well as Michael Batz (light installations) and Alexander Lauterwasser ( water sound projections ). The overall musical direction was with Claus Bantzer , Burggrabe himself was responsible for the choreography and staging and played the flute parts.

The origins and world premiere of the oratorio were documented by NDR in a film that was first broadcast on ARTE in March 2007 .

The German premiere also took place in September 2006 in the St. Johannis Church in Hamburg-Harvestehude . After two performances in autumn 2007 in the Mariendom in Neviges , the largest performance to date took place in early May 2008 in the packed Cologne Cathedral . The new cathedral window by Gerhard Richter took an important place in the production there . The speaking role of Maria took over the actress Iris Berben at the German-language concerts .

Yehoshua , Red Oratorio 2008

Image of the performance of the oratorio Yehoshua by Helge Burggrabe in Chartres Cathedral on May 19, 2012.

A new sacred work by Helge Burggrabe was premiered in May 2008. The libretto for Yehoshua - Oratorio of the Incarnation comes from the theologian Kurt Dantzer and consists of Bible texts and psalms . The focus is on the life and work of Jesus Christ, the artistic starting point are the vowels IEOUA contained in his Hebrew name Yehoshua. The core of the chapters are stories from the Gospels: Jesus heals a blind man, Jesus meets tax collectors, three women and teaches people with the parable of the Good Samaritan .

Musically, this commissioned work, created under the patronage of the then Lower Saxony Prime Minister Christian Wulff , focuses on the combination of solo clarinet (in the premiere Johannes Peitz ), cello, percussion and chamber orchestra as well as solo singing (soprano, alto, tenor) and chamber choir. A painter contributed live calligraphy .

The premiere in the Neue Presse (Hanover) stated: “Burggraben's music has the seriousness and grandeur of church music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Fugue-like chorales and arias are based on the style of the father of church music. At the same Burggrabe bridges the gap to modernity and ensures goosebumps with meditative choral pieces and auspicious, sometimes jubilant, sometimes plaintive solo arias. "The Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung moved Yehoshua music between John Rutter and Benjamin Britten on.

Lux in Tenebris , White Oratorio 2015

The work Lux in Tenebris (light in the darkness) was created as a commissioned composition on the occasion of the 1200th anniversary of the diocese of Hildesheim . The libretto for the two-hour work is a joint effort by Helge Burggrabe, Reinhard Göllner and Angela Krumpen . All four choirs at Hildesheim Cathedral participated in the performance with the cathedral choir, chamber choir, girls' choir and schola . The world premiere took place with four performances on 14. – 17. May 2015. Participants in the premiere were Martina Gedeck (recitation), Elbtonal Percussion, Geraldine Zeller (soprano), Anne Bierwirth (alto), Manuel König (tenor), KMD Helmut Langenbruch (organ), string quartet, brass trio of Hildesheim Cathedral Music under the direction of Cathedral Music Director Thomas Viezens and Cathedral Cantor Dr. Stefan Mahr ; Light and video art: Michael Suhr and media.plus X.

Publications

  • 1999 Kinderplanet (CD, with Christof Fankhauser and Hartmut Burggrabe; Silberburg-Verlag , Tübingen)
  • 2003 Rose - Homage to a Myth (CD, with Christof Fankhauser; L'art de Piano, Bern)
  • 2004 Resonatus - Oratorio of Silence for flute, voice and monochord (CD, with Victoria Walker; Claudius Verlag, Munich)
  • 2005 Sounds of the Labyrinth (CD, with Christof Fankhauser; Kösel Verlag, Munich)
  • 2006 Times of Silence (book and 2 CDs, with Anselm Grün and Iris Berben ; Claudius Verlag, Munich)
  • 2006 Planet Bunterkunt (book, with Christof Fankhauser and Hartmut Burggrabe; Voggenreiter Verlag, Bonn)
  • 2007 Planet Bunterkunt (CD, with Christof Fankhauser)
  • 2008 Stella Maris - Chartres Oratorio (double DVD with two films and bonus material, Hänssler Classic & Claudius Verlag)
  • 2008 Duo3 live! (CD, with Christof Fankhauser and Jost-H. Hecker)
  • 2010 Yehoshua - Red Oratorio (double CD, Oehms Classics)
  • 2011 Concert of Silence (DVD, concert adaptation from Bad Gandersheim Cathedral)
  • 2011 Chartres - Listening with the soul: A spiritual journey of discovery (book, with Tilman Evers , Stefanie Spessart-Evers, Heike Radeck and Ingrid Riedel ; Kösel Verlag Munich)
  • 2015 Lux in Tenebris - White Oratorio (double CD and DVD, Bernward Medien / Hildesheim Cathedral Music)
  • 2015 Hagios - Sung Prayer (CD, with Christof Fankhauser and vocal ensemble Elbcanto , edel / Berlin Classics)
  • 2018 Hagios II - chants for prayer and meditation (CD, with Christof Fankhauser, vocal ensemble Elbcanto and string ensemble, edel / Berlin Classics)
  • 2020 Stella Maris - Blaues Oratorium (first recording on double CD, with Dommusik Speyer, Julia Jentsch , Alexandra Busch, Olivia Jeremias and others, Hänssler Classic)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.burggrabe.com/?lang=de&cat=2