Chamber choir Rhein Erft
| Chamber choir Rhein Erft | |
|---|---|
| Seat: | Bergheim |
| Carrier: | Parish Association Bergheim / Erft |
| Founding: | 1980 |
| Genus: | mixed choir |
| Founder: | Norbert Keßler |
| Head : | Norbert Keßler (since 1984) |
| Voices : | approx. 30 |
| Website : | www.chor-st-gereon.de |
The Rhein Erft Chamber Choir is a mixed choir founded in 1980 in the North Rhine-Westphalian district town of Bergheim and sponsored by the Bergheim / Erft parish association. Since 1984 it has been led by the teacher, concert singer and choir director Norbert Keßler .
history
The choir was founded by its current director in 1980 as the St. Gereon Bergheim- Zieverich church choir at the branch church of the same name in the parish of St. Pankratius Bergheim- Paffendorf . In the first four years it was led by Christl Betz, a native of Bergheim, and worked exclusively in the context of church services.
In 1984 Norbert Keßler took over the direction of the choir, and the choir's field of activity expanded significantly. In addition to the musical design of church services in the home parish, church services in the Cologne-Bonn-Düsseldorf area were gradually added. Here the choir sang in important churches such as the Cologne , Essen , Xanten and Altenberg cathedral , the Bonn cathedral basilica, the Cologne Romanesque churches of St. Gereon , St. Ursula and St. Aposteln and the Cologne Antoniterkirche .
In addition, the focus of the choir shifted to the concert area. Since 1985 the choir has held two to three concerts a year, which are now attracting national attention. The choir took this development into account by performing outside of local and parish contexts as the Rhein Erft Chamber Choir since 2009 . The choir chose this name because of its size - it has around 30 singers on average - to settle in the chamber choir area and is based in the district town of the Rhein-Erft district.
repertoire
The choir maintains a vocal repertoire that is as well adapted as possible to the abilities of its members and is primarily in the field of church music. It covers 1000 years of music history with works from Gregorian to modern times. The focus of the choir's work is on the one hand the choral works of the late Romanticist Josef Gabriel Rheinberger , whose complete works for choir and organ he performed cyclically from 1991 to 2011, as well as the sacred music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , whereby he particularly likes the less performed and the smaller works Interested.
In addition, compositions that have rarely or never been performed are very important to the choir, which is reflected in several first and modern premieres. The Rhein Erft Chamber Choir performed Telemann's Matthäus-Passion from 1730 for the first time in its entirety, in 1994 the cantata "Jephtas Opfer" by Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, 2007 the Missa omnium sanctorum by the same composer, 2011 the Vesperae solenissimae op. 5 by Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter and 2016 the Missa solenne in C major by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello . In 2007 he was involved in the world premiere of Andrew Moore's Veni Sancte Spiritus, which has been part of his "Whitsun trips" since then.
A series of concerts by the Rhein Erft Chamber Choir under the title "Music for the carved altar" deals with the images of the Antwerp reredos in the parish church of St. Pankratius (Paffendorf) . In addition to New Year's cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach (4th cantata of the Christmas Oratorio ) and Gottfried August Homilius , the performance of the St. Luke Passion BWV 246 from Johann Sebastian Bach's music archive should be mentioned here. The choir plans to perform the St. John Passion by JS Bach for 2020 (both on the occasion of its 40th anniversary and the 500th anniversary of the Paffendorfer Retable).
Concert and cultural tours
Every two years the choir conducts concert and cultural tours to major European cities and sings in major churches. The tradition of these trips began in 1991 with a trip to Paris with a concert in Notre-Dame Cathedral . This was followed by trips to Reims ( Saint-Rémi basilica ), Kremsmünster (Kremsmünster collegiate church ), Alsace ( Ebersmünster abbey church ) and Breisgau ( Stephansmünster Breisach ), to Munich ( Theatinerkirche ) and Liechtenstein, to Amiens ( Notre-Dame cathedral ) and London, to Portugal ( Basilica Nossa Senhora dos Martires ) and to Vienna ( Otto Wagner Church and Karlskirche ). The choir gave concerts twice at the Catholic Days, in Aachen (Herz-Jesu-Kirche) and in Berlin ( St. Bonifatius ).
Cooperations
The Rhein Erft Chamber Choir regularly works with other choirs, including the choir at Gutenberg-Gymnasium Bergheim, the St. Remigius Choir Bergheim, the Chorus cum animo Düsseldorf, the Allegro Vivace Bad Münstereifel choir, the St. Maria Königin Kerpen choir -Sindorf, the St. Cäcilia Walberberg Church Choir and the St. Laurence Parish Choir Upminster (London). The choral schools of the Bonn Collegium Albertinum and Cologne Cathedral took part in his concerts . As an orchestra, the choir was able to engage the Gürzenich Orchestra of the City of Cologne, the Orchestra of Cologne Chamber Musicians, the Young Chamber Orchestra Dresden, the Johann Christian Bach Academy and the Baroque Orchestra Concerto con Anima. The latter has been a regular partner of the choir since 1996 under its concertmaster Ingeborg Scheerer . For the performance of Renaissance music, the choir engaged the ensembles Odhecaton, Soave melodia and Ludus venti. Numerous vocal and instrumental soloists, also well-known nationwide, took part in the services and concerts of the Rhein Erft Chamber Choir, among them the organists Wolfgang Bretschneider and Johannes Geffert .
The commitment of the Rhein Erft Chamber Choir to the sacred music of Rheinberger is promoted and supported by the International Josef Gabriel Rheinberger Society. In 2012 the choir sang a concert and a service in Liechtenstein at the invitation of the Rheinberger Society, and the choir director Norbert Keßler was honored by the Society for his interpretations of Rheinberger by handing over a complete edition of Rheinberger's writings. In 2014 the Rhein Erft Chamber Choir organized the final concert of the Cologne-Bonn Rheinberger Days.
Choirmaster
- Christl Betz (1980–1984)
- Norbert Keßler (since 1984)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Kammerchor Rhein Erft , on mozart-wa.de, accessed on December 22, 2018
- ^ Cologne-Bonner Rheinberger-Tage in Walberberg With timpani and trumpets , on general-anzeiger-bonn.de, accessed on December 22, 2018