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Paul Gerhardt's hymn
"
Du meine Seele singe"
(You my soul sing),
a paraphrase of
Psalm 146,
became known for a melody
beginning with a rocket motif.
(from User:Gerda Arendt/Stories)
This is the 2024 archive of my daily stories which began in January 2023, with an overview at User:Gerda Arendt/Story list that also features example stories. This archive has daily entries up to the day of the year while those following may be overwritten by new ones. -- Gerda Arendt ( talk) 10:48, 1 January 2024 (UTC)
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Happy New Year 2024
Bach composed
Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht,
BWV 134a,
as a
congratulatory cantata
for the
court of Köthen,
first performed
on New Year's Day 1719.
14 July 2010
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"
Lobpreiset all zu dieser Zeit",
(Praise all at this time)
for New Year
in the German Catholic hymnal
Gotteslob, takes two
stanzas
from a 1851 song by
Heinrich Bone,
a third stanza and refrain from 1969,
and a 1529 popular melody by
Luther.
Bass-baritone
Johann-Werner Prein
(born 3 January 1954)
took part in the 1994 premiere
of
Erwin Schulhoff's only opera,
Flammen,
which the Nazis had suppressed.
Josef Suk
(4 January 1874 – 29 May 1935)
dedicated his
Asrael Symphony
"to the exalted memory of Dvořák and Otilie",
his father-in-law for whose memory he began the work,
and his daughter, the composer's wife.
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The new
Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel,
listing 420 compositions,
was introduced
at a festival
celebrating Abel's tercentenary
in
Köthen
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Hermann Baumann,
a pioneer of the
natural horn in the revival
of both
Baroque and
Classical period music,
recorded Mozart's
Horn Concertos
with
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
and premiered Ligeti's
Horn Trio.
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Dmitri Shostakovich's
Symphony No. 15 in
A major,
Op. 141,
his final symphony,
intended to be a cheerful work
to mark his 65th birthday,
was premiered on
8 January 1972,
conducted by his son,
Maxim Shostakovich.
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A 1974 recording of
Mozart's
Così fan tutte with
Ryland Davies
as Ferrando was used in a 1995 film
by the
Salzburg Marionette Theatre.
The
Advent song
"
Macht hoch die Tür"
is number 1 in the
German Protestant hymnal.
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Chris Karrer
was a pioneer of experimental
krautrock
with the band
Amon Düül II (pictured),
founded in the spirit
of the
1960s student movement,
and later played world music with
Embryo
and
flamenco guitar.
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Bright Angel,
composed by
Graham Waterhouse
for three
bassoons and
contrabassoon,
relates to the
Bright Angel Trail of the
Grand Canyon
which the composer hiked
with
his father
at the age of nine.
Kihwan Sim
from South Korea
appeared as Mozart's
Figaro
at the
Oper Frankfurt
in the first production with
the new music director,
acting with a hint at the
French Revolution.
|
Guido Dessauer
(7 November 1915 – 13 January 2012),
a German executive and art collector,
registered more than 30 patents
in paper technology
and started the career of
Horst Janssen
as a
lithographer.
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In
Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, BWV 3
(Oh God, how much heartache),
a
chorale cantata first performed
on 14 January 1725
at the
Thomaskirche,
based on
Moller's hymn in 18 stanzas,
the first
cantus firmus is sung
by the bass supported by a trombone.
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Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst
(How Deserted Lies the City),
a
motet composed by
Rudolf Mauersberger
after the
bombing of Dresden,
was first performed
in the destroyed
Kreuzkirche.
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Thomas Fritzsch,
a
viol player
who rediscovered
compositions
by
Carl Friedrich Abel,
established a festival dedicated to him
in
Köthen
where he was born 300 years before.
The youthful
Handel
composed four operas
for the
Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg
where they were performed
between 1705 and 1708,
but
the music of three of them is lost,
of Nero,
Florindo and
Daphne.
(article by Brian Boulton)
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Tamara Milashkina,
the first Soviet Russian
soprano trained at
La Scala,
portrayed Russian characters
with emotion and authenticity
touring with the
Bolshoi Theatre
as Tchaikovsky's
Tatiana at the
Vienna State Opera
and as
Lisa at the
Metropolitan Opera.
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Romuald Twardowski,
a prolific Polish composer
who studied in Vilnius, Warsaw and Paris,
composed operas such as Maria Stuart,
a Violin Concerto,
and sacred music for both Catholic use
and the
Orthodox Church including the
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
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St. Joseph,
a 1909
Catholic church
in the
Romanesque Revival style
in
Berlin-Wedding,
has served as an interim cathedral
since 2018.
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Vivi Vassileva,
a percussionist who was the youngest member
of the
German national youth orchestra,
has played
Gregor Mayrhofer's Recycling Concerto
on instruments derived from garbage.
listen
(from User:Gerda Arendt/Stories)
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Henri Dutilleux
(22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013)
composed his
Symphony No. 2 Le Double
in 1959 as
a concerto for twelve soloists from the orchestra
in a semi-circle around the conductor
as a mirror of the larger group.
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Maria, Königin des Friedens,
a
Brutalist pilgrimage church
in
Neviges, Germany,
has become the signature building
of architect
Gottfried Böhm
(23 January 1920 – 9 June 2021).
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Ewa Podleś
was a Polish
coloratura contralto,
performing Rossini's
Rosina,
La Cenerentola,
Isabella and
Tancredi,
and Handel's
Rinaldo and
Giulio Cesare
on leading stages of the world.
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The
Late Gothic appearance
of the church of
St. Martin in
Oestrich
was destroyed in the
Thirty Years' War
and restored only in 1894.
"
Shalom chaverim"
('Peace, friends'),
a Hebrew traditional folk song,
has been sung at events
commemorating the Holocaust
and victims of anti-Semitic violence.
Before the age of thirty,
Anna Nekhames
performed the dual role
of Venus and Chief of the Gepopo
in Ligeti's
Le Grand Macabre,
one of opera's most demanding
coloratura soprano roles.
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Franz Fink
conducted
Monteverdi's
Vespro della Beata Vergine,
dedicated to the pope
on 1 September 1610,
at
St. Martin, Idstein
on 1 September 2019.
Gerd Uecker
was
artistic director of the
Bavarian State Opera in Munich,
and from 2003 to 2010 of the
Semperoper in Dresden
where he staged operas related to Dresden.
Gertrude Pitzinger,
who toured Europe and the United States,
where she became known as
"the German Lieder singer",
recorded the alto part of Mozart's
Requiem,
conducted by
Ferenc Fricsay.
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A clinic in
Mopti, Mali,
is named after
Werner Bardenhewer,
born 90 years ago today,
who was for decades
priest of
St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden,
and then founded
a charity group.
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Max van Egmond
(born 1 February 1936)
recorded the
bass arias
of Bach's
St Matthew Passion
with
Claudio Abbado
and the words of Jesus with
Gustav Leonhardt.
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Bishop of Limburg
Franz Kamphaus
(born 2 February 1932)
opposed the
pope,
"convinced that our way of counselling women
would save the lives
of many more children".
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In her opera
Inferno,
premiered in 2021 at the
Oper Frankfurt,
Lucia Ronchetti
(born 3 February 1963)
gave the main character
Dante
a speaking voice and
an
inner voice of four male singers.
7 August 2021
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Michael Herrmann
(born 4 February 1944)
is founder-director
of the
Rheingau Musik Festival,
which holds about 150 concerts every season
in vineyards and historical buildings.
Josef Protschka
(born 5 February 1944),
who sang as a soloist
in Stockhausen's
Gesang der Jünglinge at age 12,
later appeared in leading
tenor roles
in the Mozart cycles staged by
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
at the
Cologne Opera and the
Zürich Opera House.
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Magna Lykseth
appeared as Isolde
when Wagner's
Tristan und Isolde
was first performed
at the
Royal Swedish Opera in 1909.
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Stephen Gould,
an American
heldentenor,
performed three roles
at the 2022
Bayreuth Festival:
Tannhäuser,
Siegfried and
Tristan,
earning him nicknames such as "Iron Man".
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Oskar Negt
(1 August 1934 – 2 February 2024),
assistant of
Jürgen Habermas
in Frankfurt,
mentor of the
APO and
professor of sociology
in Hanover,
believed that democracy was
a form of government
that had to be learned.
Baritone
Wolfgang Schöne
(born 9 February 1940)
created the role of the tomcat
"Tom, Minette's lover"
in the opera
Die englische Katze by
Hans Werner Henze
at the
Schwetzingen Festival.
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Alfred Grosser
(1 February 1925 – 7 February 2024),
whose Jewish family had to move
from
Frankfurt to France
in 1933,
was instrumental to
Franco-German cooperation,
paving the way for the 1963
Élysée Treaty,
and writing books towards better understanding
between the Germans and the French.
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Bach composed his
cantata
Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22,
for the
last Sunday before Lent
as an audition piece
for the post of
Thomaskantor in Leipzig,
displaying a
"sheer range of forms
and musical expression".
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Seiji Ozawa
(September 1, 1935 – February 6, 2024),
the first star conductor from Japan,
studied
in Tanglewood from 1960
with
Charles Munch
from the
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
became artistic director there in 1970
and was the orchestra's music director
from 1973 for 29 years.
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Helga Paris
photographed people and streetscapes
in
East Germany,
Garbage Collectors, Berliner Kneipen,
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, self portraits,
and houses and faces from
Halle over three years,
and then the exhibition was cancelled.
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Voltaire's tragedy Olimpie
premiered in 1762
and Henze's opera
Elegie für junge Liebende
(Elegy for Young Lovers)
in 1961 at the
Schlosstheater Schwetzingen.
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Felix Mendelssohn subtitled
Sechs Lieder, Op. 59,
six songs for four voices
setting poems by
Eichendorff and others,
"Im Freien zu singen"
("To be sung outdoors").
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Hans-Dieter Bader
(16 February 1938 - 18 June 2022)
performed the title role
of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera
Sly,
recorded live at the
Staatsoper Hannover,
"as written", while
Plácido Domingo
had to cut and change the part.
Bassoonist
William Waterhouse
(18 February 1931 – 5 November 2007)
considered the rapport
between violist
Cecil Aronowitz and cellist
Terence Weil
the special distinction of the
Melos Ensemble,
playing in the premiere of Britten's
War Requiem.
Johanna von Koczian
had a breakthrough in the 1959 film
Wir Wunderkinder,
landed the
schlager hit "Das bißchen Haushalt",
and portrayed
Florence Foster Jenkins on stage at age 77.
Ladislav Burlas,
a composer and
musicologist
at the
Slovak Academy of Sciences in
Bratislava
from 1951 to 1990,
studied the
music history of Slovakia
with a focus on the 20th century.
Rudolf Jansen,
a pianist who taught at the
Sweelinck Conservatory,
focused on
accompanying singers
Elly Ameling,
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and many more,
"unravelling all the intricacies
of the often independent piano parts".
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For his ordination
at the
Altrossgarten Church,
Georg Weissel wrote the text of the hymn
"
Such, wer da will, ein ander Ziel"
(Search, whoever wants, for a different goal),
often sung for funerals,
to
his friend's melody
for a wedding song.
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Max Beckschäfer
(born 23 February 1952)
composed an organ version of
Max Reger's
Hebbel-Requiem
and played in the 1985 premiere
at the
Marktkirche, Wiesbaden
by a
choir formed for the occasion
conducted by
Gabriel Dessauer.
Gabriele Schnaut
(24 February 1951 – 19 June 2023)
recorded alto parts in
Bach cantatas in the 1970s,
and appeared as Waltraute and Second Norne
in the
Jahrhundertring film in 1980,
as
Isolde in 1985,
and as Widow Begbick
in Weill's
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in 2014.
Raymund Weber wrote
the penitential song
"
Zeige uns, Herr, deine Allmacht und Güte"
(Show us, Lord, your power and mercy)"
to be sung with a modern melody,
but it appears in
the German Catholic hymnal
with a
Baroque
cruciform melody.
The art of
Ruth-Margret Pütz
(26 February 1930 – 1 April 2019)
a leading
coloratura soprano of the 1960s,
was published in a 2018 Recital,
including excerpts as
Konstanze and
Zerbinetta.
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Russian Jewish painter
Marc Chagall
created the windows
of the church of
St Stephan in Mainz
as a sign of
Jewish-German reconciliation.
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Elisabeth Waterhouse
(born 28 February 1933)
founded the
National Chamber Music Course
summer school
in 1974
and has managed it since.
String Sextet (Waterhouse)
listen as she did on 5 November 2022
Gioachino Rossini
(born 29 February 1792)
scored the last of his "sins of old age",
the
Petite messe solennelle,
for twelve singers, two pianos, and
harmonium.
listen
When
Heather Phillips
made her European debut
in Rossini's
Bianca e Falliero,
her nuanced
coloraturas served
to portray Bianca's development.
Soprano
Rotraud Hansmann
(born 1 March 1940)
performed six roles in three Monteverdi operas
conducted by
Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
including Euridice in
L'Orfeo.
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Erna Berger sang the title role
of
The Bartered Bride by
Bedřich Smetana
(2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884)
in a 1955 recording with
Wilhelm Schüchter
and the
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
10 August 2010
Kurt Honolka's mid–20th century German translation
of Smetana's
Dalibor
was still being performed in 2019
in a new
Oper Frankfurt production.
5 January 2020
Gabriela Grillo
(19 August 1952 – 25 February 2024),
who won a gold medal in team
dressage
at the
1976 Summer Olympics in
Montreal,
later worked as a journalist,
managed the family business
and served the community voluntarily.
Benjamin Britten
composed many
viola parts for
Cecil Aronowitz,
(4 March 1916 – 7 September 1978)
a co-founder of the
Melos Ensemble.
The early
Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone
by
Francis Poulenc
was described as offering a
"variety of tone colors, striking rhythms,
delicious dissonances, and elegant wit".
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Dutch soprano
Jo Vincent
(6 March 1898 – 28 November 1989)
appeared in
Willem Mengelberg's 1939 recording
of Bach's
St Matthew Passion,
and, with
Kathleen Ferrier and
Peter Pears,
in the world premiere
of Britten's
Spring Symphony in 1949.
|
Hans-Karl von Kupsch
(7 March 1937 – 26 April 2020),
who was instrumental in the unification
of the
East and West German booksellers' associations,
ran a gallery of contemporary art together with his wife,
offering works by
Walter Stöhrer
and
Karlheinz Oswald.
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Catherine Rückwardt,
who was
Generalmusikdirektorin
at the
Staatstheater Mainz for a decade
and one of only four women in such a position in Germany,
conducted a recording of the First Symphony by
Hans Rott.
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When
Friedrich Spitta revised
"
Im Frieden dein, o Herre mein",
(In your peace, o my Lord)
a 1530 German Lutheran communion hymn
based on the biblical
Nunc dimittis,
he completely changed the meaning.
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German stage director
Tobias Kratzer
nominated two versions of
Verdi's
Rigoletto
(premiered 11 March 1851)
for an international competition,
pretending to be an American woman
in the first instance,
and a Bulgarian in the second.
10 May 2018
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Odile Pierre
(12 March 1932 – 29 February 2020),
who became interested in the organ
at a recital by
Marcel Dupré at the age of seven,
later served as the organist of
La Madeleine in Paris
and played around 2,000 recitals herself.
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Frank Beermann
(born 13 March 1965)
conducted the first recording
of
Bruno Maderna's Requiem,
the German premiere
of
Péter Eötvös's opera
Love and Other Demons
at the
Chemnitz Opera,
and
Der Ring in Minden.
Gioachino Rossini
scored the last of his
"sins of old age", the
Petite messe solennelle
(premiered 14 March 1864)
for twelve singers, two pianos,
and
harmonium.
Françoise Garner,
first a
coloratura soprano at the
Opéra-Comique,
brought French singing tradition to Europe,
portraying Gounod's
Marguerite at
La Scala
and his
Juliette at the
Verona Arena.
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Guy Touvron,
a French classical
trumpet player
for whom 25 concertos were composed,
wrote a biography
of his teacher
Maurice André
published in 2003.
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Arvo Pärt
composed the
motet
The Deer's Cry
on a commission from
Louth, Ireland,
setting the conclusion
of
Saint Patrick's Breastplate,
"Christ with me".
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Christa Wolf
(18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011)
wrote
Der geteilte Himmel
in a "quest for personal integrity
within a flawed system",
published in East Germany in 1963
and called a "socialist bestseller".
Requiem
by
Max Reger
(19 March 1873 – 11 May 1916)
is a musical setting
not of the Latin
Requiem,
but of a poem "Requiem"
written by the
dramatist
Friedrich Hebbel
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Aribert Reimann
composed
Medea
for a 2010 premiere
at the
Vienna State Opera,
based on the drama by
Franz Grillparzer.
Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen
(
lit. 'I will gladly carry the cross-staff'),
BWV 56,
a
church cantata composed
by
Johann Sebastian Bach
(born 21 March 1685)
is one of few works that
he referred to as a cantata.
Mezzo-soprano
Pamela Dellal,
who recorded music by
Hildegard von Bingen
and
Fanny Mendelssohn,
translated all texted works by
Bach.
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Wolfgang Fortner
composed the chamber opera
In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa
after Lorca
for the
Schlosstheater Schwetzingen,
where it opened the
Festival in 1962.
Cecelia Hall
has portrayed title roles,
of women such as
Dido,
La Cenerentola, and
María de Buenos Aires,
and of men including
Serse,
Ascanio in Alba and
Hänsel.
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Comet Hale-Bopp
inspired
Graham Waterhouse
to compose
Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp
for
string orchestra,
which ends with a
boy soprano singing
"
How Brightly Shines the Morning Star".
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1,
Bach's chorale cantata
on "
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern"
for the
Feast of the Annunciation,
was first performed on
Palm Sunday
in 1725.
When
Kelsey Lauritano
portrayed
Mozart's Cherubino in 2023,
a reviewer from the
FAZ noted her
"almost metallic-brittle approach that spreads androgynous infatuation".
As music director of the
Oper Hagen,
Florian Ludwig
promoted a wide repertoire that included
contemporary operas such as Barber's
Vanessa and crossover projects.
... sofferte onde serene ...
(serene waves suffered)
is a composition for piano and tape
written by
Luigi Nono
in collaboration with pianist
Maurizio Pollini
(pictured).
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In a motet for
Maundy Thursday
attributed to
Johann Kuhnau,
Tristis est anima mea,
Jesus says in
Gethsemane
"
Sad is my soul even unto death".
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... that on Good Friday 2020,
Benedikt Kristjánsson
sang all roles in a chamber arrangement of
Bach's
St John Passion,
composed for Good Friday 1724,
broadcast live from
the composer's burial place.
|
In his opera
Tri sestry
(Three Sisters),
composer
Péter Eötvös
wanted the three sisters from
Chekhov's play
to be sung by
countertenors.
For Easter 1724,
his first as
Thomaskantor in Leipzig,
Johann Sebastian Bach revived
Christ lag in Todes Banden,
(Christ lay in death's bonds)
BWV 4,
a
chorale cantata
he had composed in his twenties,
using in all seven movements
the words and tune
of Luther's 1524
Easter chorale.
|
The opening chorus of
Bach's cantata
for the
Second Day of Easter,
Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66,
first performed in 1724
has been termed
"one of the longest and
most exhilarating of Bach's early works".
25 April 2011
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At age 22,
Judith Hemmendinger
helped rehabilitate
nearly 100 child survivors
of the
Buchenwald concentration camp,
among them
Elie Wiesel.
Ladislav Burlas,
a musicologist at the
Slovak Academy of Sciences
for almost 40 years,
wrote more than 150 works during his career.
Karsten Januschke's
conducting of Offenbach's
Die Banditen
was described as producing
a "lean, dry, delicate" sound
with an ensemble of 22 soloists, including 11 tenors.
Tilmann Köhler
directed Mozart's
Le nozze di Figaro in 2023
as playful "serious games"
in which the women win by "wit, cleverness and presence of mind".
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Appalachian Spring,
a 1944
ballet by
choreographer
Martha Graham,
and composer
Aaron Copland,
follows Bride and Husbandman
in 19th-century Pennsylvania,
with themes of war present
throughout the story,
and the Shaker tune "
Simple Gifts".
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Bach created an "operatic scene"
in
his cantata
Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ, BWV 67
(Keep Jesus Christ in mind),
for the Sunday after Easter in 1724,
with Jesus serenely repeating
"Peace be with you"
against the raging of the enemies.
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Notker Wolf
OSB,
abbot of
St. Ottilien Archabbey in
Bavaria
and from 2000 to 2016
Abbot Primate of the international
Benedictine Confederation,
played and recorded
with the
rock band Feedback.
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After being denied the use
of
Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.,
contralto
Marian Anderson
gave an open-air concert
at the
Lincoln Memorial
on 9 April 1939.
Gerhard Lohfink
was professor of the
New Testament
at the
University of Tübingen until 1986
when he moved to a
Catholic Integrated Community,
following thoughts from his book
Jesus and Community. The Social Dimension of Christian faith.
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The Finnish concert organist and improvisor
Kalevi Kiviniemi,
the first to record the complete organ works by
Jean Sibelius,
recorded works from different eras
on organs of the world to match,
such as French organ music
on the
Cavaillé-Coll organ of the
Church of St. Ouen, Rouen.
listen
11 April 2024
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Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras,
und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen
wie des Grases Blumen.
Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen.
The first performance of Handel's celebrated oratorio
Messiah
took place in Dublin on 13 April 1742.
Part II contains the famous
Hallelujah Chorus
and the oratorio's longest movement, the
air for alto
He was despised.
Johann Sebastian Bach
set the theme of the
Good Shepherd
in his
cantata for the second Sunday after
Easter,
Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104,
as a
pastorale,
a trio of
oboes playing
triplets to
pedal points.
Michael Boder
conducted many world premieres of operas,
Reimann's
Medea at the
Vienna State Opera ,
Haas'
Morgen und Abend at the
Royal Opera House,
and operas by composers including
Friedrich Cerha,
Pascal Dusapin,
Hans Werner Henze,
Luca Lombardi,
Krzysztof Penderecki, and
Manfred Trojahn.
Dieter Rexroth,
responsible for the concert programs
of
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 1996,
shaped the festivals
Frankfurter Feste at the
Alte Oper and
Young Euro Classic.
The second of
Henry Purcell's two settings of
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts
was composed in an earlier style
for the funeral
of Queen
Mary II of England.
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Lorenzo Palomo,
conductor of the
Valencia Orchestra
and pianist of the
Deutsche Oper Berlin,
composed a song cycle Canciones españolas,
premiered by
Montserrat Caballé
at
Carnegie Hall in 1987.
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Diego Fasolis
(born 19 April 1958)
conducted
L'incoronazione di Poppea
at the reopened
Staatsoper Unter den Linden,
adding music by other composers
of
Monteverdi's time.
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John Eliot Gardiner
(born 20 April 1943)
conducted the
Bach Cantata Pilgrimage
and described
Bach
as the "best writer of dramatic declamation ...
since
Monteverdi"
for the dialogue
in
Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57.
listen
26 December 2010
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The first choral section
from the 1714
Bach cantata for
Jubilate Sunday,
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12
(Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing),
described as a "deeply affecting"
tombeau,
became the
Crucifixus of the
Mass in B minor.
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Kathleen Ferrier
CBE
(22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953),
an English
contralto singer
of international reputation,
chose to perform only two operatic roles on stage,
Britten's
Lucretia and Gluck's
Orfeo.
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Andrew Davis,
longtime chief conductor
of the
BBC Symphony Orchestra, among others,
brought
The Makropulos Case and
Lulu
to the
Glyndebourne Festival
and conducted Wagner's
Der Ring des Nibelungen
at the
Lyric Opera of Chicago.
interview
23 April 2024
Hebe deine Augen auf
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The opera
The Devil in Love
by
Alexander Vustin
(born 24 April 1943)
took 15 years to be completed
and 30 more years to be premiered,
debuting at the centenary of the
Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre.
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Felix Mendelssohn first composed the
motet
Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen
(For He shall give His angels charge)
for an eight-part choir,
and then included it with orchestra
in his oratorio
Elijah.
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Contralto
Marga Höffgen
(26 April 1921 – 7 July 1995),
known as a Bach singer for
Karajan
and as
Erda in
Bayreuth,
recorded Max Reger's
Requiem compositions.
Adalbert Kraus
(born 27 April 1937)
portrayed Tom in Henze's
Elegy for Young Lovers
at the
Staatsoper Hannover
and the tenor part of
Peter the Apostle
in Bach's
Easter Oratorio.
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In
Patrick Süskind's play
Der Kontrabaß,
the double bass in the title role
is a "constant handicap" to its player,
"humanly, socially, sexually, musically".
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Samuel Kummer
chose for his first recital
as the organist of
the restored
Frauenkirche in Dresden
music by
Bach,
Brahms,
Max Reger,
Louis Vierne and his own.
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Oksana Lyniv
founded the
Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
in 2016 and conducted them
in thirty concerts across ten music festivals
in 2022.
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The choir
Groningse Bachvereniging
sang Bach's
Magnificat
with Harnoncourts'
Concentus Musicus Wien
in the orchestra's first appearance
in the Netherlands in 1970.
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The
baritone
Johannes Hill
was the voice of Jesus and Pilate
in
Bach's Passions,
and of
Pope Francis in the premiere
of Peter Reulein's
Laudato si'.
Hans Stadlmair
(3 May 1929 – 13 February 2019),
conductor of the
Münchener Kammerorchester for almost four decades,
in 1971 premiered
Wilhelm Killmayer's Fin al punto,
of which the composer said,
"The calm already contains the catastrophe".
Bach's cantata for
Easter Monday,
Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6,
is based on the
Road to Emmaus narration
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A prize for contemporary art of
Styria
is named after
Viktor Fogarassy
(6 May 1911 – 24 March 1989),
the managing director of
a department store.
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Peter Demetz,
born in Prague in 1922,
persecuted under the Nazis,
escaped the Communist regime in 1949,
taught German literature at
Yale University
from 1956 to 1991,
and wrote the book
Prague in Black and Gold:
Scenes from the Life of a European City.
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"
Es tönen die Lieder",
a German
round
about greeting spring with songs,
first appeared in 1869
in a collection of works by
Adolf Spieß,
who developed a series of school-gymnastics steps to it.
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Bach's first
cantata
for the
Feast of the Ascension,
Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37,
omits the topic of the Ascension
and derives from the quoted Gospel (
Mark 16:16)
Lutheran thoughts.
A reviewer described the approach of
soprano
Magdalena Hinterdobler
to her role as Grete in Zemlinsky's
Der Traumgörge
(Görgr the Dreamer)
as "bold" and "sassy".
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The
late-Gothic church
St. Lamberti in
Hildesheim
was rebuilt after destruction in World War II,
but a southern annex was kept in ruins
as a memorial?
In
Bach's cantata
Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44
(They will banish you),
for
Exaudi Sunday,
the word "töten" (kill) is
"twice emphasized by a sudden, mysterious piano and
... chromatically tinged harmonies".
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Klaus Wallrath
(born 13 May 1959)
composed a
mass for peace
for the 2018
Katholikentag in
Münster,
performed to an audience of more than 30,000
by a choir, an orchestra, and a dance company.
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The dancer and
cabaret artist
Hedi Schoop
emigrated to California with her husband,
the composer
Friedrich Hollaender,
where she created and manufactured
California pottery.
|
The Franciscan
Helmut Schlegel
(born 15 May 1943)
wrote the lyrics of an
oratorio
Laudato si',
including writings
by
Francis of Assisi
and
Pope Francis,
and the
Magnificat.
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Gerhard Müller,
leading bishop of the
United Lutheran Church of Germany
and professor in
Erlangen and
Göttingen,
wrote a book about
Martin Luther's insights then and now.
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The performance of tenor
Julian Prégardien,
first trained
in Limburg,
as the
Evangelist in Bach's
St Matthew Passion
was noted by one reviewer
for its emphatic and penetrating
"profoundly human" nature.
watch
17 May 2024
Timon Altwegg
(born 18 May 1967)
and his wife Hana Gubenko
recorded a collection entitled
Sonata ebraica (Hebrew Sonata),
after the
Viola Sonata by
Graham Waterhouse.
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In his first
cantata for
Pentecost,
Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!
BWV 172,
first performed in 1714 in Weimar,
Johann Sebastian Bach
marked to repeat the opening chorus
after the final chorale.
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"
I will sing with the spirit"
was composed
by
John Rutter
for the
Royal School of Church Music.
Martin Krumbiegel
sang the tenor part in
Bach's cantata
Erschallet, ihr Lieder (Resound, ye songs)
and Bach's "Pipe Aria".
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Baritone
Liviu Holender
chose
lieder by five composers
whose music was banned by the Nazis
—
Schreker,
Zemlinsky,
Mahler,
Korngold and
Schönberg—
for a recital at the
Oper Frankfurt.
watch one
Verdi:
Messa da Requiem 22 May 1874
22 May 2024
The 1653 hymn
"
Jesu, meine Freude"
(Jesus, my joy)
by
Johann Franck and
Johann Crüger
mentions singing in defiance
of the "old dragon", death, and fear.
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Ethel Smyth,
whose opera
The Wreckers
was premiered in Leipzig in 1906
and revived at the
Glyndebourne Festival in 2022,
joined the
Women's Social and Political Union
in 1910, giving up music for two years.
Willi Brokmeier,
a tenor focused on operettas,
participated in the world premiere
of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's
Die Soldaten
at the
Cologne Opera
and appeared as Beethoven's
Jaquino on a tour to Japan.
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The
Lutheran
St. Trinitatis
in
Wolfenbüttel, consecrated in 1719,
is a
Baroque church
with a facade recalling that of
a palace.
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"
Ständchen"
(Serenade),
the setting of a poem by
A. F. v. Schack
by Richard Strauss,
begins with an appeal to creep out quietly
and ends with a climax of expecting
a rose to glow from the rapture of the night.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
used music of thanks
from
his cantata
Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29,
for his final
Dona nobis pacem
(Grant us peace).
watch
29 March 2015
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In the
Opernhaus Wuppertal production
of Stravinsky's
The Rite of Spring,
choreographed by
Pina Bausch,
the dancers performed on a stage covered with soil.
watch a bit
30 July 2013
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Samuel Kummer
chose for his first recital
as the organist of the restored
Frauenkirche in Dresden
music by
Bach,
Brahms,
Max Reger,
Louis Vierne, and himself.
Rolf-Ernst Breuer,
who spent almost his whole career at
Deutsche Bank,
as CEO from 1997 to 2002, is credited
with expanding the bank to international importance,
and later supported the
Goethe University Frankfurt.
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Ludwigsburg Palace,
the "Versailles of Swabia",
was home to four
of
Württemberg's rulers?
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According to
John Eliot Gardiner,
Bach was "fired up as never before"
when he began his
second cycle of chorale cantatas
with
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20
(O eternity, you word of thunder),
on the first Sunday after
Trinity
in 1724.
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Franz Kafka
(3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924)
wrote the 109
Zürau Aphorisms
at the estate
of his sister
Ottla and her husband in
Zürau
where he sought recovery from tuberculosis.
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During his tenure as director of the
Paris Opera,
Hugues Gall
added 60 ballets to the repertoire of the company
and world premieres of operas
by
Philippe Fénelon,
Philippe Manoury,
Pascal Dusapin and
Matthias Pintscher.
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Peter Demetz,
who taught German literature
at
Yale University
from 1956 to 1991,
was born in Prague
where he was persecuted under the Nazis
and escaped the Communist regime in 1949.
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Alexander Lang,
actor at
Deutsches Theater in
East Berlin from 1969,
was invited to direct plays by
Kleist,
Lessing and
Goethe
at the
Comédie-Française in Paris.
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Dimitri,
a
grand opera by
Victorin de Joncières,
based on Schiller's incomplete play
Demetrius
about the Russian
pretender
False Dmitriy I,
was first performed in Paris in 1776.
Martin Luther
created the Pentecost hymn
"
Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott"
by adding two stanzas
to an earlier German version of
"
Veni Sancte Spiritus",
keeping its melody.
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Mozart built the final scene
of his opera
Die Zauberflöte
"upon a solemn fugato"
around the chorale
"
Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein"
and Bach composed
a chorale cantata
for the Second Sunday after Trinity 1724
based on it.
Ernst Gutstein,
an Austrian operatic
baritone
whose signature role was Faninal in
Der Rosenkavalier,
created the role of Perlimplin
in Fortner's
In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa
at the 1962
Schwetzingen Festival.
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"
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort",
translated as
"Eternity! tremendous Word",
is a hymn by
Johann Rist
that served as the basis for
the first work in Bach's
chorale cantata cycle.
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"
Nun jauchzt dem Herren, alle Welt"
(Now rejoice to the Lord, all the world),
a 1646 paraphrase of
Psalm 100
by
David Denicke and
Justus Gesenius,
appears in current
Protestant and Catholic hymnals.
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Jürgen Moltmann,
professor of
systematic theology
at the
University of Tübingen,
was internationally known
for books such as
Theology of Hope,
The Crucified God
and God in Creation.
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Andreas Schager
was called a "sensation"
when he first performed Wagner's
Tristan
in
Minden, and went on
to
Siegfried at the
Staatsoper Berlin,
La Scala, and
The Proms.
The
oboist and composer
Rolf Riehm
(born 15 June 1937)
taught music theory
in Frankfurt from 1974 to 2000
and wrote an opera,
Sirenen, for a 2014 premiere at the
Oper Frankfurt.
In Bach's fourth
1724 chorale cantata,
Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder,
BWV 135,
for the third Sunday after
Trinity
based on a hymn by
Cyriakus Schneegass,
the first movement is a polyphonic
chorale fantasia
with the
bass as the
cantus firmus.
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Four Epigraphs after Escher
is a 1993
piano trio
by
Graham Waterhouse
for
viola,
heckelphone and piano
based on four graphic artworks by
M. C. Escher
(17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972)
including
Reptiles.
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In
Noye's Fludde,
a one-act opera by
Benjamin Britten.
based on a 15th-century
Chester "mystery" play
and premiered on 18 June 1968
only the roles of Noye (
Noah) and his wife
are intended to be sung by professionals,
the others by child and adolescent performers.
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Éric Tappy,
a member of the
Grand Théâtre de Genève,
has been regarded as legendary
for portraying Monteverdi's
Orfeo,
Tamino in Mozart's
Die Zauberflöte
and Debussy's
Pelléas
with a tenor voice of exemplary clarity and diction.
watch
19 June 2024
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The main work of sculptor
Fritz Koenig
(20 June 1924 – 22 February 2017)
is
The Sphere,
the world's largest bronze sculpture of modern times,
on the plaza beneath the two
World Trade towers,
and recovered largely intact from the ruins
after the
September 11 attacks.
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Ernst Pepping composed in 1937
in
Nazi Germany
the Evangelienmotette
Jesus und Nikodemus
on
John 3:1–15, showing
"the reality of a different, heavenly world".
listen
21 June 2015
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The 2024
Rheingau Musik Festival
opens at
Eberbach Abbey
with
Alain Altinoglu
conducting
Christian Tetzlaff
and the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony
in Dvořák's
Violin Concerto.
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John Rutter
wrote the text and music of
A Clare Benediction
for choir and orchestra
to honour
Clare College, Cambridge,
where he had studied.
In the third
chorale cantata,
Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7,
first performed
on
St. John's Day 1724,
based on
Luther's hymn
about the
baptism of Jesus,
Bach gave the
cantus firmus to the tenor.
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As stage director and scenic designer
of Puccini's
Turandot
for the 2024
Internationale Maifestspiele,
Daniela Kerck
crafted a new ending
to the music left unfinished in 1924
and Puccini's "
Requiem".
trailer
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The first solo album of
Jodie Devos,
second-prize winner of
the
Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2014
who appeared as Philine
in
Mignon by Ambroise Thomas
at the
Opéra Royal de Wallonie,
was Offenbach – Colorature.
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The favourite role of
Wilma Schmidt,
who performed at the
Staatsoper Hannover
for more than five decades
in German, Italian and Slavic operas,
was the Marschallin in
Der Rosenkavalier.
20 July 2022
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Richard Strauss
reportedly composed
"
Traum durch die Dämmerung"
("Dream in the Twilight"),
from a love poem
by
Otto Julius Bierbaum,
in 20 minutes.
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Margarita Voites,
from 1969 to 1990
coloratura soprano
at the
Estonia Theatre,
portrayed tragic characters
such as
Lucia di Lammermoor
and well as comic roles
like
La fille du régiment.
watch
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Paul Gerhardt's hymn
"
Du meine Seele singe"
(You my soul sing),
a paraphrase of
Psalm 146,
became known for a melody
beginning with a rocket motif.
Benjamin Britten wrote out the
Latin text for
Cantata academica,
commissioned by
Paul Sacher for the quincentenary of the
University of Basel
and premiered 1 July 1960,
in one of his old German
exercise books.
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The
Missa brevis in B-flat,
a
mass for mixed choir, trumpets, trombones,
tubular bells and organ
by
Christopher Tambling,
was premiered by 1,400 singers
at
St. Maria in Landau in 2014.
Rachel Yakar
(3 March 1936 – 24 June 2023),
a French
soprano based for decades at the
Deutsche Oper am Rhein,
appeared in the title role of Monteverdi's
L'incoronazione di Poppea
in the
Oper Zürich production and film
conducted by
Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Countertenor
Christopher Lowrey
took part in the world premiere of Brett Dean's
Hamlet
in
Glyndebourne in 2017,
and moved with the production to Australia
and the
Metropolitan Opera.
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Diana Tishchenko,
a violinist from Ukraine,
played Skoryk's
Melody
on a tour of the
Kyiv Symphony Orchestra to Germany
in April 2022.
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In 2016,
Edition Güntersberg
published
12 Fantasias for Viola da Gamba
by
Telemann
that had been lost.
Wolkentanz,
a leading
Hanoverian stallion at the
Celle State Stud,
sired 21 licensed stallions?
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The
Twelve Fantasias for Viola da Gamba solo,
published by the composer
Georg Philipp Telemann in 1735, were believed lost
but published again in 2016.
Leonore von Zadow-Reichling and Günter von Zadow
received the first biennial
Abel Prize of
Köthen
for their efforts to retrieve and publish
compositions by
Carl Friedrich Abel.
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The
a cappella
ensemble amarcord,
five former members of the
Thomanerchor,
won the
CARA award "Best classical album"
again in 2010,
for Rastlose Liebe (Restless Love).
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In
Bio's Bahnhof,
a German live music talk show
presented by
Alfred Biolek
(10 July 1934 – 23 July 2021)
in a former train depot,
Kate Bush made her first television appearance.
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Frank Beermann
conducted the first recording
of
Bruno Maderna's Requiem,
the German premiere
of Péter Eötvös's opera
Love and Other Demons
at the
Chemnitz Opera,
and Beethoven's
Fidelio in 2021.
Director
Frank Stähle
(12 July 1942 – 10 December 2015)
revived the choir and orchestra
of
Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium
and conducted them in
Mozart's Requiem
for the centenary of the
Lutherkirche
in Wiesbaden.
The string quintet Haven of Mysteries
by
Anthony Gilbert
(26 July 1934 – 5 July 2023),
who taught composition both
at the
Royal Northern College of Music and in Australia,
was premiered with the
Arditti Quartet in
Wigmore Hall in 2015.
Graham Clark
(10 November 1941 – 6 July 2023)
appeared at the
Bayreuth Festival in 16 seasons,
in 1988 as Loge and Mime in the
Ring cycle conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
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Violeta Hemsy de Gainza
(25 January 1929 – 7 July 2023),
president of the
Latin American Forum of Musical Education
from its foundation in 1995,
taught generations of students, and said:
"Learning music is a human right".
The title role of
Boris Blacher's last opera,
Yvonne, Prinzessin von Burgund,
is performed by a mute dancer.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
may have reused earlier music
for his
cantata
Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz,
BWV 136,
for the eighth Sunday after
Trinity
on 18 July 1723.
Martin Janus
wrote the original lyrics of "Jesu, meiner Seelen Wonne",
which Bach used in
Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147,
in a setting known as
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.
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When
Heide Simonis
(4 July 1943 – 12 July 2023),
minister of finance in
Schleswig-Holstein from 1988,
became
minister-president there,
she was the first woman to serve
as head of a state government in Germany.
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The walls of the
Kronberg Academy's
Casals Forum,
opened in 2022,
are curved and covered with wood in a manner
reminiscent of a string instrument.
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The
Empress Elisabeth Bridge ,
a 1855
chain bridge over the
Elbe
connecting
Tetschen
to the railroad to
Dresden,
was named in honor of the newly married
Elisabeth of Austria.
Valentin Gheorghiu
(21 March 1928 – 17 July 2023),
later pianist and composer,
won the prize for the best performance
of Enescu's
Violin Sonata No. 3
at the first
George Enescu International Competition
in 1958, with his brother
Ștefan as the violinist.
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Singers
Anne Sofie von Otter and
Christian Gerhaher
(born 24 July 1969)
recorded music written in
the
concentration camp of Terezín
by artists such as
Ilse Weber,
Hans Krása,
Pavel Haas and
Viktor Ullmann.
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After
Tenebrae
received the
Rheingau Musikpreis
during a concert at
Eberbach Abbey,
they performed Talbot's
Path of Miracles,
a 2005 one-hour work for choir
a cappella
inspired by the
Camino de Santiago.
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Romanian
musicologist
Cornel Țăranu
(20 June 1934 – 18 June 2023)
completed unfinished scores by
George Enescu
that Enescu did not wish to publish.
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In 1973
Luten Petrowsky
played the saxophone in a quartet
that made the first record
with jazz musicians from
both East and West Germany?
![]() |
Silvana Lattmann,
biologist, poet and author,
published the memoir
Nata il 1918
in 2019.
![]() |
Rhythm Is It!
is a 2004 documentary film
about 250 public school students
trained by
Royston Maldoom to dance
Stravinsky's
Le Sacre du printemps
with the
Berlin Philharmonic.
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Paul Gerhardt's song
of thanks and praise
"
Nun danket all und bringet Ehr"
was first published
along with 17 of his other hymns
in 1647,
during the
Thirty Years' War?
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A French team,
with
Patrice Chéreau and
Pierre Boulez,
created the
Jahrhundertring
of
Richard Wagner's
Ring cycle
at the centenary
Bayreuth Festival in 1976,
causing "a near-riot".
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Martin Walser's
Ein fliehendes Pferd
(Runaway Horse),
his most successful book with readers and critics,
was adapted for the screen
in 1986 by
Peter Beauvais,
and again in 2007 by
Rainer Kaufmann.
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Andris Nelsons conducted
Bartok's
Viola Concerto
and
Mahler's
Fifth Symphony
in the final concert with his
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
pictured:
Jonathon Heyward announcing on 3 March 2022
at the
Stadttheater Minden that the concert
(which included Stavinsky's
The Firebird)
was dedicated to
the victims of the Russian invasion into Ukraine
![]() |
Kaiser Wilhelm II
called the
Kurhaus in
Wiesbaden
"the most beautiful spa in the world"
at the opening ceremony.
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
![]() |
Felix Mendelssohn
first composed the
motet
Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen
(For He shall give His angels charge)
for an eight-part choir,
then included it with orchestra
in
Elijah.
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Nancy Van de Vate's opera
Quiet at the Western Front
was performed at the
New York City Opera.
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After the Ukrainian soprano
Olga Bezsmertna
(born 6 August 1983)
won the
Neue Stimmen competition in 2011,
she was engaged at the
Vienna State Opera.
![]() |
Igor Stravinsky
said of his cousin and first wife,
Yekaterina "Katya",
that they were
"closer than lovers sometimes are".
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Mariana Sîrbu,
who played first violin in a string quartet
that she founded as a student in Bucharest in 1967
and moved to Ireland,
was
concertmaster of
I Musici from 1993 to 2003.
The conductor of the
Leningrad premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7
on 9 August 1942 while the city was
under siege,
performed by the surviving musicians of the
Leningrad Radio Orchestra
supplemented with military performers, concluded:
"we triumphed over the soulless Nazi war machine".
Klesie Kelly,
soprano and academic voice teacher in Cologne,
recorded love songs for voices and instrumental soloists
with tenor
Ian Partridge.
Soprano
Heidi Grant Murphy,
who has given over 200 performances at the
Metropolitan Opera,
said that becoming a singer
"takes work on your psyche, your innermost being".
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The
Überwasserkirche,
a Gothic
hall church in
Münster,
was the location
of the second of three sermons held in 1941
by Bishop
Clemens August Graf von Galen
in defiance of the Nazi regime.
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The "extreme lightness and luminous agility" of
Michael McCown's voice
in the roles of
Britten's
Tempter and
Nebuchadnezzar
has been likened to that of
Peter Pears.
Countertenor
David Erler
was one of five singers invited by
amarcord
for the performance of Monteverdi's
Vespers
as the annual Marienvesper
of the
Rheingau Musik Festival in
Eberbach Abbey.
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After an absence of four years,
the
Inkpot Madonna,
holding a naked Baby Jesus with quill in hand,
returns to the
Hildesheim Cathedral today.
Countertenor
David Erler
was one of five singers invited by
amarcord
for the performance of Monteverdi's
Vespers
as the annual Marienvesper
of the
Rheingau Musik Festival in
Eberbach Abbey.
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Hans-Jochen Jaschke,
who was responsible
for
ecumenism and
inter-religious dialogue
as an
auxiliary bishop of Hamburg,
represented the
Catholic Church
in the media.
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Marie Lehmann,
one of the
Rhinemaidens
at the first
Bayreuth Festival
(13–17 August 1876),
sang the soprano solo
in Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony
for the groundbreaking
of the
Bayreuth Festival Theatre.
Soprano
Rosa Lamoreaux,
who recorded Bach's
Mass in B minor
with
The Bach Choir of Bethlehem and at the
Carmel Bach Festival,
won the 2009 Washington Area Music Award as classical vocal soloist.
Mahler: Second Symphony
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Vilde Frang
(born 19 August 1986)
played Sarasate's
Carmen Fantasy,
with
Mariss Jansons
conducting the
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra,
at age 13.
Mahler: Fourth Symphony
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Renata Scotto
made her opera debut as
La traviata in Milan,
portrayed
Madama Butterfly
for her debut at the
Met,
and was
Mimi
in the first
Live from the Met telecast
in 1977, alongside
Luciano Pavarotti.
Hans Stadlmair, conductor of the
Münchener Kammerorchester
for almost four decades, in 1971 premiered
Wilhelm Killmayer's Fin al punto,
of which the composer said,
"The calm already contains the catastrophe".
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Claude Debussy
(22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918)
described his
Cello Sonata,
composed within a few weeks
in July 1915 at a
Normandy seaside town,
in a letter to his publisher
Durand
as of "almost classical form".
Vera Nemirova
staged
Lulu at the
Salzburg Festival
and
The Ring for the
Oper Frankfurt.
Conductor
Roland Bader
(born 24 August 1938)
recorded late choral works by
Max Reger,
including his
Hebbel Requiem,
and the First Symphony by
Richard Wetz.
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Thomas Gabriel
(born 25 August 1957)
composed the Missa mundi
for the 2005
World Youth Day,
representing the continents
in style and instrumentation
with
pan flute,
sitar,
drums and
didgeridoo.
Soon after starting her career at the
Metropolitan Opera,
Gwendolyn Killebrew
(August 26, 1941 – December 24, 2021)
appeared as a valkyrie in Wagner's
Die Walküre
in a live broadcast
alongside
Birgit Nilsson in the title role.
Mahler: Ninth Symphony
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The First Symphony "Music on Open Strings"
by
Gloria Coates
was the first composition by a woman
in the Musica Viva series of
Bayerischer Rundfunk.
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Rehearsing
Dvořák's Eighth Symphony,
conductor
Rafael Kubelík said:
"Gentlemen,
in Bohemia
the trumpets never call to battle –
they always call to the dance!".
heard 2013
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When
Berit Lindholm
(18 October 1934 – 12 August 2023),
a
dramatic soprano of the
Royal Swedish Opera,
appeared as
Chrysothemis
at the
Royal Opera House,
a reviewer described her as
"tall, and remarkably slim for so epic a voice".
Berit Lindholm
performed as Wagner's
Isolde
at the
Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow
in a pioneering tour of the
Vienna State Opera
in 1971.
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Beethoven's
Third Cello Sonata,
first performed in 1809,
has been described
as the first sonata for piano and cello
to treat the instruments as equal partners.
16 December 2020
(quirky in the all-Beethoven set)
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Of thrice-married composer
Alma Mahler
(31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964)
Tom Lehrer crooned,
"Alma, tell us!
All modern women are jealous
Which of your magical wands
got you
Gustav and
Walter and
Franz".
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Le Vin herbé,
a 1942 composition by
Frank Martin
of the
Tristan and Iseult story
for twelve vocalists,
seven
strings and
piano,
was staged at the 1948
Salzburg Festival.
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The concert venues of the
Rheingau Musik Festival
have included
Eberbach Abbey
from the beginning,
where the final concert of 2023
is Bruckner's
Seventh Symphony
played by the
Gewandhausorchester
conducted by
Herbert Blomstedt
(born 1927).
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Giuseppe Verdi's
secular cantata
Inno delle nazioni,
his first collaboration with
Arrigo Boito,
contains three national anthems.
In her 2021 composition with string orchestra
This too shall pass
Raminta Šerkšnytė used
a
vibraphone for the flow of time,
a violin for the transience of humans,
and a "heavenly" cello.
When
Robert Hale
appeared as Wagner's
Wotan at the
Kennedy Center in 1989,
a reviewer noted that he captured "the spirit,
from tragic grandeur to ironic detachment,
from flooding tenderness to grim rage".
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Nerotalanlagen,
a park along a creek in
Wiesbaden,
was built in the late 19th century
to enhance the town's spa quality?
Milka Stojanović,
prima donna at the
National Theatre in Belgrade from 1960 to 1993,
performed the
Verdian repertoire worldwide,
including
Leonora,
Amelia and
Aida
at the
Metropolitan Opera.
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Concerts of the
Spannungen
festival of chamber music,
founded by pianist
Lars Vogt
(8 September 1970 – 5 September 2022)
in 1998, are played in a power plant.
The
dramatic soprano
Ute Vinzing
(born 9 September 1936)
made her debut at the
Metropolitan Opera as
Elektra,
and appeared as Brünnhilde in Wagner's
Ring cycle
in Seattle.
Dramatic soprano
Ursula Schröder-Feinen
appeared at the
Bayreuth Festival
as
Senta,
Brünnhilde,
Ortrud and,
with "intensity, ... freshness and spontaneity", as Kundry in
Parsifal.
Walter Arlen
(July 31, 1920 – September 2, 2023),
who escaped the Nazi regime in Vienna
for the United States in 1939,
enjoyed the first recording of his compositions, for voice and piano, at age 92.
Anatol Ugorski
(28 September 1942 – 5 September 2023),
who had played piano music by controversial Western composers
such as
Pierre Boulez in the Soviet Union,
made his first recording, of Beethoven's
Diabelli Variations, in 1991?
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The pianist
Clara Schumann,
(13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896)
who toured Europe for decades,
taught 68 students at
Dr. Hoch's,
including those from Britain and the U.S..
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Margherita Rinaldi
(12 January 1935 – 7 September 2023)
made her debut as Donizetti's
Lucia di Lammermoor in 1958,
prompting a career at
La Scala in Milan where she appeared
as Giulietta in Bellini's
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
alongside
Luciano Pavarotti.
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Soprano
Jessye Norman
(15 September 1945 – 30 September 2019),
whose voice was described
as a "grand mansion of sound",
performed at
U.S. presidential inaugurations
and sang
La Marseillaise
at the
French Revolution's bicentennial.
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Wolfgang J. Fuchs
(16 September 1945 – 20 January 2020),
an early German
comics scholar
who co-wrote a 1971 standard work on the topic,
translated
Garfield
and
Mom's Cancer.
The
tenor
Graham Clark
appeared at the
Bayreuth Festival in 16 seasons,
portraying the characters Loge and Mime
in the 1988
Ring cycle.
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Grischa Huber
(18 September 1944 – 6 April 2021)
played Grischa in
Under the Pavement Lies the Strand,
regarded as
"a cult film in the feminist movement".
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After the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
shared the
Nobel Peace Prize, contributing author
Raymond Arritt
(September 19, 1957 – November 14, 2018)
said, "It's kind of neat:
I have, like, .002 percent of a Nobel prize now".
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Georg Christoph Biller (r.)
(20 September 1955 – 27 January 2022)
was the
Thomaskantor,
the conductor of the Thomanerchor in Leipzig,
the 16th successor of
Johann Sebastian Bach
in this position.
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Elisabeth Rethberg
(22 September 1894 – 6 June 1976)
a
soprano
whose career began in Saxony,
became
Aida
at
La Scala in Milan,
conducted by
Toscanini.
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With the growth of the
Werl pilgrimage
to a statue of
Mary,
a large
Romanesque Revival basilica
was built adjacent to
the former
Baroque church (pictured).
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For the morning song
"
Die güldne Sonne
voll Freud und Wonne",
the poet found a new
metre,
and
the composer a new melody,
to reflect the many meanings of "rising".
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Stephen Gould,
an American
heldentenor,
performed around 100 times at the
Bayreuth Festival,
especially as
Tannhäuser,
Siegfried, and
Tristan,
all three even in one year in 2022.
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A
loop from the anthem
O clap your hands,
a setting of verses from
Psalm 47
by
Ralph Vaughan Williams
for choir, brass, organ and percussion,
was used by the Beatles for "
Revolution 9".
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Kloster Gnadenthal
(buildings pictured)
was a
Cistercian nunnery from 1235,
a Protestant women's
Stift from 1564,
and became an ecumenical community
in 1969.
François Glorieux
(27 August 1932 – 22 September 2023)
was a Belgian pianist and improvisor, touring with
André Cluytens,
conductor of the
BBC Radio Orchestra, the
Stan Kenton band,
and four ensembles that he founded,
composer, and arranger for
Michael Jackson.
The Company of Heaven,
about angels, composed by
Benjamin Britten
for speakers, soloists, choir and orchestra,
and first aired by the
BBC on
Michaelmas,
29 September 1937,
contains "metrical spoken (shouted) male chorus".
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The
Kreuzkapelle
above
Bad Camberg,
a pilgrimage chapel
dedicated to the
Holy Cross,
has a floor plan of a
Greek cross.
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"
Wir pflügen und wir streuen"
('We plow and sow'),
with words by
Matthias Claudius,
began as a song of a fictional harvest festival,
and is now a Protestant hymn
for
Erntedankfest.
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Dona nobis pacem
is a
cantata by
Ralph Vaughan Williams,
first performed on 2 October 1936,
a plea for peace with texts taken
from the
Mass, poems by
Walt Whitman,
a political speech, and sections of the Bible.
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Haydn's oratorio
The Creation
is
structured in three parts,
the first two about
the
creation as narrated in Genesis,
and the third about
Adam and Eve in
Paradise.
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Swiss composer
Hermann Suter's
symphonic
oratorio
Le Laudi
(The Praises)
is a setting of
St. Francis of Assisi's
Italian
Canticle of the Sun
for choir, soloists,
voci di ragazzi,
organ and orchestra.
Tenor
Daniel Behle
had a single day to learn rarely performed
romantic duets
when he stepped in at short notice
for a 2018
Rheingau Musik Festival concert with
Annette Dasch.
Claus Wisser
founded the services company Wisag,
and co-founded the
Rheingau Musik Festival
which staged a concert of Orff's
Carmina Burana for his 60th birthday.
Russell Sherman, a classical pianist
who taught at the
New England Conservatory for more than half a century,
wrote about music by
Franz Liszt:
"The poetic idea is central, and the virtuoso elements
become so many layers to orchestrate the poetic content".
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Tabea Zimmermann
(born 8 October 1966)
prepared her own version of Bartók's
Viola Concerto
from the composer's sketches,
and played it at the
Casals Forum,
with the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony
conducted by
Christoph Eschenbach.
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Alain Altinoglu
(born 9 October 1975)
conducted the opening concert of the
2023
Rheingau Musik Festival
at
Eberbach Abbey,
featuring Poulenc's
Stabat Mater
with the
MDR Rundfunkchor
and the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony.
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The
baritone
Björn Bürger
(born 10 October 1985),
who won the
Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin in 2012,
performed the title role
in Arnulf Herrmann's
Der Mieter
in its 2017 world premiere
at the
Oper Frankfurt.
Jacqueline Dark,
a
mezzo-soprano with
Opera Australia for a while,
won awards for portraying Mozart's
Donna Elvira and Strauss's
Herodias,
and toured Australia and New Zealand
as Mother Abbess in
The Sound of Music,
with "a stunning rendition of '
Climb Ev'ry Mountain'".
Reiner Goldberg,
a
heldentenor who performed
Wagner-roles worldwide,
was a member of the
Berlin State Opera from 1972,
appeared as Aron in the iconic production
of Schoenberg's
Moses und Aron
of the
Dresden State Opera in 1975,
and sang
Parsifal in the
1982 Syberberg film
"with a youthful radiance
that is precisely that of the chaste madman".
Maurice Bourgue.
principal oboist with the
Orchestre de Paris from its foundation in 1967,
and professor of
chamber music at the
Conservatoire de Paris,
played in world premieres such as Les Citations by
Henri Dutilleux,
and Poulenc's
Oboe Sonata with friends.
When
Robert Hale
performed as
Wagner's Wotan in Washington,
a reviewer noted that he commanded
"the spirit, from tragic grandeur to ironic detachment,
from flooding tenderness to grim rage".
Jorge Lavelli
introduced the French audience to the Polish playwright
Witold Gombrowicz,
directing his
The Marriage in 1963 for a competition,
and his 1975 staging of Gounod's
Faust for the
Paris Opera,
set during World War I, was played until 2003.
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"
Glauben können wie du"
(Believing like you),
a hymn by
Helmut Schlegel,
is addressed to
Mary,
and relates to her exemplary
faith, hope and love.
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Tenor
Thomas Mohr,
who sang the roles
of Loge, Siegmund, and Siegfried
in
Der Ring in Minden,
and Florestan in
Fidelio in Hamm,
hosts concerts in his cowshed?
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Walls and the ceiling of the
Unionskirche
(Union Church)
in
Idstein are covered
with 38 oil paintings
from the
Dutch Golden Age school
of
Rubens.
To include the popular
Marian hymn
"
Maria zu lieben, ist allzeit mein Sinn"
(To love Mary is always on my mind)
in
the first common Catholic hymnal in German,
Friedrich Dörr retained only its first line.
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In 2023,
a sculpture garden in
Praunheim
displayed abstract works by
Hans Steinbrenner
from different periods of his life,
and corresponding works
by his friends and students.
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"'"
("Call it causelessly merry")
was one of about 40 poems
by
Mascha Kaléko
set to music on a 2011 album.
"Ich freu mich, daß am Himmel Wolken ziehen"
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The opening chorus
of
Bach's cantata
Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 180,
has been regarded as
"perfectly tailored to the idea of the soul
dressing itself up in all its wedding finery".
Hatto Beyerle,
the founding violist of the
Alban Berg Quartet,
taught
chamber music in
Vienna,
Hannover and
Basel,
and initiated and directed the
European Chamber Music Academy in 2004.
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Carmen Petra Basacopol
a musicologist who taught
at the
National University of Music Bucharest
between 1962 and 2003,
and at the Rabat Conservatoire,
composed operas for children
and chamber music for flute and harp.
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Elsa Reger
(25 October 1870 – 3 May 1951),
who had first rejected
Max Reger's courting,
titled her autobiography
Mein Leben mit und für Max Reger
(My life with and for Max Reger).
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Pianist
Miku Nishimoto-Neubert,
a prize winner
of the
Leipzig Bach Competition,
has been described as
"moving between capricious high spirits
and a meditative inwardness"
Alkan: Cello Sonata
Michael Schneider
conducted an oratorio by
Alessandro Stradella,
performed by students and teachers of the
Frankfurt University of Music
at
Eberbach Abbey for the
Rheingau Musik Festival.
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Isabelle Cals,
who turned to singing after a degree in Chinese,
appeared as Wagner's Kundry
in a production of
Parsifal
at the
Stadttheater Minden
In
Der Ring in Minden,
the orchestra played at the back of the stage,
and the singers all turned towards it
to listen to the music
at the end.
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Percy Grainger,
who left Australia at the age of 13
to attend
Hoch's Conservatorium,
played a prominent role in the revival
of interest in British folk music
in the course of a long and innovative career.
István Láng,
an Hungarian composer,
teacher of
chamber music at the
Franz Liszt Academy of Music
and member of the bord of
ISCM,
wrote theatrical music even in concert pieces.
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John Eliot Gardiner performed
Bach's cantatas for
Reformation Day
in the
Schloßkirche, Wittenberg,
including
Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79.
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Herr, unser Herr, wie bist du zugegen,
a "song of God's presence"
written in 1965 in Dutch
by
Huub Oosterhuis
(1 November 1933 – 9 April 2023),
became part of
the first
common German Catholic hymnal,
and was retained in
the second
by popular demand.
After signing the
Camp David Accords in 1978,
Prime Minister
Menachem Begin ended a speech
with a desire to sing the peace song
"
Hevenu shalom aleichem"
with the people of Israel.
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Zdeněk Mácal,
a promising Czech conductor,
left his home country in 1968
and was chief conductor of orchestras
in Germany, Australia and the United States,
returning to Prague to lead
the
Czech Philharmonic from 2003.
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Jesu, meine Freude
(Jesus, my joy),
a
motet by Bach,
has a complex symmetrical structure
in which six
hymn stanzas
alternate with five
Bible verses.
The hymn
"
Jesu, meine Freude"
by
Johann Franck and
Johann Crüger
mentions singing in defiance
of the "old dragon", death, and fear.
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On 6 November 2016
Peter Reulein conducted
the premiere of his oratorio
Laudato si',
described as a Franciscan
Magnificat,
with more than 250 performers
at the
Limburg Cathedral.
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Bach composed four dialogues
for his
cantata
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60,
first performed 7 November 1723,
three between Fear and Hope,
and one between Fear and the
Voice of Christ.
Eric Sams remarked
"what bride ever had a finer wedding gift?"
of the song collection
Myrthen (Myrtles),
which
Robert Schumann dedicated to
Clara.
Astrid Schirmer
(born 8 November 1942)
appeared in roles by Richard Wagner,
both Venus and Elisabeth in his
Tannhäuser,
and in the Bayreuth
Jahrhundertring as both Ortlinde and Sieglinde.
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In the fairy-tale opera
Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin
by
Udo Zimmermann,
two orchestras play on stage,
representing two empires in conflict.
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The first stanza of the
hymn
"
Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist",
asking the
Holy Spirit
for the right faith most of all,
is documented in German
in the 13th century,
and the later three,
by
Martin Luther
(10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546),
relate to
faith, love and hope.
|
11 November - St. Martin's Day
Two
conductors
shared performances
of Verdi's
Messa da Requiem
in
St. Martin, Idstein.
Mozart: Lacrymosa
Harald Heckmann
(6 December 1924 – 5 November 2023),
a German
musicologist focused on source documentation,
established the German Archive for the History of Music
and promoted international exchange in leading positions
of
Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM)
and many other organisations.
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"
Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held"
(Follow me, says Christ, our hero)
is a
Christian hymn in German
with a text by
Angelus Silesius
that uses sayings of
Jesus in
direct speech.
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In 2016,
Edition Güntersberg
published
Twelve Fantasias for Viola da Gamba solo
by
Georg Philipp Telemann
that had been lost.
Leonore von Zadow-Reichling and Günter von Zadow (r.)
received the first biennial
Abel Prize of
Köthen
for their efforts to retrieve and publish
compositions by
Carl Friedrich Abel.
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Kurdish civil engineer and politician
Hevrin Khalaf
(15 November 1984 – 12 October 2019) ,
who worked for tolerance
among Christians, Arabs, and Kurds,
was killed in the
2019 Turkish offensive into Syria.
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The 1964 church
for the new parish
Zu den heiligen Engeln
(To the Holy Angels)
in
Hannover
was designed by
Josef Bieling
to symbolize the
tent of God among men.
Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist
Nun danket all und bringet Ehr
Soprano
Rachel Yakar,
who received international attention in 1977
as
Poppea with
Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
was also described as an "ideal"
Mélisande
and "a Mozartian at heart and in style".
|
Andris Nelsons
(born 18 November 1978)
conducted
Bartok's
Viola Concerto
and Mahler's
Fifth Symphony
in the final concert with his
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
In 2008
Naji Hakim composed
variations for
oboe and
organ
on Philipp Nicolai's
chorale
"
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern",
published in 1599.
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Claude Kahn
(9 November 1935 – 17 November 2023),
who won the
Franz Liszt Competition at age 15,
founded and directed
a piano competition in his name in 1970,
and the conservatoire of
Antibes in 1971.
|
Two
conductors
shared performances
of Verdi's
Messa da Requiem
in
St. Martin, Idstein.
Palmeri:
Misatango
Reulein:
Te Deum
look and listen to us
Benjamin Britten
(22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976),
composed
Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his
for the tenor voice of
Peter Pears,
using poetry from
A Divine Rapture by
Francis Quarles.
|
Thanksgiving
Lea Ackermann,
a German nun of the
Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa,
fought against
forced prostitution and
sex tourism
in East Africa.
Colette Maze,
the last pianist who studied with
Alfred Cortot,
recorded music by
Claude Debussy,
who was still alive when she was born in 1914,
in 2023.
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Burgenland Croat sculptor
Thomas Resetarits
(25 November 1939 – 18 May 2022)
created
Stations of the Cross.
Director
Frank Stähle revived
the choir and orchestra of
Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium
and conducted them in
Mozart's Requiem
for the centenary of the
Lutherkirche in Wiesbaden.
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Jerome Kohl
(November 27, 1946 – August 4, 2020),
a music theorist of the
University of Washington,
was recognized internationally
as an authority on the composer
Karlheinz Stockhausen,
publishing a book on his
Zeitmaße in 2017.
François Glorieux
was a Belgian pianist and improvisor,
conductor of the
BBC Radio Orchestra and
Stan Kenton's band,
and arranger for
Michael Jackson.
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Contralto
Sonia Prina
(born 30 November 1975)
performed the title role
of Antonio Vivaldi's 1727 opera
Orlando furioso
at the
Oper Frankfurt,
staged as a
rocker.
American lyric tenor
Douglas Ahlstedt,
who appeared as a child as Miles
in the U.S. premiere of Britten's
The Turn of the Screw,
performed at the
Met 191 times,
before and after he was a member
of the
Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
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Bernard Ładysz,
a
bass-baritone who performed in world premieres
of
Krzysztof Penderecki's music
in Hamburg and
in Salzburg,
was the only Polish singer to appear with
Maria Callas
(2 December 1923 – 16 September 1977).
Andréa Guiot appeared internationally
in French
soprano roles
such as
Mireille,
Marguerite,
Manon,
and Micaëla in Bizet's
Carmen,
which she recorded alongside
Maria Callas
in the title role.
The
Advent song
"
Macht hoch die Tür"
(Fling wide the door),
with text by
Georg Weissel written for the inauguration of
the church
where he would be ordained pastor a week later,
is number 1 in the
German Protestant hymnal.
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Conductor Dessauer and composer Mawby (r.), 2012 |
Gabriel Dessauer
(born 4 December 1955)
conducted the premiere of Reger's
Hebbel Requiem
in the organ version of
Max Beckschäfer
with
a project choir at the
Marktkirche in Wiesbaden.
The prolific composer and
Westminster Cathedral conductor
Colin Mawby
said, "I cannot write choral music unless I work with choirs ...
I have to write for particular people".
Christof Loy
(born 5 December 1962)
received the 2008
Der Faust award as best opera director
for staging Mozart's
Così fan tutte at the
Oper Frankfurt?
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Wilhelm II,
German Emperor,
called the
Kurhaus in Wiesbaden
"the most beautiful spa in the world"
at the opening ceremony.
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Ignace Michiels
(born 7 December 1963)
of the
St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges
has been the
organist
for the German-Flemish
Reger-Chor
in works such as Reger's
Requiem.
Reger: Der 100. Psalm
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Max Reger
composed "in new simplicity"
Unser lieben Frauen Traum,
a
motet suitable for
Advent,
about a dream of
Mary
of a tree growing in her.
Medea Amiranashvili,
a Georgian operatic
soprano and academic teacher,
portrayed characters such as
Revaz Lagidze's Lela,
Verdi's Leonora in
Il trovatore and Puccini's
Madama Butterfly,
with "fierce inner expression".
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In 1973
Luten Petrowsky
(10 December 1933 – 10 July 2023)
played the saxophone in a quartet
that made the first record
with jazz musicians
from both East and West Germany.
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The lawyer
Wolfgang Wieland,
a co-founder of the Berlin
Greens
and their speaker in the city parliament,
represented the joint plaintiff
in the
Mykonos restaurant assassinations.
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The
Advent hymn
"
O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf"
(O Saviour, tear open the heavens)
was written against a backdrop
of the
Thirty Years' War, the
plague,
and
witch trials.
Rabbi
Michael Robinson
(December 13, 1924 – July 20, 2006)
and 15 other
Reform rabbis
were arrested and jailed after answering Martin Luther King's
call to stand with him for civil rights in St. Augustine, Florida.
Wolfgang Rennert
conducted the world premieres
of Louise Talma's
Die Alkestiade at the
Oper Frankfurt
and
Rainer Kunad's Sabellicus at the
Staatsoper Berlin.
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Erna Berger sang the title role
of Smetana's
The Bartered Bride
in a 1955 recording with
Wilhelm Schüchter
(15 December 1911 – 27 May 1974)
and the
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
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Prince Nikolaus Esterházy,
who commissioned
Beethoven's
Mass in C major
for his wife's
name day,
found it "unbearably ridiculous and detestable".
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In 2018
Lydia Steier,
born in
Hartford, Connecticut,
became the first woman
to stage Mozart's
Die Zauberflöte
at the
Salzburg Festival.
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Martin Luther's hymn
"
Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin",
a reflection of the
canticle of Simeon,
is the base of funeral music
by Schütz, Buxtehude and Bach.
"
Mit Ernst, o Menschenkinder",
a 1642
Advent hymn,
includes a call to penitence
that
John the Baptist took
from the prophet
Isaiah.
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The German
Advent song
"
Tochter Zion, freue dich"
has words by
Friedrich Heinrich Ranke
set to music used
for triumphant entrances
in two of
Handel's
oratorios.
Soprano
Nadine Secunde
(born 21 December 1953)
was praised for "formidable acting skills"
in the title role of Dmitri Shostakovich's
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
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Der neue
Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel
wurde 2023 in Köthen vorgestellt,
wo der Gambist
vor 300 Jahren geboren wurde.
The new
Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel
(AbelWV)
was introduced in
Köthen,
where the
viol virtuoso was born
on 22 December 1723.
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Gunther Emmerlich,
bass singer and television presenter,
appeared as Kuno
in the performance of Weber's
Der Freischütz
to open the restored
Semperoper.
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On Christmas Eve in 1818,
the Christmas carol
"Stille Nacht"
("
Silent Night")
was first performed in the
Nikolauskirche
in
Oberndorf, Austria.
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"
Verbum caro factum est",
a Christmas
motet for six voices
by
Hans Leo Hassler
in the
Venetian polychoral style,
has been arranged
for
brass ensembles.
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Bach's cantata for the second day of Christmas,
Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes
("For this the Son of God appeared"),
BWV 40,
is his first
Christmas cantata
composed for Leipzig.
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Bach has
a choir of
trombones double
the choir in
his cantata
Sehet, welch eine Liebe hat uns der Vater erzeiget, BWV 64,
for the
Third Day of Christmas,
dedicated to
John the Evangelist
and first performed on 27 December 1723.
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Diethard Hellmann
(28 December 1928 – 14 October 1999),
the director of church music at the
Christuskirche in Mainz,
reconstructed the music
of the lost
Bach cantata for the Third Sunday in
Advent,
Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht, BWV 186a.
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Rebekka Habermas,
a German historian
at the
University of Göttingen,
who also taught
in Paris, Montreal and New York,
focused on people
in the social and cultural conditions
of 19th-century Germany.
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Heike Matthiesen
recorded a 2016 album
Guitar Ladies
of compositions for guitar solo by women
including Sidney Pratten (1821–1895),
María Luisa Anido,
Ida Presti,
Sofia Gubaidulina,
Sylvie Bodorová,
Annette Kruisbrink, and
Maria Linnemann
who had dedicated her work to the player.
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A German theologian wrote
"
Vertraut den neuen Wegen"
(Trust the new ways)
to the melody of
Lob Gott getrost mit Singen
(Praise God confidently with singing)
to be sung at a wedding in
Eisenach
shortly before the
fall of the Wall.
7 April 2021