Status: 18.09.2024 10:33 a.m.
The RIAS Chamber Choir and the Academy of Early Music Berlin will open the HarzClassixFestival on Friday with a varied Bruckner program in Clausthal in the Marktkirche zum Heiligen Geist.
The opening concert of the HarzClassixFestival “For the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner” on September 20th will be followed by a “Festival for the new organ” in the Marktkirche on September 27th. Finally, on November 23rd, HarzClassix will offer a “Festival for Mozart” with Sabine Meyer, Reiner Wehle and the Goldmund Quartet in the Pulverhaus.
Opening concert celebrates Anton Bruckner
The Orchestra Academy for Early Music performs baroque and classical music in style and is one of the most renowned orchestras for early music in the world.
In the first part of the large celebratory concert for the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner, the RIAS Chamber Choir and the Academy of Early Music Berlin will present shorter vocal and instrumental works. The rarely played Overture in G minor shows the young Bruckner at the beginning of his development, influenced by Richard Wagner and yet already clearly anticipating his later symphonic works.
The “Ave Maria” is also an early piece, which the RIAS Chamber Choir contrasts with the later motet “Christus factus est” – how did Bruckner develop, what was already present early on, what is added in later works? You can experience all of this here.
Mass No.1 in D minor important for composer and cathedral organist Anton Bruckner
“The music captivated me so much that I couldn’t pray while it was playing!” is how the Bishop of Linz, Franz Joseph Rudigier, is said to have reacted to the premiere of Anton Bruckner’s first mass. Bruckner had a hard time with his later symphonies, but not with his early masses – the first one in D minor was a great success and was often touted as his first masterpiece.
Bruckner, cathedral organist in Linz at the time of composition, expanded the Austrian tradition of setting masses. He developed the genre further after the Haydn brothers, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. In doing so, he was influenced by Beethoven and Schubert, but also by Richard Wagner. Bruckner himself described his Mass No. 1 in D minor as “very serious and very free”. How important this mass was to Bruckner can be seen from the fact that he used a motif from the Gloria in his Symphony No. 9.
On September 20th, Johanna Winkel, soprano, Catriona Morison, mezzo-soprano, Martin Mitterrutzner, tenor and Arttu Kataja, baritone, will be part of the concert. The conductor will be Lukasz Borowicz, chief conductor of the Poznan Philharmonic and first guest conductor of the Kraków Philharmonic.
Historic baroque organ unfolds new sound splendor
Music from the Renaissance to the present day can be played on the organ in the Market Church in Clausthal.
The Market Church of the Holy Spirit is the largest wooden church in Germany and a fantastic example of North German Baroque. It was built in 1642, expanded in 1691 and extensively renovated in recent years. It has special acoustics and an organ that has only recently been available in its new splendor.
The Goll organ workshop has preserved the best of Eggert’s original organ from 1759. Behind the spectacular baroque front lies an instrument based on the baroque organ, but with a romantic swell organ added so that both baroque and romantic music can be played. Sebastian Heindl, the organist of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, will introduce the organ solo at the opening concert in two improvisations on works from the program.
The originality of the instrument will also be on display at the “Festival for the New Organ” on September 27th, when organist Marius Herb will lead a varied program from Bach to the Comedian Harmonists with an ensemble of soloists from the Augsburg Cathedral Choir. The Goll organ, this large “baroque organ” with a romantic extension, can be used for a wide variety of repertoire: solo or accompanying, with choir and orchestra.
A festival with its own program for young people
Since its founding in 2013, the HarzClassixFestival has seen itself as a festival for everyone. It offers discussions and its own projects for young people around the concerts. In 2023, some schoolchildren attended a rehearsal at the NDR in Hanover at the NDR Radiophilharmonie. This year, schoolchildren can get to know the organ in the Marktkirche better at a concert in the morning.
More information
116 Min
For the festival’s tenth anniversary, the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra traveled there with the Maisky Family and Albrecht Mayer. (13.11.2023) 116 min
HarzClassixFestival 2024: RIAS Chamber Choir celebrates Bruckner
The RIAS Chamber Choir and the Academy of Early Music Berlin will open the festival on Friday. The renovated organ will also be celebrated.
Date: 20.09.2024, 20:00 hrs End: 23.11.2024 Location: Market Church of the Holy Spirit Clausthal
At the Market Church 4
38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld Add to my calendar
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NDR Kultur | The morning | 17.09.2024 | 11:40 a.m.
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