A good 100 visitors experienced in the Pfarrkirche St. Josef in memmingen an excellent choral music concert. As part of a tour were those of Domkapellmeister Professor Boris Böhmann conducted Domsingknaben Freiburg in Breisgau to guest. They are among the most renowned boys’ choirs of Germany. The next day they made a guest appearance in Boos in the Pfarrkirche St. Martin.
This is how the concert in Memmingen started
Striding from the main entrance through the central aisle to the sanctuary, the ensemble of boys’ and men’s voices sang the Gregorian chant “Quasi modo geniti infantes” (“Like newborn children”) in unison.
After the large choir had taken up position in three blocks, the “Missa Papae Marcelli” from Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus, the most famous mass of the Renaissance composer, was heard John Pierluigi of Palestrina (1525 to 94). Her name goes to Pope Marcellus II. back, who served as Pope for only three weeks in 1555. It is one of the most famous mass settings ever. She is reputed to have helped save church music in the 16th century.
The Domsingknaben appear in six voices
Carried by the strong acoustics of the spacious and towering nave, the cathedral choir boys and men celebrated a highly impressive polyphonic, six-part body of sound that penetrated deep under the skin. At the end, the Kyrie faded away extremely slowly down to the quietest but crystal-clear pianissimo. After the gloriously intoned Gloria, the Sanctus impressed with its powerful, surging, powerful fortissimi.
The evening song “Stay with us, because it wants to be evening, and the day has come” (Luke 24, 29) from 1855, taken from his “Drei Geistliche Gesänge”, is considered the most popular work by the Vaduz-born Liechtensteiner Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. Also performed in six parts, this highly romantic sacred song with the tempo marking Andante molto was deeply touching, haunting and comforting.
Dean’s cantor Maximilian Pöllner is also there
The prayer with the honorary title for Mary “Queen Coeli’ (Queen of Heaven) was in the setting of Gregory Aichinger (1564 to 1628) heard. After the pieces sung a cappella in the sanctuary, we went up to the Jann organ, to the instrumental accompaniment of the improvising choir director and Dean’s cantor Maximilian Pöllner „Here I am, Lord“von Malcolm Archer (*1952) and by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852 to 1924) “Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem”. As an encore, they proved that the young Freiburg choristers also know how to shine in a completely different way with a cheerful, springtime Baden folk song.
