The focus is on the Speyer premiere of “Sonnengesanges” (The Canticle of St. Francis of Assisi) by the Swiss composer Hermann Suter. The famous “Moldau” by Bedrich Smetana is played as an introduction. As a big innovation, the concert will be accompanied by light illumination by Jürgen Schütze and Lukas Vondung.
Suter’s rich, romantic song of praise was premiered 100 years ago, in 1924 in Basel. In addition to a large symphony orchestra with large percussion, Suter calls for an organ (played by Wolfgang Heilmann) and a large children’s choir. Many people are familiar with the text of St. Francis from the children’s church hit “Laudato si, o mio signore”, the text leads from the praise of creation through the elements of divine creation. Hermann Suter knows how to appropriately set every element to music in his music; the text leads from the praise of creation through the elements of divine creation: sun, moon, stars, air, water, fire and earth to the praise of love and suffering up to death . Hermann Suter knows how to appropriately set every element in his music to music, with fabulous, cinematic instrumentation; his musical language is fed, on the one hand, by the Protestant severity of Johannes Brahms, and on the other hand by the Catholic, sensual operatic language of Giuseppe Verdi.
Remembering Eisenmann
Vocal soloists are the soprano Carina Schmieger, the alto Simone Pepping, the tenor Matthias Koziorowski and the baritone Thomas Herberich from Neustadt. Since then, Speyerer Kantorei and the choir have been rehearsing at the Memorial Church with great joy in the “Elements”. The children’s choirs also rehearse with great precision; the youngest member is only in second grade. For conductor church music director Robert Sattelberger, the concert fulfills a long-held wish, namely to make this work, which is relatively unknown in Germany, known to the public. For the orchestra and Sattelberger, the concert is a memorial to Klaus Eisenmann from Neulußheim, who died in October, Sattelberger’s teacher and long-time leader of the Cantatas Orchestra at the Zwingenberg Castle Festival.
Info
Tickets at the Tourist Information, at the RHEINPFALZ ticket service, at Capella-Verlag and via reservix.de. Box office from 4 p.m.
The work
The oratorio “Le Laudi di San Francesco d”Assisi” is the (late) work with which the Swiss composer Hermann Suter joined the ranks of the most important artistic personalities in his homeland.
Suter, born in 1870, studied at the conservatories in Zurich, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Basel – his teachers Jacob Burkhardt and Hans Huber were particularly influential – and then initially worked as an organist and choir director in Zurich. From 1902 he conducted the symphony concerts of the General Music Society, the Liedertafel and the Choral Society in Basel, all honorable artistic institutions.
The University of Basel awarded Suter an honorary doctorate in 1913 and in 1918 he was entrusted with the management of the local conservatory. A symphony, three string quartets, other chamber music, songs and an organ sonata had been created by then. Without implying epigonal traits, stylistic reminiscences of Brahms are unmistakable.
“Le Laudi” premiered in 1924. A year later, the composer fell seriously ill and died – at the height of his reputation – in June 1926. Suter set St. Francis’ “Song of the Sun” (Cantico delle Creature) to music in the original Italian language and made this a postulate for all performers.
The poetic transfiguration of nature, the mystical exaltation of the elements of water, wind, earth, the sun, the moon and human beings through the magnificence of divine creation are expressed in a powerful language of high literary standards. This finds a congenial correspondence in Suter’s extremely diverse tonal language, which is inherent in the announcement.
On an opulent and colorful symphonic orchestral foundation, the (at least) four-part choir develops a rich spectrum of formal compositional art. Spherical shades, moments of deepest contemplation alternate with powerful sound cascades.
The two large polyphonic movements sparkle as highlights and at the same time immense vocal technical challenges: the turbulent chromatic “Stormwind” fugue (“per fratre vento”) and the orchestral passacaglia (with 22 harmonically grippingly advancing variations), over which an expressive triple fugue of the Chorus of heavy-blooded, sweet melting tensions (“Brother Fire”).
The “Ragazzi” (boys) choir contributes its own fresh and touching color, which is used intonating but also in context (men’s choir, finale). Finally, Hermann Suter assigns extremely demanding tasks to the soloists, both as dialogue partners with the choir and in wonderfully cantabile solos.
The lavishly beautiful melodies, coupled with decidedly text-related harmony and a wealth of forms drawn from the cornucopia of different compositional techniques, combine to create a composition with a completely overwhelming effect – an oratorio that, despite being subject to such abstinence due to its level of difficulty, is nevertheless one of the gems of the Genres on the threshold of atonality.
Soprano Carina Schmieger. Photo: Stephanie Eidens-Holl
The tenor soloist Matthias Koziorowski.Photo: Galerie Wessel
