A choir named after Beethoven? Admittedly, he didn’t leave behind an extensive choral repertoire. Tristan Meister, director of the Beethoven Choir Ludwigshafen since 2017, set out to explore this question by delving deep into Beethoven’s choral works.
Any jubilee, whether a birthday or the anniversary of someone’s death or even a premiere, is always a great opportunity to spotlight a particular work. We asked around at Carus to find out what our colleagues would like to play and sing in their choirs in the coming years. Perhaps you can borrow one or two of their ideas!
If today – 1700 years after the creation of the Nicene creed – we intensively study and listen to its settings, then this is perhaps less as an aural manifestation of the Christian faith or an attempt to distinguish “true” religious tenets from false or different beliefs. Instead, the focus today is more on the musical exploration of various urgent questions facing humanity that transcend all religions and denominations, and which have been rendered into sound by composers throughout the ages: Why am I here? What is guilt and what is redemption? What will happen after my death?
The origin of the myth surrounding the mass dates back to 1607, when the musician and theorist Agostino Agazzari, in his treatise on the basso continuo, directly relates the composition of the Papae Marcelli to the issue of the intelligibility of the text in polyphonic works. Although it was then taken up even more decisively by Adriano Banchieri and Ludovico Cresolli, this cause-and-effect relationship has, however, no historical foundation, except for the temporal coincidence between its composition and the events relating to the Council of Trent.
Personal, anecdotal, informative, and full of conviction: we reveal our Bach highlights for the anniversary year!
After taking up his post in Leipzig in May 2023, J.S. Bach composed at least one cantata every week. Kay Johannsen gives recommendations that celebrate this extraordinary creative period in Bach’s career 300 years later.
The feast of Epiphany is one of the oldest church festivals and a popular day for concerts. Frank Höndgen gives his suggestion for a Bach concert programme for this day.
Renowned Bach expert Prof. Christoph Wolff explains why 1723 was a turning point in J.S. Bach’s creative and compositional career.
