Choral works in focus

Discover more about new, exciting aspects of major choral works such as Bach’s St John Passion or Mozart’s C Minor Mass which have come to light during our editorial work. Or discover some less well-known, but extremely worthwhile compositions to enrich your concert programs.
Uwe Wolf

Saint-Saëns’ fascinating Requiem in reduced scoring

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Camille Saint-Saëns’ lavishly orchestrated setting of the Requiem calls for no fewer than four harps. This expressive work moves and fascinates listeners in equal measure, including our Chief Editor Uwe Wolf. It has long been a heartfelt desire of his to enable as many musicians as possible to perform this work – including groups with more limited resources at their disposal. For the Saint-Saëns anniversary in 2021, Carus is publishing an arrangement for strings, harp, and orchestra by Klaus Rothaupt.

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Mendelssohn Lieder im Freien zu singen
R. Larry Todd

Mendelssohn: Songs, to be performed outdoors

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Mendelssohn tried to put the romantic idea of letting choral songs sound outdoors into practice more than once. In a letter dated July 3, 1839, he described how he had sung with a choir deep in the forest. “How lovely the song sounded, how clearly the sopranos trilled in the air, and what a glow and charm enveloped all the pitches, everything so quiet and furtive and yet so clear – that I couldn’t have imagined … it was magical in the forest solitude, so that tears almost came to my eyes. It sounded like pure poetry.” Learn more about the still little known choral songs of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in this article by Mendelssohn expert R. Larry Todd.

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Sven Hiemke

Beethoven’s instrumental works with text settings

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The “Moonlight Sonata” sung as a “Kyrie”, the slow movement from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony as a “Persian Nocturne” for choir – these vocal interpretations of Beethoven’s instrumental works may surprise you, but they will also convince. A tradition of arranging, incidentally, which was already well-established in Beethoven’s time. And every now and then, these arrangements for choir also reveal aspects of the compositions which were previously hidden.

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Mozart vocal
Uwe Wolf

Mozart: The unfinished C Minor Mass

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The C Minor Mass KV 427 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a fascinating work. But to speak of “the” Mass is inaccurate, for basically it is no more than a musical torso, with many puzzles and problems, yet full of magnificent music. We look into the intriguing history of its composition and transmission.

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Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy – Die erste Walpurgisnacht (Erstausgabe)
R. Larry Todd

Mendelssohn: Walpurgisnacht / Walpurgis Night

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Mendelssohn’s colorful setting of Goethe’s ballad “Die erste Walpurgisnacht” (“The First Walpurgis Night”): It is not a biblical story but pagan rituals which form the core of Mendelssohn’s composition based on a ballad by Goethe: the pagans stage a colourful spectacle to frighten off Christians, enabling the former to celebrate their annual Walpurgis Night ritual undisturbed. Goethe’s grotesque yet humorous portrayal of the conflict provided Mendelssohn with a vivid musical raiment.

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Bach: Johannes-Passion von 1725
Meinrad Walter

J. S. Bach: St. John Passion 1725

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The St. John Passion was performed under Bach’s direction in Leipzig at least four times, but each time in a different form. And not all versions survive complete, so decisions need to be made for each performance nowadays. Increasingly the 1725 version with the opening chorus “O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß” is performed. The omission of “Herr, unser Herrscher” in this performance version is coupled with new discoveries. We hear the part of the evangelist as it was sung back then in Leipzig. In addition, highly dramatic arias such as “Himmel reiße, Welt erbebe” are heard to their best advantage.

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Uwe Wolf

Monteverdi’s Forest

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It is a repertoire from which quite different programs can be derived – both in terms of length, scoring, level of difficulty (which is moderate in many compositions), but also in terms of fundamental conception: possibilities would be to focus on either a feasible liturgical sequence or a musical exploration of different aspects of the Selva.

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Jürgen Budday

Handel’s English oratorios

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The period in which the above-mentioned works were written was a very fruitful phase in Handel’s creative output. He composed the ode Alexander’s Feast in 1735/36, Israel in Egypt and Saul in 1738/39, and Messiah followed in 1741/42. Furthermore, during this period he composed not only the oratorio L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (1740), but also a further eleven (!) operas, including what is probably his best-known, Xerxes, and – as his very last opera of all – Deidamia in 1741.

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Werner Breig

„Thy statutes have been my songs“

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Heinrich Schütz probably regarded his last opus as an artistic statement of particular importance: he called it his “Schwanengesang” or swansong. But the work then fell into oblivion for several centuries. The edition in the Stuttgart Schütz Edition offers a unique interpretation of the “Schwanengesang” based on the surviving sources.

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Banner Universale Trauermusik Brahms EN
Andrea Hammes

Universal Funeral Music – Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem)

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At a length of around an hour and twenty minutes, Johannes Brahms’s German Requiem leaves room for additional concert programming. An examination of its performance history reveals some innovative combinations, motivated by either practical considerations or artistic vision. Yet the question of a meaningful companion piece in a concert program remains relevant even today.

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