The following entries were favorites from User:Gerda Arendt/Stories 2023.
Some 2023 stories
edit11 June 2023
editJesu, meine Freude
(Jesus, my joy),
a motet by Bach,
has a complex symmetrical structure
in which six hymn stanzas
alternate with five Bible verses?
5 July 2023
editDiana Tishchenko,
a violinist from Ukraine,
played Skoryk's Melody
on a tour of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra to Germany
in April 2022.
8 July 2023
editThe Twelve Fantasias for Viola da Gamba solo,
published by the composer
Georg Philipp Telemann in 1735, were believed lost
but published again in 2016.
Leonore von Zadow-Reichling and Günter von Zadow
received the first biennial Abel Prize of Köthen
for their efforts to retrieve and publish
compositions by Carl Friedrich Abel.
31 July 2023
editA French team,
with Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez,
created the
Jahrhundertring
of Wagner's Ring cycle
at the centenary Bayreuth Festival in 1976,
causing "a near-riot".
2 August 2023
editAndris Nelsons conducted
Bartok's Viola Concerto
and Mahler's Fifth Symphony
in the final concert with his
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
pictured:
Jonathon Heyward announcing on 3 March 2022
at the Stadttheater Minden that the concert
(which included Stavinsky's The Firebird)
was dedicated to
the victims of the Russian invasion into Ukraine
22 August 2023
editClaude Debussy described
his Cello Sonata,
composed within a few weeks
in July 1915 at a Normandy seaside town,
in a letter to his publisher Durand
as of "almost classical form".
28 August 2023
editRehearsing
Dvořák's Eighth Symphony,
conductor Rafael Kubelík said:
"Gentlemen,
in Bohemia
the trumpets never call to battle –
they always call to the dance!".
heard 2013
29 August 2023
editWhen Berit Lindholm
(18 October 1934 – 12 August 2023),
a dramatic soprano of the Royal Swedish Opera,
appeared as Chrysothemis
at the Royal Opera House,
a reviewer described her as
"tall, and remarkably slim for so epic a voice".
Berit Lindholm
performed as Wagner's Isolde
at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow
in a pioneering tour of the Vienna State Opera
in 1971.
30 August 2023
editBeethoven's
Third Cello Sonata,
first performed in 1809,
has been described
as the first sonata for piano and cello
to treat the instruments as equal partners.
16 December 2020
(quirky in the all- Beethoven set)
4 September 2023
editIn her 2021 composition with string orchestra,
This too shall pass
Raminta Šerkšnytė used
a vibraphone for the flow of time,
a violin for the transience of humans,
and a "heavenly" cello?
15 September 2023
editSoprano Jessye Norman
(15 September 1945 – 30 September 2019),
whose voice was described
as a "grand mansion of sound",
performed at U.S. presidential inaugurations
and sang La Marseillaise
at the French Revolution's bicentennial.
19 September 2023
editAfter the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
shared the Nobel Peace Prize, contributing author
Raymond Arritt
(September 19, 1957 – November 14, 2018)
said, "It's kind of neat:
I have, like, .002 percent of a Nobel prize now".
29 September 2023
editThe Company of Heaven,
about angels, composed by Benjamin Britten
for speakers, soloists, choir and orchestra,
and first aired by the BBC on Michaelmas,
29 September 1937,
contains "metrical spoken (shouted) male chorus".
6 October 2023
editClaus Wisser
founded the services company Wisag,
and co-founded the Rheingau Musik Festival
which staged a concert of Orff's Carmina Burana for his 60th birthday
8 October 2023
editTabea Zimmermann
(born 8 October 1966)
prepared her own version of Bartók's Viola Concerto
from the composer's sketches,
and played it at the Casals Forum,
with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony
conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.
9 October 2023
editAlain Altinoglu
(born 9 October 1975)
conducted the opening concert of the
2023 Rheingau Musik Festival
at Eberbach Abbey,
featuring Poulenc's Stabat Mater
with the MDR Rundfunkchor
and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.
18 October 2023
editWalls and the ceiling of the
Unionskirche
(Union Church)
in Idstein are covered
with 38 oil paintings
from the Dutch Golden Age school
of Rubens.
20 October 2023
editIn 2023,
a sculpture garden in Praunheim
displayed abstract works by
Hans Steinbrenner
from different periods of his life,
and corresponding works
by his friends and students.
21 October 2023
edit"Sozusagen grundlos vergnügt"
("Call it causelessly merry")
was one of about 40 poems
by Mascha Kaléko
set to music on a 2011 album.
"Ich freu mich, daß am Himmel Wolken ziehen"
28 October 2023
editIsabelle Cals,
who turned to singing after a degree in Chinese,
appeared as Wagner's Kundry
in a production of Parsifal
at the Stadttheater Minden
In Der Ring in Minden,
the orchestra played at the back of the stage,
and the singers all turned towards it
to listen to the music at the end.
31 October 2023
editJohn Eliot Gardiner performed
Bach's cantatas for Reformation Day
in the Schloßkirche, Wittenberg,
including
Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV 79.
2 November 2023
editAfter signing the Camp David Accords in 1978,
Prime Minister Menachem Begin ended a speech
with a desire to sing the peace song
"Hevenu shalom aleichem"
with the people of Israel.
4 November 2023
editJesu, meine Freude
(Jesus, my joy),
a motet by Bach,
has a complex symmetrical structure
in which six hymn stanzas
alternate with five Bible verses.
The hymn
"Jesu, meine Freude"
by Johann Franck and Johann Crüger
mentions singing in defiance
of the "old dragon", death, and fear.
6 November 2023
editOn 6 November 2016
Peter Reulein conducted
the premiere of his oratorio
Laudato si',
described as a Franciscan Magnificat,
with more than 250 performers
at the Limburg Cathedral.
7 November 2023
editBach composed four dialogues
for his cantata
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60,
first performed 7 November 1723,
three between Fear and Hope,
and one between Fear and the Voice of Christ.
Eric Sams remarked
"what bride ever had a finer wedding gift?"
of the song collection
Myrthen (Myrtles),
which Robert Schumann dedicated to Clara.
14 November 2023
editIn 2016,
Edition Güntersberg
published
Twelve Fantasias for Viola da Gamba solo
by Georg Philipp Telemann
that had been lost.
Leonore von Zadow-Reichling and Günter von Zadow (r.)
received the first biennial Abel Prize of Köthen
for their efforts to retrieve and publish
compositions by Carl Friedrich Abel.
15 November 2023
editKurdish civil engineer and politician
Hevrin Khalaf
(15 November 1984 – 12 October 2019),
who worked for tolerance
among Christians, Arabs, and Kurds, was killed in the
2019 Turkish offensive into Syria.
16 November 2023
editThe 1964 church
for the new parish
Zu den heiligen Engeln
(To the Holy Angels)
in Hannover
was designed by Josef Bieling
to symbolize the tent of God among men.
Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist
Nun danket all und bringet Ehr
17 November 2023
editSoprano
Rachel Yakar,
who received international attention in 1977
as Poppea with Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
was also described as an "ideal" Mélisande
and "a Mozartian at heart and in style".
21 November 2023
editTwo conductors
shared performances
of Verdi's Messa da Requiem
in St. Martin, Idstein.
Palmeri: Misatango
Reulein: Te Deum
look and listen to us
22 November 2023
editBenjamin Britten
(22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976),
composed
Canticle I: My beloved is mine and I am his
for the tenor voice of
Peter Pears,
using poetry from
A Divine Rapture by Francis Quarles.
23 November 2023
editThanksgiving
Lea Ackermann,
a German nun of the
Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa,
fought against
forced prostitution and sex tourism
in East Africa.
26 July 2023
editDirector Frank Stähle revived
the choir and orchestra of Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium
and conducted them in
Mozart's Requiem
for the centenary of the Lutherkirche in Wiesbaden.
27 November 2023
editJerome Kohl
(November 27, 1946 – August 4, 2020),
a music theorist of the University of Washington,
was recognized internationally
as an authority on the composer
Karlheinz Stockhausen,
publishing a book on his Zeitmaße in 2017.
30 November 2023
editContralto
Sonia Prina
(born 30 November 1975)
performed the title role
of Antonio Vivaldi's 1727 opera Orlando furioso
at the Oper Frankfurt,
staged as a rocker.
2 December 2023
editBernard Ładysz,
a bass-baritone who performed in world premieres
of Krzysztof Penderecki's music
in Hamburg and in Salzburg,
was the only Polish singer to appear with
Maria Callas
(2 December 1923 – 16 September 1977).
Andréa Guiot appeared internationally
in French soprano roles
such as Mireille, Marguerite, Manon,
and Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen,
which she recorded alongside
Maria Callas
in the title role.
3 December 2023
editThe Advent song
"Macht hoch die Tür"
(Fling wide the door),
with text by Georg Weissel written for the inauguration of the church
where he would be ordained pastor a week later,
is number 1 in the German Protestant hymnal.
4 December 2023
editConductor Dessauer and composer Mawby (r.), 2012 |
Gabriel Dessauer
(born 4 December 1955)
conducted the premiere of Reger's Hebbel Requiem
in the organ version of Max Beckschäfer
with a project choir at the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden.
The prolific composer and Westminster Cathedral conductor
Colin Mawby
said, "I cannot write choral music unless I work with choirs ...
I have to write for particular people".
6 December 2023
editWilhelm II,
German Emperor,
called the
Kurhaus in Wiesbaden
"the most beautiful spa in the world"
at the opening ceremony.
7 December 2023
editIgnace Michiels
(born 7 December 1963)
of the St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges
has been the organist
for the German-Flemish Reger-Chor
in works such as Reger's Requiem.
Reger: Der 100. Psalm
8 December 2023
editMax Reger
composed "in new simplicity"
Unser lieben Frauen Traum,
a motet suitable for Advent,
about a dream of Mary
of a tree growing in her.
10 December 2023
editIn 1973 Luten Petrowsky
(10 December 1933 – 10 July 2023)
played the saxophone in a quartet
that made the first record
with jazz musicians
from both East and West Germany.
12 December 2023
editThe Advent hymn
"O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf"
(O Saviour, tear open the heavens)
was written against a backdrop
of the Thirty Years' War, the plague,
and witch trials.
13 December 2023
editRabbi
Michael Robinson
(December 13, 1924 – July 20, 2006)
and 15 other Reform rabbis
were arrested and jailed after answering Martin Luther King's
call to stand with him for civil rights in St. Augustine, Florida.
15 December 2023
editErna Berger sang the title role
of Smetana's The Bartered Bride
in a 1955 recording with
Wilhelm Schüchter
(15 December 1911 – 27 May 1974)
and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
16 December 2023
editPrince Nikolaus Esterházy,
who commissioned
Beethoven's Mass in C major
for his wife's name day,
found it "unbearably ridiculous and detestable".
17 December 2023
editIn 2018
Lydia Steier,
born in Hartford, Connecticut,
became the first woman
to stage Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
at the Salzburg Festival.
20 December 2023
editThe German Advent song
"Tochter Zion, freue dich"
has words by Friedrich Heinrich Ranke
set to music used
for triumphant entrances
in two of Handel's oratorios.
22 December 2023
editDer neue
Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel
wurde 2023 in Köthen vorgestellt,
wo der Gambist
vor 300 Jahren geboren wurde.
The new
Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel
(AbelWV)
was introduced in Köthen,
where the viol virtuoso was born
on 22 December 1723.
25 December 2023
edit"Verbum caro factum est",
a Christmas motet for six voices
by Hans Leo Hassler
in the Venetian polychoral style,
has been arranged
for brass ensembles.
29 December 2023
editRebekka Habermas,
a German historian
at the University of Göttingen,
who also taught
in Paris, Montreal and New York,
focused on people
in the social and cultural conditions
of 19th-century Germany.
30 December 2023
editHeike Matthiesen
recorded a 2016 album
Guitar Ladies
of compositions for guitar solo by women
including Sidney Pratten (1821–1895),
María Luisa Anido, Ida Presti,
Sofia Gubaidulina, Sylvie Bodorová,
Annette Kruisbrink, and Maria Linnemann
who had dedicated her work to the player.
31 December 2023
editA German theologian wrote
"Vertraut den neuen Wegen"
(Trust the new ways)
to the melody of
Lob Gott getrost mit Singen
(Praise God confidently with singing)
to be sung at a wedding in Eisenach
shortly before the fall of the Wall.