Classical concerts featuring

Justin Doyle

Sung poetry

Few eras have united music and poetry with such profundity as the German Romantic period. In this concert, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, under the direction of Justin Doyle, offers a sonorous and expressive journey into the very heart and soul of Romantic choral music – from the intimate songs of Franz Schubert to the powerful choral works of Johannes Brahms and the lyrical elegance of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.The programme also includes music by Robert Schumann and Peter Cornelius, as well as a striking contrast: a work by the acclaimed German composer Elisabeth Fusseder (born 2000). In In waldeslust, with texts by Ernst Moritz Arndt, Emerenz Meier and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, she leads the listener into a forest whose Romantic innocence has long since faded.The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir is conducted by Justin Doyle, who is chief conductor of the RIAS Kammerchor in Berlin. In addition, he serves as professor of choral conducting at the Hanns Eisler School of Music. This concert is a tribute to both word and tone, where poetry is brought to life in a spellbinding sonic landscape.The Eric Ericson Chamber Choir was founded in 1945 by the then 27-year-old Eric Ericson and has since occupied a central place in both Swedish and international musical life. It is among the world’s foremost professional vocal ensembles and has enjoyed a close collaboration with The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Konserthuset Stockholm since 2003.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor Berlin

Really old and extremely lively: For many seasons now, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has been demonstrating how thrilling music from the 17th to the early 19th century can sound in its own series at the Konzerthaus Berlin.Bach's „St Matthew Passion“ was premiered for the second time in 1829 - in the Singakademie building in Berlin, which is now home to the Maxim Gorki Theatre. The conductor was Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was only twenty years old. He paved the way for a Bach renaissance with the version he arranged and shortened. In the era of Viennese Classicism, Bach's music had simply hardly ever been performed. The Passion, however, which was first presented to the congregation of St Thomas' Church in Leipzig in 1727, is one of the most haunting musical depictions of the story of the crucifixion.

Konzert zum Karfreitag

Haydn's composition is characterised by a dramatic, extremely moving emotionality that is hard to resist. It was initially conceived as a purely instrumental composition - meditation music in seven slow movements with a prelude and final movement („Il Terremoto“ - the earthquake) for a Passion service. However, when Haydn heard an arrangement of his work with a German text in Passau in 1794, he was inspired to write his own vocal version. The premiere took place in Vienna in 1796. With the flourishing of choral societies in the 19th century, this vocal version of the Seven Words became one of the most frequently performed pieces of Passion music ever.

Guest performance