Christmas Eve
is a fairy-tale opera
by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
that plays
on the night before Christmas
at a Ukrainian village,
in mid-air
and at a royal court.

watch trailer

(from User:Gerda Arendt/Stories)

Happy New Year 2024
Bach composed
Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht,
BWV 134a,
as a congratulatory cantata
for the court of Köthen,
first performed
on New Year's Day 1719.
14 July 2010

Vertraut den neuen Wegen

"Lobpreiset all zu dieser Zeit",
(Praise all at this time)
for New Year
in the German Catholic hymnal
Gotteslob, takes two stanzas
from a 1851 song by Heinrich Bone,
a third stanza and refrain from 1969,
and a 1529 popular melody by Luther.

31 January 2021

Bass-baritone
Johann-Werner Prein
(born 3 January 1954)
took part in the 1994 premiere
of Erwin Schulhoff's only opera, Flammen,
which the Nazis had suppressed.

3 January 2022

Le Laudi

Josef Suk
(4 January 1874 – 29 May 1935)
dedicated his
Asrael Symphony
"to the exalted memory of Dvořák and Otilie",
his father-in-law for whose memory he began the work,
and his daughter, the composer's wife.

4 January 2024

The new
Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel,
listing 420 compositions,
was introduced
at a festival
celebrating Abel's tercentenary
in Köthen

5 January 2024

Instruments in Bach's cantata
for Epiphany,
Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65
(They will all come from Sheba),
have been compared
to the salamiya and zurna.

6 January 2024

Stern über Bethlehem

Hermann Baumann,
a pioneer of the natural horn in the revival
of both Baroque and Classical period music,
recorded Mozart's Horn Concertos
with Nikolaus Harnoncourt
and premiered Ligeti's Horn Trio.

7 January 2024

Stern über Bethlehem

Dmitri Shostakovich's
Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141,
his final symphony,
intended to be a cheerful work
to mark his 65th birthday,
was premiered on
8 January 1972,
conducted by his son,
Maxim Shostakovich.

A 1974 recording of
Mozart's Così fan tutte with
Ryland Davies
as Ferrando was used in a 1995 film
by the Salzburg Marionette Theatre.

9 January 2024

The Advent song
"Macht hoch die Tür"
is number 1 in the German Protestant hymnal.

3 December 2017

Chris Karrer
was a pioneer of experimental krautrock
with the band Amon Düül II (pictured),
founded in the spirit
of the 1960s student movement,
and later played world music with Embryo
and flamenco guitar.

10 January 2024

The Firebird

Bright Angel,
composed by Graham Waterhouse
for three bassoons and contrabassoon,
relates to the Bright Angel Trail of the Grand Canyon
which the composer hiked
with his father
at the age of nine.

23 April 2011

Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud

Kihwan Sim
from South Korea
appeared as Mozart's Figaro
at the Oper Frankfurt
in the first production with the new music director,
acting with a hint at the French Revolution.

12 January 2024

Joy to the world

Guido Dessauer
(7 November 1915 – 13 January 2012),
a German executive and art collector,
registered more than 30 patents
in paper technology
and started the career of Horst Janssen
as a lithographer.

23 January 2012

Selig sind, die da Leid tragen

In
Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, BWV 3
(Oh God, how much heartache),
a chorale cantata first performed
on 14 January 1725
at the Thomaskirche,
based on Moller's hymn in 18 stanzas,
the first cantus firmus is sung
by the bass supported by a trombone.

23 January 2016

Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst
(How Deserted Lies the City),
a motet composed by Rudolf Mauersberger
after the bombing of Dresden,
was first performed
in the destroyed Kreuzkirche.

15 January 2024

listen to 1951 recording

Thomas Fritzsch,
a viol player
who rediscovered compositions
by Carl Friedrich Abel,
established a festival dedicated to him
in Köthen
where he was born 300 years before.

16 January 2024

listen

The youthful Handel
composed four operas
for the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg
where they were performed
between 1705 and 1708,
but the music of three of them is lost,
of Nero, Florindo and Daphne.

(article by Brian Boulton)

17 January 2024

Tamara Milashkina,
the first Soviet Russian soprano trained at La Scala,
portrayed Russian characters
with emotion and authenticity
touring with the Bolshoi Theatre
as Tchaikovsky's Tatiana at the Vienna State Opera
and as Lisa at the Metropolitan Opera.

18 January 2024

Romuald Twardowski,
a prolific Polish composer
who studied in Vilnius, Warsaw and Paris,
composed operas such as Maria Stuart,
a Violin Concerto,
and sacred music for both Catholic use
and the Orthodox Church including the
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

19 January 2024

St. Joseph,
a 1909 Catholic church
in the Romanesque Revival style
in Berlin-Wedding,
has served as an interim cathedral
since 2018.

20 January 2024

For the beauty of the earth

Vivi Vassileva,
a percussionist who was the youngest member
of the German national youth orchestra,
has played Gregor Mayrhofer's Recycling Concerto
on instruments derived from garbage.
listen

21 January 2024

(from User:Gerda Arendt/Stories)

Henri Dutilleux
(22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013)
composed his
Symphony No. 2 Le Double
in 1959 as
a concerto for twelve soloists from the orchestra
in a semi-circle around the conductor
as a mirror of the larger group.

listen

Maria, Königin des Friedens,
a Brutalist pilgrimage church
in Neviges, Germany,
has become the signature building
of architect
Gottfried Böhm
(23 January 1920 – 9 June 2021).

Ewa Podleś
was a Polish coloratura contralto,
performing Rossini's Rosina,
La Cenerentola, Isabella and Tancredi,
and Handel's Rinaldo and Giulio Cesare
on leading stages of the world.

24 January 2024

The Late Gothic appearance
of the church of
St. Martin in Oestrich
was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War
and restored only in 1894.

"Shalom chaverim"
('Peace, friends'),
a Hebrew traditional folk song,
has been sung at events
commemorating the Holocaust
and victims of anti-Semitic violence.

25 January 2024

Before the age of thirty,
Anna Nekhames
performed the dual role
of Venus and Chief of the Gepopo
in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre,
one of opera's most demanding coloratura soprano roles.

26 January 2024

Franz Fink conducted
Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine,
dedicated to the pope
on 1 September 1610,
at St. Martin, Idstein
on 1 September 2019.

Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum

Gerd Uecker
was artistic director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich,
and from 2003 to 2010 of the Semperoper in Dresden
where he staged operas related to Dresden.

28 January 2024

Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke, BWV 84

Gertrude Pitzinger,
who toured Europe and the United States,
where she became known as
"the German Lieder singer",
recorded the alto part of Mozart's Requiem,
conducted by Ferenc Fricsay.

29 January 2016

A clinic in Mopti, Mali,
is named after
Werner Bardenhewer,
born 90 years ago today,
who was for decades
priest of St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden,
and then founded
a charity group.

30 January 2019

Herr, unser Herr,
wie bist du zugegen

Max van Egmond
(born 1 February 1936)
recorded the bass arias
of Bach's St Matthew Passion
with Claudio Abbado
and the words of Jesus with Gustav Leonhardt.

2 April 2010

Bishop of Limburg
Franz Kamphaus
(born 2 February 1932)
opposed the pope,
"convinced that our way of counselling women
would save the lives
of many more children".

2 February 2014

Missa primi toni octo vocum

In her opera
Inferno,
premiered in 2021 at the Oper Frankfurt,
Lucia Ronchetti
(born 3 February 1963)
gave the main character Dante
a speaking voice and
an inner voice of four male singers.
7 August 2021

Michael Herrmann
(born 4 February 1944)
is founder-director
of the Rheingau Musik Festival,
which holds about 150 concerts every season
in vineyards and historical buildings.

25 August 2011

Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister, BWV 181

Josef Protschka
(born 5 February 1944),
who sang as a soloist
in Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge at age 12,
later appeared in leading tenor roles
in the Mozart cycles staged by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
at the Cologne Opera and the Zürich Opera House.

5 February 2020

Magna Lykseth
appeared as Isolde
when Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
was first performed
at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1909.

6 February 2024

Stephen Gould,
an American heldentenor,
performed three roles
at the 2022 Bayreuth Festival:
Tannhäuser, Siegfried and Tristan,
earning him nicknames such as "Iron Man".

7 February 2024

Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe

Oskar Negt
(1 August 1934 – 2 February 2024),
assistant of Jürgen Habermas in Frankfurt,
mentor of the APO and
professor of sociology in Hanover,
believed that democracy was
a form of government
that had to be learned.

8 February 2024

Baritone
Wolfgang Schöne
(born 9 February 1940)
created the role of the tomcat
"Tom, Minette's lover"
in the opera Die englische Katze by Hans Werner Henze
at the Schwetzingen Festival.

16 April 2010

Alfred Grosser
(1 February 1925 – 7 February 2024),
whose Jewish family had to move
from Frankfurt to France in 1933,
was instrumental to Franco-German cooperation,
paving the way for the 1963 Élysée Treaty,
and writing books towards better understanding
between the Germans and the French.

10 February 2024

Bach composed his cantata
Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwölfe, BWV 22,
for the last Sunday before Lent
as an audition piece
for the post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig,
displaying a
"sheer range of forms
and musical expression".

22 February 2013

Seiji Ozawa
(September 1, 1935 – February 6, 2024),
the first star conductor from Japan,
studied in Tanglewood from 1960
with Charles Munch
from the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
became artistic director there in 1970
and was the orchestra's music director
from 1973 for 29 years.

12 February 2024

Helga Paris
photographed people and streetscapes
in East Germany,
Garbage Collectors, Berliner Kneipen,
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof, self portraits,
and houses and faces from Halle over three years,
and then the exhibition was cancelled.

13 February 2024

look

Voltaire's tragedy Olimpie
premiered in 1762
and Henze's opera
Elegie für junge Liebende
(Elegy for Young Lovers)
in 1961 at the
Schlosstheater Schwetzingen.

12 December 2011

Zeige uns, Herr, deine Allmacht und Güte

Felix Mendelssohn subtitled
Sechs Lieder, Op. 59,
six songs for four voices
setting poems by Eichendorff and others,
"Im Freien zu singen"
("To be sung outdoors").

17 September 2020

O Täler weit, o Höhen

Hans-Dieter Bader
(16 February 1938 - 18 June 2022)
performed the title role
of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera Sly,
recorded live at the Staatsoper Hannover,
"as written", while Plácido Domingo
had to cut and change the part.

3 May 2016

Concert venues of the
Rheingau Musik Festival
include
Eberbach Abbey,
Schloss Johannisberg
and St. Martin, Lorch.
17 Feb 2010

Madama Butterfly

Bassoonist William Waterhouse
(18 February 1931 – 5 November 2007)
considered the rapport
between violist Cecil Aronowitz and cellist Terence Weil
the special distinction of the Melos Ensemble,
playing in the premiere of Britten's War Requiem.

28 October 2009

Zeige uns, Herr, deine Allmacht und Güte

Johanna von Koczian
had a breakthrough in the 1959 film Wir Wunderkinder,
landed the schlager hit "Das bißchen Haushalt",
and portrayed Florence Foster Jenkins on stage at age 77.

19 February 2024

Ladislav Burlas,
a composer and musicologist
at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava
from 1951 to 1990,
studied the music history of Slovakia
with a focus on the 20th century.

20 February 2024

Rudolf Jansen,
a pianist who taught at the Sweelinck Conservatory,
focused on accompanying singers
Elly Ameling, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and many more,
"unravelling all the intricacies
of the often independent piano parts".

21 February 2024

For his ordination
at the Altrossgarten Church,
Georg Weissel wrote the text of the hymn
"Such, wer da will, ein ander Ziel"
(Search, whoever wants, for a different goal),
often sung for funerals,
to his friend's melody
for a wedding song.

17 March 2016

Max Beckschäfer
(born 23 February 1952)
composed an organ version of
Max Reger's Hebbel-Requiem
and played in the 1985 premiere
at the Marktkirche, Wiesbaden
by a choir formed for the occasion
conducted by Gabriel Dessauer.

25 November 2010

Seele, vergiß sie nicht

Gabriele Schnaut
(24 February 1951 – 19 June 2023)
recorded alto parts in Bach cantatas in the 1970s,
and appeared as Waltraute and Second Norne
in the Jahrhundertring film in 1980,
as Isolde in 1985,
and as Widow Begbick
in Weill's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny in 2014.

17 December 2013

Prayer for Ukraine

Raymund Weber wrote
the penitential song
"Zeige uns, Herr, deine Allmacht und Güte"
(Show us, Lord, your power and mercy)"
to be sung with a modern melody,
but it appears in the German Catholic hymnal
with a Baroque cruciform melody.

listen

13 April 2019

The art of Ruth-Margret Pütz
(26 February 1930 – 1 April 2019)
a leading coloratura soprano of the 1960s,
was published in a 2018 Recital,
including excerpts as Konstanze and Zerbinetta.

11 June 2019

Russian Jewish painter
Marc Chagall
created the windows
of the church of
St Stephan in Mainz
as a sign of
Jewish-German reconciliation.

5 December 2006

Take the "A" Train

Elisabeth Waterhouse
(born 28 February 1933)
founded the
National Chamber Music Course
summer school
in 1974
and has managed it since.

21 January 2023

String Sextet (Waterhouse)
listen as she did on 5 November 2022

Gioachino Rossini
(born 29 February 1792)
scored the last of his "sins of old age",
the Petite messe solennelle,
for twelve singers, two pianos, and harmonium.
listen
When Heather Phillips
made her European debut
in Rossini's Bianca e Falliero,
her nuanced coloraturas served
to portray Bianca's development.

Soprano
Rotraud Hansmann
(born 1 March 1940)
performed six roles in three Monteverdi operas
conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
including Euridice in L'Orfeo.

28 March 2016

Erna Berger sang the title role
of The Bartered Bride by
Bedřich Smetana
(2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884)
in a 1955 recording with Wilhelm Schüchter
and the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
10 August 2010

Kurt Honolka's mid–20th century German translation
of Smetana's Dalibor
was still being performed in 2019
in a new Oper Frankfurt production.
5 January 2020

Gabriela Grillo
(19 August 1952 – 25 February 2024),
who won a gold medal in team dressage
at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal,
later worked as a journalist,
managed the family business
and served the community voluntarily.

3 March 2024

Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet

Benjamin Britten
composed many viola parts for
Cecil Aronowitz,
(4 March 1916 – 7 September 1978)
a co-founder of the Melos Ensemble.

14 October 2009

The early
Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone
by Francis Poulenc
was described as offering a
"variety of tone colors, striking rhythms,
delicious dissonances, and elegant wit".

5 March 2017

Dutch soprano
Jo Vincent
(6 March 1898 – 28 November 1989)
appeared in Willem Mengelberg's 1939 recording
of Bach's St Matthew Passion,
and, with Kathleen Ferrier and Peter Pears,
in the world premiere
of Britten's Spring Symphony in 1949.

10 April 2020

Hans-Karl von Kupsch
(7 March 1937 – 26 April 2020),
who was instrumental in the unification
of the East and West German booksellers' associations,
ran a gallery of contemporary art together with his wife,
offering works by Walter Stöhrer
and Karlheinz Oswald.

8 April 2022

Catherine Rückwardt,
who was Generalmusikdirektorin
at the Staatstheater Mainz for a decade
and one of only four women in such a position in Germany,
conducted a recording of the First Symphony by Hans Rott.

8 March 2018

C. P. E. Bach: Magnificat

The titular character of
Verdi's Nabucco,
the opera that established his fame
when it premiered on 9 March 1842
at La Scala in Milan,
is a combination
of three historic rulers.

15 April 2022

When Friedrich Spitta revised
"Im Frieden dein, o Herre mein",
(In your peace, o my Lord)
a 1530 German Lutheran communion hymn
based on the biblical Nunc dimittis,
he completely changed the meaning.

2 February 2019

German stage director
Tobias Kratzer
nominated two versions of
Verdi's Rigoletto
(premiered 11 March 1851)
for an international competition,
pretending to be an American woman
in the first instance,
and a Bulgarian in the second.
10 May 2018

Odile Pierre
(12 March 1932 – 29 February 2020),
who became interested in the organ
at a recital by Marcel Dupré at the age of seven,
later served as the organist of La Madeleine in Paris
and played around 2,000 recitals herself.

22 March 2020

Frank Beermann
(born 13 March 1965)
conducted the first recording
of Bruno Maderna's Requiem,
the German premiere
of Péter Eötvös's opera Love and Other Demons
at the Chemnitz Opera,
and Der Ring in Minden.

11 July 2017

Gioachino Rossini
scored the last of his
"sins of old age", the
Petite messe solennelle
(premiered 14 March 1864)
for twelve singers, two pianos,
and harmonium.

Dona nobis pacem.

14 March 2024

Françoise Garner,
first a coloratura soprano at the Opéra-Comique,
brought French singing tradition to Europe,
portraying Gounod's Marguerite at La Scala
and his Juliette at the Verona Arena.

Guy Touvron,
a French classical trumpet player
for whom 25 concertos were composed,
wrote a biography
of his teacher Maurice André
published in 2003.

16 March 2024

Arvo Pärt
composed the motet
The Deer's Cry
on a commission from Louth, Ireland,
setting the conclusion
of Saint Patrick's Breastplate,
"Christ with me".

listen

17 March 2019

Christa Wolf
(18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011)
wrote Der geteilte Himmel
in a "quest for personal integrity
within a flawed system",
published in East Germany in 1963
and called a "socialist bestseller".

1 May 2019

Requiem
by Max Reger
(19 March 1873 – 11 May 1916)
is a musical setting
not of the Latin Requiem,
but of a poem "Requiem"
written by the dramatist Friedrich Hebbel

19 July 2010

Aribert Reimann
composed
Medea
for a 2010 premiere
at the Vienna State Opera,
based on the drama by Franz Grillparzer.

look and listen

20 March 2024

Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen
(lit. 'I will gladly carry the cross-staff'), BWV 56,
a church cantata composed
by Johann Sebastian Bach
(born 21 March 1685)
is one of few works that
he referred to as a cantata.

Mezzo-soprano
Pamela Dellal,
who recorded music by Hildegard von Bingen
and Fanny Mendelssohn,
translated all texted works by Bach.

21 March 2016

Wolfgang Fortner
composed the chamber opera
In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa
after Lorca
for the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen,
where it opened the Festival in 1962.

8 September 2017

Cecelia Hall
has portrayed title roles,
of women such as
Dido, La Cenerentola, and María de Buenos Aires,
and of men including
Serse, Ascanio in Alba and Hänsel.

23 March 2024

Comet Hale-Bopp
inspired Graham Waterhouse
to compose
Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp
for string orchestra,
which ends with a boy soprano singing
"How Brightly Shines the Morning Star".

August 2010

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern

Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1,
Bach's chorale cantata
on "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern"
for the Feast of the Annunciation,
was first performed on Palm Sunday
in 1725.

20 March 2016

When Kelsey Lauritano
portrayed Mozart's Cherubino in 2023,
a reviewer from the FAZ noted her
"almost metallic-brittle approach that spreads androgynous infatuation".

26 March 2024

As music director of the Oper Hagen,
Florian Ludwig
promoted a wide repertoire that included
contemporary operas such as Barber's Vanessa and crossover projects.

... sofferte onde serene ...
(serene waves suffered)
is a composition for piano and tape
written by Luigi Nono
in collaboration with pianist
Maurizio Pollini
(pictured).

24 February 2019

In a motet for Maundy Thursday
attributed to Johann Kuhnau,
Tristis est anima mea,
Jesus says in Gethsemane
"Sad is my soul even unto death".

2 April 2015

... that on Good Friday 2020,
Benedikt Kristjánsson
sang all roles in a chamber arrangement of
Bach's St John Passion,
composed for Good Friday 1724,
broadcast live from the composer's burial place.

look and listen · look forward

22 May 2020

In his opera
Tri sestry
(Three Sisters),
composer Péter Eötvös
wanted the three sisters from Chekhov's play
to be sung by countertenors.

30 March 2024

For Easter 1724,
his first as Thomaskantor in Leipzig,
Johann Sebastian Bach revived
Christ lag in Todes Banden,
(Christ lay in death's bonds)
BWV 4,
a chorale cantata
he had composed in his twenties,
using in all seven movements
the words and tune
of Luther's 1524 Easter chorale.

24 April 2011

listen

The opening chorus of
Bach's cantata
for the Second Day of Easter,
Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66,
first performed in 1724
has been termed
"one of the longest and
most exhilarating of Bach's early works".
25 April 2011

listen

At age 22,
Judith Hemmendinger
helped rehabilitate
nearly 100 child survivors
of the Buchenwald concentration camp,
among them Elie Wiesel.

2 April 2024

Ladislav Burlas,
a musicologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences
for almost 40 years,
wrote more than 150 works during his career.

3 April 2024

Geh aus, mein Herz, und suche Freud

Karsten Januschke's
conducting of Offenbach's Die Banditen
was described as producing
a "lean, dry, delicate" sound
with an ensemble of 22 soloists, including 11 tenors.

29 March 2024

Tilmann Köhler
directed Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in 2023
as playful "serious games"
in which the women win by "wit, cleverness and presence of mind".

5 April 2024

Appalachian Spring,
a 1944 ballet by
choreographer Martha Graham,
and composer Aaron Copland,
follows Bride and Husbandman
in 19th-century Pennsylvania,
with themes of war present
throughout the story,
and the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts".

6 April 2024

listen

Bach created an "operatic scene"
in his cantata
Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ, BWV 67
(Keep Jesus Christ in mind),
for the Sunday after Easter in 1724,
with Jesus serenely repeating
"Peace be with you"
against the raging of the enemies.

listen

19 April 2012

Notker Wolf OSB,
abbot of St. Ottilien Archabbey in Bavaria
and from 2000 to 2016
Abbot Primate of the international
Benedictine Confederation,
played and recorded
with the rock band Feedback.

watch

8 April 2024

After being denied the use
of Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.,
contralto
Marian Anderson
gave an open-air concert
at the Lincoln Memorial
on 9 April 1939.

listen

9 April 2024

Gerhard Lohfink
was professor of the New Testament
at the University of Tübingen until 1986
when he moved to a Catholic Integrated Community,
following thoughts from his book
Jesus and Community. The Social Dimension of Christian faith.

listen to him lecturing

10 April 2024

The Finnish concert organist and improvisor
Kalevi Kiviniemi,
the first to record the complete organ works by Jean Sibelius,
recorded works from different eras
on organs of the world to match,
such as French organ music
on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Church of St. Ouen, Rouen.
listen
11 April 2024

Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras,
und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen
wie des Grases Blumen.
Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen.

Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in Ewigkeit.

listen

Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt

The first performance of Handel's celebrated oratorio
Messiah
took place in Dublin on 13 April 1742.

13 April 2024

Part II contains the famous Hallelujah Chorus
and the oratorio's longest movement, the air for alto
He was despised.

29 July 2011

Johann Sebastian Bach
set the theme of the Good Shepherd
in his cantata for the second Sunday after Easter,
Du Hirte Israel, höre, BWV 104,
as a pastorale,
a trio of oboes playing triplets to pedal points.

listen

8 May 2011

Michael Boder
conducted many world premieres of operas,
Reimann's Medea at the Vienna State Opera ,
Haas' Morgen und Abend at the Royal Opera House,
and operas by composers including
Friedrich Cerha, Pascal Dusapin, Hans Werner Henze,
Luca Lombardi, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Manfred Trojahn.

listen to him

14 April 2024

Dieter Rexroth,
responsible for the concert programs
of Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 1996,
shaped the festivals
Frankfurter Feste at the Alte Oper and Young Euro Classic.

16 April 2024

The second of
Henry Purcell's two settings of
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts
was composed in an earlier style
for the funeral
of Queen Mary II of England.

listen

17 April 2020

Lorenzo Palomo,
conductor of the Valencia Orchestra
and pianist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin,
composed a song cycle Canciones españolas,
premiered by Montserrat Caballé
at Carnegie Hall in 1987.

listen

18 April 2024

Diego Fasolis
(born 19 April 1958)
conducted L'incoronazione di Poppea
at the reopened Staatsoper Unter den Linden,
adding music by other composers
of Monteverdi's time.

trailer

16 January 2018

John Eliot Gardiner
(born 20 April 1943)
conducted the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage
and described Bach
as the "best writer of dramatic declamation ...
since Monteverdi"
for the dialogue
in Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57.
listen
26 December 2010

Dona nobis pacem

The first choral section
from the 1714 Bach cantata for Jubilate Sunday,
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12
(Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing),
described as a "deeply affecting" tombeau,
became the Crucifixus of the Mass in B minor.

listen

29 April 2012

Kathleen Ferrier CBE
(22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953),
an English contralto singer
of international reputation,
chose to perform only two operatic roles on stage,
Britten's Lucretia and Gluck's Orfeo.

listen

22 April 2024

Brahms: O Tod, wie bitter bist du

Andrew Davis,
longtime chief conductor
of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, among others,
brought The Makropulos Case and Lulu
to the Glyndebourne Festival
and conducted Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen
at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
interview
23 April 2024
Hebe deine Augen auf

The opera
The Devil in Love
by Alexander Vustin
(born 24 April 1943)
took 15 years to be completed
and 30 more years to be premiered,
debuting at the centenary of the
Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre.

excerpt

11 June 2020

Felix Mendelssohn first composed the motet
Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen
(For He shall give His angels charge)
for an eight-part choir,
and then included it with orchestra
in his oratorio Elijah.

watch

6 April 2019

Contralto Marga Höffgen
(26 April 1921 – 7 July 1995),
known as a Bach singer for Karajan
and as Erda in Bayreuth,
recorded Max Reger's Requiem compositions.

Seele, vergiß sie nicht

16 March 2015

Adalbert Kraus
(born 27 April 1937)
portrayed Tom in Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers
at the Staatsoper Hannover
and the tenor part of Peter the Apostle
in Bach's Easter Oratorio.

listen to oratorio

16 April 2010

In Patrick Süskind's play
Der Kontrabaß,
the double bass in the title role
is a "constant handicap" to its player,
"humanly, socially, sexually, musically".

trailer

9 February 2014

Wo gehest du hin? BWV 166

Samuel Kummer
chose for his first recital
as the organist of
the restored Frauenkirche in Dresden
music by Bach, Brahms, Max Reger,
Louis Vierne and his own.

Sortie

29 April 2024

Oksana Lyniv
founded the
Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
in 2016 and conducted them
in thirty concerts across ten music festivals
in 2022.

watch

30 April 2024

The choir
Groningse Bachvereniging
sang Bach's Magnificat
with Harnoncourts' Concentus Musicus Wien
in the orchestra's first appearance
in the Netherlands in 1970.

listen to a chorale

28 January 2012

The baritone
Johannes Hill
was the voice of Jesus and Pilate
in Bach's Passions,
and of Pope Francis in the premiere
of Peter Reulein's Laudato si'.

listen

29 March 2018

Hans Stadlmair
(3 May 1929 – 13 February 2019),
conductor of the Münchener Kammerorchester for almost four decades,
in 1971 premiered
Wilhelm Killmayer's Fin al punto,
of which the composer said,
"The calm already contains the catastrophe".

7 April 2011

Bach's cantata for Easter Monday,
Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6,
is based on the Road to Emmaus narration

watch

13 April 2017

Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden,
BWV 6
Du Hirte Israel, höre,
BWV 104
Ascension Oratorio
Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen,
BWV 11

2024 concert

pictured

A prize for contemporary art of Styria
is named after
Viktor Fogarassy
(6 May 1911 – 24 March 1989),
the managing director of a department store.

Segne, Vater, diese Gaben

21 August 2019

Peter Demetz,
born in Prague in 1922,
persecuted under the Nazis,
escaped the Communist regime in 1949,
taught German literature at Yale University
from 1956 to 1991,
and wrote the book
Prague in Black and Gold:
Scenes from the Life of a European City.

7 May 2024

Seele, vergiß sie nicht

"Es tönen die Lieder",
a German round
about greeting spring with songs,
first appeared in 1869
in a collection of works by Adolf Spieß,
who developed a series of school-gymnastics steps to it.

listen

8 May 2022

Bach's first cantata
for the Feast of the Ascension,
Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37,
omits the topic of the Ascension
and derives from the quoted Gospel (Mark 16:16) Lutheran thoughts.

9 May 2013

Ascension Oratorio

watch

A reviewer described the approach of soprano
Magdalena Hinterdobler
to her role as Grete in Zemlinsky's Der Traumgörge
(Görgr the Dreamer)
as "bold" and "sassy".

watch her talk about it and sing

10 May 2024

The late-Gothic church
St. Lamberti in Hildesheim
was rebuilt after destruction in World War II,
but a southern annex was kept in ruins
as a memorial?

11 May 2013

In Bach's cantata
Sie werden euch in den Bann tun, BWV 44
(They will banish you),
for Exaudi Sunday,
the word "töten" (kill) is
"twice emphasized by a sudden, mysterious piano and
 ... chromatically tinged harmonies".

19 May 2012

Klaus Wallrath
(born 13 May 1959)
composed a mass for peace
for the 2018 Katholikentag in Münster,
performed to an audience of more than 30,000
by a choir, an orchestra, and a dance company.

3 May 2022

The dancer and cabaret artist
Hedi Schoop
emigrated to California with her husband,
the composer Friedrich Hollaender,
where she created and manufactured
California pottery.

14 May 2019

The Franciscan
Helmut Schlegel
(born 15 May 1943)
wrote the lyrics of an oratorio
Laudato si',
including writings
by Francis of Assisi
and Pope Francis,
and the Magnificat.

Glauben können wie du (listen)

14 November 2019

Gerhard Müller,
leading bishop of the
United Lutheran Church of Germany
and professor in Erlangen and Göttingen,
wrote a book about
Martin Luther's insights then and now.

16 May 2024

The performance of tenor
Julian Prégardien,
first trained in Limburg,
as the Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion
was noted by one reviewer
for its emphatic and penetrating
"profoundly human" nature.
watch
17 May 2024

Ave Maria

Timon Altwegg
(born 18 May 1967)
and his wife Hana Gubenko
recorded a collection entitled
Sonata ebraica (Hebrew Sonata),
after the Viola Sonata by Graham Waterhouse.

20 June 2017

In his first cantata for Pentecost,
Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!
BWV 172,
first performed in 1714 in Weimar,
Johann Sebastian Bach
marked to repeat the opening chorus
after the final chorale.

watch

6 April 2010

"I will sing with the spirit"
was composed
by John Rutter
for the Royal School of Church Music.

listen and look

8 June 2014

Erschallet, ihr Lieder, BWV 172

watch

20 May 2024

Martin Krumbiegel
sang the tenor part in Bach's cantata
Erschallet, ihr Lieder (Resound, ye songs)
and Bach's "Pipe Aria".

listen

21 May 2013

Baritone
Liviu Holender
chose lieder by five composers
whose music was banned by the Nazis
—Schreker, Zemlinsky,
Mahler, Korngold and Schönberg—
for a recital at the Oper Frankfurt.
watch one

Verdi: Messa da Requiem 22 May 1874
22 May 2024

The 1653 hymn
"Jesu, meine Freude"
(Jesus, my joy)
by Johann Franck and Johann Crüger
mentions singing in defiance
of the "old dragon", death, and fear.

listen to Bach

23 May 2014

Ethel Smyth,
whose opera The Wreckers
was premiered in Leipzig in 1906
and revived at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2022,
joined the Women's Social and Political Union
in 1910, giving up music for two years.

listen

24 May 2024

Willi Brokmeier,
a tenor focused on operettas,
participated in the world premiere
of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten
at the Cologne Opera
and appeared as Beethoven's Jaquino on a tour to Japan.

watch

25 May 2024

The Lutheran
St. Trinitatis
in Wolfenbüttel, consecrated in 1719,
is a Baroque church
with a facade recalling that of a palace.

26 May 2024

O heilges Geist- und Wasserbad, BWV 165

listen

"Ständchen"
(Serenade),
the setting of a poem by A. F. v. Schack
by Richard Strauss,
begins with an appeal to creep out quietly
and ends with a climax of expecting
a rose to glow from the rapture of the night.

listen

27 May 2016

Johann Sebastian Bach
used music of thanks
from his cantata
Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir, BWV 29,
for his final
Dona nobis pacem
(Grant us peace).
watch
29 March 2015

Vespro della Beata Vergine

In the Opernhaus Wuppertal production
of Stravinsky's
The Rite of Spring,
choreographed by Pina Bausch,
the dancers performed on a stage covered with soil.
watch a bit
30 July 2013

Samuel Kummer
chose for his first recital
as the organist of the restored
Frauenkirche in Dresden
music by Bach, Brahms, Max Reger,
Louis Vierne, and himself.

watch him improvising

30 May 2024

Ave verum corpus

Rolf-Ernst Breuer,
who spent almost his whole career at Deutsche Bank,
as CEO from 1997 to 2002, is credited
with expanding the bank to international importance,
and later supported the Goethe University Frankfurt.

31 May 2024

Ludwigsburg Palace,
the "Versailles of Swabia",
was home to four
of Württemberg's rulers?

1 June 2024

listen to 2022 festival

According to John Eliot Gardiner,
Bach was "fired up as never before"
when he began his
second cycle of chorale cantatas
with
O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20
(O eternity, you word of thunder),
on the first Sunday after Trinity
in 1724.

watch

12 June 2012

Franz Kafka
(3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924)
wrote the 109
Zürau Aphorisms
at the estate
of his sister Ottla and her husband in Zürau
where he sought recovery from tuberculosis.

3 June 2024

During his tenure as director of the Paris Opera,
Hugues Gall
added 60 ballets to the repertoire of the company
and world premieres of operas
by Philippe Fénelon, Philippe Manoury,
Pascal Dusapin and Matthias Pintscher.

3 June 2024

Peter Demetz,
who taught German literature
at Yale University
from 1956 to 1991,
was born in Prague
where he was persecuted under the Nazis
and escaped the Communist regime in 1949.

5 June 2024

Alexander Lang,
actor at Deutsches Theater in East Berlin from 1969,
was invited to direct plays by Kleist, Lessing and Goethe
at the Comédie-Française in Paris.

6 June 2024

Dimitri,
a grand opera by Victorin de Joncières,
based on Schiller's incomplete play Demetrius
about the Russian pretender False Dmitriy I,
was first performed in Paris in 1776.

7 June 2024

Martin Luther
created the Pentecost hymn
"Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott"
by adding two stanzas
to an earlier German version of
"Veni Sancte Spiritus",
keeping its melody.

listen

8 June 2014

Mozart built the final scene
of his opera Die Zauberflöte
"upon a solemn fugato"
around the chorale
"Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein"
and Bach composed
a chorale cantata
for the Second Sunday after Trinity 1724
based on it.

listen

10 August 2011

Ernst Gutstein,
an Austrian operatic baritone
whose signature role was Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier,
created the role of Perlimplin
in Fortner's In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa
at the 1962 Schwetzingen Festival.

10 June 2019

"O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort",
translated as
"Eternity! tremendous Word",
is a hymn by Johann Rist
that served as the basis for
the first work in Bach's chorale cantata cycle.

listen

23 July 2021

Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust

"Nun jauchzt dem Herren, alle Welt"
(Now rejoice to the Lord, all the world),
a 1646 paraphrase of Psalm 100
by David Denicke and Justus Gesenius,
appears in current
Protestant and Catholic hymnals.

listen

29 June 2018

Jürgen Moltmann,
professor of systematic theology
at the University of Tübingen,
was internationally known
for books such as
Theology of Hope,
The Crucified God
and God in Creation.

interview

13 June 2024

Andreas Schager
was called a "sensation"
when he first performed Wagner's Tristan
in Minden, and went on
to Siegfried at the Staatsoper Berlin,
La Scala, and The Proms.

watch

14 June 2017

The oboist and composer
Rolf Riehm
(born 15 June 1937)
taught music theory in Frankfurt from 1974 to 2000
and wrote an opera, Sirenen, for a 2014 premiere at the Oper Frankfurt.

20 July 2019

In Bach's fourth 1724 chorale cantata,
Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, BWV 135,
for the third Sunday after Trinity
based on a hymn by Cyriakus Schneegass,
the first movement is a polyphonic chorale fantasia
with the bass as the cantus firmus.

listen

14 July 2011

Four Epigraphs after Escher
is a 1993 piano trio
by Graham Waterhouse
for viola, heckelphone and piano
based on four graphic artworks by
M. C. Escher
(17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972)
including Reptiles.

7 November 2022

In Noye's Fludde,
a one-act opera by Benjamin Britten.
based on a 15th-century Chester "mystery" play
and premiered on 18 June 1968
only the roles of Noye (Noah) and his wife
are intended to be sung by professionals,
the others by child and adolescent performers.

18 June 2024

Éric Tappy,
a member of the Grand Théâtre de Genève,
has been regarded as legendary
for portraying Monteverdi's Orfeo,
Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
and Debussy's Pelléas
with a tenor voice of exemplary clarity and diction.
watch
19 June 2024

The main work of sculptor
Fritz Koenig
(20 June 1924 – 22 February 2017)
is The Sphere,
the world's largest bronze sculpture of modern times,
on the plaza beneath the two World Trade towers,
and recovered largely intact from the ruins
after the September 11 attacks.

listen to him

20 June 2024

Ernst Pepping composed in 1937
in Nazi Germany
the Evangelienmotette
Jesus und Nikodemus
on John 3:1–15, showing
"the reality of a different, heavenly world".
listen
21 June 2015

The 2024 Rheingau Musik Festival
opens at Eberbach Abbey
with Alain Altinoglu
conducting Christian Tetzlaff
and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony
in Dvořák's Violin Concerto.

listen

17 February 2010

John Rutter
wrote the text and music of
A Clare Benediction
for choir and orchestra
to honour
Clare College, Cambridge,
where he had studied.

watch in a service

Nun jauchzt dem Herren, alle Welt

31 July 2019

In the third chorale cantata,
Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7,
first performed
on St. John's Day 1724,
based on Luther's hymn
about the baptism of Jesus,
Bach gave the cantus firmus to the tenor.

watch

24 June 2024

As stage director and scenic designer
of Puccini's Turandot
for the 2024 Internationale Maifestspiele,
Daniela Kerck
crafted a new ending
to the music left unfinished in 1924
and Puccini's "Requiem".
trailer

25 June 2024

The first solo album of
Jodie Devos,
second-prize winner of
the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2014
who appeared as Philine
in Mignon by Ambroise Thomas
at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie,
was Offenbach – Colorature.

in memory

26 June 2024

The favourite role of
Wilma Schmidt,
who performed at the Staatsoper Hannover
for more than five decades
in German, Italian and Slavic operas,
was the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier.
20 July 2022

Mein Gott, wie schön ist deine Welt

Richard Strauss
reportedly composed
"Traum durch die Dämmerung"
("Dream in the Twilight"),
from a love poem
by Otto Julius Bierbaum,
in 20 minutes.

listen

28 June 2014

Margarita Voites,
from 1969 to 1990 coloratura soprano
at the Estonia Theatre,
portrayed tragic characters
such as Lucia di Lammermoor
and well as comic roles
like La fille du régiment.
watch

29 June 2024

Paul Gerhardt's hymn
"Du meine Seele singe"
(You my soul sing),
a paraphrase of Psalm 146,
became known for a melody
beginning with a rocket motif.

listen

30 June 2015

The first public performance
in Vienna in 1903
of Arnold Schönberg's
Zwei Gesänge, Op. 1,
two expressive lieder of thanks and farewell
to contemporary poems,
with Zemlinsky at the piano,
was met with hostile audience reactions.

listen with score

1 July 2024

In 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach
composed the church cantata
Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10,
based on Luther's German Magnificat,
translating" to "My soul magnifies the Lord",
for the Feast of the Visitation,
as the fifth work in his chorale cantata cycle.

watch

2 July 2024

Libuše Domanínská,
a soprano of Prague's National Theatre,
performed in all operas by
Leoš Janáček
(3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928),
and a recording she made
as his Jenůfa
made his works better known
beyond their home country.

25 February 2021

Lando Bartolini
was a spinto tenor who performed worldwide,
as Luigi in Puccini's Il tabarro in Philadelphia in 1968,
as Verdi's Ernani at La Scala in 1982,
as Radames in Aida at the Arena di Verona in 1983
and as Calaf in Puccini's Turandot in Beijing in 1999.
listen

4 July 2024

Diana Tishchenko,
a violinist from Ukraine,
played Myroslav Skoryk's
Melody
on a tour of
the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra
to Poland and Germany
in April 2022.

watch

5 July 2022

In 2016,
Leonore von Zadow-Reichling
and Günter von Zadow from
Edition Güntersberg
published
12 Fantasias for Viola da Gamba
by Telemann
that had been lost.

listen to Thomas Fritzsch

18 July 2016

Prince Nikolaus Esterházy,
who commissioned
Beethoven's Mass in C major
for his wife's name day,
found it
"unbearably ridiculous and detestable".

listen

7 July 2015

Martti Wallén,
a Finnish bass singer
who was a member of the Royal Swedish Opera from 1975 to 2000,
performed in world premieres by Aulis Sallinen,
in The Horseman at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1975,
and in Kullervo in Los Angeles in 1992.

8 July 2024

On the Mozart family grand tour
to the cultural centres of Europe,
undertaken by Leopold Mozart,
his wife Anna Maria,
and their children Maria Anna (Nannerl)
and Wolfgang Theophilus (Wolferl)
from 9 July 1763 to 1766
the Wunderkinder
amazed and gratified their audiences.

9 July 2024

In Bio's Bahnhof,
a German live music talk show series
presented by
Alfred Biolek
(10 July 1934 – 23 July 2021)
in a former train depot,
Kate Bush
made her first television appearance.

watch

30 August 2021

Liana Isakadze,
who won the 1970
Jean Sibelius Violin Competition,
recorded as soloist, arranger and conductor
concertos by Otar Taktakishvili
and Tigran Mansurian
with the Chamber Orchestra of Georgia,
in Ingolstadt.

watch

11 July 2024

Variations for Cello Solo,
premiered by the composer
Graham Waterhouse
in Vienna in 2020,
depict characteristics
of the members of his family.

watch

7 November 2020

Violeta Dinescu
(born 13 July 1953)
composed the children's opera
Der 35. Mai
based on
The 35th of May,
or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas
by Erich Kästner.

watch

10 November 2009

Albert Schweitzer
likened the bass line
of an aria mentioning Satan
in Bach's chorale cantata
for the seventh Sunday after Trinity,
Was willst du dich betrüben,
BWV 107
(Why would you grieve),
"to the contortions of a huge dragon.

watch

8 August 2011

Soprano
Melitta Muszely
appeared as
the four women Hoffmann loves
in Offenbach's opera
in Felsenstein's production
at the Komische Oper Berlin in 1958,
and still sang recitals at age 80.

watch

30 March 2019

After Mozart's opera
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna
on 16 July 1782,
Emperor Joseph II anecdotally remarked
that it had "too many notes".

watch in Dresden, 1977

16 July 2024

Marina Kondratyeva,
a leading ballerina
at the Bolshoi Ballet from 1952
described as
"weightless, airy, poetic and spiritual",
was admired as Giselle
also in New York and London
and became a master tutor at the Bolshoi,
passing its tradition for decades.
watch

17 July 2024

After 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.
watch

2 November 2023

When Ruth Hesse
appeared at the Royal Opera House
as the Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten,
a critic described her performance as
"tirelessly ingenious and vocally in splendid command".

19 July 2024

Thomas Hoepker,
a photojournalist for Stern and Geo
and president of Magnum Photos,
with a desire to photograph human conditions
on assignments around the globe,
took
View from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Manhattan, 9/11.

As it was

20 July 2024

In 1524,
Justus Jonas wrote the hymn text
Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält
(If God the Lord does not remain on our side),
paraphrasing Psalm 124,
and in 1724,
Bach composed the chorale cantata
Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, BWV 178,
for the eighth Sunday after Trinity,
with five different chorale settings
for six of its stanzas.
watch
31 July 2012

Sarah Gibson,
who formed the piano duo
HOCKET with Thomas Kotcheff,
composed warp & weft for large orchestra,
inspired by the art of Miriam Schapiro
and scheduled for the BBC Proms.

watch duo in 2014

22 July 2024

Gerhard Klingenberg,
who had a successful early career in Austria
as an actor at the Burgtheater in Vienna at age 18
and as stage director at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt
but followed an invitation by Bertold Brecht
to his Berliner Ensemble in East Germany,
was Intendant of the Burgtheater from 1971 to 1976,
bringing in avant-garde European directors
and staging innovative plays
by Thomas Bernhard, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard.
tribute
23 July 2024

April Cantelo
created soprano roles such as
Helena in Benjamin Britten's
A Midsummer Night's Dream
and Miss Beswick in Malcolm Williamson's
English Eccentrics.

listen

24 July 2024

Max Reger
based four tone poems,
Vier Tondichtungen nach A. Böcklin,
on four paintings by Arnold Böcklin,
including Isle of the Dead.

listen

25 July 2016

Elena Mauti Nunziata,
who gained international recognition
as Verdi's La traviata
at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1977,
portrayed Puccini's Mimi
at the Metropolitan Opera
and Madama Butterfly
at the Opéra de Paris.

watch as La Traviate

26 July 2024

Lothar Zenetti's poem
"Segne dieses Kind"
became a song
of blessing for a child,
often sung
at baptism.

listen

27 July 2016

In 1724,
Johann Sebastian Bach had
an excellent flauto traverso player
at hand for
Was frag ich nach der Welt, BWV 94
(What should I ask of the world),
the chorale cantata
for the ninth Sunday after Trinity.
listen

1 August 2010

The
Rheingauer Kantorei
performed Mendelssohn's oratorio
Elias
in the Rheingauer Dom
and in the Marktkirche Wiesbaden.

listen to Handel's Halleluja

29 July 2014

Eugene Sârbu,
who won the 1978 Paganini Competition
and made an international career,
premiered the Violin Concerto
that Einojuhani Rautavaara dedicated to him.

watch Vivaldi

Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, BWV 178

30 July 2024

Wolfgang Rihm
composed Dionysos,
an "opera fantasia"
with text only by Nietzsche,
which was voted premiere of the year
after its first performance
at the Salzburg Festival in 2010.

trailer - with Rihm explaining

3 October 2017 and today

The opera
Die Hamletmaschine
by Wolfgang Rihm
has been described as
"a total theatre of sound
and nonnarrative, ritualistic drama".

trailer

29 July 2013 and today

The first stanza of the hymn
"Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist",
asking the Holy Spirit
for the right faith most of all,
is documented in German
in the 13th century,
and the later three stanzas
by Martin Luther
relate to faith, love and hope.

listen

13 November 2011

Johann Münzberg
(3 August 1799 – 1 September 1878)
ran leading textile factories in Bohemia
and promoted the building
of the Empress Elisabeth Bridge
over the Elbe in Tetschen.

3 August 2019

The central movement
of Bach's cantata
Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101,
a "furious ritornello" of three oboes,
is followed unexpectedly
by a line of the chorale,
with the melody of
"Vater unser im Himmelreich".

watch

29 August 2011

Verses 2 to 6 of
Psalm 97,
"The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice",
in Czech were set to music
by Antonín Dvořák
in his Biblical Songs.
listen

5 August 2019

In celebration of the tercentenary of the birth
of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, tenor
Markus Schäfer
performed in his oratorio
Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu
at the Rheingau Musik Festival.

listen to Schubert

6 August 2014

Jürgen Ahrend
restored the Gothic Rysum organ
and the Arp Schnitger organs
in Groningen's Martinikerk
and Hamburg's St. Jacobi.

listen to him and music

7 August 2024

Sarah Gibson,
who formed the piano duo
Hocket with Thomas Kotcheff,
composed warp & weft for large orchestra,
inspired by the art of Miriam Schapiro
and scheduled for the BBC Proms.

watch 2022 interview and performance

22 July + 8 August 2024

Antônio Meneses,
the last cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio,
recorded the Brahms Double Concerto
with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Berlin Philharmonic
in 1983
and the cello concertos by Heitor Villa-Lobos
in 2023.

watch Beethoven sonata

9 August 2024

The opera
Behold the Sun
by Alexander Goehr
(born 10 August 1932),
about the Anabaptists in Münster,
was premiered at Theater Münster
in an abridged version in German,
but the BBC aired it in full in English.
listen
26 August 2019

Bach's cantata
Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut, BWV 113,
is based on a penitential chorale,
matching the prescribed reading,
the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

watch

7 September 2011

Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez,
chief conductor of the
RTVE Symphony Orchestra,
Nationaltheater Mannheim
and the Orquesta de Valencia,
conducted a recording of
his Sinfonía del descubrimiento.
watch Mahler
12 August 2024

Johann Sebastian Bach led
the Thomanerchor in Leipzig
in the first performance of
the chorale cantata,
Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101,
on 13 August 1724.
watch

13 August 2024

For the beauty of the earth

Countertenor
David Erler
was one of five singers invited by amarcord
for the performance of Monteverdi's Vespers
as the annual Marienvesper
of the Rheingau Musik Festival in Eberbach Abbey.

watch Bach

14 August 2014

After an absence of four years,
the Inkpot Madonna,
holding a naked Baby Jesus
with quill in hand,
returned to the Hildesheim Cathedral
on 15 August 2014.

15 August 2014

Vespro della Beata Vergine

watch

The 80th birthday of
Walter Fink
was celebrated at the Rheingau Musik Festival
with compositions of
Kirchner, Lachenmann, Rihm, Widmann and Hosokawa
on 16 August 2010.

16 August 2010

listen

Celestina Casapietra,
the glamourous Italian soprano
at the Berlin State Opera
in East Berlin from the 1960s,
was the partner of Franco Corelli
in a DVD of Giordano's Andrea Chénier.

watch

17 August 2024

After Kasper König
curated exhibitions of works
by Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol
in his 20s, he initiated the
Skulptur Projekte Münster
for large sculptures in public space.

interview

18 August 2024

Librettist Gerhard Müller
and composer Georg Katzer wrote
Antigone oder die Stadt
in East Germany,
but it premiered at the Komische Oper Berlin
only after reunification.
watch
19 August 2019

Christof Nel
directed plays invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen,
like the world premiere of Thomas Brasch's Rotter in 1978,
and operas such as Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in 2003
and the first production in German of Aulis Sallinen's Kullervo in 2011.
watch Aida

20 August 2024

Hans-Georg Münzberg
(21 August 1916 – 7 November 2000)
continued to work on the development
of the Snecma Atar engine in France
despite being a professor at the Technical University of Berlin.

26 August 2019

Chieftain's Salute,
composed by
Graham Waterhouse,
is scored for
Great Highland Bagpipe
and string orchestra.
listen

22 August 2009

Debussy: Cello Sonata

Zofia Posmysz
(23 August 1923 – 8 August 2022),
Auschwitz inmate No. 7566,
wrote an audio play on her memories,
which became the basis for
her 1962 novel Passenger,
a 1963 film,
and a 1968 opera.

watch

16 March 2018

Conductor Roland Bader
(born 24 August 1938)
recorded late choral works by Max Reger,
including his Hebbel Requiem,
and the First Symphony by Richard Wetz.

listen

23 February 2013

Bach composed his chorale cantata
Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 33,
for the 13th Sunday after Trinity
on a hymn by Konrad Hubert
and first performed it
on 3 September 1724.

watch

3 September 2012

Wolfgang Rihm
said of the music of his 1987 opera
Oedipus:
"Sound is a weapon here – or a scalpel?".

watch trailer

26 August 2024

Maryvonne Le Dizès
was violinist of the ensemble intercontemporain,
working with composers
such as Pierre Boulez and György Ligeti,
and commissioning new chamber music works like
a trio for saxophone, trombone, and violin by Gilbert Amy.

listen

27 August 2024

Jerzy Artysz,
a baritone who performed title roles
from Orfeo to King Roger
at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw,
created the role of Josep Soler's Oedipus
at the Liceu in Barcelona in 1986.

watch in recital

28 August 2024

MDR Rundfunkchor,
the radio choir of the MDR in Leipzig,
performed Dvořák's Stabat Mater
in the opening concert of the
2019 Rheingau Musik Festival
at Eberbach Abbey.
watch

29 August 2019

Siegfried Lorenz
(30 August 1945 – 24 August 2024),
the first lyrical baritone of the Berlin State Opera,
recorded 151 songs by Schubert
and sang, according to Alan Blyth,
"with an enviable control of line and dynamics".
listen

12 February 2018

Of thrice-married composer
Alma Mahler
(31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964)
Tom Lehrer crooned,
"Alma, tell us!
All modern women are jealous
Which of your magical wands
got you Gustav and Walter and Franz".

10 July 2018

Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78,
Bach's chorale cantata
for the 14th Sunday after Trinity,
uses the same bass line
in a passacaglia as in
Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12.