Bürger-Sänger-Zunft MünchenFelix Mendelssohn Meets Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga
This event is in the past.
![Munich Citizens' Singers' Guild View from above of a stage with orchestra and choir.](https://www.gasteig.de/imgs/Buerger-Saenger-Zunft-Muenchen_c_Buerger-Saenger-Zunft-MuenchenVG_Angela_Reissloehner.png?x63196)
Clara Suckart makes her debut as the Bürger-Sänger-Zunft’s new conductor with works by two Romantic composers: Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, who is often praised as the Spanish Mozart, and Felix Mendelssohn with his Psalm 42. Spanish choral songs round off the programme.
This event is in the past.
Clara Suckart makes her debut as the Bürger-Sänger-Zunft’s new conductor with works by two Romantic composers: Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, who is often praised as the Spanish Mozart, and Felix Mendelssohn with his Psalm 42. Spanish choral songs round off the programme.
Arriaga’s extraordinary musical talent was recognised early on and encouraged by his father. Born in Bilbao, Spain in 1806, he wrote an opera at the early age of 13. His works were honoured with prizes at the Paris Conservatoire in 1823/24 and enjoyed great popularity even during his lifetime. By the time he wrote the Sinfonia a gran orquestra in D major, he had not yet celebrated his 20th birthday. His early death in January 1826 prevented him from realising his full potential.
A violinist from the Bürger-Sänger-Zunft orchestra remarked: “I hadn’t known the composer Crisóstomo Arriaga before. Musically, I liked the symphony from the start. During rehearsals, I noticed that the music has a lightness to it. But to convey this lightness, with its little musical figures, is not so easy, even less so for an amateur player. That reminded me of Mozart, where it’s the same: you have to practise a lot before you can hear the lightness in the music.”
Of Felix Mendelssohn’s cantata Psalm 42, Wie der Hirsch schreit, Cologne broadcaster Domradio says: “Mendelssohn combined the powerful language of the Old Testament’s Psalms with the expressiveness of Romantic music like hardly another composer of the 19th century. ‘Wie der Hirsch schreit’ describes strong human emotions such as desire, fear in times of distress and the hope for salvation … Mendelssohn used all his compositional skills to portray these feelings in his music.”
Featuring
- Choir and orchestra of the Bürger-Sänger-Zunft
- Henriette Maria Bruchholz, soloist
- Clara Suckart, musical director
- Choir of the Freies Musikzentrum München, directed by Henriette Maria Bruchholz
This concert is supported by the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich.