Fascinating oratorio
Choir Director Prof. Kerstin Behnke on the Summer Concert on 20 July in the Weimarhalle
The Music High School Schloss Belvedere and the University Choir Weimar invite you to a joint summer concert on Thursday, 20 July at 7:30 pm in the Weimarhalle. The Weimar University Choir with students from the University of Music FRANZ LISZT and the Bauhaus University Weimar and the choir of the Schloss Belvedere Music High School, directed by Annette Schicha, will sing.
The orchestra of the Music High School, conducted by Joan Pagès Valls, will play. Prof. Kerstin Behnke, professor of choral and ensemble conducting at the Weimar Music University and director of the university choir, is the overall artistic director of the evening.
Prof. Behnke, how do you meet the didactic challenges of a university choir that has a different cast every semester?
Kerstin Behnke: That is exciting every semester and sometimes leads to me having to change the repertoire at very short notice because I don't have the instrumentation for the planned pieces in front of me. In the first rehearsal phase, a lot of attention is always paid to shaping the sound of the choir. Through register rehearsals and individual voice training, we also work on a homogeneous sound on a small scale. And in the meantime there is already a "hard core" of Bauhaus students and students from the University of Music who have been with us for several semesters and create some continuity.
How did the collaboration with the choir and orchestra of the Music High School Schloss Belvedere come about?
Behnke: The original initiative came from a pupil of the grammar school who is now also on stage and also sings small solos in the Schumann pieces. At his suggestion, I met with Annette Schicha, Joan Pagès and Marian Grosew, who are responsible for the choir and orchestra work at the Music High School Schloss Belvedere, and thought about the possibility of working together. The joint work is wonderful, I am very glad that Elia suggested it!
What made you decide to put Gade's oratorio "Erlkönig's Daughter" on the programme?
Behnke: We wanted to find a piece that is easy to sing for the choir, in which all ages sing along, interesting for the orchestra and a discovery for the audience. I performed the oratorio once before in Berlin a few years ago. It tells an exciting story in a very confined space. The choir plays a leading role and the soloists of our university present themselves in the demanding parts. Niels Wilhelm Gade frames the drama with a pastoral prologue and epilogue, and in between takes us out of a village society into the equally fascinating and deadly realms of Erlenhöh. There, the beguiling daughter of the Erlkönig transforms from seductress to deadly danger. The wound she inflicts on her victim keeps him alive just long enough for him to return to the village. Great opera in only 45 minutes!
What can the audience particularly look forward to in this large-scale summer concert in the Weimarhalle?
Behnke: The audience can look forward to pupils and students making music together enthusiastically at the highest level and presenting a programme that places man in a relationship with nature in all works. On the one hand, embedded in its beauty, but on the other hand, as a creature helplessly and powerlessly at the mercy of its forces. Man can only exist in harmony with nature and in love.
Thank you very much for the interview!
The interview was conducted by Jan Kreyßig.
[17 July 2023]