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concert
13, 14 February 2008
Semperoper, Dresden
Genia Kühmeier
Simon Keenlyside
Sir Colin Davis
Sächsisch Staatskapelle
Choir der Sächsischen Staatsoper
In commemoration of the destruction of the city in 1945
Giuseppe Verdi:
Quattro pezzi sacri
Gabriel Fauré:
Requiem op.48
Since 1951 the Staatskapelle and the Choir of the Staatsoper perform a requiem every year on Dresden’s Day of Remembrance, to commemorate the city’s destruction on 13th February 1945 only a few weeks before the end of the Second World War. This season the concerts will include for the first time the late Romantic lyrical Requiem by Gabriel Fauré.
The performance on 13 February will be broadcast on the 18 February 2008 at 8pm local time on the two radio stations, MDR FIGARO and MDR Klassik
http://www.mdr.de/radio/programm/prog_detail+72072008_2_18.html
Press release, e.g. see Newsropa.de, 11 February 2008
Translated by Ursula Turecek
Concert on the anniversary of Dresden’s destruction
DRESDEN: Lyric remembrance of the dead – A concert remembering the destruction of Dresden
In the Staatskapelle’s remembrance concerts Sir Colin Davis conducts Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem for the first time
In this year’s requiem concerts of the Sächsische Staatskapelle on the anniversary of Dresden’s destruction in WW II (13/14 February, Semperoper) works by Gabriel Fauré and Giuseppe Verdi are scheduled. Honorary conductor Sir Colin Davis who celebrated his 80th birthday last autumn will conduct Giuseppe Verdi’s four late “sacred pieces” (Quattro pezzi sacri) and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem op. 48. This work that numbers among the crucial requiem settings in sacred choral music is scheduled for the first time in the remembrance concerts of the Staatskapelle. However, Sir Colin Davis has already recorded this work with Staatskapelle during one of his first stays in Dresden in a famous production on record in 1984. The soloists of the current performance are Genia Kühmeier, soprano and Simon Keenlyside, baritone. The Choir of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden will sing.
Giuseppe Verdi composed his “Quattro pezzi sacri” between 1886 and 1898 in his old age, partly after finishing his last opera „Falstaff“. The four pieces (Ave Maria, Laudi alla Vergine Maria, Stabat Mater, Te Deum) reach from great inwardness to the haunting drama of the passion and together with the requiem represent the composer’s choral symphonic legacy. Almost at the same time with Verdi, Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem op. 48: In 1887 the first version was produced, but the work was finally completed only in 1889. Fauré’s requiem mass is characterised by its lyric, comforting fundamental note and like Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, which was geared toward Fauré, completely renounces the horror sequence of “Dies irae”.
Since 1951 the Staatskapelle Dresden performs a requiem setting together with the State Opera’s choir every year on the Dresden anniversary. These concerts without applause shall remind of the city’s destruction in the last months of WWII but at the same time encourage meditation on the suffering in today’s world. Honorary conductor Sir Colin Davis has stood at the rostrum of these concerts several times already, the last time in February 2004 with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem.
This year’s concerts will be recorded by MDR Figaro and broadcast on the radio on the 18th February 2007, 8 p.m.
Click here for a short interview with Simon about this performance
What the critics say
Dresdner Zeitung (Hans Peter Altmann), 15 February 2008
Translated by Ursula Turecek
Dresden remembrance: Concert of the Sächsische Staatskapelle at Semperoper
Fascinating and captivating
Since 1951 Staatskapelle, Philharmonie and Kreuzchor have dedicated concerts to the memory of Dresden’s destruction. Furthermore there is a wealth of musical remembrance in the environment –shattering again and again despite the distance in time to the 13. 2. 1945. Musical remembrance of the dead is after all beyond the mere pain, it tries to show a way, to direct the view forward. Just think of how comfort, encouragement, confidence develop from „Requiem aeternam dona nobis“ („Give them eternal peace“). The „classical“ works (Mozart, Verdi, Dvorák, Brahms) are examples of this, they are performed in Dresden again and again.
In the concert of the Sächsische Staatskapelle at Semperoper Giuseppe Verdi’s „Quattro pezzi sacri“ („Four sacred pieces“) sounded this year, „Four Last Songs“ arranged for mixed chorus and orchestra generated at the end of Verdi’s life and in view of the majesty of Death – some sort of farewell to his wife Giuseppina who died shortly after the work’s completion. So it is a late work that was not created in one stroke which explains its lack of cyclic closeness. However, the handling of colours and the wealth of expressive means spread in the excellent performance of Staatskapelle and Staatsopernchor under Sir Colin Davis were fascinating.The broadly shaped a capella-parts, for four mixed voices in the introductory „Ave Maria“ and for women’s choir in „Laudi alla Vergine“ announced the excellent quality of the choir (rehearsed by Ulrich Paetzholdt) with whom the conductor could perform the most subtle nuances. Where the orchestra joins in, an enormous width of devoutly heartfelt peace and great operatic gesture shows itself. The subtle interpretation by Sir Colin Davis was an experience apart. A precise performance penetrated with highest musicality stood side by side with his superior and supremely good conducting.
Gabriel Fauré’s „Requiem“ also has a turbulent genesis. Therefore the unity of the composition that was created and revised several times between 1887 and 1892 is all the more amazing. It is a work of soft sounds, prefering the low regions in the orchestra. Without exception subtly felt melodics are displayed, particularly in the moving „Agnus Dei“. Yet ther was no lack of intensity knowing how to compensate for the proceedings that stayed a little at the surface. With the excellent soprano Genia Kühmeier we regretted that her part had only very modest dimensions. So impressive was her short appearance. Simon Keenlyside (baritone) had an extensive possibility to present top quality in singing and expression. He used it convincingly.
Here chorus and orchestra were on a high level too. Fauré stipulated the use of an organ. Johannes Wulff-Woesten achieved an exellent balance – always alert.