Amarcord | |
|---|---|
 Five members in 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Leipzig, Germany |
| Genres | a cappella music |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Website | www |
Amarcord is a German male classical vocal ensemble based in Leipzig, founded in 1992 by five former members of the Thomanerchor. They primarily perform Medieval music and Renaissance music, as well as collaborating with contemporary composers. Until 2013, the group's name was Ensemble Amarcord.
The ensemble typically performs as a quintet, singers have included:
As members of the Thomanerchor, which Johann Sebastian Bach had directed in his time, the singers received the same vocal training and the knowledge of a vast repertory. The ensemble attended masterclasses with the Hilliard Ensemble and the King's Singers. In 2000 they were granted a scholarship from Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council) and were named to the Bundesauswahl Konzerte Junger Künstler, which recognized young professional musicians and provides financial support for their concert engagements. They have appeared at international festivals and undertaken tours of Europe, North America, the Middle East, South East Asia, and Australia. [1]
The first half of their concert programs is typically devoted to sacred music, while the second half shows secular music. In their first concert at the Rheingau Musik Festival, on 29 August 2002, they stepped in for the Chanticleer and performed in the Unionskirche, Idstein. They sang music of Pierre de la Rue, William Byrd, Albert de Klerk (1917–1998), and Francis Poulenc's Laudes de Saint Antoine de Padoue in the first half, works of Schubert, The Beatles, Otto Mortensen and others in the second. Their concerts programs, which they comment with a sense of humour, usually concentrate on a theme, such as Musik und Musiker in Paris (Music and Musicians in Paris) in another concert of the festival in Wiesbaden-Frauenstein on 26 August 2004. The first half contained compositions of Pierre de la Rue, Johannes Ockeghem, Pérotin, Gioachino Rossini, and Poulenc's Quatre petites prières de saint François d’Assise , the second half took through the centuries again with entertaining works of Pierre Certon, Pierre Passereau, Orlande de Lassus, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Dans la montagne of Jean Cras. Their concert in 2010 in Schloss Johannisberg picked up the festival's theme Fernweh.
In 2009 they participated in a performance and live recording of Bach's lost Markus-Passion , in the reconstructed version by Diethard Hellmann and Andreas Glöckner, in the Frauenkirche Dresden. The ensemble was augmented by sopranos Anja Zügner and Dorothea Wagner, and altos Clare Wilkinson and Silvia Janak, the Kölner Akademie was conducted by Michael Alexander Willens. The lost recitatives were replaced by recitation. [2] In 2010, they performed Monteverdi's Marienvesper in the Berlin Cathedral with the Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg and the Lautten Compagney. [3] In 2013 they performed the work as the annual Marienvesper of the Rheingau Musik Festival in Eberbach Abbey, forming the choir with additional guest singers Angelika Lenter, Hanna Zumsande, Stefan Kunath, David Erler, and Daniel Schreiber, and the Lautten Compagney conducted by Wolfgang Katschner. [4]
In 1997 the singers initiated an annual international summer festival in Leipzig for a cappella vocal music, the International Festival for Vocal Music "a cappella", where a wide variety of guest ensembles such as the Swingle Singers, the Huelgas Ensemble, the ensemble Chanticleer, and The Real Group have appeared. [5]
Contemporary composers such as Ivan Moody and Dimitri Terzakis wrote music for the ensemble amarcord. In 1998 Marcus Ludwig (born 1960) wrote in Leipzig Drei Gedichte von Paul Celan. One of these three poems of Paul Celan, Tenebrae, was recorded. [6] They premiered in 1999 Apokathilosis (from the Orthodox vespers of Good Friday) of Moody who wrote for them in 2002 Chalice of Wisdom, Matins of the Feast of St Thomas. [7] Terzakis composed in 2002 Kassandra after Aischylos, and Siegfried Thiele (born 1962) wrote for them Urworte, Orphisch after Goethe. [8] Bernd Franke (born 1959) composed for them in 2002 unseen blue I for voices and bandoneón on words of Pascual Contursi, William Shakespeare, Arthur Rimbaud, Michael Frank, and Cesare Pavese, and in 2006 unseen blue II on words of Guillaume de Machaut, Arthur Rimbaud, John Milton, David Bengree-Jones, and Lodovico Agostini. [9] Peronellas Fass (Peronella's Barrel) on a Boccaccio Decameron scene, written on a commission of the ensemble in 2005 by Aristides Strongylis (born 1974), was premiered at the opening concert of a capella in 2006. [10]
The Ensemble Amarcord won prizes at competitions in Tolosa, Spain (1995, Second Prize, Profane), Tampere (1999, Joint Third Prize), and the 1st Choir Olympiad in Linz (2000). In 2002 the ensemble won the German music competition Deutscher Musikwettbewerb [11] and in 2004 the prize of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Music Festival of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). [1]
The ensemble won the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA) of the Contemporary A Cappella Society several times, first in 2002 for their album Hear the voice, a collection of sacred music of composers Thomas Tallis, Francis Poulenc, Rudolf Mauersberger, Josquin des Prez, Darius Milhaud, William Byrd, Carl Orff, Pierre de la Rue, Peter Cornelius, and Marcus Ludwig. [12] The program and the singing were reviewed: [13]
"... the offering of works by Orff, Peter Cornelius, Rudolf Mauersberger, and Marcus Ludwig shows Ensemble Amarcord well attuned to their national heritage. The Orff work, "Sunt lacrimae rerum" is notably rhythmicized and reiterative, and an interesting contrast to the supple lines of the earlier Renaissance works. Similarly, Ludwig's "Tenebrae" explores a clustery palette and features some of the ensemble's best soft singing."
In 2006 they won the CARA in the categories "Best classical album" with Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland and also the second prize with Incessament, they won in the category "Best classical song" with Sanctus Incessament and second prize with Sic Deus Dilexit. [14] Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland is a collection of music for Advent and Christmas around Veni redemptor gentium in settings of Ambrosius of Milan and Michael Praetorius, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland of Johann Eccard, and compositions of Jacobus Vaet, Philipp Dulichius, Heinrich Isaac, and Hildegard of Bingen, among others. Incessament features music of Pierre de la Rue, especially his Missa Incessament, a five-part canonic mass ordinary, also known as Missa Sic deus & Non salvatur rex, La Rue's longest mass cycle. [15] A review on this first recording of the work remarked: [16]
"However, the Ensemble Amarcord itself deserves full credit for its breathtakingly smooth blend and celestial sweetness of tone. As with the Brumel work on the disc previously discussed, this is a worldpremiere recording of this lovely and important piece."
In 2010 their album Rastlose Liebe won the CARA in the category "Best classical album". [17] [18] Rastlose Liebe (restless love), after a song by Robert Schumann, is a collection of works of composers who lived in Leipzig in the 19th century, such as Felix Mendelssohn, Adolf Eduard Marschner, Heinrich Marschner, Carl Steinacker, August Mühling, and Carl Friedrich Zöllner. [1] In 2012 they were awarded the Echo Klassik Awards in the category "Ensemble of the year, vocal music" for their Album Das Lieben bringt groß' Freud!. [19]
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margaret Bent, "a piece of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond. The late 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheo believed that the motet was "not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts".
The Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651–668, are a set of chorale preludes for organ prepared by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig in his final decade (1740–1750), from earlier works composed in Weimar, where he was court organist. The works form an encyclopedic collection of large-scale chorale preludes, in a variety of styles harking back to the previous century, that Bach gradually perfected during his career. Together with the Orgelbüchlein, the Schübler Chorales, the third book of the Clavier-Übung and the Canonic Variations, they represent the summit of Bach's sacred music for solo organ.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36, in Leipzig in 1731 for the first Sunday in Advent. He drew on material from previous congratulatory cantatas, beginning with Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36c (1725). The Gospel for the Sunday was the Entry into Jerusalem, thus the mood of the secular work matched "the people's jubilant shouts of Hosanna". In a unique structure in Bach's cantatas, he interpolated four movements derived from the former works with four stanzas from two important Advent hymns, to add liturgical focus, three from Luther's "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" and one from Nicolai's "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". He first performed the cantata in its final form of two parts, eight movements, on 2 December 1731.
Musikalische Exequien, Op. 7, SWV 279–281, is a sacred funeral music that Heinrich Schütz wrote in 1635 or 1636 for the funeral services of Count Henry II, Count of Reuss-Gera, who had died on 3 December 1635. It is Schütz's most famous work of funeral music. The work was first performed on 14 February [O.S. 4 February] 1636 in the Johanniskirche in Gera.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61, in Weimar for the first Sunday in Advent, the Sunday which begins the liturgical year, and first performed it on 2 December 1714.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62, in Leipzig for the first Sunday in Advent and first performed it on 3 December 1724. The chorale cantata is based on Martin Luther's Advent hymn "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland". It is part of his chorale cantata cycle.
The Rheingau Musik Festival (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, in the wine-growing Rheingau region between Wiesbaden and Lorch.
"Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" is a Lutheran chorale of 1524 with words written by Martin Luther, based on "Veni redemptor gentium" by Ambrose, and a melody, Zahn 1174, based on its plainchant. It was printed in the Erfurt Enchiridion of 1524.
Hans-Christoph Rademann is a German choral conductor, currently the director of the Dresdner Kammerchor and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart.
The Dresdner Kammerchor is a mixed chamber choir which was founded in 1985 by Hans-Christoph Rademann in Dresden and is still conducted by him. The semiprofessional ensemble of about 40 singers has appeared internationally.
Marius van Altena, born Marius Hendrikus Schweppe is a Dutch tenor. He was one of the pioneers of historically informed performance of Baroque and Renaissance music. He has also sung Baroque opera, worked as conductor and as an academic teacher.
The Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg is a mixed choir in Hamburg, the chamber choir of the University of Hamburg since 1961. Founded in 1955 by Jürgen Jürgens and directed by him until 1994, it is one of Germany's most famous concert choirs. The choir is well known for its interpretations of Baroque and Renaissance music, but covers choral music from the Renaissance to contemporary music. Since 1994, the conductor has been Gothart Stier.
Wolfgang Katschner is a German lutenist and conductor. He is director of the ensembles Capella Angelica and Lautten Compagney which specialise in Baroque music—notably the operas of Handel.
lautten compagney BERLIN is a German instrumental ensemble based in Berlin. Founded in 1984 by Hans-Werner Apel and Wolfgang Katschner, now the principal conductor, it specializes in early music and Baroque music, notably the operas of Handel.
Georg Poplutz is a German tenor, a soloist in Baroque music, opera and oratorio, and a Lied singer. He has been a member of vocal ensembles such as Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble and Cantus Cölln, and has participated in a project to record the complete works of Heinrich Schütz.
Wolfgang Stockmeier was a German composer, church musician, concert organist and academic. From 1962, he was professor of music theory, organ playing and organ improvisation at the Musikhochschule Köln, and also lectured in Düsseldorf and Herford. He made more than 150 recordings of organ music.
Alois Ickstadt is a German pianist, choral conductor, university professor and composer. He was professor at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. He promoted choral singing from children's choir to adult groups for the state broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk, namely the Figuralchor Frankfurt which he founded in 1966 and conducted until 2011.
Figuralchor Frankfurt is a mixed choir in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1966 as a youth choir for the broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk by Alois Ickstadt, who conducted it for 45 years. From 1977 to the 1990s, the choir was known as Figuralchor des Hessischen Rundfunks. It performs in concerts, radio productions and recordings, with a focus on a cappella music, but has also participated in joint symphonic productions such as Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand for the opening of the Alte Oper concert hall in 1981. The choir has been conducted by Paul Leonard Schäffer since 2016.
Anne Bierwirth is a German contralto, focused on concerts and recordings of sacred music, appearing internationally. Besides the standard repertoire such as Bach's Christmas Oratorio, she has explored rarely performed Baroque music such as Bach's St Mark Passion and Reinhard Keiser's Passion oratorio Der blutige und sterbende Christus.
il Gusto Barocco is an orchestra specialising in early music and historical performance practice with its headquarters in Stuttgart.
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