Frieder Bernius (born 22 June 1947) is a German conductor, the founder and director of the chamber choir Kammerchor Stuttgart, founded in 1968. They became leaders for historically informed performances. He founded the Stuttgart festival of Baroque music, "Internationale Festtage Alter Musik", in 1987, and is a recipient of the Edison Award (1990), Diapason d'Or (1990) and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1993).
Frieder Bernius was born in Ludwigshafen-Oppau, the second child of the Protestant minister Helmut Bernius and his wife Inge, a church musician. [1] [2] [3] After his Abitur at the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Mannheim he studied music and musicology at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and at the University of Tübingen. In 1968, his first year at the Musikhochschule, he founded the Kammerchor Stuttgart (Stuttgart chamber choir). [4] They first concentrated on a cappella music of the 19th and 20th century, but expanded their repertoire. [1]
Since 1977, Bernius has collaborated with leading German orchestras and conducted the choirs of broadcasters, such as the SDR and WDR, the NDR Chor and the RIAS Kammerchor.
In 1985 the choir decisively turned to early music, and Bernius became known as a conductor of historically informed performance. [5] [6] He has continued in Bach's music the several-voice-to-a-part approach, as opposed to the one-voice-per-part approach advocated by Andrew Parrott and Joshua Rifkin. [7] The Historical Dictionary of Choral Music says that it the choir is "recognized for high musical standards and stylistic flexibility, winning many international awards." [8] Classical cites Bernius as leading "lively and intelligent performances." [9] He has collaborated with the Musica Fiata of Cologne, the La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy of Paris and the Tafelmusik of Toronto. [4]
In 1985/1987, he was instrumental in founding the Barockorchester Stuttgart and the Stuttgart festival of Baroque music, "Internationale Festtage Alter Musik" (now "Stuttgart Barock"). [4] In 1988, Bernius, the Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Barockorchester Stuttgart performed the first concert of the first season of the Rheingau Musik Festival at Eberbach Abbey. [10] On 23 June they performed two works by C. P. E. Bach, his Magnificat and the oratorio Die Israeliten in der Wüste , with soloists Nancy Argenta, Lena Lootens, Mechthild Georg, Howard Crook and Stephen Roberts. [11] Bernius and the choir toured the Far East in 1988 and the USA in 1989. [4]
Bernius began recording with Sony Classical in 1989. [12] In 1992 he recorded Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice with Nancy Argenta and Michael Chance. In May 1990 he was awarded the Dutch Edison Award for his recording of Symphoniae Sacrae III by Heinrich Schütz with the Musica Fiata, and in November 1990 he was awarded the French Diapason d'Or for his recording of Missa Dei Filii by Jan Dismas Zelenka with the Tafelmusik. [4]
In 1991 he founded the orchestra Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. In 2002, he became musical director of the ensemble Hofkapelle Stuttgart. On 10 July 2005, he conducted at the Rheingau Musik Festival Krzysztof Penderecki's Polish Requiem with the Kammerchor Stuttgart and the Sinfonia Varsovia at Eberbach Abbey. [13] In 2006 he released a CD of Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6 by Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda on the Orfeo label, and also recorded Handel's Messiah (2009), Cherubini's Requiem (2010), and Johann Rudolph Zumsteeg's opera Die Geisterinsel (2011). [12]
In 2009 he was honoured with the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig. [12] Bernius has been teaching numerous workshops teaching, including in Belgium in 1995. [14]
In 2012, he and the Kammerchor Stuttgart were among the "Wegbegleiter" ("Companions along the way") of the Rheingau Musik Festival in its 25th anniversary season, artists who had appeared regularly from the beginning. [10] [15] They performed at Eberbach Abbey Schubert's "Gesang der Geister über den Wassern", and Ein deutsches Requiem by Brahms, with the Klassische Philarmonie Stuttgart. [16]
Opera
Sacred music
Orchestral
Daniel Ochoa is a German baritone.
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.
Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart is a foundation in Stuttgart, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1981 to foster international concerts and workshops, namely Musikfest Stuttgart, dedicated especially to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in relation to present day composition. Its director has been Hans-Christoph Rademann from 1 June 2013.
Dorothee Mields is a German soprano concert singer of Baroque and contemporary music.
Marcus Ullmann is a German classical tenor.
Werner Güra is a German classical tenor in opera, concert and Lied, also an academic teacher in Zurich.
Elisabeth Scholl is a German soprano and academic teacher.
Michael Herrmann is a German culture and music administrator. He founded the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1987 and is its Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer. He also runs a concert agency in the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Pro Arte Konzertdirektion, and started an agency for concerts in the Kurhaus Wiesbaden in 2019, Wiesbaden Musik, beginning with a concert on his 75th birthday.
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.
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.
The Missa Votiva is a mass composed by the Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in 1739, Dresden. The Missa Votiva is about seventy minutes long, and its twenty parts range from forty-five seconds to over seven minutes in length.
Johannes Kaleschke is a German classical tenor in opera and in concert.
Mechthild Georg is a German operatic mezzo-soprano, and a professor of voice at the Musikhochschule Köln.
Mechthild Bach is a German soprano and a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen.
Johannes Hill is a German baritone in concert and in oratorios, who has performed internationally. Singing in choirs from age 10, he has performed major roles in oratorios, such as both Jesus and Pilate in Bach's Passions, and Pope Francis in the premiere of Laudato si'. He has also performed in vocal ensembles such as Kammerchor Stuttgart and Collegium Vocale Gent.
Václav Luks is a Czech harpsichordist, horn player, conductor, musicologist and pedagogue, founder and artistic director of the Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and of the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704. He specialises in Baroque music, especially in the works of Jan Dismas Zelenka, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and others. His activities have played an important role in reviving interest in the works of Czech composers including Zelenka and Josef Mysliveček. In 2022, Luks was awarded the title of Knight of the French Ministry of Culture, Arts and Letters.
Andrea Lauren Brown is an American soprano and second prize winner of the 2003 ARD International Music Competition. Often appearing as Andrea Brown, she has performed at international venues and festivals, and has made recordings of rarely played sacred music including cantatas by Christoph Graupner.
Die Deutsche Liturgie, MWV B 57, is a collection of musical settings of the ten sung elements in the Protestant liturgy, composed by Felix Mendelssohn for double choir a cappella. He wrote it in 1846 for the Berlin Cathedral, on a request by the emperor, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia. It was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1875 in the complete edition of the composer's works.
Vom Himmel hoch, MWV A 10, is a Christmas cantata by Felix Mendelssohn. He composed the chorale cantata, based on Luther's hymn "Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her", in 1831, setting selected stanzas with unchanged lyrics for soprano and baritone soloists, a five-part mixed choir (SSATB), and orchestra. The cantata was first published by Carus-Verlag in 1983, with an English version From heav'n on high.
* 22. Juni 1947 in Ludwigshafen /Rhein, Chordirigent. Nach dem Studium der Schulmusik und Mw. in Stuttgart und ...
Frieder Bernius FRlEDER BERNlUS Das klingt zauberhaft: »Frieder Bernius, le magicien«, ... Mit Hilfe großer Interpretennamen der Alte-Musik-Szene machte sich der 1947 in Ludwigshafen geborene Dirigent in Stuttgart rasch einen Namen.
sous la baguette toute de vitalité passionnée de Frieder Bernius qui, toujours sur instruments anciens, a déjà dirigé, à Stuttgart, un autre chef-d'œuvre méconnu de Jommelli, Vologeso
In the opening session, Andrew Parrott (conductor of the Taverner Consort, Choir and Players and musicologist), Andreas Glöckner (research associate at the Bach-Archiv Leipzig) and Frieder Bernius (conductor of the Kammerchor Stuttgart) presented opposing readings of the historical sources concerning Bach's vocal ensemble.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
