The Reger-Chor is a German-Belgian choir. It was founded in Wiesbaden in 1985 and has been conducted by Gabriel Dessauer in Wiesbaden. Since 2001 it has grown to Regerchor-International in a collaboration with the organist Ignace Michiels of the St. Salvator's Cathedral of Bruges. The choir performs an annual concert both in Germany and Belgium of mostly sacred choral music for choir and organ. Concerts have taken place regularly in St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden, and in the cathedral of Bruges in its series "Kathedraalconcerten". The choir performed additional concerts at other churches of the two countries and in the Concertgebouw of Bruges.
The concert on 16 October 1985 was part of the Internationale Orgelkonzerte Wiesbaden, with concerts of Roger Fisher, Judit Hajdók and Maurice Clerc, among others, on the Walcker organ of the Marktkirche in Wiesbaden, which Max Reger had played himself when he had lived there starting in 1891.[2] Gabriel Dessauer conducted the choir,[3] Beckschäfer was the organist. He also played his arrangement for organ of Reger's Die Toteninsel, part of Vier Tondichtungen nach A. Böcklin. The concert is considered the foundation of the Reger-Chor.
The name was chosen in 1988, when the next project was dedicated to the German premiere of Joseph Jongen's Missa op. 111. Later projects included one of the first performances in Germany of Rutter's Requiem, recorded on the first CD of the Reger-Chor in 1990.
In 2001 an international collaboration began with the organist Ignace Michiels, bringing together an almost equal number of singers from Flanders and the Rhein-Main Region to perform an annual concert both in Germany and Belgium.
Projects
1988
The choir sang the German premiere of Joseph Jongen's Mass for choir, brass ensemble and organ, Op. 130, which was not yet in print then, both in the Stiftskirche of Aschaffenburg and in St. Bonifatius.
On 1 November 1990 the choir sang in St. Bonifatius Reger's motetsDer Mensch lebt und bestehet and Nachtlied from Acht geistliche Gesänge, op. 138, and Rutter's Requiem in the version for chamber ensemble. The concert was recorded on CD, the choir positioned "mixed", no two singers of a voice part next to each other, to improve homogeneity.
1992
On 16 June 1992, commemorating the 80th birthday of Maurice Duruflé, the choir sang in St. Bonifatius his Requiem in the organ version, with alto Laetitia Henke-Cropp and organist Petra Morath. Gabriel Dessauer played Duruflé's Suite op. 5.
1998
On 11 January 1998 the choir sang secular choral music in the hall of St. Bonifatius, accompanied by Petra Kristen, piano: Edward Elgar's From the Bavarian Highlands op. 27, the first of "Two Songs to be sung of a summer night on the water" by Frederick Delius, Rutter's Five Childhood Lyrics, and the Zigeunerlieder, op. 103, by Brahms. The songs of Rutter were performed also on 24 January at a workshop for choral conductors which the composer conducted in Limburg, introducing his Magnificat. He first listened and then conducted the music himself.
2001
Organ of Sint-Salvatorskathedraal
The first concerts of the Regerchor-International were performed in St. Salvator and in St. Bonifatius. the choral part of the program was William Lloyd Webber's Missa Sanctae Mariae Magdalenae, Jules Van Nuffel's psalm Dominus regnavit, and again Reger's Requiem. The concert in Wiesbaden was recorded.[4]
2002
The choir sang concerts in St. Salvator and St. Bonifatius, the choral part of the program was Joseph Ryelandt's Missa quatuor vocibus mixtis cum organo op. 84 and Kodaly's Laudes organi. Bruges was European Capital of Culture that year, therefore music was performed of a composer who had been affiliated with the city for life.
2003
The choir premiered in concerts in St. Bonifatius and St. Salvator the organ version of Reger's Der 100. Psalm of François Callebout.
2004
The choir sang in St. Salvator and St. Bonifatius sacred works for choir and organ of Van Nuffel, including In convertendo Dominus, and Reger's Nachtlied.
2006
Concert poster for Bach: Jean Fouquet, Madonna and Child, c. 1450.
As part of the Boni-Musikwochen 2008 in St. Bonifatius, celebrating the 175th birthday of Brahms, the choir sang three motets op. 110, Geistliches Lied op. 30, and Fest- und Gedenksprüche op. 109. The program was repeated at the Heilig Hart Kerk in Knokke.
Celebrating 25 years, the choir performed as part of the Boni-Musikwochen 2010 in St. Bonifatius the last movement of Bach's congratulatory cantataBWV 134a, Van Nuffel's In convertendo Dominus, the Gloria from Ryelandt's Missa op. 84 and Reger's Hebbel-Requiem.[6][7] The program was performed on 4 September 2010 in St. Salvator as the final concert of the Kathedraalconcerten 2010.[8]
On 5 November, the choir performed Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms in an organ version at St. Salvator. Ignace Michiels began the concert with an organ version of Mendelssohn's Variations sérieuses and an arrangement of Liszt's St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots from Deux légendes (1862).[9] The same program was performed in Wiesbaden on 12 November.[10]
The choir remembered Reger's centenary of death by another performance of Der 100. Psalm.[13] A concert on 27 August 2016 at the Bruges Cathedral combined Bach's Concerto in A major, BWV 1055, played in an organ version by Leonie Dessauer on an oboe d'amore and Ignace Michiels, who also performed Reger's organ works Scherzo, from Zwölf Stücke, Op. 65/2, and Perpetuum mobile, from Zwölf Stücke, Op. 80/2. The choir also sang two works by Belgian composers, Van Nuffels psalm setting Laetatus sum and Joseph Ryelandt's Panem de coelo. It was the closing concert of the Kathedraalfestival Brugge 2016.[14]
John Rutter: Requiem, motets of Reger, Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm, Reger-Chor, Monika Fuhrmann (soprano), instrumentalists, organist (Rutter): Petra Morath, organist (Reubke) and conductor Gabriel Dessauer (1990, recorded live in St. Bonifatius Wiesbaden)
Max Reger: Hebbel-Requiem, organ works, Regerchor-International, conductor Gabriel Dessauer (2001, recorded live in St. Bonifatius Wiesbaden)[4]
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, as a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, and as a music director at the court of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen.
Colin Mawby KSG was an English organist, choral conductor and composer. From 1961 he was Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, then from 1981 he was the choral director at Radio Telefís Éireann. He composed masses dedicated to specific choirs, including in Germany. He was awarded Knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory in 2006.
Max Reger's 1915 Requiem, Op. 144b, is a late Romantic setting of Friedrich Hebbel's poem "Requiem" for alto or baritone solo, chorus and orchestra. It is Reger's last completed work for chorus and orchestra, dedicated in the autograph as Dem Andenken der im Kriege 1914/15 gefallenen deutschen Helden.
Ignace Michiels is a Belgian organist, choral conductor and organ teacher. He is internationally known as a concert organist.
Gabriel Dessauer is a German cantor, concert organist, and academic teacher. After studies with Diethard Hellmann and Franz Lehrndorfer, he was responsible for the church music at St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden from 1981 to 2021, conducting the Chor von St. Bonifatius until 2018. Besides normal church services, he conducted them in regular masses with soloists and orchestra for Christmas and Easter and a yearly concert. In 1995 he prepared the choir for a memorial concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, performing Britten's War Requiem with choirs from countries involved in the war, and concerts in Wiesbaden and Macon, Georgia. Programs of choral concerts included Hermann Suter's Le Laudi in 1998, the German premiere of Rutter's Mass of the Children in 2004, and the world premiere of Colin Mawby's Bonifatiusmess in 2012 which he had commissioned for the choir's 150th anniversary. The concert of 2008, Vivaldi's Gloria and Haydn's Nelson Mass, was also performed at San Paolo dentro le Mura in Rome.
Max Beckschäfer is a German organist, composer and academic who taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and the Hochschule für Musik Augsburg-Nürnberg. He received commissions from the Munich Biennale, the concert series Klangspuren, the Dresdner Kreuzchor, the Palucca-Ballettschule Dresden and Die Singphoniker. He wrote an organ version of Reger's Hebbel-Requiem.
St. Bonifatius in Wiesbaden, Germany, is the central Catholic parish and church in the capital of Hesse. The present building was designed by architect Philipp Hoffmann in Gothic Revival style and built from 1844 to 1849. Its twin steeples of 68 m (223 ft.) dominate the Luisenplatz. The parish is part of the Diocese of Limburg.
Marktkirche is the main Protestant church in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse, Germany. The neo-Gothic church on the central Schlossplatz was designed by Carl Boos and built between 1853 and 1862. At the time it was the largest brick building of the Duchy of Nassau. It is also called Nassauer Landesdom.
Martin Lutz is a German musicologist, conductor and harpsichordist. He was the musical director of the concert choir Schiersteiner Kantorei in Wiesbaden from 1972 to 2017, and founded the biennial festival Wiesbadener Bachwochen in 1975.
Franz Lehrndorfer was a German organist, composer, and pedagogue.
Petra Morath-Pusinelli is a German organist.
The Chor von St. Bonifatius is a German mixed choir, the church choir of the parish St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden. It was founded in 1862 as a male choir and was a mixed choir from 1887. From 1981 to 2018, it was conducted by Gabriel Dessauer, who founded two children's choirs. The group sang the first performance in Germany of John Rutter's Mass of the Children and performed in Azkoitia, San Sebastián, Görlitz, Bruges, Macon and Rome. Colin Mawby composed for the choir the Missa solemnis Bonifatius-Messe for the 150th anniversary, celebrated on 3 October 2012. From 2019, the choir has been conducted by Roman Twardy who conducted in his first concert Dvořák's Stabat Mater. On 1 January 2022, Johannes Schröder became church musician. He conducted as his first choral concert Verdi's Requiem in an arrangement for small ensemble.
Rheingauer Kantorei, now Neue Rheingauer Kantorei, is a mixed choir of the Rheingau region in Germany, performing mostly sacred music in services and concerts.
Der 100. Psalm, Op. 106, is a composition in four movements by Max Reger in D major for mixed choir and orchestra, a late Romantic setting of Psalm 100. Reger began composing the work in 1908 for the 350th anniversary of Jena University. The occasion was celebrated that year with the premiere of PartI, conducted by Fritz Stein on 31July. Reger completed the composition in 1909. It was published that year and premiered simultaneously on 23February 1910 in Chemnitz, conducted by the composer, and in Breslau, conducted by Georg Dohrn.
St. Stefanus is a Catholic parish church in Ghent, Belgium, part of an Augustinian monastery. It is dedicated to St. Stephen. The present building dates from 1841.
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.
Roman Twardy is a German teacher, academic lecturer and the conductor of the Wiesbadener Knabenchor boys' choir in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. The choir appears internationally and has made recordings. From 2019, Twardy is also interim conductor of the church choir Chor von St. Bonifatius in Wiesbaden.
Wiesbadener Bachwochen is a biennial festival of music around Johann Sebastian Bach in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse, Germany. It was initiated and has been run by Martin Lutz. The city awards the Bachpreis der Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden to an organist who wins the festival's international competition.
Johannes M. Schröder is a German organist, composer and Catholic church musician. After several years responsible for the church music at the Westerwälder Dom, he moved to St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden. He is also a lecturer and a music editor.
Fabian Kelly is a German tenor and choral conductor. As a singer, he is most active in concert, including historically informed performances in works such as Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine and Handel's Messiah. He recorded a revival of Franz Ignaz Beck's opera L'isle déserte and Mozart's Requiem.
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