Description
On November 3, 2021 at 8 pm, the Berlin Oratorien Choir (BOC) will perform "Ein deutsches Requiem" by Johannes Brahms at the Philharmonie Berlin as part of its traditional fall concert. In addition, the work "Besinnung," a setting of Hermann Hesse's poem of the same name (1933), begun by Richard Strauss and now completed by BOC conductor and composer Thomas Hennig, will celebrate its world premiere.
The evening will be performed by the Berlin Oratorien Choir together with the Apollo Choir of the Staatsoper (rehearsal: Artur Just), the Young Voices of the Max Delbrück Gymnasium (rehearsal: Franziska Günther) and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Hennig. The solo parts will be performed by Yvonne Friedli (soprano) and Artur Just (baritone).
Tickets starting at 15 euros (plus additional costs, if applicable) are available via the BOC website, at the known advance booking offices, Ticketmaster and Eventim, as well as at the Philharmonie's guest box office. Pupils and students pay 10 euros at the box office upon presentation of proof. The current hygiene regulations of the Philharmonie Berlin apply (3-G proof, AHA rules, contact tracking).
On the genesis and completion of the "Besinnung
Richard Strauss had announced his departure as a composer in August 1941, intending to compose only occasionally and without ambitious intentions. He himself described his late works as 'wrist exercises'. This understatement, however, does not do justice to the extraordinary genius of the late output, as the Oboe Concerto and the Metamorphoses demonstrate. In the last years of his life, the composer turned very intensively to the poetic works of Herrmann Hesse. In addition to three poem settings, which were combined in a cycle after the composer's death as "Vier letzte Lieder", there is another unfinished song for soprano and (probably) orchestra entitled "Nacht," which could not be completed.
Strauss left extensive sketches for "Besinnung," which have survived in two notebooks. In a second work step, he had transferred the first sketches into a particell, an extended piano score, which was intended as the basis for the score fair copy. A further collection of the fugue elaboration in the particell has also survived. Strauss was no longer able to complete the sketches and begin the final work for the completion of the score. The plan remained a fragment.
The Berlin Oratorien Choir - one of the oldest lay choirs in the city
