Die erste Walpurgisnacht
Goethe’s dramatic ballad Die erste Walpurgisnacht inspired Mendelssohn to compose a magnificent and vivid portrayal of the conflict between an old pagan community and the new aspirations of Christianization, between belief and superstition and the witches’ sabbath, steeped in legend. The composition became one of his most successful choral works.
Now Frieder Bernius has recorded the work on CD with the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and Renée Morloc, David Fischer, Stephan Genz, and David Jerusalem in the solo parts. The recording also includes excerpts from Mendelssohn’s incidental music Oedipus at Colonos to Sophocles’ tragedy.
With this recording Frieder Bernius once again demonstrates why his Mendelssohn recordings have achieved benchmark status worldwide.
Contents
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Composer
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
| 1809-1847
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Choir
Kammerchor Stuttgart
The Kammerchor Stuttgart is regarded as one of the best ensembles of its kind. Over its fifty-year existence, Frieder Bernius has developed the choir into an exceptional ensemble acclaimed by audiences and press alike. This has led to invitations for the choir to perform at all the important European festivals. In Germany the chamber choir performs at festivals and in concert halls in repertoire ranging from the 17th to the 21st century. Frieder Bernius and his ensemble have received numerous accolades for their contribution to new music. The Kammerchor Stuttgart has made over 80 CDs and LPs, numerous of which have been awarded international recording prizes (including the Edison award, Diapason d’or, Gramophone Choice, Classical Internet Award, International Classical Music Award, and German Record Critics’ Award prizes). The International Federation for Choral Music has invited the ensemble to sing at the 1st, 4th and 10th World Symposia on Choral Music in Vienna, Sydney and Seoul. Regular tours of North America and Asia since 1988 and a South America tour reflect the Kammerchor Stuttgart’s international reputation. Since 1984 the top ensemble has also been invited to Israel biennially. Personal details
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Orchestra
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is one of the world's leading orchestras, captivating audiences everywhere with its unique style of music-making. The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has been the orchestra's Artistic Director since 2004.
One of the many highlights of the collaboration with Paavo Järvi has been their Beethoven Project, on which conductor and orchestra concentrated for six years. Their Beethoven interpretations have been acclaimed worldwide by audiences and critics alike as benchmark performances. Following the Beethoven Project The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi focused on Robert Schumann's symphonic works with equal success.
The latest project of the orchestra and its conductor is the German composer Johannes Brahms. The first CD (Sony/RCA) of the project – Symphony No. 2, Tragic Ouverture and the Academic Festi-val Ouverture – was released in autumn 2017 and received the Opus Klassik in October 2018. The second CD, including Symphony No. 1 and the Haydn-Variations, followed in autumn 2018. With the third and fourth Symphony, released in March 2019, the symphony cycle has come to completion.
Highlight of the project was the internationally acclaimed performance of ›A German Requiem‹ on the 10th of April 2018 at Bremen Cathedral, 150 years after the first performance. The recording has now been released on DVD and Blu-ray by C-Major. In October 2019, ›The Brahms Code‹ – an excit-ing TV/DVD documentary about the Brahms Project produced by Deutsche Welle/Unitel – was re-leased and is the current German Record Critics' Award winner in the category music film (listed 1/20).
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has been honoured with countless prizes such as Echo, Opus and Diapason d'Or for its recordings and the unique education project with the Gesamtschule Bremen-Ost in Osterholz-Tenever, the Zukunftslabor. For years, the orchestra has cultivated close musical friendships with international soloists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Maria João Pires, Janine Jansen, Igor Levit, Hilary Hahn and Martin Grubinger.
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is permanent guest orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Festival Orchestra of Kissinger Sommer. Personal details
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Orchestra
Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart
The Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart is comprised of musicians from leading German symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles who have been performing with Frieder Bernius over a long period. Although the orchestra uses modern instruments, the conductor and his players are particularly interested in stylistic distinctions. For performances of large-scale choral works, the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart is the orchestral pendant to the Kammerchor Stuttgart. The orchestra has participated in a variety of events, including the Rheingau Music Festival, Stuttgart European Musikfest, Baden-Württemberg International Festival, Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wroc³aw (Poland), the Kassel Music Festival, the Philharmonic Society of Brussels and the Herbstliche Musiktage Bad Urach. The idea of creating an orchestral partner of equal quality to the Kammerchor Stuttgart has been vindicated not least by their joint recording of Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem. The French periodical Répertoire has confirmed Frieder Bernius’s vision of the work as a “discographic knockout.” Personal details
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Conductor
Frieder Bernius
| 1947Frieder Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire. Personal details
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Conductor
Frieder Bernius
| 1947Frieder Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire. Personal details
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Soloist
David Fischer
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Soloist
David Jerusalem
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Soloist
Renée Morloc
Renée Morloc trained as a singer in Stuttgart and Salzburg. The contralto made her operatic debut as Erda in Siegfried at the Mannheim Nationaltheater. Her repertoire consists chiefly of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Verdi roles. She has made guest appearances in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dresden, Tokyo, at many European opera houses, and in the USA. Her Salzburg Festival debut in 2007 was in the Breth production of Eugene Onegin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. She has also been involved in radio, television and film productions and CD recordings. Her concert career has focused on Mahler’s orchestral works with solo voice, in addition to an extensive oratorio repertoire. She has sung in Leonard Bernstein’s seldom-performed Jeremiah Symphony as well as in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and numerous contemporary works. Personal details
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Soloist
Stephan Genz
Reviews
... Die Interpretation überzeugt durch einen klaren Ton, Ausgewogenheit zwischen Orchester- und-Singstimmen sowie insgesamt durch eine allgemeine Textverständlichkeit. ...
Eine exzellent dargebotene Einspielung dieses wunderbaren Werkes.
Christina Schnauß, Chorzeit, 06/2020
... Frieder Bernius, ..., ist mit seinen exzellenten Stuttgarter Ensembles Garant für eine mustergültige Interpretation.
CHOR aktuell, 06/2020
... hier jedoch wird die Musik selbst zum Schauspiel, ... Und Frieder Bernius erweist sich einmal mehr als überzeugter und glutvoller Romantiker mit besonderem Faible für die Musik Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys.
Jan-Geert Wolff, Pizzicato, 05/05/2020
... Das Rezept: Klarer Chorklang, intensive Wortausdeutung. ... Diese Herangehensweise hat Bernius bis heute nicht nur durchgehalten, sondern immer mehr perfektioniert.
Claus Fischer, rbbKultur, 28.04.2020
...Bernius creates an ominous orchestral swirl representing the inexorable forward momentum of the demons and witches. In his hands, the music rises to several dramatic climaxes, all of them impressive. This is now my preferred recording of this work!
Lynn René Bayley, THE ART MUSIC LOUNGE, an Online Journal of Jazz and Classical Music, 2020
... Frieder Bernius hat „Die erste Walpurgisnacht“ mit dem Kammerchor Stuttgart, der Deutschen Kammerphilharmonie Bremen und hervorragenden Solisten für Carus klangvoll eingespielt.
Schwäbische Post, April 2020
... Bernius hat „Die erste Walpurgisnacht” klangvoll eingespielt.
Schwäbisches Tagblatt, 30.04.2020