Concert to mark Osnabrück Peace Day
Niedersächsisches Vokalensemble
Direction: Joachim Siegel
Facilitation: Stefan Hanheide
Choral works by Barber, Eisler, Vaughan Williams and others
Dictatorships arose in Europe in the 1930s, bringing the fear of a new world war. This concern was expressed in many works of literature, art and music. A selection of five works for a cappella choir were presented during the concert. The works featured were Hanns Eisler’s cantata “Gegen den Krieg” (1936) to a text by Bertolt Brecht, Darius Milhaud’s “Cantate de la Paix” (1937) to words by Paul Claudel, Randall Thompson’s cycle of eight sacred choruses “The Peaceable Kingdom” (1936), and Samuel Barber’s outstanding “Agnus Dei,” based on an orchestral work from 1938.
The Niedersächsisches Vokalensemble was founded in 2014 by Joachim Siegel, Director of the Osnabrück University Choir, and is made up of young singers from Lower Saxony. The choir came in first in the Sixth German/Dutch Church Music Award in 2018. There was particular praise for the homogeneity of the sound quality of the choir and the differentiated lyrical shaping of the compositions.
November 3, 2019, 4 pm, Kleine Kirche next to the cathedral
The concert was recorded by Deutschlandfunk Kultur and broadcast on Sunday, January 12, 2020, at 8.03 pm.