MUSIC TO BE SEEN, HEARD AND FELT – - Rundfunkchor Berlin

POLY 

VOKANT 

WINNER GRAMMY AWARD 2008 AND 2009 FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL 2010 

FEATURE STORY 

MUSIC TO 

BE SEEN, 

HEARD 

AND FELT 

– 

SAVITRI WITH RUNDFUNKCHOR BERLIN 

AND THE CONTORTIONISTS OF 

“SCHLANGENMENSCHEN” – 

LARS SCHEIBNER STAGES GUSTAV HOLST 

AT THE TECHNO CLUB BERGHAIN 

Rundfunkchor Berlin returns to Europe’s hippest techno 

club with Gustav Holst’s chamber opera Savitri. In 2009 

the British techno magazine DJ Mag named Berghain 

the best techno club in the world. The chorus first 

appeared a year ago in this huge mecca to hardcore 

hedonism situated behind the Ostbahnhof: and in the 

imposing rooms of the former power plant, it succeeded 

in turning on a whole new audience to its music. 

For the Berlin choreographer Lars Scheibner, Berghain is 

now the place in Berlin for experiencing phenomena 

like crossing boundaries, ecstasy and transcendence. 

Savitri is the story of a woman who succeeds in conquering 

Death because she has seen through the veil 

of Māyā (the illusion of all existence). The English 

composer Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934), best know for his 

orchestral suite The Planets, derived the work from the 

Mahabharata, the Hindu epic retelling of the history of 

mankind, created over centuries. Holst learned Sanskrit 

in order to read the original text in the British Museum. 

For two decades he was obsessed with India, and during 

this time created several operas, choruses, songs and 

instrumental works (some still unperformed) on Indian 

subjects. 

In Rundfunkchor Berlin’s series Broadening the Scope 

of Choral Music, Lars Scheibner is working on Savitri 

with an international group of female contortionists. 

Just as the party scene with its own “temples” and 

rituals represents today’s venue of ecstasy, so the art of 

contortion symbolizes the human body’s transcendence 

of its natural limits. “For me”, declares Scheibner, 

“contortion is a visual symbol of the transcendence 

that Savitri dares to undergo by confronting Death. 

And she wins.” …

NEWS 


PHILHARMONIE BERLIN 

FRI 26 FEBRUARY 2010, 8 PM 

SAT 27 FEBRUARY 2010, 8 PM 

COLOGNE, PHILHARMONIE 

MON 1 MARCH 2010, 8 PM 

INGO METZMACHER – CONDUCTOR 

Robert Schumann had a twofold talent 

for music and poetry. His admiration for 

Goethe’s Faust knew no bounds, and he 

long harboured a plan to set individual 

scenes from the tragedy. He began with 

the final scene, also composed by Mahler, 

and worked for nine years on the tragedy of 

Gretchen before reaching the keys scenes 

of Faust II. Thus, in a sense, we can follow 

Schumann’s development in reverse order 

in the Faust Scenes as well as his utopian 

vision of a German national art, which took 

a direction so different from Wagner’s. Ingo 

Metzmacher is devoting himself to the 

work as part of his “Germany” cycle. 

BERLIN, PHILHARMONIE 

2010 SING-ALONG CONCERT 

SUN 7 FEBRUARY 2010, 4 PM 

INGO METZMACHER 

SING-ALONG CONCERT 2009 

All tickets for singing participants as well 

as for listeners have been sold. The waiting 

list is long. Following selections by Mozart, 

Orff, Brahms, Handel, Fauré, Verdi and Mendelssohn, 

Schubert’s Mass in A flat is on 

the programme for this year’s Sing-Along 

Concert. With some 1500 participants, 

this masterpiece of Classical balance and 

Romantic exuberance, which took Schubert 

longer to compose than any of his other 

works, is certain to receive a powerful performance. 

Continuation of feature story 

No connection is intended here between classical music 

and vaudeville. “We will move and choreograph our 

wonderful contortionists like dancers”, says Scheibner 

at once to prevent any possible misunderstanding. 

They are part of a dramaturgical concept that channels 

the energies of text, music and movement into a 

flowing, poetic life context. 

The space is also part of this context. The architecture 

on the ground floor recalls the stone forest of Karnak, 

A FLOWERING TREE, 

2006 STAGED BY PETER SELLERS 

EXISTENTIAL 

URGENCY 


PETER SELLARS LAUNCHES A WORK-IN- 

PROGRESS WITH BACH’S MATTHEW PASSION 

For Easter 2010, Peter Sellars and Sir Simon Rattle are 

preparing a staged concert version of Bach’s St.Matthew 

Passion with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Rundfunkchor 

Berlin. The American star director sees the project 

expressly as homage to Rundfunkchor Berlin.“After our 

performances of John Adams’s The Flower Tree, a number 

of individual members of the chorus came up to me 

as asked if we couldn’t continue working together. And 

I was also thinking about continuing the collaboration 

with them, because the power and emotionality that 

come from this ensemble are so strong.”The choice fell 

to Bach, because this time Sellars wanted to work on 

something outside the chorus’s own cultural circle. 

He makes one thing immediately clear: this won’t be a 

staging in the conventional sense of the word. There 

will be no special lighting, no costumes, and no set 

other than the concert hall.The hall itself is the setting: 

Sellars views concert attendance as a ritual, which in all 

its implication suggests a parallel to the ritual of church 

attendance. “My job is to work with the chorus on 

the text, on making the text understandable in order 

to intensify the communication between stage and 

audience. Some things will manifest themselves as 

physical movement, while others turn inward.” Sellars 

regards the performances as the first step in a longer 

work-in-progress. He hopes with the Matthew Passion 

thereby creating an association between antiquity, 

another bygone era – that of industrialization – and the 

present day. At the beginning of the evening, DJ’s and 

VJ’s (video jockeys) will transport the audience to an 

elevated state approaching trance, out of which Holst’s 

poetic vision of a woman’s wisdom can unfold. 

BERLIN, BERGHAIN 

MON 10 / TUES 11 MAY 2010, 10 PM 

(Admission at 9 pm) 

to be able to establish a long-term, increasingly active 

performance tradition in Berlin. 

His understanding of Bach is taken from real life. It was 

singers – who in 1980 invited the then 23-year-old director 

to create his first Handel stagings and with whom 

he created his legendary Mozart opera cycle – who introduced 

him to Bach. For nearly a decade he attended as 

regularly as possible the complete cycle of Bach cantatas 

given in Boston’s Emmanuel Church, one every Sunday. 

“The church has many social programmes: for the homeless, 

drug addicts, alcoholics, woman suffering from 

domestic abuse and fugitives. In its services I experienced 

how vital a significance Bach’s music can have 

for people in need.” Now he aims to recreate a sense of 

his experience of this existential urgency. 

SALZBURG, GROSSES FESTSPIELHAUS 

SUN 28 MARCH / SAT 3 APRIL 2010, 6.30 PM 


FRI 9 / SAT 10 / SUN 11 APRIL 2010, 7 PM

JOIN IN! 


IT’S ALL HAPPENING AT RUNDFUNKCHOR 

BERLIN’S 4TH LIEDERBÖRSE 

Preparations for the next Liederbörse (Song Exchange) 

are in full swing. Seven Berlin secondary schools and a 

primary school are taking part in this year’s annual festival 

for school choirs, organized by the Radio Chorus. In 

addition, there will be two courses in performance art 

to ensure a Carnival atmosphere in the Berlin Philharmonie’s 

Chamber Music Hall. To mark the fifth anniversary, 

Gunter Berger has proclaimed 13 February 2010 

Carnevale mondiale at this gathering of Berlin’s singing 

youth and children from the age of ten upwards. 

The concert will be colourful – that much has already 

been determined. Rundfunkchor Berlin will set the tone 

with the title melody from Johann Strauss’s Night in 

Venice. The mother of all Carnival operettas was composed 

in Vienna, premiered in Berlin and set in Venice – 

and is thus genuinely mondial. Then the children and 

young people will storm the halls in the guise of 

singing London street hawkers. A samba with everyone 

joining in will move the Carnival to Rio. The Hans 

A WARM 

WELCOME! 


TO NICOLAS FINK, NEW ASSISTANT 

AT RUNDFUNKCHOR BERLIN 

Rundfunkchor Berlin has a new assistant. On 1 February 

2010, Nicolas Fink will succeed Sigurd Brauns, who 

retired on 31 October 2009. The young Berne conductor 

was noticed by Simon Halsey in 2005 at the Eric Ericson 

masterclass in Haarlem. In 2006 Halsey brought him 

to Berlin for Christian Jost’s Angst. Regular further 

invitations followed, including for Bernstein’s Third 

Symphony, John Adams’s Transmigration of Souls and 

Humperdinck’s Königskinder. On 24 January 2010 he will 

conduct the first of his own concerts with Rundfunkchor 

Berlin. 

Fink studied choral conducting, singing and the duties 

of a choral répétiteur in Lucerne before become a con- 

Carossa Gymnasium will throw a party on the Caribbean. 

The Albert Einstein Oberschule will contribute a 

charivari, or noisy mock serenade, from Venice circa 

1600; Rundfunkchor Berlin will offer some “nonsense” 

from 20th-century Italy. France will be represented by a 

nightingale quodlibet, the Baltic by a satirical song of the 

Vepsians, an ancient Finnic people living between Lake 

Ladoga and Lake Onega in northwestern Russia. And 

from Germany will be heard the “nose” canon of Friedrich 

Kuhlau, who fled to Denmark during the Napoleonic 

Wars and was celebrated there, yet also wrote witty 

music for German Liedertafel (male singing circles). 

As part of the Liederbörse, the singers of Rundfunkchor 

Berlin go out into the schools as tutors. At the concert 

itself, the audience can also sing along. A half hour 

before the concert starts, they will be given a brief rehearsal. 



LIEDERBÖRSE 

SING-ALONG-CONCERT FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN 

NICOLAS FINK 

ducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center under 

Bernard Haitink and James Levine. In Switzerland he 

directed many choirs of his own. He also took over rehearsals 

of the Hilversum (Netherlands) and WDR (West 

German) radio choruses. Most recently, he was assistant 

musical director of the Palladium Theatre in Stuttgart. 

KAMMERMUSIK- 

PODIUM 


TREPTOWER, 

ALLIANZ DEUTSCHLAND AG 

4TH KAMMERMUSIKPODIUM 

LOVE AND OTHER FLOWERS 


Traditional Jewish art is a permanent fixture 

of our cultural life today. One of the 

less well-known vocal forms of the Jewish 

musical tradition is the Sephardic art-song. 

Jörg Schneider and his fellow musicians will 

present some of the gems of the Spanish- 

Jewish vocal tradition. 


LORELEY AND OTHER BLONDES 

SUN 7 MARCH 2010, 5 PM 

The beloved four-part harmonists of the 

male quartet Vokalzeit just couldn’t resist. 

After the classics, folksongs and songs of 

the Freemasons, Italians and night owls, 

the ladies are now on as the ensemble celebrates 

International Women’s Day.Whether 

her name is Ruth, Gerda or Veronika, she’ll 

be lovingly serenaded in the style of the 

Comedian Harmonists. 

KRISTIINA MÄKIMATTILA 


FOLKSONGS 

SUN 18 APRIL 2010, 5 PM 

JÖRG SCHNEIDER 

VOKALZEIT 

In 1964 Luciano Berio gave a face-lift to a 

number of folksong from around the world 

in rather crazy instrumentation for his wife 

Cathy Berberian. 45 years later, Rain Schnös, 

Rundfunkchor Berlin bass, is continuing this 

experiment for Kristiina Mäkimattila with 

Brahms folksongs. On an afternoon in April, 

you’ll be able to experience both the original 

and the sequel.

CD’S 


HENZE’S NINTH SYMHONY UNDER 

JANOWSKI IN THE PRESS 

As part of his complete recording of the 

symphonies of Hans Werner Henze, conductor 

Marek Janowski now presents the 

Ninth Symphony in a performance by 

the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and 

Rundfunkchor Berlin. This perhaps definitive 

recording, in superb studio quality, has 

met with unanimous praise. 

Overwhelmingly forceful, 

even in the delicate passages. 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 

Brilliant recording 

Berliner Zeitung 

Indeed, Chorus and Orchestra fuse into 

a super-instrumental body, the voices 

functioning like another section. In this 

new recording their tone and range seems, 

if anything, more refined and attuned 

to Henze’s searing textures. Highly 

recommended. 

Gramophone 

HENZE SYMPHONY NO. 9 

Rundfunkchor Berlin (Michael Gläser) 

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin 

MAREK 

JANOWSKI 

Wergo 

WER 6722 2 

IMPRESSUM 


RUNDFUNKCHOR BERLIN 

Charlottenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Germany 

CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Telefon +49 (0)30 - 20 29 87 22, Fax -29 

tickets@rundfunkchor-berlin.de 

MANAGEMENT 

Telefon +49 (0)30 - 20 29 87 560, Fax -569 

info@rundfunkchor-berlin.de 

www.rundfunkchor-berlin.de 

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Simon Halsey 

MANAGING DIRECTOR Hans Rehberg 

TEXT Boris Kehrmann 

EDITORIAL Ilka Rößler-Gnauck 

LAYOUT tableau GmbH, Berlin 

PHOTOS Lars Scheibner, Ruth Walz, Bettina 

Straub, Mathias Bothor, Matthias Heyde 

Rundfunkchor Berlin is an ensemble of 

Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre Gmbh, 

Berlin. 

GENERAL MANAGER Gernot Rehrl 

SHAREHOLDERS 

Deutschlandradio, the Federal Republic 

of Germany, the State of Berlin, Radio 

Berlin-Brandenburg 

CONCERTS 2. – 4. 2010 



2010 SING-ALONG CONCERT 


FRANZ SCHUBERT 

MASS IN A FLAT MAJOR D678 

for soloists, chorus and orchestra 

Simone Nold – soprano 

Rebecca Martin – mezzo-soprano 

Markus Schäfer – tenor 

Konrad Jarnot – baritone 


GUESTS OF RUNDFUNKCHOR 

BERLIN 

RUNDFUNK- 

SINFONIEORCHESTER BERLIN 

DEUTSCHE 

STREICHERPHILHARMONIE 

SIMON HALSEY – CONDUCTOR 

_ 



LIEDERBÖRSE 

(SONG EXCHANGE) 

SING-ALONG CONCERT 

FOR STUDENTS 

CARNEVALE MONDIALE 

CARNIVAL SONGS, MADRIGALS 

AND CHORUSES FROM ALL OVER 

THE WORLD 

STUDENTS FROM BERLIN 

SCHOOLS 

Sigurd Brauns, Andre Julig – piano 

Uli Singer – guitar /charango 

Stefan Weiser – bass 

Udo Mack – percussion /drums 


GUNTER BERGER – CONDUCTOR 

AND MODERATOR 

_ 

TREPTOWER, ALLIANZ 

DEUTSCHLAND 


LOVE AND OTHER FLOWERS 


Music of the Sephardi Jews 

of the Mediterranean region and 

Ottoman Empire 

Christine Lichtenberg – 

mezzo-soprano 

Judith Simonis – contralto 

Jörg Schneider – baritone, guitar 

INSTRUMENTALISTS FROM 

THE BERLIN CONSERVATORY 

FOR TURKISH MUSIC 

Nuri Karademirli – oud 

(short-necked lute) 

Serkan Kaynarcali – kanûn 

(trapeze zither) 

Dündar Atalay – ney (reed flute) 

Lorenz Masé – keman (violin) 

Senol Eyol – bendir, darbuka (drum) 

_ 


FRI 26 FEBRUARY 2010, 8 PM 


COLOGNE, PHILHARMONIE 

MON 1 MARCH 2010, 8 PM 

ROBERT SCHUMANN 

SCENES FROM GOETHE’S “FAUST” 

for solists, chorus and orchestra 

Christian Gerhaher – baritone (Faust) 

Camilla Nylund – soprano (Gretchen) 

Georg Zeppenfeld – bass 

(Mephistopheles) 

Mojca Erdmann – soprano 

Ingeborg Danz – mezzo-soprano 

Werner Güra – tenor 

STAATS- UND DOMCHOR BERLIN 

KAI-UWE JIRKA 


STEFAN PARKMAN 

DEUTSCHES SYMPHONIE- 

ORCHESTER BERLIN 

INGO METZMACHER – 

CONDUCTOR 

_ 




LORELEY AND OTHER BLONDES 

SUN 7 MARCH 2010, 5 PM 

Salon music and chansons in the 

style of the Comedian Harmonists 

VOKALZEIT – MALE QUARTET 

Jan Remmers – tenor 

Joachim Vogt – tenor 

Michael Timm – bass 

Oliver Gawlik – bass 

Philip Mayers – piano 

_ 

SALZBURG, GROSSES 

FESTSPIELHAUS 

SALZBURG EASTER FESTIVAL 

SAT 27 MARCH 2010, 5 PM 

MON 5 APRIL 2010, 5 PM 

RICHARD WAGNER 

GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG 

Ben Heppner – tenor (Siegfried) 

Gerd Grochowski – baritone (Gunther) 

Mikhail Petrenko – bass (Hagen) 

Dale Duesing – bass (Alberich) 

Katarina Dalayman – soprano 

(Brünnhilde) 

Emma Vetter – soprano (Gutrune) 

Anne Sofie von Otter – mezzo-soprano 

(Waltraute) 

Anna Siminska – soprano (Woglinde) 

Eva Vogel – mezzo-soprano 

(Wellgunde) 

Maria Radner – contralto 

(Flosshilde, 1st Norn) 

Michaela Martens – mezzo-soprano 

(2nd Norn) 

Miranda Keyes – contralto (3rd Norn) 

Stéphane Braunschweig – 

stage production and set design 

Thibauld Vancraenenbroeck – 

costume design 

Marion Hewlett – lighting design 


SIMON HALSEY 

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER 

SIR SIMON RATTLE – 


_ 

SALZBURG, GROSSES 

FESTSPIELHAUS 

SUN 28 MARCH 2010, 6.30 PM 

SAT 3 APRIL 2010, 6.30 PM 


FRI 9 APRIL 2010, 7 PM 

SAT 10 APRIL 2010, 7 PM 


JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 

ST. MATTHEW PASSION 

Mark Padmore – tenor (Evangelist) 

Camilla Tilling – soprano 

Magdalena Kozˇená – mezzo-soprano 

Topi Lehtipuu – tenor 

Christian Gerhaher – baritone 

Thomas Quasthoff – baritone 

Christina Bischoff – soprano 

Barbara Kind – soprano 

Isabelle Voßkühler – soprano 

Christine Lichtenberg–mezzo-soprano 

Holger Marks – tenor 

David Stingl – baritone 

Axel Scheidig – bass 

Peter Sellars – ritualization 

KNABEN DES STAATS- 

UND DOMCHORES BERLIN 

(BERLIN ONLY) 

KAI-UWE JIRKA 

KNABENCHOR SALZBURG 

(SALZBURG ONLY) 

WOLFGANG GÖTZ 


SIMON HALSEY 

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER 

SIR SIMON RATTLE – 


_ 




FOLKSONGS 


JOHANNES BRAHMS/ 

RAINER SCHNÖS 

FOLKSONGS 

RAINER SCHNÖS (ARR.) 

SUOMALAISIA KANSANLAULUJA/ 

FINNISH FOLKSONGS 

LUCIANO BERIO 

FOLK SONGS 

Kristiina Mäkimattila–mezzo-soprano 

Aaron Dan – flute 

Bernhard Nusser – clarinet 

Wolfgang Hasleder – violin / viola 

Ithay Khen – cello 

Maria Todtenhaupt – harp 

Martin Krause, Benjamin Ulrich – 

percussion 

Wolfgang Hasleder – direction 

_ 

BERLIN, BERGHAIN 

MON 10 MAY 2010, 10 PM 

TUES 11 MAY 2010, 10 PM 

GUSTAV HOLST 

HYMNS FROM THE RIG VEDA 

SAVITRI (EPISODE FROM THE 

MAHABHARATA) 

Alba, Helena, Sabrina – contortion 

Susan Bickley – mezzo-soprano 

Christopher Gillett – tenor 

Konrad Jarnot – baritone 

Lars Scheibner – scenic adaptation / 

choreography 

Rico Heidler – staging / lighting design 

Änn – costumes 

Boris Kehrmann – dramaturgy 

Pfadfinderei design bureau – VJ 

David Canisius – DJ 

SIMON HALSEY – CONDUCTOR 

MEMBERS OF THE RUNDFUNK- 

SINFONIEORCHESTER BERLIN 

LADIES OF RUNDFUNKCHOR 

BERLIN

MUSIC TO BE SEEN, HEARD AND FELT – - Rundfunkchor Berlin

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