St. Ottilien - The Monteverdi Choir Munich filled the monastery church of St. Ottilien with heavenly sounds.
Under the direction of Konrad von Abel, the numerically small but vocally large ensemble delighted with its program “If Music be the Food of Love”, which came almost exclusively from the pen of women.
Creative women, especially composers and poets, have been part of human culture since antiquity, but in the patriarchal world they were long considered “a kind of natural wonder and exceptional phenomenon”, as the program said.
Social conventions and male sensitivities often hinder the development of female talents.
The best example is Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's older sister and just as gifted as he is.
Her father did not allow her to publish her compositions - including the “Garden Songs” performed by the Monteverdi Choir - and to use her musical skills professionally.
She was only allowed to give concerts in private.
Robert Schumann also objected to his wife Clara being too active as a pianist, although it was she who brought the money into the house with her performances. He preferred to sit at home and compose. The three mixed choirs based on poems by Emanuel Geibel, which could be heard in St. Ottilien, were also created - the solemn “Evening celebration in Venice” contrasting with the lively “Forward” and the yearning “Gondoliera”. As a representative of Romanticism, Clara Schumann loved the “Land of Classics”, which meant Italy and the city of Venice as well as Greece.
For the prelude, however, the choir continued into the past and chose two madrigals by the Renaissance composer Vittoria Alleoti. She was already a celebrity in her time in the 16th century, albeit primarily as an organist. Maddalena Casulana appeared in the program as the second representative of the Renaissance. Her four-part madrigals let all of the choir's voices come into their own in the wonderful acoustics of the monastery church.
The Monteverdi.Chor celebrated its 30th anniversary with this program. Founded in 1991 by Konrad von Abel - pupil and artistic assistant Sergiu Celibidache until his death - the choir quickly gained an excellent reputation at home and abroad. The small ensemble - currently there are 24 members - is working intensively on well-known works as well as rarely performed a capella choral literature from all musical eras.
You could feel the careful preparation in the precise intonation and transparency of the choir. Although the program included works from very different epochs, a harmonious whole was created, crowned by the modern American composers Amy Cheney and Jean Belmont Ford and the Englishwoman Vivienne Olive, who set a poem by Emily Dickinson to music, among other things. In dark and accusatory, then again almost shrill tones, the choir interpreted “Who robbed the woods?”, This work from the 19th century, the text of which anticipates today's struggle against the destruction of nature.
Most recently, the title work was on the program of the Munich choir: “If Music be the Food of Love (sing on till I'm filled with joy)”, a Shakespeare quote, in German: “When music is the food of love is, keep singing until I am filled with joy ”.
So were the numerous listeners in the monastery church, as the sustained applause proved.
