The cycle of becoming and passing away

Created: 04/11/2022, 08:00

The entertaining and cleverly designed concert under the overall direction of Franz Maier (right) with the Altenerding choir, an instrumental ensemble and soprano Ira Maria Scholz ensured that the church was full.

© VronI Vogel

Under the motto "The last rose of summer", a special concert with lyrics and music was dedicated to the subject of becoming and passing away.

The church in Altenerding was full.

Altenerding

- "The last rose of summer", the summer's last rose: This was the title of the concert with the Altenerding choir, soprano Ira Maria Scholz and an instrumental ensemble under the overall direction of Franz Maier in the fully occupied Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in Altenerding.

In words and music, the subject of transience was considered from various aspects.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Erding newsletter.)

The instrumental ensemble included Klaudia Ligas (oboe), Vadym Palii (piano), Alexander Scholz and Alexandra Wagner (both violins) as well as Yuka Grüner (viola) and Helmut Veihelmann (cello).

Conductor Maier led through the concert with his own thought-provoking texts and well-chosen poems and had also arranged some musical contributions appropriately.

The last rose of summer let the Altenerding choir blossom right at the beginning in the Irish folk song of the same name.

"I'm always amazed by a rose in our small garden that blooms long into autumn.

Often even when the first hoarfrost is already laying on their leaves," said Maier, referring to the cycle of growth and decay with the poem "Sommerbild" by Friedrich Hebbel: "It's a pain that everything is so transient, so changeable , which everyone carries within them.”

With these words, Maier led the way to the song "Bist du bei mir" by Johann Sebastian Bach, intimately interpreted by soprano Ira Maria Scholz and the ensemble.

"If you are with me, I go with joy, to die and to my rest" - the awareness of one's own finiteness and a consolation that overcomes the fear of death were musically grasped in a simple and moving way.

A consolation that also shone in Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's choral song "Who persists to the end" from the oratorio "Elias".

"Life is a dream", sang Ira Maria Scholz.

“Life is like a wave.

Or like a dream.

Joseph Haydn set this truth to music very gently, very cautiously, fleetingly.

As if he wanted to tell us: just because life passes like a short dream, live it, enjoy it, be grateful and take what life wants to give you," Maier explained.

The choir intoned Mozart's "Ave verum" - enchanting and sad at the same time.

Beautiful in its chamber music delicacy: "A Chloris" for oboe and instrumental ensemble.

Touchingly, Ira Maria Scholz played “Solvejgs Lied”.

The concert ended with the old hymn “Lux beata trinitas”.

Light illuminated the darkness.

The audience also applauded a comforting encore: "You'll Never Walk Alone".

And the cryptic text by Konstantin Wecker, which Maier gave the audience, also focused on vital lust for life after reflections on transience: "Enlightenment is still so far away from me: I just love living terribly!"

Vroni Vogel