Weilheim has never seen an Advent concert like this before
Created: 11/29/2022, 4:00 p.m
By: Magnus Reitinger
The Weilheim Chamber Orchestra conducted by Florian Appel played with emotion on Sunday in the Hochlandhalle - here at the second concert at 7 p.m., which was a little less well attended.
Many families with children also listened to the first one.
© rudder
On Sunday, more than 550 listeners were accompanied into Advent by the chamber orchestra and the town band Weilheim - with a concert program that has never been heard in Weilheim before.
Weilheim
– It was not a cheesy, sweet start to Advent that Florian Appel, the artistic director of the Weilheim Chamber Orchestra, prepared for his musicians and the audience: the program, which could be experienced twice on Sunday in the large highland hall, was courageous, complex and spirited.
In addition to the pleasant baroque festive sound, Appel had placed two less well-known contemporary works that also allowed for disturbing sounds.
In this way, he perfectly underscored the advent itself, which is not a festival but a time of longing.
And especially this Advent 2022, which, in addition to the usual temptations to consume, also has to defend itself against the questionable Fifa football business.
When it really shouldn't be about anything other than peace, peace, peace.
Also many families with children in the audience
What does the soul need in such stormy times?
First of all space!
And silence!
In addition, care, sincerity, reflection... She got all this in this boldly and harmoniously composed concert hour, which attracted over 350 visitors to the premiere at 5 p.m. (including many families with children) and almost again at the repeat at 7 p.m 200. Anyone who got involved in the interplay of this program was richly rewarded - with a new listening experience and with inner emotion.
Prelude high up - with two conductors
Both were already offered at the beginning: "We all play with Freudenschall", so Weilheim's town band, invited as a guest ensemble, agreed to the coming splendor in early baroque festivity.
Johannes Eccard's work for double choirs was blown high up by two opposite tiers and also conducted twice.
The way Florian Appel and the leader of the town band, Anian Schwab, played the balls to each other was nice to see and programmatic for this evening.
Chaotic answers to a pressing question
Because Schwab quickly switched to the role of the trumpet soloist, when the chamber orchestra immediately set a counterpoint to the pure euphony: From a distance and almost imploringly, the trumpet always throws the same question into the room in "The Unanswered Question" - at first hesitant, then excited and getting consistently discordant replies from a wind quartet from across the hall.
In between, the 30 or so strings weave an almost motionless tapestry of sound that demands the utmost concentration from the performers.
The work of the American Charles Ives was heard in two different versions.
The two versions of 1906 and 1935 differed only in nuances;
What remained was the great poignancy and the probing, title-giving, ultimately unanswered question - to which there is simply no real answer possible.
The message: Take your time if you want it to be good
Appel also ventured into modern realms with the work that lent this Advent program the motto: "Festina lente" seems strange and familiar at the same time, a meditatively flowing and rhythmically challenging composition for the orchestra (including two harps) by the Estonian Arvo Pärt from 1988. Certainly an unusual choice for an Advent concert, and yet appropriate: the Latin "Festina lente" can be roughly translated as "haste makes waste".
Message: Just when things seem to be urgent, you should slow down and take the time that everything needs to be good.
Pärt's delicate soundscapes invite you to do so, both quietly and urgently.
Instead of an encore, the audience sang enthusiastically
The chamber orchestra, which is growing visibly and, thanks to permanent wind instruments, can now do without "buying in" for concerts, did justice to the special requirements of the contemporary pieces with relish.
In the cheerful baroque "Christmas Concert" by Arcangelo Corelli, they were allowed to really let the bows run and anticipate rich festive sounds.
The currently five woodwind players set emotional accents.
Result: a full, finely accentuated, captivating overall sound.
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After another atmospheric double choir of the town band, it was not only the applause that proved how much the music – and Advent – resonated with the audience within this hour of concerts.
It showed even more the fervor and sensitivity with which the visitors joined in the final song "Tochter Zion".
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