A successful anniversary: The choir celebrated its 20th anniversary. © CGUG
Germering – Those who celebrate their birthday often celebrate only themselves. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the choir community Unterpfaffenhofen-Germering celebrated "the beauty of our planet Earth".
When conductor Caroline Lichtinger von Stein took the stage with her choir at 19 p.m., she looked into a fully occupied Orlando Hall, not a matter of course with summer temperatures and attractive parallel events. With John Rutter's hymn-like call "Look at the world", a hymn to the wonders of creation, the beauty of planet Earth, the choir community opened the concert evening.
In his welcome address, the moderator of the evening, Bruno Lichtinger, outlined the history of the choir - including the consequences of the Corona pandemic. What followed was a cross-section of worldly beauty expressed in different pieces: The evening song "The moon has risen" led into the different faces of the night. Franz Schubert's "The Night" glorifies the pure beauty of the night, O. Gjeilo's "Northern Lights", poignantly interpreted by Cantus Gaudium, depicted the beauty of a night illuminated by the Northern Lights.
The space perspective of the Earth on the screen turned into a waterfall and led the concert program to the elements of planet Earth, to water, origin of all life. Dvořák's "Birch on the Green Mountainside" sings of spring, his "Golden Fields" celebrate summer – waving cornfields, in harmony with bees and butterflies. L. Maierhofer's "Rain, Rain, Rain" conjured up rain with lightning and thunder. The children's dance group of the Friederike Sauer Ballet Studio also celebrated the rain, provided with umbrellas, gracefully and with much applause.
Many special moments
Jungle sounds and dark forest silhouettes announced the change to forest and fauna. With the hit from the 60s "The Lion sleeps tonight" the choir skilfully evoked jungle atmosphere, lions creeping around. The Danish folk song "I skovens dybe stille ro" tells of the silence, the tranquility of the forest - until the cuckoo calls.
Cantus Gaudium led with "Minnelied" and "Rosen so rot" to the program section "Flora". Both songs sing about the joy of spring. "What a wonderful world" – Cantus Gaudium sings of the sheer miracle of our existence – a gift, completely undeserved. With John Rutter's "For the beauty of the earth", the choir and ensemble summarize the message of all the performances of the evening.
The concert evening had some "champagne moments". But a choral birthday without the champagne song by J. Strauss is unthinkable. Thomas Noichel intoned the well-known melody from "Die Fledermaus" on the piano, Dominik Kirsch and Bruno Lichtinger provided the singing as soloists and the choir, bottles in hand, supported the soloists. The audience joined in the celebrations and gave a standing ovation.
Red