As of: March 26, 2024, 1:23 p.m
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Atmospheric evening: In the atmospherically illuminated Miesbach parish church, choirs, soloists and orchestras came together on Palm Sunday to serve the audience, among other things, Franck's “The Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross”.
© thomas plettenberg
This debut sets standards: the new Miesbach church musician Benedikt Meurer and his ensemble made a brilliant debut with a large passion concert.
Miesbach
- Rarely does one experience such a long-lasting and loud standing ovation as on this evening after the Passion Concert in the Miesbach parish church.
For the new church musician Benedikt Meurer, this was a tailor-made debut that sets the bar high for the future.
“The Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross” were not just a musical pleasure with their congenial interplay of singing, orchestral accompaniment and lighting.
Meurer, who recently took up his position in the district town, is living out his passion for choral music in his debut.
This ultimately made the decision to come to Miesbach, as the 31-year-old told our newspaper (we reported).
And so Meurer pulled out all the stops that were available at the first opportunity.
The church choir, jazz ensemble and schola from the parish of the Assumption of Mary were involved.
In addition, the orchestra and soloists marched when the evening's title work came: César Franck's “The Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross”.
At the end there is confidence
If we look more closely, these are the seven final sentences with which the evangelists described the last hour of the crucified Savior, explained pastoral speaker Kathrin Baumann, who left her place in the choir for a moment to those listening.
In her introductory remarks she drew comparisons between describing with words and arranging instruments and singing.
The composers would each try to take their audience into Jesus' last hour in their own way, depicting his emotional states from deeply felt pain to bitterness and existential abandonment to deep trust.
It was possible to understand everything in what you heard; perhaps you were reminded of difficult times you had experienced yourself.
But in the end there is the confidence, the encouragement to place yourself trustingly in God's hands.
Also read: He is only 31 years old: New church musician in Miesbach introduces himself
Ensemble brings dramatic history to life
The speakers made it easy for the visitors to understand all of this.
Regardless of whether it was the choir, the orchestra or the soloists Jasmin Binde (soprano), Lars Tappert (tenor) and Thomas Schütz (baritone) - they all brought the death struggle marked by fears and doubts to life with force and elegance.
This was atmospherically supported by Florian Wiedner's subtle yet efficient lighting effects, which made the church interior shine in ever new colors without stealing the show from the actors in the church interior.
The ensemble let the time pass in flight, in which the prologue and seven words musically told the passion stories of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, ending confidently with “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” and bringing the enthusiastic audience into the Evening that felt more like Christmas mass for a short time with snow flurries when the church doors were opened.
The Palm Sunday concert began with a musical anticipation of Maundy Thursday: “Nos autem gloriari oportet” with a solo by Johannes Schlichting and the foot-washing song “Ubi caritas et amor”.
Anton Bruckner's “Christus factus est” was followed by jazzy-gospel tones in the arrangements “Where you there” and “A mumblin' word” by the composer Paul Hart (1945-2022) and Graham Buckland (*1951), who worked in Regensburg, for which the jazz ensemble and harp moved from the chancel into the nave.