Dresdner Kreuzchor News
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2024-03-22
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2020-02-14 14:51:00
On the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden - Dresdner Requiem - Rudolf Mauersbeger
[…] house and the Staatskapelle Dresden in his Metamorphosen. Many things we should not forget, but we remebering Dresden makes us value so much of what has been lost, not to be retrieved. The number of first hand witnesses is shrinking fast. Peter Schreier died at Christmas. During the wear years, the boys were safe in lodgings outside the city but were, understandably, frightened. In December 1944, Rudolf Mauersberger (1889-1971), for decades the Kreuzkantor of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, wrote his Weihnachtszyklus so they could sing and cheer themselves up. Please read my article about Schreier and his importance in the continuation of vocal traditions which emphasize emotional and spiritual engagement : always more challenging, intellectually, than "market forces". Rudolf Mauersberger's Dresdner Requiem RMWV 10, 1947 revised 1961. Mauersberger (1889-1971) was, for decades, a driving force behind the Dresdner Kreuzchor, deeply immersed in its musical heritage, so the Requiem is a heartfelt […]
2019-12-26 17:12:00
Peter Schreier dies at Christmas
Announced a few minutes ago in Dresden, the death of Peter Schreier after a long illness, aged 84. It is particularly ironic that he died on Christmas Day. His Bach and Heinrich Schütz are of course basic fare this time of year, but he also loved singing more informal Weihnachtslieder and folk songs and used to do Christmas specials on German TV. He took his Christmas seriously ! And now, perhaps, he's with the angels and with those who shaped the musical culture that shaped him. Born into a musical family in Meissen in July 1935, Schreier was singing at a very young age. Aged 8, he appeared on stage as one of the Three Boys in Die Zauberflöte. Aged 10, he joined the Dresdner Kreuzchor. The city had been destroyed in the firestorm after being bombed in February 1945, so the boys lived in basements. Butr so did everyone else. The […]
2015-07-29 18:45:00
Peter Schreier 80th Birthday bargain box set
Today is Peter Schreier's 80th birthday. What an eventful life he's lived. His first professional engagement came at the age of 7 when he sang one of the child spirits in The Magic Flute. He went on to become the star of the Dresdner Kreuzchor at a period when music meant a lot in war-ravaged Dresden. What must it have been like, in those difficult times, and in the early years of the GDR, to listen to the pure, clear voices of this choir ring out, like angels? Read my piece on the Mauseberger Weihnachtszyklus, written for Christmas 1945 HERE Schreier was the foremost tenor in the GDR in his era, singing almost the entire repertoire for his voice type, from opera, to baroque, to Lieder, to folk song and 20th century composers. He even sang Benjamin Britten! East Germany was isolated from the commercial pressures in the west, […]
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