Totentanz & Hoffnungsschein

In the organizer's words:

BALTHASAR PNEUMANN CHOIR / IVETA APKALNA / JOACHIM KRÓL / LIONEL SOW

Distler: Totentanz / Feller: Danse macabre / Brahms: Schnitter Tod, as well as works by J.S. Bach and others - International Music Festival Hamburg

The Balthasar Neumann Choir and the celebrated conductor Lionel Sow have put together a finely curated choral program about death and consolation for the International Music Festival under the motto "End". At the center is Hugo Distler's "Dance of Death", inspired by a famous medieval picture cycle in Lübeck's Marienkirche, where Distler worked as an organist. Death personified meets twelve people of different classes, from peasants to kings, as a macabre dance partner.

The "Danse macabre" by organist Harald Feller is in the tradition of wild, virtuoso dances of death. Composed for percussion and organ, it creates an effective contrast to the touching a cappella choral works of the rest of the program. Composed at very different times, they are united by the hope of an eternal, peaceful life after death in divine realms.

The Hamburg-based Balthasar Neumann Choir has brought several celebrated performers on board as artistic partners. These include the charismatic actor Joachim Król as the narrator in Distler's "Totentanz", the Elbphilharmonie's titular organist Iveta Apkalna and, last but not least, conductor Lionel Sow, who also conducts the Radio France choir.