Betwixt Heaven and Earth

The splendour of the late-Baroque collides with contemporary expression: part of of our series LES CONCERTS, this programme once again unites music from past centuries with that of the present time, offering a new perspective for these soundworlds — somewhere between heaven and earth.

A HEAVENLY SOUNDWORLD

At the centre of this programme are two extraordinary sacred works by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. His Magnificat, composed in Leipzig in 1749, combines festive splendour and virtuosic choruses with an an extraordinary intensity of expression. It reveals Bach as a composer who embodied the baroque traditions of his father while at the same time developing the musical language that forged the way for the Age of Enlightenment. Composed later on while he was in Hamburg, Heilig was highly regarded by Bach’s contemporaries; its radiant double-choir structure and visionary approach to harmony marks it out as one of the most extraordinary sacred compositions of the 18th century.

AN OTHERWORLDLY PREMIÈRE

These two masterpieces form a halo around the world première of Michael Ostrzyga’s nehme mich zu sich for a cappella choir. The work is based on the harrowing farewell letter of Tjark Evers, who tragically lost his life in the North Sea in 1866, and creates an intimately emotional juxtaposition to Bach’s festive soundscape. That the multi-award-winning German composer Ostrzyga is also an experienced conductor with a deep understanding of the choir as an ‘instrument’ reveals itself in his writing. He devises an inimitable and unique musical language whose expression is simultaneously highly original and extremely accessible, moving seamlessly between exhilarating and

BETWIXT HEAVEN AND EARTH

With the combined forces of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie and the historically informed Orchestra La Scintilla, conducted by Florian Helgath, the works of Bach and Ostrzyga unfold in this multifaceted concert experience that forms a bridge between heaven and earth: it glides between hope and despair, revealing both the worldly and the transcendent in a glorious expression of human mortality.

PRE-CONCERT TALK: 18:45