Saison 2022/23

Anna Prohaska, soprano
Nicolas Altstaedt, cello
Francesco Corti, keyboards

In addition to their favorite instruments, the three performers play various percussion instruments, lotus flute, as well as their own voices. Lights, makeup and costume in the last work (Sister Death), Endor proves to be a real spectacle.

ENDOR

Soprano Anna Prohaska, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and harpsichordist Francesco Corti are equally at home with music from the Baroque period and contemporary music.

For Musikfest Berlin, they have put together a program that explores the themes of confused language, loneliness, despair and death. Franz Tunder, principal organist of Lübeck’s main church, the Marienkirche, has perceptively set to music the psalm song “An Wasserflüssen Babylon”, whose text recalls the painful experiences of the people of Israel during the Babylonian exile. In his oratorio “Saul”, Georg Friedrich Händel depicts the dramatic conflict between David and Saul and gives voice to the “witch of Endor”, transmitted by the Bible. Wolfgang Rihm’s latest composition, “Gebet der Hexe von Endor” (Prayer of the Witch of Endor), premiered a few months ago in Berlin, is situated in the same context. The concert also includes two songs by English composer John Tavener to verses by Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, whose late work was strongly influenced by the horrors of the Stalinist era, and expressive instrumental works for cello and harpsichord. The concert ends with another work recently premiered in Berlin: “Sister Death” by Jörg Widmann, a scene from the opera “Babylon”, which explores the limits and confusion of language.

John Tavener (1944 – 2013)
Dante, from Akhmatova Songs (1993)
for soprano and cello

Franz Tunder (1614 – 1667)
An Wasserflüssen Babylon (1645)
for soprano, cello and organ

Vincenzo Bonizzi (died 1630)
“Pis ne me peux venir” (1626)
Passeggiata for cello and harpsichord

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 – 1759)
Vo’ far guerra, from: Rinaldo, 2nd act HWV 57 (1711)
for soprano, cello and harpsichord

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685 – 1759)
Author of Peace, from Saul, 2nd act HWV 53 (1738)
for soprano, cello and harpsichord

Joseph-Nicolas Scythes-Pancrace Royer (1703 – 1755)
March of the Scythians, from the First Book of Harpsichord Pieces (1746)
for harpsichord

Alexander Cherepnin (1899 – 1977)
Tartar Dance, from Songs and Dances (1953)
for cello and piano

Luciano Berio (1925 – 2003)
Abbagnata, Ninna Nanna, Ladata, de Naturale (1985)
for cello, celesta and tape

Wolfgang Rihm (*1952)
Gebet der Hexe von Endor
from the piece Saul by Botho Strauß
Cantata for soprano and cello
(Composition commissioned by the Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin)

John Tavener
Smert (Tod), from Akhmatova Songs (1993)
for soprano and cello

Georg Friedrich Händel
Infernal Spirits, from Saul, 3rd act, 2nd scene HWV 53 (1738)
for soprano, cello and organ

Marin Marais (1656 – 1728)
The Whirlwind Suite of A Foreign Taste (1717)
for cello and harpsichord

Georg Friedrich Händel
Credete al Mio Dolore, from Alcina, 3rd act, 1st scene HWV 34 (1735)
for soprano, cello and harpsichord

Heinrich Scheidemann (1596 – 1663)
Pavana Lachrymae in D minor WV 106
for harpsichord

Jörg Widmann (*1973)
Sister Death 15 minutes
underworld scene from Babylon
(adapted for soprano, cello and keyboard instruments)
Text by Peter Sloterdij