Discography

As is the case for all artists, the COVID-19 crisis continues to pose a particular challenge for KlangForum Heidelberg: The cancellation of projects and festivals has led to a complete collapse of our projected revenue, which is hitting our freelance musicians hard.

At the same time, however, every crisis also offers an opportunity:

Today, we would therefore like to introduce you to a very special project that we have developed during this time of crisis to support our relief fund – Musicians for Musicians.

In the project "The time is now at hand" Christmas chorales (some on a smaller scale, but composed by great masters) meet Italian and Franco-Flemish-influenced Renaissance vocal music and are connected in an unusual way through texts developed specifically for this project, in which the philosopher Enno Rudolph draws a broad parallel from the crises of the 17th century to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A select group of singers from SCHOLA HEIDELBERG, consisting mainly of local residents, has come together to work with Walter Nußbaum and is appearing as an ensemble in this lineup for the first time: countertenors Franz Vitzthum and Terry Wey, tenor Sebastian Hübner, bass-baritone Matthias Horn, and soprano Dorothea Jacob.

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG concertvoices

Conductor: Walter Nußbaum

"In the music of various eras – especially in settings of texts that reflect the spirit of their respective times – we have always encountered, time and again, the poignancy of the clash between happiness and misfortune, hope and despair, salvation and rejection, and – like a cantus firmus – the clash between life and death. This is particularly true of the chorales from the first decades of the post-Reformation period. They reflect the turmoil and the rift that divided Christian peoples – especially north of the Alps – along confessional lines, thereby triggering confrontations between enemy and friend, between terror and tranquility, between war and peace, and between suffering and joy. In particular, the hostility between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation – and thus also between two different forms of religious fanaticism and their political consequences – has proven to be persistent right up to the present day. ... Although the spirit of the Reformation emerged victorious in this conflict, behind all these confrontations lay the colossal clash of eras: the modern age turned against the Middle Ages, and the Reformation found itself caught between the fronts.

However, this observation does not fully capture the contrast between the coronavirus as a sign and example of calamity on the one hand, and Christmas as the great symbol of salvation on the other. ... The songs’ and chorales’ connections to the spiritual life of the time reveal their significance for the Christmas season during the pandemic, thus building a bridge between then and now." (from: Enno Rudolph, Concept Paper, May 2020)