Lent-themed concert as a musical sequel
The girls’ choir at Aachen Cathedral dedicates itself to Bach’s “cover version” of Pergolesi’s Stabat mater
‘Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden‘ is the main work of a concert performed by the Aachen Cathedral Girls’ Choir on Saturday, 8 March at 7 pm. The occasion is the 275th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s death. But not only that. Rather, the work is intended as a musical continuation of the ‘Stabat mater Dolorosa’ by Pergolesi (1710-1736), to which the singers dedicated themselves last year.
Many important composers have set this religious poem to music, but Pergolesi’s version is considered the most famous. Bach knew and adapted the version by setting a German adaptation of Psalm 51 instead of the Latin sequence. The theme is a person who is aware of his guilt and asks God for forgiveness.
Bach largely adopted the music, although he changed some of the movements and expanded the orchestration. Bach’s revision surprisingly fell into oblivion. St Thomas’ Cantor Karl Straube first drew attention to it again in 1946. ‘The work has also been slumbering in my drawer for years,‘ admits cathedral cantor Marco Fühner, director of the girls’ choir. ‘But after we sang Pergolesi’s ‘Stabat mater’ a year ago, it seemed logical to me to juxtapose it with Bach’s musically denser arrangement this year.’
As part of their traditional cathedral concert at the beginning of Lent, the young singers also perform ‘Miserere in D minor’ by Johann Adolf Hasse. This penitential psalm for four-part girls’ choir culminates in a solemn ending in D major. During his thirty-year tenure as court conductor in Dresden, Hasse – renowned for his operatic compositions – moulded the orchestra there into one of the top ensembles of the time. Bach also visited the Dresden Court Opera several times to hear Hasse’s ‘pretty little songs’.
Judith Hilgers (soprano) and Eva Nesselrath (alto) and the Aachen Cathedral Orchestra under the direction of Marco Fühner will perform together with the girls’ choir. The title of the concert, ‘Absolution’, picks up on the occasion and content.
Tickets (8 to 18 euros) are now available here: ABSOLUTION
