Jauchzet, frohlocket!

These are the first words of J.S. Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio), meaning "rejoice, shout for joy!"  The Munich Bach Choir sang the whole oratorio, which is six cantatas together, for almost three hours, on the stage of the Philharmonie Hall in the Gasteig last Sunday afternoon, Dec. 23.  What a trip to be part of singing this great piece in this beautiful hall!

The stage and first audience sections of Philharmonie Hall, which seats 2200 people.  We were 90% sold out.
Photo from:  http://en.gasteig.de/visitor-service/orientation/photo-gallery.html

I think the Weihnachtsoratorium (WO) is truly one of the best choral pieces ever written.  I listened to and/or practiced it every day for all of December and I didn't come close to getting tired of it.  The Munich Bach Choir sings it every year in this space, with the Munich Bach Orchestra (which is amazing) and various vocal soloists.  Most members of the choir don't really need their music, and we only had two rehearsals before the dress rehearsal and concert weekend, which is why I had to practice so much.  Luckily I've heard our recording many, many times, and the notes weren't really the problem -- just getting all the Germany words out fast and clearly enough!  I must say I was slightly more timid that I normally am during a concert, since I still couldn't look out of my score for very long periods and I really didn't want to make a mistake, but it went wonderfully well.  Thomas even raved about it, and he is very picky about this, one of his favorite pieces!

Herr Albrecht, director, during the dress rehearsal.
(Not a great photo, but I was trying to be unobtrusive.)

I think our director, Herr Hansjörg Albrecht, is a minor genius in terms of getting the right emotions and  interesting details out of the music.  He was directing and playing harpsichord in the concert, keeping all of us - choir, soloists, continuo and orchestra - together for three intense hours.  Some of his tempos are "Olympic" as one of my new friends says, but effective.  I have to say I like the result he got in many parts even better than the John Eliot Gardiner recording we have, which is generally seen as kind of a gold standard of the WO.

It would have been awesome to have my camera on the stage itself, but of course I couldn't.  What a rush to look out on 2000 people while making beautiful music.  But I did have my camera during the previous afternoon's dress rehearsal with the soloists, in the "choir rehearsal room" of the Gasteig.  (We only got on the Philharmonie stage for 30 minutes, right before the concert itself.  Too expensive otherwise, I guess!)

   The dress rehearsal was amazing for us as a choir, though, since the soloists faced us and we could enjoy not only seeing them but hearing them much better.

Our fantastic soloists, standing behind Herr Albrecht.  From left to right they are:
Sibylla Rubens, Soprano; Daniela Sindram, Alto; 
Christian Immler, Bass; Martin Petzold, Tenor (he was a riot)

I liked our Alto, Daniela Sindram, especially.

I can say, without too much exaggeration, that singing the Christmas Oratorio with such a good choir, in such a world-class concert hall, was a highlight of 2012!

Munich Christmas Markets

[This is a post I started earlier in December, but didn't have time to finish.  Here's a brief report of the Christmas markets in Munich, even though it is after Christmas...]

There are many Münchner Weihnachtsmärkte, which begin on the first weekend of Advent and attract many tourists and Munich residents until Christmas eve.  One of the main draws is drinking Glühwein (hot mulled wine) and of course there are many options for food:  sausages on a bun, pretzels, stollen, lebkucken and many other types of sweets.  Besides food, there are many hand-made crafts, especially beautiful ornaments.

We visited maybe five or six of the twenty-some outdoor markets in the city.  Here are pictures of a few of them:
The Chriskind'lmarkt in the heart of downtown (Marientplatz) is probably the most famous, and most busy!

Many stands sell chocolate covered fruit on a stick!

Benjamin especially liked the Medieval market ("with real swords!"):

 [This chain mail shirt weighs 13 kg (it had a sign on it...) but the helmet was more fun to try on.]

I made a quick visit to our old neighborhood in Haidhausen, to see the market there too.  Quite a different view of Weisenburgerplatz ("pretty platz") which has the beautiful fountain and flowers in the summer.

In the Englischer Garten, not a far walk from our apartment, the Chinesischer Turm Christmas Market has the most "outdoorsy" feel...

... quite the opposite of the Chirstkind'lmarkt in the pedestrian zone downtown.

 Most of the huts are quite rustic looking, but this small model of the Frauenkirche, at the base of the actual landmark church, is a favorite tourist spot for Glühwein.

We visited several others, including the market in the courtyard of the Munich Residenz (palace) and a very quaint one in the northeast suburbs Munich in the grounds of a small medieval castle.  Night lighting however (and drinking Glühwein) doesn't allow for such great picture taking, but in a couple cases we kept the mugs as souvenirs!

Our little collection of memorabilia from the Weihnachtsmarkt's:
A candle holder with thin wooden cut-out of the Munich skyline,
a traditional metal ornament of the city, and of course
two Glühwein mugs.

The MBC Weihnachtslieder concert

Our Munich Bach Choir had a "Lessons and Carols" concert on Wednesday evening, in a beautiful old cathedral (St. Michael's church) right in the center of town.  It felt truly festive to be part of this traditional service in an historic Baroque-era church, with a three-story gilded altar and a mighty organ.

I had my camera during the rehearsal, but the church was quite dark in the evening (and cold) so check the link above to see better pictures.  Of course I couldn't take pictures during the concert, but the place was filled, with over 400 people.  Münchners really come out to concerts!

The organist sits in the brightly lit area under many of the ornate organ pipes.

 The acoustics in here were quite something: sound soup when the place was empty -- you could sing a chord with yourself, the reverberation time was so long (at least 5 seconds I estimated).   But during the concert, with all the people absorbing the sound (literally and figuratively) we sounded wonderful, especially the a capella pieces.  When we sang with the organ, the sound was... majestic, but I'd be impressed if people could make out many of our words, as carefully as we were e-nun-ci-at-ing.

We stood up front on these stairs for the (whole hour and a half) concert.

The lessons were read by an elderly blind man (reading from a Braille Bible) who has performed/read with the MBC choir for many years now.  He has a deep, rich voice, and his reading has a very natural and sincere feeling.  Some members of of the choir claim they have a new understanding of some of these well-known biblical passages, simply from listening to him read, and that even seemed true for me:  He spoke slowly enough (and I know the texts well enough) for me to easily understand the German, and even though I've long since taken the story as fiction, it felt very meaningful to me, somehow.  Maybe just because it was a very "Christmas-y" experience, singing beautiful European carols (German and a few English) in a magnificent European cathedral.

Our reader did not sit in here, but this gilded pulpit
was in my line of sight during the concert
so I gazed at it during much of the reading.

My favorite part of Christmas has always been singing carols, either at home with friends or in church, so this service was a high point in the holidays.  And it was nice to go have a Weissbier with the choir afterwards too!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!  We have a few decorations in the apartment, to make it feel more festive and "homey".

First came the mini-tree in early Dec.  Just from the grocery store, but it's alive (so far!) in a pot with soil, so hopefully it will keep for a while.  In order for it not to look too puny, we set it here on an upside-down garbage can, covered in a beige tablecloth I found in a drawer.  Tree plus pot together are maybe a meter high, so now the top of the tree reaches about to Benjamin's chin.  We splurged on a 5-Euro string of lights, and from the "Euro Store" a 1-Euro box of 12 small gold ornaments -- tied here with colored wrapping ribbon.  More decorations came gradually in the last few weeks... (more below).
    Also for Advent, of course, we had to buy some good calendars, for which the choices here were almost limitless.  Julia is very much enjoying her fancy Lindt chocolate-variety calendar (a new sample of yuminess every day!) and Benjamin just wanted a simple Milka (milk chocolate) type.  Both give a delicious reason to get up on these dark school mornings!
   We are also becoming quite resourceful with our decorating:  the garnishes beside the candle are just strips of orange peel that we sliced and curled up as we let them dry.  (Say, Martha who?)

It's traditional here to have a Adventskranz (Advent wreath) and light one candle for each of the Sundays of Advent.  I quite like this one I bought at our local outdoor flower stall, with cinnamon sticks and a few ornaments tied into it.

The tree got a few new simple ornaments from the Kristkind'l Weihnachtsmarkt (downtown Christmas market):  a small train and nutcracker figure -- but then we found cranberries and popcorn (not so common here, either of them) and made a chain to wrap the tree in:

Julia claimed she needed the sunglasses so she wouldn't poke
her eye out with the needle as we strung popcorn...

Paper snowflakes on the windows were also a weekend project for both kids.  Julia lead the snowflake charge, but Benjamin had fun too.

Even though it's true that there's no place like home for the holidays, and we miss family and friends, we are certainly feeling the spirit of the season, and very much enjoying our time here.

Merry Christmas all!

Let it snow!

Oh, it's lovely to wake up to snow, and know you don't have to shovel!

The sidewalk plow outside our window, at 6:45 a.m.

It's still very dark at 6:40 when we get up, but as the sun slowly rises it's beautiful to watch the light change on the snow.

At mid-day, my neighbor and new friend Panida called, and we went for a walk in the Englischer Garten.  There's a little beer häus'l (house) at our entrance to the park, with decommissioned cable cars  out front for two people to squeeze into for a drink out of the wind.

Panida in the foreground of the Englischer Garten Bier Häus'l

The park was a winter wonderland.

Soon we found the Weihnachtsmarkt am Chinesischen Turm (Christmas Market at the Chinese Tower, which is a popular beer garden in the summer).  

 Very quaint, as are all the Weihnachtsmärkte, with huts for Glühwein, sausages on a bun, ornaments and other crafts, and lots of possibilities for sweets.

We found a crepe booth for a quick "lunch".  Yum, sugar and cinnamon on a fresh crepe hit the spot.

On the way back, I intended to take a picture of two geese waddling down the path...

Between the fresh snow, the quaint Christmas markets (more to come on that) and singing the Christmas Oratorio in choir, it's beginning to look/feel a lot like Christmas.

Munich Bach Choir CD recording

Part of the original Magnificat score.
 From http://operamusicbroadcast.com/2009/12/16/morning-choral-work-bach-magnificat/

Last weekend we, the Munich Bach Choir, recorded a CD for the MBC's 60th anniversary.  (For a short history of the MBC check here.)  I have never been part of a professional recording before, and I must say, as much as I love singing in live concerts, CD recording is not so much fun.  Really painstaking in fact...

   The entire last week was filled with singing the Bach "Magnificat" and Cantata 147 "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben".  After very detailed rehearsals Monday and Wednesday, we performed concerts on Thursday in Munich and again Saturday in Pullach, just outside of town.  The concert Saturday was great fun -- in fact we all felt so pleased after the Saturday night concert that several of us stayed out for a quick beer afterwards, even though we knew we had to be at the recording studio the next morning, Sunday, at 9:15.  Ugh.  A beer was maybe not the smartest decision since the studio is a 40 minute train commute for me and I didn't get home Saturday 'til close to midnight, but with all the time the choir has spent together this month, people are noticeably friendlier, and I'm starting to feel much more at home in this group.  It was great to socialize a bit.

   Sunday morning then started with a 30 minute warm up, then two full hours of recording before our break.  There were microphones all over the stage, and no water bottles were allowed (!) or anything that might knock over and make noise.  The recording engineer (I think they called him the "Tonleiter") who sat out of sight in a booth above us was amazing:  he could hear every little thing, from one flat note in the 2nd sopranos to the cellos not playing their triplets exactly together.  He didn't stop us that often, but he did ask for certain parts to be repeated many times.  It's amazing to me that they can cut and paste different sections together so well (and he let our director know if he wasn't directing at exactly the same tempo) but having to stop and start and perfect various passages multiple times over was almost painful.  Interesting at first, but soon exhausting.
   At noon we had a two hour break, so that the orchestra could record their overture suite, but following that the technicians, who are unionized, needed to have their required one hour lunchtime.  So I got to know the center of Pullach pretty well (and several of us had a nice lunch in an Italian restaurant, which was about the only thing open on Sunday).  Then from around 2 to 3:30pm we blasted through the last couple movements with relatively little repeating.  I don't know whether we performed them better or whether the recording engineer was less picky, but the afternoon wasn't as painstaking as the morning.  We were certainly all on edge during the process, wanting not only to be exact, but to not have to repeat everything several times over!  One time during a good take, someone's cell phone went off in a jacket lying in the audience seats... arg.  I was glad it wasn't mine, since I realized with some adrenaline rush that I hadn't remembered to turn mine off!
   So, coming out next year, should be a pretty good recording of the Magnificat and Cantata 147, but until then I don't think I can stand to hear or see those particular pieces again.

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to the concert hall/studio, but just for the record, here is my score for Magnificat.

Now, this week, we're rehearsing the Bach Christmas Oratorio for a concert on Dec. 23rd in the Gasteig Philharmonie concert hall.  Members of the choir have sung this work every year, and thus most of them know the whole 6-hour Oratorio without even needing their score.  It's a wondrerful piece, and I know it from listening every year (it's Benjamin's favorite classical CD of all time), but having never sung it before, I had better keep practicing...