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!