Farewell, Munich Bach Choir

Rehearsal (orchestral part) for the concert
last night in the Theatinerkirche

I've had a very emotional week as we get ready to leave, and last night at my last Münchner Bach-Chor concert, I held the tears back only until I managed to get off stage...

I am going to miss this choir, the people in it, and the director so much. It's hard to believe now that I performed in 18 concerts with them (13 separate programs), as it all has gone by so quickly.  Somehow especially in the last few months I have come to feel very at home here, and to realize how much of a privilege it has been to be part of this group.

This post will be quick and un-refined, but I just want to keep a record for myself, if no one else, of the wonderful choir experiences I've had in the last month.




Saarbrücken trip, July 6-8:

Our final choir trip was like a summer vacation for me.  The weather was great (finally) and the schedule not too grueling, and I had a lot of fun singing and hanging out with choir friends.
Saarbrücken is a beautiful small city near the French border, and we were part of a "world premiere" there of a choreographed (yes, with dancers) production of Beethoven's oratorio Christus am Ölberg (Christ on the Mount of Olives).

A banner for our concert, hanging on the Saarland State
Theater building (which was not where we performed)

The concert took place in a beautifully renovated factory, with a large stage for the dancers placed essentially over our heads. It was a little funny to sing with the sound of dancers clomping (OK, elegantly treading) above us.

Here we are in rehearsal (right off the 5-hour bus ride, no time even for lunch... wow, life of a professional performer must be difficult).

Then we did have some time that evening (Saturday) to enjoy the town...

Anke, me, Tamara, waiting for our beer and Flamkuchen.

(Saarbrücken was having a library day downtown, so there were many portable shelves with books and great pillow chairs lying around in the old city.)

Sunday we had two performances, 11 am and 7:30pm.  We sang both Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and the oratorio.  Normally I would say I didn't like these pieces especially.  (I'd been nearly laughing in rehearsals with parts of the oratorio... some sections, like the soldiers' marching entrance and the quivering of the disciples when Jesus gets caught, remind me strongly of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas... I'm sure they were making fun of Beethoven in much of their work.)   However, in the hands of Herr Albrecht, our director, and a really good orchestra, it was all marvelous -- exciting, dramatic and very moving.

Warming up, outside the theater.

 The audience loved us.  We got a standing ovation for 10 minutes with the audience clapping in unison!  The reviews thought the idea of dancing (with 3 Jesus's, 3 Seraph angels) to an oratorio weird, but they liked the music.  (See a local TV review here, starting at minute 22:15.  It includes footage of the performance!)

Taking bows at the end.  (I'm in the back, kind of under the right foot of the single dancer in black.)
[Photo by Susanne Schneidt]

Good-bye-and-thank-you party, July 15:

I wanted to do something for the choir, as a thank you for my experiences this year, and the best suggestion was to have a small party after a regular rehearsal in the Musik Hochschule.

The Hochschule fur Musik und Theater

[I should say parenthetically here, how weird and at times unsettling it is that most of my best experiences here in Munich took place in the building that Hitler built to be "his building", officially known then as the Führerbau... his offices and workspace, and the place where the infamous Munich Agreement of 1938 took place.  I guess I reconcile my qualms by thinking that we are exorcising the demons of that building with our purifying music...]

The "grand" staircase leads up to the room (just to the right of the stairs)
where we rehearse.

Our rehearsal space is just opposite Hitler's office, the
central wooden door here.  I peeked in there once; it's
now a music studio, with two grand pianos.

For my little party, I brought a dozen bottles of Prosecco and made some chocolate chip cookies.  I actually prepared and delivered a short thank-you speech in German (which, in my sudden case of nerves, I actually had to half-read... I can't quite speak spontaneously, in public, in German).

But the choir had prepared a song to sing to me!!  Without me really realizing what they were doing, they all started singing "München ich muss dich lassen" ("Munich I have to leave you", from the original song with Innsbruck in the title...)
 And then then the Alto section leader, Claudia, presented me with a beautiful picture book of Munich, and a folder of personalized cards with a picture of each of the altos.  I was nearly in tears.

Tamara was one of the first altos to chat
with me, and has become a good friend.

  I snuck my camera out the next week, during a regular rehearsal.

Director Hansjörg Albrecht, with assistant
director Peter Kofler at the piano.

A view down the line of altos:  (Claudia leaned out of sight
at the last minute) Susanne is the closest, Uschi, Cornelia,
Marion, Carolin.  (Veronika is not visible, in back.)

Last concert, (Helmschrott und Bach), July 28:

Not a great picture, but here's my last
concert with MBC.

The concert was not necessarily my favorite, but Claudia (bless her) had suggested to Herr Albrecht a beautiful piece to prepare as an encore, for me:  Abendlied by Rheinberger.  The text starts with "Bleib bei uns" (stay with us...) and the song is simply exquisite.  [Listen to this recording by the Cambridge singers and try not to tear up.]

I managed the recessional down the aisle before the tears really started.  As I found Thomas at the side of the church and cried on his shoulder, Herr Albrecht (who for the first half of this year I would have said was quite distant and formal) was remarkably sweet.  He came up to us and thanked me for being in the choir, and sympathized with my mixed emotions (saying it must be like his feeling graduating from school...).  He really is a good person, even if a bit of a music nerd, and truly a wonderful director.  I will miss him.

Picture taken in Saarbrücken by professional photographer Mats Karlsson (http://merkson.de)
[I'm in the back, fourth from the right.  Smiling.]