In Frieden – 25 Jahre Chorwerk Ruhr

In the organizer's words:

80 years after the end of the war

Peace is precious. Peace means life. But what are the instruments of peace? CHORWERK RUHR finds the answer to this question in three selected works from 200 years of music history: Felix Mendelssohn's psalm settings op. 78 form places of inner retreat into faith, which above all gave people inner peace for centuries. The prayer Oh Lord, make me the instrument of your peace , set to music by Kurt Hessenberg in 1946, formulates charity as the instrument of peace par excellence. And then: Francis Poulenc's a cappella cantata Figure humaine, which was composed during the German occupation of France in 1943, culminates in a literal cry for peace and freedom. A five-minute list of real and fictitious symbols for the word "freedom" culminates in a bloodcurdling chord over four octaves. Francis Poulenc based his setting of Paul Éluard's poem Liberté on this final outcry. The verses of Liberté became a symbol of the Resistance - and Poulenc's vocal cycle the epitome of 20th century a cappella art.