Great fugues and oratory choirs | Choir-Mastzowsko!

Performers: Waldemar Gałązka — conductor

Adam Eibin — organ

Silesian Philharmonic Choir

Program: Selected fugues and choirs from oratorios by Georg Friedrich Handel, Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Arthur Honegger

Great oratory choirs and monumental fugues have been a symbol of compositional mastery for centuries. The concert program will include selected fragments of works by Georg Friedrich Handel, Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Arthur Honegger — composers who have made the choir one of the most powerful means of musical expression.

The work of Georg Friedrich Handel belongs to the foundations of European choral music. The monumental choirs of his oratorios, especially the famous Messiah, still delight today with their vigor, energy and masterful vocal guidance. It was Händel who made the choir one of the main protagonists of the musical narrative, entrusting it with the role of commentator of events and bearer of the most important emotions.

Joseph Haydn and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy also consciously referred to the Baroque tradition. In their oratorios, counterpoint artistry is combined with classical clarity of form and romantic power of expression. Monumental choral parts, elaborate fugues and rich dramaturgy made works such as The Creation of the World, Elijah or Paul permanently entered the canon of choral music.

The program will be complemented by fragments of the work of Arthur Honegger — one of the most outstanding composers of the 20th century. In his oratorios and religious works, the creator combined the modern musical language with the centuries-old tradition of polyphony, creating works full of drama, expressiveness and spiritual depth.

The concert will become an opportunity to meet music, in which the precision of construction goes hand in hand with the power of emotions, and individual voices merge into one common sound. It is in fugues and great oratory choirs that the artistry of the composers and the extraordinary possibilities of the choir as an instrument capable of expressing both monumental majesty and the most subtle emotions are most fully revealed.

CONCERT INFORMANT