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Efringen-Kirchen
16. April 2013
This weekend the Sängerbund Efringen-Kirchen fascinated visitors with an extraordinary concert.
Brilliant Choir in Top Form
by our reporter Marco Schopferer
(English translation revised by Jan Seerveld)
Efringen-Kirchen (mao). The Sängerbund in Efringen-Kirchen consistantly goes new ways. Musicals and pop have been familiar territory for the approximately 50 singers for a long time. This time the choir dared to tackle with subtlety compositions of the romance and showed the audience an impressive understanding of the oeuvres of Robert and Clara Schumann as well as their intimate friend Johannes Brahms.
Romantik-Konzert 2013
This weekend the Sängerbund Efringen-Kirchen fascinated visitors with an extraordinary concert. Music and letters of Johannes Brahms as well as of Robert and Clara Schumann transported the visitors into the fascinating world of romance.
Picture: Marco Schopferer

With its concert "Du bist mir so unendlich lieb – I am so endlessly fond of you" on Saturday evening in the church of Tannenkirch the choir enthused the visitors. A repeat performance on Sunday afternoon in the foyer of the multi purpose hall in Efringen-Kirchen the singers brought the house down with almost unending applause. It was the love of the details which made the audience ecstatic. Between the music pieces the two actors Kristina Kanholt and Tobias Scheidegger read parts of the intimate diaries and letters of the exceptional trio of Johannes Brahms and Clara and Robert Schumann with great empathy. Already at the age of 18 Robert Schuman fell in love with the 9 years old piano virtuoso Clara Wieck whom he later married. This was the beginning of an extraordinary deep love which resulted in 8 children. After an attempted suicide in the river Rhine at Düsseldorf Robert Schumann was submitted to a mental hospital.

The intimate friend of the family Johannes Brahms had already long ago fallen in love with the 14 years older Clara and would have given the world in order to get together with the virtuoso pianist. But after the death of Robert when nothing stood any longer in the way of a marriage to Clara the appeal of the secret liaison ceased. They didn't marry. Ten months after Clara Schuman's death in 1896 the "everlasting bachelor" Johannes Brahms died from liver cancer. The subject matter of this exceptional triangle relationship would have filled whole epics for the ancient Greeks - in Efringen-Kirchen it was captured in two exciting hours of fascinating musical experiences.

Under the leadership of Erhard Zeh the Sängerbund delivered a brilliant performance in unimaginable top form. The audience has always liked the relatively light musical fare of past concerts, but this time they were fascinated by this extraordinary classic experiment. The manifold facets and the brilliance and lucidity of the voices made the concert perfect. The Sängerbund did not just go to its limits, but climbed with apparent ease into new worlds of singing. "Incredible" and "fantastic" were comments heard from the visitors at the end of the concert.
Contributing to this success were the excellent soprano Johanna Schutzbach and the much- awarded pianist Deug-Yun Kim. With their solo parts they ennobled the already extraordinary concert experience.

 

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