Handel’s setting of Psalm 110, Dixit Dominus, is one of his first surviving works, composed at the age of just 22 during his three-year stay in Italy. In this large-scale work, he already displays an assured mastery in his treatment of chorus and orchestra; the obstacles for choral singers, who need to be extremely agile, should therefore not be underestimated. The numerous fugal or imitatively interwoven sections – the intertwined sixteenth note writing of "Tu es sacerdos", the initial entries in "Dominus a dextris", and the concluding "Et in saecula" section with its many octave leaps need to be thoroughly learnt.
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Performers: Christine Wolff (soprano), Susanne Scheinpflug (soprano), Patrick van Goethem (alto), Uwe Stickert (tenore), Jochen Kupfer (basso) – Dresdner Kammerchor, Dresdner Barockorchester – Hans-Christoph Rademann
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Composer
Georg Friedrich Händel
| 1685-1759George Frideric Handel put his exceptionally versatile compositional abilities to the test at an early age. After moving to London in 1712, where he was appointed Composer of Musick for His Majesty’s Chapel Royal in 1723, he wrote numerous masterpieces for the royal court as well as his major opere serie. For many years he enjoyed triumphant successes with his operas, which were sung by outstanding performers, with serenades, and later also with oratorios such as Saul and Israel in Egypt. Over the years Handel’s reputation grew far beyond the city where he worked; some of his choral works, particularly Messiah, have enjoyed a performance tradition which remains unbroken to this day, and are sung by choirs throughout the world. Personal details
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Choir
Dresdner Kammerchor
DRESDNER KAMMERCHOR Radiant, transparent, homogeneous and flexible: the Dresdner Kammerchor is internationally esteemed for its unique culture of sonority. Its artistic director Hans-Christoph Rademann has shaped this distinctive sound since the choir was founded in 1985, leading it to worldwide renown. The choir’s diverse repertoire has its foundation in Baroque music, with a special focus on Saxon court music. As a cultural ambassador for Dresden and Saxony, the choir keeps the musical heritage of its homeland alive and makes it known to an international audience. A prominent example of this is the world’s first complete Heinrich Schütz recording, which was concluded in 2019, published by Carus-Verlag, and has won several awards: among others, the St. John Passion was awarded the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics in 2016, and the last installment of the edition containing “Psalms and Peace Music” was honored with the Opus Klassik 2020. The choir has also rediscovered, performed anew and recorded on CD numerous works by other Central German masters such as Johann Adolf Hasse, Johann David Heinichen and Jan Dismas Zelenka in collaboration with the Dresden Baroque Orchestra and other musical partners. In addition to symphonic choral works from the Classical and Romantic periods, a further repertoire focus is on challenging a cappella works of the 19th and 20th centuries. This includes music by Johannes Brahms, Max Reger, Olivier Messiaen, Francis Poulenc, Arnold Schoenberg and Herman Berlinski. For years, the Dresdner Kammerchor has been intensively dedicated to modern and contemporary music, with world premieres, first performances and its own commissioned works. This commitment is deepened further by diverse music education and youth projects. In 2009, Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Dresdner Kammerchor initiated the Dresden Choral Workshop for New Music, which took place for the 4th time in 2018. For its services to contemporary choral music, the choir was awarded a Sponsorship Prize by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The Dresdner Kammerchor gives guest performances in centers of music and at festivals throughout Europe. Tours have taken the singers to Israel, India, Taiwan, China, Mexico, South America, South Africa and the USA. Musical partners to date have included René Jacobs, Sir Roger Norrington, Ádám Fischer, Václav Luks, Stefan Parkman, Trevor Pinnock, Christoph Prégardien, Jos van Immerseel, Herbert Blomstedt, Omer Meir Wellber, Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Chailly and Reinhard Goebel, as well as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Anima Eterna Brugge, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. The choir regularly collaborates with the Wroc"naw Baroque Orchestra. By means of a cooperation with the Dresden University of Music, the Dresdner Kammerchor keeps the connection to its roots alive. Personal details
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Orchestra
Dresdner Barockorchester
One of the distinguishing features of the Dresdner Barockorchester, founded in 1991, is the fact that its membership includes both early music specialists and orchestral musicians drawn from the Dresdner Staatskapelle and the Dresdner Philharmonie. Working together with baroque instruments, with their specific clarity of sound and articulation they achieve a variegated, eloquent music-making in which their different areas of musical experience are combined. The musicians are united in their desire to follow the splendid example set by the Dresden Court Orchestra of Augustus the Strong. The heritage of that era is the music of such conductors and instrumentalists of the Court Orchestra as Hasse, Heinichen, Zelenka, Quantz and Pisendel, whose works have a prominent place in the repertoire of the Dresdner Barockorchester. This repertoire extends from the end of the 17th century through Mozart. The Dresdner Barockorchester works closely with the Dresdner Kammerchor and its conductor Hans- Christoph Rademann. Personal details
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Conductor
Hans-Christoph Rademann
| 1965Conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is an immensely versatile artist with a broad repertoire who devotes himself with equal passion and expertise both to the performance and rediscovery of early music and to the first performances and cultivation of Contemporary Music. Born in Dresden and raised in the Erzgebirge mountains, he was influenced at an early age by the great Central German kantorial and musical tradition. He was a student at the traditional Kreuzgymnasium, a member of the famous Kreuzchor, and studied choral and orchestral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. During his studies, he founded the Dresdner Kammerchor and formed it into a top international choir which is still under his direction today. Since 2013, Hans-Christoph Rademann has been the academy director of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart. He regularly collaborates with leading choirs and ensembles of the international music scene. From 1999 to 2004 he was chief conductor of the NDR Choir and from 2007 to 2015 chief conductor of the RIAS Chamber Choir. Guest conducting engagements have led and continue to lead him to the Nederlandse Bachvereniging, the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Akademie für Alte Musik, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, among others. Hans-Christoph Rademann has been awarded prizes and honors for his artistic work, including the Johann Walter Plaque of the Saxon Music Council (2014), the Saxon Constitutional Medal (2008), the Sponsorship Prize as well as the Art Prize of the state capital Dresden (1994 and 2014 respectively). He received the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik several times for his numerous CD recordings (most recently in 2016), as well as the Grand Prix du Disque (2002), the Diapason d’Or (2006 & 2011), the CHOC de l’année 2011 and the Best Baroque Vocal Award 2014. In 2016 he was awarded the European Church Music Prize of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd. His exemplary interpretation and recording of the complete works of Heinrich Schütz with the Dresdner Kammerchor in the Stuttgart Carus-Verlag, which was completed in 2019, was awarded the newly endowed Heinrich Schütz Prize as well as the OPUS KLASSIK 2020 in the same year. Hans-Christoph Rademann is professor of choral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. He is also artistic director of the Musikfest Erzgebirge, ambassador of the Erzgebirge and patron of the Christian Hospice Service Dresden. Personal details
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Soloist - soprano
Christine Wolff
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Soloist - soprano
Susanne Scheinpflug
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Soloist - alto
Patrick Van Goethem
The Belgian countertenor Patrick Van Goethem studied under Paul Esswood, Julia Hamari and Andreas Scholl. He specializes in early music, with a repertoire that includes vocal works by Heinichen, Monteverdi, Purcell and Zelenka, Bach’s Passions, cantatas and the B-minor Mass, Handel’s Oratorio’s and Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater. His concert schedule has taken him to Europe, North America and Japan. He has appeared with, among others, the Bach Collegium Japan (Masaaki Suzuki), The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Frans Brüggen), The Netherlands Bach Society (Gustav Leonhardt and Jos van Veldhoven), Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (Helmuth Rilling), Barockorchester Stuttgart (Frieder Bernius), and the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Michel Corboz). Patrick Van Goethem appears at major baroque festivals. and he performs regularly with the baroque ensemble The Flanders Baroque Consort, of which he is a founding member. Personal details
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Soloist - tenor
Uwe Stickert
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Soloist - bass
Jochen Kupfer