This love between us

Address

Karl Johans gate 47,
0162 Oslo

This love between us

Description

Solistkoret and Kork meet again after last year's successful collaboration on Handel's Messiah (which can still be experienced on NRK TV). These are two ensembles that love making music together, and audiences can always expect strong experiences and music-making at the very highest level. Welcome to this year's meeting of masters! This concert combines two masterpieces, written 300 years apart, which each in their own way lift us out of the trivialities and into the beautiful and the grand. A meaningful and moving way into Advent and the pre-Christmas season. Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat is the older jewel, and in its first version it was written for Christmas Vespers in 1723, the same year he was appointed Cantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Many of his masterpieces were created here. The Magnificat is a tribute to the Virgin Mary and was written for the church's great feast days. The Magnificat differs from Bach's Passions and cantatas in having a Latin text (as in the Mass in B minor) instead of a German one. In addition, there are no recitatives, and the composer also avoids long da capo arias. The work is made up of arias, duets and trios, as well as choruses in five parts, and by returning to the opening chorus towards the end, Bach creates an effective cyclical form. In its original version the Magnificat included four Christmas movements, but in the version revised by 1728, which is the one performed most often today, those movements have been removed, which makes the Magnificat a work suitable for Christmas, Easter and Whitsun alike. As a mirror to the jubilant praise of Mary and Bach's devout Christian faith, Kork and Solistkoret perform a work that embraces seven religions, all of them represented in India today: Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Islam and Jainism. The Love Between Us was written by the Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. With the subtitle A Prayer for Unity, she draws out the part of each of these religions that seeks unity, goodness and brotherhood. The texts are each in their own unique language, but are always translated, so that we can experience the sound of a tongue unfamiliar to many of us, while also understanding the meaning in the English translation. The unity is musical too, in the combination of Indian and Western music - from the Baroque to the Hindustani bandish. On stage, orchestra and choir are joined by Indian tabla and sitar. For the composer herself, this pulsating and colourful work is also a way of uniting the two cultures she belongs to. The Love Between Us is a work to be moved by, and perhaps also to come away a little wiser from. To create this unity and lead it all, Solistkoret and Kork have engaged the Swedish conductor Sofi Jeannin. It is no exaggeration to say that she is one of the most sought-after choral conductors in the world today, with chief appointments at BBC Singers, Ars Nova in Copenhagen and La Maîtrise de Radio France. With her distinctive understanding of style and her overview, we know that she will manage to create a mighty arc across 300 years of musical and humanist history. Programme: Johann Sebastian Bach / Magnificat in D major Reena Esmail / This Love Between Us