In the third sequence it should finally work: At its traditional New Year’s concert, the Rias Chamber Choir wants to perform George Frideric Handel’s great oratorio “Judas Maccabeus”. In 2021 and 2022 the project was prevented by Corona, on the evening of January 1, 2023 chief conductor Justin Doyle will hopefully be able to guide his 34 professional singers through the baroque score, together with the Academy for Early Music.
For the appearance at the “Musikfest Berlin” in September, Doyle has put together settings of psalms by German, Italian and English composers, in October Handel’s “Coronation Anthems” form the central works at a concert with festive coronation music from England.
In addition, the British chief conductor will conduct an evening of works by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, Bach’s “St Matthew Passion” and an a cappella program in the 2022/23 season.
Two conductors make their debuts with the Rias Chamber Choir: the Latvian Krista Audere with the a cappella program “Moltiva”, which means “prayer” in both Russian and Ukrainian, and Sofi Jeannin, artistic director of the BBC Singers, with works by the Hungarian Bela Bartók, Zoltan Kodaly and Gyorgy Ligeti.
Together with the Capella de la Tore, the choir will perform at the new Spandau Early Music Festival in February: a piece by the Berlin composer Frank Schwemmer is planned for the world premiere, “The Girl Without Hands”, based on a particularly horrific fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.
This time, the Forum Concerts will take place in cooperation with the Berlin State Museums, in the New National Gallery, the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection, the Hamburger Bahnhof and the James-Simon-Galerie. For the fifth time, the choir is organizing the final of the “German Choir Conductor Award”, in which three scholarship holders of the German Music Council are allowed to organize a concert evening with the professionals.
The Konzerthausorchester, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Freiburger Barockorchester have also hired the Rias Chamber Choir for joint projects. And the ensemble finally wants to be heard from across Europe again: 30 tour concerts are planned for 2022/23, in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, France and of course also in Germany.
