Project artist Stefan Weiller presents a newly adapted version of Last Songs at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg.
For this documentary music-theatre project, the author held conversations in hospices with people who were terminally ill or dying, discussing the music that had deep meaning in their lives — and still does.

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Weiller weaves these diverse impressions into moving stories, scenes, and reflections that mirror the final phase of life. Love and zest for life, farewell, death, and mourning are sensually interwoven. The result is open, touching, at times disarmingly funny, and always deeply authentic.

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The songs, performed live, become a complete work of art through the interplay of text, music, and video — ranging from pop songs to folk tunes to classical music.

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Duration: 3 hours
Including one intermission

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THE SEASONS (Hob. XXI:3)
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Secular oratorio after a libretto by Gottfried van Swieten

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Philharmonic Choir Friedrichshafen
Men’s Choir Bad Saulgau
Chorus preparation: Volker Bals

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Lake Constance Philharmonic Orchestra
Musical Director: MD Joachim Trost

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Graf-Zeppelin-Haus Friedrichshafen

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Hanna Herfurtner, soprano
Julian Habermann, tenor
Rafael Fingerlos, baritone
Joachim Trost, conductor

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Johann Sebastian Bach: "St John Passion" BWV 245
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus)
RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin
Conductor: Justin Doyle
Tenor (Evangelist): Benedikt Kristjánsson
Bass (Jesus words): Martin Häßler
Soprano: Katharina Konradi
Alto: Sarah Romberger
Tenor: Julian Habermann
Bass: Marcus Farnsworth

Johann Sebastian Bach: "St John Passion" BWV 245
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus)
RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin
Conductor: Justin Doyle
Tenor (Evangelist): Benedikt Kristjánsson
Bass (Jesus words): Martin Häßler
Soprano: Katharina Konradi
Alto: Sarah Romberger
Tenor: Julian Habermann
Bass: Marcus Farnsworth

Christian Tetzlaff, Violin
Hanna Zumsande, Soprano
Ida Aldrian, Alto
Julian Habermann, Tenor

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St. Michaelis Choir
St. Michaelis Orchestra (members of the Philharmonic State Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, among others)
Jörg Endebrock, Conductor

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This year, the St. Michaelis Choir dedicates itself on Good Friday to a wonderful rarity in the Easter repertoire: Bach's Markus-Passion, which was first performed in 1731 in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Tragically, the original scores were lost. However, thanks to the preserved libretto and the knowledge of individual chorales and passages, which Bach had incorporated from other works and set with the Passion text, musicologists have succeeded in resurrecting the lost masterpiece with its enchanting chorales.

The preface to the edition states: "With the use of viols and lutes and a penetrating sense of chamber music, Bach's Markus-Passion represents the most exquisite and delicate Passion possible."

Additionally, Frank Martin's Polyptyque describes stations from the Passion of Jesus, which Jörg Endebrock weaves into a collage between the fragments of Bach's Markus-Passion.

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Performers

Catalina Bertucci, soprano
Magdalena Hinz, alto
Julian Habermann, tenor
Krešimir Stražanac, bass
Choir of the Gaechinger Cantorey
Würth Philharmonic
Hans-Christoph Rademann, conductor

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Program

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
"Mitten wir im Leben sind" (In the Midst of Life We Are in Death), MWV B 21, Op. 23 No. 3

Emilie Mayer
Symphony No. 7 in F minor

Fanny Hensel
Overture in C
Oratorio based on Biblical imagery

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Introduction

6:20 PM

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Short Description

Music against all odds...
Regarding his choral motet "Mitten wir im Leben sind," Felix Mendelssohn wrote:
"If it resembles Sebastian Bach, I can’t help it—for I wrote it as I felt."

This is understandable since, the year before (1829), Mendelssohn revived J. S. Bach’s long-forgotten St. Matthew Passion. Bach’s music also deeply inspired his talented sister, Fanny Hensel, who soon composed a poignant oratorio following a cholera epidemic—illuminating music for dark times that still resonate today. Mendelssohn’s dramatic transformation unfolds sharply contrasting worlds of lament and consolation, culminating in an eight-part funeral chorus and the following chorus of the blessed.

The determined Emilie Mayer defied the male-dominated musical world and devoted herself to the symphonic genre. Her Symphony No. 7 showcases her experimental spirit and personal expressiveness.

With an outstanding ensemble, we honor these remarkable women and present their music in a new light.

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Performers

Catalina Bertucci, soprano
Magdalena Hinz, alto
Julian Habermann, tenor
Krešimir Stražanac, bass
Choir of the Gaechinger Cantorey
Würth Philharmonic
Hans-Christoph Rademann, conductor

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Program

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
"Mitten wir im Leben sind" (In the Midst of Life We Are in Death), MWV B 21, Op. 23 No. 3

Emilie Mayer
Symphony No. 7 in F minor

Fanny Hensel
Overture in C
Oratorio based on Biblical imagery

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Introduction

6:20 PM

‍

Short Description

Music against all odds...
Regarding his choral motet "Mitten wir im Leben sind," Felix Mendelssohn wrote:
"If it resembles Sebastian Bach, I can’t help it—for I wrote it as I felt."

This is understandable since, the year before (1829), Mendelssohn revived J. S. Bach’s long-forgotten St. Matthew Passion. Bach’s music also deeply inspired his talented sister, Fanny Hensel, who soon composed a poignant oratorio following a cholera epidemic—illuminating music for dark times that still resonate today. Mendelssohn’s dramatic transformation unfolds sharply contrasting worlds of lament and consolation, culminating in an eight-part funeral chorus and the following chorus of the blessed.

The determined Emilie Mayer defied the male-dominated musical world and devoted herself to the symphonic genre. Her Symphony No. 7 showcases her experimental spirit and personal expressiveness.

With an outstanding ensemble, we honor these remarkable women and present their music in a new light.

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Program: Mendelssohn "Psalm 115, Not unto us, O Lord" and the "Jubelmesse" by Carl Maria von Weber (200th anniversary of his death)

Program: Mendelssohn "Psalm 115, Not unto us, O Lord" and the "Jubelmesse" by Carl Maria von Weber (200th anniversary of his death)