Opening concert

Treasures of Jewish choral music – songs from the synagogue and Jewish folklore

with

the Leipzig Synagogue Choir
Anja Pöche (soprano)
Falk Hoffmann (tenor)
Ulrich Vogel (piano)
musical director:
Philipp Goldmann

For over 60 years, the Leipzig Synagogue Choir has been dedicated to performing Jewish synagogue and secular music in mixed programmes, as conceived by the choir’s founder, Werner Sander, back in the 1960s. His aim of offering the audience as broad a spectrum as possible of musical works – many of which fell into oblivion following the Shoah – remains as relevant today as ever.
The first part of the concert features liturgical choral works and settings of psalms and prayers, primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries. These works originate from Germany, France and the USA and were composed by Salomon Jadassohn, Herman Berlinski, Heinrich Schalit, Samuel Naumbourg, Kurt Weill and Meir Finklstein.
The second part of the concert is devoted to Yiddish songs. These are performed in special arrangements created over the decades for the choir, its soloists and its piano virtuosos. The songs tell, for example, of the good and bad times in a marriage, or of a rabbi who teaches his pupil the alphabet over and over again.