Miserere Tour Concert

Lamentation and hope, cries from the depths and the certainty of salvation: Peter Dijkstra, a warmly welcomed guest conductor of the RIAS Kammerchor, combines sacred music from the Baroque period and the 20th century to conclude the season. As one of the most versatile and renowned choral conductors of our time, Dijkstra once again demonstrates his expertise in choral music from all eras and his flair for harmonious programming. The centerpiece of the evening is Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir, one of the most important and beautiful choral works of the 20th century. The Swiss composer wrote the mass between 1922 and 1926, but then kept the score under lock and key for 40 years. “At that time, the mass was just a matter between God and me,” Martin confessed after the premiere in 1963.

Peter Dijkstra, artistic director of the Bavarian Radio Choir, contrasts this personal testimony of faith and spirituality with three works that revolve around the longing for divine mercy: “Miserere mei, Deus – God, have mercy on me” – thus begins Psalm 51. In his 2009 setting of this text, Scottish composer James MacMillan transports us into worlds of sound full of radiance and warmth: from the very first bars, it is clear that the prayer for mercy will be answered.
The Miserere by Slovenian composer Nana Forte from 2023 is more severe and mystical, turbulent, but no less heartfelt. The medieval poem “Stabat mater” tells a dramatic tale of grief, loss, powerlessness, empathy, and consolation: Mary beneath the cross of her son Jesus is full of pain and at the same time mediates between God and mortals as they plead for help. Peter Dijkstra conducts Domenico Scarlatti's magnificent ten-part Stabat mater from 1724, a work of incomparable aura that is performed far too rarely: music that answers central questions of human existence and finds a direct path to our hearts.