Concert for FAU’s anniversary
After the gala concert to mark the beginning of the year of anniversary celebrations in January, the academic choir will be holding another concert for FAU’s anniversary during the summer semester. On Thursday, 28 June 2018 at 8pm, a concert will be held in Neustädter Church where the University was founded in 1743 that will include Psalm 100 ‘Exult in the Lord, Entire World’, a glorious piece of music for soloists, choir and a large orchestra, composed and performed for the first time on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the University in 1843 by Wilhelm Volckmar. Neustädter Church is located at Neustädter Kirchenplatz 7, 91054 Erlangen.
A contemporary aspect will be provided by the symphonic work written by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in 1838, Psalm 95 ‘O Come, Let us Worship’, and the celebratory overture called ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’, composed by Otto Nicolai and performed in 1844 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the University of Königsberg. A powerful counterpart to this will be the performance of Mendelssohn’s famous Reformation Symphony from 1830, which is based on the same choral from Luther. The concert will end with a performance of Mendelssohn’s stirring prayer for peace ‘Give Peace, Lord’ based on a text by Martin Luther.
A special feature of the concert is the fact that the orchestra performing at the concert, the Main-Barockorchester Frankfurt, plays instruments from Mendelssohn’s era. The following soloists will be performing: Franziska Bobe (soprano) and Maria van Eldik (alto), both from Erlangen, Christian Rathgeber (tenor) from Mannheim, and Jakob Kress (bass), who is a student in Nuremberg. Professor Konrad Klek will be conducting.
Tickets are on sale for €24 and €16, the discount for students and school pupils is €8. Tickets can be purchased in advance from the University orchestra (unimusik@fau.de) and from ‘erlangen ticket’.