Just as Bordeaux is renowned for wine, Dresden is renowned for music. This city of about half a million people has several internationally renowned musical institutions. The city has two symphony orchestras, both with international reputations: the Staatskapelle Dresden was founded in 1548 and has been associated with a number of great composers such as Schütz, von Weber, Wagner and Richard Strauss; the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1870, makes a major contribution to the cultural life of the city, and has just found a new home in a beautifully renovated theatre in the Palace of Culture. This orchestra is closely associated with the Dresden Philharmonic Choir. The Kreuzchor is one of the most famous boys’ choirs in the world; last year it celebrated its 800th anniversary. The Semper Opera House is also known around the world: it is the home of the Staatskapelle and the opera company, the Saxon State Opera. The State Operetta Company is Germany’s only independent operetta theatre and it brings to its stage in a new theatre in a former power station high-class operettas, comic operas and musicals. We have been busy this last month attending performances in several of these wonderful venues.
Last weekend we heard a performance of Mendelssohn’s Paulus in the Kreuzkirche – the Church of the Holy Cross – by the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Kreuzchor. This building is the principal protestant church in central Dresden. It is a vast building: under a high elliptical dome the church comprises a single interior space on three levels. After being severely damaged in 1945, the interior has been restored but deliberately left rough-cast.
The choir – the Kreuzchor – is based at this church. The choir is made up of 135 choristers aged 9 to 19, who together do all their studies in their own secondary school here.
The oratorio Paulus, St Paul in English, recounts the story of the apostle Paul: it is a large scale, sacred work written for four soloists, choir and orchestra. Mendelssohn conducted the first performance of his oratorio in 1836, when he was just 27 years old. Ten years later he wrote a second oratorio, Elias (Elijah), which is the more popular work of the two. Alison and I know Paulus through our recording, but had never attended a live performance of the work, for it is not often performed.
Felix Mendelssohn was born into a well-to-do Jewish family in Berlin in 1809. He was a grandson of the great German-Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, often referred to as the “German Socrates”, whose writings sparked the Jewish enlightenment of the 18th and 19th centuries. Moses is the model for the main character in a well known German play by Lessing, “Nathan the Wise”.
Felix was raised in a family proud of its Jewish heritage, but which had converted to Christianity. He was greatly influenced by classical musical forms: the oratorios of Handel and Haydn, and the fugues and chorales of J S Bach. Mendelssohn himself became a great composer of chorales – a hymn-like chorus sung as part of a German protestant church service. Both Paulus and Elias feature magnificent chorales performed by the full forces of soloists, choir and orchestra.
Why was this concert special? This music is the essence of a tradition: the chorale is at the heart of northern German protestant music written for this kind of church building. As I sat amongst the good burgers of Dresden who had filled the church, it struck me that this is their musical tradition, performed by their people, in their style of church.
