Choir concert by the Albus Ensemble

The concert reflects on experiences of war, loss and hope, combining historical perspectives with current issues of our present day.

The Albus Ensemble's current winter project, In Anbetracht der Zeit, was created in response to the increasing number of conflicts, wars and social divisions around the world. For many, this triggers a feeling of hopelessness.

There have been major crises and upheavals in the past as well. Our concert programme looks at the early and mid-20th century, when people in Europe were confronted with existential questions in the face of authoritarian regimes, the global economic crisis and two world wars. 

How did they deal artistically with topics such as death, violence and displacement, but also life, hope and remembrance?

With works by Francis Poulenc, Frank Bridge and Rudolf Mauersberger, you shed light on how composers from different countries expressed their grief for what had been lost and tried to make sense of their suffering.

Erna Woll, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler set poems by Mascha Kaléko and Bertolt Brecht to music, poems that contradict fascism and emphasise the things that unite us as human beings.

Programme:

Ethel Smyth – Come Sweet Death
Edward Elgar – The Prince of Sleep
Hugo Distler – Der Feuerreiter (The Fire Rider)
Frank Bridge – A Litany
Rudolf Mauersberger – Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst (How Desolate Lies the City)
Francis Poulenc – Un soir de neige / Ave verum corpus
Kurt Weill – Zu Potsdam unter den Eichen (At Potsdam Under the Oak Trees)
Hanns Eisler – Litanei vom Hauch (Litany of the Breath)
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Valiant for Truth
Erna Woll – Wohin ich immer reise (Wherever I Travel)


About the ensemble:
The Albus Ensemble was founded in 2017 by a group of ambitious choir singers in Berlin and has continued to develop ever since. We can now look back on more than ten concert programmes that the ensemble has rehearsed without a full-time conductor. The ensemble's heart beats for Renaissance and Baroque music of the 16th and 17th centuries. However, it also occasionally ventures into the 19th century or contemporary vocal musi