ChorWerk Ruhr: Figure humaine

ChorWerk Ruhr presents three works of French a capella choral music from the mid-20th century and a rarely heard piece of chamber music by Maurice Ravel.

Formal simplicity and a homogenous choral sound define the four chanson-like pieces in Francis Poulenc’s Un soir de neige (1944). In his double chorus cantata Figure humaine (1943) a more complex, yet always tonal composition is combined seamlessly with texts by Paul Éluard that allude to the political situation of occupied France in the 1940s. The work ends with a large climax: a call for “liberté.” In Cantique des cantiques from 1952, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, a musical contemporary of Olivier Messiaen, explores the ambivalence of the biblical Song of Songs between erotic poem and the expression of religious ecstasy in complex, almost dialogical choral writing.

Maurice Ravel called his virtuosic and daring Sonata for Violin and Cello a turning point in his life. Its reduced and purified style sets itself clearly apart from the impressionism of Debussy, to whose memory the sonata is dedicated. Performers Tanja Tetzlaff and Florian Donderer have worked for many years as soloists and chamber musicians, performing at all important concert stages and international festivals.

After last year’s great success, with this primarily secular a capella program ChorWerk Ruhr once again will take a special place among the choruses of the region with a powerful concert experience.