Guest performance in the "coastal city" Dresden

The return visit of the Mozarteum UniChor to its Dresden guest choir was all about exceptionality. The musical heritage of the home of Heinrich Schütz, Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner, venues such as the Semper Opera House and the Palace of Culture, church halls such as the Church of Our Lady and the Church of the Holy Cross, and the historic city center rebuilt according to the designs of the painter Canaletto remain indelible impressions of the densely packed three days. The goal and highlight, however, was certainly the artistic collaboration with two top-class Dresden ensembles: the Dresden University Choir acts as a partner to the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, for example, and the velvety sound quality of the Dresden Staatskapelle has been well remembered in Salzburg since its Easter Festival days.

Almost 50 singers and musicians had traveled by bus from Salzburg to the city on the Elbe - in their luggage the two works that had already been the content of the joint concert weekend on May 1 in Salzburg: The "Canticum calamitatis maritimae" by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, written for the victims of the ship disaster of the Estonia in 1994 and the epochal "Sea Symhonpy" by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. With great dedication, the Salzburg cultural ambassadors gave eloquent testimony to the high standard of their studies.

The venue for the musical encounter was Dresden's venerable Kreuzkirche, a massive church hall with a huge cross symbol on the ceiling, which captivated performers and listeners with its outstanding acoustics.

The success of this large-scale cooperation is due to the initiative of the two choirmasters: Christiane Büttig, artistic director of the Universitätschor Dresden and stirring conductor of the Kreuzkirchen concert, and Jörn Andresen, professor of choral conducting at the Mozarteum University and director of the Mozarteum UniChor. The fact that the guests from Salzburg felt "pudelwohl" in Dresden was due to the unobtrusive hospitality and perfect organization of the Dresden singers*. The social highlight of this choir encounter was a party and a joint sing-along on the Elbe meadow with a view of the weathered sandstone buildings of "Elbflorenz".

Thank you and goodbye to Dresden!