On December 17, 2016, we will perform our seasonal programme “O Freude? – Neue Chormusik zum Advent” (“O Joy? Contemporary seasonal choral music”) at the Friedenskirche Altona. All pieces have been composed after 1966, many of them during this millennium. With Christmas approaching, the works reflect on various feelings and states of mind connected with the seasonal time, including joy and doubts, fear and hope. The programm strives to reach far beyond the simple and sometimes superficial beatitude connected with Christmas. Cornelius Trantow explains the concept underlying the programme: “Todays image of Christmas is often that of an idyllic world. But we want to present the time of advent also as a time of insecurity and questioning. Many people nowadays feel a certain scepticism towards Christmas and wonder what the birth of Christ might mean to them.”
In four blocks, the programme encompasses a wide range of ideas, moving from frail and doubtful sounds towards joyful certainty, as most imminent in Wolfram Buchenbergs “O Freude über Freude” (“O Joy Over Joy”). Special highlight of the concert will be the first performance of “Quia non erat eis locus” (“Because there was no room for them”), a work composed by choir member Clemens Garbe, dedicated to the suffering refugees.