Stimmen der Stadt – Voices of the City

The city’s voices ring out this evening! Colourful sound worlds unfold in museums, art associations and churches, presented by Hanover’s large choirs and the light artist Franz Betz.

Stimmen der Stadt – Voices of the City is a joint project by the KunstFestSpiele and the Night of the Museums, and is an opportunity for listeners to wander through the city from concert to concert. Make your own way or join two guided routes. The short distances between the venues are time for a breather, a transition, a pause between the different sound worlds. The evening ends with a collective finale in the Marktkirche, when all the participating choirs come together and transform the space into an experience of hovering polyphony with Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium and Johannes Ockeghem’s Deo gratia.

The programme of this musical journey traces a wide arc through more than eight centuries of music history – from the early monumental polyphony of Pérotin and Ockeghem via the Renaissance and Baroque to the Romantics, modernism and the present day. Spiritual, romantic, experimental: all these musical languages coexist equally here in a mosaic of styles, aesthetics and cultural perspectives that celebrates the timeless power of the human voice.

The evening features works by David Lang, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Pérotin, Antoine Brumel, Paul Gerhardt, Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach, Maurice Duruflé, Oliver Messiaen, John Cage, Benjamin Britten, Jacob Collier, Peter Cornelius, Thomas Tallis, Johannes Ockeghem and many more.

All concerts can be enjoyed in their entirety or individually.

Walk 1 – Starting point 6 p.m Sprengel Museum

• Sprengel Museum
  Mädchenchor
  6 p.m., also 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m.
  Compositions by David Lang, Maria Kõrvits, Martin Smolka combine to form a programme ranging from contemporary minimalist works to dazzling timbres.
• Landesmuseum
  Collegium Vocale
  7 p.m., also 8 p.m., 9 p.m.
  Spiritual paths of the Renaissance meet modernity with music by Beat Furrer, Jakobus de Kerle and Joby Talbot (Path of Miracles). Soundscapes develop that wander through the space of the Landsmuseum as if guided by light.
• Neustädter Kirche
  Junges Vokalensemble
  8 p.m., also 7 p.m., 9 p.m.
  A powerful programme featuring choral works by Pérotin, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Vaclovas Augustinas, Kai Leung, Raymond Murray Schafer, Ārijs Šķepasts, Luke Byrne and William Barton. A panorama of ancient and modern vocal cultures from around the world.
• Basilika St. Clemens
  Knabenchor
  9 p.m., also 7 p.m., 8 p.m.
  The Hanover Boys' Choir presents colourful ‘soundscapes’ from five centuries – ranging from the Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae by Renaissance master Antoine Brumel to motets by Johann Hermann Schein, heartfelt evening songs arranged by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms, and the world premiere of Rift by Dominik J. Dieterle and works by Stephen Paulus and Maurice Duruflé.

Walk 2 – Starting point 6 p.m. Kestner Gesellschaft

• Kestner Gesellschaft
  Norddeutscher Figuralchor
  6 p.m. , also 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m.
  The second walk begins with Olivier Messiaen's Cinq Rechants, one of the most expressive choral works of the 20th century. It is considered a luminous, almost painterly work of sound, which will now be performed in the midst of this Hanover institution for contemporary art. The programme is complemented by Messiaen's motet O sacrum convivium, an early work imbued with deep spirituality, which, with its floating harmonies and quiet intensity, forms a contemplative counterpoint to the ecstatic timbres of Cinq Rechants.
• Kreuzkirche
  Johannes-Brahms-Chor
  7 p.m., also 8 p.m., 9 p.m.
  A varied programme of romanticism, spiritual depth and impressionistic timbres! Works by Johannes Brahms, Benjamin Britten and Alfred Koerppen span a range from heartfelt folk song to spiritual expressiveness. Claude Debussy's Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder provides a colourful finale.
• Marktkirche
  Bachchor
  8 p.m., also 7 p.m., 9 p.m.
  Meditative soundscapes between tradition and the present: Gregorian lines from the Agnus Dei open the evening and enter into dialogue with contemporary interpretations. Works by Alwin Michael Schronen, John Cage and John Tavener unfold different forms of sonic reduction and spiritual contemplation. With the Agnus Dei from Frank Martin's double choir mass – which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year – the programme reaches an impressive climax between archaic simplicity and expressive sonority.
• Kunstverein
  Vivid Voices
  9 p.m., also 7 p.m., 8 p.m.
  Rousing improvisations, free vocal fields, circle songs, experimental sounds – inspired music-making and new connections between choir and audience. An inviting laboratory of the present.

Grand finale with all choirs

• Marktkirche
  Johannes-Brahms-Chor Hannover, Knabenchor Hannover, Junges Vocalensemble Hannover, Bachchor Hannover, Mädchenchor Hannover, Vivid Voices, Norddeutscher Figuralchor und Collegium Vocale
  22:30
  The evening will conclude in style with a joint concert by all participating choirs – an impressive experience of sound, space and community. The highlight of this choir night is an extremely rare live performance: Thomas Tallis' monumental 40-voice motet Spem in alium. The Figuralchor and the Collegium Vocale will open the final concert with this masterpiece from 1570. Arranged in a circle, the audience will experience an overwhelming, spatially perceptible Renaissance sound. This famous Renaissance work can also be experienced during the KunstFestSpiele in the Baroque Galerie in Herrenhausen as a fascinating 40-channel sound installation by Canadian artist Janet Cardiff!
  The choirs will then perform individually throughout the space with characteristic pieces: The Bach Choir with Cantate Domino by Claudio Monteverdi, the Knabenchor with Die Nacht by Franz Schubert, the Mädchenchor with Zwei Beter by Avo Pärt, the Johannes-Brahms-Brahms-Chor with Britten's Rosa Mystica, Vivid Voices with Enjoy the Silence by Martin L. Gore in an arrangement by Eric Whitacre, and the Junges Vokalensemble with Let Me Fly by Robert De Cormier. All choirs will perform together in a magnificent finale with Deo gratia à 36 by Johannes Ockeghem, conducted by Christian Rohrbach. An impressive demonstration of the vibrant choral community in Hanover!