WDR Rundfunkchor Köln
| WDR Rundfunkchor Köln | |
|---|---|
| Choir | |
| Origin | Cologne, Germany |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Genre | Professional mixed choir |
| Members | 45 |
| Chief conductor | Robert Blank |
| Awards | Echo Klassik |
| Website | www1 |
The WDR Rundfunkchor Köln (West German Radio Choir Cologne) is the choir of the German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), based in Cologne. It was founded in 1947. The choir premiered works by contemporary composers including Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera Moses und Aron in 1954, Karlheinz Stockhausen's Momente, Luigi Nono's Il canto sospeso, Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Requiem für einen jungen Dichter and Penderecki's St Luke Passion.
The choir was founded in as Kölner Rundfunkchor (Cologne Radio Choir). The first rehearsal was on 1 September in the hall of the church St. Agnes. A forerunner was a chamber choir, "Kammerchor des Kölner Senders", founded in 1927 for the "Reichssender Köln" that was dissolved in 1940. The choir was first the Cologne choir of the broadcaster Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), while the Hamburg choir was the NWDR Chor. When the broadcaster split in 1956 in NDR and WDR, the Kölner Rundfunkchor became a choir of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
The choir of 45 singers has a repertory of medieval music to contemporary music, sacred music, oratorio, operetta, and music of computer games and film. The regularly perform cantatas and a cappella works in churches of the region. A series Musik am Mittag (Music at noon) in the Minoritenkirche invites the audience to participate.
The choir has been focused on contemporary music and has performed more than 150 premieres of new works, several of them commissioned by the WDR. The choir took part in pioneering projects, such as the concert premiere of Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera Moses und Aron in 1954. Karlheinz Stockhausen conducted in 1962 the first performance of his cantata Momente for soprano, four mixed choirs, and thirteen instrumentalists (four trumpets, four trombones, three percussionists, and two electric keyboards). Other premieres included Hans Werner Henze Laudes, Luigi Nono's Il canto sospeso, Pierre Boulez' Le Visage nuptial, Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Requiem für einen jungen Dichter, Penderecki's St Luke Passion, Iannis Xenakis' Nuits, Luciano Berio's Coro, York Höller's Der ewige Tag, Péter Eötvös' IMA and Toshio Hosokawa's Die Lotosblume. The choir has performed internationally, for example in 2013 in Mahler's Second Symphony with choir and orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk conducted by Mariss Jansons at the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival and The Proms. In Oktober 2013 the choir performed Schönberg's Gurre-Lieder with the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
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Wikipedia