CHAMBER CONCERTS AT MOGENS DAHL CONCERT HALL AND WITH MOGENS DAHL CHAMBER CHOIR

It is particularly fitting that the closing concert of this year's Golden Days Festival takes place at the Workers' Museum, as the theme of this year's festival is indeed working life. On this occasion, the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir presents an unusually versatile and exciting program that centers on the working people. The main piece is a forgotten work that is now being brought out of the archives after more than a century and will be presented by former Social Democratic minister and member of parliament, Mogens Jensen. This is a cantata, written in 1910 for one of the greatest workers' congresses of all time, held in Copenhagen, with the participation of some of history's most important socialist luminaries. The workers' songs of various countries were compiled and arranged with piano accompaniment into a cantata in two parts, culminating in the “Marseillaise” - with Danish lyrics - that everyone could sing along to. The work was performed at the Odd Fellow Palace by 500 worker singers from virtually all trades. It could just as well have been workers from Copenhagen's many markets, and it was the street vendors' calls that inspired Luciano Berio to the virtuosic and vocally experimental cycle “Cries of London” for eight-part mixed choir. The seven relatively short and concentrated movements evoke associations with such street cries, with short phrases about money, garlic, and rouge, in Berio's unique musical language. A more subdued and reflective crowd is encountered in Per Gunnar Petersson's newly composed work “The Prophet,” with texts from Kahlil Gibran's classic book of the same name. In Gibran's little book, the departing wise man, the “prophet” of the title, stands one last time in the town square and answers the townspeople one by one as they stand there and ask him about all sorts of topics, from the great themes of life to the small details of everyday life. The wise man then conveys the essence of these topics in short, lyrical, and image-rich sentences. Program: Luciano Berio (1925 - 2003): Cries of London Per Gunnar Petersson (b. 1954): Work with Love. (Text: Kahlil Gibran from The Prophet) Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971): Three pieces for clarinet solo A. C. Meyer (1858-1938)/ F. Hemme (1871 - 1961): CANTATA at the International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen 1910 Jørgen Jersild (1913-2004): De lyse Nætter (Text: Åge Berntsen) Per Gunnar Petersson: Aftonland (Text: Pär Lagerkvist) Performers: Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir Clarinet: Jonas Frølund Piano: Jakob Lorentzen Conductor: Mogens Dahl

Since the Reformation, All Saints' Day in Denmark has been a day of remembrance for the "ordinary deceased," that is, for those who have passed away without sainthood. For several years, this day of remembrance has also been marked with a concert by the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir—this year as well, with the choir's former and current Composer in Residence at the center. In 2017, Sven-David Sandström composed three choral songs with texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, which will be performed at this concert, along with "A Seventeenth Century Nun’s Prayer" by the same composer, one of the last works Sandström wrote before his death in 2019. Rilke’s heartfelt and powerful texts describe the fragile human being in the face of nature, which is at once merciless and infinitely beautiful—especially in autumn, often used as a metaphor for the twilight phase of life, when the contours of a completed life begin to take shape. The current Composer in Residence, Per Gunnar Petersson, composed a beautiful, resonant setting of the same text that Sven-David Sandström used two years later, the humble prayer by an unknown author, now most commonly known as "A Seventeenth Century Nun’s Prayer." In the prayer, the unknown author expresses hope to endure adversity and loss in life’s autumn with a bright and positive spirit. Alongside these beautiful and intense modern choral works, pieces by a unique figure in Danish church music, the recently deceased Bernhard Lewkovitch, will also be performed. Throughout most of his long life as a composer, Lewkovitch wrote from a Catholic conviction. The relatively short "Requiem – In memoriam defunctorum" (Mass for the Dead) for choir and organ from 2012 is among the composer’s latest works and consists of texts selected from the traditional Latin texts, set to timeless, almost ascetic music. The work was composed for and premiered by the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir. The concert begins with a true vocal heavyweight, namely the motet by J.S. Bach, "Komm, Jesu, komm." The motet, written for double choir, is the only one of Bach’s motets that does not have a biblical text as its basis. PROGRAM: J. S. Bach (1685–1750):Komm, Jesu, Komm (1732) Per Gunnar Petersson (b. 1954):An Anonymous Nun’s Prayer (2017) Sven-David Sandström (1942–2019):Drei Rilke Gesänge (2017) Bernhard Lewkovitch (1927–2024):Organ piece Bernhard Lewkovitch:Requiem – In memoriam defunctorum, for choir and organ (2012) Sven David Sandström:Seventeenth Century Nun’s Prayer (2019) Performers:Mogens Dahl Chamber ChoirOrgan: Jacob LorentzenConductor: Mogens Dahl

Once again this year, Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir presents Handel's wonderful and timeless classic "Messiah" in collaboration with the outstanding English ensemble, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and four exceptional international soloists. For Mogens Dahl, the Chamber Choir, and the English elite orchestra, this has been a process over several years, where the participants have gradually drawn closer to each other and perhaps also to the essence of the work—as much as this is possible. The choice of the top-tier ensemble, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, was obvious, as this English orchestra has, since its inception in 1986, maintained a particular curiosity about approaching music in different and more open ways. Hence the name, which the orchestra adopted because they share the Enlightenment's persistent drive to explore and discover. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs on period instruments that match the era in which the works were composed, which is a significant way of striving for a more authentic expression. This is complemented by the Chamber Choir, which sings with a much smaller ensemble than is often seen—according to sources, there were only 32 singers in the choir at the first performance in Dublin in April 1742. Already during Handel's lifetime, the work was performed in different versions, depending on the circumstances and experiences with the initial performances. It is therefore almost impossible to know what the "authentic" performance of "Messiah" might have been. One must let the music speak—and that is exactly what Mogens Dahl, the Chamber Choir, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment do. Here, hopefully, one experiences an expression close to an authentic "Messiah." Performers: Mogens Dahl Chamber ChoirOrchestra of the Age of EnlightenmentConductor: Mogens Dahl Soloists: Soprano: Julia DoyleAlto: Keyleigh DeckerTenor: Robin TritschlerBass: Morgan Pearse

Once again this year, Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir presents Handel's wonderful and timeless classic "Messiah" in collaboration with the outstanding English ensemble, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and four exceptional international soloists. For Mogens Dahl, the Chamber Choir, and the English elite orchestra, this has been a process over several years, where the participants have gradually drawn closer to each other and perhaps also to the essence of the work—as much as this is possible. The choice of the top-tier ensemble, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, was obvious, as this English orchestra has, since its inception in 1986, maintained a particular curiosity about approaching music in different and more open ways. Hence the name, which the orchestra adopted because they share the Enlightenment's persistent drive to explore and discover. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs on period instruments that match the era in which the works were composed, which is a significant way of striving for a more authentic expression. This is complemented by the Chamber Choir, which sings with a much smaller ensemble than is often seen—according to sources, there were only 32 singers in the choir at the first performance in Dublin in April 1742. Already during Handel's lifetime, the work was performed in different versions, depending on the circumstances and experiences with the initial performances. It is therefore almost impossible to know what the "authentic" performance of "Messiah" might have been. One must let the music speak—and that is exactly what Mogens Dahl, the Chamber Choir, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment do. Here, hopefully, one experiences an expression close to an authentic "Messiah." Performers: Mogens Dahl Chamber ChoirOrchestra of the Age of EnlightenmentConductor: Mogens Dahl Soloists: Soprano: Julia DoyleAlto: Keyleigh DeckerTenor: Robin TritschlerBass: Morgan Pearse