Guest Conductor Helmuth Rilling begins the 2012-2013 VocalEssence season with music of Mendelssohn, Bruckner

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (September 10, 2012) —VocalEssence will open its 2012 season with Romance in E minor on Friday, October 19 (8 pm) at the Cathedral of Saint Paul. The concert will feature repertoire chosen by Helmuth Rilling, including the Romantic-era composers Mendelssohn and Bruckner, sung by the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers with chamber orchestra. There will be a Concert Conversation with host John Birge and guest Philip Brunelle one hour before the concert, at 7 pm.

This is a rare and thrilling opportunity to see one of the world’s leading interpreters of German repertoire conducting glorious music in one of Minnesota’s most spectacular settings. Tickets ($10-$30, service charges apply) are available at vocalessence.org or 612-371-5656.

Philip Brunelle considers Helmuth Rilling one of the great choral conductors of our time. He previously conducted a VocalEssence concert in 2005 and has been named an honorary member of the VocalEssence board of directors. “He is now 79 and in his prime! For this concert he is focusing on two of his favorite composers of the Romantic era, Felix Mendelssohn and Anton Bruckner,” says Brunelle.

The first half of the concert will feature the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers in motets of Bruckner and Mendelssohn, varying in style and demanding in their vocal and dramatic ranges. In the second half the combined voices of the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers will perform Anton Bruckner’s Mass in e minor. Regarded as one of the most important choral works of the 19th century, this mass is unique in that the orchestra is comprised only of woodwind and brass instruments — no strings, no organ, no percussion.  

High-resolution photos of Helmuth Rilling are available for download at www.vocalessence.org/12-13-press-photos. For additional information, contact Becky Bailey, bbailey@vocalessence.org, 763.551.9190 (cell 612.309.7149).

Romance in E minor - Program

Four motets of Anton Bruckner

Locus iste
Os justi
Christus factus est
Ecce Sacerdos

Two motets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Richte mich, Gott (Psalm 43)

Mein Gott, Warum hast du mich Verlassen (Psalm 22)

Anton Bruckner

Mass No. 2 in E minor

Helmuth Rilling

Grammy Award-winning conductor Helmuth Rilling is one of the world’s preëminent interpreters of Bach and most important conductors of the choral-orchestral repertoire. He has been artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival since its inception in 1970 and has appeared as guest conductor with virtually all of the world’s important music institutions, including the Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota and Toronto symphony orchestras, and the New York, Vienna, and Berlin philharmonics. Rilling’s commitment to new music has led to many commissions, including Passion settings by Tan Dun and Osvaldo Golijov, the 2009 Messiah by Sven-David Sandström, and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo, for which Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival won a Grammy award in 2001. He has received many important awards, including the UNESCO International Music Prize (1994), the Theodor Heuss Prize (1995), Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences (2003), and the Staufer Gold Medal (2008). In 2011, he was awarded the prestigious Herbert von Karajan Music Prize from the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.