October, 2005 - Nr. 10
German National Holiday Celebrations with Bach
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
It so happens that the German Festival, which was instituted a couple of years ago, fell together, or was this year cleverly placed around Germanys Day of Unification, October 3rd, when 15 years ago the eastern part of Germany was reunited with the western part. And, instead of promoting all sorts of cultural events, this year the decision was to support only one major event, which is the International Bach Festival with famed Helmuth Rilling as lecturer and conductor of Bach’s work.
On October 3rd, the 3rd day of the
festival, he discussed Bach’s only political cantata and explained it with
much humour in depth and with an understanding of Bach’s choral works that
leaves the neophyte as well as the more sophisticated listener and scholar
stumped. First he
separated
each part of the cantata, explained it from a historical, literary and
philosophical point of view, then he bridged into the intricacies of musical
interpretations of each phrase, each lilt, each bar. One imagine a choir,
vocal and instrumental soloists performing just bits of a work with
incredible precision and verve as needed.
Only after all was dissected into all possible parts, explained, justified and itemized, only then were we given the benefit of a full performance, only then were we allowed to consume the complete and tantalizing menu.
The audience
The result was extraordinary, an uplifting congratulatory cantata, written for the inauguration of the Town Council of Muehlhausen: "Dass in allen Ort und Landen–ganz beständig sei vorhanden–Glück, Heil und grosser Sieg", sings the choir and the music supports these sentiments, or …petering out like an echo, may be not? After all, the Cantata was called "God is My King"- "Gott ist mein Koenig", not the city council.
The
chuckle we were left with ended up in a standing ovation for the performers
and their maestro before the guests reluctantly left the hall of the Faculty
of Music. Most of them repaired into the upstairs MacMillan Theatre, where
on the vast stage everything had been prepared for the Consul General’s
reception to celebrate the National Holiday. Dr. Klaus Rupprecht stood for a
long time receiving his guests, shaking hands, smiling, making light
comments. People milled about, tasting delectable tidbits and refreshing
themselves with their favourite beverages. Some time went by before the
speeches were held after the German, Canadian and European anthems were
played.
Dr. Rupprecht welcomed a lot of diplomatic colleagues from many different European countries, as well as other friends of the nation, like Israel and the USA.
In his speech the Consul General pointed out the historical facts and how the dream of unification has turned out in reality. Not everything went as was hoped for, but can and will be in foreseeable time, he said, but pointed out that many good things were accomplished.
This sentiment was echoed by Ontario’s Immigration Minister Mike Colle, as well as, Dr. Roy Norton, Executive Director of International Relations and, indeed, also by Maestro Rille, who is overjoyed to be here doing what he likes doing best with friends from all over the world.
A toast to the future was a proper salute to friendship and a good future and served as the "Auftakt" to more consumption of the stuff that keeps body and soul together, a sumptuous buffet with many German specialties.
This was indeed a worthy way of celebrating such an important day!
