Over the course of the year, Les Rendez-vous de la voix du ChÅ“ur philharmonique de Strasbourg enjoyed great success at the Temple Neuf. “For this final bouquet, we wanted to get off the beaten track, both for the location – the Phare citadelle with its underground atmosphere suits us well – and for the program,” sums up its director, Catherine Bolzinger.
« A choral version “déchirée†of Bohemian Rhapsody »
The evening was built around “a “torn” choral version of Bohemian Rhapsody from the group Queen, which for me looks like a little opera putting characters on stage, setting up a narrative and mixing up affects,” she continues.
With her singers – around sixty on stage out of the approximately 80 in the ensemble, all amateurs, let’s remember – she built, around this desire, a program with gypsy colors, inviting pianist Inga Kazantseva and the quartet of accordionist Marcel Loeffler (accompanied, therefore, by guitarist, pianist and double bassist).
On the menu, Zigeunerlieder by Brahms and popular Slovak songs by Bartók rub shoulders Black Eyes or The Two Guitars certain verses of which are sung by the choristers in their mother tongue (Alsatian, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, English…) for a joyful melting pot which also includes Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt on the keyboard.
As a prelude to this 8:30 p.m. concert, Catherine Bolzinger will lead one of her other ensembles at 6:30 p.m.: 100% female, Voix de Stras’ (composed of Rebecca Joy Lohnes, Haelim Lee, Gayanée Movsisyan and Varduhi Toroyan) has imagined a program on the theme of travel where, in a delicate echo of the following concert, the aesthetics of Brahms, Bartók, Ligeti – who transcribed a number of popular songs – and Cage intersect.
Friday June 12 and Saturday June 13 at 6:30 p.m. (prelude with Voix de Stras’) and 8:30 p.m. (concert by the Strasbourg Philharmonic Choir) at the Phare Citadelle (13 rue de Nantes, Strasbourg)
www.choeur-strasbourg.eu
