Concert
Solistkoret & Yuval Weinberg
Little Match Girl Passion
In the land of fairytales
The Norwegian Soloists' Choir and conductor Yuval Weinberg perform David Lang's beautiful and intense choral composition The Little Match Girl Passion. Yuval Weinberg is chief conductor for SWR Vokalensemble and principal guest conductor for the Norwegian Soloists' Choir.
In 2008, the American composer David Lang won the Pulitzer Prize for The Little Match Girl Passion. The story about the poor young girl, shivering and barefoot, tries to sell matches in the street on New Years Eve is characterized by a dark brutality. Yet it also contains light and hope.
David Lang says this about his work:
– The strength of the story lies not in its plot but in the fact that all its parts – the horror and the beauty – are constantly suffused with their opposites. The girl's bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories; her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness (…). There is a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope. The word passion comes from the Latin word for suffering. There is no Bach in my piece and there is no Jesus – rather the suffering of the Little Match Girl has been substituted for Jesus's, elevating (I hope) her sorrow to a higher plane.
An American Master
Critic Tim Page described the piece as «deeply felt without ever delving into sentimentality, absolutely simple yet leaving nothing out», while The New Yorker wrote: «With this work — one of the most moving and original scores of recent years — Lang has solidified his standing as an American master.»
Inspiration from fra J.S. Bach
The Little Match Girl Passion is modelled on J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, where the story of Jesus' death is interrupted with other texts that reflect and comment on the action. The texts that accompany Andersen's fairy tale are by H. P. Paulli, Picander, and the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. Lang uses these compilations to focus on the essential feelings in the story – expressed in music that highlights the human voice.
Featuring
Yuval Weinberg
Yuval Weinberg is chief conductor for SWR Vokalensemble and guest conductor for the Norwegian Soloists' Choir. Yuval holds a master's degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music where he had Grete Pedersen as a professor. Weinberg's bachelor's degree in choral conducting is from Hanns Eisler in Berlin, where he was taught by professor Jörg-Peter Weigle. He also studied orchestral conducting at the University of Tel Aviv. Here he received scholarships for his outstanding achievements. Weinberg has received several awards as a conductor. Since 2014 he has been part of the German Dirigentforum. Here he has worked with several professional choirs such as Berlin's radio choir, the Swedish radio choir, NDR radio choir and the German Opera Choir. Yuval is regularly invited to conduct professional choirs in Europe.
The Norwegian Soloists' Choir
The Norwegian Soloists' Choir is an innovative young ensemble, steeped in a rich history. As one of Europe's leading chamber choirs, they perform spectacular concerts in Norway and abroad, in concert halls and churches, in caravans and in abandoned factory venues. The Norwegian Soloists' Choir consists of 26 hand-picked, professional singers who have a tremendous ability to blend their voices, resulting in a highly distinctive choral expression. Along with its celebrated artistic leader Grete Pedersen, the choir achieves ambitious artistic goals through constant development.