Their performance is stellar, and some of their most beautiful singing can be heard when they’re singing the most quietly. Only the finest Choirs and Choruses can sing quietly and beautifully and achieve that level of excellence because it’s very difficult to do. I wonder how many people in the Hall know that, or care? Probably none, or very few. An example: at 7.00 into the video. Listen to that a cappella passage. It’s lovely, splendid. At the end of that passage, Andrés gives them the final “t” consonant and then smiles and nods at them. They also used quiet consonants in that passage. Cologne and Leipzig have some of the finest choristers in the EU.

Brahms’s Schicksalslied with the WDR-Rundfunkchor from Cologne and the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt, Deutschland).

The Tanglewood Festival Chorus should take note. Listen to the WDR-Rundfunkchor from Cologne. This is how you should sound Tanglewood, especially your wobbling and fluttering soprano section. (Groan).

Which leads to me ask: Are the best Orchestra Choruses in the EU? I think so. Well there is the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus in the States, but I’ve not heard either in some time.

The WDR Rundfunkchor Köln (WDR Radio Choir Cologne) is the Radio Choir (House Choir) of the West German Radio. They’re not to be confused with the MDR Rundfunkchor, which is the Radio Choir of the German broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), based in Leipzig, Saxony, Deutschland.

Question: In the so-called “greatest country,” (ha!) is there any broadcaster in the United States of North America with its own professional Choir or Chorus? No. And why is that? Because the US public have no interest in a professional Orchestra Chorus. That’s why. That’s like National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting Corporation having their own professional House Choir or Chorus — which they don’t have and never will — being invited to perform with major symphony orchestras. Few have any interest in classical music in the US, especially when “stupid is in” in the US. These days, too often major symphony orchestras in the US are reduced to serving as the accompaniment to film scores or dumbed-down programming whilst the audience’s eyes are fixed on a giant television screen above the stage covering up the organ pipes. So much for that chest-beating “US greatest country” rubbish/lie that some immature and nationalistic people like to regurgitate on cue. If they were to travel a bit around the world with an open mind and eyes, they would know that the US is not the “greatest country.” (And why does there have to be a “greatest country” to begin with? Who cares?!)

When I first saw the WDR Rundfunkchor Köln on stage, I didn’t recognise them and I did what I usually do these days. It’s with hesitation and trepidation that I listen to an Orchestra Chorus or Choir that I don’t think I’m familiar with because too often these days Choirs and Choruses are not singing with perfect intonation, the soprano section is usually the worst with wobbling and fluttering voices (think: “Wobbling and Fluttering Boston” with the Women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Women of the New England Conservatory Concert Choir and — depending upon when you hear them and who prepared them — the Women of Boston University Symphony Chorus), and frankly I can’t deal with any of that.

The hr-Sinfonieorchester does not (presumably by choice like some other orchestras) have its own Official Chorus so they only have the best Choruses perform with them — one hopes things stay that way — and that they know choral excellence. So I started playing the video and the level of choral excellence is what I’ve come to expect from the hr-Sinfonieorchester and Andrés who may have chosen the Choir along with orchestral management. There can be a problem with an orchestra having its own Chorus and one ends up with a situation like the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC) being the Official Chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I suspect the BSO would prefer to have a Chorus of the caliber of this Choir from Cologne performing with them, singing with perfect intonation in all voice sections and without any wobbling and fluttering from the soprano section as one hears in the TFC. Related: (2022) The Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra used to have its own Chorus, but I read they weren’t that good so they were disband and from then on Baltimore has been inviting the superb University of Maryland Chorus (when they were around) or the Baltimore Choral Arts Society or in recent years the University of Maryland Concert Choir (which replaced The Maryland Chorus on campus when they were “liquidated”) to perform with them. (Related: It’s Chorus, not chorus.)

Some people say that if they don’t have the time to listen to Brahms’s EDR (Ein deutsches Requiem), that they listen to his Schicksalslied.

We performed Brahms’s Schicksalslied when I was in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. I feel differently about the piece now than I did then. When I was in the Chorus, I liked the first part of the piece a lot. But the second part didn’t do much for me at that time. It felt like a disconnect from the first part as if the two parts didn’t belong together. I thought: What was Brahms thinking? The first part is very soothing, especially when performed with a superb Orchestra such as the hr-S and an equally superb well-trained Chorus such as the WDR-Rundfunkchor from Cologne. The second part of the piece is so different than the first part, there’s a drastic mood change as if they could be two different pieces. But these days, I feel differently about the piece. I looked forward to the flute solo for the Principal Flautist (in this performance played by Clara Andrada de la Calle) near the end of the piece. It’s beautiful. Clara has played this before when they performed the piece with a different Chorus: the Collegium Vocale Ghent from Brussels with Philippe Herreweghe conducting. And their other rotating Principal Flautist (Sebastian Wittiber) has also played it. But I can’t find that video anywhere. Both Clara and Sebastian played it beautifully (of course since they only have the best musicians in this Orchestra), but they have slightly different interpretations, and breathe at different places in the score, as I remember. I see they have a new Second Chair flautist in the hr-Sinfonieorchester. She’s sitting to the left of Clara. She looked like she was getting into Clara’s playing during her solo.

I noticed the hr-S has many new musicians now, particularly in the Wind and Brass Section. And good to see Florin (First Concertmaster) and Maximilian (Second Concertmaster) there. Isn’t Florin the youngest First Concertmaster they’ve ever had? And Andrés is back as guest conductor in this performance. He’s now conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic, I believe. He’s excellent working with a Chorus — he knows where the different SATB sections are and gives the tenors their entrance and gives clear releases for final consonants — and he’s very humble and modest and prefers to give the credit to the other musicians on stage for their superb performance rather than to himself. That’s the sign of a genuine artist to me. Someone who is not all about himself. I was sorry to see him leave the hr-S, but I read that he lives in Austria — he was born in Colombia (yes, he’s Latino) — so he doesn’t have that commute to Frankfurt that he had for years.

One chorister was wearing a black COVID-pandemic face mask — singing is one of the ways that COVID is transmitted — and two orchestral musicians were wearing a mask: I spotted one of the violists who has been there for years, and one of the basses, and several in the audience.

The WDR-Rundfunkchor sang with a beautiful warm tone, no wobbling or fluttering from this soprano section and perfect intonation in all SATB sections. And also their diction was excellent. They should be delighted with the performance they gave. In the first part, the soprano section seems to have been expertly trained to lift up to their notes — as good choristers do — and float above the rest of the Choir, but not overpowering the other sections. Their singing was beautiful. As I mentioned at the beginning, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus soprano section could learn from them. Use this Choir as a Master Class in choral excellence.

By the way, who were the idiots in the hall who couldn’t quite wait until Andrés completely lowered his arms at the end of the piece to begin the applause? Andrés clearly wanted a period of silence. But people and their applause! I guess they’re the plebs who can’t bear to have any silence in their lives or in the hall.

The applause for performances takes forever, doesn’t it? One wonders whether applause is included in the ticket price? Then out came the perfunctory flower routine. Oh here we go with that where all or most of the guys will give their flowers away to females! Do flowers threaten most (insecure) guy’s masculinity? I noticed that Andrés gave his gift of flowers to one of the female string players whether she wanted them or not. Was she wondering: Why did he give his gift to me that one of the “flower girls” just gave to him? Does he always give gifts away especially where everyone can see him to do so? That seems ungrateful to me. You don’t give gifts away that you don’t want, at least not in public. Unfortunately, I think most musicians at this level are tired of the whole flower routine/tradition — one of the many silly traditions of classical music performances — because they have received probably hundreds of bouquets of flowers at this point — at the end of all of their performances, so it’s become rather meaningless, humdrum. I had suggested some time ago that orchestral management give musicians a box of high-quality organic chocolates instead. I bet no one will give those away! Try chocolates (instead of flowers) and you’ll likely get a different reaction. But I live under no illusions that my suggestions will ever happen because — who cares what I think? — we’re dealing with well-cemented silly, ludicrous and outdated traditions of the classical music field, and it’s very hard to get rid of traditions, period. Any traditions for that matter. What nut started that flower tradition? Was that god Liszt too? The boy did everything else, it seems. Or so we’re told. I did notice that at least one of the women who came out to gift the flowers was wearing a COVID face mask. At least she cares about her health. And was she also trying to send a message to all the unmasked musicians on stage?

Michael Alber, who prepared the Choir and who is entirely responsible — as well as the stellar choristers of course — for their superb performance, came out on stage to take his bow. Did anyone know who he was? Florin seemed to ignore Michael for some reason. Being second in line to the conductor, I’m hoping that Florin didn’t see the Chorus Director as “he’s just the Chorus Director.” Again, Michael and the choristers are completely responsible for their superb performance, not Andrés. I mean no disrespect to Andrés at all, I have the highest regard for him, but the Choir would have given the same performance under any conductor, because it has to do with how they were prepared in Cologne by Michael. Many people erroneously think that the conductor of the performance is entirely responsible for the quality of the Chorus and their performance. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. When a Chorus is on stage, their performance is because of their weeks of preparation by their Chorus Director. The conductor of the performance does not prepare the Chorus and doesn’t see the Chorus until their dress rehearsal on stage at which time the conductor may make minor suggestions or changes to how the Chorus has been prepared by the Chorus Director, interpretation-wise things. I know from my years of being in major Orchestra Choruses in the Kennedy Center (Norman Scribner’s Choral Arts Society of Washington and Dr Paul Traver’s University of Maryland Chorus) and in San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall (Margaret Hillis’s/Vance George’s San Francisco Symphony Chorus). I can only think of two occasions where the performance conductor came to one of our rehearsals before the dress rehearsal in the Hall. Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos came to hear the Choral Arts Society of Washington at one of our last rehearsals (Orff’s Carmina Burana) and John Nelson came to hear and work with the University of Maryland Chorus before our dress rehearsal (Berlioz’s Grande Messe des morts) at Wolf Trap. Nelson kindly told us at the end of the rehearsal, “You are the best prepared Chorus I’ve ever worked with.” That was nice of him to say and I’m sure that made Dr Traver’s day. But the performance conductor has little to do with how well the Chorus or Choir performs, unless he or she is a pathetic conductor and the Chorus has trouble following his (lack of) conducting skills even after working with him for a relatively short time during the dress rehearsal. But Andrés is a superb conductor, and as I said earlier, especially with a Chorus.

Here’s their previous performance where Clara played the flute solo I mentioned:

It’s odd that I can’t find the performance where Sebastian was Principal Flautist. And oddly I don’t remember which Chorus was used in that performance which is not like me. But I do remember it and Sebastian playing it because I remember comparing the two interpretations, and I didn’t know that the hr-Sinfonieorchester deleted any of their videos, but I can’t find it.