The MDR RADIO CHOIR

 

 

One of the oldest radio choirs in the world?

For the MDR Radio Choir of Leipzig, time appears to have passed more than twice as fast since 1996 as anywhere else!
How else could you explain that the MDR Choir, which only marked its fiftieth birthday in May 1996 with a celebratory concert, was commemorating ninety years of radio choral tradition in Leipzig in 2014?
That’s because the 1996 anniversary, like many more that have gone before, related to the post-war history of the choir’s concerts, which began on May 1, 1946. That was when, under the name of Kammerchor (Solistenvereinigung) Leipzig, the ensemble first performed in public in that formation under the baton of Heinrich Werlé .
On August 1, 1946, the choir was incorporated into the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk broadcasting corporation and was henceforth known as the “chamber choir” or simply “association of soloists” of the Leipzig radio station.
Since time does not in fact elapse at a different rate in different parts of the world, a celebration in 2014 of 90 Years of Leipzig Radio Choir tradition can mean only one thing: that that tradition, the very roots of the MDR Choir as we know it today, reaches further back into the past than was originally thought and that it was only recently rediscovered …

 

 

Contents

I	The Leipzig Radio Choir of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk AG IN PROGRESS	1924-1932
II	The Choir of the broadcasting station Reichssender Leipzig IN PROGRESS	1933-1943
III	Leipzig Radio Choir singers in the Reich Bruckner Choir Leipzig and Linz	1943-1945
IV	A new beginning IN PROGRESS	1945
V	Annual review of the Leipzig Radio Choir IN PROGRESS
VI
VII
VIII
IV
→
→
→	Bibliography – Sources – Thanks IN PROGRESS

 

DOCUMENTATION: All broadcasts with the Leipzig Oratorio Association · 1924-1931
DOCUMENTATION: Repertoire des Leipziger Solistenchore

In our account of the MDR Radio Choir by one of its members, Rüdiger Koch, we have endeavoured to compile and present to the general public the history and anecdotes relating to the ensemble’s rediscovery.
In it, the name Leipzig Radio Choir is used as a generic term for all of the phases of the choir’s development. The term Radio Choir Leipzig refers specifically to the period 1946 to 1991. Where the various names of the choir adopted over the years are used, these do not imply the existence of multiple choirs, since they all refer to the same body as it developed over the years.
We have endeavoured to quote all sources used without allowing the number of footnotes to become unmanageable. The essence of this history is based on the brochure entitled Erster kurzer Abriss der Frühgeschichte des MDR Rundfunkchores von 1924 – 1946, or “a short introduction to the early history of the MDR Radio Choir from 1924 to 1946”, which in December 2002 brought together the first results of research and was published in a second edition in March 2003 under the title Material zu einer Frühgeschichte des MDR Rundfunkchores Leipzig von 1924 – 1946 (material on the early history of the MDR Radio Choir of Leipzig 1924-1946). The multimedia chronicle by Rüdiger Koch presented here also includes further details which have been gleaned since then.
To make this information available to an even wider audience, an English translation is included, provided by Janet & Michael Berridge Translations of London.

 

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Aktuelle CDs mit dem MDR Rundfunkchor

 

	Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy »Athalia« Musik zum Schauspiel von Jean Racine op. 74 (mit Zwischentexten von Eduard Devrient) MDR SINFONIEORCHESTER I MDR RUNDFUNKCHOR Dominique Horwitz | Sprecher Ruth Ziesak | Jana Büchner | Sopran Antigone Papoulkas | Anette Wiedemann | Alt Jun Märkl | Dirigent
	Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy »Antigone« Musik zur Tragödie von Sophokles op. 55 (Texteinrichtung von Gerhard Löbling nach der Übersetzung von Johann Jakob Christian Donner) MDR SINFONIEORCHESTER I MDR RUNDFUNKCHOR Dominique Horwitz | Anne Franziska Srna I Anne Berg I Nilolaus Okonkwo I Tilo Prückner I Simon Zigah I Sprecher Thomas Oertel-Gormanns I Bass . Andreas Fischer, Kristian Sörensen I Tenor Thomas Ratzak, Gun-Wook Lee I Bass Jun Märkl | Dirigent
Bestell-Nr.: MDR 1203 Booklet in English & Deutsch	Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy »Oedipus in Kolonos« Musik zur Tragödie von Sophokles op. 93 (Texteinrichtung von Gerhard Löbling nach der Übersetzung von Johann Jakob Christian Donner) MDR SINFONIEORCHESTER I MDR RUNDFUNKCHOR Dominique Horwitz | Anne Franziska Srna I Anne Berg I Nilolaus Okonkwo I Tilo Prückner I Simon Zigah Jun Märkl | Dirigent

 

Bestell-Nr.: MDR 1306 Booklet in English & Deutsch	Howard Arman Metamorphosen MDR RUNDFUNKCHOR Isabel Hindersin I Stephan Rehm I Jakob Then Bergh I Sprecher Marina Scharnberg I Sibylle Neumüller I Sopran Sandra Hoffmann I Alt Andreas Fischer I Tenor Howard Arman I Dirigent
	Hanns Eisler I Bertolt Brecht Die Maßnahme MDR KAMMERPHILHARMONIE I MDR RUNDFUNKCHOR Götz Schulte I Angelica Domröse I Gottfried Richter I Christoph Zapatka I Sprecher Johannes Kalitzke I Dirigent