Verleih uns Frieden

Martin Luther (DP)

‘The little piece deserves world fame and will achieve it in the future; Madonnas by Raphael and Murillo cannot remain hidden for long’, Robert Schumann once enthused in 1840 about Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's
choral cantata ‘Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich’. From the original version of the vocal work for choir and organ, the Munich composer Johannes X. Schachtner created a version for choir and chamber orchestra, which was premiered on 12 April 2014 with the St. Benedikt Chamber Choir and the collegium.bratananium in the Christuskirche Gauting. The work begins with wonderfully comforting gestures in the strings, which not only sings of peace but also celebrates it in musical expression. These are pleading words addressed to God. Pleading words against the backdrop of a troubled world and the aggression that repeatedly hinders the peaceful coexistence of people. Johannes X. Schachtner, like Mendelssohn, sees this small, effective work as a vehement call to stand up for peace, which is also impressively reflected in the dynamic build-up towards the centre of the work.