The Advent Concert has become a much loved tradition in Dresden, enjoyed by music lovers throughout the world. In this edition the Staatskapelle Dresden performs under the baton of the renowned Columbian maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Bulgarian star soprano Sonya Yoncheva returns to the Frauenkirche and excels with “volume and sonority and a rich vibrato”. She is accompanied by another rising star: Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann, impressing by her “clear, bright, almost girlish soprano, full of ease” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten). Two top-class choirs, Dresdner Kreuzchor – celebrating its 800th anniversary and Dresdner Kammerchor, provide for choral church music at its best. The thoughtfully compiled program features seasonally appropriate selections by Handel, Schubert, Mozart, Mendelssohn as well as traditionals.
Festive Advent Concert at the Frauenkirche Dresden 2015
Since the first of these annual events in 2000, when the magnificent Frauenkirche was still a building site – destroyed during World War II, it was painstakingly reconstructed out of the ruins – the Advent Concert has become a new holiday tradition in Dresden, to be enjoyed by music lovers throughout the world. That appeal is reflected in the concert’s lineup of artists. This time they are headed by renowned Scottish maestro Donald Runnicles, featured “in the solid, German repertoire which is his chief glory” (Financial Times). His soloists are rising-star soprano Sonya Yoncheva, “charismatic” (New York Times) and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni. Beginning in a blaze of glory with the opening chorus from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, the thoughtfully compiled programme features seasonally appropriate selections by Handel, Seidel, Weber, Mendelssohn, Humperdinck, Gounod and Reger. “A thrilling concert, festive, ambitious and impressively filmed.” (Sächsische Zeitung)