Our two most recent projects, JS Bach’s Johannes-Passion in Arnstadt and Snape, and Handel’s Messiah in Halle and Regensburg, drew very strong responses from the audiences in Germany and the UK.
After SnapeJohn Passion, Libby Purves mentioned us in a comment piece in The Times, describing the performance as “dramatic and thrilling”. The Thüringer Allgemeine chose the words “refreshing and virtuosic” for their review of the Arnstadt performance – read the full article in German here.
Is was very interesting for us to explore the Dublin version of Messiah for the first time, taking it to the Händel-Festspiele in Halle (in the Dom, where Handel was organist for a year) and returning to the wonderful Dreieinigskeitskirche (Holy Trinity Church) in Regensburg as part of the Tage Alter Musik. The full-length 12/8 version of “Rejoice greatly” was a pleasure to discover, and some unfamiliar cuts and truncations, as well as a complete new chorus (“Break forth into joy”) kept us on our toes with this old favourite. Below is the press response (links all to the german reviews):
“the level of dramatic tension, dance-like elegance, and emotional colour that Solomon’s Knot drew out of the venerable oratorio was un-heard of in the truest sense” Süddeutsche Zeitung
“a great benchmark performance” Mittelbayerische Zeitung
“Heaven opens over Regensburg” Onetz.de
