Dear members of the International Heinrich Schütz Society,
dear subscribers to our newsletter,
As the year draws to a close, I would like to give you a report on the recent 53rd International Heinrich Schütz Festival as well as further news from our Society.
The 53rd International Heinrich Schütz Festival “Klangweiter Raum”, which we were able to hold together with and under the auspices of the mixTour Festival, took place on 26-29 September 2024 in Lemgo. We had been there last in 1964 (17th International Heinrich Schütz Festival) as well as in 1983 with a symposium (Heinrich Schütz – Johannes Brahms). The special atmosphere of the Alte Hansestadt Lemgo as well as the excellent collaboration with our Lemgo partners makes us hope that we won’t have to wait 40 years again until we return to the Alte Hansestadt Lemgo.
The Schütz Festival opened on 26 September with a keynote by Prof. Dr. Detlef Haberland in the Altes Rathaus, who introduced to us the globetrotter and probably most famous son of the city, Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716); this was framed by lute pieces from the collection of Engelbert Kaempfer, performed by Ulrich Wedemeier. In the evening we were taken on a first musical journey by the Europäische Hanse-Ensemble directed by Prof. Dr. Manfred Cordes in the St. Marien church, which took us “Northwards – from Dresden to the Hanseatic Towns”. On Friday, 27 September, we followed the Johann Rosenmüller Ensemble, who together with Persian and Japanese musicians took us on “A Round-the-World Trip with Engelbert Kaempfer”. The concert took place in the St. Nikolai church, in which Engelbert Kaempfer found his final resting place. The final concert in Schloss Brake, by the ensemble Concerto Farinelli directed by Volker Mühlberg, took us from Germany to Venice and back, under the heading “Heinrich Schütz and Italy”.
Alongside, the Symposium “Music and Cultural Transfer in the late 16th and 17th Centuries” (27 and 28 September), organised and chaired by Prof. Dr. Michael Meyer, offered a series of supplementary and highly insightful talks by internationally renowned musicologists and humanities scholars. The papers presented there will as usual be available to read in the next edition of the Schütz-Jahrbuch.
In our general meeting (28 September), a new board of directors was elected, which is now made up of myself, Arno Paduch (Wunstdorf), Diana Rothaug (Kassel), Prof. Dr. Michael Meyer (Trossingen) and Dr. Vera Lüpkes (Lemgo). The council was also newly elected and is made up of our members Friederike Böcher M.A. (Bad Köstritz), Tobias Gebauer (Kassel), Dr. Beate Agnes Schmidt (Nashville), Dr. Peter Schmitz (Münster), Prof. Dr. Bettina Varwig (Cambridge), Prof. Dr. Walter Werbeck (Höxter) and Prof. Dr. Barbara Wiermann (Leipzig). In the name of the whole Society, I would like to thank all newly elected members of the board and council for their willingness to engage even more intensely on behalf of the ISG in future; as well as those members leaving the board and council, foremost among them Dr. Jutta Schmoll-Bartel and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heidrich, who wished to resign from their long-standing work on the board.
I am delighted that, with about 770 concert attendees and numerous participants from our Society, among them members from Japan and Switzerland, we can declare the International Heinrich Schütz festival a highly successful venture. You can find a press report here.
In terms of news from our members, shortly before the Schütz-Festival we heard that our honorary member Prof. Dr. Édith Weber had passed away on 5 July 2024 at the age of 98. Our Society will cherish her memory. An obituary penned by Prof. Dr. Walter Werbeck can be found here.
You can find a section report from the American Heinrich Schütz Society by Prof. Arne Spohr here.
I would like to express my special heartfelt thanks to Prof. Dr. Michael Meyer, whose tireless work has again resulted in a wonderful Schütz-Jahrbuch (Volume 45, 2023); and our honorary member Prof. Dr. Gerhard Aumüller as well as Karl-Hermann Wegner from the Verein für hessische Geschichte and Landeskunde, whose personal efforts enabled the installment of a commemorative plaque for Heinrich Schütz, designed by Prof. Dr. Adolf-Friedrich Holstein, on the Alte Brüderkirche in Kassel on 5 May 2024. A video recording of the official inauguration can be found here.
Our next International Heinrich Schütz Festivals are planned for 2-5 October 2025 in Bad Köstritz and 18-21 June 2026 in Freudenstadt. I would be delighted to be able to see you there in person.
Until then I send you my best wishes for a peaceful Christmas, as well as a healthy and hopeful new year.
With all best wishes
Arno Paduch
President
