MORE THAN A MUSICAL ENCOUNTER
Choir from Moscow visits Vosswinkel / Standing ovations after the concert
Vosswinkel.
When at the end of an unusual evening of concert the song "Guten Abend, gute
Nacht" could be heard in German by 38 russian voices, the rapt mood of the
audience was perceivable.
The about 350 enthusiastic listeners applauded for minutes and rose at last
for the male choir of the Physics Institute of Moscow (That the right
translation of your name?). The choir stays during its two weeks lasting
fifths tour in Germany for three days in Vosswinkel with the male choir
Cäcilia.
After four prelude songs of the hosting Cäcilia the Moscow singers performed
under the passionate conducting of Nadezhda Malyavina both international
compositions and well-known russian airs. The nationally and internationally
several times honoured choir, which has a fantastical potential of voices,
masters the piano of soft notes as well as the swinging fortissiomo at the
top of the voice and proved to be a homogenous unity of sound.
One of the musical highlights of the evening was surely the performance of
the likeable Russians together with Vosswinkel's Monika Wittmann, who
interpreted Schubert's "Ave Maria" with her clear mezzosoprano. Tobias
Wittman and the Moscowian (sp?) choir-master Irina Timochina accomanied them
on the piano.
Is was an evening in the sense of international understanding as the
chairman of Cäcilia Klaus Meyering and Arnsbergs deputy mayor Erika Hahnwald
said in their speeches. Meyering: "Is is something special to have such a
top russian choir visiting us." The personal contact and the mutual
understanding were named by Erika Hahnwald as the most important parts of
the encounter.
At the end presents were exchanged and the 35-year-old engineer Dr. Mikhail
Khovochev, who had studied and took his doctor's degree in Jülich and now
works at a Cologne company in Moscow, translated the invitation made by
chairman Vladimir Kurachev to return the visit. He said good-bye to his
"dear German friends" and thanked cordially for the hospitality in
Vosswinkel.