Vespers with Magdeburg Domchor

Friedensau Adventist University cordially invited to a vespers with the Magdeburg Cathedral Choir under the direction of Cathedral Cantor Christian Otto on Saturday, 18 January 2024, in the chapel in Friedensau.

The Magdeburg Cathedral Choir can look back on 200 years of existence. It successfully performs major choral works, which have taken it on concert tours throughout Europe and as far afield as Israel. The choir will spent its rehearsal weekend in Friedensau in January 2025. This year's programme included the two traditional chants for evening vespers and Compline: the ‘Magnificat’ (the Canticle of Mary) and the ‘Nunc Dimittis’ (the Canticle of Simeon) in a setting for choir and organ by the British composer Charles Villiers Stanford.

The concert focused on works commemorating the destruction of Magdeburg on 16 January 1945, including Mauersberger's ‘Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst’, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's song ‘Von guten Mächten wunderbar geborgen’ and an impressive contemporary setting of Psalm 31 ‘In dich hab ich gehoffet, Herr’, which tells of calling upon God in deep distress. In view of the events at the Magdeburg Christmas market on 20 December 2024 – when a Saudi Arabian doctor drove his car at full speed into the groups of visitors, resulting in six deaths and countless injuries – this is particularly poignant.