- So why is it then, that the songs play such a prominent role in my production? Quite simply the fact that I, like other mortals, once in mye life was highly gifted. And that gift was Love. I loved a young girl with a beautiful voice and just as beautiful a delivery. This girl became my wife and life partner to this very day. I venture to say that for me she is still the only true interpreter of my songs! My songs came about as of necessity and were all made for her... (From Griegs diary)
Over the last 30 years, a vibrant cello centre has established itself in the idyllic rural environment of Engelberg near Stuttgart, Germany under the initiative and guidance of the cellist Ekkehard Hessenbruch. Currently over 120 young cellists from all over the state of Baden-Württemberg receive lessons from three cello teachers and their assistants at the Freie Musikschule Engelberg.
The talented young musicians have been awarded over 170 national and international music prizes in the meantime.
A consistent magnet for attracting large enthusiastic audiences over the past quarter century is the renown Engelberger Cello Orchestra. Every year it includes up to 90 mostly young cellists to perform original arrangements in a rich programme of Renaissance to Heavy Metal music.
In celebration of its 25th anniversary in 2005, a film was made about the Engelberger Cello Orchestra's birth and history, as well as a CD containing live concert recordings of this highly unusual ensemble.
There had long been a cherished desired to take the best of these young cellists and form a smaller cello ensemble of 18-24 celli for concert tours.
Thus the Engelberger KammerCellisten ensemble was born in the anniversary year 2005. Here the award-winning members of the Engelberger cello classes work together and perform with their teachers.
The project promotes the talent and energy of young people in a successful exchange with the experience and know-how of their teachers. The result is a fascinating mixture of orchestral sonority and solo virtuosity with which the Engelberger KammerCellisten has cast a spell over audiences ever since its formation.
In the 2006/2007 season the ensemble showed what it could do in its first large-scale concert programme. The high point of the season was then a concert tour to Georgia at the invitation of the Georgian Ministry of Culture, promoted by the Goethe Institute and the German Federal Foreign Office as well as the State Music Council of Baden-Württemberg. A DVD film documentary about this extraordinary trip was made in the summer of 2007 by oomoxx-media.
In 2008/2009 the Engelberger KammerCellisten played in various cities throughout Southern Germany, with a programme including a composition dedicated to the ensemble by the Georgian composer Russudan Meipariani.
Performed in KORSKIRKEN (Church of the Cross)
Korskirkeallmenningen
(150m from Tourist Information)
BERGEN CITY MAP
GRIEG'S CULINARY
SYMPHONY Before the concert, enjoy typical norwegian food at the restaurant Holberg Stuen, the menu made especially for the Grieg-audience.
