MORE THAN A MUSICAL ENCOUNTER

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

Cдcilia.

After four prelude songs of the hosting Cдcilia 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 Cдcilia 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 Jьlich 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.