Aequales are compositions for an ensemble of identical instruments or vocal parts. They have gained big popularity in Austria, where they have often been performed during funeral celebrations. Composers of the calibre of Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Bruckner had them in their portfolios. They will be interwoven with the gems of choral literature from the Romantic period during a joint concert by the Poznań trombone quartet TrombQuartet, the French organist Vincent Warnier, and the NFM Choir.

Join us for the concert in the Evangelical-Augsburg Church of Divine Providence in Wrocław for the NFM Choir’s season finale. The event will open with the majestic Pilgrims’ Choir from Act III of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser. In it, the  singers impersonate penitents returning from Rome. Having obtained indulgence from the Pope, they praise Divine Mercy in song. Next, the Sechs geistliche Lieder cycle by Austrian composer Hugo Wolf will be performed, inspired by unrequited love. The composer set the words of the famous Silesian Romantic poet Joseph von Eichendorff. The performance of Anton Bruckner’s compositions – incidentally, a source of inspiration for Wolf – will not be limited to aequales. We will also listen to his motets, as well as Fugue in D minor representing Bruckner’s small body of organ music.

Finally, choral fragments of Gustav Mahler’s famous symphonies will sound, with the texts taken from Des Knaben Wunderhorn – a collection of German folk poems. We will hear these fragments in the arrangements of the composer, musicologist and conductor Clytus Gottwald, born in Szczawno-Zdrój. The first is the cheerful fifth movement of The Third Symphony, in which the theme of repentance and forgiveness returns, the second is the core of the “Resurrection” Symphony, filled with hope.