200 years sing academy berlin - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1991 - 100 Pfennig

The Sing-Akademie zu Berlin celebrated its 200th anniversary on May 24, 1991. It is the choir association that can look back on the longest uninterrupted tradition of artistically demanding civic music care. She dates her foundation to May 24, 1791, the day on which Carl Friedrich Fasch, former harpsichordist at the court of Frederick the Great, introduced a present book for a chorus formed by his private pupils. His successor, Carl Friedrich Zelter, intensively continued the cultivation of Bach's vocal works under Fasch. The first re-performance of the St. Matthew Passion after Bach's death with the Sing-Akademie by the young Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Zelter's important pupil, ushered in the broad Bach renaissance in the 19th century. In 1827, the own concert hall in Kastanienwäldchen am Kupfergraben in the center of Berlin was completed and occupied according to plans by Schinkel and Ottmers. Zelter's successors Rungenhagen, Grell and Blumner upheld the traditions of the Sing-Akademie. With the beginning of the 20th century and the arrival of Georg Schumann, who led the choir for no less than half a century, began the use of contemporary choral music (M. Bruch H. Berlioz, C. Franck, M. Reger, H. Kaminski et al.), a tradition that was first interrupted by Mathieu Lange, then director of the Sing-Akademie in Berlin in 1950, by focusing on the rediscovery of forgotten choral works of the past. With the present director Hans Hilsdorf, since 1973, in addition to the old, the care of contemporary choral music has been resumed with numerous original and premiere performances (F. Metzler, BA Zimmermann, A. v. Webern, H. Gàl, N. Badinski, H. Joerns and others). With its regular public performances, together with well-known professional orchestras, the Sing-Akademie is still an integral part of Berlin's musical life. In the meantime, she has enjoyed more than 100 years of cooperation with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which received support from them during its difficult start-up phase with the guarantee of joint concerts. The Sing-Akademie zu Berlin has co-written such a significant piece of Berlin's music history. (Text: Ulrich Seidelmann, Sing-Akademie zu Berlin)