Finally live again - much applause for ravishing chamber concerts

The chamber orchestra of the Police Orchestra of Bavaria played two benefit concerts last Sunday, July 4, 2021, in the Stadtkirche Bayreuth for the benefit of the sponsors of the Festival of Young Artists Bayreuth. "I am happy to finally be able to stand in front of you again live at a concert," the chairman of the board of the sponsors, Horst Auernheimer, was pleased to say during the welcome. He thanked the Bavarian Riot Police, Rainer Teufel & Partner GmbH Steuerberatungsgesellschaft as well as the Stadtkirche Bayreuth and all sponsors who made these benefit concerts possible. Mayor Thomas Ebersberger and District Administrator Florian Wiedemann were also enthusiastic and grateful about the entrancing concert performances.

Under the motto "Finally live again. Hopeful sound perspectives", General Music Director and Chief Conductor Professor Johann Mösenbichler presented wonderful soloists on trumpet, trombone and horn, complemented by compositions that were powerful in sound, but also sensitive to sound. Right at the beginning, a tonally nuanced arrangement for winds of the impressive Toccata in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach was on the program. Later, the sound-sensitive Air, the 2nd movement of his third orchestral suite, was heard. The Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by Joseph Haydn with soloist Martin Ehlich on trumpet is definitely one of the most popular works in music history, which also fascinated the audience at these concerts.

Perhaps less known, but all the more worth hearing were the Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra by Launy Grøndahl and also the Horn Concerto No. 1 by Franz Joseph Strauss. Here the soloists Matthias Schmidt on the trombone and Rainer Seyfried on the horn were able to demonstrate their virtuosity and at the same time their tonal sensitivity. With "Dusk" by Steven Bryant and "Seal Lullaby" by Eric Whitacre, contemporary compositions were represented by two US-Americans, whose subtle sound development as well as individual melodic design deeply touched the audience. Everything was in motion! The sound flowed, it changed constantly. It seduced, it stirred and it accompanied the audience in a variety of ways - sometimes with sensitivity and sometimes very determined - into a ravishing world of sound and a hopeful future!

With the encore of Handel's Hallelujah from the Messiah, Maestro Mösenbichler bid farewell to the audience after more than successful concerts. Mösenbichler also pointed out that some of the musicians in the orchestra were graduates of the Festival of Young Artists Bayreuth, thus closing the circle again. All the visitors were visibly happy to finally hear live sounding and experience able music again, as was the motto of the concerts. There was much applause for this, also for the very skilful moderation by Peter Seufert.