March
April 2017
New and old, innovation and tradition, choir and orchestra: Coro I, conducted by Artistic Partner Teodor Currentzis, is a study of contrasts. This tour, which marks the first collaboration between the MCO and Teodor Currentzis’ MusicAeterna Choir, features concerts in Ferrara, Munich and Cologne – all cities in which the MCO regularly performs. In Ferrara and Cologne, a selection of Bach motets is set against Berio’s Coro; in Munich, Coro is complemented by two lesser-known 20th century masterpieces by Iannis Xenakis and Claude Vivier.
Coro is a piece that not only brings out the chamber music aspect of the MCO’s music making; it also breaks down the conventional idea of orchestra and choir as separate entities. Throughout Coro, different combinations of musicians and singers are featured as small groups. Furthermore, singers and musicians of the orchestra are distributed across the stage in an arrangement specifically set out by Berio in his score.