The center-piece of the performance is a dialogue between Zelter and Goethe on their way to the Sing-Akademie. The evening will be hosted by Carl Friedrich Zelter himself, played by renowned actor Hermann Beil.

The première will take place in the Friedrichswerder Church, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, whose wonderful collection of nineteenth-century sculptures will provide an atmospheric background for the performance.

The archive of the Berlin Sing-Akademie, rediscovered in the National Library of the Ukraine in Kiev, is a musico-historical treasure of international importance. Among the more than five thousand hand-written scores and old prints, twenty-one unknown passions by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach alone await their revival. We are delighted that our contribution enables the public to share in these discoveries. The Schering Stiftung already made possible the performances of the St. John’s Passion (1772) and the St. Matthew’s Passion (1785) by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. On December 14, 2004, the Messiah by Georg Friedrich Händel in the arrangement of Carl Friedrich Zelter could be presented to the public for the first time since its première in the early nineteenth century.

Performing artists:
Zelter Ensemble of the Berlin Sing-Akademie
Jonathan Alder, Harpsichord and Organ
Directed and moderated by Hermann Beil
Conducted by Joshard Daus