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The Bachchor Karlsruhe was founded in 1905, making it one of the oldest concert choirs in Karlsruhe. Christian-Markus Raiser has been Artistic director of the ensemble since 1996. Large oratorical works are performed two to three times a year. In addition, church services are also held by the Evangelische Stadtkirche Karlsruhe. In addition to the large and well-known works, the choir also takes on unknown but important works such as Hiob by Carl Loewe or Moses by Max Bruch.
In 2005, the Bachchor Karlsruhe celebrated its 100th anniversary with several major concerts and a week of festivals. The Karlsruhe premieres of Franz Schmidt's Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln and Gerhard Kaufmann's oratorio Ende und Anfang - Der bleibende Ruf des Dietrich Bonhoeffer received a great response. The Bachchor Karlsruhe closed the Europäischen Kulturtage Karlsruhe in 2014 with a highly acclaimed performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Works such as Wolfgang Rihm's Deus Passus and Frank Martin's Golgotha are part of the choir's diverse repertoire.
Concert tours took the Bachchor Karlsruhe to important churches and cathedrals in Germany such as the Berliner Dom, the Thomaskirche Leipzig, the Friedenskirche Potsdam and the Braunschweiger Dom. To mark the anniversary of 200 Jahre Stadtkirche Karlsruhe", in 2016 the Bachchor, in co-operation with the SWR, recorded works by the Karlsruhe composers Franz Danzi and Friedrich Ernst Fesca for a CD production by the classical music label CPO. The Bachchor's contribution to the Reformation anniversary in 2017 was Ludwig Meinardus' oratorio Luther in Worms, another Karlsruhe premiere.
In 2019, the Bachchor Karlsruhe completed a concert tour to Franconia and in the same year also set some accents with choral works by Max Reger. In 2020, a number of highlights were planned for the choir's 115th anniversary; due to the pandemic, only the European premiere of Richard Fuchs' Vom jüdischen Schicksal at the Badischen Staatstheater on Holocaust Remembrance Day could be realized. Even during the pandemic, the Bachchor could be heard in numerous musical devotions and oratorio performances. A concert tour took the Bachchor to Abtei Himmerod, Mettlach and Trier in spring 2022. In November 2022, a special accent was set with Wolfgang Rihm's Requiem-Strophen on the 70th birthday of the important Karlsruhe composer. In 2023, in addition to J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion BWV 244, the Bachchor conducted a successful concert tour around Lake Constance and impressed with a performance of Felix Mendelssohn's Elias" in the fall. |
