Oratorio

The oratorio’s composer, Till Alexander Körber, has ties to both Freiburg and Linz: he teaches piano and chamber music at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität Linz, having completed his studies at Musikhochschule Freiburg. The work is a testimony to the bombing of Freiburg on 27 November 1944. In its structure it resembles a meditation or the liturgy of the hours. Bible texts and dramatic music paint the destructive power of fire, which ushers in a new beginning. Its main theme is the covenant between God and man, the beginning and end are both marked by plainchant. The first part deals with God’s self-revelation through fire in the Old Testament. Fire has an enormous destructive potential, but its is also a channel to communicate with God. The aria centring on melancholy in Part 2 finds its counterpart in Part 3 in the aria of the living flame of love. The words are those of the mystic St John of the Cross in Edith Stein’s translation; Stein was deported to Auschwitz before she could complete her translation.