Stefan Büchner from the Chursächsische Philharmonie gives the concert audience in the Vogtland health resort a special listening experience on Friday
Stefan Büchner is actually always available for an extra tour. During the pandemic period, when the concert halls were closed, the concertmaster of the 2nd violins at the Chursächsische Philharmonic Bad Elster repeatedly contributed to the video clip series “Chursächsische Hausmusik per Post” on YouTube, either as a soloist or in a chamber ensemble. In a video as a violin soloist, he is quite self-deprecating, in that he also puts his wife and daughter and cat in the picture, who run away from his exercises on the instrument.
Visitors to the 5th symphony concert of the Chursächsische Philharmonic under the direction of Florian Merz can experience what the 43-year-old was still busy with during the pandemic on Friday evening in the König Albert Theater in Bad Elster. One of the highlights of the evening, in which the first prize winners of the 57th Markneukirchen instrumental competition, the French tuba player Florian Wielgosik and the Italian horn player Achille Fait, will appear as guest soloists, is the world premiere of a work by Büchner.
A delayed premiere: “Actually, it was supposed to take place two years ago,” said the native of Halle. For known reasons, nothing came of making his Christmas concerto 2020 or 2021 heard. The three-movement work for soprano saxophone and string orchestra is likely to be all the more radiant now, as a sign of the normality that has slowly returned and is almost taken for granted again. How do you create new Christmas music that is still recognized and accepted as such? Büchner does this by using well-known material as a basis: “I have processed the Christmas carol ‘Macht hoch die Tür’, the chorale ‘Brich an, du schön Morgenlicht’ and ‘I’m standing at your crib here’. I’m trying to telling the Christmas story emotionally, just as you feel about it,” says the violinist, who plays the viola as a second instrument. The first part is dominated by the longing for salvation, the second, very lively movement with fugato elements breathes anticipation of what is to come, the final movement, a pastoral, comes along quite simply, with contrapuntal surrounds of a simple, humbly performed melody.
According to Büchner, the Christmas Symphony is the first orchestral work that he wrote for the Chursachsen. The musician, who studied in Leipzig and worked for a year at the then Opernhaus Halle (Saale) before moving to Bad Elster in 2005, did not receive compositional ordination at the music college, but the desire to offer the audience in the Vogtland health resort variety, has turned him into a diligent arranger of well-known works for chamber ensembles – such as for string trio, string quartet or piano trio. And it was on this occasion that one or two of his own works were created. Among other things, there is a waltz “An der Weißen Elster”, which Büchner wants to develop into a three-part chamber music suite “Aus Bad Elster”.
So the next extra tour is already within earshot.