Kreuzkirche Bonn (Bonn, Germany)
Kreuzkirche Bonn
A special feature of the church music life at the Kreuzkirche is the orchestra of the Kreuzkirche. Soon after the resumption of musical life after the Second World War, KMD Hans Geffert founded a string orchestra together with the Bonn violinist Heinrich Schiffer, which accompanied the choir in cantatas and oratorios.
Many concerts are based on special content concepts that relate symphonic orchestral music to Christian values and ideals. They let well-known works such as Beethoven's “Pastorale”, Brahms's 4th Symphony, or Schubert's “Unfinished” appear in a new light. It is a specialty in Bonn that orchestral works are performed in a church room. The boundaries between worldly and spiritual become fluid, things start moving, familiar things have to be rethought and the unfamiliar must be openly accepted. The symphony orchestra of the Kreuzkirche would like to turn the church interior into a place of musical boundaries and encounters.
An important part of these concerts is the performance of lesser-known, demanding works, such as Elgar's “Sea Pictures” or Mussorgsky's “Songs and Dances of Death”. The orchestra premiered Arnold Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 in C major in 2005.
In the city of Bonn, the symphony orchestra of the Kreuzkirche has earned a place in the forefront, as shown by the equally enthusiastic response from listeners and the Bonn press at the orchestral concerts in the Kreuzkirche.