Die Haghe Sanghers will perform in Polička

On April 29th, the Dutch male choir Die Haghe Sanghers, founded almost a century ago, will perform at the Tyl House, Polička. The choir is closely associated with Bohuslav Martinů, as he originally composed the cantata Mount of Three Lights, H 349 for male choir, baritone and organ for Haghe Sanghers. The Mount of Three Lights has been a part of Haghe Sanghers‘ repertoire for more than 60 years since 1955, when it was premiered in Bern. The cantata will be performed on Sunday in Polička, together with compositions by Bedřich Smetana, Karel Bendl, Edward Grieg and Leoš Janáček.

In addition to the Mount of Three Lights, the Prophecy of Isaiah and the Field Mass were and still are part of the Haghe Sanghers‘ repertoire. At the beginning of 1951, the choir had very successful performance of the Field Mass, and over the next two years it had performed the cantata more than 30 times. Thanks to the success, the choir requested a similar composition, and also thanks to the friendship with the chairman of the Haghe Sanghers Choir, Albert Prins, Martinů decided to compose the new piece dedicated to the choir. The Mount of Three Lights was composed in November 1954 on English text (H.V. Morton), Czech text (the Czech folk song from the song collection by František Bartoš) and the St. Matthew’s Gospel.

The close cooperation of the choir with Martinů also helped to create one of the volumes of the Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition with the cantata Field Mass (will be published this year together with another cantata, The Spectre´s Bride). Thanks to the access to the Haghe Sanghers‘ archive, musicologists from the Bohuslav Martinů Institute had the opportunity to obtain valuable materials connected with performances of the cantata.

Bohuslav MARTINŮ: Mount of Three Lights, H 349
Bedřich SMETANA: Slavnostní sbor
Karel BENDL: Chorál národa českého
Leoš JANÁČEK: Láska opravdivá
Leoš JANÁČEK: Divím se milému
Leoš JANÁČEK: Vínek stonulý
Edward GRIEG: Landerkennung

Die Haghe Sanghers
Miloš Horák (bass-baritone, narrator)

More information: www.tyluvdum.cz/die-haghe-sanghers/