König David – Moritz Führmann, Anna Schudt, Düsseldorfer Kammerchor

In the organizer's words:

Arthur Honegger created a gripping piece of biblical music theater with "King David". The psalm setting is a stage drama that Honegger created in 1921 for the reopening of the Théatre de Jorat in Mézières, a popular theater in which amateurs also performed on stage. This situation suited Honegger, who was artistically in search of a new simplicity. He worked with formal echoes of the Bach tradition and combined them with archaic-sounding polytonality. Honegger himself described the overall effect of the sound as "a little barbaric". In 1923, the composer reworked "King David" into a symphonic oratorio, but the extremely rarely heard original version with a chamber music instrumental ensemble of ten wind instruments, percussion, harmonium and celesta will be performed at the festival. In addition to the choir and the solo duet, Moritz Führmann can be heard as the narrator and Anna Schudt as the witch. The biblical songs by Antonín Dvorák, specially arranged by Wolfgang Abendroth for the King David ensemble, will be performed beforehand.