VIA NOVA Reading by Katharina Thalbach & Concert by the Graindelavoix Ensemble - Via Nova Art Festival Corvey in Brunshausen

A Field of Blazing Flowers

Reading

Katharina Thalbach: Agius, Hathumod, Hilde Domin, Poems,

Concert

Graindelavoix Ensemble

Björn Schmelzer, conductor

Teodora Tommasi

Florencia Menconi

Andrew Hallock

Albert Riera

Andrés Miravete

Marius Peterson

Tomàs Maxé

Arnout Malfliet

Ex nihilo – Song Beyond the Order of Things

Josquin Desprez (ca. 1450–1521) Praeter rerum seriem

Georges de La Hèle (1547–1586) Sanctus / Agnus Dei, Missa Praeter rerum seriem

Anonymous O virgo virginum

Jacob Obrecht (c. 1457–1505) Salve Regina

Bernardino de Ribera (1520–1580) Vox in Rama

Giaches de Wert (1535–1596) *Vox in Rama*

Guided Tours

Starting at 2:30 p.m., guided tours of the Hathumod Garden and the monastery and castle complex

Experience how a 1,100-year-old text comes to life in a reading by Katharina Thalbach. She is passionate about texts that may seem tricky and even strange to modern ears—such as the life story of Hathumod (840–874), the first abbess of the Gandersheim Abbey, written by the Corvey monk Agius, translated by Friedrich Rückert, and revised by Benno Löning. The daughter of the Saxon ducal couple Liudolf and Oda devoted herself entirely to her fellow sisters, all the suffering, and the needy in the first temporary convent building in Brunshausen. She rejected any form of hierarchy and personal gain in her circle—values that may seem old-fashioned but are essential for survival. Her dreams are surreal: here she hovers over the church like a figure by Marc Chagall; there her fears for the convent manifest themselves in a blazing field of flowers in which the faces of the nuns are consumed by flames. The life story of this figure—so important to Gandersheim and also to Corvey —is structured by poems by Hilde Domin, the second recipient of the prestigious Roswitha Prize from the city of Gandersheim, who, like Roswitha, described herself as a “powerful voice in this century that can by no means be called bright.”

Just as Hathumod was able to experience the invisible in her dreams and hallucinations, the composers aim to create a musical language of the impossible in the concert by the Belgian ensemble Graindelavoix—to suggest through sound something that lies beyond the imagination. The world-renowned singers led by Björn Schmelzer present a fascinating series of Renaissance motets based on the theological concept of “creatio ex nihilo”—creation out of nothing—as expressed in the mystery of the Incarnation, the idea of God becoming human. Well-known pieces such as the wonderful “Praeter rerum seriem” by Josquin Desprez are combined with lesser-known works by the same composer and no less masterful compositions by Jacob Obrecht, Bernadino de Ribera, and Giaches de Wert.

The event is a collaboration between Via Nova Kunstfest Corvey, Portal zur Geschichte e. V., Klosterhof Brunshausen, and Literaturhaus Bad Gandersheim e. V.